Summary of the reading
The reading this week, Conceptual
change: a powerful framework for improving science teaching and learning, examines the ideology behind conceptual
change in science education. The thought
behind conceptual change is that student’s concepts of subject matter change as
they gain exposure to new ideas and concepts in various subject matter. The article presents “concerns how students’
conceptions change under the impact of new ideas and new evidence” (Posner,
Strike, Hewson & Gertzog, 1982). Essentially teachers can use conceptual
change as a teaching strategy to present inquiry bases lessons. Using a
conceptual change framework, students use their prior knowledge, to include
misconceptions, in order to formulate new concepts and new ways of
thinking. This type of conceptual change
challenges students to question their own thinking and trigger metacognitive
skills. In the context of science, students have to rationalize and make sense
of the world around them. The article has a centralized focus on the different
types of radical conceptual change described as accommodations throughout the
article. The authors detail how 5
various concepts influence the direction of an accommodation, those influential
factors include anomalies, analogies and metaphors, epistemological
commitments, metaphysical beliefs and concepts, and other knowledge. Interviews with physics students and
their instructors are presented as examples of conceptual change in the aticle. The interviews are also used as a way to
assess the implementation of accommodations in certain settings. Finally, the article defines the role of the
teacher in conceptual change, and traditional teacher roles are not sufficient
enough to fully embrace this framework. Teachers can not present and clarify
concepts, but instead need to challenge students and remain combative with
students about their ideas, reasons, a rational for their thinking.
Ideas for possible
proposals
Under the conceptual change
framework, a possible proposal might be surrounded around energy efficiency. The Texas Performance Standards Project has
an energy efficiency exploration project that allows students to examine renewable
and non-renewable energy sources. In
this project, students would analyze various types of energy consumption by
human beings in daily life. Students
would create an actual record of all of the devices that humans depend on in both
home and school environments. Students
will have to recognize the effects of the identified types of energy consumption
on a local, state, national, and global level.
The students can develop ways to conserve energy usage and find viable
ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle. The movie Wall-E might be used at the end
or the beginning of the lesson to trigger discussions on the effects of waste
and the importance of reducing, reusing, and recycling resources on our
planet. In addition, one collaborator in
this proposal could be the Electric Company.
The students would take a trip to the El Paso Electric Company to gain a
better insight into how the electric company powers the electricity for the
city. In my opinion this is an excellent way to raise awareness in students
regarding environmental studies and implement a conceptual change approach
which would be embedded in this type of proposal.
Concerns and questions
for the readings or proposals
“The classical conceptual change
approach involved the teacher making students’ alternative frameworks explicit
prior to designing a teaching approach consisting of ideas that do not fit the
students’ existing ideas and thereby promoting dissatisfaction” (Duit & Treagust, 2003). Therefore, my question about the reading is
what methods are used to address misconceptions when students are not aware
that their own level of understanding is incorrect?
References
Posner, G. J., Strike, K. A., Hewson, P.
W., & Gertzog, W. A. (1982). Accommodation of a scientific conception: Toward a theory of conceptual change. Science
education, 66(2), 211- 227.
Melissa:
ReplyDeleteYour question about what methods are used to address misconceptions when students are not aware of their own level of understanding is incorrect, can be satisfied with the judicious teaching of the scientific method. When done correctly science inquiry methods will produce good science and understanding of the content. When students do not make that conceptual change during and at the end of the experiment we know now from the article that there are circumstances for this to happen.
The article identifies Conceptual change, supplies new language and its meaning about the subject, and gives approach ideas from the educator and from the students’ view. I perceive that this article is to make aware to the educator that students have their own views and as educators we must be cognizant about this when we plan, give, and assess a classroom. I myself will remember this next time when students balks at a subject.