Effects of Conceptual Assignments and Conceptual Change Discussions on Students' Misconceptions and Achievement Regarding Force and Motion

By A. Eryılmaz. 2002

229 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of conceptual assignments and conceptual change discussions on students' achievement and misconceptions about force and motion. The study was conducted with 6 physics teachers and their 18 classes, consisting of 396 high school physics students. The teachers administered the Force Misconception and Force Achievement Tests to their physics classes as a pretest. The results obtained were used to match the 18 classes statistically. Students assigned to the conceptual assignment protocol completed five conceptual assignments about force and motion. Students assigned to the discussion method participated in conceptual change discussions. At the end of the 8-week treatment period, the same tests were administered to all students as a posttest. The data were analyzed by using multivariate analysis of covariance, followed by protected univariate F test and step- down analysis. The statistical results showed that the conceptual change discussion was an effective means of reducing the number of misconceptions students held about force and motion. The conceptual change discussion was also found significantly effective in improving students' achievement in force and motion. 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 39: 1001-1015, 2002 Intuitive beliefs that students develop on their own before taking the first course in physics have a special place among the sources of difficulties students come across in physics. Researchers have used different names for this: Novak (1977) called them preconceptions, Driver & Easley (1978) referred to them as alternative conceptions, Helm (1980) called them misconceptions, Sutton (1980) preferred the term children's scientific intuitions, Gilbert, Watts, & Osborne (1982) called them children's science, Halloun & Hestenes (1985b) called them common sense concepts, and Pines & West (1986) called them spontaneous knowledge. In this article, ''preconceptions'' is used to indicate all beliefs students have before enrolling in their first formal physics course, whereas ''misconceptions'' refers only to those beliefs students have that contradict accepted scientific theories. Students' misconceptions are related to (a) key concepts such as mass, velocity, acceleration, force, etc.; and (b) fundamental principles and models such as Newton's laws, conservation laws, and others.

Subfields: Developmental and Educational Psychology, Education, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2a4bbbbc3602be73245d7fcb146f7718e0de699d

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Citations in the corpus

Fostering Conceptual Change by Cognitive Conflict Based Instruction on Students' Understanding of Heat and Temperature Concepts (2006, background): “It is reported by the physics education researches that traditional instruction is mostly ineffective in changing these alternative conceptions as they are resistant to change and persistent (Eryilmaz, 2002).”
The effectiveness of using incorrect examples to support learning about decimal magnitude. (2012, background): “Misconceptions such as these can persist over a long period of time, and need to be overcome in order to master a domain (Eryilmaz, 2002).”
Elementary Teachers’ Understanding of Students’ Science Misconceptions: Implications for Practice and Teacher Education (2008, methodology): “Various methods have been shown to be successful in addressing misconceptions (Eryilmaz 2002; Guzzetti 2000; Tsai 2003).”
Diagnosing misconceptions: Revealing changing decimal fraction knowledge. (2015, background): “Misconceptions can persist over a long period of time and must be overcome (Eryilmaz, 2002).”
Connecting High School Physics Experiences, Outcome Expectations, Physics Identity, and Physics Career Choice: A Gender Study. (2010, unknown): “…is clear in the work of several research studies (e.g., Barton & Yang, 2000; Basu, 2008; Brotman & Moore, 2008; Carlone & Johnson, 2007; Chinn, 2002; Cleaves, 2005; Gillibrand, Robinson, Brawn, & Osborn, 1999; Hughes, 2001; Lee, 1998, 2002; Morgan, Isaac, & Sansone, 2001; Stokking, 2000).”