A study of consistency in the use of students' conceptual frameworks across different task contexts

Clough, Elizabeth Engel; Driver, Rosalind

doi:10.1002/sce.3730700412

Cited by 199 publications

(120 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…This group selects either a Newtonian or a non-Newtonian answer based on context. This further supports research showing that some students can hold both a correct and an alternate model at the same time and apply them based on the contextual features of the situation [10][11][12]14]. Note that in thep 3 vector for the Spring 2006 pretest threecluster model, the largest component is neither the correct answer nor the dominant misconception, but is a third component.…”

Section: Clustering Of Course Datasupporting

confidence: 80%

“…Substantial variation in the consistency of the application of alternate frameworks and scientifically correct frameworks was found with students often using both the correct model and an alternate model in different situations [10][11][12]. The consistency of student reasoning (either correct or incorrect) was found to increase with additional instruction [12][13][14] and to depend on the familiarity of the context of the problems [15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Using cluster analysis to identify patterns in students’ responses to contextually different conceptual problems

Stewart

Miller

Audo

2012

Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res.

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This study examined the evolution of student responses to seven contextually different versions of two Force Concept Inventory questions in an introductory physics course at the University of Arkansas. The consistency in answering the closely related questions evolved little over the seven-question exam. A model for the state of student knowledge involving the probability of selecting one of the multiple-choice answers was developed. Criteria for using clustering algorithms to extract model parameters were explored and it was found that the overlap between the probability distributions of the model vectors was an important parameter in characterizing the cluster models. The course data were then clustered and the extracted model showed that students largely fit into two groups both pre-and postinstruction: one that answered all questions correctly with high probability and one that selected the distracter representing the same misconception with high probability. For the course studied, 14% of the students were left with persistent misconceptions post instruction on a static force problem and 30% on a dynamic Newton's third law problem. These students selected the answer representing the predominant misconception slightly more consistently postinstruction, indicating that the course studied had been ineffective at moving this subgroup of students nearer a Newtonian force concept and had instead moved them slightly farther away from a correct conceptual understanding of these two problems. The consistency in answering pairs of problems with varied physical contexts is shown to be an important supplementary statistic to the score on the problems and suggests that the inclusion of such problem pairs in future conceptual inventories would be efficacious. Multiple, contextually varied questions further probe the structure of students' knowledge. To allow working instructors to make use of the additional insight gained from cluster analysis, it is our hope that the physics education research community will make these methods available though their Web sites.

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Section: Clustering Of Course Datasupporting

confidence: 80%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using cluster analysis to identify patterns in students’ responses to contextually different conceptual problems

Stewart

Miller

Audo

2012

Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res.

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“…Their empirical work showed that undergraduates believed that it was possible for an animal to acquire a physical property in its lifetime provided that it had a useful function or was a good fit with environmental conditions (Ware and Gelman 2014, p. 234). Like Kargbo et al's (1980) and Clough and Driver's (1986) studies, student ideas about inheritance were impacted by item features, although in this case aspects of animal trait functions.…”

Section: Genetics Educationmentioning

confidence: 82%

“…In a longitudinal study of the consistency of 12-through 16-year-old conceptions about inheritance of acquired characteristics and other scientific phenomena, Clough and Driver (1986) found that task context was most significant for students who had yet to develop normative scientific understanding. Interviews of students with lower knowledge levels revealed conceptions about acquired characteristics that displayed less consistency across parallel tasks (e.g., taillessness in mice, athletic ability in humans, and rough skin caused by gardening in humans) compared to interviews of students with higher knowledge levels.…”

Section: Genetics Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of Genetics Understanding

2017

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Understanding how situational features of assessment tasks impact reasoning is important for many educational pursuits, notably the selection of curricular examples to illustrate phenomena, the design of formative and summative assessment items, and determination of whether instruction has fostered the development of abstract schemas divorced from particular instances. The goal of our study was to employ an experimental research design to quantify the degree to which situational features impact inferences about participants' understanding of Mendelian genetics. Two participant samples from different educational levels and cultural backgrounds (high school, n = 480; university, n = 444; Germany and USA) were used to test for context effects. A multi-matrix test design was employed, and item packets differing in situational features (e.g., plant, animal, human, fictitious) were randomly distributed to participants in the two samples. Rasch analyses of participant scores from both samples produced good item fit, person reliability, and item reliability and indicated that the university sample displayed stronger performance on the items compared to the high school sample. We found, surprisingly, that in both samples, no significant differences in performance occurred among the animal, plant, and human item contexts, or between the fictitious and Breal^item contexts. In the university sample, we were also able to test for differences in performance between genders, among ethnic groups, and by prior biology coursework. None of these factors had a meaningful impact upon performance or context effects. Thus some, but not all, types of genetics problem solving or item formats are impacted by situational features.

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“…molecules of water are blue (e.g. Brook, Briggs, & Driver, 1984;Meheut & Chomat, 1990;Novick & Nussbaum, 1978); (b) gas' distribution is not homogeneous, when an action is exerted on gas (Benson, Wittrock, & Baur, 1993;Méheut, Larcher, Chomat, & Barboux, 1988); (c) gases have no mass (Séré, 1985;Stavy, 1988), (d) warm air rises inside a closed container (Séré, 1985); (e) gases without movements do not exert any force (Clough & Driver, 1986;Séré, 1985); (f) there is only one effect associated to one cause (Viennot, 2001); (g) severable variables on gas do not change simultaneously (de Berg, 1992;Meheut & Chomat, 1990;Séré, 1985).…”

Section: Teaching Sequencementioning

confidence: 99%

Studying Students' Learning Processes Used during Physics Teaching Sequence about Gas with Networks of Ideas and Their Domain of Applicability

Givry

Tiberghien

2012

International Journal of Science Education

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A study of consistency in the use of students' conceptual frameworks across different task contexts

Cited by 199 publications

References 27 publications

Using cluster analysis to identify patterns in students’ responses to contextually different conceptual problems

Using cluster analysis to identify patterns in students’ responses to contextually different conceptual problems

Assessment of Genetics Understanding

Studying Students' Learning Processes Used during Physics Teaching Sequence about Gas with Networks of Ideas and Their Domain of Applicability

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