Changes in the group cognitive structure of some chemical equilibrium concepts following a university course in general chemistry

Gorodetsky, Malka; Hoz, Ron

doi:10.1002/sce.3730690211

Cited by 20 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…The data also support the findings of Gussarsky and Gorodetsky (1988), in that they reveal greater coherence or uniformity in the group cognitive structure of high achievers than low achievers and also reveal differences in the hierarchical categorization of certain abstract concepts. However, in contrast to the conclusion by Gorodetsky and Hoz ( 1985), that students' categorizations of concepts related to chemical equilibrium were of less generality and complexity than were the teacher's, this study showed greater contrast between high and low achievers than between teachers and high-achiever students. It is assumed that, within the spectrum of expertise between novice and expert, the teachers and high-achiever students demonstrate comparatively greater expertise in their knowledge of chemical equilibrium than do the low achievers.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

“…In chemistry, various methods have been used to elucidate the structure of domain knowledge about chemical equilibrium (Gorodetsky & Gussarsky, 1986;Gorodetsky & Hoz, 1985;Gussarsky & Gorodetsky, 1988Maskill & Cachapuz, 1989), but there has been little emphasis on patterns of individual variation except for the study by Gussarsky and Gorodetsky ( 1988), which demonstrated differences in group cognitive structure relating to student's achievement level using constrained word associations. Camacho and Good (1989) contrasted successful and unsuccessful problem-solving performance by novices and experts on chemical equilibrium problems, concluding that a conceptual core of domain-specific knowledge is central to successful performance.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Network representations of knowledge about chemical equilibrium: Variations with achievement

Wilson

1994

J Res Sci Teach

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This study examined variation in the organization of domain-specific knowledge by 50 Year-12 chemistry students and 4 chemistry teachers. The study used nonmetric multidimensional scaling (MDS) and the Pathfinder network-generating algorithm to investigate individual and group differences in student concepts maps about chemical equilibrium. M D S was used to represent the individual maps in twodimensional space, based on the presence or absence of paired propositional links. The resulting separation between maps reflected degree of hierarchical structure, but also reflected independent measures of student achievement. Pathfinder was then used to produce semantic networks from pooled data from high and low achievement groups using proximity matrices derived from the frequencies of paired concepts. The network constructed from maps of higher achievers (coherence measure = 0.18, linked pairs = 294, and number of subjects = 32) showed greater coherence, more concordance in specific paired links, more important specific conceptual relationships, and greater hierarchical organization than did the network constructed from maps of lower achievers (coherence measure = 0.12, linked pairs = 552, and number of subjects = 22). These differences are interpreted in terms of qualitative variation in knowledge organization by two groups of individuals with different levels of relative expertise (as reflected in achievement scores) concerning the topic of chemical equilibrium. The results suggest that the technique of transforming paired links in concept maps into proximity matrices for input to multivariate analyses provides a suitable methodology for comparing and documenting changes in the organization and structure of conceptual knowledge within and between individual students.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Network representations of knowledge about chemical equilibrium: Variations with achievement

Wilson

1994

J Res Sci Teach

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“…Studies of knowledge representation in chemistry have used concept maps (Ross & Munby, 1991;Wilson 1994Wilson , 1996 or word associations (Gorodetsky & Hoz, 1985;Gussarsky & Gorodetsky, 1988, 1990Maskill & Cachapuz, 1989). Gorodetsky and Hoz (1985) investigated changes in group cognitive structure with respect to the topic acid-base equilibrium, using latent partition analysis following a free sort of 21 concepts.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Differences in knowledge networks about acids and bases of year-12, undergraduate and postgraduate chemistry students

Wilson

1998

Research in Science Education

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This study examines differences in conceptual knowledge representations among three groups of students with different levels of study of chemistry. Variation in the structural characteristics of participants' concept maps on the topic of acid-base equilibrium were sought by indirect means. Year 12 secondary chemistry students, undergraduate chemistry majors and honours, masters and doctoral candidates participated in the study. Paired propositional links in the concept maps for the three groups were analysed by the scaling algorithms "Pathfinder" and multidimensional scaling. Results show differences among groups in the structural significance in the networks of abstract process-related nodes and matter-related nodes. Implications for theories of conceptual change are discussed.This study is located within a theoretical paradigm which acknowledges that thinking can be understood in terms of cognitive procedures which operate on representational phenomena in the mind (Thagard, 1996;Vosniadou, 1995). It has been argued that performance of a cognitive task in a specific domain involves the "construction of a mental representation which is determined by the properties or attributes of the concepts involved, by the interrelationships among them and the naive theories within which these concepts are embedded, and the task itself'" (Saitta et al., 1995, p. 11 I). If higher-order cognitive task performance is dependent upon configurations of conceptual knowledge with particular attributes, then research to elucidate the nature of these configurations is needed. As Vosniadou (1995, p. 23) has argued from a cognitive perspective "more attention needs to be paid to the development of theories of knowledge representation and representational change." Individuals with expertise in a variety of domains have been shown to have more extensive and more organised knowledge bases than novices and their knowledge differs from that of novices in that experts represent more and different relations among concepts than do novices

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“…There are examples of course evaluations that achieve these principles, making relatively direct and unambiguous comparisons between the desired and obtained outcomes and thus minimising the possible inferential leaps from these knowledge comparisons (e.g. Gorodetsky & Hoz, 1985;Hoz, 1986;Mahler et al, 1991).…”

Section: Course/programme Evaluationmentioning

confidence: 98%

The Use of Concept Mapping for Knowledge-oriented Evaluation in Nursing Education

Hoz¹,

Gonik²

2001

Evaluation & Research in Education

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A course in paediatric surgery, which was part of a nursing programme, was evaluated for the integration of the contents of several previously taught courses. Nineteen students participatedin the study and their learning outcomes were characterisedon 16 cognitive structure measures by a concept mapping task and Link Strength Matrices. It was found that students' knowledge was neither mastered nor integrated at the beginning of the course. After the course, there were minor improvements in a few of the cognitive structure measures and stability of many of the rest, students' misconceptions persisted, integration of the whole domain improved slightly, and the students tended to preserve their relative standing on the correctness of the cognitive map. The failure of the course to attain its major objectives and aims were discussed in the context of student learning in university settings and in relation to its preceding course in children's diseases. This evaluation led to the substantial revision in the curriculum and minor changes in teaching practices. Generalisations are proposed as to new knowledge-oriented evaluation methodology.

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Changes in the group cognitive structure of some chemical equilibrium concepts following a university course in general chemistry

Cited by 20 publications

References 15 publications

Network representations of knowledge about chemical equilibrium: Variations with achievement

Network representations of knowledge about chemical equilibrium: Variations with achievement

Differences in knowledge networks about acids and bases of year-12, undergraduate and postgraduate chemistry students

The Use of Concept Mapping for Knowledge-oriented Evaluation in Nursing Education

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