Identifying Pupils’ Mental Model of the Day and Night Concept

Abstract

Many students and even teachers still cannot recognize the relevance of the model to build physical knowledge. The study of mental representations built by students in their interactions with the world, phenomena and artifacts, is an important line of research in science education. Therefore, it is not surprising that analogies play an important role in science education, because the construction of students in mental models of abstract phenomena must be rooted in some existing or previous experiences, to interpret more complex ideas. The purpose of this study is to investigate mental models elementary school students against the phenomenon of day and night. This research is quantitative descriptive. The research subjects were 20 students in grade six. The results showed that 20% of students had a low mental model (LMM), 45% of students had a moderate mental model (MMM), and 35% of students had a high mental model (HMM). Based on the results of the study it can be said that, (1) 20% of students cannot explain the concepts scientifically and students' understanding is at the level of symbolic representation. (2) 45% of students cannot explain the causes of a phenomenon, student understanding is at the level of macrocospic representation, (3) and 35% of students have concepts with understanding based on real-life observations with scientific concepts learned at school and students' understanding is at the level of representation of microcosms.

Measuring Mental Model of Primary Teachers and Pre-service Teachers on Heat Transfer Concept

“…Every concept has a scientifically clear description and has been agreed by scientists and student and teacher representations. The scientific mental model reflects a sound or comprehensive understanding (Parlina, Hermita, Alpusari, & Noviana, 2019). The mental model provides a powerful mechanism for storing knowledge in the human mind.…”

“…The mental model provides a powerful mechanism for storing knowledge in the human mind. Because of how these structures can affect human behaviour, they have a significant impact on almost all forms of human activity Fazio (in Parlina et al, 2019). Children's understanding based on daily life experiences is the keyword so that learning at school can be easily reflected by referring to their actual experiences.…”

“…Students who already have the initial conception can have the scientific conception or not, or it is frequently mentioned that they have a misconception or alternative conception (Basori, Suhandi, Samsudin, Kaniawati, & Rusdiana, 2020). Misconceptions about physical science concepts are not limited to children; they are also maintained throughout high school and into college, alerting researchers of the need to identify and challenge pre-service teachers' understandings of physical science before entering the classroom (Parlina et al, 2019).…”

Student Mental Model on Energy Concept in Elementary School Students

“…In the formation of learning organizations, schools must be able to encourage five core things, namely: 1) Systems Thinking, 2) Personal Skills (Personal Mastery), 3) Mental Model, 4) Shared Vision (Building Shared Vision), and 5) Team Learning (Team Learning) [3]. Of the five components, mental models have an essential role in schools to improve learning quality [2], [4]. Because mental models can inform how students understand, learn, remember, and think about information.…”

“…The mental model of students needs to be known by teachers based on two reasons, namely: first, because mental models play a role in influencing students' cognitive function, and second, mental models can provide information about the framework concepts that students have. Students' mental models are influenced by several factors, which are group into six, namely: teacher explanations, textbooks, language and words, daily life experiences, social environment, and causal and intuition relationships [2].…”