Secondary Students’ Thinking about Familiar Phenomena: Learners’ explanations from a curriculum context where ‘particles’ is a key idea for organising teaching and learning

Abstract

. Secondary students' thinking about familiar phenomena: learners' explanations from a curriculum context where 'particles' is a key idea for organising teaching and learning. International Journal of Science Education, Taylor & Francis (Routledge), 2009, 31 (14), pp.1917-1952 Secondary students' thinking about familiar phenomena: learners' explanations from a curriculum context where 'particles' is a key idea for organising teaching and learning. Abstract:Particle models of matter are widely recognised as being of fundamental importance in many branches of modern science, and particle ideas are commonly introduced and developed in the secondary school curriculum. However, research undertaken in a range of national contexts has identified significant learning difficulties in this topic, and suggests that notions of particles that match scientific models are generally only attained over periods of some years. A National Curriculum in Science was imposed in England over the period 1989-1993, and was later supplemented by increasingly prescriptive guidance to teachers. This culminated in a framework for teaching lower secondary science, which identified 'particles' as one of five key ideas for organising teaching and learning. In this curriculum context, a basic particle model is introduced at the start of secondary education, and consolidated by being revisited in various contexts over three years. The present paper reports an interview-about-events based study that explored the way English secondary students explained phenomena commonly met in school science. It was found that most students used the notion of particles in their responses, although most of their particle-based explanations reflected alternative conceptions that have been reported in previous research. It is concluded that a curriculum strategy of early introduction and regular application during the early secondary years is not sufficient to support the desired level of progression in thinking with particle concepts, and more sophisticated pedagogy is needed.

Students’ progression in understanding the matter concept

“…Although students recognize “that objects are made from different materials, they think of these materials in terms of their characteristic perceptual properties rather than in terms of more underlying properties (such as density)” (Smith, , p. 343). That is, students describe only what they can observe (García Franco & Taber, ; Liu & Lesniak, ). At this level, students also often confuse length with area or volume and area with volume (Smith, Maclin, Grosslight, & Davis, ).…”

Hungarian university students' misunderstandings in thermodynamics and chemical kinetics

“…Werby (2010) qualified a p-prim as follows: (a) it is not a formally learned concept; (b) it describes a phenomenon; (c) it is a bit of knowledge based on personal observations; (d) it may be a useful problem-solving tool as a cognitive shortcut. Taber (2008) and his co-workers studied the role for p-prims in learning chemistry (Garcı ´a-Franco and Taber, (2009); Garcı ´a-Franco, 2009, 2010).…”

The Effect of e-Learning Strategy at Primary School Level on Understanding Structure and States of Matter

“…This is also the case when phase changes are considered (Andersson, 1990). Garcia Franco and Taber (2009) reported that students mainly show familiarity with the particle theory of matter but limited understanding of it. Stavy and Stachel (1985) found that difficulties that children (age 5-12) experience with classifying substances into states of matter come from the fact that they perceive the solid state as something that does not easily change its shape, so objects such as sponges are harder to perceive as being solid.…”