The Durability of Conceptual Change in Learning the Concept of Weight in the Case of a Pulley in Balance

Abstract

This study concerns the question of how teachers can help pupils to perceive the concept of weight (gravitation). Fifth and ninth graders were asked in a paper-and-pencil test to compare the weight of two objects suspended in a pulley-inbalance half a year after the learning intervention consisting of three successive pulleyin-balance demonstrations. The understanding, that some of the fifth graders seemed to have formed from the weight concept after the teacher-independent learning intervention, had almost totally vanished in the delayed study. In the demonstrations the pulley served as an efficient prosthetic device for thinking, helping pupils to pay attention to the behaviour of the whole system instead of looking only at the separate objects. In the ninth grade about 45% of the pupils achieved general understanding about the pulley in balance by transferring the scientific explanation from the pulley demonstrations to the paper-and-pen test. A learning-with-conflict model is proposed based on pupil's alternative explanations about a discrepant event. These explanations are then challenged with a conflicting event. When pupils see and understand how the concept works in different contexts it is possible for the pupils to reach a context independent conceptual change.

Misconceptions of Turkish Pre-Service Teachers about Force and Motion

“…Their survey with pre-service biology teachers revealed that students' conceptions about force and motion improve during the first and second years (of their program) as they take physics classes, and decline afterwards. Similarly, Hakkarainen & Ahtee (2007) reported that the correct understanding of weight concept that fifth graders gained as a result of an intervention study had almost vanished 6 months after the intervention.…”

Development of module prototypes and statistical learning videos in the new normal era of COVID-19

“…This condition forces educational institutions, especially lecturers, to develop learning so that it can still be held optimally even though they have to go through online meetings to maintain the mission of responding to the challenges and needs of the Industrial Revolution 4.0 era, namely equipping students with critical thinking, communication, creative thinking, and collaboration skills, or known as 4C (Hakkarainen & Ahtee, 2007).…”