The Importance of Weightlessness and Tides in Teaching Gravitation

Galili, Igal; Lehavi, Yaron

doi:10.1007/978-94-017-0165-5_25

Cited by 8 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…Eighty-one preservice primary teachers participated in this study. Skamp's findings were similar to the misconceptions diagnosed by Viiri (2000) and Galili and Lehavi (2003). The findings from this body of research provides a basis for predicting common misconceptions that people, including teachers, are likely to hold.…”

Section: Targeted Science Contentsupporting

confidence: 65%

“…Previous research (Galili and Lehavi 2003;Viiri 2000) was helpful in identifying the codes used to describe conceptions held by participants. Literature-based codes were predetermined in order to start the initial coding and the overall analysis.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The causes and effects of tides, however, are misunderstood by many people (Galili and Lehavi 2003;Viiri 2000). People may be able to state that the moon causes the tides, but they cannot explain the physical mechanisms behind the phenomenon.…”

Section: Targeted Science Contentmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Viiri (2000) discovered that, in general, students' understandings of tides were not scientific. The researcher blamed textbooks and instructional methods primarily for the Galili and Lehavi (2003) discovered that textbooks rarely mention tides, and the textbooks that do include tides concepts use tides to illustrate Newton's law of gravity. In their studies, both students and teachers failed to explain tides scientifically.…”

Section: Targeted Science Contentmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…The test was based on the results of previous research studies on various astronomical phenomena (Galili and Lehavi 2003;Hartel 2000;Viiri 2000;Viiri and Saari 2004). The same test was used for both the pretest and posttest.…”

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 4 more Smart Citations

Inquiry-based Instruction with Archived, Online Data: An Intervention Study with Preservice Teachers

2010

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This mixed methods study described preservice teachers' conceptions of tides and explored the efficacy of integrating online data into inquiry-based instruction. Data sources included a multiple-choice assessment and in-depth interviews. A total of 79 participants in secondary, middle, and early childhood teacher education programs completed the multiple-choice assessment of their baseline knowledge of tides-related concepts. A sub-group of 29 participants also was interviewed to explore their understanding of tides in more detail before instruction. Eighteen of those 29 teachers participated in the instruction, were interviewed again after the instruction, and completed the multiple-choice assessment as a posttest. The interview data sets were analyzed via a constant comparative method in order to produce profiles of each participant's pre-and post-instruction conceptual understandings of tides. Additional quantitative analysis consisted of a paired-sample t-test, which investigated the changes in scores before and after the instructional intervention. Before instruction, all participants held alternative or alternative fragments as their conceptual understandings of tides. After completing the inquiry-based instruction that integrated online tidal data, participants were more likely to hold a scientific conceptual understanding. After instruction, some preservice teachers continued to hold on to the conception that the rotation of the moon around the Earth during one 24-hour period causes the tides to move with the moon. The quantitative results, however, indicated that pre-to post-instruction gains were significant. The findings of this study provide Res Sci Educ (2011) 41:261-282 evidence that integrating Web-based archived data into inquiry-based instruction can be used to effectively promote conceptual change among preservice teachers.

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Section: Targeted Science Contentsupporting

confidence: 65%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Targeted Science Contentmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Targeted Science Contentmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Data Collectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Inquiry-based Instruction with Archived, Online Data: An Intervention Study with Preservice Teachers

2010

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Engaging students in computational modeling: The role of an external audience in shaping conceptual learning, model quality, and classroom discourse

Pierson

Clark

2018

Science Education

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Research suggests that designing for an external audience may support conceptual understanding by offering students increased opportunities to reframe perspectival thinking in ways that support domain‐specific reasoning. While this argument is theoretically compelling, to our knowledge, it has not been empirically tested in terms of comparing the conceptual growth of students designing computational models for an external audience to the conceptual growth of students designing computational models for a classroom audience of their teacher and peers. In a constructionist agent‐based computational modeling environment, we compare the conceptual understanding, artifact quality, and discourse of 6th grade students designing models of tides primarily for an external audience of younger students (i.e., designing for 5th graders) to the conceptual understanding of 6th grade students designing models for a classroom audience. We found that students who designed for an external audience of younger children displayed greater conceptual growth about the mechanisms that cause tidal bulges as evidenced by students’ pre–post assessments, models, and user guides/reports. Our analysis of classroom discourse suggests that designing for an audience of younger children may have facilitated domain‐specific reasoning in whole‐class discussions by creating opportunities for shifts between students’ own perspectives and the perspectives of their anticipated audience.

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Teaching a new conceptual framework of weight and gravitation in middle school

2015

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Empirical studies have reported difficulties, confusion, and lack of understanding among students at all levels of instruction regarding the issue of weight-gravitation-weighing relationships. This study examined the impact of a new conceptual framework of weight, on a small group of 7th-grade students (N ¼ 14) in a middle school in Israel. This conceptual framework, which defined weight operationally as weighing results, implied a natural distinction between weight and gravitational force, in contrast to the gravitational definition of weight, which identifies these two concepts. The new framework not only better fits modern scientific epistemology but also matches the common intuitive conception of weight as representing the heaviness of objects. This coherence promises innovative teaching leading to easier and more meaningful learning. The applied pedagogical method included a historical excurse and knowledge mediation through a discursive mode of teaching using images of different environments (Thinking Journey). The collected data of students' knowledge were structured in terms of scheme-facets of knowledge, which allowed qualitative evaluation of knowledge changes due to the instruction. We found that discussion of the lunar environment led students to appreciate the universality of gravitational attraction and to develop operational meaning for the up-down direction. Considering the environment of a coasting satellite encouraged students to distinguish between the gravitational force causing the orbiting around the Earth, and weight as the force that objects naturally exert on their support. It appeared that falling served as an anchoring concept leading students to the operational definition of weight. #

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The Importance of Weightlessness and Tides in Teaching Gravitation

Cited by 8 publications

References 8 publications

Inquiry-based Instruction with Archived, Online Data: An Intervention Study with Preservice Teachers

Inquiry-based Instruction with Archived, Online Data: An Intervention Study with Preservice Teachers

Engaging students in computational modeling: The role of an external audience in shaping conceptual learning, model quality, and classroom discourse

Teaching a new conceptual framework of weight and gravitation in middle school

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