Variable Control and Conceptual Change: A Large-Scale Quantitative Study in Elementary School

Abstract

We examined the predictive value and interplay of elementary school students’ understanding of the control-of-variables strategy, a domain-general experimentation skill, and their prior content knowledge for subsequent conceptual knowledge acquisition and conceptual change. Trained teachers provided N = 1809 first to sixth graders with 15 lessons of guided inquiry-based instruction on the topic floating and sinking. We assessed students’ understanding of variable control before instruction, and their conceptual content knowledge before and after the instruction. Mixture model analyses indicate that the understanding of variable control predicts students’ content knowledge structure before instruction, and their content knowledge development from before to after instruction. Thus, reinstating prior lab-based findings, the understanding of a basic experimentation skill matters in teacher-guided inquiry, in interaction with prior content knowledge. We describe how students’ learning pathways vary depending on their understanding of variable control and prior content knowledge, and discuss implications for learning and instruction.

Hands-On Exploration of Cubes’ Floating and Sinking Benefits Children’s Subsequent Buoyancy Predictions

“…What is new in this investigation of buoyancy explanations is the open-ended manner of analysis. Past studies have assigned children to particular explanation types in a hierarchy from least to most advanced (Franse et al, under review) coded the complexity level of children’s explanations ( Tenenbaum et al, 2004 ; Rappolt-Schlichtmann et al, 2007 ) or examined explanation profiles on the basis of answers to multiple choice buoyancy questions designed to reflect previously identified concepts ( Schneider and Hardy, 2013 ; Edelsbrunner et al, 2018 ). Here coding all of the content of what children said and analyzing this with LCAs meant that we did not need a priori hierarchies or expected concepts, allowing us to discover relations in all that children say (see also van der Maas and Straatemeier, 2008 ).…”

“…Whereas several studies have extensively investigated the longitudinal learning effects of mixed-method, long-term buoyancy interventions ( Hardy et al, 2006 ; Schneider and Hardy, 2013 ; Leuchter et al, 2014 ; Edelsbrunner et al, 2018 ; Schalk et al, 2019 ), the aim of the current experimental study was simply to zoom in on the effect of item variation during hands-on exploration. Nevertheless, by placing the current findings in the context of inquiry-based learning, this study, like those classroom studies, emphasizes the importance of both considering fundamental learning processes in science education design and introducing science early ( Leuchter et al, 2014 ).…”

A Relação entre o Conhecimento Conceitual e o Desempenho de Estudantes em Atividades Investigativas

“…Os resultados desse trabalho, juntamente com pesquisas anteriores, fornecem indícios de que alunos que apresentam um maior conhecimento conceitual apresentam também estratégias mais adequadas e sofisticadas de controle de variáveis e de experimentação (Bogdan, 2016;Borges, Borges, & Vaz, 2005;Edelsbrunner et al, 2016). O entendimento conceitual pertinente ao problema seria, assim, um fator importante para estruturar e alcançar uma solução satisfatória para problemas práticos.…”

Inquiry-Based Learning and Conceptual Change in Balance Beam Understanding

“…In addition, more instructional support was related to more transitions, indicating improvement. Another example is a study on change in knowledge structures after 15 lessons, which included inquiry-based learning ( Edelsbrunner et al, 2018 ). The authors analyzed primary school children’s (ages 6–13 years) knowledge about floating and sinking.…”