Abstract
Research on conceptual change is still a powerful framework for empirical investigations on students' learning of science. During recent years, an increasing body of research has explored students' concepts prior and subsequent to instruction, leading to an extensive documentation of students' concepts including the difficulties and opportunities of teaching for conceptual change. Though the research on conceptual change can inform practitioners about students' ideas of science and students' learning difficulties, little is known about the processes of conceptual development and students' use of developed concepts. Exploring the nature of the processes may help to understand what kind of concepts appear plausible and fruitful to students and how students apply their knowledge to scientific tasks. In order to investigate processes of the development of concepts, videoing a total of 45 students from grades 8 and 11 was carried out while they were working on physics tasks in small groups. The dimensions of content, level of abstraction, and time were used to describe the quality of students' situated knowledge as well as usage and changes of the knowledge when students were confronted with similar tasks. Assuming the notion “concept” refers to rule-based knowledge, the dimension of abstraction was used to distinguish between concrete (non-conceptual) and rule-based (conceptual) knowledge. Results on the processes indicate that most of the high school students' activities did not refer to conceptual knowledge. Moreover, explanations based on physics concepts which were offered to the students were rarely used. Furthermore, if students came up with conceptual descriptions of occurring phenomena, these descriptions showed a high variability in their content.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Casee, R. (1997). The development of conceptual structures. In D. Kuhn & R.S. Siegler (Eds.), Carmichael's handbook of child development (pp. 745–804). New York: McGraw Hill.
Chan, C., Burtis, J. & Bereiter, C. (1997). Knowledge building as a mediator of conflict in conceptual change. Cognition and Instruction, 15(1), 1–40.
Chi, M. (1997). Quantifying qualitative analyses of verbal data: A practical guide. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 6(3), 271–315.
diSessa, A.A. (1992). Toward an epistemology of physics. Cognition and Instruction, 10(2 & 3), 105–225.
diSessa, A.A. (2002). Why “conceptual ecology” is a good idea. In M. Limón & L. Masin (Eds.), Reconsidering conceptual change: Issues in theory and practice (pp. 29–60). Dordrecht: Kluwer.
diSessa, A.A. & Sherin, B.L. (1998). What changes in conceptual change? International Journal of Science Education, 20(10), 1155–1192.
Driver, R., Squires, A., Rushworth, P. & Wood-Robinson, V. (1994). Making sense of secondary science. Research into children's ideas. London: Routledge.
Duit, R. (1999). Conceptual change approaches in Science Education. In W. Schnotz, M. Carretero, & S. Vosniadou (Eds.), New Perspectives on Conceptual Change (pp. 263–282). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Duit, R. (2004). Bibliography STCSE: Students' and teachers' conceptions and science education. Online: http://www.ipn.uni-kiel.de/aktuell/stcse/stcse.html, retrieved January 6, 2004.
Duit, R. & Treagust, D.F. (1998). Learning in science – from behaviorism towards social constructivism and beyond. In B.J. Fraser & K.G. Tobin (Eds.), International Handbook of Science Education (pp. 3–25). Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Duit, R. & Treagust, D.F. (2003). Conceptual change: A powerful framework for improving science teaching and learning. International Journal of Science Education, 25(6), 671–688.
Fischbein, E. & Nachlieli, T. (1998). Concepts and figures in geometrical reasoning. International Journal of Science Education, 20(10), 1193–1211.
Fischer, H. & von Aufschnaiter, S. (1993). Development of meaning during physics instruction: Case studies in view of the paradigm of constructivism. Science Education, 77(2), 153–168.
Haller, K. (1999). The development of situated cognition during students' labwork activities at university with a special focus on objectives. In M. Méheut & G. Rebmann (Eds.), Fourth European Science Education Summerschool. Theory, Methodology and Results of Research in Science Education (pp. 272–275). Paris: Université D. Diderot.
Jordan, B. & Henderson, A. (1993). Interaction analysis: Foundation and practice. The Journal of the Learning Sciences, 4(1), 39–103.
Marton, F. & Booth, S. (1997). Learning and awareness. Mahwah (NJ): Lawrence Erlbaum.
Piaget, J. & Garcia, R. (1991). Toward a logic of meanings. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Pintrich, P.R., Marx, R.W. & Boyle, A. (1993). Beyond cold conceptual change: Motivational beliefs and classroom contextual factors in the process of conceptual change. Review of Educational Research, 63(2), 167–199.
Posner, G.J., Strike, K.A., Hewson, P. & Gertzog, W.A. (1982). Accommodation of a scientific conception: Toward a theory of conceptual change. Science Education, 66(2), 211–227.
Rimmle, R. (2004). Videograph – a multimedia player for coding and transcription of videos. Kiel: IPN.
Rittle-Johnson, B., Siegler, R.S. & Alibali, M.W. (2001). Developing conceptual understanding and procedural skill in mathematics: An iterative process. Journal of Educational Psychology, 93(2), 346–362.
Saniter, A. (2001). Learning processes of advanced physics students. In R.H. Evans, A. M. Andersen & H. Sorensen (Eds.), The 5th European Science Education Summerschool: Bridging research methodology and research aims (pp. 261–269). Copenhagen: The Danish University of Education.
Siegler, R.S. & Crowley, K. (1991). The microgenetic method: A direct means for studying cognitive development. American Psychologist, 46(6), 606–620.
Stavy, R. & Tirosh, D. (1996). Intuitive rules in science and mathematics: The case of ‘More of A-More of B’. International Journal of Science Education, 18(6), 653–667.
Steffe, L. P. (1983). The teaching experiment methodology in a constructivist research program. In M. Zweng, T. Green, J. Kilpatrick, H. Pollak & M. Suydam (Eds.), Proceedings of the fourth international congress on mathematical education (pp. 469–471). Boston: Birkhäuser.
Steffe, L.P. & D'Ambrosio, B. (1996). Using teaching experiments to understand students' mathematics. In D. Treagust, R. Duit & B. Fraser (Eds.), Improving teaching and learning in science and mathematics (pp. 65–76). New York: Teacher College Press.
Stigler, J.W., Gonzales, P., Kawanaka, T., Knoll, S. & Serrano, A. (1999). The TIMSS Videotape Classroom Study: Methods and findings from an exploratory research project on eighth-grade mathematics instruction in Germany, Japan, and the United States. Washington, D.C.: US Department of Education.
Svensson, L. (1989). The conceptualization of cases of physical motion. European Journal of Psychology of Education, IV(4), 529–545.
Tyson, L.M., Venville, G.J., Harrison, A.G. & Treagust, D.F. (1997). A multidimensional framework for interpreting conceptual change events in the classroom. Science Education, 81(4), 387–404.
von Aufschnaiter, C. (2003). Interactive processes between university students: Structures of interactions and related cognitive development. Research in Science Education, 33, 341–374.
von Aufschnaiter, C. & von Aufschnaiter, S. (2001). The use of video-documented data for analyzing learning processes. In R.H. Evans, A.M. Andersen & H. Sorensen (Eds.), The 5th European Science Education Summerschool: Bridging research methodology and research aims (pp. 431–440). Copenhagen: The Danish University of Education.
von Aufschnaiter, C. & von Aufschnaiter, S. (2003). Theoretical framework and empirical evidence on students' cognitive processes in three dimensions of content, complexity, and time. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 40(7), 616–648.
von Aufschnaiter, C., Schoster, A. & von Aufschnaiter, S. (1999). The influence of students' individual experiences of physics learning environments on cognitive processes. In J. Leach, & A.C. Paulsen (Eds.), Practical work in science education – recent research studies (pp. 281–296). Dordrecht: Kluwer.
von Aufschnaiter, S. (2001). Development of complexity through dealing with physical qualities: One type of conceptual change? In H. Behrendt et al. (Eds.), Research in science education – past, present, and future (pp. 199–204). Dordrecht: Kluwer.
von Aufschnaiter, S. & Welzel, M. (1999). Individual learning processes – a research programme with focus on the complexity of situated cognition. In M. Bandiera, S. Caravita, E. Torracca & M. Vicentini (Eds.), Research in science education in Europe (pp. 209–215). Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Vosniadou, S. & Ioannides, C. (1998). From conceptual development to science education: A psychological point of view. International Journal of Science Education, 20(10), 1213–1230.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
von Aufschnaiter, C. Process based investigations of conceptual development: an explorative study. Int J Sci Math Educ 4, 689–725 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-005-9018-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-005-9018-3