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The Use of Multiple Perspectives of Conceptual Change to Investigate Students’ Mental Models of Gas Particles

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Concepts of Matter in Science Education

Part of the book series: Innovations in Science Education and Technology ((ISET,volume 19))

Abstract

For the past few decades, research into students’ conceptions about scientific phenomena has accumulated tremendous findings, especially in the area of students’ knowledge regarding particles. However, additional research is still needed regarding the best way to introduce the particulate nature of matter at different grade levels as well as how to effectively correct students’ alternative conceptions about particles. A number of conceptual change theories have been proposed (e.g., Chi, 2008; diSessa 2008; Vosniadou 2008). In this chapter, we draw from studies conducted in Taiwan about the nature and behavior of gases in order to discuss, via the use of the Research And InstructioN-Based/Oriented Work (RAINBOW; Chiu (2007b, 2008), Chiu & Lin (2008) approach, why certain science concepts are simply more difficult to learn than others. The RAINBOW approach includes developmental, ontological, epistemological, evolutionary, affective/social, instructional, and integrative perspectives in explaining learning and teaching of the sciences for promoting conceptual learning and change. Taiwanese students’ conceptions about the nature and behavior of gas particles are analyzed and discussed from the RAINBOW perspective. This chapter also utilizes empirical data to interpret how the RAINBOW perspective extends our knowledge about science learning, how and why conceptual change may or may not occur, and what mental representations of a scientific phenomenon in the domain of gas particles are influenced by and then retained via the use of modeling activities in the science classroom.

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Acknowledgment

We would like to thank the National Science Council in Taiwan for four grants which supported the study discussed in this chapter (NSC-95-2511-S-003-024-MY2, NSC 95-2511-S-003-025-MY2, NSC 97-2511-S-003-025-MY2, NSC-99-2511-S-003-024-MY3).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate Institute of Science Education, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Mei-Hung Chiu & Shiao-Lan Chung

  2. New Taipei Municipal New Taipei Senior High School, Taipei, Taiwan

    Shiao-Lan Chung

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  1. Mei-Hung Chiu
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  2. Shiao-Lan Chung
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Correspondence to Mei-Hung Chiu .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Department of Chemistry, University of Ioannina, Greece, University of Ioannina, Ioannina, 451 10, Greece

    Georgios Tsaparlis

  2. , Department of Chemistry, University of Massachusetts, Morrissey Blvd 100, Boston, 02125, Massachusetts, USA

    Hannah Sevian

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Chiu, MH., Chung, SL. (2013). The Use of Multiple Perspectives of Conceptual Change to Investigate Students’ Mental Models of Gas Particles. In: Tsaparlis, G., Sevian, H. (eds) Concepts of Matter in Science Education. Innovations in Science Education and Technology, vol 19. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5914-5_7

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