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Facilitating Students’ Conceptual Change and Scientific Reasoning Involving the Unit of Combustion

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Abstract

This article reports research from a 3 year digital learning project to unite conceptual change and scientific reasoning in the learning unit of combustion. One group of students had completed the course combining conceptual change and scientific reasoning. The other group of students received conventional instruction. In addition to the quantitative data, six students from each group were interviewed to evaluate their conceptual change, correct concepts and scientific reasoning. Results indicate that the experimental group’s students significantly outperformed the conventional group on the Combustion Achievement Test (CAT), Scientific Reasoning Test (SRT) and Combustion Dependent Reasoning Test (CDRT). Moreover, the experimental group’s students use higher levels of scientific reasoning more frequently and changed their alternative concepts more successfully than did the conventional group. Furthermore, once the experimental group’s students’ successfully changed their conceptions, their concepts tended to be more stable than the conventional group’s students, even after the 6th week of learning. These results demonstrate that combining conceptual change and scientific reasoning indeed improves students’ conceptual change and scientific reasoning ability more effectively than conventional instruction.

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Notes

This research is based on work supported and funded by the National Science Council (NSC 94, 95-2511-S-009-002), Taiwan, R.O.C.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Education, National Chiao Tung University, 1001 Ta-Hsueh Rd., Hsin Chu City, Taiwan, Republic of China

    Chin-Quen Lee & Hsiao-Ching She

Authors
  1. Chin-Quen Lee
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  2. Hsiao-Ching She
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hsiao-Ching She.

Appendices

Appendix 1

Fig. 6
figure 6

Students’ answer and reasoning before and after the adaptive digital dual situated learning event

Full size image

Appendix 2

Combustion Achievement Test (CAT) example question

Which gas can help burning?

  1. a.

    vaporized water (steam)

  2. b.

    oxygen

  3. c.

    carbon dioxide

  4. d.

    all of them

Appendix 3

Scientific Reasoning Test (SRT) example question (Lawson 1978)

  1. 1.

    Farmer Brown was observing the mice that live in his field. He discovered that all of them were either fat or thin. Also, all of them had either black tails or white tails. This made him wonder if there might be a link between the size of the mice and the color of their tails. So he captured all of the mice in one part of his field and observed them. Below are the mice that he captured.

figure a

Do you think there is a link between the size of mice and the color of their tails?

  1. (1)

    appears to be a link

  2. (2)

    appears not to be a link

  3. (3)

    cannot make a reasonable guess

    1. 1.1.

      because

  4. (1)

    there are some of each kind of mouse.

  5. (2)

    There may be a genetic link between mouse size and tail color.

  6. (3)

    There were not enough mice captured.

  7. (4)

    Most of the fat mice have black tails while most of the thin mice have white tails.

  8. (5)

    As the mice grew fatter, their tails became darker.

Appendix 4

Combustion Dependent Reasoning test (CDRT) example question

How does a cigarette-lighter light a candle?

  1. (1)

    Flames move from a cigarette-lighter to the candle, therefore, lighting the candle.

  2. (2)

    The temperature of a cigarette-lighter flame is high and reaches the ignition point of a candle, thus facilitating the burning.

  3. (3)

    The oil of a cigarette-lighter is heated and evaporated to gas, thus making the candle burn.

  4. (4)

    Lighting cigarette-lighter would induce the candle to burn.

Reasons

  1. (1)

    It provides combustible materials

  2. (2)

    It provides materials to help burning

  3. (3)

    It increases the temperature high enough to reach the ignition point.

  4. (4)

    all of them

Appendix 5

Interview Protocol

  1. 1.

    How can we make combustion happen? Explain.

  2. 2.

    Which materials can be used as fuels for burning in your daily life? Explain.

  3. 3.

    Can combustion happen without air? Explain.

  4. 4.

    What else do you need to light a candle besides a candle and air? Explain.

  5. 5.

    How does a cigarette-lighter light a candle? Explain.

  6. 6.

    Are all substances the same before and after burning? Explain.

  7. 7.

    Do you know how to produce oxygen? Tell me ways of producing oxygen that you know of. Explain.

  8. 8.

    What elements are present in the air? Which elements found in air can produce combustion? Explain.

  9. 9.

    What would be different if pure oxygen was used to help burning? Explain.

  10. 10.

    What would happen to a balloon if we fill it with pure oxygen? Would it fly up or go down? Explain why.

  11. 11.

    Is there oxygen in the water? Can you prove it?

  12. 12.

    Would ph value change if we add oxygen into water? Explain why.

  13. 13.

    What are the uses for oxygen? Explain.

  14. 14.

    Do you know how to produce carbon dioxide? Tell me ways of producing carbon dioxide that you know of. Explain.

  15. 15.

    Can carbon dioxide help combustion? Explain why.

  16. 16.

    Is there carbon dioxide in water? Can you prove it?

  17. 17.

    Which one would dissolve into water easier, oxygen or carbon dioxide? Explain why.

  18. 18.

    What would happen to a balloon if we fill it with carbon dioxide? Would it fly up or go down? Explain Why.

  19. 19.

    When will we use carbon dioxide in our daily life? Explain.

  20. 20.

    What are the ways to extinguish fire? Explain.

  21. 21.

    What are the theories on extinguishing fires while using gas stove? Explain.

  22. 22.

    What are the principles behind fire extinguishing by water? Explain.

  23. 23.

    What are the principles behind fire extinguishing by putting a cap on the alcohol burner? Explain.

  24. 24.

    How can we extinguish fire if alcohol spilled from the alcohol burner? Explain

  25. 25.

    How can we extinguish oil fire? Explain.

  26. 26.

    How can we extinguish fire in electrical equipment? Explain.

  27. 27.

    What substances will rust? Explain.

  28. 28.

    What phenomena occur while substances rust? Explain.

  29. 29.

    What are the conditions would make substance rusted? Explain Why

  30. 30.

    Can you design an experiment to prove your ideas regarding the conditions that cause rusting of substances?

  31. 31.

    What can be done to protect a substance from rusting? Explain.

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Lee, CQ., She, HC. Facilitating Students’ Conceptual Change and Scientific Reasoning Involving the Unit of Combustion. Res Sci Educ 40, 479–504 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-009-9130-4

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