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An Experimental Investigation of Alternative Ideas of Force in Autistic Adolescents

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Abstract

While research on the understanding of physics concepts in individuals with autism remains scarce, the ever-increasing number of these students in inclusive education nowadays makes their systematic education in all fields of learning necessary. For this purpose, an experimental investigation was conducted to compare 19 autistic adolescents with a matched group of 55 non-autistic adolescents without any identified disability on their alternative ideas. Drawing from constructivist/conceptual change approaches, a computerized instrument was developed to explore participants’ alternative ideas on the concept of force. Autistic adolescents seemed to use the same force models as the comparison group, but with a different frequency. Another interesting finding was the significant difference between the autistic adolescents and the comparison group in terms of the consistency on their most frequently used model. The findings from the present study can inform the design of appropriate instructional interventions to support the conceptual understanding of force in autistic students.

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Data Availability

Data could be found in the following link: https://www.didaktorika.gr/eadd/handle/10442/42856.

Notes

  1. In the text with the term “autistic,” we refer to those pupils that lie on the high functioning part of the spectrum and used to refer on the handbook of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) with the term “Asperger.”.

  2. WISC-III is the third edition of Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, an individually administered intelligence test which measures child’s general intellectual ability.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Education, School of Education, University of Nicosia, Nicosia, Cyprus

    George Kaliampos

  2. School of Early Childhood and Inclusive Education, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

    Sofia Mavropoulou

  3. Department of Primary Education, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece

    Vasilis Kollias

  4. Department of Educational Sciences and Early Childhood Education, University of Patras, Patras, Greece

    Konstantinos Ravanis

  5. Department of Physics, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece

    Denis Vavougios

Authors
  1. George Kaliampos
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  2. Sofia Mavropoulou
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  3. Vasilis Kollias
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  4. Konstantinos Ravanis
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  5. Denis Vavougios
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Correspondence to George Kaliampos.

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Kaliampos, G., Mavropoulou, S., Kollias, V. et al. An Experimental Investigation of Alternative Ideas of Force in Autistic Adolescents. Res Sci Educ 53, 867–888 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-023-10115-8

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