Abstract
A concept for a curriculum concerning the particle structure of matter, which aimed at the development of students’ thinking about models, was developed for grades 9 and 10. Research results in this field indicate that thorough discussions concerning epistemology, models, and reality are necessary in class in order to develop an appropriate understanding of the micro-world (Mikelskis-Seifert, 2002). Accordingly, a learning environment was constructed in which the focus was on developing an understanding of the world of experiences and of the world of models. In this case, students had to distinguish systematically between these worlds (Seifert & Fischler, 2001). When teaching and learning about models, a further objective was that students develop metaconcepts regarding particle conception. As part of an empirical study conducted with 120 students from 8th grade, effects of this approach were analysed; the aim of the analysis was to measure the development of an appropriate understanding of models. We were also interested in the transferability of our approach to an introductory class. The results of this evaluation are presented here.
Keywords
- Student Group
- Particle Model
- Particle Structure
- Model Competence
- Interdisciplinary Project
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Mikelskis-Seifert, S., Leisner, A. (2005). Investigation of Effects and Stability in Teaching Model Competence. In: Boersma, K., Goedhart, M., de Jong, O., Eijkelhof, H. (eds) Research and the Quality of Science Education. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3673-6_27
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3673-6_27
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