Children's alternative frameworks: Should they be directly‐addressed in science instruction?

A study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of in-depth, conceptually integrated instruction delivered via a videodisc program in eliminating children's alternative frameworks in science. Prior to instruction, pupils in two eighth-grade science classes, one of higher ability and one of lower ability, were interviewed to document their alternative frameworks (informal knowledge) for explaining two science phenomena. Interviews after instruction showed that students of both ability groups did not retain their alternative frameworks. This contradicts other research findings that children's alternative frameworks are extremely resistant to change and must be directly addressed during instruction for conceptual change to occur. A well-designed science curriculum that was intelligible, plausible, and fruitful, but did not directly address alternative frameworks during instruction, changed 92% of the alternative frameworks held by students to scientific understandings.

[1]  Maher Z. Hashweh.  Descriptive Studies of Students' Conceptions in Science. , 1988 .

[2]  R. Pea,et al.  TOOLS FOR BRIDGING THE CULTURES OF EVERYDAY AND SCIENTIFIC THINKING , 1987 .

[3]  Edmund A. Marek,et al.  Understandings and misunderstandings of eighth graders of four physics concepts found in textbooks , 1990 .

[4]  R. Stavy,et al.  Cognitive conflict as a basis for teaching quantitative aspects of the concept of temperature , 1980 .

[5]  M. Linn,et al.  Learning and Instruction: An Examination of Four Research Perspectives in Science Education , 1988 .

[6]  D. Carnine,et al.  Teaching Complex Content to Learning Disabled Students: The Role of Technology , 1989, Exceptional children.

[7]  Marcia C. Linn,et al.  Content, Context, and Process in Reasoning during Adolescence: Selecting a Model , 1983 .

[8]  Maher Z. Hashweh.  Toward an explanation of conceptual change , 1986 .

[9]  D. Perkins,et al.  Rocky Roads to Transfer: Rethinking Mechanism of a Neglected Phenomenon , 1989 .

[10]  R. Driver,et al.  A Constructivist Approach to Curriculum Development in Science , 1986 .

[11]  Norman Frederiksen,et al.  Implications of Cognitive Theory for Instruction in Problem Solving , 1984 .

[12]  Paul Gorsky,et al.  Learning about forces: simulating the outcomes of pupils' misconceptions , 1988 .

[13]  Paul Brna,et al.  Confronting misconceptions in the domain of simple electrical circuits , 1988 .

[14]  James F. Voss,et al.  Learning and transfer in subject-matter learning: A problem-solving model , 1987 .

[15]  A. Caramazza,et al.  Naive beliefs in “sophisticated” subjects: misconceptions about trajectories of objects , 1981, Cognition.

[16]  Mariana G. Hewson,et al.  Effect of Instruction Using Students' Prior Knowledge and Conceptual Change Strategies on Science Learning. Part II: Analysis of Instruction. , 1981 .

[17]  Edmund A. Marek,et al.  Understandings and Misconceptions of Biology Concepts Held by Students Attending Small High Schools and Students Attending Large High Schools. , 1988 .

[18]  Alan M. Hofmeister,et al.  Developing and validating science education videodiscs , 1989 .

[19]  F. Reif,et al.  Effects of Knowledge Organization on Task Performance , 1984 .

[20]  John D. Bransford,et al.  An Evaluation of a Level-One Instructional Videodisc Program , 1987 .

[21]  John K. Gilbert,et al.  Children's science and its consequences for teaching , 1982 .

[22]  Varda Bar,et al.  Children's views about the water cycle , 1989 .

[23]  Paul Brna.  Confronting dynamics misconceptions , 1987 .

[24]  G. L. Hills.  Students'"Untutored" Beliefs about Natural Phenomena: Primitive Science or Commonsense?. , 1989 .

[25]  Richard S. Prawat,et al.  Promoting Access to Knowledge, Strategy, and Disposition in Students: A Research Synthesis , 1989 .

[26]  Peter W. Hewson,et al.  Effect of instruction using microcomputer simulations and conceptual change strategies on science learning , 1986 .