Exploring the Process of Theory Building and Conceptual Change in a Dynamic Modelling Environment

1. Exploring the Process of Theory Building and Conceptual Change in a Dynamic Modelling Environment By SC Li Department of Education Studies, HKBU

2. Outline: • Background: Research in Science Education • Modelling in Science Education • Brief highlight WorldMaker 2000 • Preliminary Study • Findings & Discussion

3. Research in science education • Dominated by the Conceptual Change Model (CCM) in the past two decade (Posner, Strike and Hewson 1982) • Learning involve changing a person’s conceptions rather than simply adding new knowledge to what is already there. • 2 types of changes: assimilation and accommodation analogous to the pattern of theory change in science

4. Conceptual Change Model • For a person to undergo conceptual change, s/he has to • Become dissatisfied with existing conception • Find new conception intelligible, plausible and fruitful

5. Conceptual Change Model • For Instructional strategies to bring about conceptual change (POE) • Exposing alternative conceptions • Creating conceptual conflict • Encouraging cognitive accommodation

6. Conceptual Change Model • Conceptual conflict strategies yielded mixed results • Students react to conceptual conflicts in several different ways that did not lead to conceptual change: • fail to recognize the conflict • recognize but avoid • resolve conflict partially • resolve conflict using alternative conceptions

7. CCM Criticism • Competing conceptions can coexist in the learner without necessarily replace one another • Conceptual change is rarely abrupt, but incrementally revised • Learning is a process of that can take student from preconceptions to target models . This may occur via one or more intermediate models that serve as partial models on the way to developing the target model.

8. Scientific conception Modelling alternative conception Computer Modelling for Conceptual Change

9. Simulations vs. Modelling

10. Lego blocks vs. Toy cars

11. Simulations vs. Modelling • to explore, or • to express

12. Modelling They help students • externalize thoughts; • theorize and formulate explanations; • rectify alternative conceptions, and • advance in shifting across intermediate conceptions.

13. Scientific conception Modelling alternative conception Computer Modelling for Conceptual Change

14. What is WorldMaker? A world confined in a Discretized Space and Time

15. What is WorldMaker? • An iconic collaborative modelling environment with modelling techniques derived from the notion of cellular automata

16. Investigating the use of WorldMaker in Teaching and Learning Some preliminary studies

17. Preliminary Study Research Questions • How effective is computer modelling in understanding students’ alternative conceptions? • How effective is computer modelling in fostering conceptual change? • What teaching strategies can promote these processes?

18. Preliminary Study Domain of Study • Evaporation and diffusion Participants • 40 F1 students from a local (Band 1) girl school Setting • Normal classroom setting • The class is divided into 10 groups, each group comprises 4 to 5 members

19. Room A perfume Preliminary Study Instruction • Students were asked to predict and explain what would happen to the vase of perfume as shown. • A simple demonstration followed by students’ group activities

20. Preliminary Study Group activities Predict and explain • “What will happen to the perfume inside the beaker after a certain period of time?” • “Illustrate your ‘theory’ or explanation for the above phenomenon through simple drawing.”

21. Preliminary Study Model co-construction • Each group is required to construct their models and present to the teacher whenever they feel satisfied with their model or encounter any difficulties. • Each group is encouraged to rectify their models after each discussion session. Students are encouraged to plan their own experiment to verify their claims if necessary.

22. Preliminary Study Teacher’s role • as unobtrusive as possible • constantly challenged and encouraged students to articulate their explanations and to externalize their thoughts through writing, drawing and model building • Questions and challenges serves as a kind of cognitive perturbation

23. Findings Major Alternative Conceptions • No empty space exists between air particles • Air serves as an agent that drives the perfume particles to move • The particles can only undergo vertical motion in a way analogous to the motion of a convection current • No phase transition between liquid and gaseous states • Non-conservation of matter

24. Findings

25. Findings

26. Findings

27. Findings Seven Levels of understanding • perfume disappears and is absorbed or annihilated by an external agent: e.g. air; heat generated by lamps and the sun) • perfume ‘evaporates’ as a result of being transferred from one location to another by an external agent (e.g. air movement; ‘sucking force’ from the sun) • phase transition 1: at the liquid surface, perfume breaks into small droplets and is drifted away by air

28. Findings Seven Levels of understanding • phase transition 2: perfume emits ‘smell’ which adheres to air particles • phase transition 3: at the liquid surface, perfume changes into gaseous (particulate) form and can move on its own • 5 + perfume gas moves in a random manner • 6 + conservation of matter

29. Findings

30. Findings

31. Findings

32. Findings

33. Findings

34. Conclusion • According the the preliminary study, there are evidences to convince us that the dynamical nature of the modelling tool does • help students to externalize and visualize their thoughts as well as their alternative conceptions in a dynamical way • provide a better context to confront students with conceptual conflicts and facilitates the progressive refinement of students’ conceptions through the process of theory building.

35. Nature of Scientific Investigations Theorization Conjecture Refutation Observation Prediction

36. Nature of Scientific Investigations Theorization Weak in science education Overemphasized in science education Observation Prediction

37. Nature of Scientific Investigation Theory (model) building refutation conjecture Observation (experimentation) theory exploration theory building

38. Thank you!