A topic in learners' conceptions and thinking
P-prim, or phenomenological primitive, is a label given to features of human cognition which act pre-consciously (outside of conscious awareness) asnd provide intuitions about the world. They are believed to be a major source of learners alternative conceptions.
Read about alternative conceptions
Read about phenomenological primitives, p-prims
The first p-rims to be mooted derived form studies with physics learners. P-prims are not domain specific – that is the same p-prims can shape thinking across different subject areas whenever what is experienced seems to fit the general pattern the p-prim represents. So, it is quite likely that p-prims identified from physics learning contexts will sometimes be acting in chemistry learning or biology learning.
However there have been some suggestions that common patterns of learner thinking in chemistry might reflect p-prims that were not identified from physics contexts. A study carried out in England with secondary age learners by Alejandra García Franco mooted five common patterns that might derive from p-prims. (The p-prims operate below conscious awareness, so what learners report are their verbalisations of the intuitions.)
Themes identified in the study
The following themes were identified in the study. Unlike explicit conceptions (which tend to either be canonical or alternative, that is, they are right or wrong from a teacher's perspective), p-prims are not in themselves correct or incorrect, but general patterns applies across contexts, which will sometimes give an appropriate intuition, and sometimes not.
Theme 1: Component Gives Property
"The idea that there is 'something'"' in substances responsible for their properties is familiar to chemistry teachers. Research has found that it is common for students to inappropriately assign to a compound properties of its constituent elements, such as by suggesting that a compound of fluorine must be a gas because fluorine is a gaseous element…
Taber & García Franco, 2010, p.111
Our data suggest that this might reflect a broader thinking pattern: considering that a property of a substance (such as being blue, or reacting with another sub-stance) derives from some component responsible for that specific property. It is as if the single substance is considered to be a complex of qualities as components, each contributing a property that may be considered in isolation."
Theme 2: Changes Require Active Agents
"Mixing and diffusing are primarily the consequences of the intrinsic motion and interaction of quanticles. When such mixing phenomena were presented to students in these interviews, their responses often suggested an intuition of the need for an actuating agent (commonly heating or stirring) that could explain the observed changes."
Taber & García Franco, 2010, p.115
Theme 3: There Is One Active Partner
"We also found that students commonly suggested that when substances interact, one of the substances is considered responsible for the changes (e.g., the substance that is perceived as strongest). One substance is viewed as the active partner, whereas the other substance involved has a more passive role."
Taber & García Franco, 2010, p.119
Theme 4: Substances (Naturally) React
"Although reaction has a precise and central meaning in chemistry, this is not always appreciated by learners, so in students' accounts of reactions they are some- times using this term in an everyday sense to label a much more inclusive class of events than those intended when a chemistry teacher uses the term…
The theme substances (naturally) react implies that substances react because that is the way things are and so there is no need to explain further what goes on during a chemical reaction. From this perspective, it is in the nature of some combinations of chemicals to react."
Taber & García Franco, 2010, p.122-3
Theme 5: Things Have a (Natural) Predetermined Configuration
"We identified a theme in learners' explanations that some changes occur because there is a (natural) tendency to achieve a predetermined configuration or disposition, at which point change ceases."
Taber & García Franco, 2010, p.122-3
Work cited:
Taber, K. S., & García Franco, A. (2010). Learning processes in chemistry: Drawing upon cognitive resources to learn about the particulate structure of matter. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 19(1), 99-142, https://doi.org/10.1080/10508400903452868 [Download article]
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