One of my publications is
Taber, K. S. (1994) Student reaction on being introduced to concept mapping, Physics Education, 29 (5), pp.276-281. https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0031-9120/29/5/003/meta
Abstract:
A small group of students commencing an A level revision course in Physics were asked to draw a concept map for "energy". At the end of the lesson they were asked to comment briefly about their reactions to the task. The student comments were generally very positive, and related to both their feelings about the work they had carried out, and their thoughts about their own learning. It is suggested that these are important aspects of the student learning experience that are too easily ignored by science teachers.
Contents:
- What are concept maps?
- What are concept maps used for?
- The students, and the task
- Misconceptions about Energy
- The affective domain: the importance of attitudes and values in science education
- Metacognition: learning to be an effective student
- Concluding comments
| alternative conceptions / over-simplifications elicited from students |
| "current is the energy stored in a capacitor" "electrical energy is charge" "kinetic – energy which is increasing as an object is moving" "voltage is velocity of current through conductor" "insulators have very few electrons" "kinetic energy is a form of energy an object has due to its position" "some chemicals when combusted give out energy in the form of heat due to the breaking of bonds" |
| student reflections on the activity |
| "not fun but necessary" "fun" "I quite enjoyed doing it" "I think this is a very pleasant experience "it was interesting" "very interesting" "Made me remember the connection between physics terms" "at first it was easy, but got hard later. My knowledge of physics is very un-organised at present" "Found it slightly difficult, don't remember most of the things, had to think a lot" "I feel a little disappointed that I can't remember that much more to put on" "I didn't think I'd be able to actually remember anything after the long summer break. I didn't realise how much the different areas interlinked" "Did not think I would have been able to think of enough things after 3 months but found things start to come back once I started writing" "I think this exercise was useful as it let me know exactly how much I know about energy, which I can now see is not enough" "I found I was digging around, trying to put fragments of things I could remember together. I found I could remember only scraps of information, but when doing the drawing, saw how things pieced together, and linked with other things" "Quite useful, brings back memories; good to see how well topics relate or how well you can interrelate them" "At first I did not know where to start but as I began putting ideas down, it reminded me of other points. I could have carried on writing" |
