Implications for the constructivist research programme of patterns in high school students' and pre-service teachers' thinking about ionisation energy
One of my publications is:
Taber, K. S., & Tan, K. C. D. (2011). The insidious nature of 'hard core' alternative conceptions: Implications for the constructivist research programme of patterns in high school students' and pre-service teachers' thinking about ionisation energy. International Journal of Science Education, 33(2), 259-297. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500691003709880
Abstract:
The present study contributes to the constructivist research programme (RP) into learning science by comparing patterns in responses from two groups of learners – senior high schools students and pre-service teachers – in the same educational context (Singapore), to a diagnostic instrument relating to the topic of ionisation energies. This topic is currently included in the curriculum for 16-19 year-old students studying chemistry in Singapore (and elsewhere). The comparison shows that
- (a) although graduate pre-service teachers offered some types of incorrect responses less frequently than high school students;
- (b) they retained high levels of alternative conceptions commonly found among high school students; and – of particular note –
- (c) certain alternative conceptions were found to be more common among the graduates.
This suggest the intuitive appeal of certain alternative conceptions is such that they can readily be reproduced down 'generations' of learners. The findings are explored in terms of a range of conceptual resources that have been developed within the constructivist RP. The analysis suggests that the curriculum sets out inappropriate target knowledge for senior high school students, given the nature of the subject matter and the prior learning of the students. It is also suggested that it may be fruitful to consider conceptual learning in terms analogous to the RP found in science, and that from this perspective certain insidious alternative conceptions can be understood as derived from commitments that are taken-for-granted and protected from explicit challenge by a protective belt of refutable auxiliary conceptions.
Contents:
- Introduction
- Background to the research
- Researching alternative conceptions
- The nature of a scientific research programme
- Considering learners as Lakatosian scientists
- Origins of alternative conceptions
- Learning about the ionisation energy topic
- Target knowledge about ionisation energies
- Alternative conceptions of ionisation energies
- A two-tier diagnostic instrument
- Study 1: Singapore A level students' thinking about Ionisation Energy
- Study 2: Singapore Pre-service teachers' thinking about Ionisation Energy
- Research Question
- Findings: comparing pre-service teachers' thinking with that of A level students
- Overall performance on the diagnostic instrument
- Nature of incorrect responses
- Coordinating conflicting factors
- Conservation of force
- Applying the octet framework
- Extending notions of stable configurations
- Discussion
- Is the Singapore context unusual?
- Contributing to the research programme to inform teaching
- Drawing upon the progressive research programme: The abstract nature of the subject matter
- Drawing upon the progressive research programme: student learning about multiple models
- Drawing upon the progressive research programme: cognitive processing of new information
- Drawing upon the progressive research programme: The development of alternative conceptions
- Drawing upon the progressive research programme: identifying learning demand
- The insidious nature of some alternative conceptions
- Extending the progressive research programme: applying the Lakatosian model to student learning
- Conclusion: responding to the insidious nature of alternative conceptions
