This study involved the development and application of a two-ticr diagnostic tcst measuring college biology students' understanding of diffusion and osmosis after a course of instruction. The development procedurc had three general steps: defining the content boundaries of the test, collecting information on students' misconceptions, and instrument development. Misconception data were collected from interviews and multiple-choice questions with free response answers. The data were used to develop 12 two-tier multiple choice items in which the first tier examined content knowledge and the second examined understanding of that knowledge. The conceptual knowledge examined was the particulate and random nature of matter, concentration and tonicity, the influence of life forces on diffusion and osmosis, membranes, kinetic energy of matter, the process of diffusion, and the process of osmosis. The diagnostic instrument was administered to 240 students (123 non-biology majors and 117 biology majors) enrolled in a college freshman biology laboratory course. The students had completed a unit on diffusion and osmosis. The content taught was carefully defined by propositional knowlcdge statements, and was the same content that dcfincd the content boundaries of the test. The split-half reliability was .74. Difficulty indices ranged from 0.23 to 0.95, and discrimination indiccs ranged from 0.21 to 0.65. Each item was analyzed to determine student understanding of, and identify misconceptions about, diffusion and osmosis.During the past 2 decades studies in science education have demonstrated that students have alternative views of science concepts (
he diagnosis of students' misconceptions and the identification of reasons for those misconceptions is a prerequisite to developing lessons that result in conceptual change. In recent years, research on students' misconceptions has been of considerable interest to science educators and cognitive psychologists. It is now generally agreed that every student brings to science class his/her conceptions of the world, and because of students' wide variety of experiences, each concept will hold a somewhat different meaning. Further, many of the conceptions will be different from those generally accepted by the scientific community. In this article the term misconception refers to students' ideas that are different from those generally accepted by scientists. Diffusion and osmosis are widely taught in many secondary and college biology curriculums. There are several reasons why we should focus on diffusion and osmosis concepts in biology. Diffusion and osmosis are key to understanding many important life processes. Diffusion is the primary method of short distance transport in a cell and cellular systems. An understanding of osmosis is key to understanding water uptake by plants, water balance in aquatic creatures, turgor pressure in plants, and transport in living organisms. In addition, diffusion and osmosis are closely related to key concepts in physics and chemistry such as permeability and the particulate nature of matter (Friedler, Amir & Tamir 1987).
This study explores the effectiveness of concept mapping, the learning cycle, expository instruction, and a combination of concept mapping/learning cycle in promoting conceptual understanding of diffusion and osmosis. Four high school biology classes were taught diffusion and osmosis concepts with the aforementioned treatments. Conceptual understanding was assessed immediately and seven weeks after instruction with the Diffusion and Osmosis Diagnostic Test (DODT). The results indicated the concept mapping/learning cycle and concept mapping treatment groups significantly outperformed the expository treatment group in conceptual understanding of diffusion and osmosis. There was no significant difference among the learning cycle group and other treatments.
The purpose of this study was to investigate students' understanding about scientifically acceptable content knowledge by exploring the relationship between knowledge of diffusion and osmosis and the student's certainty in their content knowledge. Data was collected from a high school biology class with the Diffusion and Osmosis Diagnostic Test (DODT) and Certainty of Response (CRI) scale. All data was collected after completion of a unit of study on diffusion and osmosis. The results of the DODT were dichotomized into correct and incorrect answers, and CRI values were dichotomized into certain and uncertain. Values were used to construct a series of 2 × 2 contingency tables for each item on the DODT and corresponding CRI. High certainty in incorrect answers on the DODT indicated tenacious misconceptions about diffusion and osmosis concepts. Low certainty in incorrect or correct answers on the DODT indicated possible guessing; and, therefore no understanding, or confusion about their understanding. Chi‐square analyses revealed that significantly more students had misconceptions than desired knowledge on content covering the Influence of Life Forces on Diffusion and Osmosis, Membranes, the Particulate and Random Nature of Matter, and the Processes of Diffusion and Osmosis. Most students were either guessing or had misconceptions about every item related to the concepts osmosis and tonicity. Osmosis and diffusion are important to understanding fundamental biology concepts, but the concept of tonicity not be introduced to high school biology students until effective instructional approaches can be identified by researchers.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.