There are several studies dealing with students' conceptions on climate change, but most of them refer to understanding before instruction. In contrast, this study investigates students' conceptions and describes the levels of sophistication of their mental models on climate change and the greenhouse effect. The participants were 40 students of secondary education (Grade 7) in Spain. As a method of data collection, a questionnaire with open-ended questions focused on the mechanism, causes and actions that could be useful in reducing climate change was designed. Seventh grade students completed the same questionnaire before and after instruction. The students' conceptions and mental models were identified by an inductive and iterative analysis of the participants' explanations. With regard to the students' conceptions, the results show that they usually link climate change to an increase in temperature, and they tend to mention, even after instruction, generic actions to mitigate climate change, such as not polluting. With regard to the students' mental model, the results show an evolution of models with little consistency and coherence, such as the models on Level 1, towards higher levels of sophistication. The paper concludes with the educational implications proposed for solving learning difficulties regarding the greenhouse effect and climate change.
Se presenta un estudio que tiene por objetivo describir la implementación de una propuesta donde niños de educación infantil construyen conceptos y generalizaciones a través de la experiencia empírica y el diálogo con otros al implicarse en actividades de indagación con circuitos eléctricos. Los participantes son niños (4 a 5 años) de una clase de educación infantil. Las sesiones fueron grabadas y analizadas. Los resultados muestran que los niños entienden la electricidad como un ente que permite que las cosas funcionen. En general, no tienen dificultad para identificar aparatos eléctricos y electrónicos. A medida que se implementa la actividad los niños llegan a la generalización inductiva de que los objetos de metal conducen la electricidad. Se observa que los niños muestran más dificultad en aplicar esta idea para hacer predicciones que para justificar las observaciones realizadas.
Many studies have been conducted in recent years on the explanations given by preschool-age children about different natural phenomena. Nonetheless, very few studies have actually focused on the important domain of matter and its transformations. Specifically, the field of chemical reactions remains unexplored. This qualitative study aims to investigate the explanations of twenty-two 5- to 6-year-old children about combustion, while at the same time evaluating the effect of prior experience with science activities on their interpretations. For this study, the following experiment was proposed: burning a candle inside an inverted vessel. The following data collection tools were used: a Predict-Observe-Explain (POE) strategy and audio and video recordings. The children’s explanations were analysed using classification frameworks, which had been developed in previous studies. The results of this study suggest that young children tend to provide naturalistic explanations about combustion. This finding is an indicator that young children are able to construct mental representations within this conceptual domain. Likewise, the results indicate that children who are used to engaging in inquiry-based activities may be more likely to establish a relationship with previous learning experiences to interpret other natural phenomena.
para aplicar ideas relativas al funcionamiento de los ecosistemas y los patrones de pensamiento causal que activan en sus explicaciones. Para la obtención de datos se utilizó un cuestionario de preguntas abiertas. Los resultados muestran que la mayoría de los estudiantes tuvieron dificultades para aplicar ideas como el papel de los organismos descomponedores, el flujo de energía y el concepto de energía química. Los resultados también sugieren que la familiaridad con los conceptos es clave para activar patrones de razonamiento causal complejo.
En este trabajo se presenta un estudio de caso cuyo propósito fue investigar las concep-ciones alternativas y los modelos mentales de los estudiantes sobre el suelo. Los participantes fueron 48 estudiantes de 4.º de educación secundaria obligatoria. Los datos fueron recogidos mediante un cuestionario de preguntas abiertas centradas en el origen del suelo, su edad, constituyentes y cambios que podría experimentar. De un análisis inductivo de las explicaciones de los participantes se identificaron las concepciones y los modelos mentales. Los resultados indican que este grupo de estudiantes presenta tres tipos de modelos acerca del suelo: suelo primigenio, suelo geológico y suelo ecológico relacionado con el ciclo de la materia.
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