Addressing robust misconceptions through the ontological distinction between sequential and emergent processes

Henderson, J. Bryan; Langbeheim, Elon; Michelene, T. H.

doi:10.4324/9781315467139-5

Cited by 14 publications

(22 citation statements)

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“…However, it is equally important to understand the origin of these conceptions as this can point to instructional strategies that could help students develop more accurate understanding. Several sources of alternative conceptions have been reported in the literature: common sense reasoning, ontological miscategorizations, , textbooks, representations of scientific concepts in the media, and instructors themselves. − The latter source, instructors, has been significantly less explored in the postsecondary literature compared to some of these other sources. Instructors may inadvertently contribute to the development of alternative conceptions by being unaware of their expert blind spot (i.e., high level of expertise can limit the level of conscious awareness of assumptions and skills required to understand a concept or solve a problem), by having to simplify the content taught so that it is more accessible to students, , or by having a limited understanding of students’ prior knowledge .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: ■ Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Exploring Students’ Understanding of Resonance and Its Relationship to Instruction

Xue

Stains

2020

J. Chem. Educ.

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Understanding resonance is essential to predict chemical reactivity and explain reaction mechanisms. Despite its importance in the organic curriculum, few studies have explored students’ difficulties with this concept and faculty’s instructional approaches to teaching it. The goals of this study are to address this gap in the literature by (1) employing an exploratory mixed-methods design to characterize students’ conceptual struggles with resonance and (2) exploring the relationship between students’ struggles and the instructional approach employed. Leveraging the results of a set of interviews with organic chemistry students, we distributed a survey to students in two different sections of a first-semester organic chemistry course at a research-intensive institution. We also conducted postinstruction interviews with the two instructors of the surveyed sections. Analysis of the 180 surveys collected indicates that students tended to focus on the features and processes of recognizing and drawing resonance structures when asked to explain the concept of resonance and mostly did not understand the relationship between resonance structures and the resonance hybrid. A comparison of the two sections showed a significant difference with one section having a better conceptual understanding of resonance than the other. Analysis of the instructional approaches demonstrated that the instructor of the section with higher conceptual understanding focused his instruction on the limitations of chemical representations, while the other instructor focused on the features and processes of recognizing and drawing resonance. This study highlights the need to help students develop metarepresentational competence as well as to better understand instructors’ instructional decisions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: ■ Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring Students’ Understanding of Resonance and Its Relationship to Instruction

Xue

Stains

2020

J. Chem. Educ.

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“…Therefore, researchers have tried to find the underlying structures of students' reasoning. They describe students' ideas about science either as loose fragments (diSessa, 1993;diSessa et al, 2004), synthetic models (Vosniadou et al, 2001;Vosniadou, 2012Vosniadou, , 2019Vosniadou & Skopeliti, 2014;Vosniadou & Verschaffel, 2004) or an incorrect evaluation on the ontological level (Chi, 2005;Chi et al, 2012;Chi, 2013;Henderson et al, 2017). Making use of multiple perspectives on conceptual change might allow gaining further insight into students thinking about the particulate nature of matter (Chiu & Chung, 2013;Harrison & Treagust, 2001;Stamovlasis et al, 2013).…”

Section: Changing Students' Conceptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, it is necessary to add this missing emergent schema to students thinking, by clearly separating it from the direct schema used to explain sequential processes. This might be done ISSN 1648-3898 /Print/ ISSN 2538-7138 /Online/ by illustrating this distinction with everyday examples and natural phenomena, for example, the construction of a skyscraper as a sequential process and the swarm intelligence of fish as an emergent process (Chi et al, 2012;Henderson et al, 2017).…”

Section: Changing Students' Conceptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Students’ Ideas on Common Experiments About the Particulate Nature of Matter

Budimaier

Hopf

2022

JBSE

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Research on students' thinking about the particulate nature of matter has shown that students find it difficult to connect the macroscopic with the sub microscopic world. Although they have heard about atoms, students stay within a continuous model of matter or attribute macroscopic properties to particles. The research presented focuses on the arguments students make when they have to explain experiments on a sub microscopic level. The question is if experiments convince students of the applicability of the particulate nature of matter. Therefore, the researchers conducted twenty interviews according to the method of probing acceptance with students from lower and upper-secondary school. Every interview featured one of five experiments, commonly used in teaching. The goal was to see if the experiments helped students to successfully apply the particulate model of matter. Students’ answers were coded using qualitative content analysis. The results of this research show, that explaining experiments on a sub microscopic level proves a great challenge for students. None of the five experiments seems to be a good starting point when engaging students with the particulate nature of matter for the first time. Therefore, further research should focus on other ways of introducing this difficult topic to students. Keywords: classroom experiments, conceptual change, particulate model, probing acceptance

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“…Chi (2005, 2008) labeled persistent misconceptions as “robust.” Chi and other researchers suggested that at the root of these robust misconceptions is an “ontological miscategorization of a concept” (Henderson, Langbeheim, & Chi, 2017, p. 26) because students lack the existing framework to understand the complicated process. For example, conduction, convection, and radiation (the three main modes of heat transfer) processes may seem obscure to naïve students and they could confuse energy or heat with temperature.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using schema training to facilitate students' understanding of challenging engineering concepts in heat transfer and thermodynamics

Yang

Streveler

Miller

et al. 2020

J of Engineering Edu

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Background: Chi and colleagues have argued that some of the most challenging engineering concepts exhibit properties of emergent systems. However, students often lack a mental framework, or schema, for understanding emergence. Slotta and Chi posited that helping students develop a schema for emergent systems, referred to as schema training, would increase the understanding of challenging concepts exhibiting emergent properties. Purpose: We tested the effectiveness of schema training and explored the nature of challenging concepts from thermodynamics and heat transfer. We investigated if schema training could (a) repair misconceptions in advanced engineering students and (b) prevent them in beginning engineering students. Method: We adapted Slotta and Chi's schema training modules and tested their impact in two studies that employed an experimental design. Items from the Thermal and Transport Concept Inventory and expert-developed multiplechoice questions were used to evaluate conceptual understanding of the participants. The language used by students in their open-ended explanations of multiple-choice questions was also coded. Results: In both studies, students in the experimental groups showed larger gains in their understanding of some concepts-specifically in dye diffusion and microfluidics in Study One, and in the final test for thermodynamics in Study Two. But in neither study did students exhibit any gain in conceptual questions about heat transfer. Conclusion: Our studies suggest the importance of examining the nature of the phenomena underlying the concepts being taught because the language used in instruction has implications for how students understand them. Therefore, we suggest that instructors reflect on their own understanding of the concepts.

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Addressing robust misconceptions through the ontological distinction between sequential and emergent processes

Cited by 14 publications

References 0 publications

Exploring Students’ Understanding of Resonance and Its Relationship to Instruction

Exploring Students’ Understanding of Resonance and Its Relationship to Instruction

Students’ Ideas on Common Experiments About the Particulate Nature of Matter

Using schema training to facilitate students' understanding of challenging engineering concepts in heat transfer and thermodynamics

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