Alternative Conceptions About Burning Held by Atayal Indigene Students in Taiwan

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the alternative conceptions about burning phenomena among Atayal indigene elementary school students in Taiwan. The main difference from other relevant research is that this study assesses Atayal people's worldview by means of a questionnaire developed specifically for this purpose. There were three stages in this study: First, three Atayal elders were interviewed to access their traditional knowledge about nature, naturally occurring events, and burning. Second, this knowledge was used to develop an open-ended questionnaire that was administered to 37 students at the third to sixth grade levels (ages 9 to 12); eight respondents were interviewed to document their worldviews. Third, a two-tier diagnostic questionnaire developed from these results was administered to 228 students with 44 respondents interviewed about the burning events assessed by the instrument. Results suggested that students held alternative conceptions about the five burning events: candles burning, factors of burning, fire extinguishment, material changes in burning, and traditional meanings of burning. In contrast with previous studies on burning, this study demonstrated the existence of other alternative conceptions. The origin of these alternative conceptions may be grounded in traditional culture, knowledge, environment, economy, medicine, and personal thinking.

A metasynthesis of the complementarity of culturally responsive and inquiry‐based science education in K‐12 settings: Implications for advancing equitable science teaching and learning

“…It is important to note that there were 10 instances in which a Western science worldview (a view of science closely aligned with the normative canon) was present alongside Indigenous Knowledge (IK) or Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) worldviews (knowledge of science and natural phenomena acquired by informal experiments, experiences, and storytelling that is passed down by generations of elders, knowledge keepers, and/or family members) (Hewson & Ogunniyi, ). Often, this occurred with environmental science content (e.g., Chinn, ), but was also present in conjunction with physical science (e.g., Chang et al, ). Multiple science disciplines were present in settings where students often had choices of which science topics to investigate, such as Basu and Calabrese Barton's (2007) afterschool science program.…”

“…Instances in which no clear science content was specified was due to studies either emphasizing nature of science understandings in their learners or having a central focus on some aspect of science teachers, such as their perceptions of the importance of incorporating Aboriginal knowledge into science instruction (e.g., Aikenhead & Huntley, ). Lastly, the majority of studies were conducted in the United States, leaving little voice from countries and nations, such as, Taiwan (e.g., Chang et al, ), Kenya (e.g., Nashon & Anderson, ), and Trinidad and Tobago (e.g., George, ).…”

“…Though it is not often treated as a cultural phenomenon, science as it is commonly taught in K‐12 settings has a system of accepted practices for understanding and explaining the natural world, and, thus has culture. While certain cultural elements of science (e.g., asking questions about the world) are universal, others are attributed to Western thinking and values (e.g., using empirical criteria) (Chang, Lee, & Yen, ). As a result, students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds may “bring different instructional, home, and community knowledge bases and Discourses to bear on the classroom” that are often competing (Moje et al, , p. 41).…”

Exploring Secondary Students’ Conceptions about Fire Using a Two-Tier, True/False, Easy-to-Use Diagnostic Test

“…Thus, "identifying misconceptions and their causes prior to teaching becomes important in developing lessons that ultimately result in the reconceptualization of learning […]" (Arslan, Cigdemoglu, & Modeley, 2012, p. 1668. To do so, teachers can get informed through science education literature or, if they have good reasons to believe that their particular students are not representative of previously studied learners (Chang et al, 2010;Stavy, Tsamir, Tirosh, Lin, & McRobbie, 2006), they can also use available diagnostic tests (Treagust, 1988). When these teachers become certain enough about the conceptual state of their students, they can begin preparing lessons that will challenge their misconceptions (Posner, Strike, Hewson, & Gertzog, 1982) or make more scientific conceptions prevail (Potvin, 2013) over the more naive ones.…”

Crossing the Gap between Indigenous Worldview and Western Science: Millet Festival as a Bridge in the Teaching Module

“…In addition, the teaching materials that cannot be connected with the students' worldview might lead to a difficult learning situation and make students unable to work out the best of their learning (Hale, 1994). Similarly, Chang, Lee and Yen (2010) pointed out that if science education does not take seriously the different cultural contexts of students' worldviews, it may be setting up barriers to learning. Also, Ogawa (1989) and Jegede and Okebukola (1991) also agreed that non-western countries might lose their own cultural identity if the school science education only focused on western scientific knowledge.…”