Assessment of Knowledge Integration in Student Learning of Buoyant Force

Abstract

Students’ problem-solving ability depends on their understanding of related scientific concepts. Therefore, the modeling and assessment of students’ understanding of specific scientific concepts is important to promote students’ problem-solving ability, as it can find students’ understanding difficulties and explore breakthrough strategies accordingly. Inspired by the theory of knowledge integration and combined with the situational characteristics of science education in China, this study established a conceptual framework about buoyant force, which was applied to model students’ different understandings of it. And based on the established framework, an assessment of buoyant force was designed and tested among 622 Chinese lower-secondary school students. Through the analysis of the test data and the interview outcomes, it was found that students’ understanding of buoyant force could be divided into three levels of knowledge integration including novice, intermediate, and expert. Furthermore, the results demonstrate that an emphasis on the nature of buoyant force can be an effective strategy to help students achieve a deeper conceptual understanding of buoyant force, leading to a more integrated knowledge structure. Keywords: assessment of knowledge integration, buoyant force, central idea, conceptual framework, scientific concept understanding

Improving Lower Secondary School Students’ Knowledge Integration of Buoyancy Through Enhancing Their Understanding of the Nature of Buoyancy

“…The results of data analysis showed that understanding the nature has a significant effect on students' forming an integrated knowledge structure of buoyancy. Although this conclusion is consistent with previous relevant research studies, this study has made new progress in presenting students' cognitive schematics and teaching method design of helping students understand the nature of buoyancy (Gao et al, 2020;Paik et al, 2017;Zou et al, 2022). Therefore, more teaching methods that can help students understand the nature of buoyancy, as well as more logical conceptual frameworks about buoyancy, should be sought to help students better understand the nature of buoyancy and develop a more comprehensive knowledge integration of buoyancy.…”

“…The reliability of this test has been verified in another study (Zou et al, 2022). This study was used to analyze the effect of understanding the nature of buoyancy on corresponding knowledge integration after the teaching experiment.…”