Effectiveness of conceptual change text‐oriented instruction on students' understanding of cellular respiration concepts

Abstract

This study investigated the effect of conceptual change text-oriented instruction over traditional instruction on students' understanding of cellular respiration concepts and their attitudes toward biology as a school subject. The sample of this study consisted of 84 eleventh-grade students from four classes of a high school. Two of the classes were assigned randomly to the control group, and the other two classes were assigned randomly to the experimental group. During teaching the topic of cellular respiration concepts in biology curriculum, the experimental group was taught with the conceptual change text-oriented instruction whereas the control group was taught with the traditional instruction. The results showed that the students in the experimental group performed better with respect to cellular respiration concepts. In addition, it has been found that there was no significant difference between the attitudes of students in the experimental and control groups toward biology as a school subject.Keywords: Conceptual change instruction, cellular respiration concepts, attitudes toward biology.In recent years, many researchers in science education have focused on students' conceptual development and cognitive processes [1][2][3][4]. They mainly accepted that each student had a different cognitive structure because of their different abilities, backgrounds, attitudes, and experiences. According to Piaget [5], students construct new knowledge on their previous cognitive structures. Therefore, students may generate different meanings from upcoming information because of their different cognitive structures. Students' views and explanations of science concepts may differ from those generally accepted by the scientists. Alternative views were given in various terms including "children science" [6, 7], "alternative frameworks" [8, 9], "naive beliefs" [10], "preconceptions" [11], and "misconceptions" [12].Over the last two decades, a large number of studies has been conducted on misconceptions in science [3, 4,11,[13][14][15][16]. Students' interpretations of observed phenomena and information obtained from school experiences were sometimes found to be scientifically incorrect and significantly different from the ideas that their teachers intended to convey. Studies in the science education aimed at determining students' understanding of biology concepts have revealed many misconceptions. This is the case in biology subjects such as photosynthesis [17] [23]. Many of these concepts about which students hold misconceptions are basic to biology knowledge and are interrelated. Concepts related to the cellular respiration are among such concepts. These studies demonstrated that students have several misconceptions regarding the cellular respiration concepts [24 -26].The study carried out by Songer and Mintzes [25] with 200 novice and experienced students indicated that students had difficulties in understanding the role of oxygen in cellular respiration. Students thought that O 2 is used in all steps of glucose reduction r...

An Investigation of Effectiveness of Conceptual Change Text-oriented Instruction on Students' Understanding of Solution Concepts

“…However, students' alternative conceptions could be so deeply rooted that traditional instruction may be somewhat inadequate to effect conceptual change toward focused scientific concepts (Cakir, Geban, & Yuruk, 2002;Wandersee, Mintzes, & Smith, 1994). Studies in science education show that teaching strategies based on a conceptual change approach have been effective in dispelling students' alternative conceptions (Hynd & Alvermann, 1986;Hynd, McWhorter, Phares, & Suttles, 1994;Smith, Blakeslee, & Anderson, 1993;Treagust, Harrison, & Venville, 1996).…”

Korekcia miskoncepcií žiakov o fotosyntéze a dýchaní rastlín prostredníctvom bádateľsky orientovaného vyučovania

“…• rastliny nedýchajú (Çakir et al, 2002;Yenilmez & Tekkaya, 2006;Köse, 2008;Keleş & Kefeli, 2010;Al Olaimat, 2010), • rastliny dýchajú len v noci, keď nemajú k dispozícii svetlo (Çakir et al, 2002;Özay & Öztaş, 2003;Yenilmez & Tekkaya, 2006;Keleş & Kefeli, 2010;Al Olaimat, 2010), • rastliny dýchajú na svetle oxid uhličitý a v tme kyslík (Osuská & Pupala, 1996;Ušáková & Matheová, 1994), • dýchanie u rastlín prebieha jedine v bunkách listov (Yenilmez & Tekkaya, 2006;Svandova, 2014).…”

¿Cómo se conceptualiza la energía en las unidades didácticas de biología?

“…También cabe destacar que si bien el concepto de energía ha sido ampliamente trabajado desde la didáctica de la física (Sexl, 1981;Warren, 1982;Solomon, 1983), y a pesar de la recurrencia del término en los textos y materiales didácticos de biología, hay muy poca literatura didáctica al respecto. La bibliografía en didáctica de la energía en biología se centra principalmente en la conceptualización del ATP y en el estudio de la energía en la fotosíntesis (Çakir, 2002;Ferreiro, 2008;Texeira, 2000;Melillan, 2006). O la más actual centrada en la conceptualización del término, que suele analizar al alumnado universitario o al profesorado (Chabalengula, 2012;Liu, 2002;Saglam-Arslan, 2010;Domenech, 2013).…”