Students' understanding of concepts related to evaporation

Levins, Lesley

doi:10.1007/bf02356905

Cited by 12 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…For example, Russell et al (1989) and Bar (1989) developed a number of activities related to evaporation and the water cycle and used these in order to categorise children's mental representations (the children were aged between 5 and 11 years old). Levins (1992) and Bar and Galili (1994), in two related research projects, attempted to study children's conceptual change in relation to evaporation, but the studies focus on children aged between 3 and 14 years old. Similarly, Ravanis and Bagakis (1998), after exploring children's misconceptions (aged between 5 and 6 years old) applied a special teaching strategy and tried to lead children's thoughts to understand the stages of an evaporation process.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Precursor Models and Early Years Science Learning: A Case Study Related to the Water State Changes

Kambouri-Danos

Ravanis

Jameau

et al. 2019

Early Childhood Educ J

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Children's everyday activities enable them to learn some science even before entering preschool education and children bring these ideas with them when entering education settings. Some of these ideas, or else mental representations, may not be compatible with what is generally accepted by the scientific community. This paper presents the results of an empirical study, focusing on the construction of a precursor model that can support children's scientific learning, in relation to the phenomenon of change of the state of water. The research included 91 children aged 5-6 which participated in a specifically designed teaching intervention. The intervention lasted approximately 55 min and was conducted at eight stages, during which children's predictions and explanations for simple cases of change of the state of water were recorded. The analysis of children's responses suggests that the specific teaching intervention can have a positive effect on children's thinking in relation to the change of the state of water. A considerable number of pre-schoolers were able to take advantage of their involvement in the teaching intervention and construct a stable precursor model to support the development of their understanding, in relation to the water change of state phenomenon. It appears that precursor models can function in the minds of young children as intermediaries between mental representations of reality and scientific knowledge and prepare children's thinking, forming the basis for a cognitive path towards cognitive processing and the formation of more complex models. The proposed intervention is compatible with the model used in science education and it is proposed to be used in moderation and should not replace children's learning through play.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Precursor Models and Early Years Science Learning: A Case Study Related to the Water State Changes

Kambouri-Danos

Ravanis

Jameau

et al. 2019

Early Childhood Educ J

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“…It is now agreed that the learning of fundamental thermal concepts needs to address both semantic and semiotic challenges. Studies with pre-school and early school children related to concepts of heat and temperature focused on their understanding of water phase transformations [32][33][34][35][36][37]. Kambouri-Danos, Ravanis, Jameau, and Boilevin investigated a construction of a precursor model that can support children's scientific learning [33].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temperature Measurement—Inquiry-Based Learning Activities for Third Graders

Gerhátová¹,

Perichta²,

Drienovský³

et al. 2021

Education Sciences

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The article presents our Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL) activities in the project-based Science education of third graders (8–9-year-old pupils) in the Slovak Republic. Individual tasks of project assignment titled “Temperature Measurement” were conceived for “guided inquiry”. We also supported the IBL of pupils by interactive education strategy–Integrated e-Learning (INTe-L). The strategy was built on the role of interactive simulations and experimenting at the knowledge acquisition. The following INTe-L components were used: (a) on-site and remote experiments, (b) interactive simulations and (c) electronic study materials. The research was based the hypothesis that the project-based teaching of the topic “Temperature Measurement” using the IBL activities is significantly more efficient than traditional (instructivist) way of teaching. To verify the hypothesis, we carried out a pedagogical experiment on a sample of 60 respondents. The third graders were divided into two parallel groups: an experimental group (EG, 30 pupils) and control group (CG, 30 pupils). To get a relevant feedback, pre-test and post-test were developed and applied. The results attained in the EG were statistically processed, evaluated, and subsequently compared with those in the CG. The analysis of the results attained by the EG showed that their knowledge acquisition has been increased by 24% compared to CG. We have created a methodology for making simple scientific project assignments with the implementation of all components of the new integrated e-learning education strategy (real and real remote experiment, e-simulation, e-learning material). On a specific example of the topic “Temperature Measurement” in primary education, we have presented the possibility of using a “guided inquiry” in the implementation of individual experimental tasks. We have introduced a form of teamwork that allows to harmonize the teaching requirements with individual learning approach and helps to prepare pupils for planned work and independent knowledge acquisition and problem solving. The study has shown that complex IBL activities can be successfully applied at primary school 3rd grade level already. Our form of education with the wider use of modern information and communication technologies (ICT) was attractive for the learners and helped them to develop interdisciplinary relationships. The integrated e-learning has helped third grades to develop a deeper conceptual understanding of temperature and allowed them to prepare presentations to demonstrate their conceptual knowledge. The approach allowed pupils to gain key competencies in Science (discussion and presentation of results). It has also increased the pupils’ interest in Science in general and helped them to understand links between different subjects.

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