Using a Learning Cycle to Deepen Chinese Primary Students’ Concept Learning of “Phases of the Moon”

Abstract

This study focuses on the internal conditions of students' concept learning and builds a learning cycle' based on the "phases of the Moon" (MP) to, deepen students' understanding. The learning cycle of MP developed in this study includes three basic learning links, which are: cognitive conflict, abstraction and generalization, and transfer practices. The three basic learning links are named CAT for short. A teaching courseware based on CAT for MP is developed and tested in real classes. 667 students and 21 science teachers use this courseware in 9 primary schools in Beijing. Three approaches for collecting data are incorporated, including: questionnaire surveys for students, interviews for students and teachers, as well as classroom observations by teachers. Findings indicate that CAT for MP is useful to engage students' thinking and deepen students' understanding of MP. Findings also suggest that CAT classroom instruction should be learner-centered and inquiry-oriented; teachers should use the "nondirective language" to guide and boost students' learning. Accordingly, the learning cycle is worth further promoting towards being applied in students' concept learning. Moreover, the mechanism and application strategies of CAT need to be further studied and generalized, the students' learning achievements need to be deeply assessed, so as to make CAT more useful for science classes and learners.

Science Learning in Primary School in the Perspective of Nature of Science: A Case Study in the Fifth Grade

“…A different way to seeing differently allows the growth of critical thinking power which in turn (with the facilitation of the teacher) can improve the conceptions that have been formed previously. The studies conducted by Posner, et al (1982) and Lin (2016) shows that the improvement of science conceptions can be encouraged by a different way of seeing, including the implementation of the various method. In those studies, the use of various ways of seeing can trigger cognitive conflict which facilitates the change of student's conception.…”

Ay’ın Evreleri ile ilgili Ulusal Çalışmaların Tematik İncelenmesi

“…Ay'ın evreleri konusu ile ilgili uluslararası literatürde; stereo ekranların (Cid ve Lopez, 2010) veya artırılmış gerçeklik uygulamalarının (Yen, Thasi ve Wu, 2013) konuyu anlamaya etkisinin, bilgisayar simülasyonlarının kavramsal değişme etkisinin incelendiği (Trundle ve Bell, 2010), üç boyutlu sanal gerçeklik modellerinin (Sun, Lin ve Wang, 2010) üç boyutlu bilgisayar modellerinin (Küçüközer, 2008) kullanıldığı, 5E etkinlik önerisi sunan (Entress, 2019), kavram envanteri geliştirilen (Chastenay ve Riopel, 2020), görselleştirme ve akıl yürütmenin incelendiği (Subramaniam ve Padalkar, 2009), öğrenme döngüsünün kullanılarak kavram öğrenilmesinin sağlandığı (Lin, 2016), modele dayalı öğretimin kullanıldığı (Ogan-Bekiroglu 2007), çocuk kitaplarının (Trundle, Troland ve Pritchard, 2008) ve ders kitaplarının (Chae, 2009) incelendiği, uzamsal düşünme boyutunun irdelendiği (Plummer, 2014), ne zaman ve nasıl öğretilmesi konusunun tartışıldığı (Kriner, 2004) farklı örneklem düzeyleriyle, farklı amaçlarla yürütülen birçok dilde çalışma bulunmaktadır. Ulusal literatürdeki Türkçe çalışmaların bazılarında Ay'ın evreleri konusunun alt konu olarak ele alındığı (Bostan, 2008;Çamlıoğlu, 2014;Kılıç, 2015;Güldal ve Doğru, 2018) bazılarında ise Ay'ın evreleri konusu temele alınarak çalışmalar yürütüldüğü görülmektedir (Bostan Sarıoğlan ve Bayırlı, 2017;Babaoğlu, 2019;Sontay ve Karamustafaoğlu, 2019;Bakioğlu, 2021).…”

“…In the international literature on the phases of the Moon (Kriner, 2004, Ogan-Bekiroglu 2007, Trundle, Troland and Pritchard, 2008, Küçüközer, 2008, Chae, 2009, Subramaniam and Padalkar, 2009, Cid and Lopez, 2010, Sun, Lin and Wang, 2010, Trundle and Bell, 2010, Yen, Thasi and Wu, 2013, Plummer, 2014, Lin, 2016, Entress, 2019, Chastenay and Riopel, 2020 there are studies conducted in many languages with different sample levels and for different purposes.…”