The effect of constructivist science teaching on 4th grade students’ understanding of matter

Matter and its states are among the fundamental topics to be learned by elementary children in science courses. However, the research literature indicates that this topic has always been confusing for these students. The study conducted by Stavy and Stachel (1985), regarding children’s ideas about solids and liquids, revealed that children (aged 5 to 12) had difficulty classifying solids, which are not hard and rigid enough. They considered metals and wood as typical solids. However, around 50 percent of 12 and 13 year olds tended to classify solids, such as sponge and sand, separately from glass or coins. Most children (grades 1 to 7) experienced difficulty in classifying powders as solids. Children think that pourable powders have liquid properties. However, they do not lead to a sensation of wetness; hence they tended to classify these separately. Krnel, Watson and Glazar (2005) explored the development of the concept of matter by interviewing 84 children aged 3–13 in Slovenia. Children were asked to describe objects and substances placed in front of them. Children’s responses were coded and explored for patterns indicating development with age. In their study, granular substances or powders were frequently described as a state of matter (e.g. “It is a powder,” “It is crystals,” “It is particles,” “It is plastic”). This started at age 3. For the rigid solids, the shape was the dominant category of answers. The variety of shapes of solid objects seemed to lead children to focus on shape rather than the state of matter. These results support the research conducted by Mortimer (1998).

In a similar study, Babai and Amsterdamer (2008) investigated whether the naive concepts of solid and liquid persist in adolescence. They identified the accuracy of responses and reaction times, while 41 ninth graders classified different solids (rigid, non-rigid and powders) and different liquids (runny, dense) into solid or liquid. The results show that these naive conceptions affect adolescences’ classifications in terms of both accuracy and reaction time. The rate of correct classifications of nonrigid solids and especially powders was significantly lower than that of rigid solids. A lower success rate was also found for classification of dense liquids compared with runny liquids. In addition, the reaction time results of correct classifications for non-rigid solids and powders were longer than those for rigid solids.

In another study, Liu and Lesniak (2006) explored students’ conceptual progression pattern on understanding the concept of matter from elementary to high school. They found that students’ conceptions of substances (i.e., water, baking soda, and vinegar) progress in general from their perceptual characteristics for all grades. These results concur with the views of Piaget and Inhelder (1997) and Kind (2004), in that children tend to use sensory reasoning or information when considering matter. This brief review of literature shows that students have common misconceptions about the matter, and this leads them to experience difficulty in their understanding and meaningful learning.