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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 7, Issue 1, Article 6 (June, 2006) Hong Kwen BOO Primary science assessment item setters' misconceptions concerning the state changes of water
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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 7, Issue 1, Article 6 (June, 2006) Hong Kwen BOO Primary science assessment item setters' misconceptions concerning the state changes of water
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Introduction
A major theme of science education research throughout the past three decades has been students' conceptions or interpretations of scientific phenomena. A diversity of terms has been used to describe these students' ideas and conceptions. The terms ‘alternative conceptions’ have been generally accepted and used rather extensively in the literature (Pfundt & Duit, 1998; Wandersee, Mintzes & Novak, 1994) to describe misconceptions or views of science that are at odds with concepts currently accepted by the scientific community and these terms are used synonymously in this paper as in Boo (1998) and Boo and Watson (2001).
Studies in students' alternative conceptions (ACs) in science have a long history, being traceable back to Piaget's early work on children's views of natural phenomena (Piaget, 1929 and 1930). There is now a substantial body of literature documenting the various types of alternative conceptions or preconceptions held by students in various conceptual areas (for example, Pfundt and Duit, 1998; Carmichael et al., 1991).
That children and students hold various alternative conceptions concerning water and its state changes have been reported in studies such as Johnson (1998a,b); Bar & Travis (1991); Osborne & Cosgrove (1983). That teachers and student teachers also hold various misconceptions concerning physical science concepts have been reported in studies such as Lawrenz (1986) and Chang (1999) respectively. Some of these alternative conceptions are the same as those held by children and students (Wandersee, Mintzes & Novak, 1994).
The possible origins of ACs have been examined by many researchers. Among the sources of ACs suggested are misconceptions held by teachers and student teachers (Osborne and Cosgrove (1983); Bar and Travis (1991); Griffiths and Preston (1992)).
In this paper, teacher’s apparent misconceptions in the area of the state changes of water as revealed in test items set by the teachers are discussed. Assessment items have been provided through a number of avenues over a period of more than five years: vetting school examination papers with a view to helping schools improve the quality of their examination questions; conducting school-based workshops on how to craft better examination questions and conducting NIE ([Singapore] National Institute of Education) in-service courses for primary school teachers. Suggestions on how the items could be improved have been provided to question setters.
All items are baselined to the Singapore Primary Science Syllabus introduced by the Ministry of Education in 2001 for P3 (Primary 3; the first year in primary school during which science is formally studied as a subject) and progressively introduced into the schools with full implementation completed at P6 (Primary 6) in 2004. The grade level of each question is indicated for each test item discussed: P4 (Primary 4) or P5 (Primary 5) – mainstream – corresponding to pupils aged 10-11. Primary school in Singapore covers six years (P1 to P6), corresponding to pupils aged 7-12.
Copyright (C) 2006 HKIEd APFSLT. Volume 7, Issue 1, Article 6 (June, 2006). All Rights Reserved.
