Introduction
In
the early 1990s, Fensham claimed that ‘The most conspicuous psychological
influence on curriculum thinking in science since 1980 has been the
constructivist view of learning’ (Fensham, 1992, p. 801). During the last
two decades, two issues have highly been investigated: (a) students’
pre-existing knowledge and (b) conceptual change. Of course, it is not
surprising since constructivism stresses that a student can actively acquire
new knowledge based on his/her pre-existing knowledge. However, several
studies show that teachers have difficulty incorporating students’
pre-existing knowledge in their courses (e.g. Çalık & Ayas, 2005; Driver &
Oldman, 1985; Fensham, Gunstone & White, 1994; Matthews, 2002; Palmer,
2005).
Because of the importance of students’ pre-existing knowledge, much research
has been carried out in different perspectives including: chemical
reactions, chemical equilibrium, solution chemistry, chemical bonding,
electrochemistry, stoichiometri, enthalpy change, etc. As in the case of
thermodynamic studies, the related literature points out that students are
unable to comprehend and differentiate the relationship between exothermic
and endothermic reactions (Anthoney, 2006; Carson and Watson, 1999; De Vos
and Verdonk, 1986; Greenbowe & Meltzer, 2003; Johnstone, MacDonald & Webb,
1977; Rollnick & Mahooana, 1999; Sunal, Sunal, Smith, Dwyer & Holloway,
2000; Thomas and Schwenz, 1998). They also believe that endothermic
reactions take place spontaneously (Boo, 1998; Cachapuz & Martins, 1987;
Johnstone et al., 1977). Moreover, as cited in Carson and Watson (1999),
students have difficulty discriminating between the activation energy and
the total enthalpy change of the reaction.
Even though we have looked for conceptual change studies for foregoing
alternative conceptions in related databases, such as EBSCOHOST, ERIC etc., we
have not encountered a direct relevant study. Generally, some conceptual
change studies using
conceptual change texts, analogies, worksheets, etc.
are used to overcome
students’ alternative conceptions. However, using these methods
frequently may fail to produce effective results, and
students may be bored with them (Çalık, 2006; Dole, 2000; Huddle, White &
Rogers, 2000). Even though conceptual change text is effective in refuting
students’ alternative conceptions, a hands-on activity that students
explicitly experience may sometimes have more advantages (Chambers & Andre,
1997). In brief, we predict that using different conceptual change methods
embedded within a 5E model may completely eliminate students’ alternative
conceptions. Since Widodo, Duit and Müller (2002) addressed the gap between a
teacher’s theoretical knowledge and his/her practical constructivist classroom
behavior, we presented a sample teaching activity for teacher usage. The aim
of this study is to design a 5E model to include students’ alternative
conceptions using conceptual change text, analogy and worksheet. By doing
this, we wish to eliminate one of resources of alternative conceptions as
implied by Gabel (1996): ‘We
know that chemistry is a very complex subject from both the research on
problem solving and misconceptions …and from our own experience…Students
possess these misconceptions not only because chemistry is complex, but also
because of the way the concepts are taught’
(p. 43). Such an assumption has some
advantage points: (1) multiple
conceptual change perspectives allow us to enhance student learning and to
increase teachers’ awareness of alternative conceptions (e.g. Harrison &
Treagust, 2001) and (2) using different methods within the same context
enables students to utilize
multiple learning styles (e.g.
Brinda, 2004; Harvey & Hodges, 1999).
Copyright (C)
2008
HKIEd
APFSLT. Volume
9,
Issue
1,
Article 5 (Jun.,
2008).
All Rights Reserved.
