1 / 12

Alternative Conceptions and the Geoscience Concept Inventory Heather L. Petcovic

Alternative Conceptions and the Geoscience Concept Inventory Heather L. Petcovic. - What are alternative conceptions? - The Geoscience Concept Inventory (GCI) - Example: alternative conceptions among preservice K-8 teachers - Collaborator: Robert Ruhf.

bertha-hardy
Download Presentation

Alternative Conceptions and the Geoscience Concept Inventory Heather L. Petcovic

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Alternative Conceptions and the Geoscience Concept InventoryHeather L. Petcovic - What are alternative conceptions? - The Geoscience Concept Inventory (GCI)- Example: alternative conceptions among preservice K-8 teachers- Collaborator: Robert Ruhf

  2. What Are Alternative Conceptions? • Concept or idea not consistent with the accepted scientific idea - Misconception - Naïve conception - Prior conception - NOT a mistake- Deeply ingrained and resistant to change. Examples: • Cause of the seasons (A Private Universe, 1987) • Ideas about the earth’s interior (Libarkin and Anderson, 2005)

  3. A very brief history of alternative conceptions research - Early work: 1920’s - 60’s“…learning is the result of the interaction between what the student is taught and his current ideas or concepts.” (Posner et al., 1982, p. 211)- Conceptual change research: 1970’s - 80’s Identification of specific beliefs and concepts held by students, how these ideas change (or do not change) during instruction (e.g., Driver and Easley, 1978; Viennot, 1979)- Development of assessment tools: 1990’s - Physics: FCI (Hestenes, et al., 1992) - Chemistry: CCI (Mulford, 1996)

  4. The Geoscience Concept Inventory • Developed by Julie Libarkin and Steve Anderson (Libarkin and Anderson, 2006; Libarkin et al., 2005; Libarkin and Anderson, 2005)- What prior knowledge do students bring to the classroom? • How does knowledge change during instruction? http://picture-book.com/files/userimages /43u/classroom.jpg http://picture-book.com/files/userimages /43u/classroom.jpg

  5. 7. What did the Earth's surface look like when it first formed? A. One large landmass surrounded by water B. All water and no land C. Similar to today D. Mostly molten rock and no water E. We have no way of knowing The Geoscience Concept Inventory • - Qualitative data: interviews, drawings (N>1000) • Developed ~75 multiple-choice questions based on responses • Validity and reliability testing (IRT and DIF) -> 69 items • Test construction: • Select 15 questions to create individual sub-test • Sub-tests are of statistically similar difficulty

  6. Self-Score Your GCI Give yourself one point per correct answer (no partial credit). How did you do?

  7. GCI Results: Alternative conceptions among undergraduates Libarkin and Anderson (2005):- Introductory geoscience students (USA) Pretest N = ~2500 Posttest N = ~1300- Included variety of institutions, class sizes, instructional methodsFindings:- Test is difficult with little gain Pre-test mean = 41.5% Post-test mean = 42.2%- Students with poorest scores on the pre-test leave with greatest knowledge gains; advanced students show little gains- Extreme persistence of entrenched ideas

  8. GCI Results: Alternative conceptions among preserviceteachers • Example study:- Research questions:(1) What alternative conceptions do preservice elementary (K-8) teachers hold? • (2) How do these alternative conceptions change during this course? • Method: • Pretest/posttest • Quantitative analysis • Earth Science for Elementary Educators, 6 sections, 2 instructors Pre-test n = 122 Post-test n = 102 • Matched = 89

  9. GCI Results: Alternative conceptions among preservice teachers • All class sections • No significant difference on pretest scores among sections (one way ANOVA p value = 0.54) • Pretest mean 43.9% (N=122) • Posttest mean 48.1% (N=102) • Mean gain of 4.8%; sections 3-6 mean gain of 6.5%

  10. 28. Which of the figures below do you think most closely represents changes in life on Earth over time? Choose one: GCI Results: Alternative conceptions among preservice teachers • Gains on individual items • Overall largest gains of any item (+38%) • Result of course activity?

  11. A B C* E D GCI Results: Alternative conceptions among preservice teachers • Entrenchment of prior knowledge • No students chose only correct response (pretest or posttest) • 25% gain in correct response on posttest • All students chose other distracters in addition to correct response • 1. Some scientists claim that they can determine when the Earth first formed as a planet. Which technique(s) do scientists use today to determine when the Earth first formed? Choose all that apply. • (A) Comparison of fossils found in rocks • (B) Comparison of different layers of rock • (C) Analysis of uranium and lead in rock • (D) Analysis of carbon in rock • (E) Scientists cannot calculate the age of the Earth

  12. What’s Next? GCI Web Center • Community effort to improve the GCI • Contribute items in additional content areas • Comment and feedback to improve items • Create tests and test students online http://gci.lite.msu.edu/

More Related