An alternative view of conceptual change in a physics classroom

1. An alternative view of conceptual change in a physics classroom Eugenia Etkina, Graduate School of Education Rutgers University August 2005 AAPT Salt Lake City

2. Outline • Conceptual change theory and its effects on science education • Conceptual change theory from different angles • Alternatives to conceptual change theory

3. Conceptual change Conceptual change - change in understanding Examples • Each point of a candle radiates light in all directions • A battery is a source of voltage not a source of current • Heat is not a fluid (object) but a process

4. Paradigm Shift (Kuhn) Accommodation (Piaget) Conceptual change theory (Strike and Posner) Old idea does not work. New idea is intelligible. New idea is plausible. New idea has a potential to be productive. • Conceptual change theory • alteration of conceptions • central to understanding Theory is not grounded in any experimental evidence

5. Elicit • Confront • Resolve Conceptual Change and teaching Mapping CCT onto a cognitive process Predict Observe Explain Revise

6. yes no new Predict - observe - explain My predictions My revisions, group revisions My Observations Group Explanations

7. Life is never that simple (Bereiter) Now Before Science is driven by personal interest, motivation and social processes Students undergo conceptual change the same way scientists do Hot CC Goals, perceptions of self, perceptions by others, code of conduct Cold CC Assimilation and accommodation

8. Step 3 Awareness of what needs to be changed (self-regulation prerequisite) Step 2 Realizations of the need to change (volitional prerequisite) Step 1 Awareness of contradiction (metacognitive prerequisite) Things get worse(Pintrich et al.) Conceptual change does not happen in the presence of four conditions. A new term - intentional conceptual change - attention with effort.

9. YES NO YES NO NO YES YES NO Misconceptions Knowledge in pieces Mixed states And even worse….PER findings(Minstrel, DiSessa; Hammer, Elby, Bao…)

10. PER findings (Etkina) 1. You have two small balls, one is heavy and the other one is light. You drop them simultaneously. Draw a dot diagram representing their motion. 1 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2. You take one of balls and throw it upward. Draw a dot diagram representing its motion.. 27 pre-service elementary teachers 88% 74%

11. Scientific reasoning(Lawson) One of possible approaches: Making a puzzling observation Generating one or more hypotheses using analogical reasoning, transfer or abduction (using an idea that worked for something else) Supposing for the sake of argument that the hypothesis under consideration is correct Making a prediction about the outcome of a possible test Comparing the results of the test with the prediction Faulty test does not reject the hypothesis - may be the test was no so good Repeating the tests until the hypothesis is supported or rejected. August 2005 AAPT Salt Lake City

12. Learning and brain(Zull)

13. Brainand learning(Lawson, Fuster, Zull) Brain is hypothetico-deductive. Cognit - any item of knowledge representation in the cerebral cortex. It consists of component network nodes - elementary representations of perception that have been associated with one another by learning or past experience. Learning takes place by a change or adjustment of weights (transmitting capability) in the connections or synapses between nodes. One cannot erase knowledge from the brain but can make it accessibility more difficult by not activating the connections. Amygdala - an important part of the cortex - the evaluator of the affective and motivational values of stimuli, probably also plays a role in learning, though the possible mechanisms underlying this role are still obscure. Some of the studies suggest that when a student is scared, activation of amygdala might lead to the slowing down of mental processes.

14. Questions 1. If students do not have robust misconceptions, what are we elicitingby asking them to predict what will happen? 2. Why do we want to elicit their knowledge at a particular moment not a minute later? 3. When do we place a student in a conflict situation? 4. If one student has a wrong idea and speaks it, might others who never thought this way start thinking and form brain connections that they would not have had if we did not ask? 5. If this is a way to change student’s ideas and ideas are context dependent, do we need an infinite number of contexts to change them? 6. Scientists use hypothetico-deductive reasoning to discriminate between multiple explanations of the same phenomena. How does this relate to elicit-confront-resolve?

15. Let’s talk about feelings • First bell: “Here we go again” (an elementary science major). • Student evaluations - those who had to predict the results of each experiment rate the instructor and the course 25% lower than those who predicted only based on ideas constructed in lecture (Van Heuvelen, honors engineering freshman). • Students who are anxious about cognitive conflict are the students who do not do well on exams (Kim and Bao, PBI). • Low achieving students who are anxious about learning develop “learned helplessness” (Dweck and Leggett, minority students). • Low achieving students do not recognize conflict (Limon Lique, middle school and high school).

16. patterns more Multiple group explanations predictions no yes Alternative approachInvestigative Science Learning Environment (ISLE) My observations new Revisions Assumptions Testing experiments Applications Turning the conflict into a positive science-like game

17. What do we do now? 1. Pose a question: when should we use cognitive conflict and how to turn it into a positive experience? 2. Conduct control studies. 3. Use different instruments to assess student learning and probe anxiety. 4. ???? THANK YOU!

18. yes no new ? Predict - observe - explain- revise in a new light My predictions My revisions, group revisions My Observations Group Explanations

19. Brain and learning

20. Enrichment adding to existing knowledge Focal plane Restructuring changing of framework or theory Speed of light is independent of a rf Revision changing a piece of existing knowledge Light bulb is not an ohmic device Levels of conceptual change Conceptual change Concepts- explanations, conceptions - systems of explanations Radical conceptual change - change of conceptions