Aspects of conceptual change of 10-11 year-old children in England and in Greece: the concept of frictional force

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Tsagliotis, N.L., 1997. Aspects of conceptual change of 10-11 year-old children in England and in Greece: the concept of frictional force. MPhil, Nottingham Trent University.

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Abstract

This is an inquiry carried out in two educational settings, one in England and one in Greece, with 10-11 year-old children and it is guided by a constructivist view of teaching and learning. In both studies, children's conceptions on frictional phenomena and frictional force have been elicited before and after a teaching intervention and they have been compared in order to highlight some aspects of conceptual change. During the teaching interventions the children investigated friction with blocks of wood which were slid on various surfaces of tabletops (sandpaper or plastic laminate) and they discussed their conceptions of friction in everyday life situations with their classmates and the teacher.

A modification of the Interview-About-Instances technique has been used to elicit children's conceptions before and after the teaching interventions in both studies. Some additional assessment techniques, like concept maps and children's drawings and writing, have also been used after the teaching interventions in order to obtain information on children's conceptions. This was done to cross-examine inferences drawn from the analyses of the interview data.

The Pre-Intervention interview analysis focused on the elicitation of groupings of conceptions and alternative conceptions about frictional phenomena within a context of conceptions of "force". The Post-Intervention interview analysis focused on the elicitation of groupings of conceptions and alternative conceptions about friction and frictional phenomena within the context of the depicted instances of the interview cards. A comparison of the conceptions elicited in the pre-intervention interviews with those of the post-intervention interviews has revealed some aspects of conceptual change which are illustrated with the analysis of two cases of children in each study.

This inquiry has found that children can develop conceptions of friction within its "surface roughness" approximation. The interlocking of the roughness of surfaces appears for them to be a plausible and fruitful explanatory framework to describe and interpret friction and frictional phenomena. Some of children's preconceptions about "grip", the role of the nature of surfaces in contact and the role of gravity, or the force of weight influencing frictional phenomena, appear to be retained and enhanced throughout the teaching interventions by adding new characteristics or properties or by extending their frames of reference for different contexts. In both studies, there appear to be similarities in the conceptions elicited about frictional phenomena and the way conceptual change occurs, despite some language differences, which appear to be reflected on the construction of children's propositional statements.

Item Type:

Thesis

Creators:

Tsagliotis, N.L.

Date:

1997

ISBN:

9781369323566

Identifiers: