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ÇALIK M., Ayas A., COLL R.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS EDUCATION, vol.5, no.1, pp.1-28, 2007 (Scopus)
Abstract
This paper reports on the use of a constructivist-based pedagogy to enhance
understanding of some features of solution chemistry. Pre-service science teacher
trainees’ prior knowledge about the dissolution of salts and sugar in water were elicited
by the use of a simple diagnostic tool. The test revealed widespread alternative conceptions.
These evaluation data were used to produce two segments of Fconceptual change
text_: concise summaries that present alternative and scientific conceptualizations for the
concepts under study. The texts were administered to 21 pre-service elementary trainee
teachers whose understandings of number of conceptions were subsequently re-evaluated
employing a pre-test post-test approach in which their answers and reasons for their answers
were solicited. The findings suggest that these pre-service elementary trainees’
alternative conceptions are changed to become more in accord with the scientific view,
with more participants providing correct answers along with correct reasons than before
the intervention. This work suggests that the use of conceptual change text may provide a
simple and cost- and resource-effective way to aid conceptual understanding for the dissolution
of ionic solids in water including the effect of solute surface on the dissolution
process.