...The students were interviewed about their ideas of air and about phenomena involving air before and after the lessons. From the lessons, the students gained experiences and vocabulary to draw upon to make more sophisticated arguments about phenomena involving air, often employing the "balls of air" model in their explanations.

**********

Introduction

The National Science Education Standards state that kindergarten should provide students with the opportunity to develop scientific skills through hands-on exploration so that students can demonstrate competency in areas of earth, life, and physical science (National Research Council [NRC], 1996). One of the greatest challenges in getting children to reach deep scientific understanding is their formation of misconceptions. From a very early age, students form their own ideas, which become their beliefs, on the basis of their experiences or something they imagined (Crockett, 2004). Prior to any teaching or learning of formal science, children develop meanings for many words used in science and develop views of the world, which relate to ideas taught in science. Children's ideas are usually strongly held and are often significantly different to the views of scientists (Osborne & Freyberg, 1985).

In order to effectively develop conceptual ideas in science, students need to be involved in constructing mental models through hands-on investigations and experiences (Driver, Guesne, & Tiberghien, 1985, p. 193). It is imperative that educators take into account learners' prior knowledge, provide opportunities for students to make their ideas explicit, and encourage students to construct mental models through a variety of hands-on experiences (Driver et al., 1985; Osborne & Freyberg, 1985). For this reason, inquiry-based teaching approaches have been endorsed by many researchers, educators, and scientists as an avenue for allowing students to construct knowledge, think critically, investigate, and do science (NRC, 2000).

According to Greca and Moreira (2000), mental models are a type of knowledge representation that is implicit and a useful tool for the interaction of subjects with the world. Mental models are internal representations of objects, states of affairs, sequence of events, and processes of how the world is and of physiological actions. They enable individuals to make predictions and inferences, to make decisions, and to understand the world (Gilbert & Priest, 1997). Learning involves the development and use of mental models by individuals; however, mental models are also incomplete, imprecise, and incoherent with normative knowledge in various domains at times (Greca & Moreira, 2000). Mental models often do not match up with conceptual models.

Conceptual models are external representations created by researchers, teachers, engineers, and so on, that facilitate the comprehension or teaching of systems or phenomena in the world. They are precise and complete representations that are coherent with scientifically accepted knowledge (Greca & Moreira, 2000). When we teach, it is common to assume that students have acquired or constructed mental models that are copies of conceptual models that have been presented to them. This does not happen often, however; prior knowledge and experiences as well as misconceptions can interfere (Taber, 2003). Therefore, educators must bridge this gap between mental models and conceptual models through the process of modeling.

Research Study Methodology

Science often involves concepts that we cannot directly see (e.g., molecules, electric charge), but that can be inferred from other observations. In such situations, learning the subject matter requires the construction of a mental model by the students. In this study, we introduced kindergarten students to a conceptual model of air through a series of hands-on, inquiry-based lessons. We chose the topic of air to start developing the students' science process skills in making inferences and developing mental models with something very close to their experience. Air was described as consisting of "balls of air," and this image was used throughout the lessons to understand physical phenomena. The key aspect of air captured by this model is the particulate nature of matter, though like all models, this model fails to match reality in several ways (e.g., air molecules are not spheres; air isn't a homogenous substance); however, the model is sufficient to explain the phenomena we were studying and can easily be expanded when students learn more about air and molecules.

The following questions were used to guide the lesson development and the research interview protocols:

* To what extent did the students develop and then use this model of air as being made of tiny balls?

* To what extent do the students think more analytically about the concepts and provide justification for their answers after the lessons?

* To what extent can the students correctly explain the phenomena discussed in class?

Two kindergarten classrooms in a rural Midwestern college town were the focus of this study. The classroom teachers both had at least twenty years of teaching experience and had well-established classroom management skill and routines. The kindergarten day was only a half day, so the class sizes were small, approximately 14 students. Several students stayed for both the morning and the afternoon sessions for extra enrichment. There were 39 students participating in this study--19 females and, 20 males.

As part of this study, a scientist from the university (hereafter referred to as "the scientist") visited each of the four classes once or twice a week to present a science lesson (described below). Before the lessons, the students were interviewed individually to learn about their prior knowledge of air and the uses of air. Two additional researchers conducted the interviews using a semistructured interview protocol (see Appendix A). The students were audio- and videotaped during the interviews so that body language as well as verbal communication could be analyzed.

After the lessons, a subset of students (26) were selected to answer post-interview questions that were adapted from the original protocol (see Appendix B). Once this data was collected, the audiotapes were transcribed and analyzed from the grounded...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



Looking for additional articles?
Search our database of over 3 million articles.

Looking for more in-depth information on this industry?
Search our complete database of Industry & Market reports by text, subject, publication name or publication date.

About Goliath
Whether you're looking for sales prospects, competitive information, company analysis or best practices in managing your organization, Goliath can help you meet your business needs.

Our extensive business information databases empower business professionals with both the breadth and depth of credible, authoritative information they need to support their business goals. Whether it be strategic planning, sales prospecting, company research or defining management best practices - Goliath is your leading source for accurate information.