Cognitive Perturbation with Simulations Class

In the experimental class there were various reasons for using cognitive perturbation with interactive simulations as a supportive intervention. Firstly it was supposed to reduce the number of students who failed to change their alternative conceptions. This was done by supporting them gradually, by posing cognitive perturbation, to move step by step from their preconceptions towards scientific conceptions. This provision of cognitive perturbation by the researcher was based on the status of the students’ explanations of the simulations. In addition, the students were constantly challenged by the researcher with questions which were based on their explanations of concepts in the EM interactive simulations. This was due to the contention that cognitive perturbation would help the students’ learning towards the forming of intermediate and more scientific conceptions than their preconceptions. The second reason was the lack of sensitivity of the cognitive conflict approach towards non-cognitive elements and social contexts (Li et al., 2006). To overcome this limitation, the learning situation in the classroom setting was designed to provide for both individual and social involvement of students. For this purpose the researcher provided pedagogical social support and cognitive perturbations to students in addition to the student-student interactions in groups. However, he did not provide the students with immediate solutions or direct them to follow a predetermined path of learning during the interaction with the simulations. Hence, the researcher’s facilitation was focused on working with rather than against the students’ alternative conceptions in the process of their learning with the help of the interactive simulations.

Unlike in the CCS class, the students in the CPS class were not asked to predict the outcomes of the simulations. The students’ conceptions of EM concepts were supposed to be inconsistently diversified. In addition, their conceptual knowledge was so low that they lacked conceptual resources (capacities) to engage themselves in the classroom interaction. Thus, instead of attempting to set the students of the CPS class into cognitive conflict, the researcher used a mechanism of gradually supporting their learning by providing cognitive perturbation at appropriate junctures. Accordingly, the tasks that all the groups of students performed with the help of interactive physics simulations were made to have three phases: the undertaking phase, the presentation phase and the refining phase (see Appendix I).

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In the undertaking phase, the students were asked to run the simulation and do the task given to them in groups. In this part, each group of students was given the chance to discuss (student- student discussion) the tasks they performed in the interactive simulations.

In the presentation phase, the students reflected on their understanding of the concepts. During the students’ reflections, the researcher valued their ideas to motivate them in their progressive learning. This phase was found to be an appropriate situation to notice their learning (understanding) gap and then provide them cognitive perturbation based on their contextual difficulties to support their learning towards the intended scientific conception. In this study, it was mostly given in the form of a question and was believed to rectify the students’ misunderstanding.

In the refining part, the students were expected to incorporate the teacher’s comments and use the cognitive perturbations as a scaffold in their construction of conceptual knowledge towards the scientific conceptions.

Therefore, the CCS and the CPS classes differed only in the support the researcher was offering: the cognitive conflict strategy for the CCS class and the cognitive perturbation strategy for the CPS class.

3.9

Summary of the Chapter

This chapter described the research methodology which involves the research design, research sample, instruments, ethical considerations, issues of trustworthiness (validity and reliability of the instruments) and methods of data analyses (framework thematic analysis, concentration analysis, analysis of covariance and average normalized gain) and treatment procedures.

Due to the nature of the study of conceptual change which is a very complex and gradual ongoing learning process, this case study employed a quasi-experimental design and used

concurrent mixed methods research in which the results were merged at the point of

interpretation. Naturally existing two lab groups for the course were randomly assigned into CCS and CPS classes. Data collection instruments were the Modified DEEM, FGD and CM. Validity and reliability of the test were estimated using experts’ consensus and Kuder

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Richardson-21statistical estimation, respectively. For validity of FGD, the factual fitness of the participants’ discussion was checked. For its reliability, a guide was developed for implementation and replication of the discussions. The concept maps task was used to reflect on the content of EM concepts intervened for its validity and raters’ agreement on the scores was compared for an estimation of inter-rater reliability. In addition, assumptions were proposed and efforts were done to minimize contamination effect. Data from FGD and CM in pre and post intervention were analyzed qualitatively using framework thematic analysis to answer the first and the second research questions while data from the modified DEEM and CM in pre and post intervention were analyzed quantitatively using concentration analysis, ANCOVA and also average normalized gain to answer the third research question.

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CHAPTER 4

PRE INTERVENTION RESULTS

In this chapter, the qualitative and quantitative results of the pre-intervention study are presented and discussed. These pre-intervention study mainly provided results to answer the first research question. Baseline data are needed in order to answer the second and third research questions. These baseline results will be used to compare the students’ conceptual changes after the intervention.