ERIC Number: EJ1170365
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017-Dec
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-2374-6246
EISSN: N/A
From Conceptual Frameworks to Mental Models for Astronomy: Students' Perceptions
Pundak, David; Liberman, Ido; Shacham, Miri
Journal of Astronomy & Earth Sciences Education, v4 n2 p109-126 Dec 2017
Considerable debate exists among discipline-based astronomy education researchers about how students change their perceptions in science and astronomy. The study questioned the development of astronomical models among students in institutions of higher education by examining how college students change their initial conceptual frameworks and construct mental models in astronomy. The study considers four areas of astronomical knowledge: "sky observations," "Earth and its orbit," "solar system" and "stars" by implementing a recently developed research tool--Conceptual Frameworks in Astronomy (CFA) (Pundak, 2016). The responses of 537 undergraduates from three Israeli colleges were classified into one of four mental models: pre-scientific, geocentric, heliocentric, stellar/scientific. The findings indicate significant differences among students adopting some combination of the four mental models. Most students adopted a combination of these models and used different conceptual frameworks for different astronomical phenomena. Students with a scientific engineering background tended to use the stellar/scientific model more often than Liberal Arts students. The stellar/scientific model is the most scientifically progressive of the four models tested and manages the most systematic astronomical conceptual frameworks. The study identified three variables: "physical background," "average academic grade" and "academic discipline"--which contribute to the adoption of the stellar/scientific model.
Descriptors: Astronomy, Science Instruction, Scientific Concepts, College Science, Concept Formation, Knowledge Level, Foreign Countries, Cognitive Structures, Visualization, Undergraduate Students, Schemata (Cognition), Questionnaires, Statistical Analysis
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Israel
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A