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ERIC Number: EJ892230
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2010-Aug
Pages: 21
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0950-0693
EISSN: N/A
Children's Typically-Perceived-Situations of Force and No Force in the Context of Australia and Korea
Joung, Yong Jae; Gunstone, Richard
International Journal of Science Education, v32 n12 p1595-1615 Aug 2010
Typically-Perceived-Situation (TPS) refers to the situation rising spontaneously in an individual's mind when she/he first thinks of a phenomenon or concept. The purpose of this study is to go well beyond the many studies that describe conceptions of force and explore children's TPS of "force is acting on a thing" and "force is not acting on a thing", and to do this in the differing contexts of Australia and Korea. Data were collected by drawings and written explanations from 145 Grade 6 Australian children and 150 Grade 6 Korean children. These data showed some significant differences between the Australian children's and Korean children's TPSs. For example, considering the whole context of children's TPS, the contexts of "someone pushes or pulls something" and "someone/something is floating in the air or not moving because there is no gravity" were the most frequent ones, as a "force" and as a "no force" situation respectively, in the case of Australian children, while "a sort of energy is provided into someone/something and they can be active/working" and "a sort of energy is not provided into someone/something and they cannot be active/working", were most frequent in the case of Korean children. These differences are very likely the consequence of different everyday meanings for the word "force" in the two cultures. In addition, it appears that these children's TPS affect their judgement of "force" and "no force". (Contains 7 figures and 3 tables.)
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 325 Chestnut Street Suite 800, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Fax: 215-625-2940; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education; Grade 6
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Australia; South Korea (Seoul)
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A