Abstract
Understanding scientific models and practicing scientific modeling have been emphasized and advocated in science learning. Although teachers have been perceived as shaping their students’ understanding of the nature of science, they have been recognized for their lack of understanding of scientific models. This study explores middle school science teachers’ and ninth-grade students’ performance in terms of their understanding of scientific models and their construction and evaluation of these models. The study participants comprised 95 science teachers and 608 ninth-grade students. To investigate the students’ understanding of scientific models, they were asked to fill out a Students’ Understanding of Models in Science survey. To explore the students’ model construction and evaluation, they were asked to explain three different magnetic phenomena and to provide the criteria they used to evaluate the scientific models. The results show that the teachers’ performance on these three aspects was significantly better than that of the students. However, this study indicated that teachers have similar problems as students in terms of understanding theoretical representations of scientific models and practicing model construction. Moreover, those teachers who had a better understanding that scientific models are not the replica of target events could develop higher levels of models while students with more understanding that scientific models are the replica of target events were able to develop higher levels of models. The findings of the study contribute to a better understanding of the gap between teachers and students, which will be crucial for designing a better modeling-based curriculum.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Research in Science Education |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Accepted/In press - 2019 Jan 1 |
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All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Education
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Investigating the Relationship Between Views of Scientific Models and Modeling Practice. / Cheng, Meng-Fei; Wu, Tsung Yu; Lin, Shu Fen.
In: Research in Science Education, 01.01.2019.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
TY - JOUR
T1 - Investigating the Relationship Between Views of Scientific Models and Modeling Practice
AU - Cheng, Meng-Fei
AU - Wu, Tsung Yu
AU - Lin, Shu Fen
PY - 2019/1/1
Y1 - 2019/1/1
N2 - Understanding scientific models and practicing scientific modeling have been emphasized and advocated in science learning. Although teachers have been perceived as shaping their students’ understanding of the nature of science, they have been recognized for their lack of understanding of scientific models. This study explores middle school science teachers’ and ninth-grade students’ performance in terms of their understanding of scientific models and their construction and evaluation of these models. The study participants comprised 95 science teachers and 608 ninth-grade students. To investigate the students’ understanding of scientific models, they were asked to fill out a Students’ Understanding of Models in Science survey. To explore the students’ model construction and evaluation, they were asked to explain three different magnetic phenomena and to provide the criteria they used to evaluate the scientific models. The results show that the teachers’ performance on these three aspects was significantly better than that of the students. However, this study indicated that teachers have similar problems as students in terms of understanding theoretical representations of scientific models and practicing model construction. Moreover, those teachers who had a better understanding that scientific models are not the replica of target events could develop higher levels of models while students with more understanding that scientific models are the replica of target events were able to develop higher levels of models. The findings of the study contribute to a better understanding of the gap between teachers and students, which will be crucial for designing a better modeling-based curriculum.
AB - Understanding scientific models and practicing scientific modeling have been emphasized and advocated in science learning. Although teachers have been perceived as shaping their students’ understanding of the nature of science, they have been recognized for their lack of understanding of scientific models. This study explores middle school science teachers’ and ninth-grade students’ performance in terms of their understanding of scientific models and their construction and evaluation of these models. The study participants comprised 95 science teachers and 608 ninth-grade students. To investigate the students’ understanding of scientific models, they were asked to fill out a Students’ Understanding of Models in Science survey. To explore the students’ model construction and evaluation, they were asked to explain three different magnetic phenomena and to provide the criteria they used to evaluate the scientific models. The results show that the teachers’ performance on these three aspects was significantly better than that of the students. However, this study indicated that teachers have similar problems as students in terms of understanding theoretical representations of scientific models and practicing model construction. Moreover, those teachers who had a better understanding that scientific models are not the replica of target events could develop higher levels of models while students with more understanding that scientific models are the replica of target events were able to develop higher levels of models. The findings of the study contribute to a better understanding of the gap between teachers and students, which will be crucial for designing a better modeling-based curriculum.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85070308382&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85070308382&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s11165-019-09880-2
DO - 10.1007/s11165-019-09880-2
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85070308382
JO - Research in Science Education
JF - Research in Science Education
SN - 0157-244X
ER -