According to Richard K Moran, and Page K, in “ Teaching for Conceptual Understanding in Science”, conceptual understanding is one that is consistent and compatible with scientific knowledge or language of science accepted by the scientific community, not language of incorrect terminology or everyday life used by nonscientists that has different meaning. It is agreed between educators at the present time that students come to school and they have ideas and interpretations does not correspond with what scientists reach of acceptable ideas. Such ideas and interpretation called children’s ideas, alternate conceptions, or wrong understanding. Such understanding is not compatible and consistent with appropriate conceptual understanding.
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For example, let’s take photosynthesis as an example; Photosynthesis is one of the metabolic processes as building carbohydrates that form the basis for making the rest of the food from proteins and fats, which is made up from the bodies of living things. Students’ understanding for this process affects their understanding for respiratory process in the plant. As a result, when students have an understanding of Photosynthesis concept appropriately, they can use in areas other than that in which they learned it and also affect their understanding of reparatory process and the relationships between them. Science teachers should find strategies and techniques for getting rid of and preventing the formation of students’ naïve preconception misconceptions or alternate conceptions by using a conceptual change strategy in order to facilitate occurring meaningful learning. Conceptual change curve is considered as one of the most important strategy used to achieve this purpose. This supposes that the students work actively and logically by replacing scientifically acceptable explanations instead of misconception. Strike and Posner suggest that in order for change to occur, 4 conditions are necessary: the students must have dissatisfaction with their existing ideas …show more content…
Using mathematical models enable us to make precise calculations and predictions; they serve as analogies and conceptual frameworks that lead to new discoveries; and they bridge the gap between appearance and reality. A variety of models can represent the same data; any model can be given different physical interpretations. To astronomers and other scientists, “making a model” has a specific meaning: taking into account our knowledge of the laws of science, they construct a mental picture of how something works. They then use this mental model to predict the behavior of the system in the future. If their observations of the real thing and their predictions from their model match, then they have some evidence that their model is a good one. If their observations of the real thing contradict the predictions of their model, then it teaches that they need to revise their picture to better explain their observations. In many cases the model is simply an idea—that is, there is no physical representation of it. However, that doesn 't prevent from making a physical representation of the
For example, let’s take photosynthesis as an example; Photosynthesis is one of the metabolic processes as building carbohydrates that form the basis for making the rest of the food from proteins and fats, which is made up from the bodies of living things. Students’ understanding for this process affects their understanding for respiratory process in the plant. As a result, when students have an understanding of Photosynthesis concept appropriately, they can use in areas other than that in which they learned it and also affect their understanding of reparatory process and the relationships between them. Science teachers should find strategies and techniques for getting rid of and preventing the formation of students’ naïve preconception misconceptions or alternate conceptions by using a conceptual change strategy in order to facilitate occurring meaningful learning. Conceptual change curve is considered as one of the most important strategy used to achieve this purpose. This supposes that the students work actively and logically by replacing scientifically acceptable explanations instead of misconception. Strike and Posner suggest that in order for change to occur, 4 conditions are necessary: the students must have dissatisfaction with their existing ideas …show more content…
Using mathematical models enable us to make precise calculations and predictions; they serve as analogies and conceptual frameworks that lead to new discoveries; and they bridge the gap between appearance and reality. A variety of models can represent the same data; any model can be given different physical interpretations. To astronomers and other scientists, “making a model” has a specific meaning: taking into account our knowledge of the laws of science, they construct a mental picture of how something works. They then use this mental model to predict the behavior of the system in the future. If their observations of the real thing and their predictions from their model match, then they have some evidence that their model is a good one. If their observations of the real thing contradict the predictions of their model, then it teaches that they need to revise their picture to better explain their observations. In many cases the model is simply an idea—that is, there is no physical representation of it. However, that doesn 't prevent from making a physical representation of the