Investigating Network Coherence to Assess Students’ Conceptual Understanding of Energy
Conceptual knowledge is a crucial tool for students to understand scientific phenomena. Knowledge about the structure and function of mental concepts potentially helps science educators to foster the acquisition of this tool. Specifically, the coherence of students’ mental concepts is an intensely d...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2020-04-01
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| Series: | Education Sciences |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/10/4/103 |
| _version_ | 1797571029863759872 |
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| author | Sören Podschuweit Sascha Bernholt |
| author_facet | Sören Podschuweit Sascha Bernholt |
| author_sort | Sören Podschuweit |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Conceptual knowledge is a crucial tool for students to understand scientific phenomena. Knowledge about the structure and function of mental concepts potentially helps science educators to foster the acquisition of this tool. Specifically, the coherence of students’ mental concepts is an intensely discussed issue within the related conceptual change discourse. While former discussions focused on the question of whether these conceptions are coherent or not, recent approaches describe them as dynamic systems behaving more or less coherently in different situations. In this contribution, we captured this dynamic behavior of individual concepts by means of network analysis. Transcribed video data of 16 pairs of students working on four subsequent experiments on energy were transformed into weighted networks, which in turn were characterized by standardized coherence parameters. These coherence parameters and more basic network parameters were correlated with students’ pre-post scores of a multiple-choice test on the energy concept. We found that the coherence parameter is significantly related to the students’ test scores. Even more intense relations are indicated if networks are calculated solely based on conceptual key terms. Implications as well as methodological constraints of this approach are discussed. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T20:34:38Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-500fb53fb22a44c18741593396a468d5 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2227-7102 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T20:34:38Z |
| publishDate | 2020-04-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Education Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-500fb53fb22a44c18741593396a468d52023-11-19T21:08:04ZengMDPI AGEducation Sciences2227-71022020-04-0110410310.3390/educsci10040103Investigating Network Coherence to Assess Students’ Conceptual Understanding of EnergySören Podschuweit0Sascha Bernholt1Department of Chemistry Education, Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education, Olshausenstr. 62, D-24118 Kiel, GermanyDepartment of Chemistry Education, Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education, Olshausenstr. 62, D-24118 Kiel, GermanyConceptual knowledge is a crucial tool for students to understand scientific phenomena. Knowledge about the structure and function of mental concepts potentially helps science educators to foster the acquisition of this tool. Specifically, the coherence of students’ mental concepts is an intensely discussed issue within the related conceptual change discourse. While former discussions focused on the question of whether these conceptions are coherent or not, recent approaches describe them as dynamic systems behaving more or less coherently in different situations. In this contribution, we captured this dynamic behavior of individual concepts by means of network analysis. Transcribed video data of 16 pairs of students working on four subsequent experiments on energy were transformed into weighted networks, which in turn were characterized by standardized coherence parameters. These coherence parameters and more basic network parameters were correlated with students’ pre-post scores of a multiple-choice test on the energy concept. We found that the coherence parameter is significantly related to the students’ test scores. Even more intense relations are indicated if networks are calculated solely based on conceptual key terms. Implications as well as methodological constraints of this approach are discussed.https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/10/4/103energyconceptual understandingnetwork analysisnetwork coherence |
| spellingShingle | Sören Podschuweit Sascha Bernholt Investigating Network Coherence to Assess Students’ Conceptual Understanding of Energy Education Sciences energy conceptual understanding network analysis network coherence |
| title | Investigating Network Coherence to Assess Students’ Conceptual Understanding of Energy |
| title_full | Investigating Network Coherence to Assess Students’ Conceptual Understanding of Energy |
| title_fullStr | Investigating Network Coherence to Assess Students’ Conceptual Understanding of Energy |
| title_full_unstemmed | Investigating Network Coherence to Assess Students’ Conceptual Understanding of Energy |
| title_short | Investigating Network Coherence to Assess Students’ Conceptual Understanding of Energy |
| title_sort | investigating network coherence to assess students conceptual understanding of energy |
| topic | energy conceptual understanding network analysis network coherence |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7102/10/4/103 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT sorenpodschuweit investigatingnetworkcoherencetoassessstudentsconceptualunderstandingofenergy AT saschabernholt investigatingnetworkcoherencetoassessstudentsconceptualunderstandingofenergy |