Elementary School Students형 Conceptions of Buoyance related with Cognitive Levels

초등학생의 부력 개념 형성과 인지 수준의 관계

The unit of a buoyant force included in the 7th national science curriculum for 6th grade students. On the contrary, it seldom that students' conception about buoyant phenomena is studied, even though there has been many studies of students' conceptions of basic science contents. The purpose of this study was to survey the elementary school students' conceptions of a buoyant force, to analyze their cognitive levels, and to explore the relationships between them. Sixth grade students (total numbers is 192) were selected .from 5 .lasses in two elementary schools in a local city of Kyungsangdo. They were asked to respond two kinds of test, which are the Logical Thinking Ability (GALT) to investigate students' cognitive levels and the Buoyant Force Questionnaire (BFQ). We developed BFQ test, based on the 7th national science curriculum for 6th grade and the previous researches of a buoyant force. We, qualitatively, analysed students' frequency of responses about a buoyant force and their types of explanation, and, quantitatively, analysed the relationships between cognitive levels and conceptions of a buoyant force with SPSS/ PC 7.0 programmes. The results of cognitive level showed that half of 6th grade students were in the concrete operational stage, 43.2% in the transitional stage, 6.8% in the formal stage. However, their sub-logical thinking abilities in a combinational, conservational, controlling variables, proportional, probability and correlational logic were very fluctuated from 91% to 8%. The results that only 4.8% of elementary students had correct conceptions of a buoyant force suggest that 6th grade students had great difficulties in understanding of that concept. Their difficulties would originated from the frequent common-sense explanations of a buoyant phenomena in terms of the weight or the unique properties or the contact area of an object or with/without air. Furthermore students' explanations, frequently, changed with context of problems of a buoyant force. Scheffe test of quantitative results that elementary students in the concrete level had 50.6% of concept formation in a buoyant force, the transitional level 54.5%, and in the formal operational level 62.8% showed significant differences of conceptions of a buoyant force with cognitive levels. Therefore the concrete operational elementary students had more difficulties of understanding of a buoyant force than the transitional and formal level, which is required to higher cognitive levels. This conclusion have implications that the unit of a buoyant force have to be presented with concrete activities for majority of students who are in concrete and transitional levels.