• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.785-801
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• 2004

A Typically-Perceived-Situation(TPS) is a situation which might be useful for conceptual learning of science, rising spontaneously in an individual's mind when someone is thinking about, or in relation to, any object such as physical object, concept, situation, etc. But, for a discussion about the TPS' usefulness in depth, we need to analyze the specific features of the TPS in relation to conceptual learning of science. This study investigated four elementary school students' TPSs related to the topic of the action of force, especially (a) 'the situation where force is being acted on an object', and (b) 'the situation where force is not being acted on an object', with an interview as well as with a drawing-and-explanation type questionnaire. Their TPSs were then compared with their concepts, checked by a misconception questionnaire of choice-and-explanation type. The results showed that the students' TPSs illustrated not only their conceptions about the action of force, but also gave more fruitful details of their ideas, including (a) clues of their conceptions, (b) concrete situations, and (c) their past experiences with emotional components. On the whole, the TPS's appeared to be rather stable, affected by their past experiences, and needed to be analyzed into their sub-units for more subtle details. Finally, some practical ways of how to apply the ideas of the TPS to the conceptual learning of science are suggested.

• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.238-250
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• 2004

For effective conceptual teaching (or teaming) of physics, it needs to know more information about students＇ ideas related to specific topics. The purpose of this study was to investigate 6th grade students＇ various ideas about the actions of force, especially＇ the situation where force is being acted＇, and＇ the situation where force is not being acted＇, through the analysis of their ＇Typically-Perceived-Situation (TPS)＇. The TPSs of 152 6th grade students were collected with a drawing-and-explanation type questionnaire, and their TPSs about the action of force were categorized by the background, the subject, the object, the action, and the result of action, etc. It was found that most of students＇ ideas about ＇force is being acted＇ were related to the situation where the impact by or on human body caused to the change of position in familiar everyday life scene. Thus their ideas were strong related to human body, including sensual factors such as ＇pain＇. And it also was found that most of students＇ ideas about ＇force is not being acted＇ were in a strong relation to familiar everyday life situations there is no change of position because force was not given by a human body, or energy was not supplied. Most students thought that force is similar to energy which should be supplied from outside or generated by itself. These results suggest that the teaching strategies focused on familiar everyday life background including sensual factors and human body need to be explored in conceptual loaming of physics.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.36 no.6
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• pp.851-866
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to investigate pre-service elementary teachers' views of the law of action-reaction by examining their degrees of understanding and Typically-Perceived-Situations (TPS). Data were collected from 177 Grade 3 pre-service elementary teachers. The results of analyzing these data show: First, the participants did not sufficiently understand about the law of action-reaction, and their degrees of understanding were different depending on the situation provided in the questionnaire. Second, in relation to the TPSs of the law of action-reaction, the participants thought of irrelevant situations to the law of action-reaction such as "a situation generated by inertia" as well as commonly relevant ones such as "a person pushing a wall", and had somewhat biased TPSs in terms of 'action type' and 'result motion type' of action-reaction. Finally, several suggestions on the science education for promotion of understanding about the law of action-reaction were given.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.579-591
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• 2008

Recently, there have been studies about Typically- Perceived-Situations (TPSs) and about critical examples as a way to understand students' preconceptions with context. TPS is a situation arising immediately in one's mind when he or she thinks about the concept, while a critical example is an example that becomes the most helpful in learning the concept. We might explore how the context is involved in the process of students' conceptual understanding by examining TPSs and critical examples together. This study analyzed, through questionnaires and interviews, the characteristics of TPSs and those of critical examples that secondary students hold about 'force' and 'mechanical energy conversion.' Students' TPSs and critical examples showed different characteristics according to the concept. In a case of force that is related to everyday life, there were various situations as TPSs and critical examples. Unlike force, there were a few situations as TPSs and critical examples such as a falling ball in the case of mechanical energy conversion. Students tended to regard situations that are usually experienced and understood easily as TPSs or critical examples. On the basis of the results of this study, it is concluded that it would be a good strategy to teach science concepts for teachers to start with the TPS of a concept, to introduce the concept, and then to expose the attributes of the concept with critical examples.