• Journal of Korean Elementary Science Education
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.41-56
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• 2000

The purpose of this study was to investigate the change of elementary school students' conception on the movement of the moon, after teaching a lesson about the lunar phase which focused on concrete activities. The 396 subjects in this study consisted of intact groups of second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth grade students. Pre-test and post-test instrument concerning on the conception in the movement of the moon were developed after reviewing the related literature and curriculum. Prevailing conceptions were identified by frequency of each conception. Then, the pattern of change and consistency of each conception were analyzed in comparison pre-test with post-test. To figure out the effect of teaching, the GEFT and the GALT instrument were administered to analyze it by gender, cognition mode and level. SPSS/WIN programs were used to process the data. The result showed that teaching 'movement of the moon' was the most effective in fourth grade. The effect of teaching 'changes in shape of the moon' was effective regardless of their sexes. Teaching 'changes in shapes of the moon' was more effective for the students whose cognitive modes were field-independent, than those filed-dependent. But the improvement by the teaching was not significantly different. The pre-score by cognitive level was significantly high in the order of the formal operational, transitional stage and the concrete operational stage. But the improvement of conception after teaching was high in the order of the concrete operational, transitional stage and the formal operational stage. That is to say, teaching was more effective as the cognitive level lowered.

• Journal of Science Education
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.58-71
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• 2010

The purpose of this study is to categorize preconceived notions by elementary science gifted students about the reason why only one side of the moon is visible and develop an instructional module to correct these notions scientifically. The effectiveness of these modules will then be tested. The participants of this study were 15 (5th and 6th grade students) from Gwangju Metropolitan City and Chonnam Province who passed a gifted student assessment test developed by J university. The student's notions about the reason only one side of the moon is visible were assessed through questionnaires, interviews, and reenactments. Instructional modules to minimize these notions were developed and then improved upon by class reenactments. And then these modules were used to teach a real class with cameras recording the students. Protocols were analyzed using this footage, and emphasis was placed on how the developed class module changed student's misconceptions. The instructional module developed in this study was: student conception assessment writing materials exploration activity stage 1 (moon's orbit) exploration activity stage 2 (moon's rotation) - exploration activity stage 3 (moon's orbit and rotation) - exploration activity stage 4 (verbalizing the moon's orbit and rotation) - exploration activity stage 5 (thinking about moon movement considering earth's rotation - exploration activity stage 6 (relating the earth and moon's movement) and verifying student conception change. An important conclusion of this study was that all 15 students had misconceptions that could be divided into categories A, B, and C. Category A could be separated with more specifics into A-1 and A-2, and C into C-1 and C-2. After the instructional module was utilized, the student categories show positive change in the following stages: Category A at exploration activity stage 1 and 2, Category B at exploration activity stage 3, Category C-1 at exploration activity stage 4 and 5, and Category C-2 at exploration activity stage 6. Category C-1 students immediately changed to Category C-2 after going through a few stages, and their misconceptions were finally corrected after going through exploration activity stage 6. The misconceptions of students in all categories were corrected scientifically after completing stage 6 education. This study proposes that a combined education of reenactments, exploration materials development, and exploration activities by stages will effectively correct misconceptions about the Earth and moon's movement.