• 한국과학교육학회지
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• 제25권6호
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• pp.698-709
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• 2005

When modeling students' conceptual understanding, there are several different frameworks, among which are the alternative conception framework and the mental model framework, which converge to suggest a form of knowledge representation. However, little research has explained how they are different from each other and from memory. The purpose of this study was to develop a new mental model theory that integrates the different terminologies and their background theories, which refer to students' ideas not only in science education, but also in other research areas. For this purpose, at first, we compared different terminologies including alternative conception, p-prim, and mental models, and the underlying theories used for representing students' ideas in learning science. Through such comparison, we tried to find the relationship among them. We reviewed related literature and synthesized the results from both cognitive science (related research areas) and science education approaches, especially, Vosniadou's mental model theory. Based on reviewing previous studies, we have developed a preliminary mental model theory 'an integrated theoretical structure of mental models'. We applied the new mental model theory to interpret data on students' ideas about circular motion from our previous research. We expect our new mental model theory will help us understand how students form their own ideas in science from an integrated perspective.