TY - JOUR
T1 - Exploring students’ conceptions of science learning via drawing
T2 - a cross-sectional analysis
AU - Hsieh, Wen Min
AU - Tsai, Chin Chung
N1 - Funding Information:
The funding of this research is supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan, under grant contract number MOST 104-2511-S-011-002-MY2. The authors would like to thank Dr. Pin-Ju Chen for his assistance with data collection. The acknowledgement also goes to the six coders for their assistance with coding.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Copyright:
Copyright 2017 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2017/2/11
Y1 - 2017/2/11
N2 - This cross-sectional study explored students’ conceptions of science learning via drawing analysis. A total of 906 Taiwanese students in 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, and 12th grade were asked to use drawing to illustrate how they conceptualise science learning. Students’ drawings were analysed using a coding checklist to determine the presence or absence of specified attributes. Data analysis showed that the majority of students pictured science learning as school-based, involving certain types of experiment or teacher lecturing. In addition, notable cross-sectional differences were found in the ‘Activity’ and ‘Emotions and attitudes’ categories in students’ drawings. Three major findings were made: (1) lower grade level students conceptualised science learning with a didactic approach, while higher graders might possess a quantitative view of science learning (i.e. how much is learned, not how well it is learned), (2) students’ positive and negative emotions and attitudes toward science learning reversed around middle school, and (3) female students expressed significantly more positive emotions and attitudes than their male counterparts. In conclusion, higher graders’ unfruitful conceptions of science learning warrant educators’ attention. Moreover, further investigation of girls’ more positive emotions and attitudes found in this study is needed.
AB - This cross-sectional study explored students’ conceptions of science learning via drawing analysis. A total of 906 Taiwanese students in 4th, 6th, 8th, 10th, and 12th grade were asked to use drawing to illustrate how they conceptualise science learning. Students’ drawings were analysed using a coding checklist to determine the presence or absence of specified attributes. Data analysis showed that the majority of students pictured science learning as school-based, involving certain types of experiment or teacher lecturing. In addition, notable cross-sectional differences were found in the ‘Activity’ and ‘Emotions and attitudes’ categories in students’ drawings. Three major findings were made: (1) lower grade level students conceptualised science learning with a didactic approach, while higher graders might possess a quantitative view of science learning (i.e. how much is learned, not how well it is learned), (2) students’ positive and negative emotions and attitudes toward science learning reversed around middle school, and (3) female students expressed significantly more positive emotions and attitudes than their male counterparts. In conclusion, higher graders’ unfruitful conceptions of science learning warrant educators’ attention. Moreover, further investigation of girls’ more positive emotions and attitudes found in this study is needed.
KW - Conceptions of science learning
KW - cross-sectional study
KW - drawing analysis
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85010004884&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85010004884&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/09500693.2017.1280640
DO - 10.1080/09500693.2017.1280640
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85010004884
VL - 39
SP - 274
EP - 298
JO - European Journal of Science Education
JF - European Journal of Science Education
SN - 0950-0693
IS - 3
ER -