Students’ Conceptions of Science Learning Before and After the Pandemic Outbreak: A Drawing Analysis

This study investigated students’ conceptions of science learning before and after the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak via drawing analysis. A total of 521 Taiwanese students in 7th, 9th, and 11th grades were asked to illustrate how they conceptualized science learning in an actual and ideal context. A coding checklist was developed to analyze the elements in the drawings. Epistemic network analysis (ENA) was employed to investigate the connections between the coded elements. The results suggest that students’ conceptions of science learning before and after the pandemic outbreak were significantly different. Three major findings were made as follows: (1) students conceptualized learning with technological products more after the pandemic outbreak, both in an actual and ideal context; (2) elements related to science, nature, and the location of the drawing were drawn less frequently after the pandemic; and (3) elements related to learning were drawn more frequently after the pandemic. Implications include that while students started to take learning science with technology for granted, their imagination and inclination towards scientific inquiry with technology may still be limited. The results of this study confirm the application of ENA in drawing analysis. Concerns about the shift in learning conceptions and future research directions are also discussed.