Chinese Journal of Science Education

Abstract

In this paper we shall report the results of two learning studies on the water-level concept. One study focused on a group experimental learning activity; the other was on a free self-leaming activity. The experimental learning activity consisted of three successive group tests. In the second test each student was asked to make close observations of the actual water-level phenomena while answering related questions. The free self-leaming activity consisted of two group tests. The second test was held five days later and the students participatants were not informed in advance. All tests were administered to groups in a paper and pencil format. About 500 elementary and high school students participated in each learning activity.

Learning effects of the activities were judged by students' conceptual shifts among three stage levels, i.e., the lowest concept level BC that demonstrates no knowledge about the horizontality of the water surface in container; the middle concept level D that demonstrates only occasional knowledge about the horizontality of the water surface; and the final concept level E that demonstrates complete concept of horizontality in all situations.

The main findings are: (1) both experimental results indicated that learning of the concept is dependent on the initial conceptual levels of the students;(2) students participating in the experimental learning activity demonstrated no better conceptual learning effect than those participating in free self-leaming activity; (3) results of both experiments indicate that the students with original conceptual level BC and those students with original high conceptual level D have very different learning behaviors; (4) immediate observations provoked little conceptual learning when the jar was tilted at an arbitrary angle, i.e., very few students could see the horizontality of the water surface and thus correct their misconceptions; (5) two ways of thinking could be used when the students were facing the problems : one was a static type in which the bottle with the water inside was considered as situated on the table statically; the other was a dynamic type in which the present orientation of bottle on the table with the water inside was considered as rotated from a certain previous orientation. For the students with initial low conceptual level, using the static type was easier than the dynamic type to get the correct answers when facing the water level problems.

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