• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.1049-1062
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• 2015

To understand the synergy of collaboration and to apply this understanding to education, an analysis of how a team solves a problem and the sharing of their mental models is needed. This paper analyzed two things qualitatively to find out the source of synergy in a collaborative problem-solving process. First, the sharing contents in team mental model and second, the process of sharing the team mental model. Ten gifted middle school students collaborated to solve an ill-defined problem called sunshine through foliage problem. The gifted students shared the following results after the collaboration: First, scientific concept prior to common idea or the idea that all group members have before the discussions; second, unique individual ideas of group members; and third, created ideas that were not originally in the personal mental model. With created ideas, the team model becomes more than the sum of individuals. According to the results of process analysis, in the process of sharing mental model, the students proposed and shared the most important variable first. This result implied that the analysis of the order of sharing ideas is important as much as finding shared ideas. Also, the result shows that through their collaboration, the gifted students' shared mental model became more refined and expanded as compared to their individual prior mental models. It is recommended that these results can be used to measure shared mental model and develop collaborative learning models for students.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.31 no.5
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• pp.734-744
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• 2011

The purpose of this study was to identify middle school students' mental models on plate tectonics and to compare the mental models of verbal-learning-style students with those of visual-learning-style students. 94 student participants in 9th grade were requested to draw and explain three topics; generation of magma, the formation of the mountain range and the interior of the Earth. The criterions for analyzing the mental models are derived from the data of the drawing task. The research results were as follows: The mental models on the generation of magma were classified as 'unstable model,' 'partial casual model,' 'causal model,' and 'conceptual model.' On the other hand, the mental models on the interior of the Earth were classified as 'static unstable model,' 'dynamic unstable model,' and 'conceptual model.' Students holding 'unstable model' were unable to relate the plate collision and the magma generation. They showed a variety of alternative conceptions of study areas, such as 'magma is generated from the core' and 'the mountain is formed by rising of the plates themselves.' Also, visual-learning-style students showed higher proportion of conceptual models and lower proportion of unstable mental models than verbal-learning-style students on three topics. The findings revealed that the students tend to have different concepts on the plate tectonics depending on their learning style.

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.475-491
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• 2006

In physics education, the research on students' conceptions has developed in the discussion on the nature and the difficulty of conceptual change. Recently, mental models have been a theoretical background in concrete arguments on "how students' conceptions are constructed or created." Mental models that integrate information in the presented problem and individual knowledge in their long-term memory have important information about not only expressed ideas but also in the thinking process behind the expressed ideas. The purpose of this study is to investigate the forming process and the characteristics of high school student's mental models about circular motion, and how they were changed by instruction. We used the think-aloud method based on the instrument for identifying student's mental models about circular motion, pretest of physics concept, mind map and interview for investigating student's characteristics. The results of the study showed that instructions based on the mental model theory facilitated scientific expressed model, but several factors that affected forming mental models like epistemological belief didn't change scientifically after 3 lessons.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.645-654
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• 2007

The purpose of this study was to investigate students' mental models and alternative conceptions about the Earth's interior. A total of 126 10th grade students participated in this study. They were requested to draw Earth's interior tasks and were interviewed about their mental models. A coding frame was designed to classify the students' drawings and interview responses, and then a four step cognitive model was established based on the frame of coding. In addition, the relationship of mental models was compared in terms of students' gender, and the type of alternative conceptions was analysed. The research results showed a variety of alternative conceptions on the interior of the Earth. The classified mental models showed naive mental model (11%), unstable mental model (81%), conceptual model (8%), while 69% of all sampled students accounted for the static process. The gender difference in the cognitive model showed no statistical significance.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.352-362
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• 2008

This study explored pre-service teachers' mental models about eclipse phenomena to investigate their understandings on the earth science concept needed f3r an integrated approach. We conducted in-depth interviews with two different contexts on 30 secondary and 36 primary pre-service teachers participants, and analyzed phenomenological primitives (p-prims) and facets of causal explanations about eclipses. Based on this study, we identified four different levels of mental models about eclipses. Four mental models were categorized as (1) Screening model, (2) Orbital plane model, (3) Hybrid model, and (4) Shadow cast model. Screening model is a flawed mental model, orbital plane model is an incomplete correct mental model, and shadow cast model is a scientifically correct mental model. Hybrid model, composite of two or more mental models, use multiple mental models simultaneously. Orbital plane model was the most widespread mental model in secondary pre-service teachers group, whereas screening model was used frequently in primary group. It was found that the level of mental model could be determined by the level of facet and p-prims. We confirmed context sensitivity of the mental models and perceived the necessity of integrated approaches to promote progression of mental models. Implications of our findings for enhancing pre-service science teachers' topic-specific pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) associated with eclipse phenomena are also discussed here.

• Journal of the Korean earth science society
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.111-126
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to derive the criterions of each type of mental models on the plate boundaries and to investigate high school students' mental models on these concepts. The 11th grade student participants were requested to draw the collisional, convergent, and divergent boundaries and were interviewed individually. The drawings and the data gathered through the interviews were analyzed qualitatively. The mental models on the plate boundaries were classified as 'naive model', 'unstable model', 'causal model', and 'conceptual model'. The criterions for analyzing the mental models were the differentiations of the lithospheric plates and the mantle, the explanations of the motion of the plates and lower mantle, the demonstrations of topographical features of the plate boundaries and the causal relationships between the mantle convection and the topographical features. The findings revealed that the students holding 'the naive model' and 'the unstable model' were unable to relate the mantle convection and the three boundaries. In contrast, the students holding 'the causal model' and 'the conceptual model' were able to explain that the mantle convection causes the three boundaries. Also, the types of epistemological belief were different depending on their mental models. Students holding the naive model and the unstable model tended to rely upon the external authorities.

• 한국지구과학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.09a
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• pp.254-262
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• 2005

본 연구에서는 중학교 과학 영재아들이 가지고 있는 조석에 관한 정신모형을 탐색하기 위하여 상황에 따른 개념 유형을 분류하고, 각 유형들을 구성하는 국면들을 분석하였다. 조석 현상에 관해 두 가지 상황으로 구성된 과제 수행을 실시한 후 그 응답 결과를 분석한 결과, 상당수의 학생들이 상황에 따라 서로 다른 개념 유형을 나타내었다. 상황에 따른 개념 유형들을 구성하고 있는 국면을 분석한 결과, 각 유형들은 내용-일반적 국면을 공통적으로 포함하고 있었으나, 내용-특정적 국면과 전략적 국면에서는 많은 차이를 나타내었다. 두 가지 상황에서 나타나는 개념 유형들과 이들 유형을 구성하는 국면들을 조합하여 학생들의 정신모형을 분석한 결과 다음과 같은 4가지 모형으로 나눌 수 있었다: (1) Tide model (2) Force model (3) Phase model (4) Hybrid model. Tide model은 과학적으로 옳은 모형이며, Force model과 Phase model은 옳지 않은 모형이며, Hybrid model은 혼합 모형으로 상황에 따라 나타나는 개념 유형이 서로 부합되지 않는 모형이다. 중학교 과학 영재아들이 조석 현상에 대해 가장 많이 가지고 있는 모형은 Tide model(45.0%)이었으며, 그 다음으로는 Hybrid model(30.0%), Force model(12.5%), Phase model(7.5%) 순으로 나타났다.

• 한국과학교육학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.01a
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• pp.126.1-126.1
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• 2008

• Journal of The Korean Association For Science Education
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.423-434
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to investigate preservice earth science teachers' mental models through applications of Coriolis force experiment apparatus. After the root of preconception was examined by face to face interviews based on the questionnaire, five preservice earth science teachers were finally selected for this study. The mental models about concept of Coriolis force was classified into naive mental model, static unstable mental model, dynamic unstable mental model, and scientific mental model through the result of individual interviews and their drawings. According to the mental model analysis about Coriolis' force conception, students C and M showed naive mental model about concept of Coriolis force before experiment. After the experiment, student M's model changed to static unstable mental model. Student C's model improved to dynamic unstable mental model. In adiition, students D and O's model improved from static unstable mental model to dynamic unstable mental model. In the case of student B, the dynamic unstable mental model was maintained after the experiment, however, student B's preconception changed to scientific concept. It turned out that a change occurred from low mental model level to integrated mental model after the application of the developed Coriolis' force experiment apparatus. According to the results, national curriculum is similar to static unstable mental model and the result of developed Coriolis' force experiment apparatus is similar to dynamic unstable mental model. It is suggested that it become the theoretical foundation to develop more comfortable and advanced Coriolis force experiment apparatus by improving the experiment apparatus.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.311-328
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• 2005

This study was to understand the components that influence preservice elementary teachers' mental models about 'astronomical phenomena' such as the Seasons of the year, and the Lunar Phases of the month. We selected university of education students among whom 23 were in the second you. The data collected from the paper-pencil test and individual interview with students. The results of this study show that the students had apparent synthetic Mental models, and that the distance theory, and occultation theory had most important effects on their Mental Models. It can be said that preservice elementary teachers' initial mental models of the' astronomical phenomenon' have their origin in their belief sets (specific theory) related to 'astronomical phenomenon', on the basis of which they can interpret their observations and cultural information with the constraints of a naive framework of physics. The structures and possible sources of their mental models for overcoming these synthetic mental models were also discussed.