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pre-existing ideas were very necessary to support their understanding of new accepted scientists’ ideas. The eighth grade (age 14 to 15) students (N = 230) in a lower- middle-class area near Tel-Aviv, Israel participated in this study. The student control group (N=111) was taught without considering their pre-existing ideas about photosynthesis. The student experimental group (N=119) was taught with the new strategy. This was organized for correcting students’ pre-existing misconceptions and to prevent student formation of new photosynthesis concepts. For example, the relationship between photosynthesis and respiration in ecosystem was emphasized to correct the misconception i.e. photosynthesis was a type of respiration. Some historical stories of science were introduced to show ancient misconceptions about photosynthesis. The photosynthesis content was also organized to deal with photosynthesis on more general levels such as emphasis of common relationships between photosynthesis and environment, in particular CO2 that is an environmental material from the atmosphere, and plants. The student own life situation was used to motivate the understanding of photosynthesis concepts. The results of this study showed that the strategy had a positive effect on improving the students’ understandings of photosynthesis. The experimental group had significantly better scores than the control group, responding the questionnaire at the end of the teaching process. However, students still misunderstood some chemical aspects of photosynthesis. Both groups thought that H2O was the plants’ element instead of the plants’ component (Eisen and Stavy, 1993). Anderson, Sheldon and Dubay (1990) discussed student retention of photosynthesis misconception, that without the basic important concept understandings such as matter and energy and atomic-molecular theory, did not fully understand about photosynthesis. In addition, Smith and Anderson (1984) found that teachers with limited understanding produce teaching about the nature of science that would support student retention of misconceptions. In 1995, Lumpe and Staver also used the social constructivist perspective, which emphasized people interactions, to develop conceptual understanding about photosynthesis in American Midwestern high school biology classrooms (Lumpe and Staver, 1995). Using a collaborative strategy, the treatment groups were composed of randomly chosen mixed-ability students who felt comfortable in working with their 40
peers, while the control group worked individually. The learning tasks, including the direction, questions and hands-on activities, were administered without any instructions. Both their prior and post knowledge were assessed through the Photosynthesis Concept Test (PCT) of the Institute for Research on Teaching (IRT). The results of their task and test responses indicated that the strategy enabled the treatment group to gain better understanding of the concepts. These findings indicated that teaching strategies based on constructivist perspectives provided progression for student learning about photosynthesis, and therefore students held fewer misconceptions related to photosynthesis. 6. Summary: Relevance of the Constructivist Theory to Teaching The constructivist perspectives have become an important reference for research and practice in science education. Educators have begun to consider the various backgrounds and interests of students as a way to understand teaching and learning contexts. Thinking about how children learn challenges educators to reconceptualize educational situations. There are several teaching implications of the constructivist perspectives. Personal constructivism leads to an understanding of what knowledge is, and how students learn. Knowledge is a representation of reality that needs active learners to receive it. Students’ prior knowledge needs to be considered in the process of this learning view, which is not memorization and recall. The teacher cannot transmit knowledge; the students have to construct it for themselves. As another consideration of the teaching implications of social constructivism, the teaching should focus on assisting individuals in their interpretations of concepts. Teaching should be moved from teacher-centred to student-centred learning (Hodson and Hodson, 1998). Socially collaborative learning with effective language communication should be encouraged to develop students’ ability to learn (John-Steiner and Mahn, 1996). Also, motivation of students’ learning in the classroom should be considered in parallel with an understanding of student learning context. 41
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THESIS CASE STUDIES OF TEACHING AND
Page 5 and 6: TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABL
Page 7 and 8: TABLE OF CONTENTS (CONTINUED) iii P
Page 9 and 10: TABLE OF CONTENTS (CONTINUED) v Pag
Page 11 and 12: LIST OF TABLES Table Page 2.1 Struc
Page 13 and 14: LIST OF TABLES (CONTINUED) Table Pa
Page 15 and 16: CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION This chapter
Page 17 and 18: led to improvement in the promotion
Page 19 and 20: water worked as food transported wi
Page 21 and 22: suggested peer collaboration for hi
Page 23 and 24: chloroplasts and pigments, the ligh
Page 25 and 26: would like to develop a new teachin
Page 27 and 28: concepts, such as absorption of lig
Page 29 and 30: conceptions, the scope of biology e
Page 31 and 32: 3, and 8. In Grades 11-12, the scie
Page 33 and 34: Table 2.3 Basic Science Content Sta
Page 35 and 36: Table 2.3 (Cont’d) Contents Conte
Page 37 and 38: light energy and chlorophyll 2 H O
Page 39 and 40: 2. Photosynthesis Itself Plants, al
Page 41 and 42: of chlorophyll. The students believ
Page 43 and 44: Up to this point, those previous st
Page 45 and 46: partly because of the biology educa
Page 47 and 48: (Matthews, 1997: 6). Philosophicall
Page 49 and 50: understanding capability of environ
Page 51 and 52: 4. Social Constructivism The Russia
Page 53: 5. Constructivist-Based Teaching ab
Page 57 and 58: generation to the next” (Cobb and
Page 59 and 60: 2.1) Thai Living Styles Thailand is
Page 61 and 62: focuses prepare them to take the Na
Page 63 and 64: culture. First, Thai existing views
Page 65 and 66: Third, the nature of science is the
Page 67 and 68: democratic view, that the understan
Page 69 and 70: 4. Summary: Integrating the Nature
Page 71 and 72: elationship between one concept and
Page 73 and 74: Brown (2003) used a combination of
Page 75 and 76: Focusing on thinking and encouragin
Page 77 and 78: Which aspect of the nature of scien
Page 79 and 80: teaching photosynthesis needs impro
Page 81 and 82: − encouraging students to partici
Page 83 and 84: The attempt to understand and inter
Page 85 and 86: Figure 3.1 Research Design of the T
Page 87 and 88: was considered to differentiate the
Page 89 and 90: 2.1) Teacher Preparation for Implem
Page 91 and 92: 3. Evaluating Impacts of Photosynth
Page 93 and 94: Figure 3.2 Survey Developmental Pro
Page 95 and 96: 1.2) Advanced Photosynthesis Survey
Page 97 and 98: 1. accessibility - is enabling the
Page 99 and 100: implementation of the teaching inte
Page 101 and 102: Table 3.4 Data Collection Program S
Page 103 and 104: students. The learning culture in t
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1. Surveys: Content Analysis Conten
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They were confirmed by the teachers
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CHAPTER IV THE PHOTOSYNTHESIS TEACH
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structures and functions of chlorop
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Therefore, this study focused on us
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from constructivism to socio0cultur
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Sub-stand 1: Living Things and Livi
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stroma. 5.3) Lists of Concept Propo
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c) Light independent (dark) phase
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Figure 4.1 Photosynthesis Concept M
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Lesson 1 ‘Plant food’, aimed to
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Lesson 5 ‘Light independent (dark
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Table 4.1 Photosynthesis Lesson Pla
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Table 4.1 Cont’d Lesson 3. Struct
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Table 4.1 Cont’d Lesson 5. Light
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Table 4.1 Cont’d Lesson 6. Studen
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After the researcher finished devel
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per a week, namely two 60-min perio
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always asked what she really did no
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schooling studying, she studied Phy
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B = blackboard C = instrument cupbo
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Forty nine percentages had partial
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for photosynthesis. Only seven perc
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Table 5.3 Correcting the Introducto
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Mrs. Engka: Right (confirmed). You
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structures might be a metaphor of u
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Table 5.4 Advanced Photosynthesis C
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In her planning for the nature of s
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participating in role play discussi
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5.4) Principle IV: Enabling Student
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inside and outside teaching period.
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Activities 5.6) Principle VI: Encou
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6. Summary of the Border School In
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2. Background Information about Mr.
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Table 5.7 Mr. Vyn’s Students Sele
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Mr. Vyn had his own style of teachi
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5. Mr. Vyn’s Implementation of th
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Mr. Vyn: …No. 4…mineral is plan
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The misconception that CO2, mineral
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Although the students incompletely
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model of chloroplast structure base
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undle-sheath cells. Both cells cont
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Table 5.9 Advanced Photosynthesis C
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However, there was no discussion ab
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change in term of application of ol
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5.4) Principle IV: Enabling Student
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discussion. “The teacher always d
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photosynthesis e.g. dark phase. Als
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2. Background Information about Mrs
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Table 5.12 Mrs. Amp’s Students Se
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laboratory activities and concept m
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misconceptions about plant food, pa
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The misconceptions about plant and
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Table 5.13 Correcting the Introduct
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percentages misunderstood that the
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Table 5.14 Advanced Photosynthesis
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One conception about science demand
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Table 5.15 The Nature of Science of
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Not only relating photosynthesis kn
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the book and summarized the concept
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Cross Case Studies: Implementation
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In case of the teachers e.g. Mrs. A
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students’ own views about plants
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CHAPTER VI SUMMARY, DISCUSSION AND
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5. The students’ understanding of
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learning participation rarely appea
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the students to understand the rela
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the science project for environment
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ecause old knowledge was reinterpre
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Table 6.2 Learning Activities Sugge
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understandings about the light inde
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Therefore, this research suggested
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Amir, R. and P. Tamir. 1995. Propos
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Bell, B. 1998. Teacher development
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Campbell, N. and J. Reece. 2002. Bi
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Duit, R. and D. Treagust. 2003. Lea
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Govindjee, J., T. Beatty, and H. Ge
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Institute for the Promotion of Teac
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Lin, H. and C. Chen. 2002. Promotin
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Merriam, S. 1988. Case Study Resear
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Patton, M. 1990. Qualitative Evalua
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Smith, M. and L. Scharmann. 1999. D
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Von Glasersfeld, E. 1995. Radical C
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APPENDIX A: INTRODUCTORY PHOTOSYNTH
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1. Tick any of these items which ca
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6.5) Plants need carbohydrate for t
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APPENDIX B: ADVANCED PHOTOSYNTHESIS
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5. Tick any item (s) which you thin
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12. Here is a statement about plant
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