0000000000521871
AUTHOR
José Otero
Detection of explanation obstacles in scientific texts: the effect of an understanding task vs. an experiment task
The aim of this study is to analyse the effect of tasks on the detection of explanation obstacles when secondary school students read scientific texts. Students were instructed to read short passages under different task conditions, and to ask questions if necessary. Obstacle detection was operationalised in terms of the type of questions asked by the students. The experiment examined the influence of goals associated with the task of reading to understand a text vs. reading to perform a procedure described by the text (a science experiment). Significantly, more explanation obstacles were found in the understanding condition than in the experiment condition. Scientific text also had an effe…
A Review of Conceptual Change Research in Science Education
This article describes research done on conceptual change as published in four of the better-known science education journals during a 20-year period, from 1981 to 2001.The present review was focused at identifying three characteristics of that research: a)temporal distribution, b) research topics, and c) methodology: experimental designs and validity. The results show that much research work was carried out, although essential elements of Conceptual Change remained unclear. With respect to the meth-odology, we have evidenced scarce replication of previous studies, and an important number of studies that fall short of desirable validity levels
Questionning and reading goals: information seeking questions asked on scientific texts read under different task conditions
Background: A number of studies report that few questions are asked in classrooms and that many of them are shallow questions. Aims: This study investigates the way in which reading goals determine questioning on scientific texts. Reading goals were manipulated through two different tasks: reading for understanding versus reading to solve a problem. Sample: A total of 183 university students. Methods: In the first and third questioning experiments the participants read two short texts. Students in one condition were instructed to understand the texts, while in the alternative condition they had to read texts to solve a problem. Students were instructed to write down any questions they might…