Experimental processes of destabilizing mental representations and transforming them into scientific concepts. Understanding the propagation of light by ten-year-olds
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Ravanis, Konstantinos
Papamichael, Yannis
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Abstract
The aim of this article is to present the results of an attempt to transform the 10-year-old pupils'misconceptions regarding the time of the propagation of light into scientific notions. At first we studied the representations of 132 pupils, using a directed interview during which pre¬dictions and exlanations were asked for four experimental conditions. We came to the conclu¬sion that childrens' thought is dominated by the ituitive representation of the instantaneous propagation of light. Thus we designed an experimental - didactic intervention which by leading childrens' thought to a sosio-cognitive conflict resulted in the statistically significant progress at the experimental group compared to the control group which showed non-significant progress.
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Keywords
Light, Time, Propagation of light, Representations