Research On High School Students’ Conceptual Change In Information Technology

Basing on an understanding of learning, a conclusion was reached thatconceptual change might be a reasonable perspective in the research of high schoolstudent’s learning information technology education. On the basis of the theoreticalconsequence, two pre-research was carried out and a problem came out:preconceptions do exist about information technology. Then the practicality of thisresearch was certified.Three research questions were solved in this research which tried to dosomething about conceptual change. The first one was about the high school students’preconceptions about information technology and their changes after class.Specifically, two sub-questions were: What are their preconceptions about specificcontent of information technology? And what are the changes on them after class?The second one was about high school students’ conceptual types and structure ininformation technology. Specifically, what conceptual types could be drawn? Is therea systematic structure in students’ minds? And the last one was about teachingstrategies to promote conceptual change, that was, how to design teaching strategiesto promote conceptual change in information technology?To solve these questions, four stages of work were done using questionnairesurvey and single group pre and posttests experiment. An instrument developed by inthis research was used to study high school students’ preconceptions aboutinformation technology and their changes after class, through which this researchreached an objective understanding of students’conceptual change. Then the students’conceptual types and structures were deeply analyzed, and conclusions were refinedduring this stage. A scaffold aiming at improving conceptua change was constructedthen to catch the theoretically superordinate interpretation of the elements andprocedures of the scaffold. At last, a scaffold basing on some specific content wasconstructed and tested, which practically demonstrated the results of the third stage.Specificlly, four stages of work were carried out.Initially, an instrument was developed.Basing on the improved two-tier diagnostic test, an instrument testingpreconceptions was developed within10steps.1019students from18classes of9high schools in3provinces were investigated and at last, we developed a two-tierchoice questions questionnaire which consisted of18questions with a good reliability and good validity, and involving18points of5learning unites. Cronbach’s α of theinstrument was0.82, factor loadings of all indices in the measure model are greaterthan2, χ2/df of the measure model is2.56, RMSEA is0.07, CFI is0.92and NNFI is0.91.Secondly, high school students’ preconceptions about information technologyand their changes after class were studied.The instrument was used to study high school students’ preconceptions aboutinformation technology and their changes after class.639students from12classes of12high schools in6provinces were investigated. Results and conclusions are asfollowes.1. Students’70preconceptions about the18points, and their changes after classwere drawn.2. We found that high school students’ concepts about information technologycould be included into6conceptual types: almost scientific, confusing one thing withanother, holding a part as the whole, taking outward appearance as inner essence,taking some properties as inner essence, building connection out of the thin air bydaily life experiences.3. Concept maps of students were made basing on the preconceptions and theirchanges, also, scientific maps was drawn to make a comparison, structural characters,structural types and behaviors of each conceptual type, then, were analyzed.4. The concepts founded in this research showed that they could form systematicmaps rather than completely discrete fragments, the features of the systematic mapswere also reached.Thirdly, a scaffold aiming at improving conceptua change was constructed.This research constructed a scaffold consisting of core and an operationframework. In the construction of the core, three key elements were analyzed: method,reflection, and situation. Specifically,6kinds of methods (compare, discover, clarify,reason, and transit),2kinds of reflections (self-examine, peer examine),3kinds ofsituations (inspiring situation, intuitive situation, analogical situation) were designed.In the construction of the operation framework, this research analyzed two workingelements: content and form, and the procedures of the scaffold. Specifically, paperhandbook, electronic handbook and web-based learning forum are three forms of thescaffold. Style, role and tone were considered when we analyze the content.Procedures of the scaffold were also given. This stage indicated the theoreticallysuperordinate interpretation of the elements and procedures of the scaffold. Fourthly, the effect of the scaffold was tested.A scaffold of resource manager was constructed and was used in the single grouppre and posttests experiment on44high school students form a normal class ofShandong province. Methods, reflections and situations were designed basing on thestudents’s preconceptions and two working elements were also given in detail. Theresults showed that the score of the posttest was significantly higher than that of thepretest in the specific study points. This stage practically demonstrated the results ofthe third stage.