초록 |
The purpose of this study is to analyze elementary school students' pre-concept of electromagnet and to investigate effects of instruction through social interactions on conceptual changes of the electromagnet. For the purpose, 108 elementary school students of 3 classes were selected from the 6th grade. They were divided into the control group I, control group II and experimental group. The control group I was treated through traditional instruction on the basis of text book. The control group II was instructed with a modified version of the textbook to help them better understand the concept of electromagnet. The experimental group was treated through instruction on the basis of the above modified version of the text book and social interactions. Conceptual changes on electromagnet before and after the treatment were quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed using the identical test. The students' styles of social interaction were qualitatively analyzed with tape records of their discussions and work sheets. Effects of instruction through social interactions based on radical constructivism on the 6th-grade elementary school students' concept of electromagnet were examined here. The results were described as follows. Firstly, after the treatment, the experimental group was statistically significantly higher in mean values of conceptual understanding and academic achievement than both the control group I and II. Secondly, styles of social interaction in the three sub-groups of the experimental group were qualitatively analyzed, among the threes, high- and medium-level sub-groups were higher in the frequency of linguistic social interaction than the low-level sub-group. Those students who were excellent in communication skills actively participated in linguistic social interactions. In discussions among the three sub-groups, students of the high- and medium-level sub-groups provided explanations or information while those of the other sub-group sometimes were passive by just listening, but in large actively participated in communication. In conclusion, instruction through social interactions was effectively changed in the 6th-grade elementary school students' concept of electromagnet. |