Using physical and virtual manipulatives to Enhance conceptual understanding in heat and temperature
Year: 2007
Type: conference-paper
Study design: Clinical Trial
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of Physical Manipulatives (PM) and the combination of \nPhysical Manupulatives with Virtual Manipulatives (VM) on pre-service teachers’ understanding of scientific \nconcepts in the domain of heat and temperature. A pre-post comparison study design was conducted that involved \n62 undergraduate pre-service elementary school teachers enrolled in an introductory course in heat and \ntemperature that was based upon the Physics by Inquiry curriculum (McDermott and The Physics Education \nGroup, 1996). The participants were assigned to an experimental (EG, 34 students) and a control group (CG, 28 \nstudents). The CG used PM to conduct the experiments, whereas, the EG used a combination of PM and VM. \nConceptual tests were administered to assess students’ understanding before, during, and after the study The data \nanalysis involved both quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis. The quantitative analysis showed that \nexperimenting with the combination of PM and VM enhanced students’ conceptual understanding more than \nexperimenting with PM alone. The qualitative analysis revealed that the EG had a larger shift from not scientific \naccepted conceptions to scientific accepted conceptions concerning changes in temperature, heat and heat \ntransfer than the CG.
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
SDG: Quality education
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2266150529