探索運用心智模型以進行科學預測與解釋之歷程:以熱對流現象為例

Abstract

瞭解學生如何運用心智模型進行科學預測與解釋，乃協助學生進行有意義學習的重 要關鍵之一。基於此理念，本研究擬針對熱對流現象，探討學生所持之對應的心智模型， 並且，研究的焦點將著重於學生如何運作其心智模型以進行預測與解釋，以及學生如何 運用多元的心智模型來表徵熱對流的動態歷程。本研究預計招募50 位具理工背景的大 學生，並採用半結構式晤談(semi-structured interview)的方式以進行資料收集；為期能詳 實地掌握學生運用心智模型的歷程，研究者將透過錄影的方式，在晤談的過程中將廣泛 收集學生放聲思考(thinking aloud)、繪圖與書寫等相關的資料。而在資料分析方面，研 究者預計採用Chiou and Anderson (2010)所建議的本體-過程(ontology-process)整合模式 來進行，期能藉由綜合性地分析訪談者對熱對流現象所持的本體論信念、及模擬熱對流 現象的過程，以深入理解其如何運作心智模型來預測和解釋相關的熱對流現象。本研究 之成果除了可協助研究者與教師進一步理解學生對熱對流現象之心智模型外，更可提供 其作為設計模型本位教學活動的基礎；並且，本研究對心智模型之運作過程的深入描 繪，亦可挹注更多元的資訊來檢核心智模型的相關理論、為心智模型的發展提供建設性 的回應。

Knowing how students manipulate their mental models to make scientific predictions and explanations is a key element to help them engage in meaningful science learning. Based on this belief, the main purpose of this present study is to explore students’ mental models of heat convection. Special attention will be focused on how students use their mental models to predict and explain physical phenomena related to heat convection, and whether they can use multiple mental models to represent the process of heat convention. To probe students’ mental models of heat convection, this present study will conduct semi-structured interviews to collect research data, and will recruit fifty science or engineering majors as the participants/interviewees. Particularly, in order to successfully capture students’ on-the-spot mental models, a series of interview-about-event questions will be used to elicit the participants’ think-aloud protocols, utterances, drawings, and writings. Based on these multiple types of data, this present study will utilize the ontology-process approach (Chiou & Anderson, 2010) to conduct the data analysis. That is, the participants’ ontological beliefs of heat convection as well as their simulations of the dynamic process of heat convection will be jointly considered to interpret how the participants manipulate their mental models to generate predictions and explanations. Moreover, the participants’ ontological beliefs and imaginary processes of heat convention will be used to not only differentiate the mental models held by different participants, but examine the coherence of the mental models expressed by the same participant. Optimistically, the results of this study can help to enhance science teachers’ understanding of how students manipulate their mental models of heat convection, and can provide a solid foundation for designing model-based instruction of heat convection. Furthermore, the detailed qualitative information offered by this study can shed some light on the construction and verification of mental model theories.