thinking skills

							Theme(s): Thinking skills, Science

Page 1
How do pupils’ beliefs about learning affect their understanding of
physics?

Author(s):
Stathopoulou, C & Vosniadou, S.

Publisher:
Contemporary Educational Psychology 21 pp. 255-281
[Original title: Exploring the relationship between physics-related epistemological
beliefs and physics understanding]

Introduction
Previous research suggests that epistemological beliefs, that is, our
conceptualisation and understanding of what knowledge is and what it means, has a
direct impact on how we learn. Evidence from this research has described two types
of epistemological perspectives which may affect learning:
     relativists – who perceive knowledge as context dependent. This group is
        good at comprehension monitoring and comprehension strategies; and
     dualists – who perceive knowledge as factual (in that it is either right or
        wrong). This group can exhibit poor text comprehension in the social and
        physical sciences.

The researchers attempted to test the potential contribution of these models in
physics. The researchers’ aim was to explore the relationship between:
            students’ epistemological beliefs (such as the nature of physics
               knowledge – are physics concepts definite and fixed or tentative and
               changing); and
            their conceptual understanding of physics. They found that students’
               attitudes to knowledge can affect their ability to learn physics and that
               students with a more sophisticated attitude to knowledge had a
               distinct advantage in learning.

Keywords:      Greece; Key Stage 3; Key Stage 4; secondary schools;
socioeconomic background; physics; motivation; beliefs; attitudes; stereotypes; pupil
voice; assessment; achievement; thinking skills

Page 2
Contents
What did the research discover about students’ ability to learn physics?    Page 3
What attitudes to knowledge appear to affect the learning of physics?       Page 4
How might students’ beliefs about knowledge affect their understanding?     Page 5
How was the study designed?                                                 Page 6
What are the implications for practitioners?                                Page 7
Where can I find out more?                                                  Page 8

Page 3
What did the research discover about students’ ability to learn
physics?
The research found that pupils with a more sophisticated attitude to knowledge (see
next section) did appear to have a better understanding of physics. There was also
the suggestion that sophistication of knowledge and learning was a better predictor of
physics understanding than school grades in the subject.

The study found that the aspect of belief which had the greatest impact on students’
understanding was the certainty of knowledge. The main difference between the
more and less sophisticated perspectives was that the less sophisticated group
believed that knowledge is unchanging fact, whereas the more sophisticated
perspective suggests that knowledge is fluid and changing, and that the process of
learning may be as valuable as the learning outcome itself. Students with less
sophisticated attitudes viewed knowledge as something passed from teacher to
learner in a one way, unchanging process

Students who had a deep conceptual understanding of physics (the relativists)
achieved high grades, but the opposite was not always true; students who believed
that knowledge was factual and unchanging (the dualists) did not necessarily gain
lower grades. The researchers argued that some students can achieve high grades
in physics without having a deep conceptual understanding of the subject-domain if
their attitude to knowledge lends itself to the subject, as is the case with relativists.

Page 4
What attitudes to knowledge appear to affect the learning of
physics?
The researchers explored four areas of students’ attitudes to knowledge which they
believed could affect students’ learning. These are listed below, showing the
differences between more and less sophisticated perspectives:
      structure of knowledge;
           o those with a more sophisticated perspective who view knowledge as
                a system of well organised and reorganised theoretical elements as
                compared with;
           o those with a less sophisticated perspective view knowledge as a
                piecemeal collection of facts;
      stability of knowledge
           o the more sophisticated view is that knowledge is not absolute, it is
                changing and changeable: whereas;
           o the more simplistic view is that knowledge is fixed and/or
                approximates to absolute truth;
      source of knowing;
           o the more complex perspective suggests that knowledge is acquired
                through the evaluation of competing theories through critical enquiry;
           o from a less complex view, knowledge is simple to acquire and once
                acquired remains stable;
      justification of knowing
           o The more complex perspective is that the value of knowledge is
                gained from the evaluation of competing theories and the critical
                enquiry that accompanies this process, but
           o the simpler perspective is that the value knowledge is gained as it is
                passed from the teacher to the taught.
Page 5
How might students’ beliefs about knowledge affect their
understanding?
The study suggests that when students hold the notion that physics is made up of
absolute facts it may curb pupils’ comprehension. Those with a more sophisticated
perspective see physics ideas as more context dependent; they believe that
knowledge is created through critical analysis and the evaluation of competing
theories.

Cultural factors may also be significant in the development of students’
understanding. For example, a related study (Qian and Pan, 2002) suggests
differences in beliefs regarding the nature of knowledge and the ability to learn
between American and Chinese students lead to different levels of learning. The
research suggests that practitioners should consider the effect of attitudes to
authority and other factors which may vary between cultures when planning how their
teaching helps pupils develop their own beliefs about learning.

Page 6
How was the study designed?

The study encompassed 394 15-16 year olds of middle-class backgrounds in
Greece, and was split into 3 stages;
    assessing the sophistication of students epistemological beliefs through
       questionnaires and testing;
    testing the 10% with the highest epistemological sophistication (HES) and the
       10% with the lowest epistemological sophistication (LES) about physics (with
       FMCE (the force and motion conceptual evaluation instrument) tests about
       Newton’s laws) to see if there were links between sophistication and the
       ability to learn the subject; and
    testing the entire subject group (not just the extreme 10%’s) in order to
       validate the earlier findings.

Page 7
What are the implications for practitioners?

In completing this digest the author began to ask the following questions about the
implications for practice:
For teachers:
     the study suggests that the relative sophistication of learning attitudes may
        limit or enhance pupils’ ability to learn. Could you give students examples of
        different learning methods and ask them to identify which attitudes were
        helpful and which weren’t? Could you perhaps highlight historical examples
        where existing ideas have been challenged?
     the study found that teaching physics as being context-dependent may have
        helped pupils to a deeper understanding of the subject. Could you devise
        activities that help students’ explore their existing ideas in a range of contexts
        as a means of developing a deeper understanding?
     differences between groups (see page 4 for the differences) highlighted by
        this study risked the creation of a two-tier classroom. Could you set your
        students group work tasks that require them to work together? Could you use
         role play to show how students can negotiate viewpoints to reach a shared
         conclusion? Have you tried comparing approaches to this with colleagues?

For head teachers:
    in order to develop students’ views about knowledge acquisition it may be
       necessary to challenge teachers’ beliefs first. Could you introduce teacher
       development activities that help teachers challenge their own beliefs about
       knowledge, across a range of subjects?

Page 8
Where can I find out more?

Practitioners may be interested in other TRIPS digests about pupils' learning and the
strategies that can be used to enhance it. The following digests might interest you:

Different patterns of development in primary children's understanding of addition and
subtraction
available at
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/ research/ themes/ Mathematics/ Differentpatterns/

Helping children think: deliberately averting your gaze as a learning strategy
available at
http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/ research/ themes/ thinkingskills/ Helpingstrategy/