Consistency of Students' Reasoning About Changes in Matter Across Contexts

• In Event: 33.073 - Effects on Student Learning in the Science Classroom

Abstract

In line with the vision of NGSS, we investigated the consistency of students’ reasoning about changes in matter (a crosscutting concept), across three contexts; each context is about one biological/chemical process: decaying (cellular respiration), plant growth (photosynthesis), and burning (combustion). Although these processes are traditionally taught separately in life sciences and physical sciences, they are all carbon-transforming processes that follow the law of mass conservation. We collected 100 written assessments and 15 clinical interviews, and developed a model to describe students’ reasoning about matter. The model contains three qualitatively different reasoning patterns; each pattern contains a set of specific components. We used the model to evaluate student achievement and examine the consistency of their reasoning within and across contexts.

Authors

• Hui Jin, Educational Testing Service

• Hayat Hokayem, Texas Christian University

• Wei He, Northwest Evaluation Association

• Cathy Mehl, The Ohio State University - Columbus