The role of existing knowledge in reading comprehension and conceptual change in science education

Abstract

Recent research in science education has illustrated that students, prior to formal science teaching, have constructed for themselves interpretations of and explanations for many natural phenomena, and that these beliefs may persist despite up to five years of science tuition. The research has also demonstrated that these beliefs, which are part of a student’s existing knowledge, are an important factor in determining what learning, if any, will occur. This has led to the development of a view of learning in science as conceptual change, rather than concept acquisition, and as an active, constructive process rather than a passive, absorptive one. This view (and in particular the generative learning model) has been adopted in this study. A parallel development in reading research has also emphasised the role of existing knowledge in reading comprehension and a view of reading comprehension as the active construction of meaning. The current research spanned both these two related fields of reading comprehension and conceptual change in science education and focused on the role of existing knowledge in both processes. In particular, it investigated the role of existing knowledge (for example, the everyday meaning of ‘animal’) of some 13-year-old students in comprehending a text about the scientific concept of animal, and in what ways this influenced conceptual change. Three different methodologies were used - one in each of the three phases of the research programme. These were the qualitative interview techniques (the ‘spot-the-mistake’ and ‘reading-to-learn’ interviews) and quantitative survey measures. The findings gave further support to a constructivist view of reading comprehension and conceptual change, and a strong interactionist view of reading comprehension was suggested, as existing knowledge not only contributed to the constructed meanings, but influenced what constructions were made. The main finding was that existing knowledge was used not only to construct a meaning but to evaluate it in terms of whether to accept or reject the construction. Learning in science, therefore, involves not only the construction of the intended meaning, but accepting it as well. Learning difficulties may occur at either the construction or acceptance stage. The results suggested that in science education, students’ difficulties in accepting a scientific construction may be as great as, if not greater than, those in constructing the scientific conception itself. The implications of the findings for teaching and learning, the curriculum, reading in science classrooms and textbook authors are discussed in the final chapter.