A CASE STUDY ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN'S ALTERNATIVE FRAMEWORKS AND VIEWPOINTS CONCERNING CAUSES OF MOTION

Abstract

Alternative frameworks, which had been introduced to represent children's understanding by Driver, et al. and Watts, can be useful to analyze children's frameworks concerning force. But using only alternative frameworks was not sufficient enough to explain children's cognition more strictly. The purpose of this study is to identify children's alternative frameworks and viewpoints in different dynamic situations. For this purpose, the authors developed a strategy with a series of dynamic examples which had various human effects. The authors applied this strategy to children in some elementary schools and lower secondary schools. Authors analyzed children's responses and got some findings as follows: (1) Children's viewpoints concerning causes of moving events develop from phenomenal points towards physical points. (2) At the context change, children tend to apply D (designated forces) framework to the concept of forces. Its tendency is more typical in elementary school pupils than lower secondary school students. (3) The strategy with the different human concerning is able to reform children's frameworks according to various situations, notably for lower secondary students. From the above findings and generative learning theory, the authors formulate a hypothesis about the development on the concept of force. This hypothesis should be verified in the further studies.