Abstract
This research examined the effectiveness of teaching strategies that induced conceptual change in undergraduates' preconceptions about forces, to clarify how conceptual change is achieved. Two experimental tasks, a balance task (plain task) and a falling motion task (difficult task), were performed by 82 undergraduates identified by a pretest as having three types of preconceptions about forces: designated forces, motive forces, and operative forces. Measurement of conceptual conflicts and cognitive motivation, and analysis of participants' protocols, revealed the following. First, for many participants who gave correct answers to the plain task, incongruity-arousing information produced optimal conceptual conflicts, which led to perplexity among participants. For many who answered the difficult task correctly, incongruity-arousing information caused maximum conceptual conflict, leading to confusion. In addition, to resolve conceptual conflicts participants faced when engaged in the difficult task, an effective teaching strategy was to explicitly show students how to properly relate preconceptions and scientific conceptions. Lastly, among many of the students who gave correct answers to the plain task, incongruity-reducing information produced cognitive curiosity, facilitating recall and memory transfer. In contrast, for many who answered the difficult task correctly, cognitive curiosity caused by incongruity-reducing information led instead to surprise.
