Characterising A-level Students' Conceptual Integration Between Physics and Chemistry

Conceptual integration refers to the way students relate and structure their knowledge across two or more domains of knowledge; hence, the degree of linking and the level of coherence between ideas across the areas. It has been argued that conceptual integration is important to science learning in two ways: achieving conceptual integration allows meaningful learning to occur and that an authentic science education should led students recognise the characteristics of scientific knowledge as being highly coherent, interconnected and founded upon limited number of fundamental principles and laws. Yet very few studies have been conducted on this topic. In this thesis, three case studies were conducted to examine how three A-level students in Britain related and integrated their knowledge of physics and chemistry. Differing from previous works where specific linkages elicited in a single interview were focused on, this study examined students’ conceptual integration with a broader scope through their responses to interviews over a period of three months. Patterns in data from one student suggest that he seemed to have achieved some integration between his physics and chemistry knowledge. The other two students did not seem to have much linking between their knowledge of the two disciplines, but each had unique patterns. The integration patterns from the three cases were compared and conjectures were made for future investigations on A-students’ conceptual integration between physics and chemistry. A key highlight from this study is that at least some A-level students may not have adequately learnt the key physics concepts so that these concepts are not activated and used in their chemistry learning. Hence, instruction may need to ensure that the readout strategies and the causal nets of the key concepts are carefully taught and reinforced through diverse contexts. Aside from the empirical observations and discussions, this study has developed new data collection instruments (interview protocol and card sorts) and analysis tools (codes and analysis frameworks) which could be useful for future empirical studies into exploring students’ conceptual integration between physics and chemistry.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• Vong, Teng Kuan

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Taber, Keith

• Conceptual Integration

Licence

• https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/22bb2cd8-1694-4f87-a96d-fc88ed269c32/download
• https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/

Language dc:language

eng

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.104460

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/361971