Some aspects of the correspondence between content structure and cognitive structure in physics instruction.

Abstract

Forty subjects were divided at random into instruction (n = 28) and control (n = 12) groups to investigate the correspondence between the structure of the stimulus material (content structure) and the structure of a learner's memory during the learning (cognitive structure). Content structure was analyzed using digraph theory. Key concepts and their interrelations were the subject of analysis. All subjects were given achievement and word association pretests. Then, the instruction group read five sections of a text on Newtonian mechanics, one on each of 5 days. At the conclusion of each day, a word association test was administered. The achievement posttest was administered on the last day also. The control group did not receive instruction; these subjects received all tests. The structure of the content can be described as tight and formal according to digraph analysis. In the instruction group: (a) achievement increased significantly from pretest to posttest, (6) cognitive structure (word asociation data) changed considerably during instruction, (c) key concepts were interrelated more closely at the end of instruction than at the beginning, and (d) cognitive structure corresponded more closely to content structure at the end of instruction than at the beginning. Similar changes for the control group were not observed.