Progression in children's understanding of the matter concept from elementary to high school

Abstract

Adopting a neo-Piagetian conceptual framework and a phenomenographic approach, we identified students' conceptual progression pattern on matter from elementary to high school. We interviewed 54 students from Grade 1 to Grade 10 chemistry on their conceptions of substances (i.e., water, vinegar, and baking soda) and the combining of the substances. We found that progression of students' conceptions on matter from elementary to high school is multifaceted. For any aspect we examined, from spontaneous description of substances to chemical reaction of baking soda with vinegar, there was a unique progression pattern. Different conceptual progression patterns existed for different substances (i.e., water, baking soda, and vinegar) as well. Further, there is no clear conceptual leap between different grade levels in conceptual progression; that is, there is tremendous overlap in conceptions among students of different grades. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 43: 320–347, 2006