What Do We Know about Students' Cognitive Conflict in Science Classroom: A Theoretical Model of Cognitive Conflict Process.

Abstract

conflict has been used as an effective teaching method since the 1980s, although the effects of this method are unclear. According to some researchers, cognitive conflict does not consistently lead to conceptual change. This paper describes a study investigating answers for the questions, is the definition of cognitive conflict in learning?, and How it is and discusses the implications of the study in education. The study involved (n=4) 10th grade students in Korea. It is concluded that that cognitive conflict has four psychological constructs and is a perceptual state. (Contains 48 references.) (Author/YDS) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT STUDENTS' COGNITIVE CONFLICT IN SCIENCE CLASSROOM: A THEORETICAL MODEL OF COGNITIVE CONFLICT PROCESS Gyoungho Lee, The Ohio State University Jaesool Kwon, Korea National University of Education conflicts have long been a part of psychological theories of cognitive change (Cantor, 1983). Despite many shifts of emphasis, the Piagetian account of development has t--always considered the concept of cognitive conflict, or the internal experience of opposing contractions, to be absolutely central in cognitive development. The concept figured in Piaget's earliest writings, and in Piaget (1985) it was developed into the equilibration model describing inner self-regulations (Roy & Howe, 1990). Since 1980s, using cognitive conflict as teaching strategy has been very popular in science education research. A considerable number of researchers argued that cognitive conflict has an important/positive effect on conceptual change (Stavy & Berkovitz, 1980; Posner, Strike, Hewson, & Gertzog, 1982; Hewson & Hewson, 1984; Hashweh, 1986; Kwon, 1989, 1997; Thorley & Treagust, 1989; Niaz, 1995; Druyan, 1997; Lee, 1998). However, there are still remained questions about the effect of cognitive conflict (Hewson, Beeth, & Thorley, 1998). Some researchers (Dreyfus, Jungwirth & Eliovitch, 1990; Elizabeth & Galloway, 1996; Dekkers & Thijs, 1998) argued that cognitive conflict strategies do not consistently lead to conceptual change. They said that even though students' ideas can be confronted with contradictory information through instruction, students frequently do not recognize conflict and sometimes the contradictory information can affect students negatively. Vosniadou and Ioannides said that this dispute about the effect of cognitive conflict in PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND O DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION BEEN GRANTED BY CENTER (ERIC) $T-his document has been reproduced as ffice of Educational Research and Improvement U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION learning science is not solved (1998, p.1214): received from the person or organization Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. originating it. BM COPY AVALABLE TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) Points of view or opinions stated in this VVV document do not necessarily represent 1 official OERI position or policy. Is cognitive conflict a good strategy to produce conceptual change? In order to answer these questions we need further research on the development of knowledge about the physical world and about the learning science. So, as Johnson & Johnson (1979) mentioned in the statements at the beginning of this paper, we still have similar problems. At this point, we should think about basic questions. is the definition of cognitive conflict in learning? More generally, What is cognitive conflict that is aroused in our students? And how is it aroused? There are very few researchers who tried to answer these questions. We believe that to understand the real effect of cognitive conflict in learning science, at first we should answer the basic questions. In this study, we tried to answer these questions, and we discussed the implication of our study in education. The Definition of Conflict Damon and Killen (1982) said, Cognitive conflict has never been precisely defined. And up to now there is no literature that explains the definition of it in detail. It is difficult to find the definition of cognitive conflict in any dictionary, either. Even in the cognitive conflict chapter of a book that deals with only conflict, there is no definition. On the whole, researchers used many terms together with cognitive conflict to explain cognitive conflict situation. There are many terms that were used with similar meanings to cognitive conflict by