This paper looked at the outcome differences between using teacher-guided and student-centred approaches in the study of astronomical concepts related to the Seasons with second-year high school students (ages 16-17). During this process, alternative conceptions (misconceptions) were identified and the impact of the course in changing these was discussed. The research was carried out by university-based researchers in Taiwan.

Learners’ ideas

• The rotation of the Earth makes the sun sometimes face toward the Earth (summer) and sometimes face away from the Earth (winter).
• Changing the speed of the Earth’s revolution around the Sun causes the seasons.
• The tilting of the Earth’s axis causes a change in the Earth–Sun distance or in the “sunshine area”
• Natural phenomena such as clouds, planetary wind systems, tides, ocean currents, monsoons, and the Moon cause the seasons.

Evidence-based suggestions

• In a technology-enhanced environment, the student-centred approach was more effective than the teacher-guided approach in altering students’ alternative conceptions of seasonal change.
• Computer simulations and animations promote the overcoming of false, naïve, experience-based models, and cognitive conflicts need to be generated in students before they can change their models to scientific ones.
• The student-centred approach allows students to more freely test their own hypotheses, and thus more easily reflect on their own cognitive conflicts and move to scientific explanations.

Study Structure

Aims

The aim of the study was to explore the ways in which teacher-guided and student-centred instructional approaches influence students’ conceptual understanding of seasonal change.

The research questions were:

1. What conceptual changes do students move through, in trying to understand the reasons for seasons, when presented with various instructional approaches in technology-enhanced learning environments?
2. What are the effects of the instructional design on students’ conceptual change, as they try to understand the reasons for seasons?

Evidence collection

A technology-enhanced learning course was designed to compare, by means of concept maps, the learning outcome of students in two groups: a teacher-guided class (with whole-class presentations) and a student-centred class (with individual online learning).

Measured learning outcomes were analysed by employing mixed-design MANOVA (2×3, two-way mixed ANOVA) techniques to examine the effects of different instructional approaches on repeated measures (pre-, mid-, and post-concept maps).

Details of the sample

The study sample consisted of two classes of second-year senior high school students (ages 16-17).

• Class one contained 44 students (10 male and 34 female) who were instructed using a teacher-guided approach.
• Class two contained 43 students (12 male and 31 female) who used student-centred approaches.