Experiencing Molecular Processes The Role of Representations for Students' Conceptual Understanding

Abstract: Knowledge of molecular processes is crucial for fundamental understanding of the world and diverse technological applications. However, they cannot be clearly related to any directly experienced phenomena and may be very different from our intuitive expectations. Thus, representations are essential conceptual tools for making molecular processes understandable, but to be truly useful educational tools it is essential to ensure that students grasp the connections between what they represent and the represented phenomena. This challenge and associated personal and social aspects of learning were key themes of my doctoral research.This thesis evaluates whether (and if so how) representations can support students’ conceptual understanding of molecular processes and thus successfully substitute the missing experience of these processes. The subject matter used to explore these issues included two crucial molecular processes in biochemical systems: self-assembly and adenosine triphosphate synthesis. The discussion is based on results presented in four appended papers. Both qualitative and quantitative research strategies have been applied, using instruments such as pre- and post-tests, group discussions and interviews. The samples consisted of Swedish and South African university students, who in the group discussions interacted with peers and external representations, including an image, a tangible model and an animation.The findings indicate that students’ ability to discern relevant model features is critical for their ability to transfer prior conceptual knowledge from related situations. They also show that students’ use of metaphors and conceptual understanding depend on how an external representation conveys relevant aspects of the learning content (its design). Thus, students must manage two complex interpretation processes (interpreting the external representations and metaphors used), which may create challenges for their learning. Furthermore, the self-assembly process was shown to incorporate counter-intuitive aspects, and both group discussion and the tangible model proved to be important facilitators for changing students’ conceptual understanding of the process. Providing students with experiences of phenomena associated with molecular concepts that incorporate counter-intuitive aspects through representations is a key factor for their understanding of the concepts. In addition, providing students with a conflict-based task, problem or representation is not enough, they also have to be willing (emotionally motivated) to solve the conflict.The challenge for educators lies in choosing representations that convey aspects of the learning content they are intended to teach and assist students in their meaning-making of the representations by remaining informed of students’ background knowledge and interpretations. Results presented in this thesis show that it could be advantageous to interpret learning in a broader sense.