Author(s): Ali Khalid Ali BAWANEH, Ahmad Nurulazam MD ZAIN, Salmiza SALEH
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of a constructivist-based teaching method to bring about radical conceptual change regarding light misconceptions held by primary eighth graders in Jordan. The randomly selected sample (N=79) consisted of students in Irbid city-Jordan, were assigned to constructivist (N=42) and conventional (N=37) teaching methods. Two instruments, which were a multiple-choice conceptual test covering only light misconceptions commonly held by eighth grade primary students and an inventory classifying participants based on student's levels of learning process were developed. Data was statistically treated based on SPSS software package. The results showed that the constructivist teaching method surpassed the conventional method in bringing about radical conceptual change regarding light misconceptions held by students. However, results also showed that meaningful learners outperformed in-between and rote learners on the radical conceptual change for the same misconceptions, with rote learners being the lowest rank. In earlier results, the study recommended curriculum developers take student's perceptions and misconceptions into account. Teachers are called to make plans for science lessons based on the constructivist approach, and are encouraged to attend workshops on continual basis that provide training on employing teaching methods that have to do with conceptual change from the perspective of the social and cognitive constructivism.
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