Research On The Influence Of Prototype On Chemical Concept Learning

Chemical concepts are an important part of the chemical knowledge system and the basis for students to learn other chemical knowledge well.Promoting students’ understanding of chemical concepts is one of the important objectives of chemical education.There are many ways to promote students’ understanding of chemical concepts,among which using prototypes to learn chemical concepts is one of the effective methods.There have been many studies on the application of prototypes in chemistry teaching,but most of the existing studies are based on the perspective of teachers,designing teaching models or teaching ideas based on prototypes,and lack of relevant research on the impact of prototypes on students’ learning.This study studies the influence of prototypes on chemical concepts learning from the perspective of students.This thesis is based on constructivism theory,meaningful learning theory and prototype theory.By reviewing the relevant ideas and viewpoints in the existing research of prototype and concept learning,and by means of interview,it further analyzes the types of prototypes that may exist in the process of concept learning,the characteristics of prototypes,and the possible role of prototypes in the process of concept learning for middle school students.In order to deeply understand the prototypes existing in the minds of middle school students in the learning of chemical concepts,this study took the concept of "solution" in the junior high school chemistry textbook as the carrier and interviewed 24 junior high school students from four different classes.After the interview,the 24 verbatim interviews were coded and analyzed,and the following conclusions were obtained:(1)The main types of prototypes in the process of chemical concepts learning of middle school students were life prototypes and experimental prototypes;(2)The prototypes that exist in the process of concept learning among middle school students are influenced by factors such as textbooks,teachers’ teaching methods,the relationship between concepts and life,and academic performance;(3)Prototypes are conducive to the understanding of concepts and play different roles in various stages of middle school students’ chemical concepts learning process: in the perceptual stage,prototypes can give learners perceptual knowledge and bring intuitive and visual feelings;in the processing stage,prototypes can help learners reveal the key features of concepts and help learners better understand the key features of concepts;in the initial formation stage,prototypes can help learners to clarify the key features and unrelated features of concepts;in the connection and integration stage,learners can use prototypes as "reference points" to judge instances;learners can also integrate concepts with prototypes as the "center" to promote your understanding of concepts;in the application stage,learners can connect the information in the context with the key information in the prototypes,and use the prototypes to enlighten their thinking,thereby inspiring them to find a breakthrough in solving problems;(4)There are certain differences in the role of prototypes in concept learning process among students with different academic achievements: gifted students have relatively sufficient understanding of the role of prototypes,and they will fully play the role of prototypes in the perceptual stage,the processing stage,the initial formation stage and the application stage,but the role of prototypes is not significant in the connection and integration stage;the student of average academic achievement can play the role of prototypes well in the perceptual stage,the initial formation stage and the application stage of the concept learning process,but they do not realize the role that prototypes can play in these two stages in the processing stage and the connection and integration stage;for students with learning difficulties,prototypes can play a small role in concept learning,most of the students have a weak awareness of prototypes and have insufficient understanding of prototypes.Finally,according to the results of this study,some teaching suggestions are put forward:(1)attach importance to the role of prototypes in concept learning and strengthen students’ prototypes awareness in concept learning;(2)Carry out targeted teaching according to the role of prototypes in each stage of concept learning;(3)Guide students to identify the authenticity of the prototypes.