Science-P I: Modeling Conceptual Understanding in Primary School

In the Science-P project (Science Competency in Primary School), we aimed at modeling scientific literacy in two dimensions—scientific reasoning and conceptual understanding—to describe science learning in primary school. The present chapter focuses on conceptual understanding exemplified by two content areas: floating and sinking (FS) and evaporation and condensation (EC). Drawing on results from conceptual change research in developmental psychology and science education, we devised a model with three hierarchically ordered levels of understanding—naïve, intermediate and scientifically advanced—as the foundation of item and test construction. The two content areas engendered a two-dimensional structure in our test instrument. A validation study underscored that responses to our paper-pencil items were systematically related to responses obtained in interviews. Our test instrument was used to capture the development of primary school students’ conceptual understanding from second to fourth grade, in both a cross-sectional and a longitudinal study. For cross-sectional data, students’ proficiency in scientific reasoning was found to predict their conceptual understanding. In future analyses, we will test this finding with our longitudinal data.