Students’ understanding of the purpose of models in different biological contexts.

Öz

The present article analyses context dependencies in students’ ranking of three perspectives on the purpose of biological models, i.e. to show, to explain, or to predict. German students (N = 1,207; 11 to 18 years old; secondary schools) have been assessed using one decontextualized forced choice task (i.e. without referring to a specific model) as well as six contextualized forced choice tasks (each presenting a different biological model in the task stem). Students’ responses have been compared using the Wilcoxon test as well as within an IRT approach. The findings show that the respondents systematically preferred more elaborated perspectives concerning the purpose of models in biology in the contextualized tasks than in the decontextualized task. Further, students’ answers were slightly inconsistent even within the contextualized tasks. Based on these findings, implications for assessment in science education and science teaching are discussed

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Purpose of models, biology teaching, science education

Kaynakça

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