The Effectiveness of Type of Scientific Texts In Conceptual Change And Epistemic Emotions In 6th Grade Elementary Students According To The Role of Gender

The main purpose of the study was to investigate the long- term effectiveness of expository text, refutational text and augmented text on conceptual change changes in elementary students (a combination of male and female students). Besides, the subordinate purpose of the study was to investigate the role of gender differences between male students and female students in the effectiveness of expository text, refutational text and augmented text on conceptual change and epistemic emotions on elementary students. Refutation text has been described by Guzzetti (2000) as one of the most effective means of producing cognitive conflict that can result in a change in readers' misconceptions, which means conceptual change. These texts traditionally contain three core features: (1) a common misconception is stated (e.g., Many people believe that if you drop a coin while walking in a forward direction along a straight path, the coin will land on the ground directly beneath the point from which it was released); (2) the misconception is refuted (However, the coin will actually move forward as it falls, landing some distance ahead of its point of release), and (3) evidence is described that supports the currently-accepted scientific explanation (Newtonian mechanics explain that when the coin is dropped, it continues to move forward at the same speed as the walking person because no force is acting to change its horizontal velocity). From an educational perspective, the effectiveness of refutation text has been attributed to increasing students’ awareness of their own conceptions in relation to scientific ones. This awareness, which involves the recognition of their own conceptions as limited and scientific ones as correct, is an essential condition for conceptual change. From a cognitive perspective, the co-activation principle, posited by van den Broek and Kendeou (2008), offers the ground for understanding how a refutation text supports conflict detection between prior knowledge and new scientific information. It postulates that by explicitly presenting misconceptions and scientific conceptions in close proximity to each other, a refutation text induces their co- activation in readers’ working memory, which in turn, facilitates the detection of conflicts and efforts to resolve them. By using the cognitive theory of multimedia learning (CTML), which posits learning from text and graphic is potentially superior to learning from text alone, an augmented text was produced. This augmented text consists of a refutation text added to an appropriate graphic. Like refutation text material, a refutation graphic should be designed to activate a misconception, refute it, and then present the correct conception. The combination of a refutation text and a refutation graphic may represent an optimal tool for knowledge revision. For multimedia learning to occur, information provided by texts should be integrated with information provided by graphics. Some crucial processes should be activated for effective multimedia learning. Specifically, selection and organization processes in the verbal and pictorial subsystems lead to the generation of a text-based model and a picture-based model. These models must then be integrated into a one-to-one mapping process, which also involves prior knowledge. The research method was experimental. The statistical population consisted of all 6th grade elementary students in region 17 in Tehran during the 1399-1400 school year. A sample of 155 students (77 female students and 78 male students) was selected from the statistical population. The sampling method was at-hand sampling. Their average age was 11.9 years. From a socio-economical point of view, most of them were middle class or indigent. According to three types of texts, students were accidentally divided into three groups: expository text group, refutational text group, and augmented text group. In the expository text group, there were 52 students (27 female students and 25 male students); in the refutational text group, there were 50 students (24 female students and 26 male students); and in the expository text group, there were 53 students (26 female students and 27 male students). In the first phase, in order to investigate the role of gender differences between male and female students, pretest- immediate posttest method was used. In the second phase, a delayed post- test was used in order to investigate the long- term effectiveness of texts on conceptual change.  Research instruments were Epistemic Emotions Scale (pekrun et al., 2016), researcher made texts (expository text, refutational text, and augmented text) and researcher made knowledge questionnaire (these texts and questionnaire were made under supervision of supervisors and expert teachers and passed a pilot study by researcher). Differences in knowledge questionnaire grade between pretest and posttest were used to examine the conceptual change. The data were analyzed using one- way analysis of variance (to study the effectiveness of three types of texts on epistemic emotions) and one- way analysis of covariance (to study the effectiveness of three types of texts on conceptual change) in the first phase and dependant T-test in the second phase. The first phase generally showed refutational text, and augmented text have significant effects on both conceptual change and epistemic emotions in both male and female groups, but expository text has not. Secernment results showed significant differences in epistemic emotions between refutation group and expository group and also between augmented group and expository group in both male and female groups. Therefore, there are no gender differences in this part. Moreover, regarding the effectiveness of texts on conceptual change, in the male group, differences in conceptual change between both refutation group and augmented group, as well as between expository group and augmented group, were significant. In the female group, differences in conceptual change between the refutation group and both the augmented group and the expository group were significant; besides, differences between the augmented group and the expository group were significant too. The delayed posttest results in the second phase showed that differences in conceptual change between immediate posttest and delayed posttest are not significant. Thus, texts have long- term effects on conceptual change. These results are very important and applicable to writers, especially who write academic books and suggest them use more refutational and augmented texts; the results might be useful for filmmakers and suggest them use refutational methods in producing scientific movies and cartoons.