| Abstract A CAI approach to conceptual change in science education Alireza Rezaei Larry katz The University of Calgary Three groups were studied in this project. The first group comprising 48 students was the control group (CG group) which received one month conventional physics instruction. The second group comprising 39 students is called the radical constructivist group (RC group) which received a 3-hour individualized computer assisted instruction based on radical constructivist approach. The third group comprising 56 students is called the Inventive group (IN group) which received a 3-hour individualized computer assisted instruction based on the Inventive Model explained (Rezaei, Katz, 1998). Two Physics tests were used in this study; the knowledge test, and the conceptual test (Fore Concept Inventory, FCI, Hestenes, 1998). The same tests were used for the post-tests. The results showed that group 1 (the control group) scored significantly higher on both the knowledge pretest and the conceptual pretest. However, group 3 (the Inventive Model group) scored significantly higher than the other groups on the conceptual posttest. Group 1 scored significantly higher than other groups on the Knowledge posttest. Regarding the time efficacy, the Inventive Model was 5 times more effective than the conventional approach. The effectiveness of each teaching method on individual items was also considered in this study. In summary the results showed that the Inventive Model had positive effects on almost all items of the conceptual test. However, the radical constructivist approach has different effects on different items. It was also observed that the Radical constructivist approach and the conventional instruction had negative effects on some conceptual items. Finally the analysis of students' log files showed that most of students had visited most of their assigned pages and had answered most of their assigned questions. However, their first answers to most questions, were mainly incorrect. The results also showed that students spent more time on answering short time questions than the multiple choice ones and that Hint and Help buttons were rarely used by students. |