USING COMPUTER-SIMULATIONS TO ENHANCE CONCEPTUAL CHANGE - THE ROLES OF CONSTRUCTIVIST INSTRUCTION AND STUDENT EPISTEMOLOGICAL BELIEFS

Learners enter the classroom with informal ideas (alternative concepti ons) about scientific phenomena; these ideas affect how the correspond ing scientific explanations are learned. In addition, students' episte mological beliefs concerning learning influence achievement. This stud y investigated the effects of a constructivist versus objectivist lear ning environment on college students' conceptual change, using a compu ter simulation of the human cardiovascular system as an instructional tool. This study also investigated the interaction between constructiv ist versus objectivist learning situations and the students' epistemol ogical beliefs. The constructivist approach resulted in significantly greater conceptual change than the objectivist approach for 2 of 6 com monly held alternative conceptions; the other 4 of 6 areas showed no s ignificant differences for treatment group. More important, however, t he treatment interacted significantly with epistemological beliefs. In dividuals with more advanced epistemological beliefs learned more with a constructivist treatment; individuals with less developmentally adv anced beliefs learned more with an objectivist treatment. (C) 1998 Joh n Wiley & Sons, Inc.