Descriptive categories and structural characteristics of students' conceptions: An exploration of the relationship

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between the descriptive categories and structural characteristics of students' conceptions so that a theoretical framework may be developed to explain and predict students' alternative conceptions in science. The data source for this study consisted of grade 7 and grade 12 students' written accounts of 'solutions'. The data were analysed independently by two research teams at two universities to develop the descriptive categories and to identify the structural characteristics of the students' conceptions. The descriptive categories were developed through a process of coding, grouping, and labelling; the structural characteristics were studied through identifying and examining clusters of concept networks. It was found that the relationships in the outer clusters of students' conceptions explain the lower category levels of students' conceptions, and the relationships in the inner clusters of students' conceptions explain the higher category levels. It was also found that students' conceptions progress from grade 7 to grade 12 by converging towards the category related to the characteristics of solutions (clustering relationships). The above findings suggest that structural characteristics in terms of types of relationship can explain students' conceptions in science, and thus may provide a theoretical framework for predicting students' alternative conceptions in science.