A tale of two progressions: students’ learning progression of the particle nature of matter and teachers’ perception on the progression

Yang, Yi; Liu, Yi-Xuan; Song, Xin-Hao; Yao, Jian-Xin; Guo, Yu-Ying

doi:10.1186/s43031-023-00085-2

Disciplinary and Interdisciplinary Science Education Research

Table 3 Sample item and coding of Part 1 in the teachers’ questionnaire

From: A tale of two progressions: students’ learning progression of the particle nature of matter and teachers’ perception on the progression

	How many students have this idea/performance before instruction?					How many students have this idea/performance after instruction?
	Unknown	Less than 25%	25% To 50%	50% to 75%	More than 75%	Unknown	Less than 25%	25% To 50%	50% to 75%	More than 75%
Q1 ^a. Students have no idea about particles and believe that matter is a continuous substance
……
Q16^b. Students cannot use the idea of molecular dynamics to explain temperature-related macroscopic phenomena
Coding ^c	/	4	3	2	1	/	4	3	2	1

^aThe typical performances of students in the items are all derived from and correspond with a certain level of the LPs of PNM in Study 1. For example, student performance on Q1 relates to the typical performance at Level 1 in the LPs of the PNM, while performance on Q16 is reflective of the typical performance at Level 3 in the LPs of the PNM
^bThe performance descriptions in our questionnaire are students’ misconceptions or learning difficulties. Level 4 is the highest level in the LPs of PNM in Study 1, and students who reach Level 4 are expected to establish a systematic and scientific view of PNM and no longer have these misconceptions or learning difficulties. Therefore, items only correspond with Level 1 to Level 3 in the LPs of the PNM
^cSince performance descriptions are all misconceptions or learning difficulties of students, if teachers believe that only a relatively small number of students (e.g., less than 25%) have a certain performance, this indicates that teachers believe that students with this performance have a lower PNM understanding than most students. For example, if the teacher believes that less than 25% of the students perform such that they “have no idea about particles and believe that matter is a continuous substance” (Q1), then the teacher believes that most of the students can recognize the idea of particles. This indicates that teachers believe that recognizing the idea of particles is not difficult for the students and that only the students with a lower level of understanding have this performance (i.e., having no idea about particles). Therefore, the coding and the proportion are reversed

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