學生環境知識概念結構發展的研究

The Development of Students' Conceptual Structures of Environmental Knowledge

本研究應用概念圖法(concept mapping)及多向度量尺法(multidimensional scaling)研究國中一年級和高中一年級學生環境知識的概念結構。在本研究中，以概念圖法為工具，外化(externalize)學生對環境知識的概念結構；諾瓦克(Novak, 1979 & 1984)的概念圖可表現畫圖者的概念、概念間的關係、及圖的結構。這些出現在學生的概念圖上的環境概念可視為他們的環境知識概念結構的要素，而成為多向度量尺法計算時的變數，計算學生的概念圖上概念間的鍵結數(links)，轉成相異矩陣(dissimilaritymatrix)，經過運算可把概念間關係轉換為空間距離。然後再根據概念圖理論來討論這些概念的結構。本研究的研究設計為：一、以概念圖法為工具，外化(externalize)學生對環境知識的概念結構；二、以多向度量尺法量化學生概念圖上概念間的關係；三、以集群分析與概念圖的理論討論學生的環境知識概念結構。本研究的結果呈現國、高中學生對空氣、水、及地球村等環境議題認知的概念結構，及他們的環境概念結構發展之比較與分析。

The purpose of this study was to investigate and contrast junior high school and high school stu-dents' conceptual structures of environmental knowledge. Concept mapping and multidimensional scal-ing were involved in this study to investigate the students' conceptual structures of environmental knowledge. The role of concept mapping was to externalize students' cognitive understanding of environmental issues. A concept map could show the concepts, the relationships among these concepts and the structure consisting of the concepts and the linking words of a student who drew it. The concepts on students' maps representing their subject matter of knowledge were used as stimulus variables for multidimensional scaling analysis. The links among concepts on their maps indicated the degree of proximity and were counted to form a dissimilarity matrix. Then, the dissimilarity matrices were transformed to geographical distance scales by multidimensional scaling. Finally, the ideas of cluster analysis and concept mapping were applied to classify these concept points into different clusters. These clusters showed the underlying structure of a group students' environmental concepts. In order to understand students' conceptual structures of environmental knowledge, this study asked students to draw concept maps to represent their understanding of three topics: air, water, and global village, and then discussed the concepts they used and how these concepts were organized. The research design of this study in-cluded: (1) Using concept mapping to externalize students' understanding of environmental knowledge; (2) Applying multidimensional scaling to quantify the proximity among their environmental concepts; (3) Applying the ideas of cluster analysis and concept mapping to explore the constructs of their environ-mental knowledge; and (4) Contrasting the differences of the concepts and MDS results of the junior high and high school students. The result showed seventh graders' and tenth graders' conceptual struc-tures of their environmental knowledge.