ALTERNATIVE CONCEPTIONS ABOUT BURNING HELD BY ATAYAL INDIGENE STUDENTS IN TAIWAN

JEN-MIN CHANG, HUEI LEE and CHIUNG-FEN YEN

ALTERNATIVE CONCEPTIONS ABOUT BURNING HELDBY ATAYAL INDIGENE STUDENTS IN TAIWAN

Received: 3 February 2009; Accepted: 27 December 2009

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this study was to investigate the alternative conceptions aboutburning phenomena among Atayal indigene elementary school students in Taiwan. The maindifference from other relevant research is that this study assesses Atayal people’s worldviewbymeans of a questionnaire developed specifically for this purpose. There were three stages inthis study: First, three Atayal elders were interviewed to access their traditional knowledgeabout nature, naturally occurring events, and burning. Second, this knowledge was used todevelop an open-ended questionnaire that was administered to 37 students at the third to sixthgrade levels (ages 9 to 12); eight respondents were interviewed to document their worldviews.Third, a two-tier diagnostic questionnaire developed from these results was administered to228 students with 44 respondents interviewed about the burning events assessed by theinstrument. Results suggested that students held alternative conceptions about the five burningevents: candles burning, factors of burning, fire extinguishment, material changes in burning,and traditional meanings of burning. In contrast with previous studies on burning, this studydemonstrated the existence of other alternative conceptions. The origin of these alternativeconceptions may be grounded in traditional culture, knowledge, environment, economy,medicine, and personal thinking.

KEY WORDS: alternative conceptions, burning, indigene students, worldview

INTRODUCTION

The current trends in science education emphasize multiculturalism andadvocate helping students from different sociocultural backgrounds andworldviews engage in, explore, and understand science. These school scienceexperiences should affirm the scientific contributions, technological innova-tions, and values of different societies, cultures, tribal groups, and genders(Reiss, 1993). The American Association for the Advancement of Science’sScience Literacy for All (American Association for the Advancementof Science, 1990) and the National Science Teachers Association (NationalScience Teachers Association, 2004) emphasized that students of differentcultural and tribal backgrounds should be given opportunities to study thesciences. Yore (2008) pointed out that research inquiries into language,literacy, and science issues must consider the values, beliefs, and practicesrelated to place-based traditional knowledge about nature and to the naturallyoccurring events embedded in these ethnic groups and cultures.

International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education (2010) 8: 911Y935# National Science Council, Taiwan (2010)

Science learning can be viewed as a process of conceptual changeinvolving mechanisms to accommodate new and discrepant ideas(Vosniadou, 1994). The learners’ worldviews and cultural beliefs aresignificant factors that influence learning (Aikenhead & Jegede, 1999;Cobern, 1996a), and students’ prior knowledge provides an indication ofthe alternative conceptions as well as the scientific conceptions possessedby the students (Hewson & Hewson, 1981).

If prior knowledge in individuals exists as a consequence of both their experience ofworldly facts and events and their cultural and personal beliefs and theories (Petrie, 1976),then different groups will be likely to have different prior knowledge involving differentalternative conceptions. Thus, while one might expect that intercultural differences exits, itis also likely that intracultural differences exist, and that students within the same culturalgroup have a wide range of alternative conceptions in their structures (Hewson & Hewson,1981).

The National Research Council (2007) argued that ethnicity,language, culture, gender, and socioeconomic status are among thefactors that influence the knowledge and experience children bring tothe classroom. Thus, understanding the cultural resources andconceptual development of indigenous students is crucial if we wishthem to engage in, explore, and understand science. Taiwan has atleast 14 indigenous tribes, of which the Atayal tribe is the thirdlargest, making up 16% of Taiwan’s total indigenous population. Theymostly live in or adjacent to the northern mountainous regions ofTaiwan. Traditional Atayal societies sustained themselves throughhunting and slash-and-burn farming, and they primarily live incommunal-style settlements.

Fire is important in indigenous cultures due to its widespread use inspiritual practices, hunting, cultivation, and daily life. Burning is a conceptaddressed in many elementary schools. For example, “understandingburning” and “fire extinguishment” are topics in the Taiwanese schoolscience curriculum. Therefore, the phenomenon of burning intersectseveryday life and the school curriculum for many indigenous children. Thisstudy explores this intersection from an Atayal worldview perspective. Thestudy develops a two-tier diagnostic process for monitoring conceptionsabout burning held by Atayal students aged 9 to 12 (third to sixth graders).

BACKGROUND

Low participation rates and low academic achievement in the sciencesamong national minorities have been identified as a problem for science

JEN-MIN CHANG, HUEI LEE, CHIUNG-FEN YEN912

education (McKinley, 2005; Sutherland & Dennick, 2002), includingelementary indigenous students in Taiwan (Guo, 2007, 2008; Mou,1996). Taiwan’s current population is around 23 million including Han,which is the mainstream ethnic group, and the indigenous population isonly 2.2%, though the learning achievements of those belong tounderrepresented groups. However, intelligence test scores do not showsignificant differences between the indigenous students and the non-indigenous students (Mou, 1996). The achievement gap may beexplained, in part, by the fact that indigenous people are a minoritywithin Taiwan and that any curriculum and instruction are designed withmainstream groups in mind. In addition, the challenges faced byindigenous students in the natural sciences are amplified by the fact thatthese disciplines predominantly draw upon Western ways of thinking, incontrast to indigenous ways of thinking about nature (Cobern, 1991;McKinley, 2005; Sutherland & Dennick, 2002).

Worldview and Science Learning

A worldview is a culture’s collection of thoughts, beliefs, and values. Inethnosemantics, it is the reality through which a culture understands itshuman–environment interactions and includes related images andassumptions symbolizing the creation, use, and morality behind thebehavior and decisions of individuals (Kearney, 1988). The culture ofscience, for instance, spawns a type of scientific worldview (Cobern,1991). According to Yore (2008) and others, scientific knowledge is tiedto Western thinking and values in which people attempt to explore,describe, and explain patterns of natural events within an establishedepistemological and ontological framework—a scientific worldview.Indigenous students’ perspectives on nature are similarly influenced bytheir indigenous culture.

Cobern (1996b) describes meaningful learning as involving individualinterpretation of what is learned, plus the construction of the meaning andsignificance of those ideas. As students engage with new naturalphenomena and ideas, they interpret these phenomena through theirworldviews, prior knowledge, and beliefs. By doing so, students constructnew meanings and significance if they revise their constructions based onscientific knowledge and concepts. When students search for and findgreater significance and richer meaning, their worldviews expand.

Science literacy for indigenous peoples must reflect a broad culturalapproach that recognizes the unique way indigenous people live andrepresent their experiences and knowledge about nature. For instance,

ALTERNATIVE CONCEPTIONS ABOUT BURNING 913

Snively & Williams (2008) suggest that “traditional ecological knowledgewisdom, TEKW” can be thought of as a combination of detailedtraditional knowledge with the values and ethics of traditional wisdom.

Chinn, Hand, & Yore (2008) pointed out that constructivist approachesrecognize the importance of starting with where learners are and alsorecognize that teaching is in the service of meaningful learning. Thus, ifscience education does not take seriously the different cultural contexts ofstudents’ worldviews, it may be setting up barriers to learning. Manyscience educators and researchers believe that science is a kind of culturewith its own terminology, theories, and concepts (Cobern, 1996b; Tsai,2001). Therefore, within a broader cultural system, scientific communitiesform their own exclusive knowledge systems. Students who wish tobecome science literate need to understand the nature of this expertisefound within expert communities (Florence & Yore, 2004).

Although individual knowledge construction is subjective, it requirescontinuous communication and revision in a social setting. Knowledgeacquisition, therefore, is forged through interaction and communicationbetween individuals and contemporary social environments (von Glasers-feld, 1995). For instance, Vygotsky (1986) suggested that the roles ofculture and society need to be stressed in the learning process. He thoughtthat culture was the primary force behind intellectual development andthat its mechanisms were to be found in social interactions.

A Sociocultural Perspective in a Taiwanese Context

Indigenous people have lived in harmony with nature for a long time.Their understanding of fire became indispensable for survival. For thisreason, the phenomenon of burning is very significant within tribalcultures and is frequently observed by indigenous children in their dailylives. Within an indigenous lifeworld, children come to know natureunder the guidance of their elders. Students learn how to live in nature.School science could be designed differently; it could recognize andrespect indigenous knowledge and engage students in both Westernscience and the indigenous knowledge of their home culture. This wouldhelp students to recognize and deal with any worldview clashes thatmight arise.

Alternative Conceptions of Burning

Burning is the form of chemical change that students frequently encounterin daily life (Driver, 1985). In the past 25 years, research on elementaryand middle school students’ conceptions about burning has been


conducted (Andersson, 1986, 1990; BouJaoude, 1991; Driver, 1985;Meheut, Saltiel, & Tiberghien, 1985; Prieto, Watson, & Dillon, 1992;Schollum & Happs, 1982; Watson, Prieto, & Dillon, 1995, 1998). Thesestudies follow four different research directions: students’ conceptionsalternative to Western science ideas, concept types, concept origins, andcognitive processes. The studies also focus on several events and topics inwhich students’ conceptions about burning were formed: candles, wood,gas lamps, and Bunsen burners primarily, along with some introductoryknowledge concerning oxygen and carbon dioxide. In summary, there aremany research studies on alternative conceptions of burning, mostly withemphasis on observations on burning, essential factors for burning,material changes in burning, and origins of alternative conception, butlittle has been done in terms of cultural perspective.

Burning phenomena were common experiences for the studentsinvolved in these studies, but these experiences can be accounted forscientifically by complex chemical changes that are difficult tounderstand. Most elementary school students construct their concep-tions about burning through direct observational experience, memoryof ideas, the family environment, and the school environment. Thedifferent cultural origins of indigenous students, combined with theuniqueness of their place-based indigenous knowledge, result inregional characteristics in their learning. The formation of conceptsabout burning is, therefore, influenced by tribal group characteristics.The review of related research revealed that these studies were mainlybased on the perspective of Western modern science and lacked theperspective of indigenous cultures and worldviews. Therefore, thisstudy attempted to develop a new instrument based on a worldviewperspective and situated context to investigate indigenous students’alternative conceptions about burning.

METHOD AND PROCEDURE

Method of Alternative Conception Inquiry and Research Design

There are many methods of inquiry for the study of students’ alternativeconceptions. Earlier scholars often utilized traditional assessments todiagnose student misconceptions in science (Haslam & Treagust, 1987).The merit of this approach lies in the amount of time in which testingcould then be carried out, which would be shorter than the interviewmethods available. The test approach also allows for a larger sample to be


accessed and data sets to be collected. At the same time, this approach isrestricted in its inability to arrive at a thorough understanding of thereasons and thought processes underlying each student choice. Treagust(1988) developed a two-tier diagnostic instrument for which it could besaid that, as a method, it combines the strong qualitative aspects of theinterview method with the strong quantitative aspects of the testingmethod. Many researchers in recent years have used this method toperform conceptual diagnosis (e.g., Tan, Goh, Chia, & Treagust, 2002;Treagust & Chandrasegaran, 2007).

Both quantitative and qualitative approaches guided this study’smethods, embedded in a three-phase research design:

� Phase 1: Interviews with Atayal elders and schoolchildren docu-mented understandings about burning and described the earlyhistorical foundations (Academica Sinica Institute of Ethnology,1996) of their conceptions.

� Phase 2: Past research findings on conceptions about burning wereintegrated with the elementary school curriculum to design for pilottesting, an open-ended survey about concepts related to burning.After the pilot testing, interviews were conducted to confirm thestudents’ choice of reasons in the pilot testing survey.

� Phase 3: These results were used to develop the two-tier diagnostictest. Then, the two-tier diagnostic test was administered to a sampleof Atayal students in grades 3 to 6. Next, the interview aboutinstance method (Osborne & Freyberg, 1985) was used to examineand trace the development and origin of students’ alternativeconceptions in a purposeful subsample of respondents.

The entire study process utilized both quantitative and qualitativemethods to allow for an efficient and thorough inquiry into the thoughtsof these indigenous students about burning.

Sample

Our research subjects were primarily Atayal elementary students. Thecurrent population of indigenous Atayal in Taiwan is over 81,000,making up roughly 16.8% of Taiwan’s indigenous population and rankingas the second largest indigenous tribe. They are a mountain tribe that islocated primarily in Taiwan’s northern and central mountainous regions.The population sample for this study was indigenous students aged 9 to12 years (third to sixth grade) in Ilan, a rural county in northeast Taiwan.Samples were selected from two townships because these townships


contained the highest proportion of Atayal students in the administrativearea of Ilan County (accounting for 2.5% of the county’s total populationand 70% of the county’s indigenous population). The average percentageof indigenous students in the 11 target elementary schools is 94%. Oneelementary school was selected as pilot school for testing and interviews.The total population in the schools was 612 students; the trial sample was37 students, which makes up 6.0% of the target population; and the mainstudy sample was 228 students, which makes up 37.3% of the targetpopulation. In addition, no studies published either in Taiwan orelsewhere in the world have used comparable alternative concepts intheir samplings.

Development of the Instrument

Over three phases, this study developed the two-tier diagnostic test, describedabove. The first phase resulted in an expert concept map (Appendix) andpropositions about indigenous burning phenomena (Table 1). These resultswere reviewed and revised by three science educators with Ph.D.s andchemistry backgrounds and four experienced elementary school naturalscience teachers in order to establish the content validity.

In the second phase, interview questions were combined with thepropositions (Table 1) in a two-way specification table to produceTable 2. An open-style survey was developed and given to 12 studentswith whom semistructured interviews were then performed.

In the third phase, suggested by Treagust (1988), results from theprevious two phases were used to develop the pilot trial version of thetwo-tiered, multiple-choice diagnostic test. A pilot trial of this diagnostictest was then performed on 37 students. Revisions were made followingdiscussion with the reviewers from phase 1 before testing was carried outon the selected target sample of 228 students.

Using the “burning” concept, the two-tier diagnostic test item number5 is an example:

5. Do you think you will get sick from warming by a fire alongsidesomeone that is sick? Why? (Please choose either answer 1, 2, or 3).

(1) Answer: [ ] Yes. Because:

□ a. We should not warm ourselves by the fire alongside someone that issick because fire spreads contagious diseases.

□ b. We will get sick if we get close to someone that is sick.


TABLE1

Propo

sitio

nstatem

entson

burningfrom

Ilan

Cou

ntyindigenes

Primary

section

Topic

Subsectio

nPropo

sitio

nstatem

entsof

Ilan

Cou

nty

indigeneson

theconceptof

burning

1Observatio

nson

Burning

1-1

Thing

sem

itlig

htwhenbu

rning.

2RequirementsforStartingaFire

(Burning

)1-2

Burning

requ

ires

something

tobe

burnt.

2-2

Kindlingmaterialisrequ

ired

(bananatree

fibers

andevergreen

tree

oilpieces).

2-3

Som

ething

tostartthefire

isneeded

(aflintor

ignitio

n,for

instance).

2-4

Gapsshou

ldbe

leftin

thebu

rningmaterial(toaidin

burning).

3Ash

3-1

Can

actas

fertilizerafterthefieldhasbeen

‘slashed

andbu

rnt’.

3-2

Can

beused

asdy

eforfacial

tatto

os.

4Traditio

nalMeaning

sof

Burning

4-1

Thing

smustbe

prepared

forhu

nting.

4-2

Afire

shou

ldno

tbe

relit

during

sacrifices.

4-3

Afire

shou

ldno

tbe

extin

guisheddu

ring

sacrifices.

4-4

Dono

tshareafire

with

someone

ill(fearof

contagion).

5FireExtingu

ishing

(PreventingFires)

6-1

Physically

separatin

gburningmattercanextin

guishafire.

6-2

Fill

upcracks

toslow

lystop

athingfrom

burning.

6-3

Burning

canbe

stop

pedifan

ampleam

ount

ofwater

issprink

led

onto

thematerials.

6-4

Non

-com

bustiblescanbe

used

topreventfires.


TABLE2

Two-way

interview

questio

nandprop

osition

statem

entspecificationtableforAtayalindigene

conceptio

nsabou

tbu

rning

Section

Burning

concept

Interview

questio

nforburningconcept

Propositio

nstatem

ent

1Observatio

nson

Burning

Whatsortsof

phenom

enado

youthinkareprod

uced

throug

hbu

rning?

1-1,

1-2

Whatuses

doyo

uthinkthereareforbu

rningthings?

1-1,

1-2

2RequirementsforStartinga

Fire(Burning

)Whatsortsof

things

doyo

uthinkarerequ

ired

tostartafire?Why

?2-1,

2-2,

2-3,

2-4

3Ash

Whatuses

doyo

uthinktherearefortheashleftov

erfrom

burning?

Why

?3-1,

3-2

4Traditio

nalMeaning

sof

Burning

Whatuses

doyo

uthinkthereareforbu

rningdu

ring

hunting?

Why

?4-1

Whatmeaning

sdo

youthinkthereareforbu

rningwhenmaking

sacrifices?Why

?4-2,

4-3

Whatdo

youthinkwill

happ

enifyo

uwarm

yourselfby

afire

alon

gsidesomeone

who

isill?

4-4

Why

?5

FireExtingu

ishing

(PreventingFires)

Whatmetho

dsdo

youthinkindigeneshave

forextin

guishing

fires?

Why

?5-1,

5-2,

5-3,

5-4

Whatmetho

dsdo

youthinkindigeneshave

forpreventin

gfires?

Why

?5-1,

5-2,

5-3,

5-4

The

numbers

intheproposition

statem

entcolumn(i.e.,1-2,

etc.)indicate

theproposition

statem

entcorrespo

ndingto

thegiveninterview

questio

n


□ c. Because someone that is sick will transmit their sick germs themoment they start speaking.

□ d. Because fire will increase the severity of sick germs.□ e. Other ___________________________________

(2) Answer: [ ] No. Because:

□ a. No, because there is nothing feeding on him, so there is no risk forcontagion.

□ b. We will not get sick because he is not speaking.□ c. Unless the disease is contagious, we will not get sick from warming

by the fire alongside him.□ d. We will not get sick from warming by the fire alongside him because

fire will heal the sick person’s illness.□ e. Other ___________________________________

This is a culture-oriented diagnosis question. The analysis result haveshown that 41.4% (a total of 94) of the students chose answer (1), sayingthat “they will get sick from warming by a fire alongside someone that issick”; the in-depth interview found that most of the student chose reason(a) “because fire spreads contagious diseases” (31) and (b) “if we getclose to someone that is sick” (31).

Interview About Instance

The interview subjects were divided into two groups. The first consistedof students and teachers for the trial test, of which there was one naturalscience teacher and two students from each grade (grades 3 to 6) for atotal of eight students. The other group consisted of students andteachers for the official test sites. Two students were chosen purposelyfrom each grade (grades 3 to 6) in each school for an interview.Indigenous students with alternative conceptions concerning traditionalmeanings of burning were the primary consideration in selecting thesepurposeful samples. A total of 44 students were selected in the mainstudy. Each semistructured protocol interview took 10 to 20 min, duringwhich a laptop computer was used to show pictures: actual objects andcards were used to explore the alternative conceptions about burningheld by indigenous students. Four practicing science teachers (one fromeach of four schools) were interviewed concerning their teachingexperiences. Each teacher interview lasted approximately 15 to25 min; all interviews were audio recorded.


Data Analysis

After transcripts of the interview audio recordings were made, they werecombined with the interview notes and the video recordings. Any materialunrelated to the studywas removed, which included conversations of a socialnature, repeated words and expressions, and responses unrelated to theinterview questions. However, the original words and sentences used in thestudent responses were retained in order to preserve the attitudes andperspectives inherent in their responses, which would in turn give a betterunderstanding of the students’ thought processes and styles. After thetranscript interviews were copied, they were matched to the written materialproduced by the students during the survey process. This was subsequentlyused to reorganize the interview material into an analytical table of differentinterview concepts, which allowed comparisons with expert conceptionsfrom the science community and identified the types and origin of alternativeconceptions held by the students. The interview data were triangulated by theresearch team that met each week to present the recording transcripts andinterview notes, to examine and discuss the data, and to maintain consistencyin and fidelity to the analytical procedure.

Coding of the two-tier test was such that a correct choice of concept in thefirst tier was coded 1 and a correct choice of reasoning in the second tier wascoded 2. This coding procedure provided a clear pattern for responses. If thestudent received a code of 0, he or she had responded incorrectly on bothtiers; if the code was 1, the student had responded correctly in the first tier; ifthe code was 2, the student had responded correctly in the second tier; if thecode was 3, then the student had responded correctly in both tiers. The codesof 0 and 3 indicated alternative conceptions and correct conceptions andrationale, respectively.

The two-tier diagnostic test results were processed using the SPSS(version 10.0) system software. Test–retest reliability was applied in trialtesting to explore the reliability. The same sample of 37 students wasgiven the two-tiered diagnostic test 10 days following the trial test. APearson product–moment correlation revealed a coefficient of 0.81.Combined with the construct validity consideration of the experts, thetest was judged to be a reasonable measure for the research purposes ofthis study. The scoring of student conceptions about burning and the dataconcerning student grade levels were used in a one-way analysis ofvariance (ANOVA) test. Pairwise comparisons were conducted forsignificant main effects. This gave us a better understanding of thedifferences between the alternative conceptions of students in differentgrades.


RESULTS

The results of this study are reported in two parts. The first explains theresults of analyzing past literature, interviews with elders, and the pilotsurvey to establish a framework for traditional knowledge about burning.Part 2 reports the results of the final two-tier test to establish theconceptual understanding of Atayal children about burning.

Part 1

In traditional Atayal culture, fire building has spiritual considerations andfire is also a medium for the transmission of diseases. We confirmed thesebeliefs in our interview with the 75-year-old Atayal elder Mr. Wong (‘R’denotes researchers and ‘W’ denotes Mr. Wong):

R: I read in a book that a new fire must be started each time an Atayal ritual sacrifice isperformed and that the fire must not burn out nor can it be lit from another flame. Is thistrue?

W: Yes! Yes! This is an Atayal ‘gaga’ [ancestral instruction]; and, in addition, the firecannot be lit from another flame during the ritual sacrifice before planting, nor is talkingallowed. Also, no one is to pass through our mountain slope before planting. If thisoccurs, the harvest must be collected as soon as possible, otherwise it will be a badharvest. That’s why we must perform sacrifices before planting and show respect to thespirits of our ancestors. We call it the ‘sumi’ [worship].

R: Yes, I’ve also heard that when a person is ill, suffering from a cold, for instance, themembers of a tribe won’t use the same bonfire as him or her.

W: That’s right!

R: They’re afraid…

W: If a next-door neighbor is seriously ill, we cannot light a new fire from his fire eitherfor fear that the germs will be passed over to us. Under no circumstances can we useanother person’s flame.

R: Whoa! So you can never use another person’s flame.

W: Yeah!

R: So this is our gaga. It’s also been said of ash that it seems to represent the spirit of thehouse, just as when several brothers are moving out on their own, for example, they mustdivide the ashes.

W: Yeah, yeah, yeah! Just like when the brothers are separating from one another, whenthe family is separating, the brothers divide up the fire as they divide up the house.


R: It seems like the Atayal tribe sees this fire as like a family, a symbol of a single spirit.

W: Yes, yes! Also true! It’s also a symbol. Yes, that’s also true!

Using the insights from the elders and comparing them to theestablished literature, we organized all the concepts into a concept map(Appendix) that linked heat, light, lighting a fire, ash, and customs tospecific cultural beliefs. Interviews with students using the contents oftheir Western-based science curriculum provided information concerningthese concepts. Our interviews with the elders and the students werecarried out independently of one another, and so neither group was awareof the other group’s responses. These data sources were compiled into anopen-ended survey.

After students responded to the pilot open-ended survey, we carried outfollow-up interviews with some students, based upon such questions as,“Can you receive germs from someone by sitting by a fire with them?”One example follows (‘R’ denotes researchers and ‘DS601’ denotes theinterviewed student). An excerpt from a conversation with this sixth-grade student follows:

R: The teacher saw on your survey that you wrote: “sitting by a fire with someone that issick can cause you to catch germs” since “fire makes germs stronger”. Do you think thatfire can help spread germs?

DS601: Yes!

R: Where did you learn this?

DS601: From sitting around and warming by a fire.

R: Do you go hunting with your dad?

DS601: Yes! Every time.

R: You go every time! Good for you! So when you guys are huddled together by the fire,does your dad tell you things about fire?

DS601: He said that we could catch a cold. He said that sitting around a fire with someonethat is sick could make us sick.

R: They told you that it is easier to get sick if you sit around a fire with someone that issick?

DS601: Yes! Of course it is!

R: Of course?


DS601: Yes! Because it might be passed on.

R: It will be passed on so you should avoid warming by a fire with someone that is sick,as much as possible.

DS601: Yes.

From the above excerpt, we can see that this student’s conception wasprimarily learned from his family members, an instance of culturaltransmission.

Students’ ideas from interview after the two-tier test were summarizedand coded in order to confirm the meaning of their original intentions. Wethen organized and combined different accounts with similar meaningsinto a response table (Tables 1 and 2).

Part 2

Once the two-tier diagnostic assessment had been validated, it wasadministered to Ilan County’s indigenous elementary students (N = 228).Table 3 provides the performance of students on the 11 items: tier 1(correct choice) and tiers 1 and 2 (correct choice and rationale). Otherperformances were distributed between correct choice/incorrect rationaleand incorrect choice/correct rationale.

Table 3 shows the distribution of student’s major alternative conceptionsof burning, and it explains how the two-tier diagnostic assessment can

TABLE 3

Percentage of students correctly answering only the first part and both parts of the items(N = 228)

Item

Percentage of students correctly answering

First part Both parts

1 75.3 22.02 58.2 15.13 62.7 45.64 20.7 7.55 58.6 33.56 54.9 13.87 42.2 26.28 23.9 12.69 87.8 39.210 47.9 23.911 32.1 11.0


identify student’s alternative conceptions effectively. In addition, the resultfrom less correct choice rate in tier 1(for example, items 4, 8, 11) shows thatstudents major alternative conceptions of burning result from the inadequateunderstanding of flammable mixture and burning point.

Ilan County indigenous elementary school students have numerousconceptions about burning events. The percentage distributions for eachof the test items and conceptions are shown in Table 5 for five categories:candle burning, factors in burning, fire extinguishment, changes inburning, and traditional meanings of burning. In order to achieve abroader understanding of students’ conceptions about burning, thosetopics in which over 10%, suggested by Treagust (1988), and someunique cases even lower than 10% of the student population displayingalternative conceptions are presented.

The item over 10% in Table 4 still results from the inadequateunderstanding of flammable mixture and burning point. Moreover, theresult shows that student tends to be influenced by the external surface ofmatter and the alternative conceptions which then come into play. Inaddition, students’ images about flame also promote the conception of aspread of germs

The development of conceptions about burning across grades 3 to 6 isdisplayed in Table 5. The grade-level development was tested with anANOVA of the test results. The results of the one-way ANOVAperformed on the two-tiered diagnostic assessments (results by gradelevel) revealed a significant main effect (F = 9.436, df 3,224, p G 0.001).

The average scores of students have a tendency to increase from grades3 to 6. However, the differences between the fifth and sixth grade scoressuggest that this trend is not consistent. Scheffe’s pairwise comparisonswere used to explore the grade-level performance. Table 6 shows thatgrade 3 scores were significantly (p ≤ 0.05) lower than the grades 5 and 6scores and that grades 4, 5, and 6 are not significantly different from oneanother. These results reveal that grade 4 is the crucial period in whichconceptual change among students occurs.

DISCUSSION

Perspectives on Burning in Traditional Atayal Culture

About 80% of Ilan County’s indigenous people are of the Atayal tribe.Nonetheless, materials concerning burning are still lacking. One notionfound in the literature is that “one should not warm oneself by a fire


TABLE 4

Alternative conceptions determined from the administration of the two-tier diagnostic test

Alternative conception

Percentage ofstudents withalternativeconceptions

Candle burning1. The color of the flame is uniform throughout. 10.62. The color of the flame is related to its position on

and distance from the wick.14.5

3. Each individual flame is unique. 16.74. The temperature of the flame is uniform throughout. 21.35. The temperature of the flame increases over time. 10.76. The temperature of the flame is greatest at that position

where the flame was lit.11.1

Factors in burning7. Combustible materials burn more easily when they are

densely packed.31.1

8. The combustibility of combustible materials is unrelatedto their condition or state.

46.2

9. Both iron and steel wool cannot burn. 43.110. The combustibility of combustible materials changes

as they harden and change shape.30.2

11. Ash can still burn. 10.112. Smaller amounts of oxidizer will burn more easily. 10.213. There is no way to burn combustibles if they are wet. 13.014. The temperature of combustibles drops when they are wet,

and therefore they burn more easily.5.8

15. The process of ignition is unrelated to the state or conditionof the combustibles.

9.8

Fire extinguishing16. The extinguishing materials are anthropomorphic. 43.317. The ability of the extinguishing materials to extinguish fires

is unrelated to their weight.7.222.5

18. The ability of extinguishing materials to extinguish fires isunrelated to their density.

5.0

19. The ability of extinguishing materials to extinguish fires isunrelated to their state or condition.

40.4

Changes in burning20. The reactants don’t change in burning. 32.621. When metals combust, they only become hot and their

weight remains the same (the role of oxygen in thissituation is unclear).

23.5

22. Once the reactants burn and vaporize, they seem todisappear.

30.1

23. The shape of the reactants affects their weight after burning. 16.4


alongside someone that is ill for fear of getting ill oneself” (AcademicaSinica Institute of Ethnology, 1996, p. 50). This study found support that thisnotion existed among the Atayal elders interviewed. They attributed thetransmission of the cold germs to the fire, whereas a Western perspectivewould attribute the transmission to the close location and contact of thepeople around the fire. While the Atayal family fears becoming infected,they continue to provide the ill persons with the necessities of life.

TABLE 4

(continued)

Alternative conception

Percentage ofstudents withalternativeconceptions

24. The reactants increase in weight due to expansion throughburning (conceptions about density are unclear).

7.1

25. The change in weight of the reactants in burning is related toour sensation of the fire.

16

26. Only the external appearance and color of the reactantschange through burning, not its composition.

32.6

27. The ash resulting from the burning of plants is lime. 6.6Traditional meanings of burning28. Fire spreads contagious diseases, so we should not warm

ourselves by the fire alongside someone who is sick.13.7

29. Fire increases the severity of sick germs. 6.230. Fire will heal the sick person’s illness. 9.7

TABLE 5

Statistics on grades and scores from the two-tier diagnostic assessment of students’alternative conceptions about burning

GradeNumberof students Average score SD

Average 95%confidence intervals

Lowestscore

HighestscoreBottom Top

Third 59 7.64 3.38 6.76 8.52 1 18Fourth 64 9.25 3.60 8.35 10.15 3 19Fifth 44 10.59 4.32 9.28 11.90 2 20Sixth 61 11.07 3.97 10.05 12.08 2 19Total 228 9.58 4.00 9.06 10.10 1 20


In books and reports concerning indigenous customs, the Atayal beliefthat ash has the ability to drive out evil spirits was mentioned. However,this study did not document this belief in the Atayal elders. The Atayalelders were unfamiliar with the notion that ash could drive out evil spirits.With respect to fire, it has been said:

Fire should be relit on the day of, or the day prior to the offering of sacrifices, with the oldfire being discarded just as a new one is being relit. The fire must be protected until thesacrificial offerings have been completed and must not be extinguished before that point.In addition, the fire must not be relit nor must another flame be combined with it duringthe sacrifices. (Academica Sinica Institute of Ethnology, 1996, p. 43)

This belief was confirmed by the Atayal elders. Thus, both the literatureand the elders provided insights into traditional beliefs about burning. Theseideas suggest that burning has many interesting meanings in an indigenoussociety, thus providing motivation for further research into indigenousknowledge.

Special Origins of Atayal Students’ Conceptions About Burning

The Ilan County Atayal elementary school students’ conceptions aboutburning are grouped into five different categories (Table 4), based on ourinterviews and literature review. These categories differ from previous studiesin science education concerning “alternative conceptions” about burning thatstressed Western perspectives on knowledge and on the phenomena ofburning. The three items in the fifth category, “traditional meanings ofburning (customs)” in any case, though, the origins of Atayal students’

TABLE 6

Multiple comparisons of grades and scores for the two-tier diagnostic assessment ofstudents’ alternative conceptions about burning

(I) Grade (J) Grade

Averagedifference(I−J) SE p value

95% confidenceintervals

Bottom Top

Third Fourth −1.61 0.68 0.142 −3.54 0.32Fifth −2.95* 0.76 0.002 −5.08 −0.82Sixth −3.42* 0.69 0.001 −5.37 −1.47

Fourth Fifth −1.34 0.74 0.356 −3.43 0.75Sixth −1.82 0.68 0.070 −3.73 0.10

Fifth Sixth −0.47 0.75 0.940 −2.59 1.64

*p ≤ 0.05


conceptions about burning is complex and the interaction may exist.However, for the convenience of description, based on research question-naires, interviews, and related literature, we have classified the source into fivefactors. In turn, they are: cultural influences, environmental constraints,economic activity, lack of medical and health resources, as well as personallife experiences, as explained below.

Impact of Culture. Of the 228 indigenous elementary school students whoparticipated in this research study, 94 (about 41%) of the students believedthat one would get sick by warming by the fire alongside someone ill and 31of those students believed that fire will transmit diseases (and thus, oneshould not warm oneself by the fire alongside someone that is ill). Anadditional 14 students believed that fire increases the severity of the sickgerms. From these data, we can conclude that culture has an influence onstudents’ beliefs about the power of flames specifically and an influence onstudents’ conceptions of natural phenomena generally, a finding confirmedworldwide (Aikenhead & Jegede, 1999; George, 1999; McKinley, 2005):

In the interviews, the researchers learned that 8 of the 42 students who believed that onewould get sick by warming by the fire alongside someone ill acquired this notion fromfamily members or fellow tribe members. The influence of traditional Atayal culture onconceptions about burning is, at present, still very apparent. The elementary schoolscience teachers interviewed suggest there is a lack of cultural stimulation from outsidethe indigenous community. Compared with children living in urban environments,indigenous students tend to receive different cultural stimuli, although the reduction ofurban–rural disparities under current measures, has seen gradual improvement in this area.

The Environmental Constraints. The Atayal tribe is considered to be amountain tribe and resides close to the foot of the mountains. Because theireveryday lives are associated with the mountains, children becomeinfluenced by what they see and hear around them over long periods offamily experiences and free play. They naturally come to incorporate theseexperiences into their knowledge and judgments. We discovered that manyof the students’ indigenous conceptions about burning arose as a result of thisenvironmental factor. Students revealed that the origins of their conceptionslay in situations concerning mountain region farmhouses, bonfires in thecold of the mountains, the experience of lighting fires for mountain huntingtrips, fires in the home for funeral ceremonies, and other such events. Inaddition, those living in mountainous areas are affected by the relative lackof resource materials and are, therefore, forced to live a more economicallyprimitive communal lifestyle of sharing common bonfires and food


preparation. Collectively, these environmental factors influenced thedevelopment of the students’ knowledge about naturally occurring events.

Economic Activity. Most people in the Ilan County Atayal culture arefarmers, and their most common crops are ginger and mushrooms.Farming is supplemented with hunting, which serves as the tribe’s mainsource of protein and a family’s primary source of income. Because ofthis lifestyle, students often participate in these activities after school,providing unique lived experiences compared to the experiences of non-indigenous students. These indigenous students’ experiences in a place-based survival lifestyle appear to influence their construction ofconceptions about naturally occurring events.

Lack of Medical and Health Resources. Indigenous people in mountainregions tend to reside in more inaccessible places, and as a result, bothmedical institutions and health information are relatively scarce. Indige-nous students usually receive health and medical information fromschool, parents, friends, and television. The health information receivedat school is the most reliable source, while family and friends can besources of less reliable, traditional health advice. This study found threestudents whose concepts about burning were produced through mis-understandings in school health education and school guidance.

Personal Living Experience. Indigenous elementary and middle schoolstudents do not display significantly different scores on intelligence testsfrom non-indigenous students (Mou, 1996). The five science teacherinterviews revealed that students believed: (a) indigenous studentsequaled non-indigenous students in intelligence, creativity, and logicalthinking ability and (b) the only areas in which the indigenous studentslagged behind the non-indigenous students were in linguistic understand-ing and expressive abilities. Difficulties arising from language problemsin learning science by indigenous students have been noted by Chinn,Hand & Yore (2008), Snively & Williams (2008), and Yore (2008).

Duit & Treagust (2003) identified six main origins for conceptualdevelopment: sensory experiences, linguistic experiences, cultural back-ground, peer influences, mass media, and school science education.Comparing their findings to the results of our study, it would seem thatthe primary ways that Ilan County indigenous elementary school studentsacquire their concepts about burning are through sensory experiences andcultural transmission (e.g., from elders and peers). Linguistic experiences,mass media, and school science education were secondary causes.


Moreover, indigenous language, culture, and the ecological environmentmay influence the acquisition of scientific concepts about burning.

Implications for Indigenous Science Teaching

The influence of culture on how indigenous students learn science has alreadybecome widely viewed as a significant factor in recent years. Aikenhead(2001) stated:

[S]cience teachers tend to harbour a strong allegiance to values associated with scientism,for instance, science is: non-humanistic, objective, purely rational and empirical,universal, impersonal, socially sterile, and unencumbered by the vulgarity of human bias,dogma, judgments, or cultural values. Scientism seems to penetrate students’ minds, like ahidden curriculum, when students learn to “think like a scientist” and take on other ‘habitsof the mind’; goals emphasized in recent reform documents. These science curriculaattempt to enculturate all students into the value system of Western science. (p. 337)

Aikenhead also pointed out that, for the majority of indigenous students,enculturation intoWestern science is experienced as an attempt at assimilationinto a foreign culture. Because students generally reject assimilation into theculture of Western science (Aikenhead, 1996), attempts to assimilateaboriginal peoples into Western societies (i.e., colonization) have haddisastrous consequences (Hodson, 1998). Many scholars have suggested thatwe place more importance on indigenous knowledge in school science andthat we develop a culturally responsive, “place-based” science curriculum toavoid academic colonization (e.g., Aikenhead & Ogawa, 2007; Chinn, 2007).This suggestion will reduce transcultural barriers and provide a bridge forindigenous students.

Different views and definitions of science in science education indicatedifferent ways of understanding the world (Chinn et al., 2008). Snively &Williams (2008) proposed that every culture has its own “science” andthat both indigenous and Western knowledge systems’ approaches tonature are valuable and have been useful to the cultures developing them.

Research into students’ alternative concepts to scientific conceptions andinto students’ conceptual changes are important aspects of science educationresearch. This research needs to explore: (a) the origins of students’conceptions; (b) the processes by which students add scientific conceptionsto their repertoire of conceptions, reject scientific concepts, or modify theirpersonal concepts to comply with scientific concepts; and (c) the developmentof culturally responsive assessment tools for both scientific and indigenousknowledge. When applied to indigenous science education, research mustinclude understanding the worldviews of students and identifying relation-


ships between their worldviews and the conceptions they hold. Such a scienceeducation will enhance the richness of students’ worldviews.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This research was sponsored by the Taiwan National Science Council,NSC 95-2522-S-126-002-MY3 and NSC 95-2522-S-126-005-MY3.Special thanks to the helpful and valuable discussion of the manuscriptwith Justin Dillon, Larry Yore, and Glen Aikenhead.

APPENDIX

Burning Phenomena

the significance of customs

cook

illuminate

keep animals aw

ay

warm

by the fire

bans

cultivate land (slash and burn)

combustibles

gaps between com

bustibles (aids burning air)

igniter (flint)

banana tree fibers (kindling) ash

facial tattoos

fertilizer

don’t share a fire with som

eone ill (fear of contagion)

fire shouldn’t be relit during sacrifice

fire shouldn’t be extinguished during sacrifice

heat light lighting a fire

huntingbodily needs

evergreen tree oil pieces (kindling)

bamboo rods

wood

is found in

is related tois related to

is

has

hashas

produceis usually

needsneedsneeds

hashas

cancancancancan be used

to make

can be

used to

can be used to

extinguish a fire

sprinkling

filling up cracks

space can

for examplefor example

for example

for example


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Jen-Min Chang and Huei Lee

Graduate Institute of Science EducationNational Dong Hwa UniversityNo. 123, Hwa-Hsi Road., Hualien City, 97003, Taiwan, Republic of ChinaE-mail: [email protected]

Huei LeeE-mail: [email protected]

Chiung-Fen Yen

Department of EcologyProvidence University200 Chung-Chi Road, Shalu, Taiching, 43301, Taiwan, Republic of ChinaE-mail: [email protected]


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ALTERNATIVE CONCEPTIONS ABOUT BURNING HELD BY ATAYAL INDIGENE STUDENTS IN TAIWAN