ABSTRACT

​Science education research widely supports the notion that in order for students to move from naive misconceptions about physical phenomenon toward more scientifically supported understandings, they need to experience some form of conceptual change (Strike & Posner, 1992; Smith et al., 1993; Driver et al., 2000).  This study explores the strategies that two experienced high school physics teachers used during whole class discussions to foster their students` construction of explanatory models for electricity.  Pre and post-instructional data reveal that, through the construction of these explanatory models, with guidance from their teachers, students` conceptual understanding of electricity appeared to improve.  The teaching strategies identified were found to be situated within the OGEM phases of the model construction cycle.  This acronym refers to the phases of Observation, Generation, Evaluation, and Modification that students and teachers were found to co-operatively engage in during whole class conversations. It is believed that the strategies used by these teachers contributed to the conceptual change that the students in this study experienced.  The purpose of this paper is to describe these strategies and contribute hypotheses as to the particular roles each played in the process of student conceptual change they are believed to have supported.