An Analysis of High School Students' Mental Models on the Plate Boundaries

The purpose of this study was to derive the criterions of each type of mental models on the plate boundaries and to investigate high school students' mental models on these concepts. The 11th grade student participants were requested to draw the collisional, convergent, and divergent boundaries and were interviewed individually. The drawings and the data gathered through the interviews were analyzed qualitatively. The mental models on the plate boundaries were classified as 'naive model', 'unstable model', 'causal model', and 'conceptual model'. The criterions for analyzing the mental models were the differentiations of the lithospheric plates and the mantle, the explanations of the motion of the plates and lower mantle, the demonstrations of topographical features of the plate boundaries and the causal relationships between the mantle convection and the topographical features. The findings revealed that the students holding 'the naive model' and 'the unstable model' were unable to relate the mantle convection and the three boundaries. In contrast, the students holding 'the causal model' and 'the conceptual model' were able to explain that the mantle convection causes the three boundaries. Also, the types of epistemological belief were different depending on their mental models. Students holding the naive model and the unstable model tended to rely upon the extemal authorities.