Are Conceptual Change Approaches to Learning Science Effective for Everyone? Gender, Prior Subject Matter Interest, and Learning about Electricity

The present study investigated relationships among an individual′s gender, interest in and experience with electricity, and conceptual change text manipulations on learning basic electricity concepts. Previous research had indicated that conceptual change text led to better conceptual understanding of electrical concepts than did traditional text, but that the effect interacted with the sex of the subjects. This study tested the hypothesis that interest moderated this interaction. College males and females completed background questionnaires on interest and experience with electricity and then studied either conceptual change or traditional text and completed a post-test. Conceptual change text led to improved performance for students with a moderate interest in electricity, but not for students with a very high or very low interest in electricity. The implications of these results for the instructional theory of conceptual change and for instructional practice were discussed.