Diagnostic instruments for determining junior high-school science teachers’ understanding of functional relationships within the ‘living cell’

Two unobtrusive diagnostic game-like instruments, especially designed to determine junior high school science teachers’ meaningful understanding of functional relationships, between some of the basic concepts related to the abstract notion of the ‘living cell’, are described in this paper. The basic assumption was that teachers, although apparently familiar with each of the relevant concepts separately, do not perceive many of the relationships which confer upon them their ‘meaning’, in an Ausubelian sense. A concept map, specifically adapted to the level expected from junior high-school teachers, was designed and validated by scientists. While readily playing the ‘games’, individual teachers displayed the type and the relevance of the relationships which they established between concepts, their level of meaningful understanding (area covered on the exemplary concept-map), and its availability (spontaneity of use). The main outcomes of this study show that quite often, teachers do not spontaneously establish connections between concepts and therefore do not perceive the implications of their otherwise correct declarative knowledge.