The Process of Facilitating Knowledge Acquisition and Retention: An Inquiry into Magnetic Poles with Challenging Questions

The current research is to give an example to the inquiry-based science teaching implementations for facilitating knowledge acquisition and retention in a short period of time. Thus, the aim of the research is to transfer of acquired knowledge into different situations using sequential inquiry activities, which have challenging questions for inquiry about what the magnetic pole is and how to discover it. The research was designed as a pre-experimental, one-group pre-test/post-test (N=65) with a retention-test. Sequential inquiry-based science activities were applied to provide a series of developmentally appropriate experiences and discussions, which concretely scaffold participant’s ideas of magnetism. According to the results, the participants interpreted the magnets and magnetic poles regarding their functions. The common view of the participants was that a magnetic pole should be at the ends. This view is associated with upper-lower or internal-external surfaces for a ring magnet. Finally, with a sphere magnet, both upper-lower or internal-external surfaces have lost their functions and the inquiry begins with the question “How to find the poles of a magnet?” In that process, students get to engage and feel that they do not know something that they should know.


Introduction
We have common experiences regarding the magnets and magnetic poles concepts that start to be taught from 4th grade level in science classes. During these classes, first the poles of a bar magnet are determined and then it is predicted that the poles of a horseshoe magnet are at the ends. After that, the interaction of the magnets with the other objects is emphasized and finally, magnetic attraction and repulsion between two magnets are experienced. Thus, the concepts of magnetism are tried to be acquired by using concept formation or concept assimilation (Ausubel, 2000, p. 88). In teaching, the magnets are found suitable for hands-on science practices for the purpose of providing standard instructional methods and procedures which have certain steps (Wecker, Rachel, Heran-Dörr, Waltner, Wiesner, & Fischer, 2013). In this way, the instructors are tried to be upskilled for inquiry. However, inquiry-based science teaching is not a concept that can be oversimplified as "The children gain practical skills by doing something" or "the children discover everything by themselves" (Harlen, 2014). In contrast, Students try to understand the nature and the phenomena just like a scientist in the inquiry-based science education (IBSE). An individual activates data collection, scientific process, critical thinking, communication and independent and collaborative learning skills during the inquiry process. Nowadays, it is easy for a teacher to find an activity or an experiment which is suitable for the subject in class. Many sources offer this service to teachers as printed or digital. However, doing experiments with simple materials, implementing activities by following the instructions or step by step with the guidance of the teacher do not mean that the scientific thinking skills of the students would develop. Also, it does not mean that a hands-on activity is being carried out if the students participate in and implement activities. The critical point here is the teacher's follow-up strategies during the preparation and implementation of the activity. In any case, it should not be forgotten that an activity is just a tool that serves for the inquiries and experiences of the students. The important thing is to support inquiry with dialogues and discussions among students during the activity (Oğuz-Ünver, 2015, pp. 219-220). At any level of inquiry, the activities should have certain qualities. According to these qualities', students; • engage in scientific-based questions, ies.ccsenet.org International Education Studies Vol. 11, No. 5;2018 • prioritize evidence to find answers to his/her questions, • create evidence-based explanations, • associate his/her explanations with existing scientific knowledge, • communicate with peers and defend his/her explanations (National Research Council [NRC], 2000, pp. 161-171).
With this point of view, studies on students' understanding of the magnetism are to be reviewed.

What the Literature Tells Us
Studies on students' understanding of the magnetism are likely depending on the prior knowledge of the subject matter and on the mental models about the magnetic field. The studies about magnetic properties between the ages 4-6 usually tell us a large number of children of this age discover the forces of attraction of magnets on metal objects and the forces of attraction and repulsion between magnets, while they also start to learn which substances are attracted by magnets and which are not. Moreover, children may think that magnets attract all metals or that larger magnets are stronger than the smaller ones (e.g., Piaget & Chollet, 1973;Ravanis, 1994Ravanis, , 1996Fedele, Michelini, & Stefanel, 2005;Papadopoulou & Poimenidou, 2008;Christidou, Hatzinikita, & Dimitriou, 2009;Wilcox & Richey, 2012). Children older than those ages link magnetic properties with gravitational phenomena (e.g., Selman, Krupa, Stone, & Jacquette, 1982;Bradamante & Michelini, 2005;Bradamante & Viennot, 2007), a kind of electricity, pressure of air, magnetic stream, a kind of lighting, rays and heat which are concepts derived from everyday life or education (e.g., Barrow, 1987;Erickson, 1994;Bar, Zinn, & Rubin, 1997;Bar & Zinn, 1998;Herrmann, Hauptmann, & Suleder, 2000;Maloney, O'kuma, Hieggelke, & Van Heuvelen, 2001;Anderson, Lucas, & Ginns, 2003;Ravanis, Pantidos, & Vitoratos, 2009). Apart from those studies, there is a focus on mental representations about magnetic field (e.g., Piaget & Chollet, 1973;Erickson, 1994;Borges, Tecnico, & Gilbert, 1998;Ravanis, Pantidos, & Vitoratos, 2009, 2010Cheng & Brown, 2015). Ravanis, Pantidos, and Vitoratos (2010) aimed to investigate students' mental representations about magnetic field in connection to the Newtonian model based on four tasks. The results of four tasks indicate that the students had difficulty in evaluating actual or hypothetical experimental situations involving the application of the properties of the magnetic field. Erickson (1994) described three models of magnetism found among nine to fourteen years old children in Canada. Additionally, the students' mental models on magnetism were pulling magnet, emanating model and enclosing model. Borges et al. (1998) identified the mental models of learners. The learners construct and use mental models to think about electric current, magnetism, and about the relationship between electricity and magnetism. Five models that are magnetism as pulling, magnetism as a cloud, magnetism as electricity, magnetism as electric polarization and field model were found. Overall, in early ages, children tend mainly to recognize the attractive effects of interactions and especially the oldest ones tend to identify magnetism as electricity and gravity. However, the studies refer largely to magnetic interactions and do not much provide any information about the nature of magnetic pole. Limited studies mentioned the students' difficulties on recognition of magnetic poles (e.g., Borges et al., 1998;Fedele et al., 2005;Wilcox & Richey, 2012). With this understanding, the first objective of the current research is to give an example to the inquiry-based science teaching implementations which are compatible with updated science curricula. Then, followed strategies in today's school programs related to the process of facilitating knowledge acquisition and retention in a short period of time are discussed. Another aim of the research is to transfer of acquired knowledge into different situations using sequential inquiry activities which have challenging questions for inquiry about what the magnetic pole is and how to discover it.

Method
School science programs indicate students should deeply understand that magnets attract and repel each other and other materials as well as understanding magnetic poles. Studies indicated that if students are not carefully scaffolded through these concrete activities, the aforementioned misconceptions may inhibit meaningful engagement with the concept. Everyday experiences and focusing on the usage of magnets could help students gain greater insight into how magnets work.

Research Design and Participants
The research was designed on a pre-experimental, one-group pre-test/post-test design model. To determine the sample's retention of the knowledge, an additional retention test was carried out 3 months after the post-test. The model is presented below (see Table 1). In the third closer to th provides k the previo attraction a In the fou magnet by After the a surfaces w evaluate th retention t

Results
The findin 65) to desc below).   Vol. 11, No. 5;2018 participants to make more and deeper interpretations. The participants did not use some concepts to define magnetic pole such as the Earth's magnetic field, magnetic field lines, compass and orientation before implementation. Moreover, the concepts of end, charge, and polarization had been used before the implementation was not included in the participant expressions after the implementation. The participants used the concepts of N pole and S pole, like pole and unlike pole, attraction and repulsion, attraction force, and magnetic field more in their statement after implementation. Also, the misconception of positive (+) and negative (-) have been used much less in the participant expressions after the implementation. This is an indication that the frequency of use of misconceptions associated with the magnetic pole was reduced and the used concepts were oriented towards the basic concepts of magnetism. The pretest results of the participants (N=65) on the number of poles and their location are presented in Table 2 (see below). Note. *: Correct answer.
According to Table 2, the findings reveal that the participants tried to find the numbers of poles and the locations of the poles associated with the shapes of the magnets before implementation. The participants used the end variable to determine the poles of bar and horseshoe magnets. However, since the disc and ring magnets do not have ends, the participants tried to determine the locations of the poles using only surface variables for these two magnets. These variables are completely absent for the sphere magnet. Especially, when they tried to find poles without end variable, the participants' answers were varied or they were not able to determine the numbers of poles and locations of poles. Similarly, Wilcox, and Richey (2012) gave students three different magnets: a bar magnet, a horseshoe magnet, and a disc magnet so that students could observe all magnets had two poles, even if the shape and size were different. However, in this case, students may still correlate the poles with the side, point, end, or surface. The underlying reason for this situation may be that the concept of the magnetic pole is taught to the students through the single variable (end concept) in teaching processes. When more than one variable is included in the process, the students are having problems in transferring the existing knowledge to the new situation. Fedele et al. (2005) observed that students have difficulties in recognition of magnetic poles. It is more problematic recognize that each pole interacts differently with another magnet and in the same way with other objects. This problem can be overcome by the operative exploration of different situations, showing the interactions like the action of couples of forces and the interaction intensity varying with distance. Correspondingly, Borges et al. (1998) defined that people holding the idea that magnets attract some materials because it is part of their nature do not acknowledge the existing of poles in the magnet. So far it can be concluded that participants' explanations for ies.ccsenet.org International Education Studies Vol. 11, No. 5;2018 the magnet's behavior are frequently shallow. They could say that atoms or molecules are arranged according to special pattern and this internal order brings about magnetism yet no one attempted to explain how magnetism could originate from such a regular arrangement of atoms. The posttest and retention test results of the participants (N=65) on the number of poles and their location about the cube magnet are presented in Table 3 (see below). Note. *: Correct answer.
An examination of Table 3 shows that, after implementation, the number of poles of the cube magnet and the locations of the poles are determined in accordance with the nature of the magnetic field without focusing on the end variable. The sequential activities aim to teach magnetism with different variables and pole concept using experiment and observation process without focusing on the end variable, made more effective adapting the knowledge to a new situation. The answers of the participants (N=65) related to the numbers of poles and the location of poles about the given magnets in retention test are presented in Table 4.  g to Table 4, th knowledge wh pants think of test, the correc in terms of th able-based activ the well-organ ion of the conc pole determinin The participa It overlaps w or the number o 7 Figure  ations about th Vol. 11,No. 5; oles about the g     Vol. 11, No. 5;2018 magnetic poles of different shapes of magnets besides bar and horseshoe. Organizing the appropriate teaching activities in order to make the properties of the magnetic poles better understood, as well as the question of reorganizing sections of the curriculum in order to study magnetic properties to become systematically linked to questions of the general properties and the nature of poles. Students have difficulties in understanding the course subjects that are too abstract. The solution usually seems to memorization of the key facts, but unfortunately it never mentally engage with the students with the concepts. Students interpret classroom activities through the lens of their prior experiences. As a result, one activity is not enough to adequately challenge students' misconceptions. It appears that a discussion concerning a satisfactory comprehension of the magnetic poles has to encompass not only the ordinary kinds of the magnets like bar and horseshoe but also the special applications of these properties in various experimental situations. Finally, predictions can be a powerful formative assessment tool for the teacher when students have substantial background information with the phenomena. If the students do not have an adequate knowledge to make logical predictions based on evidence, students often end up just guessing. In this study since the students have numerous prior experiences with magnets, their predictions help researchers to establish their level of understanding.