This study investigated the extent to which the proposed Factory of Ideas (FOI) teaching approach impacted on students’ understanding of energy based on their prior knowledge. The FOI is a didactic approach that, unlike the classic cognitive conflict approach, employs a variety of activities to offer students a scientific conception for comparison with their own, and to expose students to several contexts in which the concept is applied. A total of 122 Grade 8 students participated in the study. A quasi-experimental research design with both a pre–post-test and a control and experimental group was employed. The control group (an intact class, N = 58) was taught using traditional teaching methods while the experimental group (an intact class, N = 64) was taught using the FOI teaching approach, which is underpinned by tenets of argumentation theory. The content-based pre- and post-test produced quantitative data that were analysed using SPSS. Based on the t-test comparing the mean scores of the two groups after the intervention, the experimental group was consistently found to outperform the control group on the correct understanding of energy concepts. Thus the FOI teaching approach impacted significantly on students’ understanding of energy concepts. However, for some students, the FOI did not significantly change the students' use of alternative conceptions related to the law of conservation of energy. It is concluded that the FOI strategy is in general an effective teaching strategy, with the potential to facilitate learning of new scientific concepts, particularly if supported by a number of relevant science applications, and by laboratory and visual resources.

本研究调查了提议的思想工厂 (FOI) 教学方法在多大程度上影响了学生根据他们的先验知识对能量的理解。FOI 是一种教学方法，与经典的认知冲突方法不同，它采用各种活动为学生提供科学概念，以便与他们自己的概念进行比较，并使学生接触到应用该概念的多种环境。共有 122 名 8 年级学生参加了这项研究。采用了具有前测后测和对照组和实验组的准实验研究设计。对照组（一个完整班级，N  =58）采用传统教学方法进行教学，而实验组（一个完整班级，N =58） = 64) 是使用 FOI 教学方法教授的，该方法以论证理论的原则为基础。基于内容的前测和后测产生定量数据，并使用 SPSS 进行分析。基于t-测试比较干预后两组的平均分数，发现实验组在正确理解能量概念方面始终优于对照组。因此，FOI 教学方法对学生对能量概念的理解产生了显着影响。然而，对于一些学生来说，FOI 并没有显着改变学生对与能量守恒定律相关的替代概念的使用。结论是，FOI 策略通常是一种有效的教学策略，具有促进新科学概念学习的潜力，特别是如果得到一些相关科学应用以及实验室和视觉资源的支持。