Abstract

In this study we investigated the way, in which the concept categorization affects on the construction of knowledge in the subject of Computer Science, according to the text comprehension model of Baudet & Denhière (1992). This model supports that a person reading a text builds gradually its microstructure and macrostructure. Atoms, states and events help the knowledge construction in microstructure, which consists of meronymic and taxonomic relations between properties (atoms) of the technical system (relational structure) described in a Computer Science text. The microstructure includes the analysis of the operations (macroevents) of the system units (transformational structure) consisted of a series of events in time and describing how the system passes causally or temporally from one state to another. The “state” is a static situation of a system unit, while the “event” is the action that is responsible for the transition between the states. The macrostructure includes not only the microstructure, but also goals/subgoals of the system units and their macroevents (teleological structure). The transitions between the states meet predetermined objectives and each unit system is designed to serve its own subgoal. The results of the research revealed the significance of the concept categorization upon a reader’s mental knowledge construction and the alternative conceptions the reader presents. Additionally, this work showed the importance of the distinction between physical and abstract entities within the Computer Science subject to the reader’s teleological structure construction.