共查询到20条相似文献，搜索用时 718 毫秒
1.
E. Gaigher J. M. Rogan M. W. H. Braun 《International Journal of Science Education》2013,35(9):1089-1110
A study on the effect of a structured problem‐solving strategy on problem‐solving skills and conceptual understanding of physics was undertaken with 189 students in 16 disadvantaged South African schools. This paper focuses on the development of conceptual understanding. New instruments, namely a solutions map and a conceptual index, are introduced to assess conceptual understanding demonstrated in students’ written solutions to examination problems. The process of the development of conceptual understanding is then explored within the framework of Greeno’s model of scientific problem‐solving and reasoning. It was found that students who had been exposed to the structured problem‐solving strategy demonstrated better conceptual understanding of physics and tended to adopt a conceptual approach to problem‐solving. 相似文献
2.
David H. Jonassen Ioan Gelu Ionas 《Educational technology research and development : ETR & D》2008,56(3):287-308
Causal reasoning represents one of the most basic and important cognitive processes that underpin all higher-order activities,
such as conceptual understanding and problem solving. Hume called causality the “cement of the universe” [Hume (1739/2000).
Causal reasoning is required for making predictions, drawing implications and inferences, and explaining phenomena. Causal
relations are usually more complex than learners understand. In order to be able to understand and apply causal relationships,
learners must be able to articulate numerous covariational attributes of causal relationships, including direction, valency,
probability, duration, responsiveness, as well as mechanistic attributes, including process, conjunctions/disjunctions, and
necessity/sufficiency. We describe different methods for supporting causal learning, including influence diagrams, simulations,
questions, and different causal modeling tools, including expert systems, systems dynamics tools, and causal modeling tools.
Extensive research is needed to validate and contrast these methods for supporting causal reasoning. 相似文献
3.
It has been shown previously that many students solve chemistry problems using only algorithmic strategies and do not understand the chemical concepts on which the problems are based. It is plausible to suggest that if the information is presented in differing formats, the cognitive demand of a problem changes. The main objective of this study is to investigate the degree to which cognitive variables, such as developmental level, mental capacity, and disembedding ability explain student performance on problems which: (1) could be addressed by algorithms or (2) require conceptual understanding. All conceptual problems used in this study were based on a figurative format. The results obtained show that in all four problems requiring algorithmic strategies, developmental level of the students is the best predictor of success. This could be attributed to the fact that these are basically computational problems, requiring mathematical transformations. Although all three problems requiring conceptual understanding had an important aspect in common (the figurative format), in all three the best predictor of success is a different cognitive variable. It was concluded that: (1) the ability to solve computational problems (based on algorithms) is not the major factor in predicting success in solving problems that require conceptual understanding; (2) solving problems based on algorithmic strategies requires formal operational reasoning to a certain degree; and (3) student difficulty in solving problems that require conceptual understanding could be attributed to different cognitive variables. 相似文献
4.
This paper presents a conceptual analysis for students’ images of graphs and their extension to graphs of two-variable functions. We use the conceptual analysis, based on quantitative and covariational reasoning, to construct a hypothetical learning trajectory (HLT) for how students might generalize their understanding of graphs of one-variable functions to graphs of two-variable functions. To evaluate the viability of this learning trajectory, we use data from two teaching experiments based on tasks intended to support development of the schemes in the HLT. We focus on the schemes that two students developed in these teaching experiments and discuss their relationship to the original HLT. We close by considering the role of covariational reasoning in generalization, consider other ways in which students might come to conceptualize graphs of two-variable functions, and discuss implications for instruction. 相似文献
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6.
Potential Contribution of Digital Video to the Analysis of the Learning Process in Physics: A Case Study in the Context of Electric Circuits 总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1
We seek to demonstrate how digital video technology can contribute towards our understanding of the process of development of conceptual understanding in physics. We use digital video to analyze 4 brief Physics by Inquiry sessions with 2 groups of preservice teachers. The instances include independent group work and instructor-student interactions. Important insights emerge on the way students attempt to make sense of their observations and the way their initial ideas hamper the process of inquiry. Specific difficulties are identified that influence the learning trajectory. These are classified into categories, including epistemological, conceptual, and reasoning difficulties. Additional results demonstrate the crucial nature of careful guidance in inquiry-oriented activities and the variety in student responses to epistemological and other obstacles. 相似文献
7.
Many introductory biochemistry students have problems understanding metabolism and acquiring the skills necessary to study
metabolic pathways. In this paper we suggest that this may be largely due to the use of a traditional teaching approach which
emphasises memorisation rather than understanding. We present an alternative approach to teaching carbohydrate metabolism
which is designed to promote understanding of pathways. The approach also enables regular monitoring of, and reflection on,
student progress and the identification of student reasoning and conceptual difficulties through the use of specially designed
problems. Preliminary results are presented giving examples of specific student difficulties and the extent to which they
were addressed by the alternative instructional approach. A qualitative evaluation of the approach is also presented.
Specializations: metal accumulating plants biochemical education.
Specializations: physics education, conceptual development, instructional design, improvement of tertiary science education. 相似文献
8.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of the cooperative learning approach based on conceptual change conditions
over traditional instruction on 10th grade students' conceptual understanding and achievement of computational problems related
to chemical equilibrium concepts. The subjects of this study consisted of 87 tenth grade students from two intact classes
of a Chemistry Course instructed by the same teacher. One of the classes was randomly assigned as the experimental group,
which was instructed with cooperative learning approach based on conceptual change conditions and the other class was assigned
as the control group, which was instructed with traditional instruction. Chemical Equilibrium Concept Test (CECT) was administered
to the experimental and the control groups as pre- and post-tests to measure the students' conceptual understanding, and Chemical
Equilibrium Achievement Test (CEAT) was administered to the experimental and the control groups as a post-test to measure
the students' achievements related to computational problems. Science Process Skills Test was used at the beginning of the
study to determine the students' science process skills. Multivariate Analysis of Covariate (MANCOVA) was used to analyze
the data. The results showed that students in the experimental group had better conceptual understanding, and achievement
of computational problems related to the chemical equilibrium concepts. Furthermore, students' science process skills were
accounted for a significant portion of variations in conceptual understanding and achievements related to the computational
problems. 相似文献
9.
Emily E. Scott Jack Cerchiara Jenny L. McFarland Mary Pat Wenderoth Jennifer H. Doherty 《科学教学研究杂志》2023,60(1):63-99
In recent years, there has been a strong push to transform STEM education at K-12 and collegiate levels to help students learn to think like scientists. One aspect of this transformation involves redesigning instruction and curricula around fundamental scientific ideas that serve as conceptual scaffolds students can use to build cohesive knowledge structures. In this study, we investigated how students use mass balance reasoning as a conceptual scaffold to gain a deeper understanding of how matter moves through biological systems. Our aim was to lay the groundwork for a mass balance learning progression in physiology. We drew on a general models framework from biology and a covariational reasoning framework from math education to interpret students' mass balance ideas. We used a constant comparative method to identify students' reasoning patterns from 73 interviews conducted with undergraduate biology students. We helped validate the reasoning patterns identified with >8000 written responses collected from students at multiple institutions. From our analyses, we identified two related progress variables that describe key elements of students' performances: the first describes how students identify and use matter flows in biology phenomena; the second characterizes how students use net rate-of-change to predict how matter accumulates in, or disperses from, a compartment. We also present a case study of how we used our emerging mass balance learning progression to inform instructional practices to support students' mass balance reasoning. Our progress variables describe one way students engage in three dimensional learning by showing how student performances associated with the practice of mathematical thinking reveal their understanding of the core concept of matter flows as governed by the crosscutting concept of matter conservation. Though our work is situated in physiology, it extends previous work in climate change education and is applicable to other scientific fields, such as physics, engineering, and geochemistry. 相似文献
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Sura Wuttiprom Ian D. Johnston Ratchapak Chitaree Chernchok Soankwan 《International Journal of Science Education》2013,35(5):631-654
Conceptual surveys have become increasingly popular at many levels to probe various aspects of science education research such as measuring student understanding of basic concepts and assessing the effectiveness of pedagogical material. The aim of this study was to construct a valid and reliable multiple‐choice conceptual survey to investigate students’ understanding of introductory quantum physics concepts. We examined course syllabi to establish content coverage, consulted with experts to extract fundamental content areas, and trialled open‐ended questions to determine how the selected content areas align with students’ difficulties. The questions were generated and trialled with different groups of students. Each version of the survey was critiqued by a group of discipline and teaching experts to establish its validity. The survey was administered to 312 students at the University of Sydney. Using the data from this sample, we performed five statistical tests (item difficulty index, item discrimination index, item point biserial coefficient, KR‐21 reliability test, and Ferguson’s delta) to evaluate the test’s reliability and discriminatory power. The result indicates that our survey is a reliable test. This study also provided data from which preliminary findings were drawn on students’ understandings of introductory quantum physics concepts. The main point is that questions which require an understanding of the standard interpretations of quantum physics are more challenging for students than those grouped as non‐interpretative. The division of conceptual questions into interpretive and non‐interpretive needs further exploration. 相似文献
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Mansoor Niaz 《International Journal of Science Education》2013,35(5):525-541
Achievement in science depends among other factors on hypothetico‐deductive reasoning ability, that is, developmental level of the students. Recent research indicates that the developmental level of students should be studied along with individual difference variables, such as Pascual‐Leone's M‐capacity (information processing) and Witkin's Cognitive Style (disembedding ability). The purpose of this study is to investigate reasoning strategies of students in solving chemistry problems as a function of developmental level, functional M‐capacity and disembedding ability. A sample of 109 freshman students were administered tests of formal operational reasoning, functional M‐capacity, disembedding ability and chemistry problems (limiting reagent, mole, gas laws). Results obtained show that students who scored higher on cognitive predictor variables not only have a better chance of solving chemistry problems, but also demonstrated greater understanding and used reasoning strategies indicative of explicit problem‐solving procedures based on the hypothetico‐deductive method, manipulation of essential information and sensitivity to misleading information. It was also observed that students who score higher on cognitive predictor variables tend to anticipate important aspects of the problem situation by constructing general figurative and operative models, leading to a greater understanding. Students scoring low on cognitive predictor variables tended to circumvent cognitively more demanding strategies and adopt others that helped them to overcome the constraints of formal reasoning, information processing and disembedding ability. 相似文献
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Limook Lee 《International Journal of Science Education》2013,35(13):1577-1595
Recently, the importance of an everyday context in physics learning, teaching, and problem‐solving has been emphasized. However, do students or physics educators really want to learn or teach physics problem‐solving in an everyday context? Are there not any obstructive factors to be considered in solving the everyday context physics problems? To obtain the answer to these questions, 93 high school students, 36 physics teachers, and nine university physics educators participated in this study. Using two types of physics problems—everyday contextual problems (E‐problems) and decontextualized problems (D‐problems)—it was found that even though there was no difference in the actual performance between E‐problems and D‐problems, subjects predicted that E‐problems were more difficult to solve. Subjects preferred E‐problems on a school physics test because they thought E‐problems were better problems. Based on the observations of students' problem‐solving processes and interviews with them, six factors were identified that could impede the successful solution of E‐problems. We also found that many physics teachers agreed that students should be able to cope with those factors; however, teachers' perceptions regarding the need for teaching those factors were low. Therefore, we suggested teacher reform through in‐service training courses to enhance skills for teaching problem‐solving in an everyday context. 相似文献
16.
Cynthia F. Wynne Jim Stewart Cindy Passmore 《International Journal of Science Education》2013,35(5):501-515
Researchers have pointed out the difficulties that high school students have in understanding meiosis and the infrequency with which they acknowledge the conceptual relationships between meiosis and classical genetics, particularly when solving genetics problems. The research described in this article paints a different picture of students' reasoning with meiosis as they solved complex, computergenerated genetics problems, some of which required them to revise their understanding of meiosis in response to anomalous data. Details are presented of the ways students used their knowledge of meiosis to recognize anomalous data, to generate hypotheses as part of the revision of explanatory models, and to assess these hypotheses. The findings from this research, contrary to most reports in the literature, suggest that students are able to develop rich understanding of meiosis and can utilize that knowledge to solve genetics problems. 相似文献
17.
Timothy J. Nokes-Malach Kurt VanLehn Daniel M. Belenky Max Lichtenstein Gregory Cox 《European Journal of Psychology of Education - EJPE》2013,28(4):1237-1263
Research on expertise suggests that a critical aspect of expert understanding is knowledge of the relations between domain principles and problem features. We investigated two instructional pathways hypothesized to facilitate students’ learning of these relations when studying worked examples. The first path is through self-explaining how worked examples instantiate domain principles and the second is through analogical comparison of worked examples. We compared both of these pathways to a third instructional path where students read worked examples and solved practice problems. Students in an introductory physics class were randomly assigned to one of three worked example conditions (reading, self-explanation, or analogy) when learning about rotational kinematics and then completed a set of problem solving and conceptual tests that measured near, intermediate, and far transfer. Students in the reading and self-explanation groups performed better than the analogy group on near transfer problems solved during the learning activities. However, this problem solving advantage was short lived as all three groups performed similarly on two intermediate transfer problems given at test. On the far transfer test, the self-explanation and analogy groups performed better than the reading group. These results are consistent with the idea that self-explanation and analogical comparison can facilitate conceptual learning without decrements to problem solving skills relative to a more traditional type of instruction in a classroom setting. 相似文献
18.
Students with learning disabilities (LD) consistently struggle with word problem solving in mathematics classes. This difficulty has made curricular, state, and national tests particularly stressful, as word problem solving has become a predominant feature of such student performance assessments. Research suggests that students with LD perform poorly on word problem‐solving items due primarily to deficits in problem representation. Therefore, it is imperative that teachers provide these students with supplemental problem‐solving instruction that specifically targets the development of representational strategies. This article describes how one representational strategy, using number lines, can be used to model word problems as part of a comprehensive problem‐solving intervention to improve the conceptual understanding of math word problems and, subsequently, the problem‐solving performance of students with LD. 相似文献
19.
This study describes the possible variations of thought experiments in terms of their nature, purpose, and reasoning resources adopted during the solution of conceptual physics problems. A phenomenographic research approach was adopted for this study. Three groups of participants with varying levels of physics knowledge—low, medium, and high level—were selected in order to capture potential variations. Five participants were selected within each level group and the study was conducted with fifteen participants in total. Think aloud and retrospective questioning strategies were used throughout the individually conducted problem solving sessions to capture variations in the participants’ thinking processes. The analysis of the data showed that thought experiments were actively used cognitive tools by participants from all there levels while working on the problems. Four different thought experiment structures were observed and categorized as limiting case, extreme case, simple case, and familiar case. It was also observed that participants conducted thought experiments for different purposes such as prediction, proof, and explanation. The reasoning resources behind the thought experiment processes were classified in terms of observed facts, intuitive principles, and scientific concepts. The results of the analysis suggested that thought experiments used as a creative reasoning tool for scientists can also be a productive tool for students. It was argued that instructional practices enriched with thought experiments and related practices not only reveal hidden elements of students’ reasoning but also provide students opportunities to advance their inquiry skills through thought experimentation processes. 相似文献
20.
Olaf Uhden Ricardo Karam Maurício Pietrocola Gesche Pospiech 《Science & Education》2012,21(4):485-506
Many findings from research as well as reports from teachers describe students’ problem solving strategies as manipulation
of formulas by rote. The resulting dissatisfaction with quantitative physical textbook problems seems to influence the attitude
towards the role of mathematics in physics education in general. Mathematics is often seen as a tool for calculation which
hinders a conceptual understanding of physical principles. However, the role of mathematics cannot be reduced to this technical
aspect. Hence, instead of putting mathematics away we delve into the nature of physical science to reveal the strong conceptual
relationship between mathematics and physics. Moreover, we suggest that, for both prospective teaching and further research,
a focus on deeply exploring such interdependency can significantly improve the understanding of physics. To provide a suitable
basis, we develop a new model which can be used for analysing different levels of mathematical reasoning within physics. It
is also a guideline for shifting the attention from technical to structural mathematical skills while teaching physics. We
demonstrate its applicability for analysing physical-mathematical reasoning processes with an example. 相似文献