Understanding the Dialectical Relations Between Everyday Concepts and Scientific Concepts Within Play-Based Programs

In recent times there has been an enormous interest in Vygotsky’s writing on conceptual development, particularly his insights on the differences between everyday and scientific thinking. In drawing upon cultural–historical theory, this paper seeks to examine the relations between everyday concepts and scientific concepts within playful contexts, such as preschools, with a view to better understanding how very young children develop conceptual understandings in science. This paper presents an overview of a study which sought to map the transformation and appropriation of scientific concepts within two early childhood settings. Approximately ten weeks of data gathering took place, with video recordings, field notes, photographic documentation, and child and teacher interviews for recording child concept formation within these naturalistic settings. The findings indicate that when teacher programs are more oriented towards concepts rather than materials, children’s play is focused on conceptual connections. Importantly, the study showed that: It was possible to map the multiple and dynamic levels or stratas of thinking that a child or group of children may exhibit within play-based contexts; An analysis of ‘unorganised heaps’ and ‘complexive thinking’ evident in conceptually or materially oriented play-based programs can be determined; the dialectical relations between everyday concepts and scientific concepts in play-based programs can be understood; and greater understanding about the nature of concept formation in situated playful contexts have been possible.     

A Knowledge Base for Teaching Biology Situated in the Context of Genetic Testing

Recent developments in the field of genomics will impact the daily practice of biology teachers who teach genetics in secondary education. This study reports on the first results of a research project aimed at enhancing biology teacher knowledge for teaching genetics in the context of genetic testing. The increasing body of scientific knowledge concerning genetic testing and the related consequences for decision-making indicate the societal relevance of such a situated learning approach. What content knowledge do biology teachers need for teaching genetics in the personal health context of genetic testing? This study describes the required content knowledge by exploring the educational practice and clinical genetic practices. Nine experienced teachers and 12 respondents representing the clinical genetic practices (clients, medical professionals, and medical ethicists) were interviewed about the biological concepts and ethical, legal, and social aspects (ELSA) of testing they considered relevant to empowering students as future health care clients. The ELSA suggested by the respondents were complemented by suggestions found in the literature on genetic counselling. The findings revealed that the required teacher knowledge consists of multiple layers that are embedded in specific genetic test situations: on the one hand, the knowledge of concepts represented by the curricular framework and some additional concepts (e.g. multifactorial and polygenic disorder) and, on the other hand, more knowledge of ELSA and generic characteristics of genetic test practice (uncertainty, complexity, probability, and morality). Suggestions regarding how to translate these characteristics, concepts, and ELSA into context-based genetics education are discussed.     

基于核心素养的高中生物概念教学研究

概念是生物学的基础,如何在概念教学中发展学生的生物核心素养尤为重要。研究采用课堂观察法,通过教学案例研究,分析了目前概念教学中存在的问题:重考点知识忽视重要概念,学生归纳与分析等能力的培养欠缺;重识记忽视理解过程,忽视学生分析与综合思维能力的培养;重"知识点"忽视概念体系,学生系统思维和逻辑思维能力的培养欠缺;重结论忽视探究过程,忽视学生科学精神与科学思维能力的培养。提出关注重要概念、注重概念理解、重视概念形成过程与概念应用等建议。     

The Necessity of Making Visible Concepts with Multiple Meanings in Science Education: The Use of the Gene Concept in a Biology Textbook

The purpose of this study is to analyze variations in how the gene concept is used and conceived in different sub-disciplines in biology. An examination of the development of subject matter and the use of the gene concept in a common college biology textbook shows that the gene concept is far from presented in a consistent way. The study describes and categorizes five different gene concepts used in the textbook; the gene as a trait, an information-structure, an actor, a regulator and a marker. These conceptual differences are not dealt with in an explicit manner. This constitutes one of the sources for confusion when learning about genes and genetics.

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Conceptual Incoherence as a Result of the use of Multiple Historical Models in School Textbooks

This paper explores the occurrence of conceptual incoherence in upper secondary school textbooks resulting from the use of multiple historical models. Swedish biology and chemistry textbooks, as well as a selection of books from English speaking countries, were examined. The purpose of the study was to identify which models are used to represent the phenomenon of gene function in textbooks and to investigate how these models relate to historical scientific models and subject matter contexts. Models constructed for specific use in textbooks were identified using concept mapping. The data were further analyzed by content analysis. The study shows that several different historical models are used in parallel in textbooks to describe gene function. Certain historical models were used more often then others and the most recent scientific views were rarely referred to in the textbooks. Hybrid models were used frequently, i.e. most of the models in the textbooks consisted of a number of components of several historical models. Since the various historical models were developed as part of different scientific frameworks, hybrid models exhibit conceptual incoherence, which may be a source of confusion for students. Furthermore, the use of different historical models was linked to particular subject contexts in the textbooks studied. The results from Swedish and international textbooks were similar, indicating the general applicability of our conclusions.     

The building blocks of digital media literacy: socio-material participation and the production of media knowledge

This article outlines the knowledge and skills students develop when they engage in digital media production and analysis in school settings. The metaphor of ‘digital building blocks’ is used to describe the material practices, conceptual understandings and production of knowledge that lead to the development of digital media literacy. The article argues that the two established approaches to media literacy education, critical reading and media production, do not adequately explain how students develop media knowledge. It suggests there has been too little focus on material practices and how these relate to the development of conceptual understanding in media learning. The article explores empirical evidence from a four-year investigation in a primary school in Queensland, Australia using actor–network theory to explore ‘moments of translation’ as students deploy technologies and concepts to materially participate in digital culture. A generative model of media learning is presented with four categories of building blocks that isolate the specific skills and knowledge that can be taught and learnt to promote participation in digital media contexts: digital materials, conceptual understandings, media production and media analysis. The final section of the article makes initial comments on how the model might become the basis for curriculum development in schools and argues that further empirical research needs to occur to confirm the model’s utility.     

Development of the Biology Card Sorting Task to Measure Conceptual Expertise in Biology

There are widespread aspirations to focus undergraduate biology education on teaching students to think conceptually like biologists; however, there is a dearth of assessment tools designed to measure progress from novice to expert biological conceptual thinking. We present the development of a novel assessment tool, the Biology Card Sorting Task, designed to probe how individuals organize their conceptual knowledge of biology. While modeled on tasks from cognitive psychology, this task is unique in its design to test two hypothesized conceptual frameworks for the organization of biological knowledge: 1) a surface feature organization focused on organism type and 2) a deep feature organization focused on fundamental biological concepts. In this initial investigation of the Biology Card Sorting Task, each of six analytical measures showed statistically significant differences when used to compare the card sorting results of putative biological experts (biology faculty) and novices (non–biology major undergraduates). Consistently, biology faculty appeared to sort based on hypothesized deep features, while non–biology majors appeared to sort based on either surface features or nonhypothesized organizational frameworks. Results suggest that this novel task is robust in distinguishing populations of biology experts and biology novices and may be an adaptable tool for tracking emerging biology conceptual expertise.     

Student independence in undergraduate projects: different understandings in different academic contexts

ABSTRACT

Independence is a concept of scholarly interest in relation to higher education, especially when it comes to undergraduate projects. At the same time independence is characterised by a certain conceptual ambiguity, and, consequently, tends to be understood differently in different academic contexts, both nationally, internationally and interdisciplinary. Based on the existing research in the field, we see a need for more studies on how supervisors of undergraduate projects handle this conceptual ambiguity. The aim of this article is, thus, to examine how supervisors from two different education programmes, teacher education and journalism, in two different countries, Sweden and Russia, understand the concept of independence within higher education in connection with the supervision of undergraduate projects. The analysis is based on 12 focus-group interviews with supervisors at different universities in the two countries. In our results, we highlight and discuss seven different understandings of independence that were recurrent in our material and in which phases of the undergraduate project they were seen as most significant. Using Wittgenstein’s ideas on family resemblances, we conclude with a discussion of how the concept independence may be understood in relation to some associated concepts that are also significant within higher education.     

The Genetic Drift Inventory: A Tool for Measuring What Advanced Undergraduates Have Mastered about Genetic Drift

Understanding genetic drift is crucial for a comprehensive understanding of biology, yet it is difficult to learn because it combines the conceptual challenges of both evolution and randomness. To help assess strategies for teaching genetic drift, we have developed and evaluated the Genetic Drift Inventory (GeDI), a concept inventory that measures upper-division students’ understanding of this concept. We used an iterative approach that included extensive interviews and field tests involving 1723 students across five different undergraduate campuses. The GeDI consists of 22 agree–disagree statements that assess four key concepts and six misconceptions. Student scores ranged from 4/22 to 22/22. Statements ranged in mean difficulty from 0.29 to 0.80 and in discrimination from 0.09 to 0.46. The internal consistency, as measured with Cronbach''s alpha, ranged from 0.58 to 0.88 across five iterations. Test–retest analysis resulted in a coefficient of stability of 0.82. The true–false format means that the GeDI can test how well students grasp key concepts central to understanding genetic drift, while simultaneously testing for the presence of misconceptions that indicate an incomplete understanding of genetic drift. The insights gained from this testing will, over time, allow us to improve instruction about this key component of evolution.     

The influence of wait‐time on classroom learning

This study describes a lesson in which students engaged in inquiry in evolutionary biology in order to develop a better understanding of the concepts and reasoning skills necessary to support knowledge claims about changes in the genetic structure of populations, also known as microevolution. This paper describes how a software simulation called EVOLVE can be used to foster discussions about the conceptual knowledge used by advanced secondary or introductory college students when investigating the effects of natural selection on hypothetical populations over time. An experienced professor's use and rationale of a problem-based lesson using the simulation is examined. Examples of student misconceptions and naïve (incomplete) conceptions are described and an analysis of the procedural knowledge for experimenting with the computer model is provided. The results of this case study provide a model of how EVOLVE can be used to engage students in a complex problem-solving experience that encourages student meta-cognitive reflection about their understanding of evolution at the population level. Implications for teaching are provided and ways to improve student learning and problem solving in population genetics are suggested.     

Conceptual Variation or Incoherence? Textbook Discourse on Genes in Six Countries

The aim of this paper is to investigate in a systematic and comparative way previous results of independent studies on the treatment of genes and gene function in high school textbooks from six different countries. We analyze how the conceptual variation within the scientific domain of Genetics regarding gene function models and gene concepts is transformed via the didactic transposition into school science textbooks. The results indicate that a common textbook discourse on genes and their function exist in textbooks from the different countries. The structure of science as represented by conceptual variation and the use of multiple models was present in all the textbooks. However, the existence of conceptual variation and multiple models is implicit in these textbooks, i.e., the phenomenon of conceptual variation and multiple models are not addressed explicitly, nor its consequences and, thus, it ends up introducing conceptual incoherence about the gene concept and its function within the textbooks. We conclude that within the found textbook-discourse ontological aspects of the academic disciplines of genetics and molecular biology were retained, but without their epistemological underpinnings; these are lost in the didactic transposition. These results are of interest since students might have problems reconstructing the correct scientific understanding from the transformed school science knowledge as depicted within the high school textbooks. Implications for textbook writing as well as teaching are discussed in the paper.     

New Conceptions of Thinking: From Ontology to Education

The articles in this special issue were analyzed in terms of their stance on the nature of knowledge (i.e., its source and location) and the perspective on conceptual change addressed. The analysis supported the argument that efforts to bridge the cognitive and sociocultural orientations toward conceptual change are either unnecessary or unachievable. Specifically, there are those theorists and researchers who do not give credence to the existence of concepts for the one or the collective, and those who do not see sociocultural influences as needed for concept formation or reformation. Attempts to bridge these two positions seem doomed to failure. Conversely, it is argued that the frameworks and models espoused by many researchers, including those contributing to this issue, cannot exist without recognition of the thoughts and reflection of the mind or without consideration of the sociocultural influences that exist in the world outside the mind.     

Ghosts in the Curriculum—Reframing Concepts as Multiplicities

Contemporary curricula specify the conceptual understanding that will be important for pupils in the world that they will soon inhabit. In so doing, concepts are characterised as representing the essential qualities of phenomena, the knowledge of which will be applicable in future contexts. Yet such a characterisation divorces concepts from the here and now, and from the detail of the activities and problems presented to learners in classrooms. I argue that there is a category error inherent in the way that the spectres of conceptual understanding are assumed to emerge from the unique circumstances of educational practice. This error has a long heritage which spans from Aristotle's essentialism to cognitivist theories of learning. I will show that this category error is sustaining an unnecessary separation between knowledge and learning in contemporary debates about curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. Deleuze's notion of multiplicity offers an alternative characterisation, making a single curricular concept synonymous with the many, unique manifestations of that concept in the world. Seeing concepts as multiplicities allows us to recognise that curricular concepts themselves, and the conceptual understandings of individuals, are in a process of continual becoming. Concepts are dynamic and emergent from unique circumstances, yet allow shared understanding and assessment. Exorcising the supernatural view of concepts from contemporary debates in education is an affirmative first step in developing a more specific account of learning.     

PRE-SERVICE PHYSICS TEACHERS’ UNDERSTANDING OF THE RELATIONAL STRUCTURE OF PHYSICS CONCEPTS: ORGANISING SUBJECT CONTENTS FOR PURPOSES OF TEACHING

Good conceptual understanding of physics is based on understanding what the key concepts are and how they are related. This kind of understanding is especially important for physics teachers in planning how and in what order to introduce concepts in teaching; connections which tie concepts to each other give direction of progress—there is “flux of information” so that what was learned before provides the basis for learning new ideas. In this study, we discuss how such ordering of concepts can be made visible by using concept maps and how they can be used in analysing the students’ views and ideas about the inherent logic of the teaching plans. The approach discussed here is informed by the recent cognitively oriented ideas of knowledge organisation concentrating on simple knowledge organisation patterns and how they form the basis of more complex concept networks. The analysis of such concept networks is then very naturally based on the use of network theory on analysing the concept maps. The results show that even in well-connected maps, there can be abrupt changes in the information flux in the way knowledge is passed from the initial levels to the final levels. This suggests that handling the information content is very demanding and perhaps a very difficult skill for a pre-service teacher to master.     

How students reason about matter flows and accumulations in complex biological phenomena: An emerging learning progression for mass balance

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.     

Coherent Knowledge Structures of Physics Represented as Concept Networks in Teacher Education

A characteristic feature of scientific knowledge is the high degree of coherence and connectedness of its conceptual structure. This notion is also behind the widely accepted instructional method of representing the concepts as networks. We suggest here that notions of explanatory coherence and deductive coherence naturally connect the structure of knowledge to the processes which are important in constructing the concept networks. Of these processes, experimental method and modelling are shown to be closely connected with explanatory and deductive coherence, respectively. From this viewpoint, we compare here how experts and novices represent their physics knowledge in the form of concept networks, and show that significant differences between experts’ and novices’ quality of knowledge become directly reflected in the structure of the networks. The results also show how concept networks make visible both the structure of knowledge and the methodological procedures, which support its formation.     

Concept Development in Learning Physics: The Case of Electric Current and Voltage Revisited

In learning conceptual knowledge in physics, a common problem is the development and differentiation of concepts in the learning process. An important part of this development process is the re-organisation or re-structuring process in which students’ conceptual knowledge and concepts change. This study proposes a new view of concept development with explicit attention given to concept development from the level of knowledge-as-pieces to the level of knowledge-as-theory. The proposed new picture is based on the view that concepts are complex constructs essentially embedded in a larger system of knowledge. Three closely connected aspects require our attention: (1) conceptions of concepts, (2) conceptions of knowledge systems, and finally, (3) conceptions of the process of change. The potential advantages of this prospective are demonstrated through the re-analysis of the concept development in the well-known case of electric current and voltage. The results show that in the concept development process, both causal knowledge and coherence of the knowledge system play crucial roles. Finally, the study points out how the theoretical position proposed here directly impacts conceptions of learning and instruction as well as what solutions are sought for problems in learning—or even what is considered a problem or success in learning.     

Optical Solutions: Reception of an NSF-Funded Science Comic Book on the Biology of the Eye

This article traces the reception of a “science comic book” by various audiences including readers and reviewers after publication as well as grant application review committees vetting the proposed project in its conceptual stage. Specifically, the work is a biology textbook containing comics-style visual explanations couched in the form of an imaginative story interwoven with and supplementing traditional text-based explanations of the same ideas. The analysis uses Genette’s concept of “paratexts” (i.e., a class of speech genres comprising those supplementary texts that contextualize and inform readers’ interpretations of the primary text that they accompany) to examine the rhetoric of the visual in the discourse of science education. This analysis observes that the stigmatization of comics as a medium played some role in how readers, critics, and reviewers responded to the text. The implications of this stigma for cultural conceptions of science and their relationships to other knowledge domains, including the arts and humanities, raise a concern for the mediation of public impressions of science as an institution.