Peer collaboration and concept development: Learning about photosynthesis

The researchers designed the study to achieve two goals: (1) determine the affect of peer collaboration on high school biology students' acquisition of concepts related to photosynthesis and (2) examine interactions in a collaborative peer group situation to determine how these interactions relate to the developpment of concepts associated with photosynthesis. Using quantitative and qualitative data analysis techniques, the researchers concluded that students working in peer collaborative groups developed more scientifically correct conceptions of photosynthesis than did students working alone. However, not all group-generated views were internalized by group members when assessed individually. Based on qualitative data, a functional relationship exists between prior knowledge and concept development. Two types of peer interaction, consonant and dissonant, were identified as enhancing concept development. When peer group roles are not assigned, roles fluctuate depending on group members' expertise or perceived expertise displaying a bidirectional zone of proximal development. This zone allows for enhanced concept development. Based on the above conclusions, the researchers recommend that (1) peer collaboration be used to help students overcome scientific misconceptions; (2) peer collaborative tasks be designed to engage students in consonant and dissonant interactions; and (3) cognitive group roles, as opposed to traditionl managerial cooperative group roles, be used.     

Outside-In – Inside-Out: Seventh-Grade Students' Mathematical Thought Processes

Building on the research of Vygotsky regarding the role of social interaction and the zone of proximal development (ZPD) in learning and development, this paper explored the relation between students' oral thought processes and written thought processes. It is argued that the practice of writing provides a context for a new learning zone: the zone of proximal practice (ZPP). In this new zone, students independently organize their thinking about mathematical concepts and ideas. An interpretative case study of seven middle grade students is presented to support this contention. The case study describes the strategies and procedures students employed while solving mathematical problems and documents students' oral and written thought processes through interview protocols and writing samples. The position that students' mathematical understanding is further developed through writing as a communicative tool, while taking advantage of mediated social practices, is discussed to make clear the rationale for introducing a new learning zone.This revised version was published online in September 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Students’ Perceptions of Dynamics Concept Pairs and Correlation with Their Problem-Solving Performance

A concept pair is a pair of concepts that are fundamentally different but closely related. To develop a solid conceptual understanding in dynamics (a foundational engineering science course) and physics, students must understand the fundamental difference and relationship between two concepts that are included in each concept pair. However, all existing research in dynamics and physics education has been focused on the identification and repair of students?? misunderstanding of individual concepts, but not concept pairs. The present research fills the gap of existing research by studying students?? perceptions of dynamics concept pairs and correlation with their problem-solving performance in both particle and rigid-body dynamics. A total of 88 engineering undergraduate students participated in the present study. Students?? perceptions were assessed using a 40-item instrument that included 20 dynamics concept pairs at fundamental Level One and higher-order Level Two. Students?? problem-solving performance was assessed using four exams that included 66 dynamics problems. The coefficients of reliability (Cronbach??s ??) of assessment instruments vary between 0.69 and 0.93. The research findings from the present study show that students were not confident in their understanding of Level-Two concept pairs, especially the relationship between the Principle of Linear Impulse and Momentum and the Principle of Angular Impulse and Momentum, and the relationship between the Principle of Angular Impulse and Momentum and the Conservation of Angular Momentum. A statistically significant correlation exists between students?? perceptions of Level-Two concept pairs and their problem-solving performance on both particle dynamics (r?=?0.355, p?<?0.01) and rigid-body dynamics (r?=?0.351, p?<?0.01). The research findings made from the present study imply that educational efforts should be focused on improving students?? understanding of Level-Two dynamics concept pairs.     

学生数列极限概念表象再探

极限是正确理解微积分和发展数学思维的最基本数学概念,在概念定义和概念表象理论框架下研究理工科大一新生对数列极限概念的理解情况,发现:学生拥有数列极限不同类型的概念表象,这些概念表象将对极限严格定义的理解产生影响.因此,教学中要给学生机会发展与极限定义相协调的概念表象,建立起更为广泛的概念表象,从而帮助学生能更好地运用数列极限定义解决数学任务,这是学生转向高等数学思维的关键.     

Secondary Students’ Stable and Unstable Optics Conceptions Using Contextualized Questions

This study focuses on elucidating and explaining reasons for the stability of and interrelationships between students’ conceptions about Light Propagation and Visibility of Objects using contextualized questions across 3 years of secondary schooling from Years 7 to 9. In a large-scale quantitative study involving 1,233 Korean students and 1,149 Singaporean students, data were analyzed from responses to the Light Propagation Diagnostic Instrument consisting of four pairs of items, each of which evaluated the same concept in two different problem situations. Findings show that only about 10–45 % of students could apply their conceptions of basic optics in contextualized problem situations giving rise to both stable and unstable alternative conceptions. Students’ understanding of Light Propagation concepts compared with Visibility of Objects concepts was more stable in different problem situations. The concepts of Light Propagation and Visibility of Objects were only moderately correlated. School grade was not a strong predictive variable, but students’ school achievement correlated strongly with their conceptual understanding in optics. The teaching and learning approach and education systems in the two countries may have had some influence on students’ conceptual understanding.     

新课程改革背景下对行为主义学习理论的思考

新课程改革要求教师用新的更符合教育教学规律及学生特点的教育观念指导教育教学活动,是对传统教育教学观念的继承与发扬,而非对传统观念的全盘否定;新课程改革反对一元化,坚持继承与发展的观点。为此,在新课程改革背景下,探讨行为主义学习理论,对促进基础教育教学质量提高具有积极作用。     

Leadership to Build Learning Communities

Lev Vygotsky's revolutionary ideas have extended knowledge on the process of education—in particular, on mediating learning through language—for over 40 years. The zone of proximal development strengthened a new paradigm for learning and instruction, one which others, such as Bruner, formulated into the concept of scaffolding. Action research conducted in a reading methods course led to systematic restructuring based on Vygotsky's sociocultural perspective by means of an instructional sequence titled the Scaffolded Model.     

Social Metaphorical Mapping of the Concept of Force “CHI‐KA‐RA” in Japanese

This research focused on the concept of “force” (“CHI‐KA‐RA” in Japanese) in Newtonian mechanics. The primary objective was to develop a tool, based on metaphor, to interpret student thinking in learning scientific topics. The study provides an example of using the tool to trace the process of mutual changes in thinking during a dialog among students who have different perspectives on the same topic. “Social metaphorical mapping” was used to interpret a dialog between two groups of junior high school students with different epistemological paradigms with regard to the concept of force (CHI‐KA‐RA) in the learning environment of a computer simulation. Both source domains were recontextualized through social metaphorical mapping and the process of mutual changes in concepts was traced. Participants noticed that the Buridanian ¹ 1. Buridan was a French scientist in the fourteenth century who proposed a theory of impetus. concept of“force” differs from the Newtonian concept of “force,” differentiated between the concepts of “force” that use the same Japanese term “CHI‐KA‐RA,” and noticed that the Buridanian concept of “force” resembles the Newtonian concept of “momentum.”     

The zone of proximal teacher development

Toward the end of his short life, Lev Vygotsky found himself teaching teachers in a remote part of the USSR. Though his influence as a developmental psychologist is well-established, little is known about his approach to teacher development. This article applies the researcher’s core concept, the zone of proximal development to teacher education. The resulting model for educating teaching candidates within zones of proximal teacher development (ZPTD) integrates Vygotskyan theory into Western models of teacher education. Recommendations are offered with regard the four stages of the ZPTD and implications for the content and sequence of the teacher preparation curriculum.     

线性代数课程教学的探索与实践——以数学证明教育价值实现的课堂教学为例

要教好线性代数课程,其核心问题就是要通过课堂教学,使学生理解相关的数学知识;训练和培养学生的思维能力以及数学交流能力;帮助学生寻找新旧知识之间的内在联系,使知识系统化;在巩固已有知识的基础上,让学生自己去发现新知识.要实现这一教学目标,训练学生掌握"数学证明"的概念和在实践中的应用至关重要.传统的做法往往是通过"定义一引理一证明一定理一证明一推论"这种复杂的、程序化方法来进行训练的.由于在初等代数课程中,学生很少接受严格数学证明的训练,所以这种俗套的做法成效甚微.相反,如果把线性代数的主题和概念用一种完全合理的探究式方法来引入,那么数学证明的概念和架构将牢固植根于学生的头脑,并且这种思维习惯将对他们后续课程的学习和掌握公理化推理方法都会有很大帮助.     

人本主义教育观在高校学生事务管理中的应用

以罗杰斯为代表的人本主义教育观主张以学生为中心,有意义学习,教师应促使学生的自我完善等思想,对我国高等教育扩招以后高校学生事务管理有巨大的现实意义。高校学生事务管理应树立以人为本的管理、服务、教育理念,构建平等的师生关系,信任学生,尊重学生,促进学生全面发展,促进社会主义和谐校园建设。     

Interleaving Helps Students Distinguish among Similar Concepts

When students encounter a set of concepts (or terms or principles) that are similar in some way, they often confuse one with another. For instance, they might mistake one word for another word with a similar spelling (e.g., allusion instead of illusion) or choose the wrong strategy for a mathematics problem because it resembles a different kind of problem. By one proposition explored in this review, these kinds of errors occur more frequently when all exposures to one of the concepts are grouped together. For instance, in most middle school science texts, the questions in each assignment are devoted to the same concept, and this blocking of exposures ensures that students need not learn to distinguish between two similar concepts. In an alternative approach described in this review, exposures to each concept are interleaved with exposures to other concepts, so that a question on one concept is followed by a question on a different concept. In a number of experiments that have compared interleaving and blocking, interleaving produced better scores on final tests of learning. The evidence is limited, though, and ecologically valid studies are needed. Still, a prudent reading of the data suggests that at least a portion of the exposures should be interleaved.     

Vygotsky's zone of proximal development: Rethinking its instructional implications

Abstract

This paper proposes an alternate model of Vygotsky's zone of proximal development. It is argued that conceptions of the «zone» emphasizing the transfer of skills from adult to child are too narrow, theoretically misleading, and of limited instructional utility. The concept is then examined in relation to Vygotsky's broader theoretical and practical concerns. Examples taken from a recent classroom observational study are provided to illustrate how the concept of the zone can facilitate a critical assessment of children and of the social system created for the children to learn. The focus is on the appropriation and mastery of mediational means, such as writing, assessed not only or necessarily through independent performance after guided practice, but by the ability of children to participate in qualitatively new collaborative activities. The role of the adult isn't to provide structured cues to facilitate performance, but through exploratory talk and other social mediations assist children in taking control of their own learning. The concern is not only with creating individual zones of proximal development, but collective, interrelated zones as part of a teaching system.     

The internal consistency of a concept mapping scoring scheme and its effect on prediction validity

This study examines the internal consistency of Novak and Gowin's scoring scheme and its effect on the prediction validity of concept mapping as an alternative science classroom achievement assessment. Data were collected in three typical situations: very limited concept mapping experience with free‐style concept mapping; some concept mapping experience with questions provided; extensive concept mapping experience with a list of concepts provided for. It was found that Novak's scoring scheme was not internally consistent, and therefore there was generally no significant correlation between students’ scores on concept mapping and students’ scores on conventional classroom achievement assessments. The need for a new scoring scheme when concept mapping is used as an alternative science assessment is discussed.     

Observing complex systems thinking in the zone of proximal development

Our paper builds on the construct of the zone of proximal development (ZPD) (Vygotsky in Mind in society: the development of higher psychological processes, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1978) to analyze the relationship between students’ answers and the help they receive as they construct them. We report on a secondary analysis of classroom and interview data that was collected with 1st and 2nd grade students completing a short scaffolded inquiry project designed to help them learn about how honeybees collect nectar. We explore how the progression of questions reveal students’ understanding of complex systems by examining how students’ progression through the questions tended to become more sophisticated as we increased support. We further compare two complex-systems perspectives, Component-Mechanism-Phenomena and agent-based approaches, to see how each would categorize students’ explanations. Findings demonstrate the value of the ZPD as an analytic framework in exploring students’ systems understanding in terms of the nature of questions (e.g., sequencing, type of question) and multiple conceptual models (e.g., component-mechanisms-phenomenon, single agent or aggregate behaviors), and how this might impact students’ groupings according to their ability and subsequent instructional support.     

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.     

建构主义理论运用于科学教学的15条原则

随着建构主义理论在科学教育领域中的运用与逐渐流行,一种基于建构主义的新的科学教学模式正在兴起。这种教学模式要求在科学教学中,应把科学知识的学习看作是学生主动建构知识的过程;应把科学探究作为学生建构科学知识的最重要的学习方式;应充分发挥学生在学习中的自主性,视学生为科学知识的主动建构者;承认学生的原有知识经验在学习中的重要性,了解并正确处理学生的前概念;运用概念转变策略,帮助学生实现概念转变;引发学生的认知冲突,激起学生科学探究的欲望;发挥教师的指导作用,为学生的知识建构提供支持条件;提供真实的情境,让学生获得经验,在情境中建构知识的理解;鼓励学生发问,提出开放性问题,让学生在问题解决中建构知识;开展多种形式的对话,在对话中建构知识;鼓励学生合作与交流,为知识的社会建构提供机会;鼓励学生反省,学会自主监控学习过程;重视学习方法指导,为学生知识建构提供认知工具与策略;提供学习资源,让学生参与寻找用于解决问题的信息;采用形成性评价,强调学生在学习过程中的表现。     

Studying children's knowledge base of one-sided levers as force amplifiers

Attention to core concepts in science and engineering in early education has grown recently, and understanding levers as force amplifiers can be recognized as one of these. Previous studies focused on two-sided levers and do not provide sufficient information about children's knowledge of levers as force amplifiers, nor about their learning and its support from an education perspective. It is important to consider load distance and force distance separately, as may be done in one-sided levers, to understand children's knowledge of levers as “simple machines” thoroughly. Moreover, children's zone of proximal development and the possibilities to foster their knowledge should be explored to understand important features of teaching. We thus directed two studies with 6- to 7-year-old children. In study 1, we conducted a paper-and-pencil test in the context of wheelbarrows (N = 370; age M = 6.62). We investigated whether it is possible to empirically separate the features load, load distance, and force distance as well as to determine their level of difficulty. Our study showed that children's concepts of the three aspects load, load distance, and force distance are fragmented, with children finding it continuously more difficult to judge load, load distance, and force distance correctly. In study 2, we developed a 20-min intervention with a controlled 2 × 2 pre-post follow-up design for exploring the zone of proximal development of 304 6- to 7-year-old children in the domain of one-sided levers as force amplifiers, focusing on force distance and load distance. We implemented a structured learning environment that encouraged the children to manipulate wheelbarrows and supported them with pictures and/or verbal prompts. 6- to 7-year-old children had a higher learning gain when they were exposed to scaffolds that combined pictures and verbal prompts in the posttest as well as in the follow-up test four weeks later compared to the control group.     

Contradiction and development: Vygotsky and paedology

In Vygotsky’s theory, development is conceived of as selfpropulsion creating new higher psychological functions by reorganising lower ones; at the same time, psychological functions being historical-cultural constructions based on semiotic functions, they can come only from exterior. The article shows that the concept of zone of proximal development is the theoretical attempt to bring these two apparently contradictory postulates together. It is the contradiction between internal possibilities and external needs that constitutes the driving force of development.