Knowledge transfer in the context of refutation texts

In this study, we examined the conditions under which readers are able to transfer revised knowledge as a result of reading refutation texts (i.e. texts that explicitly state and refute a misconception). Across three experiments, participants read refutation texts that addressed socioscientific and nonsocioscientific issues as well as transfer texts that were designed to reactivate the misconceptions addressed in refutation texts. In Experiments 1 and 2, the results indicate that reading a refutation text reduces interference from the misconception as participants read the transfer texts in close temporal distance, even when the misconception is reactivated. In Experiment 3, the results indicate that participants reading refutation texts could not transfer revised knowledge when the temporal distance between refutation texts and transfer texts increased. Students’ performance on pretest and posttest questionnaires also suggest that reading the refutation texts facilitated knowledge revision prior to transfer. We discuss the findings in the context of the Knowledge Revision Components Framework.     

Refutation texts enhance spontaneous transfer of knowledge

In this study, we investigated whether refutation texts (i.e., texts that explicitly state and refute a misconception) facilitate spontaneous transfer of revised knowledge to new situations. In Experiments 1 and 2, students read refutation, transfer, and non-refutation texts. Transfer texts were either preceded by refutation (Experiment 1) or non-refutation texts (Experiment 2). In both experiments, comprehension of the transfer texts required activation and use of the correct belief. Each text contained a target sentence that was consistent with the correct belief. In both experiments, reading times of the target sentences were collected and compared to provide an implicit measure of transfer. Additionally, a transfer problem test was also administered after reading the texts to assess transfer in a more explicit way. The results revealed that refutation texts are more effective in facilitating revision and spontaneous transfer of revised knowledge than non-refutation texts. These results add to the growing body of evidence for the applicability of using refutation texts in revising misconceptions.     

Motivation and beliefs about the nature of scientific knowledge within an immersive virtual ecosystems environment

We explored Grade 6 students’ (n = 202) self-efficacy, epistemic beliefs, and science interest over a 10-day virtual ecology curriculum. Pre- and post-surveys were administered, and analyses revealed that (1) students became more self-efficacious about inquiring scientifically after participating in the activity; (2) students on average evinced a shift toward more constructivist views about the role of authority in justifying scientific claims; (3) students who identified more strongly with being a science person evinced greater gains in self-efficacy, developed a less constructivist view about the role of authority in justifying claims, and became more interested in science overall; and (4) students who held an incremental theory of ability evinced greater gains in self-efficacy. We discuss the implications of these findings for science educators and instructional designers in the design and use of immersive virtual worlds for middle school science students.     

The Nature of the Refutation Text Effect: An Investigation of Attention Allocation

ABSTRACT

Students often hold misconceptions that conflict with scientific explanations. Research has shown that refutation texts are effective for facilitating conceptual change in these cases (Guzzetti, Snyder, Glass, & Gamas, 1993). The process through which refutation texts have their effect is not clear. The authors replicated and extended previous research investigating cognitive processes involved in the refutation text effect. Undergraduates read either a refutation or an expository text on seasonal change. Individual reading times were recorded. Participants’ conceptions were measured at pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest. Results showed that readers spent less time reading the refutation paragraph compared to the expository paragraph. The refutation text group had fewer misconceptions at posttest. These findings suggest that refutation text processing differences mirror similar findings in the attention literature, which may account for their effectiveness.     

Exploring the effect of background knowledge and text cohesion on learning from texts in computer science

In this study, we examine the effect of background knowledge and local cohesion on learning from texts. The study is based on construction–integration model. Participants were 176 undergraduate students who read a Computer Science text. Half of the participants read a text of maximum local cohesion and the other a text of minimum local cohesion. Afterwards, they answered open-ended and multiple-choice versions of text-based, bridging-inference and elaborative-inference questions. The results showed that students with high background knowledge, reading the low-cohesion text, performed better in bridging-inference and in elaborative-inference questions, than those who read the high-cohesion text. Students with low background knowledge, reading the high-cohesion text, performed better in all types of questions than students reading the low-cohesion text only in elaborative-inference questions. The performance with open-ended and multiple-choice questions was similar, indicating that this type of question is more difficult to answer, regardless of the question format.     

Environmental,cognitive, and metacognitive influences on text revision: Assessing the evidence

To assess progress in understanding text revision, we review research reported since 1980, when process analyses of writing were beginning (Fitzgerald, 1987). A modernized version of the revision model by Flower, Hayes, Carey, Schriver, and Stratman (1986) was used to organize findings about how revision is influenced by environmentally posed rhetorical problems and actual text variables; by cognitive knowledge, strategies, and representations of the text being revised; by metacognitive understanding, monitoring, and control of knowledge and strategies; by interactions among these environmental, cognitive, and metacognitive influences; and by how working memory limits those interactive influences. These influences have been studied with a rich diversity of research approaches, and even though no part of the modernized model has been studied fully, and even though interactions of the model's parts have been examined minimally, clearly interpretable results have been reported about all of the model's parts. Substantial and encouraging progress has been made toward understanding text revision, and the stage has been set for more progress. We suggest investigations to increase understanding of revision and to promote integration of research and theory about reading and writing.     

Teaching community-college students to follow the train of thought in expository texts

Community-college students in a one-semester remedial reading course were taught that main ideas in expository texts are located in sentences connected by rhetorical relations into trains of thought. After extensive practice with a variety of materials, they were compared to students in no-treatment and alternative-treatment control groups on (a) identifying main ideas while reading a test passage, and (b) recalling main ideas and supporting details two days later. The test passage differed in rhetorical structure from passages previously studied. Results indicated that the experimental group scored significantly higher than both control groups on main-idea identification. The experimental group also scored significantly higher than the alternative-treatment group on the free-recall of main ideas but not supporting details. Effect sizes were generally large. Information about the course is presented, and the theoretical rationale for its design is discussed. Implications for classroom instruction and for the reading comprehension curriculum are discussed.     

Computer-supported aids to making sense of scientific articles: cognitive, motivational, and attitudinal effects

High school students can access original scientific research articles on the Internet, but may have trouble understanding them. To address this problem of online literacy, the authors developed a computer-based prototype for guiding students’ comprehension of scientific articles. High school students were asked to read an original scientific research article about the effects of drug or alcohol abuse, which was presented on a computer screen either with computer-based comprehension aids or without aids. The aids provided background text and animations including answers given by the article authors. Across two experiments involving different schools and different research articles, the comprehension aids group performed better than the control group on a comprehension test concerning the article (d = +0.79 in Experiment 1 and d = +0.82 in Experiment 2) and rated the content of article as less difficult to read (d = +0.96 in Experiment 1 and d = +0.69 in Experiment 2). In addition, the comprehension aids group reported more positive motivational beliefs than the control group concerning understanding what scientists do (d = +0.51 in Experiment 1 and d = +0.56 in Experiment 2), appraising the article as worthwhile (d = +0.80 for Experiment 1 and d = +0.70 for Experiment 2), and being interested in reading another research article (d = +0.19 in Experiment 1 and d = +0.58 in Experiment 2). The groups did not differ on their attitudes concerning a career as a scientist or about alcohol and drug abuse. Overall, computer-based comprehension aids can help guide students’ comprehension processes for an original scientific research article, which in turn can improve their appreciation of what scientists do.

以科学发展观视阈思考新时期城市总体规划——以永泰县城总体规划修编为例

永泰县城总体规划修编,以科学发展观视阈,以"城乡统筹、区域协调、持续发展、资源节约、体现公平、确保安全、突出特色"为规划理念,从指导思想、修编重点内容及保障措施等方面进行有益探索.     

Navigating the divide between scientific practice and science studies to support undergraduate teaching of epistemic knowledge

There is an urgent need to strengthen undergraduate science students’ epistemic knowledge, which requires having the scientists qua teachers on board. The divide between scientists’ perceptions of science and the perceptions held by those who study science is in this context problematic. Even so, this remains a sorely understudied area. The aim of the study was to identify pragmatic ways that hold the potential to facilitate integration of scholarly studies of scientific knowledge production with experientially based knowledge held by scientists to support the teaching of epistemic knowledge content to undergraduate science students. Earlier studies suggest that trust building is a central component. Our exploratory case study focuses on instructor perceptions and is based on informal interviews, participatory observation and surveys with instructors in a first-year undergraduate science course under revision. We identified the following central components as central to successful navigation of the divide between the scientific practice and science studies: Explicit formulation of learning objectives tied to epistemic knowledge acquisition; Conscious attention to vocabulary that triggers scientists’ aversion to science studies; Careful selection of historic and contemporary cases; and Systematic scaffolding of course activities. The conclusion regarding a common vocabulary stands out: by ridding our instructions from the vocabulary that caused concern among science instructors we succeeded in engaging them in conversations with students about the knowledge-producing process and challenge the view of science as characterised by facts and truths, rather than a form of scholarly inquiry that aims to produce knowledge about the natural world.     

Science, science education and their discontents: a response to commentaries on the paper, Portrait of a Science Teacher as a Bricoleur: A case study from India

In this response to commentaries by Ali Sammel, Jhumki Basu and Alberto Rodriguez, I present my perspective on three important issues raised by the commentators. These issues relate to the role of a researcher in her field settings and society, the critique of science and science education as oppressive dominant discourses, and co-opting participants as researchers. I argue that researchers should work actively for progressive change in discursive fields such as educational research, in which they are firmly embedded rather than playing an interventionist role in field settings where their discursive positionality maybe temporary and not that rooted. Regarding the critique of science and science education, my response favors a perspective wherein an understanding of the marginalization and oppression of non-western communities caused by western science and science education is counterbalanced by an appreciation of the ways in which marginalized communities can use science and science education for affecting progressive change. Lastly, I recognize the value of co-opting participants in writing and communication of research.

Rethinking the ethics of scientific knowledge: A case study of teaching the environment in science classrooms

In this paper we argue that scientific literacy ought to be rethought in that it involves ethics as its core element. Considering the fact that science education has addressed ethical dilemmas of Science, Technology, Society and Environment (STSE) issues, it is worthwhile to question what the ethics of scientific knowledge mean in terms of their implications in modern society where knowledge generally is separated from action and thereby from the responsibility for knowing. We draw on the concept of integrity of knowing to analyze knowledge about the environment in Korean sixth—grade science classrooms. Examining the notion of immediate coping and ConfucianCheng, we differentiate ‘knowing about ethics’ and ‘knowing ethically’ with respect to STSE issues. We challenge the notion of knowing, suggesting instead that there is not only knowing about but knowingin andfor action. Participatory scientific literacy ought to aim for the latter form of knowing. This understanding of ethics and scientific literacy could help science educators bring forth the responsibility for knowledge in science classrooms by encouraging students to become active and responsible concerning STSE issues.     

Under the Umbrella: Pedagogy,knowledge production,and video from the margins of the movement

Abstract

In September 2014, students and Hong Kong citizens took to the streets demanding universal suffrage. Cell phones and video cameras in hand, amateur student filmmakers were some of the first to capture the police tear-gassing young people that brought the city to its feet. Young people were positioning themselves as storytellers and knowledge producers on the streets. How has this restructured hierarchy of knowledge production often found in university education in Hong Kong? How too has being active participants and/or passive observers of the events of the Umbrella Movement translated into a pedagogy of experience in student’s daily lives, and how has this knowledge returned to the classroom? Specifically, I am interested in ways that young women who are not Cantonese first-language speakers understand their role in the movement and the kinds of knowledge they produced. Through interviews with these diverse students, and visual data from the footage they shot during the protests, we gain a rare glimpse into the multicultural world gathered beneath the umbrella of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement, and how a new generation of young female filmmakers are using video to share their changing perspectives on democratic reform, education, and everyday life.     

From ‘priceless’ to ‘priced’: the value of knowledge in higher education

This paper examines a shift in the value awarded to the disciplinary knowledge developed in universities. The instrumentalised function of this type of knowledge as it is ‘priced’ and sold in the global higher education marketplace is given a value greater than that given to its symbolic or ‘priceless’ function in contributing to society’s social meanings. This shift in value is the result of the intensive commodification of knowledge in the higher education sector itself as a consequence of fundamental changes to the global economy. Knowledge now plays a central role as a valuable productive force in the global economy and higher education is the main site for its production and sale. The weakened insularity between disciplinary knowledge’s symbolic and economic functions gives greater value to its ‘price’ rather than to its ‘priceless’ function as a creative force in creating the social meaning of the symbolic sphere of human life. We describe the way this shift in the value of disciplinary knowledge has affected its functions in the ‘knowledge economy’ era with reference to an empirical study of the internationalisation of Indonesian higher education.     

The development of science activities via on-line peer assessment: the role of scientific epistemological views

This study implemented an online peer assessment learning module to help 36 college students with the major of pre-school education to develop science activities for future instruction. Each student was asked to submit a science activity project for pre-school children, and then experienced three rounds of peer assessment. The effects of the online peer assessment module on student learning were examined, and the role of Scientific Epistemological Views (SEVs) in the learning process was carefully investigated. This study found that student peers displayed valid scoring that was consistent with an expert’s marks. Through the online peer assessment, the students could enhance the design of science activities for future instruction; for instance, the science activities became more creative, science-embedded, feasible and more suitable for the developmental stage of pre-school children. More importantly, students with more sophisticated (constructivist-oriented) SEVs tended to progress significantly more for designing science activities with more fun, higher creativity and greater relevancy to scientific knowledge, implying that learners with constructivist-oriented SEVs might benefit more from the online peer assessment learning process. These students also tended to offer more feedback to their peers, and much of the peer feedback provided by these students was categorized as guiding or helping peers to carefully appraise and plan their science activity projects. This study finally suggested that an appropriate understanding regarding the constructivist epistemology may be a prerequisite for utilizing peer assessment learning activities in science education.     

Exploring eye movements of experienced and novice readers of medical texts concerning the cardiovascular system in making a diagnosis

This study used the eye‐tracking method to explore how the level of expertise influences reading, and solving, two written patient cases on cardiac failure and pulmonary embolus. Eye‐tracking is a fairly commonly used method in medical education research, but it has been primarily applied to studies analyzing the processing of visualizations, such as medical images or patient video cases. Third‐year medical students (n = 39) and residents (n = 13) read two patient case texts in an eye‐tracking laboratory. The analysis focused on the diagnosis made, the total visit duration per text slide, and eye‐movement indicators regarding task‐relevant and task‐redundant areas of the patient case text. The results showed that almost all participants (48/52) made the correct diagnosis of the first patient case, whereas all the residents, but only 17 students, correctly diagnosed the second case. The residents were efficient patient‐case‐solvers: they reached the correct diagnoses, and processed the cases faster and with a lower number of fixations than did the students. Further, the students and residents demonstrated different reading patterns with regard to which slides they proportionally paid most attention. The observed differences could be utilized in medical education to model expert reasoning and to teach the manner in which a good medical text is constructed. Eye‐tracking methodology appears to have a great deal of potential in evaluating performance and growing diagnostic expertise in reading medical texts. However, further research using medical texts as stimuli is required. Anat Sci Educ 10: 23–33. © 2016 American Association of Anatomists.     

How a picture facilitates the process of learning from text: Evidence for scaffolding

Three experiments were conducted to study on a more fine-grained level how processing a picture facilitates learning from text. In Experiment 1 (N = 85), results from a drawing task revealed that the global spatial structure of a pulley system picture was extracted even from its brief inspection (for 600 ms, 2 s). In Experiment 2 (N = 105), students who initially inspected the pulley system picture (for 600 ms, 2 s, or self-paced) had better comprehension of the system's functions and made more eye movements in line with the system's global spatial structure when listening to text than students who listened to text only. In Experiment 3 (N = 39), students who first saw the picture (for 2 s) processed written text of the pulley system's spatial structure more efficiently than students who read text only. Results suggest that global spatial information extracted from the picture was used as a mental scaffold to facilitate mental model construction.     

History of education in Brazil: the construction of a knowledge field

This article analyses the general characteristics of the construction of the field of history of education in Brazil. To do so, it highlights the existing historiography and aims to describe the process of institutionalisation of this knowledge field, which, in general terms, has been focused on the area of teacher training. Since the nineteenth century, however, it has also been possible to identify systematic historiographical efforts in Brazil that are not directly related to the school system, but rather to the teaching of and research into the history of education within Brazilian universities. The article addresses the organisation of the field, the ways in which it has been structured and the strategies of academic legitimisation employed to achieve this. These include the regular production of dissertations and doctoral theses, the publication of books and journals, academic events and the creation of research groups and scientific associations, through which research findings have found national and international circulation. This set of indicators creates conditions for an understanding of the expansion and reconfiguration of the field of history of education that began in the 1980s, as well as of the challenges this phenomenon presents to current historiography and teacher training in Brazil.