Search Strategies and Inference in the Exploration of Scientific Diagrams

The salience assigned to information in a diagrammatic display may vary according to the goals and background of the viewer. As well as being a function of the characteristics of the diagrammatic material presented, the way in which an individual extracts and acts upon information from such displays will be a function of the characteristics of the individual's particular mental representation of that display type. The strategies used by professional meteorologists to explore a meteorological chart were compared with those used by non‐meteorologists. Differences found between the groups involved both the patterns of exploration used and the way inference was used as a basis for decision‐making. These differences were interpreted as reflecting differences in underlying mental representation. The findings raise a number of questions concerning ways in which diagrammatic material is treated during instruction in subjects such as science.     

Background knowledge and the construction of a situational representation from a diagram

Comprehension of a diagram requires viewers to construct from its graphic constituents a mental representation that captures the situational entities and relationships referred to by the diagram. However, this implies viewers possess appropriate background knowledge concerning the depicted situation. Meteorologists' and non-meteorologists' mental representations were investigated using a three-stage card sorting task during which subjects generated hierarchical groupings of the graphic elements of an Australian weather map diagram. Cluster analysis indicated that the two subject groups differed fundamentally in the basis of their sorting behaviour. Subjects' justifications of the groupings suggested that non-meteorologists' mental representation of the diagram elements was primarily based upon domain-general, visuospatial characteristics whereas in meteorologists' representations, these characteristics were subservient to a domain-specific, situational interpretation of the graphic array. The findings indicate that background knowledge deficiencies may make it difficult for learners beginning study of a domain to construct suitable mental representations from domain-related diagrams.     

Diagram prediction and higher order structures in mental representation

Predictions of the patterns likely to appear on a weather map diagram one day later than those shown on a given map were drawn by meteorologists and non-meteorologists. Differences in secondary structures of the predicted patterns with respect to the spacing and alignment of graphic elements were consistent with the existence of fundamental differences in mental representation between the subject groups. Lack of expertise in the subject domain of the diagram was associated with the production of patterns containing meteorologically-arbitrary arrangements of graphic elements. It is suggested that science instruction should include explicit consideration of the higher order structures present in diagrams. Specializations: mental representation and processing of scientific diagrams, characteristics of explanatory illustrations, drawing and cognition, instructional design.     

短信息网关在校园管理系统中的应用

研究设计移动通信网关,通过信息转换和短信群发将校园信息管理系统拓展到移动通信平台,以提供更实时便捷的校园信息服务,是校园信息化管理的需要。移动通信网关开发的关键技术,包括基于AT指令的短信猫的开发、可靠的批量发送和流控技术等。要根据项目需求设计具有短信群发的网关软件,设计时还应考虑软硬件部署和实现方法等。     

Domain expertise and the effectiveness of dynamic simulator interfaces in the acquisition of procedural motor skills

Previous research into the effectiveness of dynamic versus static instructional design paradigms has reported divergent findings. Dynamic instructions have been shown to be more effective in teaching novel procedural skills. In contrast, the apparent benefit of dynamic over static instructions has been attributed in other studies to the cognitive capabilities and previous knowledge of the learner. Can the benefit of dynamic instruction persist in learners with domain expertise on learning novel tasks? In this paper, we report the result of an experiment that shows that irrespective of the learner's previous knowledge, dynamic instructions retain a significant effectiveness over statics for teaching intra‐domain novel task performance. Twenty‐four participants with domain expertise were divided into three independent groups to perform a procedural motor task following treatment with different training interfaces. After controlling for spatial abilities and excluding previous specific‐to‐task knowledge, we observe that participants that trained with interfaces containing dynamic content recorded better task performance measures than others using non‐dynamic interfaces. This suggest that within the context of motor skill acquisition, dynamic instructional interfaces can yield significant increases to post‐learning task performance measures, which is independent of the learner's cognitive capabilities or previous knowledge.     

Inferentialism at Work: The Significance of Social Epistemology in Theorising Education

In connecting educational theory to a neo‐pragmatist social epistemology, we set out to understand education as knowledge practices that yield ‘the cultural world again’ by retelling culture or by making explicit what is implicit in culture. Recent trends in German educational studies towards holistic understanding of education demonstrate that such a holistic, non‐representationalist framework is deliberately placed outside the traditional procedure of merely applying knowledge gained in the so‐called foundational disciplines such as philosophy, sociology or psychology to the field of education. By constructively relating Brandom's non‐representational inferentialism to a re‐reading of Mollenhauer's distinction of the presentation and representation of culture in and through education, we try to show that Brandom's philosophy can also be used to point out an inferentialism that is already at work in educational theory. Together, this strengthens a social theoretic account of education that explores how to conceptualise the role of knowledge in educational processes in terms of a holistic epistemology.     

Diagram information and its organisation in memory: Exploring the role of skill and experience

Two contrasting methods of investigation were used to characterise the basis upon which the mental representation of a scientific diagram was organised in individuals having different levels of experience and skill in the interpretation of this type of diagram. Each of these methods is described and several important methodological issues are discussed. In the first method (the Card Sort method), subjects performed a three-stage grouping of diagram elements in a card sorting task that produced an hierarchical ordering of the information constituting the diagram. In the second method (the Copy-Recall method), subjects copied then produced drawn recall of a given diagram. Measurements of the sequence in which diagram elements were produced and the time intervals between each production were used to infer the underlying cognitive structuring involved in the mental representation of the diagram information. Questions are raised concerning the way resulting data can be analysed and interpreted most effectively. Specializations: Mental representation and processing of scientific diagrams, characteristics of explanatory diagrams, visual aspects of problem solving, instructional design.     

Exploring Sources of Individual Differences in Children's Interest in Science

Efforts have been made to promote children's interest in science, but little is known about how children's interest in science relates to other characteristics, such as science‐specific curiosity, domain‐general epistemic curiosity, and verbal intelligence. The current study examines how these factors relate to individual differences in children's self‐reported interest in science topics. Children 7‐ to 10‐years‐old (n = 91) rated their interest in science and non‐science topics and completed measures of science‐specific curiosity, domain‐general epistemic curiosity, and verbal intelligence. An additional 94 7‐ to 10‐year‐olds rated their interest in science and non‐science topics and completed the science‐specific curiosity measure. The results suggest that individual differences in children's science interest relate most strongly to scientific curiosity, and specifically to the drive to seek out information and new experiences.     

隐喻表征的模因特性新探

通过对模因论的研究发现,模因在隐喻的表征过程中起着重要作用,模因论是隐喻的重要表征机制。隐喻的表征过程中既有基因型模因,又有表现型模因。隐喻目标域概念是通过其心理属性对始源域概念引起的心理属性的模因复制形成的,这一形成过程中,被模仿和复制的物理事件的心理属性就是基因型模因。在心理属性得到模仿复制的同时,作为心理属性的宿主---物理属性也得到模仿和复制,被模仿和复制的物理事件的物理属性就是表现型模因。     

Student‐generated assignments about electrical circuits in a computer simulation

In this study we investigated the design of assignments by students as a knowledge‐generating activity. Students were required to design assignments for ‘other students’ in a computer simulation environment about electrical circuits. Assignments consisted of a question, alternatives, and feedback on those alternatives. In this way, subjects were encouraged to engage in processes such as ‘generating questions’, ‘discriminating between examples and non‐examples’, and ‘generating feedback’. The resulting assignments were analysed and different types of assignments were identified. Information on the design process was collected from think‐aloud protocol data. Results showed that students not only designed assignments about facts or procedures, but also about observations made with the simulation. During the design process, subjects actively used their prior knowledge. Students seemed to strengthen their domain knowledge by retrieving and explaining problem‐solving steps, and focus on the dynamic characteristics of the simulated circuits.     

Issues in boys' education: a question of teacher threshold knowledges?

This paper exploresthe effects of specific teacher threshold knowledges about boys and gender on the implementation of a so‐called ‘boy friendly’ curriculum at one junior secondary high school in Australia. Through semi‐structured interviews with selected staff at the school, it examines the normalizing assumptionsand ‘truth claims’ about boys, as gendered subjects, which drive the pedagogical impetus for such a curriculum initiative. This research raises crucial questions about the need for the formulation of both school and governmental policy grounded in sound research‐based knowledge about the social construction of gender and its impact on the lives of both boys and girls and their experiences of schooling. This is crucial, we argue, in light of the recent parliamentary report on boys' education in Australia which rejects gender theorizing and given the failure of key staff in the research school to interrogate thebinary ways in which masculinity and femininity are socially constructed and institutionalized in schools through a particular ‘gender regime’. While some good things are happening in the research school, the failure to acknowledge the social construction of gender means that ultimately the school's programs cannot be successful.     

Simulation games in science education‡

The astronomy concepts of 345 young people were studied over a 10‐year period using a multi‐media, multi‐modal methodology in a research design where survey participants were interviewed three times and control subjects were interviewed twice. The purpose of the research was to search for evidence to clarify competing theories on conceptual coherence versus knowledge‐in‐pieces, distinguishing between coherence as revealed in the representational systems at any particular stage in a young person’s development and the changes evident in mental growth thereafter. Thus five research questions concerned with the elements and structure of understanding were investigated: (1) conceptual coherence shown as patterns of high correlation of concept representations between the media used to assess subjects’ understanding within a survey, as well as (2) coherence revealed as consistency of representation of those concepts across media and modalities; (3) enhanced conceptual understanding and skill through repeated interviews across (longitudinal) surveys, as young people develop their knowledge; (4) cultural similarity in subjects’ representations of basic static concepts (e.g. the shape of the Earth); and (5) improved understanding of basic dynamic concepts (e.g. the motion of the Earth) and complex dynamic concepts (e.g. seasons and eclipses), through “knowledge‐skill compounding”. The research findings supported conceptual coherence and rejected the counter argument of knowledge‐in‐pieces (at an alpha level of .05). Further research is recommended to replicate current research in cultures other than those of China and New Zealand studied here to confirm the view that cognition and knowledge are inherently coherent in young people.     

The ‘making’ of knowledge society in Rwanda? Translations,tensions and transformations

In the year 2000, Rwanda launched an ambitious long-term development strategy intended to render a fundamental transformation from an agrarian to a knowledge society by 2020. Knowledge society, however, could be viewed as a ‘floating signifier’ open for a wide range of interpretations. Guided by a policy translation perspective the aim of this article is to examine the ‘making’ of knowledge society in Rwanda. The article analyses how the government's notion of a projected knowledge society and attempts to manage globalisation to the benefit of Rwanda have translated into a set of educational policy priorities. This article further exposes various tensions that emerge in these translation processes, intimately linked to the country's deep poverty, complex political situation and high-flying ambitions.     

Learning qualitative and quantitative reasoning in a microworld for elastic impacts

From a psychological point of view efficient teaching by means of an intelligent tutoring system necessarily involves that the communication of knowledge is adapted to the requirements of the learner: to her cognitive abilities, her pre-instructional knowledge and her learning capabilities. To tackle these topics in a precise way, we have developed the artificial-intelligence-based microworld DiBi (disk billiard) and MULEDS, a multi-level diagnosis system. The microworld DiBi sets up a learning environment which simulates elastic impacts as a subtopic of classical mechanics. DiBi enables and supports reasoning on different levels of mental domain representation ordered along the dimension ‘qualitative/quantitative’. This way of representing the domain provides a basis for passive adaptation in an advanced way. Correspondingly, active adaptation is supported by MULEDS, wherein student modeling is realized by assessing the student’s correct and/or incorrect domain-specific knowledge at these different levels. Within this psychological perspective, the use of instructional tools, such as the microworld DiBi and the computerized diagnosis system MULEDS, aims at gradually supporting and guiding the student in the construction of more and more powerful an sound domain representations. The progression through these levels of domain representation will enable the student to solve the problems posed by the domain in a flexible way.     

A causal framework for analysing alternative conceptions

A model for the analysis of subjects’ causal reasoning is proposed, drawing on de Kleer and Brown's ‘mechanistic mental models’. The purpose of the model is to provide a framework for understanding the possible causal structure of children's and adults’ spontaneous reasoning about the physical world. The model is used to analyse data on students’ understanding of aspects of forces and motion; to reanalyse a protocol of Driver's; and to compare and criticize the models of Andersson and of Rozier. We show how the model can provide a language for describing common‐sense causal thinking.     

Programme Quality Assessment by the Implication of Variable Entry Qualifications on Students' Performance

Since its inception 30 years ago, the then Department of Engineering Science, Institut Teknologi MARA (ITM) was given the responsibility of preparing all the students in the first year engineering programmes by giving enough knowledge in basic science and mathematics. The nation's vision to become a fully‐industrialised economy by the year 2020 required all institutes of higher learning (IHLs) in Malaysia to increase their intake of students in the science and technology courses, especially in engineering. However, at the upper secondary education level, students have the freedom to choose between the science‐based or non‐science combination of subjects. This has led to a dearth of science‐based students enrolling in IHLs. Because ITM believes that it is possible to educate individuals from various backgrounds, the engineering courses are open to students with a variety of academic qualifications. Special bridging courses were designed and created for such students since late 1996. The success or failure of the new courses can be assessed after the students have gone through the proper first year engineering courses which consist of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry. This paper reports on a pilot study on the pioneer groups of students with variable entry qualifications to assess the effectiveness of the courses. The study involved the analysis of the students’ examination results as a performance indicator, and it was found that the bridging programme for non‐science students needed to be redesigned. It is also proposed that to improve the quality of the programme, and hence students’ performance, a regular review be conducted, student support activities be continued and to expand the use of self‐study materials.     

The Communicative Approach to Foreign Language Teaching: the teacher's case

The article analyses the implications of adopting the communicative approach to languages teaching. The teaching process becomes more interactive, thus placing heavy demands on the teacher's personal and professional resources. Competency is called for in learning theory, pedagogy and self‐analysis. Particularly, the teacher's own verbal and non‐verbal behaviour becomes more than usually important. The authors provide a detailed analysis of these implications under the headings of self‐presentation, non‐verbal behaviour, and interactive skills, and they focus upon a specific approach to teacher training—the ‘incident method’.     

Effect of format on learning disabled and non-learning disabled students' performance on a hands-on science assessment

Students with learning disabilities often perform poorly on multiple-choice tests that emphasize recall and factual knowledge. This study compared the effect of two alternative assessmentsa constructed diagram test and a written questionnaireon fourth-grade learning disabled (LD) and non-learning disabled (Non-LD) students' learning. As part of a larger investigation of different approaches to hands-on science learning, 172 students (including 33 LD students) in six urban and two suburban classrooms participated in the study. Results indicate that students' assessment outcomes are a function of learner status (LD, low, average and high achieving) and level of domain specific knowledge after instruction. After controlling for domain specific knowledge, students with LD, and low and average achieving students obtained higher scores on the constructed diagram test than on the questionnaire. High achieving students were not sensitive to format differences, performing comparably on the two measures. The facilitative effect of the diagram format may have been due to differences in the primary symbol systems (graphic vs. text) and the openness of the response format (constrained vs. open) of the constructed diagram and questionnaire, respectively.     

On Art and Knowledge

I comment upon the recent blossoming of writing on art, knowledge and research and connect this to its material roots in the changing nature of higher education. I find much of this writing wanting in that it implies a division of art into ‘knowledge‐producing’ and ‘non knowledge‐producing’ art. I examine how art objects might be said to generate knowledge, particularly the kind of propositional knowledge which sits at the centre of both traditional epistemology and ‘knowledge transfer’ in the contemporary academy. Although there are many ways in which artworks might variously generate such knowledge, I conclude that there is none that is common to all. I go on to examine other kinds of knowledge, particularly Gilbert Ryle's ‘knowledge‐how’ and use this as a staging post to suggest that there is yet another kind of knowledge, produced by all works of art. Finally I borrow some ideas from recent work in the philosophy of science to suggest a concrete mechanism by which this knowledge is made available to us.