Linguistic Resources Used in Grade 8 Students’ Submicro Level Explanations—Science Items from TIMSS 2007

Explanations involving submicro levels of representation are central to science education, but known to be difficult for students in secondary school. This study examines students’ written explanations of physical and chemical phenomena regarding matter and changes in matter, in a large-scale test. This is done in order to understand linguistic challenges in constructing submicro level explanations involving the particle model of matter. Drawing from systemic functional linguistics, the lexicogrammatics used in explanations for realising experiential meaning in student explanations were analysed. We used answers to two partly constructed response items from the Swedish part of Trends in International Mathematics and Science Studies 2007, grade 8, to sort out explanations referring to the particle model of matter. These answers (86 from 954) were analysed regarding choices of vocabulary and grammar to distinguish between macro and submicro level of representation. The results show that students use a wide variety of lexicogrammatical resources to realise what happens on both macro and submicro level of representation, with greater diversity of verbs on the submicro level of explanation. The results suggest an uncertainty about the distinction between macro and submicro level of explanation.     

A Macro–Micro–Symbolic Teaching to Promote Relational Understanding of Chemical Reactions

The purpose of this research is threefold: (1) to identify the difficulties that Grade 10 students in a Lebanese school have that hinder their conceptual understanding at the micro–macro–symbolic interface in chemistry, (2) to investigate the effect of a macro–micro–symbolic teaching approach on students’ relational understanding of chemical reactions, and (3) to characterize students’ conceptual profiles regarding their understanding of chemical reactions in terms of macro, micro, symbolic levels and the relations among them, at the end of the teaching sequence. Forty six 10th graders from two sections participated in the study. A student-centered approach was followed in both sections based on constructivist pedagogy. Hence the teacher played the role of a facilitator who guided students in a meaning making inductive learning process, through questioning, monitoring, validating, and clarifying ideas. Instruction in the experimental group was characterized by macro–micro–symbolic teaching that focuses on the interplay between the levels, integrates various representations, and engages students in an epistemic discourse about the nature of knowing in chemistry. Data sources for the study included a pre-test and two post-intervention tasks: a post-test and a concept map task, in addition to interviews with selected students from both sections. Findings indicated that macro–micro–symbolic teaching enhanced students’ conceptual understanding and relational learning of chemical reactions. Besides, four assertions related to students’ conceptual and epistemological thinking in response to the different teaching approaches are presented. Implications for instruction and for teacher education programs, as well as recommendations for further research, are discussed in light of these findings.     

Conceptual Resources in Self‐developed Explanatory Models: The importance of integrating conscious and intuitive knowledge

This study explores the spontaneous explanatory models children construct, critique, and revise in the context of tasks in which children need to predict, observe, and explain phenomena involving magnetism. It further investigates what conceptual resources students use, and in what ways they use them, to construct explanatory models, and the obstacles preventing them from constructing a useful explanatory model. Our findings indicate that several of the children were able to construct explanatory models. However, of the six children interviewed multiple times (three third‐graders and three sixth‐graders), only one was consistently able to critique and revise her models to arrive at a consistent, coherent, and sophisticated explanatory model. Connecting intuitive knowledge and abstract knowledge was important in her construction of a coherent and sophisticated explanatory model. Students who relied only on intuitive knowledge constructed tentative and non‐sophisticated explanatory models. Students who relied only on verbal‐symbolic knowledge at an abstract level without connection with their intuition also did not construct coherent and sophisticated models. These results indicate that instruction should help students to become meta‐conceptually aware and connect their verbal‐symbolic knowledge and intuition in order to construct explanatory models to make sense of abstract scientific knowledge.     

Promoting complex systems learning through the use of conceptual representations in hypermedia

Studying complex systems is increasingly important in many science domains. Many features of complex systems make it difficult for students to develop deep understanding. Our previous research indicated that a function‐centered conceptual representation is part of the disciplinary toolbox of biologists, suggesting that it is an appropriate representation to help students develop deep understanding. This article reports on the results of two experiments that investigate how hypermedia using a conceptual representation influences pre‐service teachers' and middle school students' learning of a complex biological system, the human respiratory system. We designed two versions of instructional hypermedia based on the structure–behavior‐function conceptual representation. One hypermedia was function‐centered which emphasized the function and behavior of the system, whereas the other was focused on the structure of the system. We contrasted the instructional effectiveness of these two alternative conceptual representations. The results of both studies indicated that participants using the function‐centered hypermedia developed deeper understanding than those using the structure‐centered version. This proof‐of‐concept study suggests that the function‐centered conceptual representation is a powerful way to promote complex systems understanding. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 46: 1023–1040, 2009     

Characterising the development of the understanding of human body systems in high-school biology students – a longitudinal study

ABSTRACT

Science education today has become increasingly focused on research into complex natural, social and technological systems. In this study, we examined the development of high-school biology students’ systems understanding of the human body, in a three-year longitudinal study. The development of the students’ system understanding was evaluated using the Components Mechanisms Phenomena (CMP) framework for conceptual representation. We coded and analysed the repertory grid personal constructs of 67 high-school biology students at 4 points throughout the study. Our data analysis builds on the assumption that systems understanding entails a perception of all the system categories, including structures within the system (its Components), specific processes and interactions at the macro and micro levels (Mechanisms), and the Phenomena that present the macro scale of processes and patterns within a system. Our findings suggest that as the learning process progressed, the systems understanding of our students became more advanced, moving forward within each of the major CMP categories. Moreover, there was an increase in the mechanism complexity presented by the students, manifested by more students describing mechanisms at the molecular level. Thus, the ‘mechanism’ category and the micro level are critical components that enable students to understand system-level phenomena such as homeostasis.     

Relationships among computational performance,pictorial representation,symbolic representation and number sense of sixth‐grade students in Taiwan

Twenty classes in ten schools with 627 sixth‐grade students in five cities in Taiwan participated in this study. The research provides information on the performance differences among written computation, pictorial representation, symbolic representation and number sense. The results of One‐way ANOVA analysis indicate that significant difference was found among WCT, PRT, SRT and NST tests, with F=536.327, p=0.000. The a posteriori comparisons show for each pair (WCT vs PRT, WCT vs SRT, WCT vs NST, PRT vs SRT and SRT vs NST) significant difference at the 0.001 level (p=0.000), except for the pair comparison between PRT and NST. This implies that these Taiwanese students were highly skilled in written computation but their written skills were not equally transferred to use of non‐computational paths that depended on symbolic representation, pictorial representation and number sense to solve similar problems.     

The Illusion of Inclusion

Abstract

CSWE standards pertaining to diversity have been criticized for being vague and impotent (Hooyman,1995). A pattern in social work education of “diversity by numbers” has emerged in which the emphasis is placed on the representation of certain groups on the faculty, the staff, the student body, and the curriculum. There exists an illusion of inclusion, in which the curriculum, personnel and students are desegregated. However, the school's culture has yet to be transformed to the stage of institutional development in which equitable treatment for all members is a primary goal and diversity is a driving force which permeates organizational life. This analysis explores the challenges associated with conceptualizing and infusing diversity, specifically as it relates to race and ethnicity, throughout social work programs. The symbolic interactionism theoretical perspective is used to interpret the experiences of African American faculty in predominately white schools of social work. An African-centered perspective of organizational functioning is suggested as a strategy to transform the illusion of diversity into a reality in social work education.     

Systems learning with a conceptual representation: a quasi-experimental study

In this paper, we share results from a classroom intervention that used a conceptual representation to support reasoning about ecosystems. Engaging students in modeling allows them to make their ideas visible while being malleable and available for discussion, which enables students to make meaning out of systems. Further, the Components-Mechanisms-Phenomena (CMP) conceptual representation was designed to enable students to construct coherent mental models. Following our intervention, students deepened their understanding of ecosystem dynamics when compared to students who engaged in traditional instruction without use of the CMP conceptual representation. We discuss our results in terms of data that helped guide the design of the intervention and we describe a theoretical perspective that can be used to guide future instruction.     

Dog Mathematics: Exploring Base-4

Using a dog's paw as a basis for numerical representation, sixth grade students explored how to count and regroup using the dog's four digital pads. Teachers can connect these base-4 explorations to the conceptual meaning of place value and regrouping using base-10.     

A Technology‐Enhanced Unit of Modeling Static Electricity: Integrating scientific explanations and everyday observations

What trajectories do students follow as they connect their observations of electrostatic phenomena to atomic‐level visualizations? We designed an electrostatics unit, using the knowledge integration framework to help students link observations and scientific ideas. We analyze how learners integrate ideas about charges, charged particles, energy, and observable events. We compare learning enactments in a typical school and a magnet school in the USA. We use pre‐tests, post‐tests, embedded notes, and delayed post‐tests to capture the trajectories of students’ knowledge integration. We analyze how visualizations help students grapple with abstract electrostatics concepts such as induction. We find that overall students gain more sophisticated ideas. They can interpret dynamic, interactive visualizations, and connect charge‐ and particle‐based explanations to interpret observable events. Students continue to have difficulty in applying the energy‐based explanation.     

The role of submicroscopic and symbolic representations in chemical explanations

Chemistry is commonly portrayed at three different levels of representation – macroscopic, submicroscopic and symbolic – that combine to enrich the explanations of chemical concepts. In this article, we examine the use of submicroscopic and symbolic representations in chemical explanations and ascertain how they provide meaning. Of specific interest is the development of students' levels of understanding, conceived as instrumental (knowing how) and relational (knowing why) understanding, as a result of regular Grade 11 chemistry lessons using analogical, anthropomorphic, relational, problem‐based, and model‐based explanations. Examples of both teachers' and students' dialogue are used to illustrate how submicroscopic and symbolic representations are manifested in their explanations of observed chemical phenomena. The data in this research indicated that effective learning at a relational level of understanding requires simultaneous use of submicroscopic and symbolic representations in chemical explanations. Representations are used to help the learner learn; however, the research findings showed that students do not always understand the role of the representation that is assumed by the teacher.     

Towards a Theoretical Framework for Teaching Controversial Socio‐scientific Issues

This paper develops a conceptual basis for a model on the teaching of socio‐scientific controversial issues for secondary or high school students. I argue that the teaching of controversial issues needs a stronger theoretical base. Drawing on a liberal democratic conception of possible sources of conflict, three strands are developed that provide a framework for teachers when teaching socio‐scientific issues: these are categories of reasonable disagreement, the communicative virtues, and modes of thought. Examples are given to illustrate how the framework can be used by teachers in which the features of controversy are made explicit to students.     

The symbiotic roles of empirical experimentation and thought experimentation in the learning of physics

This study was an attempt to identify the epistemological roots of knowledge when students carry out hands‐on experiments in physics. We found that, within the context of designing a solution to a stated problem, subjects constructed and ran thought experiments intertwined within the processes of conducting physical experiments. We show that the process of alternating between these two modes — empirically experimenting and experimenting in thought — leads towards a convergence on scientifically acceptable concepts. We call this process mutual projection. In the process of mutual projection, external representations were generated. Objects in the physical environment were represented in an imaginary world and these representations were associated with processes in the physical world. It is through this coupling that constituents of both the imaginary world and the physical world gain meaning. We further show that the external representations are rooted in sensory interaction and constitute a semi‐symbolic pictorial communication system, a sort of primitive ‘language’, which is developed as the practical work continues. The constituents of this pictorial communication system are used in the thought experiments taking place in association with the empirical experimentation. The results of this study provide a model of physics learning during hands‐on experimentation.     

Lemons to Lemonade: How Five Challenges in Teaching Macro Practice Helped to Strengthen Our Course

Teaching macro practice can be challenging. While students have some concepts of what macro practice entails, their knowledge may be limited and sometimes inaccurate. Moreover, students may be reluctant to engage in macro change efforts. Given the scarcity of literature regarding teaching macro practice and the growing importance of it in social work, this article addresses major issues that we encountered in teaching macro practice at a large Midwestern school of social work. In our institution only 6% of students are enrolled in macro concentrations and we wish to encourage students to expand their interests in macro practice even if they do not wish to pursue a macro concentration. We describe a macro practice course we designed to meet the challenges of teaching community, organization, and policy practice skills to master's level and advanced undergraduate students. Our goal is to expand the macro practice pedagogy literature and encourage social work faculty to consider both established and innovative ways of introducing the planned change process in community, organization, and policy practice to their students.     

School Attachment: perspectives of low‐attached high school students

Attachment to school plays a vital role in the success or failure of today's middle and high school students. Many researchers identified attachment to school as contributing to student self‐esteem, motivation, effort, behaviour and academic achievement. However, definitions of school attachment have been varied and based largely upon observation of student behaviour. In an attempt to elucidate this definition, the construct of school attachment was examined from the perspective of students who were classified as low‐attached to school. Specifically, in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews of 10 students were conducted and analysed qualitatively. Results indicated that students who were low‐attached described their lives at school as lonely and isolated, and saw themselves as alienated from the school community. They perceived a low level of support and encouragement from the school personnel and from their peers. A broad understanding of school attachment as well as factors which contribute to students’ level of attachment, from the perspective of the low‐attached student, are included.     

Facilitating participation in assessments and the general curriculum: level of symbolic communication classification for students with significant cognitive disabilities

This study empirically evaluated a classification schema based on symbolic communication level use with students with significant cognitive disabilities. Ninety‐five teachers of students with significant disabilities rated students’ level of performance on 10 academic tasks. Cluster analysis suggested a range of two to four clusters solutions. Support was found for three clusters: symbolic (abstract), early symbolic (concrete), and pre‐symbolic/awareness. The potential application of the classification system to planning general curriculum access and setting achievement expectations are discussed.     

几种特殊的人物话语或思想表现方式的文体价值

文学作品尤其是小说的文体风格不仅存在于语音、词汇、句法等层面的语言特征上．而且也体现在作品中人物思想或话语表现方式等叙事模式和叙事技巧上。文章从文体的角度探讨几种特殊的人物话语或思想表现方式，即自由直接思想（FDT）、自由直接引语（FDS）、自由间接引语（FIS）和自由间接思想（FIT）所具有的文体价值及其体现的美学艺术效果。