Disciplinary Foundations for Solving Interdisciplinary Scientific Problems

Problem-solving has been one of the major strands in science education research. But much of the problem-solving research has been conducted on discipline-based contexts; little research has been done on how students, especially individuals, solve interdisciplinary problems. To understand how individuals reason about interdisciplinary problems, we conducted an interview study with 16 graduate students coming from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds. During the interviews, we asked participants to solve two interdisciplinary science problems on the topic of osmosis. We investigated participants’ problem reasoning processes and probed in their attitudes toward general interdisciplinary approach and specific interdisciplinary problems. Through a careful inductive content analysis of their responses, we studied how disciplinary, cognitive, and affective factors influenced their interdisciplinary problems-solving. We found that participants’ prior discipline-based science learning experiences had both positive and negative influences on their interdisciplinary problem-solving. These influences were embodied in their conceptualization of the interdisciplinary problems, the strategies they used to integrate different disciplinary knowledge, and the attitudes they had toward interdisciplinary approach in general and specific interdisciplinary problems. This study sheds light on interdisciplinary science education by revealing the complex relationship between disciplinary learning and interdisciplinary problem-solving.     

Designing Interdisciplinary Assessments in Sciences for College Students: An example on osmosis

College science education needs to foster students' habit of mind beyond disciplinary constraints. However, little research has been devoted to assessing students' interdisciplinary understanding. To address this problem, we formed a team of experts from different disciplines to develop interdisciplinary assessments that target introductory college-level science. We started our project by focusing on osmosis, a topic that involves knowledge from multiple science disciplines. We developed an instrument focusing on this topic and administered it to 3 classes of college students. A Rasch partial credit analysis showed that the items demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties. The findings also revealed the differences between student's disciplinary and interdisciplinary understanding. The educational implications of the study were discussed.     

Personal glimpses

The overarching purpose of this treatise was to develop a means by which to describe and evaluate existing perspectives on learning and to guide future explorations in this domain. Specifically, using the metaphor of a river system, we advance a framework into which theoretical perspectives and empirical investigations of learning can be positioned. We began by articulating nine principles of learning shared by diverse theoretical orientations. The primary focus of our analysis was a framework with four dimensions of learning (i.e., the what, where, who, and when) in continual interaction constituting the products and processes of learning. Based on these common principles and the interactive dimensions, we offered a definition of learning. Finally, we used three cases drawn from real-life experiences, and representing different configurations of the what, where, who, and when dimensions, to illuminate the comprehensiveness and utility of the topographical perspective on learning forwarded.     

A framework to foster problem-solving in STEM and computing education

ABSTRACT

Background: Recent developments in STEM and computer science education put a strong emphasis on twenty-first-century skills, such as solving authentic problems. These skills typically transcend single disciplines. Thus, problem-solving must be seen as a multidisciplinary challenge, and the corresponding practices and processes need to be described using an integrated framework.

Purpose: We present a fine-grained, integrated, and interdisciplinary framework of problem-solving for education in STEM and computer science by cumulatively including ways of problem-solving from all of these domains. Thus, the framework serves as a tool box with a variety of options that are described by steps and processes for students to choose from. The framework can be used to develop competences in problem-solving.

Sources of evidence: The framework was developed on the basis of a literature review. We included all prominent ways of domain-specific problem-solving in STEM and computer science, consisting mainly of empirically orientated approaches, such as inquiry in science, and solely theory-orientated approaches, such as proofs in mathematics.

Main argument: Since there is an increasing demand for integrated STEM and computer science education when working on natural phenomena and authentic problems, a problem-solving framework exclusively covering the natural sciences or other single domains falls short.

Conclusions: Our framework can support both practice and research by providing a common background that relates the ways, steps, processes, and activities of problem-solving in the different domains to one single common reference. In doing so, it can support teachers in explaining the multiple ways in which science problems can be solved and in constructing problems that reflect these numerous ways. STEM and computer science educational research can use the framework to develop competences of problem-solving at a fine-grained level, to construct corresponding assessment tools, and to investigate under what conditions learning progressions can be achieved.     

A multidimensional approach to examine student interdisciplinary learning in science and engineering in higher education

Preparing science and engineering students to work in interdisciplinary teams necessitates research on teaching and learning of interdisciplinary thinking. A multidimensional approach was taken to examine student interdisciplinary learning in a master course on food quality management. The collected 615 student experiences were analysed for the cognitive, emotional, and social learning dimensions using the learning theory of Illeris. Of these 615 experiences, the analysis showed that students reported 214, 194, and 207 times on, respectively, the emotional, the cognitive, and the social dimension. Per learning dimension, key learning experiences featuring interdisciplinary learning were identified such as ‘frustrations in selecting and matching disciplinary knowledge to complex problems’ (emotional), ‘understanding how to apply theoretical models or concepts to real-world situations’ (cognitive), and ‘socially engaging with peers to recognise similarities in perceptions and experiences’ (social). Furthermore, the results showed that students appreciated the cognitive dimension relatively more than the emotional and social dimensions.     

Individual and Distributed Cognitions in Interdisciplinary Teamwork: A Developing Case Study and Emerging Theory

We present a developing distributed cognition theory of interdisciplinary collaboration that incorporates concepts from both situated cognition and information-processing theory. This theoretical framework is being refined as it is used for analyzing interdisciplinary collaboration within the National Institute for Science Education (NISE). Our analyses are intended to improve scientific understanding of collaborative processes that influence productivity and quality of interdisciplinary work within the NISE and beyond. A critical group meeting in the early development of one interdisciplinary working team is analyzed using language and ideas from our theoretical perspective.     

An Analysis of Metaphors Used by Students to Describe Energy in an Interdisciplinary General Science Course

The meaning of the term energy varies widely in scientific and colloquial discourse. Teasing apart the different connotations of the term can be especially challenging for non-science majors. In this study, undergraduate students taking an interdisciplinary, general science course (n?=?49) were asked to explain the role of energy in five contexts: radiation, transportation, generating electricity, earthquakes, and the big bang theory. The responses were qualitatively analyzed under the framework of conceptual metaphor theory. This study presents evidence that non-science major students spontaneously use metaphorical language that is consistent with the conceptual metaphors of energy previously identified in the discourse of students in introductory physics, biology, and chemistry courses. Furthermore, most students used multiple coherent metaphors to explain the role of energy in these complex topics. This demonstrates that these conceptual metaphors for energy have broader applicability than just traditional scientific contexts. Implications for this work as a formative assessment tool in instruction will also be discussed.     

Assessing Students' Understandings of Biological Models and their Use in Science to Evaluate a Theoretical Framework

Research in the field of students’ understandings of models and their use in science describes different frameworks concerning these understandings. Currently, there is no conjoint framework that combines these structures and so far, no investigation has focused on whether it reflects students' understandings sufficiently (empirical evaluation). Therefore, the purpose of this article is to present the results of an empirical evaluation of a conjoint theoretical framework. The theoretical framework integrates relevant research findings and comprises five aspects which are subdivided into three levels each: nature of models, multiple models, purpose of models, testing, and changing models. The study was conducted with a sample of 1,177 seventh to tenth graders (aged 11–19 years) using open-ended items. The data were analysed by identifying students' understandings of models (nature of models and multiple models) and their use in science (purpose of models, testing, and changing models), and comparing as well as assigning them to the content of the theoretical framework. A comprehensive category system of students' understandings was thus developed. Regarding the empirical evaluation, the students' understandings of the nature and the purpose of models were sufficiently described by the theoretical framework. Concerning the understandings of multiple, testing, and changing models, additional initial understandings (only one model possible, no testing of models, and no change of models) need to be considered. This conjoint and now empirically tested framework for students' understandings can provide a common basis for future science education research. Furthermore, evidence-based indications can be provided for teachers and their instructional practice.     

Role of environmental interaction in interdisciplinary thinking: from knowledge resources perspectives

This article examined the role of environmental interaction in interdisciplinary thinking and the use of different knowledge resource types. The case study was conducted with two classes (N?=?40) of 8th-grade students, ages 13 to 14. The outdoor trail aimed to help students synthesize history, geography, and science knowledge. Two groups’ discourse from each class was audio-­recorded and transcribed for content analysis. We coded the discourse to examine: (i) the use of different knowledge resource types (i.e., contextual resource, new conceptual resource, prior knowledge resource); (ii) the relationship among these knowledge resource types; and (iii) evidences of interdisciplinary thinking. Findings showed that contextual resources enhanced students’ capacity to develop new conceptual resources and to activate prior knowledge resources. Further, about 80% of students’ discourse demonstrated interdisciplinary connections of two subjects.     

Transversal traits in science education research relevant for teaching and research: A meta‐interpretative study

This study is a meta‐interpretative analysis that focuses on research conducted and published by other researchers. Concepts central to this study include global practical relevance, curriculum design, and formative situation. We analyzed 35 studies selected from 374 published studies in the years 2000 and 2001 in three journals referenced in the International Scientific Index. Using a replicable methodology developed specifically for this research, we found evidence of s clusters of variables that suggest the existence of transversal traits in the 35 science education research studies. These results form a reference framework of theoretical and practical knowledge relevant for research and practice pertaining to teaching and learning science. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 45: 574–599, 2008     

HOW CAN SCIENCE HELP US CARE FOR NATURE? HERMENEUTICS,FRAGILITY, AND RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE EARTH

In this review essay, Clarence Joldersma argues for a novel role for science in developing an affirmative answer to his title question, “How can science help us care for nature?” He does so in dialogue with Clare Palmer's edited volume, Teaching Environmental Ethics, Dirk Postma's Why Care for Nature? and Michael Bonnett's Retrieving Nature. Joldersma suggests that although each book can help address the issue of how to teach students to care for nature, he parts company with their stance that we must go beyond science to develop a metaphysics of nature adequate to the task. Relying on the same Heideggerian framework as Postma and Bonnett, Joldersma comes to a different assessment of the role of science. He does so by arguing for a hermeneutic understanding of science as social practice and by claiming that science so construed can disclose the planet as earth (in the later Heidegger's sense), for which we owe thanks. This disclosure reveals earth as that which is fragile and for which we are responsible.     

Interdisciplinary dialogues as a site for reflexive exploration of conceptual understandings of teaching–learning relationships

This study examines what the members of an interdisciplinary research alliance, at the intersection of Engineering and Education Ethnography, learned through ongoing dialogues among members (2012–2014). The analyses make visible how, and for what purpose(s), this interdisciplinary research alliance was constructed, including the theoretical/conceptual roots of perspectives guiding the members of the alliance, and how these orienting perspectives served as anchors for exploring points where differences in understandings became visible to members. By tracing responses that members had to differences in understandings, we examine how the differences became resources for members to (re)examine their initial assumptions and understandings of particular teaching–learning processes, and how these differences supported members, individually and collectively, in extending and (re)formulating their understandings of the relationship between and among teaching and learning processes that constituted no distance education processes. Through the presentation of three telling cases, we make visible how the dialogues led to different levels of ethnographic analysis (cases 1 and 2). Each was undertaken to develop an understanding of what counted as the no distance education process, both at the design and institutional level across national institutions as well as in the course across times and events. The third telling case explores transformations in understanding particular aspects of teaching–learning relationships that the members reported were related to the ongoing dialogues and ethnographic research.     

Students’ understanding of the general notion of a function of two variables

In this study we analyze students’ understanding of two-variable function; in particular we consider their understanding of domain, possible arbitrary nature of function assignment, uniqueness of function image, and range. We use APOS theory and semiotic representation theory as a theoretical framework to analyze data obtained from interviews with thirteen students who had taken a multivariable calculus course. Results show that few students were able to construct an object conception of function of two variables. Most students showed difficulties finding domains of functions, in particular, when they were restricted to a specific region in the xy plane. They also showed that they had not fully coordinated their R³, set, and function of one variable schemata. We conclude from the analysis that many of the interviewed students’ notion of function can be considered as pre-Bourbaki.     

An investigation of the artifacts and process of constructing computers games about environmental science in a fifth grade classroom

This study employed a case study design (Yin, Case study research, design and methods, 2009) to investigate the processes used by 5th graders to design and develop computer games within the context of their environmental science unit, using the theoretical framework of constructionism. Ten fifth graders designed computer games using Scratch software. The results showed students were able to design functional games, following a learning-by-design process of planning, designing, testing, and sharing. Observations revealed that game design led to opportunities for informal knowledge building and sharing among students. This, in turn, encouraged students to test and improve their designs. The findings support the conclusion that elementary students can develop programming concepts and create computer games when using graphical programming software developed for their level of experience. Insights into the iterative process of learning-by-game design are presented.     

From substitution to redefinition: A framework of machine learning-based science assessment

This study develops a framework to conceptualize the use and evolution of machine learning (ML) in science assessment. We systematically reviewed 47 studies that applied ML in science assessment and classified them into five categories: (a) constructed response, (b) essay, (c) simulation, (d) educational game, and (e) inter-discipline. We compared the ML-based and conventional science assessments and extracted 12 critical characteristics to map three variables in a three-dimensional framework: construct, functionality, and automaticity. The 12 characteristics used to construct a profile for ML-based science assessments for each article were further analyzed by a two-step cluster analysis. The clusters identified for each variable were summarized into four levels to illustrate the evolution of each. We further conducted cluster analysis to identify four classes of assessment across the three variables. Based on the analysis, we conclude that ML has transformed—but not yet redefined—conventional science assessment practice in terms of fundamental purpose, the nature of the science assessment, and the relevant assessment challenges. Along with the three-dimensional framework, we propose five anticipated trends for incorporating ML in science assessment practice for future studies: addressing developmental cognition, changing the process of educational decision making, personalized science learning, borrowing 'good' to advance 'good', and integrating knowledge from other disciplines into science assessment.     

Cultural diversity in science education through Novelization: Against the Epicization of science and cultural centralization

Science educators are confronted with the challenge to accommodate in their classes an increasing cultural and linguistic diversity that results from globalization. Challenged by the call to work towards valuing and keeping this diversity in the face of the canonical nature of school science discourse, we propose a new way of thinking about and investigating these problems. Drawing on the work of Mikhail Bakhtin, we articulate epicization and novelization as concepts that allow us to understand, respectively, the processes of (a) centralizing and homogenizing culture and language and (b) pluralizing culture and language. We present and analyze three examples that exhibit how existing mundane science education practices tend, by means of epicization, towards a unitary language and to cultural centralization. We then propose novelization as a way for thinking the opening up of science education by interacting with and incorporating alternative forms of knowing that arise from cultural diversity. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 48: 824–847, 2011     

Effects of a professional development program on science teacher knowledge and practice,and student understanding of interdisciplinary science concepts

Situated in the context of an in-service professional development (PD) program focused on Interdisciplinary Science Inquiry, this quantitative study tests the validity of and further explores the theoretical model adapted from Desimone's (2009), Educational Researcher, 38, 181–199 conceptual framework on effectiveness of PD. The participants include 204 teachers and 5,581 students within 12 local public schools from 2012 to 2016. The multilevel models indicate that PD participation, school-, and teacher-level factors influence teacher pedagogical content knowledge and inquiry instruction in different ways. Furthermore, the inquiry instruction significantly relates student understanding of interdisciplinary science concepts (ISCs) through a few mediators. Therefore, this study reinforces calls to provide teachers with high quality PD and contributes to current knowledge base of the mechanisms of how inquiry instruction influences students' understanding of ISCs.     

Bullying and social exclusion anxiety in schools

In this article, I develop a new conceptual framework, a new thinking technology, for understanding the bullying that takes place between children in schools. In addition, I propose a new definition of bullying. This new thinking technology reflects a shift in focus from individual characteristics to the social processes that may lead to bullying. The social approach theorises bullying as one of many reactions to particular kinds of social insecurity. The concepts I develop include the necessity of belonging, social exclusion anxiety and the production of contempt and dignity by both children and adults. I also draw on Judith Butler’s concept of abjection. In the last part of the article, I employ Karen Barad’s theory of agential realism, focusing specifically on her concept of intra-acting enacting forces. The entry to the theoretical development is based on empirical data generated in Denmark during a comprehensive five-year study of bullying.     

Engaging students in learning science through promoting creative reasoning

ABSTRACT

Student engagement in learning science is both a desirable goal and a long-standing teacher challenge. Moving beyond engagement understood as transient topic interest, we argue that cognitive engagement entails sustained interaction in the processes of how knowledge claims are generated, judged, and shared in this subject. In this paper, we particularly focus on the initial claim-building aspect of this reasoning as a crucial phase in student engagement. In reviewing the literature on student reasoning and argumentation, we note that the well-established frameworks for claim-judging are not matched by accounts of creative reasoning in claim-building. We develop an exploratory framework to characterise and enact this reasoning to enhance engagement. We then apply this framework to interpret two lessons by two science teachers where they aimed to develop students’ reasoning capabilities to support learning.