The Role of Models and Analogies in the Electromagnetic Theory: A Historical Case Study

Despite its great importance, many students and even their teachers still cannot recognize the relevance of models to build up physical knowledge and are unable to develop qualitative explanations for mathematical expressions that exist within physics. Thus, it is not a surprise that analogies play an important role in science education, since students’ construction of mental models of abstract phenomena need to be rooted in some existing or previous experience in order to interpret more complex ideas. The present article focuses on some of these issues by analyzing some specific instances of the historical development of the electromagnetic theory. Using the mental models framework, the importance of mechanical analogies to understand some of the electromagnetic concepts are emphasized.     

Overcoming misconceptions via analogical reasoning: abstract transfer versus explanatory model construction

In most work investigating factors influencing the success of analogies in instruction, an underlying assumption is that students have little or no knowledge of the target situation (the situation to be explained by analogy). It is interesting to ask what influences the success of analogies when students believe they understand the target situation. If this understanding is not normative, instruction must aim at conceptual change rather than simply conceptual growth. Through the analysis of four case studies of tutoring interviews (two of which achieved some noticeable conceptual change and two of which did not) we propose a preliminary list of factors important for success in overcoming misconceptions via analogical reasoning. First, there must be a usable anchoring conception. Second, the analogical connection between an anchoring example and the target situation may need to be developed explicitly through processes such as the use of intermediate, bridging analogies. Third, it may be necessary to engage the student in a process of analogical reasoning in an interactive teaching environment, rather than simply presenting the analogy in tetext or lecture. Finally, the result of this process may need to be more than analogical transfer of abstract relational structure. The analogies may need to be used to enrich the target situation, leading to the student's construction of a new explanatory model.     

Schema abstraction with productive failure and analogical comparison: Learning designs for far across domain transfer

Although there has been considerable research into knowledge transfer for over a century, there remains a need for specific, validated techniques for teaching for transfer. This article reports on classroom-based research in which students learned about complex systems and climate change with agent-based computer models using two different instructional approaches based on productive failure (PF). In both PF approaches, students initially explored a problem space on their own and then received teacher-led instruction. One treatment group used climate computer models whereas the other group engaged in analogical comparisons between the same climate computer models and complexity computer models in different domains. The study found both groups demonstrated significant learning gains by posttest on assessments of declarative and explanatory knowledge and on within domain near transfer. However, students in the two models treatment group performed at a significantly higher level on an across domain far transfer problem solving task. Theoretical and practical implications are considered.     

"诧异"在任务型英语教学中的运用

任务型教学法是近年来英语界研究者们热烈讨论的话题之一。“诧异”作为任务型教学法的活动之一,却很少有人问津。本文旨在探讨什么是任务型教学中的“诧异”,并试图设计出一个“诧异”教学模式。此外,还对英语教学中“诧异”任务运用的功能和原则进行了探讨。     

Factors related to a college student's career optimism and their perception of career services

A student's expectation for a positive outcome for their future career development is referred to as career optimism. Career Services, a common university department, utilizes the social cognitive career theory (SCCT) to understand how students form career interests and make educational and vocational choices. Then Career Services can assist students in finding a career that matches their interests. We hypothesize that students' perception of the assistance provided by the Career Services department when the SCCT is applied, impacts the student's career optimism. In addition, we hypothesize, and results support, that different factors, such as a student's chosen major, impact student perception of Career Services and career optimism.     

论高校"三个代表"重要思想的"三进"工作

学习贯彻“三个代表”重要思想是今后一个时期高校的一项重要工作。高校贯彻“三个代表”的重要渠道是“三进”,通过“三进”使“三个代表”思想实现对高校学生德育方面的培育与再造。     

Second Graders Learn Animal Adaptations through Form and Function Analogy Object Boxes

This study examined the use of form and function analogy object boxes to teach second graders (n = 21) animal adaptations. The study used a pretest–posttest design to examine animal adaptation content learned through focused analogy activities as compared with reading and Internet searches for information about adaptations of animals followed by making an informative puppet play. Students participated in six week‐long lesson sets, each addressing adaptations of two animals, which alternated between the two conditions. In the analogy condition, students matched cards explaining form and function analogies of animal body parts or homes to analogous manufactured items. They mapped analogies, thought of alternate manufactured items, and created new analogies. Students scored similarly on material to be taught through both conditions on the pretest, but made significantly higher posttest mean scores (76.1% analogy versus 57.2% traditional condition) with large effect size (partial η² = 0.58) on animal adaptation content learned through the analogy activities. This study shows the usefulness of form and function analogies in teaching product innovations to second‐grade students, indicating that early childhood students are able to successfully engage in sophisticated analogy activities. Efficacy of the analogy activities was related to objects that focused attention, motivated, and gave concrete representations of concepts; to cards and graphic organizers for organization, connections, and memory; and to complex thinking activities that challenged students and promoted peer interaction.     

An interpretive examination of high school chemistry teachers' analogical explanations

This article reports an interpretive examination of four teachers' use of analogies to teach chemistry. The study describes why the teachers chose to use analogies, how the characteristics of the analogies employed varied from teacher to teacher, and from where the teachers derived their analogies. These teachers used analogies spontaneously, as well as on a planned basis, to explain abstract chemistry concepts both on a whole-class basis and for individual students who indicated a lack of understanding. The teachers appeared able to ascertain that the students required an alternative representation without overtly seeking evidence to this effect. The presented analogies, especially those that were of the simple-comparison type, appeared to have a motivational impact on the students. Several analogies were extended to map selected attributes, and these were believed by the teachers to be powerful explanatory devices. Pictorial analogies were frequently used to enhance analog familiarity, and further analog explanation was not uncommon, although the frequency with which the teachers stated the presence of analogical limitations was low. The article concludes by suggesting how science teacher education can be informed by case studies of teaching in context, in this instance of analogy-inclusive teaching by four experienced chemistry teachers.     

Effect of individualized goal-setting on college biology students' locus of control

This study investigated the effect of Individualized Goal-Setting A-T, relative to Classic A-T, on a student's locus of control (generalized and academic). This study also examined the effect of pretesting, relative to no pretesting, on a student's locus of control. Sixty students in an introductory, Audio-Tutorial, college zoology course were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. Control groups (Classic A-T) completed the course in the usual manner. Treatment groups (IGS A-T) completed the course in the usual manner with one exception. That is, they used a different format for Optional Minicourse mastery. This new format released greater control to students over means as well as ends of minicourse mastery. Data were collected through use of the Solomon Four-Group design, with two levels of treatment (Classic A-T, IGS A-T) and two levels of pretesting (pretest, no pretest). Instruments included the Rotter I-E and Schafer Academic I-E Locus of Control Scales. Posttest scores were analyzed by a 2 × 2 multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). The following conclusions were made (p < 0.10).

• 1 IGS A-T, relative to Classic A-T, has no significant effect on a student's locus of control.
• 2 Pretesting, relative to no pretesting, has no significant effect on posttest locus of control.

     

Working memory as a moderator of training and transfer of analogical reasoning in children

Working memory is related to children’s ability to solve analogies and other inductive reasoning tasks. The aim of this study was to examine whether working memory also plays a role in training and transfer effects of inductive reasoning in the context of a short training procedure within a pretest-training-posttest-transfer design. Participants were 64 children, aged 7–8 years (M = 7.6 years; SD = 4.7 months). All of the children were pre-tested on inductive reasoning and working memory tasks. The children were trained in figural analogy solving according to either the graduated prompts method or practice without feedback. The children were then post-tested on the trained task and three additional inductive reasoning measures. Regression models revealed that visuo-spatial working memory was related to initial performance on each of the inductive reasoning tasks (r ≈ .35). Children’s improvement from pretest to posttest in figural analogy solving, as measured with item response theory models, was somewhat related to visuo-spatial WM but not verbal WM scores or pretest scores. Furthermore, transfer of reasoning skills to an analogy construction task was related to initial ability, but not working memory; transfer to two inductive reasoning tasks with dissimilar content was not apparent. Performance change and ability to transfer trained skills to new tasks are not often used in psycho-educational assessment but may be separate constructs indicative of children’s learning and change.     

Using Computers to Support a Beginning Teacher's Professional Development

This study explored the efficacy of promoting a beginning chemistry teacher's curriculum development and teaching practices through the use of computers. Using pictorial analogies, historical cases of science, and discrepant events in a web site designed by the researchers as curricular samples, the beginning teacher was asked to develop similar curriculum for his own teaching. After taking the researchers' advice into account and making adjustments, the beginning teacher implemented the curriculum in his classroom teaching and shared his experience with the researchers by e-mail communications. The teacher's teaching practices both before and after the web site treatment were observed and analyzed. It was found that before the treatment the teacher used the textbook as the only resource of his teaching. Extra curriculum was rarely seen, there were not many student-teacher interactions, and analogies or examples used in his explanation of abstract concepts were not preorganized. On the other hand, after the treatment, the teacher was able to develop suitable curricula by himself for the purpose of increasing student involvement. He also explained the applications of chemical concepts in daily lives and his analogies and demonstrations were well organized. Although the beginning teacher was able to develop curricula after the treatment, many aspects of his teaching can be improved, especially in the areas of student-teacher interaction and the implementation of students activities in science teaching.     

Confronting Conceptual Challenges in Thermodynamics by Use of Self-Generated Analogies

Use of self-generated analogies has been proposed as a method for students to learn about a new subject by reference to what they previously know, in line with a constructivist perspective on learning and a resource perspective on conceptual change. We report on a group exercise on using completion problems in combination with self-generated analogies to make sense of two thermodynamic processes. The participants (N = 8) were preservice physics teacher students at the fourth year of the teacher education program. The students experienced challenges in accounting for the constant entropy in reversible, adiabatic expansion of an ideal gas and the constant temperature in free, adiabatic expansion of an ideal gas. These challenges were found to be grounded in the students’ intuitive understanding of the phenomena. In order to come to terms with the constant entropy in the first process, the students developed idiosyncratic explanations, but these could by properly adjusted given suitable scaffolding. In contrast, the students by themselves managed to make sense of the constant temperature in free expansion, by use of microscopic explanatory models. As a conclusion, self-generated analogies were found to provide a useful approach to identifying challenges to understanding among students, but also for the students to come to terms with these challenges. The results are discussed against a background of different perspectives on the issue of conceptual change in science education.     

Interactions between reasoning about complex systems and conceptual understanding in learning chemistry

“Complex systems” is a general-purpose reasoning scheme, used in a wide range of disciplines to make sense of systems with many similar entities. In this paper, we examine the generality of this approach in learning chemistry. Students' reasoning in chemistry in terms of emergent complex systems is explored for two curricula: a normative and a complexity-based one, so that the interaction could be examined under both the conditions. A quasi-experimental pretest-intervention-posttest comparison group design was used to explore student's learning, complemented with interview data. The experimental group (n = 47) studied the topic of gases with a complexity-based curriculum. A comparison group (n = 45) studied with a normative curriculum for the same duration. Students' answers to questionnaires were coded with a complexity-based approach that included levels (distinguishing micro- and macro-levels), stochastic particle behaviors, the emergence of macro-level patterns from micro-level behaviors, and the source of control in the system. It was found that students' reasoning about chemistry concepts in terms of complex systems falls into three distinct and coherent mental models. A sophisticated mental model included most of the above-described complexity features, while the nonsophisticated model included none. The intermediate model is typified by distinguishing between levels, but not by stochastic and emergent behaviors. The nonsophisticated mental model was used mostly in the pretest. In the posttest, the experimental group used the intermediate and sophisticated models; while the comparison group used the nonsophisticated and intermediate models. Discussion approaches the topics of the generality of the complex systems approach; and the unique forms of reasoning that a complexity approach may contribute to learning science.     

The Nature of Analogical Explanations: High School Physics Teachers Use in Kenya

This paper is about a study into the nature of analogies recorded from three Form 2 (Grade 10) classes in Kenya, instructed by three physics teachers. Through a case study method involving classroom observation, several analogies were recorded and analysed. These analogies were predominantly environmental (drawn from students socio-cultural environment) and anthropomorphic (life and human characteristics ascribed to analogues involving familiar concepts). A small number were scientific (those in which analogues are drawn from the science knowledge domain) – ones the author, for pedagogical reasons, wishes to see exploited. In addition, targets (concepts to be explained) were not freed from analogues (concepts used to explain), which is problematic. Also recorded were instances of students making statements that contained counter-physics messages. These included statements conveying literal understanding of technical terminology, sense experience understanding, which proved very robust, and obvious transfer of error from a particular knowledge domain to another. Caution is therefore advised to ensure that before developing and deploying analogies, students understanding of the analogues must be sought. This most likely will reveal problems in their understanding and should be rectified before applying its meaning to the target.     

Training individuals to label nonverbal facial cues

In recent years, a considerable amount of research on nonverbal behavior has focused on identifying facial cues of various emotions. This study attempted to examine the effects of training individuals to accurately label facial affects of happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, disgust, and neutral. The treatment period extended over three, one-hour group presentations based on Ekman and Friesen's (1975) model of training individuals to accurately label emotions from facial expressions. The posttest demonstrated that the experimental group significantly improved its ability to accurately label facial affect following the training program.     

Factor Analysis of Drawings: Application to college student models of the greenhouse effect

Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify models underlying drawings of the greenhouse effect made by over 200 entering university freshmen. Initial content analysis allowed deconstruction of drawings into salient features, with grouping of these features via factor analysis. A resulting 4-factor solution explains 62% of the data variance, suggesting that 4 archetype models of the greenhouse effect dominate thinking within this population. Factor scores, indicating the extent to which each student's drawing aligned with representative models, were compared to performance on conceptual understanding and attitudes measures, demographics, and non-cognitive features of drawings. Student drawings were also compared to drawings made by scientists to ascertain the extent to which models reflect more sophisticated and accurate models. Results indicate that student and scientist drawings share some similarities, most notably the presence of some features of the most sophisticated non-scientific model held among the study population. Prior knowledge, prior attitudes, gender, and non-cognitive components are also predictive of an individual student's model. This work presents a new technique for analyzing drawings, with general implications for the use of drawings in investigating student conceptions.     

Algorithms,Visualization, and Mental Models: High School Students' Interactions with a Relative Motion Simulation

Galileo's contemporaries as well as today's students have difficulty understanding relative motion. We hypothesize that the construction of visual models, resolution of these visual models with numeric models, and, in many cases, rejection of commitments such as the belief in one true velocity, are necessary for students to form integrated mental models of relative motion events. To investigate students' relative motion problem solving, high school science students were videotaped in classroom and laboratory settings as they performed collaborative predict-observe-explain activities with relative motion computer simulations. Half of the students interacted with simulations that provided animated feedback; the other half received numeric feedback. Learning, as measured by a diagnostic test, occurred following both conditions. There is evidence that many numeric condition students used faulty mechanical algorithms to solve problems, while many animation condition students used mental imagery to solve problems. In this paper, interactions in which student involvement was visual model based will be contrasted with interactions in which involvement was algorithm based. Implications for pedagogy and educational uses of computer simulations will be discussed.     

Alternative frameworks,conceptual conflict and accommodation: Toward a principled teaching strategy

Students' alternative frameworks (frequently regarded as misconceptions) play a crucial role in science concept learning. Accumulated research findings indicate that alternative frameworks are resistant to extinction despite formal instruction.This paper presents an instructional strategy based on the thesis that science concept learning involves cognitive accommodation of an initially held alternative framework. The strategy consists of three phases: (1) exposing alternative frameworks, (2) creating conceptual conflict, (3) encouraging cognitive accommodation. The first phase is facilitated through an exposing event, while the second and third focus on a discrepant event.The authors have used previous research findings about student alternative frame-works for the structure of a gas to create exposing and discrepant events for an introduction to the particle model of gases. The paper presents a case study of two lessons in a sequence on the particle model, accompanied by an analysis of the phases of the instructional strategy employed for cognitive accommodation.Based on a paper presented at the AERA convention, Los Angeles, California, April, 1981.This paper was prepared while the first author was a visiting professor at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.     

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.     

Secondary Students' Dynamic Modeling Processes: Analyzing,Reasoning About,Synthesizing, and Testing Models of Stream Ecosystems

In this paper, we explore dynamic modeling as an opportunity for students to think about the science content they are learning. We examined the Cognitive Strategies for Modeling (CSMs) in which students engaged as they created dynamic models. We audio- and videotape-recorded eight pairs of ninth grade science students and analyzed their conversations and actions. In analyzing appropriate objects and factors for their model, some students merely enumerated potential factors whereas others engaged in rich, substantial, mindful analysis. In reasoning about their models, students discussed relationships in depth, concentrated only on the most important key relationships, or encountered difficulty distinguishing between causal and correlational relationships. In synthesizing working models, students mapped their model to aid visualization, focused on their goal, or talked about their model's appearance or form. Students attempted to articulate explanations for their relationships, but sometimes their explanations were shallow. In testing their models, some students tested thoroughly but only a few persisted in debugging their model's behavior so that it matched their expectations. In our conclusion we suggest that creating dynamic models has great potential for use in classrooms to engage students in thought about science content, particularly in those thinking strategies best fostered by dynamic modeling: analysis, relational reasoning, synthesis, testing and debugging, and making explanations.