Conceptualizing Debates in Learning and Educational Research: Toward a Complex Systems Conceptual Framework of Learning

This article proposes a conceptual framework of learning based on perspectives and methodologies being employed in the study of complex physical and social systems to inform educational research. We argue that the contexts in which learning occurs are complex systems with elements or agents at different levels—including neuronal, cognitive, intrapersonal, interpersonal, cultural—in which there are feedback interactions within and across levels of the systems so that collective properties arise (i.e., emerge) from the behaviors of the parts, often with properties that are not individually exhibited by those parts. We analyze the long-running cognitive versus situative learning debate and propose that a complex systems conceptual framework of learning (CSCFL) provides a principled way to achieve a theoretical rapprochement. We conclude with a consideration of more general implications of the CSCFL for educational research.     

A design framework for educational hypermedia systems: theory, research, and learning emerging scientific conceptual perspectives

This paper focuses on theory and research issues associated with the use of hypermedia technologies in education. It is proposed that viewing hypermedia technologies as an enabling infrastructure for tools to support learning—in particular learning in problem-based pedagogical environments involving cases—has particular promise. After considering research issues with problem-based learning related to knowledge transfer and conceptual change, a design framework is discussed for a hypermedia system with scaffolding features intended to support and enhance problem-based learning with cases. Preliminary results are reported of research involving a new version of this hypermedia design approach with special ontological scaffolding to explore conceptual change and far knowledge transfer issues related to learning advanced scientific knowledge involving complex systems as well as the use of the system in a graduate seminar class. Overall, it is hoped that this program of research will stimulate further work on learning and cognitive sciences theoretical and research issues, on the characteristics of design features for robust and educationally powerful hypermedia systems, on ways that hypermedia systems might be used to support innovative pedagogical approaches being used in the schools, and on how particular designs for learning technologies might foster learning of conceptually difficult knowledge and skills that are increasingly necessary in the 21st century.

Third world woman meets third world man in Athens,Georgia OR manhunt,womanhunt

This article represents an attempt to reconcile discussions of aspects of educational research with recent developments in complexity science. It is argued that current characterizations of and distinctions among research methodologies in education are potentially counterproductive, in large part because they tend to be defined against or in terms of principles and methods that have been rendered problematic within the sciences. To develop this point, the authors draw on several contemporary discourses: poststructuralist methods are used to foreground the Euclidean (plane) geometric roots of much of the vocabulary of educational research; fractal geometry is taken as a source of images and analogies to support alternative conceptions of knowledge, learning and teaching; informed by poststructuralist and fractal geometric notions, the authors turn to complexity science and argue that it is fitted to and offers important elaborations of current discussions of educational research methodologies. In the process, they suggest that it may be time to abandon some of the prominent distinctions used to describe educational research, including ‘quantitative versus qualitative’ and ‘sciences versus humanities’.     

Compatibility between cultural studies and conceptual change in science education: there is more to acknowledge than to fight straw men!

In this response, we attempt to clarify our position on conceptual change, state our position on mental models being a viable construct to represent learning, indicate important issues from the social cultural perspective that can inform our work on conceptual change and lastly comment on issues that we consider to be straw men. Above all we argue that there is no best theory of teaching and learning and argue for a multiple perspective approach to understanding science teaching and learning.

Educational Challenges of Molecular Life Science: Characteristics and Implications for Education and Research

Molecular life science is one of the fastest-growing fields of scientific and technical innovation, and biotechnology has profound effects on many aspects of daily life—often with deep, ethical dimensions. At the same time, the content is inherently complex, highly abstract, and deeply rooted in diverse disciplines ranging from “pure sciences,” such as math, chemistry, and physics, through “applied sciences,” such as medicine and agriculture, to subjects that are traditionally within the remit of humanities, notably philosophy and ethics. Together, these features pose diverse, important, and exciting challenges for tomorrow''s teachers and educational establishments. With backgrounds in molecular life science research and secondary life science teaching, we (Tibell and Rundgren, respectively) bring different experiences, perspectives, concerns, and awareness of these issues. Taking the nature of the discipline as a starting point, we highlight important facets of molecular life science that are both characteristic of the domain and challenging for learning and education. Of these challenges, we focus most detail on content, reasoning difficulties, and communication issues. We also discuss implications for education research and teaching in the molecular life sciences.     

The Eye of the Beholder: The Interplay of Social and Cognitive Components in Change

Sociocultural and cognitive perspectives hold to epistemically different views on knowledge acquisition and change. While sociocultural perspectives point to social experience as the principal source of knowledge, cognitive perspectives emphasize the importance of the individual mind and reasoning as the primary source of knowledge. Herein, I argue that both sociocultural and cognitive influences are critical catalysts in conceptual change and that integration of these components is vital to learning. As a mechanism for supporting this contention, I explore the epistemic views of students and the role those views play in knowledge acquisition and change. Specifically, I propose a framework built on students' understandings of the relations between belief and knowledge within the change process. In over-viewing the framework, I consider potential catalysts for knowledge acquisition and change. Finally, I highlight two instructional approaches that effectively integrate the social and cognitive dimensions of change.     

Education is a Complex Dynamical System: Challenges for Research

Abstract

The complex dynamical systems (CDS) approach consists of a family of theories emanating largely from the exact sciences. These theories share a common focus on the behavior of systems and their interrelated parts and are concerned with the processes of stability, change, and unpredictability in those systems. This article takes stock of the methods tailored toward the study of complex dynamical systems in education—for example, the interaction between teachers and students in classrooms, educational organizations such as school buildings and districts, and collaborative learning settings. A historical and conceptual background is provided as a context for CDS. Use of the perspective in education is evaluated according to three basic systemic assumptions: Systems behavior is complex, it evolves over time, and the nature of systemic transformation is qualitative. A comprehensive yet incomplete overview is provided of available research methodologies concerned with those assumptions.     

Looking at the Social Aspects of Nature of Science in Science Education Through a New Lens

Particular social aspects of the nature of science (NOS), such as economics of, and entrepreneurship in science, are understudied in science education research. It is not surprising then that the practical applications, such as lesson resources and teaching materials, are scarce. The key aims of this article are to (a) synthesize perspectives from the literature on economics of science (EOS), entrepreneurship, NOS, and science education in order to have a better understanding of how science works in society and (b) illustrate how such a synthesis can be incorporated in the practice of science education. The main objectives of this article are to (1) argue for the role and inclusion of EOS and entrepreneurship in NOS and re-define entrepreneurship in the NOS context; (2) explore the issues emerging in the “financial systems” of the Family Resemblance Approach (FRA) to NOS and propose the inclusion of contemporary aspects of science, such as EOS and entrepreneurship, into NOS; (3) conceptualize NOS, EOS, and entrepreneurship in a conceptual framework to explain how science works in the society; and (4) transform the theoretical knowledge of how science operates in society into practical applications for science teaching and learning. The conceptual framework that we propose illustrates the links between State, Academia, Market and Industry (the SAMI cycle framework). We suggest practical lesson activities to clarify how the theoretical discussions on the SAMI cycle framework can be useful and relevant for classroom practice. In this article, science refers to physics, chemistry, and biology. However, we also recommend an application of this framework to other sciences to reveal their social-institutional side.     

学习科学研究之发展综述

学习科学是在反思认知科学等学科关于学习的研究方法和观点的基础上新近兴起的一门科学,它借鉴建构主义、认知科学、信息技术、社会文化研究和关于知识工作等相关领域的研究成果,汇集和整合关于脑的研究和内隐学习、非正式学习、正式学习等已有对于学习的研究,采用多种现场研究的方法,对不同情境脉络中的学习发生机制进行分析和探索,提出的若干关于学习的新观点,并通过创新性项目的实践和基于设计的研究,创设新型学习环境,革新学习实践。本文就学习科学兴起的背景、基础、发展历程、主要观点、主要研究方法、国际学术界动向等方面进行了梳理、分析和概括,以期给予国内学者的了解和把握。     

Learning and Collective Knowledge Construction With Social Media: A Process-Oriented Perspective

Social media are increasingly being used for educational purposes. The first part of this article briefly reviews literature that reports on educational applications of social media tools. The second part discusses theories that may provide a basis for analyzing the processes that are relevant for individual learning and collective knowledge construction. We argue that a systems-theoretical constructivist approach is appropriate to examine the processes of educational social media use, namely, self-organization, the internalization of information, the externalization of knowledge, and the interplay of externalization and internalization providing the basis of a co-evolution of cognitive and social systems. In the third part we present research findings that illustrate and support this systems-theoretical framework. Concluding, we discuss the implications for educational design and for future research on learning and collective knowledge construction with social media.     

Identity Construction Environments: Developing Personal and Moral Values Through the Design of a Virtual City

We live in a society where concepts of self, community, and "what is right and wrong" are constantly changing. This makes it particularly challenging for young people to construct a sense of self and to identify their most cherished values. Therefore, there is an amounting pressure in schools and society to create learning environments to explore these issues. Two research questions are at the heart of the work presented in this article: What kind of learning environment will afford opportunities for young people to naturally engage in reflection and discussion about issues of identity, in particular personal and moral values? and How can technologies have an impact on character and moral education? I propose identity construction environments (ICEs) as technological tools purposefully designed with the goal of supporting young people in the exploration of these issues.

I first describe the design principles that distinguish these environments from other learning technologies. I also specify the learning experiences they do afford-namely the understanding of identity as a complex construction composed by different elements, including personal and moral values. Then I present the conceptual foundations and implementation of the Zora ICE. Zora is a three dimensional multi-user virtual environment that engages learners in the design of a graphical virtual city and its social organization. I describe a summer workshop conducted with a multicultural group of teenagers using Zora. They designed a virtual city populated with objects and characters representing aspects of themselves and their values. In this participatory microcommunity those values were put to test. Finally I conclude with reflections and future work that points toward a new research agenda in the area of the learning sciences.     

The ontologies of complexity and learning about complex systems

This paper discusses a study of students learning core conceptual perspectives from recent scientific research on complexity using a hypermedia learning environment in which different types of scaffolding were provided. Three comparison groups used a hypermedia system with agent-based models and scaffolds for problem-based learning activities that varied in terms of the types of text based scaffolds that were provided related to a set of complex systems concepts. Although significant declarative knowledge gains were found for the main experimental treatment in which the students received the most scaffolding, there were no significant differences amongst the three groups in terms of the more cognitively demanding performance on problem solving tasks. However, it was found across all groups that the students who enriched their ontologies about how complex systems function performed at a significantly higher level on transfer problem solving tasks in the posttest. It is proposed that the combination of interactive representational scaffolds associated with NetLogo agent-based models in complex systems cases and problem solving scaffolding allowed participants to abstract ontological dimensions about how systems of this type function that, in turn, was associated with the higher performance on the problem solving transfer tasks. Theoretical and design implications for learning about complex systems are discussed.     

Students’ Conceptions as Dynamically Emergent Structures

There is wide consensus that learning in science must be considered a process of conceptual change rather than simply information accrual. There are three perspectives on students’ conceptions and conceptual change in science that have significant presence in the science education literature: students’ ideas as misconceptions, as coherent systems of conceptual elements, and as fragmented knowledge elements. If misconceptions, systems of elements, or fragments are viewed implicitly as “regular things”, these perspectives are in opposition. However, from a complex dynamic systems perspective, in which students’ conceptions are viewed as dynamically emergent structures, the oppositions are lessened, and the integrated view has significant implications for theory and practice.     

Identity formation in educational settings: A contextualized view of theory and research in practice

In this concluding article of the special issue entitled “Identity Formation in Educational Settings”, we explicate the notion of identity as an integrative concept, discuss its growing popularity in the social sciences, and point to its special significance to education in contemporary society. Following an Eriksonian psychosocial approach and sociocultural emphasis, we look at the process of identity formation as a product of interrelatedness between the context and the individual person, and underscore the interaction between developmental and learning processes. We draw examples from the studies in this collection to highlight these conceptual relationships, as well as to contribute insights from the different research questions and modes of inquiry into the practice of co-construction of identity and knowledge in a variety of school contexts. We conclude with a call for the promotion of practice, research and theory in the emerging domain of identity formation in educational settings.     

An alternative model of researching educational practice: A pedagogic–stereoscopic point of view

While teachers and practitioners are increasingly expected to conduct research on their own practice, there is a lot of educational research that is not directly involved in practice. This often leads to unilateral research perspectives on educational practice. Therefore, this article calls for an alternative model of researching educational practice, summarised through the term ‘pedagogical science’. We argue that practical and normative theories that seek to improve educational practice should be combined with theories that aim to describe and explain. It is further argued that the combination of such perspectives and theories, a so-called stereoscopic point of view, can allow for a thorough and holistic investigation of educational practice. As part of this argumentation, the article addresses critical questions of various theoretical models of educational research, models that are being used in Scandinavian, European and Anglo-American research on educational practice. With reference to interdisciplinary models of educational research, such as educational sciences, learning sciences and Bildungswissenschaften, there are trends in which pedagogy is marginalised. Thus, the second argument of the article calls for placing pedagogy at the centre of knowledge production in a broad sense, after which pedagogy is made into a source of knowledge for pedagogical science, which sets forth to test and provide empirical support for pedagogy-based knowledge.     

Engineers' professional learning: a practice-theory perspective

With the increasing challenges facing professional engineers working in more complex, global and interdisciplinary contexts, different approaches to understanding how engineers practice and learn are necessary. This paper draws on recent research in the social sciences from the field of workplace learning, to suggest that a practice-theory perspective on engineers' professional learning is fruitful. It shifts the focus from the attributes of the individual learner (knowledge, skills and attitudes) to the attributes of the practice (interactions, materiality, opportunities and challenges). Learning is thus more than the technical acquisition and transfer of knowledge, but a complex bundle of activities, that is, social, material, embodied and emerging. The paper is illustrated with examples from a research study of the learning of experienced engineers in the construction industry to demonstrate common practices – site walks and design review meetings – in which learning takes place.     

The Practicality of Principled Practical Knowledge: A Response to Janssen,Westbroek, and Doyle

“Practicality Studies” (Janssen, Westbroek, & Doyle, 2015/this issue) starts with a critical commentary on “Principled Practical Knowledge: Not a Bridge but a Ladder” (Bereiter, 2014) but consists in the main of an essay on what the authors consider to be really practical knowledge for teachers. The gist of their criticism is that “Bereiter and with him a large part of the design research community in the learning sciences underestimate the magnitude of … usability issues and in fact believe that much of the task of usability is already solved by design research in the learning sciences” (p. 177). The authors argue persuasively for giving “practicality studies” a place in learning sciences research, but their subtitle—“How to Move From What Works in Principle to What Works in Practice”—claims too much and makes an invidious distinction.     

Analysis of students’ ideas and conceptual artifacts in knowledge-building discourse

This study proposes a new methodological approach to evaluate students’ knowledge-building discourse. First, we discuss the knowledge–creation metaphor of learning. In the metaphor, theories mention that learners should consider their collective knowledge objects or artifacts that materialize as a result of their collaborative discourse. Second, we argue the necessity of developing new analytics to evaluate student learning. We describe how students’ ideas and their conceptual artifacts can be examined in discourse analysis. Third, we demonstrate the application of our analytics to real discourse data. We conducted a new type of social network analysis of discourse to examine how students continuously improve their ideas. Further, we conducted another network analysis of discourse, called the Epistemic Network Analysis, by coding students’ epistemic actions as conceptual artifacts to create and examine their ideas.     

Young children learning about living things: A case study of conceptual change from ontological and social perspectives

Although research from a developmental/psychological perspective indicates that many children do not have a scientific understanding of living things, even by the age of 10 years, little research has been conducted about how students learn this science topic in the classroom. This exploratory research used a case‐study design and qualitative data‐collection methods to investigate the process of conceptual change from ontological and social perspectives when Year 1 (5‐ and 6‐year‐old) students were learning about living things. Most students were found to think about living things with either stable, nonscientific or stable, scientific framework theories. Transitional phases of understanding also were identified. Patterns of conceptual change observed over the 5‐week period of instruction included theory change and belief revision as well as reversals in beliefs. The predominant pattern of learning, however, was the assimilation of facts and information into the students' preferred framework theory. The social milieu of the classroom context exposed students' scientific and nonscientific beliefs that influenced other individuals in a piecemeal fashion. Children with nonscientific theories of living things were identified as being least able to benefit from socially constructed, scientific knowledge; hence, recommendations are made for teaching that focuses on conceptual change strategies rather than knowledge enrichment. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 41: 449–480, 2004     

学习科学:研究的重要问题及其方法论

自20世纪后半叶以来,不同学科背景的研究者将基础研究与教育实践相结合,直面人类的学习问题,探究人类思维和学习的过程,设计新的学习情境,提出新的理论和方法论,催生了学习的新科学。学习科学是指面向复杂的真实世界需要的"整合"科学,涉及认知科学、神经科学、教育心理学、计算机科学、人类学、社会学等多元领域,它不仅发展了学习理论,而且对教授科学也做出了贡献。通过围绕知识的本质、学习的实质、学习的方式与形式、以学习为中心设计、学习环境及其支持、学习效果的评价等方面,来探讨学习科学研究的重要问题及学科方法论,进而对其未来研究的发展趋势做出预测。