Understanding the Greenhouse Effect by Embodiment – Analysing and Using Students' and Scientists' Conceptual Resources

Over the last 20 years, science education studies have reported that there are very different understandings among students of science regarding the key aspects of climate change. We used the cognitive linguistic framework of experientialism to shed new light on this valuable pool of studies to identify the conceptual resources of understanding climate change. In our study, we interviewed 35 secondary school students on their understanding of the greenhouse effect and analysed the conceptions of climate scientists as drawn from textbooks and research reports. We analysed all data by metaphor analysis and qualitative content analysis to gain insight into students' and scientists' resources for understanding. In our analysis, we found that students and scientists refer to the same schemata to understand the greenhouse effect. We categorised their conceptions into three different principles the conceptions are based on: warming by more input, warming by less output, and warming by a new equilibrium. By interrelating students' and scientists' conceptions, we identified the students' learning demand: First, our students were afforded with experiences regarding the interactions of electromagnetic radiation and CO₂. Second, our students reflected about the experience-based schemata they use as source domains for metaphorical understanding of the greenhouse effect. By uncovering the—mostly unconscious—deployed schemata, we gave students access to their source domains. We implemented these teaching guidelines in interventions and evaluated them in teaching experiments to develop evidence-based and theory-guided learning activities on the greenhouse effect.     

Cognitive development in relation to secondary school final examination results in the Italian school system

A Piaget‐type questionnaire was presented to about 800 students of the Science Faculty of Bari University at the very beginning of their first academic year. The score results of the questionnaire were analysed in terms of cognitive development and correlated with the grade obtained in the final examination at secondary school. The correlation (when statistically significant) were always positive but low. This suggests that more attention should be paid in the final examination to students’ master of high‐level cognitive processes.     

Engineering Design and Conceptual Change in Science: Addressing thermal energy and heat transfer in eighth grade

The purpose of this research was to investigate the impact of engineering design classroom activities on middle‐school students’ conceptions of heat transfer and thermal energy. One eighth‐grade physical science teacher and the students in three of her classes participated in this mixed‐methods investigation. One class served as the control receiving the teacher’s typical instruction. Students in a second class had the same learning objectives, but were taught science through an engineering design curriculum that included demonstrations targeting specific alternative conceptions about heat transfer and thermal energy. A third class also used the engineering design curriculum, but students experienced typical demonstrations instead of targeted ones. Conceptual understandings of heat transfer and thermal energy and attitudes towards engineering were assessed prior to and after the interventions through interviews, observations, artefact analysis, a multiple choice assessment, and a Likert scale assessment. Results indicated that the engineering design curriculum with targeted demonstrations was significantly more effective in eliciting desired conceptual change than the typical instruction and also significantly more effective than the engineering curriculum without targeted demonstrations. Implications from this study can inform how teachers should be prepared to use engineering design activities in science classrooms for conceptual change.     

The Effect of Integrating Aesthetic Understanding in Reflective Inquiry Activities

The purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of integrating aesthetic understanding in reflective inquiry activities. Three typical classes of Taiwanese eighth graders (n = 106) and nine additional low‐achieving students in the same school participated in the study. The treatment for experimental students emphasized scaffolding aesthetic understanding and reflections on inquiry strategies. It was found that the experimental group students consistently outperformed their counterparts on the post‐test and the delayed post‐test in conceptual understanding and application of science knowledge. In addition, the low‐achieving students were motivated by the treatment and made significant progress on the two tests. The results of interview and classroom observation also revealed that the intervention made a difference in students’ affective perceptions.     

概念整合理论对英语Zeugma的阐释及隐喻标记性的差异

Zeugma当译为粘连,它分为动词、介词、形容词和名词支配的4种情况。概念整合理论对这一辞格中的隐喻具有解释能力。概念整合理论构筑了4个抽象空间模式：输入空间I,即源域空间、输入空间II,即目标域空间、类属空间以及整合空间。每个粘连例子的修辞效果都是在这4个空间运作的结果。根据粘连中语言成分措置的常见程度,这一辞格中的隐喻存在着标记性的差异。标记性高的比标记性低的更具修辞巧思,更为生动有趣!     

一个关于工作场所学习的建议性概念框架:对人力资源开发理论建设与研究的启示

人力资源开发领域的学者和实践者都非常关注工作场所学习。关于正式培训和非正式学习,一直以来形成了大量的研究和讨论。本文从人力资源开发角度,结合已有的大量文献,提出了一个工作场所学习的概念性框架,框架包括三个互相作用的变量:学习的场所、在发展和传授学习经验时所制定的计划的程度和学习过程中培训者、推动者和其他人的角色。本文还讨论了这一框架对人力资源开发领域中理论建设和研究的启示。     

概念整合理论视野下的移就认知阐释

人类的认知和意义的构建都离不开概念整合,因此概念整合理论对移就修辞格的认知过程具有强大的解释力。从认知的角度,概念整合理论的四个整合子网络可以对移就修辞格的认知过程进行阐释。