Approaches and Strategies in Next Generation Science Learning

384 Pages·2013·3.624 MB·English

by  Myint Swe Khine, Issa M. Saleh, Myint Swe Khine

Approaches and
Strategies in Next
Generation Science
Learning
Myint Swe Khine
University of Bahrain, Baharain
Issa M. Saleh
University of Bahrain, Baharain
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Approaches and strategies in next generation science learning / Myint Swe Khine and Issa M. Saleh, editors.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary: “This book examines the challenges involved in the development of modern curriculum models, teaching
strategies, and assessments in science education in order to prepare future students in the 21st century economies”--Provided
by publisher.
ISBN 978-1-4666-2809-0 (hardcover) -- ISBN 978-1-4666-2810-6 (ebook) -- ISBN 978-1-4666-2811-3 (print & perpetual
access) 1. Science--Study and teaching. 2. Classroom environment. 3. Interaction analysis in education. 4. Computer-
assisted instruction. 5. Internet in education. I. Khine, Myint Swe. II. Saleh, Issa M.
Q181.A1A696 2013
507.1--dc23
2012032522
British Cataloguing in Publication Data
A Cataloguing in Publication record for this book is available from the British Library.
All work contributed to this book is new, previously-unpublished material. The views expressed in this book are those of the
authors, but not necessarily of the publisher.
Editorial Advisory Board
Kumar Laxman, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Ziad Shaker, University of North Texas, USA
John Wilkinson, University of Bahrain, Bahrain
Baohui Zhang, Nanjing University, China
Table of Contents
Preface xiv
Section 1
Theoretical Foundation and Conceptual Frameworks
Chapter 1
Self-Regulated Learning as a Method to Develop Scientific Thinking .................................................1
Erin E. Peters Burton, George Mason University, USA
Chapter 2
Multiple Perspectives for the Study of Teaching: A Conceptual Framework for Characterizing and
Accessing Science Teachers’ Practical-Moral Knowledge ...................................................................27
Sara Salloum, Long Island University – Brooklyn, USA
Chapter 3
Teaching a Socially Controversial Scientific Subject: Evolution .........................................................52
Hasan Deniz, University of Nevada Las Vegas, USA
Chapter 4
A Theoretical and Methodological Approach to Examine Young Learners’ Cognitive Engagement in
Science Learning ..................................................................................................................................64
Meng-Fang Tsai, Chung-Yuan Christian University, Taiwan
Syh-Jong Jang, Chung-Yuan Christian University, Taiwan
Section 2
Modeling, Simulation, and Games
Chapter 5
Argumentation and Modeling: Integrating the Products and Practices of Science to Improve Science
Education ..............................................................................................................................................85
Douglas B. Clark, Vanderbilt University, USA
Pratim Sengupta, Vanderbilt University, USA
Chapter 6
Reification of Five Types of Modeling Pedagogies with Model-Based Inquiry (MBI) Modules for
High School Science Classrooms ......................................................................................................106
Todd Campbell, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, USA
Phil Seok Oh, Gyeongin National University of Education, Korea
Drew Neilson, Logan High School, USA
Chapter 7
Why Immersive, Interactive Simulation Belongs in the Pedagogical Toolkit of “Next Generation”
Science: Facilitating Student Understanding of Complex Causal Dynamics .....................................127
M. Shane Tutwiler, Harvard University, USA
Tina Grotzer, Harvard University, USA
Chapter 8
Teachers and Teaching in Game-Based Learning Theory and Practice .............................................147
Mario M. Martinez-Garza, Vanderbilt University, USA
Douglas B. Clark, Vanderbilt University, USA
Section 3
Curriculum Innovations
Chapter 9
Opening Both Eyes: Gaining an Integrated Perspective of Geology and Biology .............................165
Renee M. Clary, Mississippi State University, USA
James H. Wandersee, Louisiana State University, USA
Chapter 10
Promoting the Physical Sciences among Middle School Urban Youth through Informal Learning
Experiences ........................................................................................................................................184
Angela M. Kelly, Stony Brook University, USA
Chapter 11
Rooted in Teaching: Does Environmental Socialization Impact Teachers’ Interest in Science-Related
Topics? ................................................................................................................................................205
Lisa A. Gross, Appalachian State University, USA
Joy James, Appalachian State University, USA
Eric Frauman, Appalachian State University, USA
Chapter 12
Analysis of Discourse Practices in Elementary Science Classrooms using Argument-Based Inquiry
during Whole-Class Dialogue ............................................................................................................224
Matthew J. Benus, Indiana University Northwest, USA
Morgan B. Yarker, University of Iowa, USA
Brian M. Hand, University of Iowa, USA
Lori A. Norton-Meier, University of Louisville, USA
Section 4
Evaluation and Assessment Issues
Chapter 13
Next Generation Science Assessment: Putting Research into Classroom Practice ............................247
Edward G. Lyon, Arizona State University, USA
Chapter 14
A Tool for Analyzing Science Standards and Curricula for 21st Century Science Education ............265
Danielle E. Dani, Ohio University, USA
Sara Salloum, Long Island University, USA
Rola Khishfe, American University of Beirut, Lebanon
Saouma BouJaoude, American University of Beirut, Lebanon
Chapter 15
Measuring and Facilitating Highly Effective Inquiry-Based Teaching and Learning in Science
Classrooms .........................................................................................................................................290
Jeff C. Marshall, Clemson University, USA
Compilation of References 307
About the Contributors 350
Index 356
Detailed Table of Contents
Preface xiv
Section 1
Theoretical Foundation and Conceptual Frameworks
Chapter 1
Self-Regulated Learning as a Method to Develop Scientific Thinking .................................................1
Erin E. Peters Burton, George Mason University, USA
The development of skills and the rationale behind scientific thinking has been a major goal of science
education. Research has shown merit in teaching the nature of science explicitly and reflectively. In this
chapter, the author discusses how research in a self-regulated learning theory has furthered this finding.
Self-regulation frames student learning as cycling through three phases: forethought (cognitive processes
that prepare the learner for learning such as goal setting), performance (employment of strategies and
self-monitoring of progress), and self-reflection (evaluation of performance with the goal). Because stu-
dents have little interaction with the inherent guidelines that drive the scientific enterprise, setting goals
toward more sophisticated scientific thinking is difficult for them. However, teachers can help students
set goals for scientific thinking by being explicit about how scientists and science function. In this way,
teachers also explicitly set a standard against which students can self-monitor their performance during
the learning and self-evaluate their success after the learning. In addition to summarizing the research
on learning and teaching of self-regulation and scientific thinking, this chapter offers recommendations
to reform science teaching from the field of educational psychology.
Chapter 2
Multiple Perspectives for the Study of Teaching: A Conceptual Framework for Characterizing and
Accessing Science Teachers’ Practical-Moral Knowledge ...................................................................27
Sara Salloum, Long Island University – Brooklyn, USA
This chapter outlines a framework that characterizes science teachers’ practical-moral knowledge
utilizing the Aristotelian concept of phronesis/practical wisdom. The meaning of phronesis is further
explicated and its relevance to science education are outlined utilizing a virtue-based view of knowledge
and practical hermeneutics. First, and to give a background, assumptions about teacher knowledge from
a constructivist and sociocultural perspective are outlined. Second, the Aristotelian notion of phronesis
(practical wisdom) is explicated, especially in terms of how it differs from other characterizations of
practical knowledge in science education and how it relates to practical-moral knowledge. Finally, the
authors discuss how the very nature of such practical-moral knowledge makes it ambiguous and hard
to articulate, and therefore, a hermeneutic model that explores teachers’ practical-moral knowledge
indirectly by investigating teachers’ commitments, interpretations, actions, and dialectic interactions
is outlined. Implications for research and teacher education are outlined. Empirical examples are used
to demonstrate certain points. A virtue-based view of knowledge is not meant to replace others, but as
a means to enrich the understandings of the complexity of teacher knowledge and to enhance the ef-
fectiveness of teacher educators.
Chapter 3
Teaching a Socially Controversial Scientific Subject: Evolution .........................................................52
Hasan Deniz, University of Nevada Las Vegas, USA
This chapter explores teachers’ and students’ acceptance and understanding of evolutionary theory by
using conceptual ecology (Toulmin, 1972) as a theoretical lens. Demastes, Good, and Peebles (1995)
describe the conceptual ecology for evolutionary theory. Acceptance of evolutionary theory is part of
this conceptual ecology, and this conceptual ecology also contains the following five components: (1)
prior conceptions related to evolution (understanding of evolutionary theory); (2) scientific orientation
(degree to which the learner organizes his/her life around scientific activities); (3) view of the nature
of science; (4) view of the biological world in competitive and causal terms as opposed to aesthetic
terms; and (5) religious orientation. A complex web of connections among components of conceptual
ecology for evolutionary theory influences one’s acceptance and understanding of evolutionary theory.
Therefore, studying the relationship between acceptance and understanding of evolutionary theory as a
part of the conceptual ecology for evolutionary theory is more promising than studying acceptance of
evolutionary theory in isolation. Moreover, studying acceptance of evolutionary theory as an integral
part of the conceptual ecology may enable us to explain why some teachers and students show a high
degree of acceptance and others show a low degree of acceptance.
Chapter 4
A Theoretical and Methodological Approach to Examine Young Learners’ Cognitive Engagement in
Science Learning ..................................................................................................................................64
Meng-Fang Tsai, Chung-Yuan Christian University, Taiwan
Syh-Jong Jang, Chung-Yuan Christian University, Taiwan
Children start learning science in formal school settings as early as kindergarten ages. Scientific literacy
is an essential component in forming science curriculum for students’ knowledge and understanding of
scientific concepts across grades and with different scientific disciplines. Students’ cognitive engagement
is displayed through different levels of cognitive processes involved during their knowledge construction.
Much of the research in students’ cognitive engagement of science learning focuses on older students
and the use of self-report measures on their cognitive strategies. Research on young learners’ cognitive
engagement in science learning is missing in current literature. Part of the reason may be young learners
are just beginning to develop a repertoire of cognitive strategies as well as lacking sufficient linguistic
competence to accurately articulate the cognitive strategies involved in their science learning. The chapter
introduces a theoretical and methodological approach, quantitative content analysis, to fulfill the gap.
The chapter manifests the approach through three perspectives: (a) methodological approaches being
employed in current studies of cognitive engagement in science learning, (b) the need for a different
methodological approach for young learners, and (c) how this particular approach can be adopted in
future research on young learners’ cognitive engagement in science learning.
Section 2
Modeling, Simulation, and Games
Chapter 5
Argumentation and Modeling: Integrating the Products and Practices of Science to Improve Science
Education ..............................................................................................................................................85
Douglas B. Clark, Vanderbilt University, USA
Pratim Sengupta, Vanderbilt University, USA
There is now growing consensus that K12 science education needs to focus on core epistemic and repre-
sentational practices of scientific inquiry (Duschl, Schweingruber, & Shouse, 2007; Lehrer & Schauble,
2006). In this chapter, the authors focus on two such practices: argumentation and computational model-
ing. Novice science learners engaging in these activities often struggle without appropriate and exten-
sive scaffolding (e.g., Klahr, Dunbar, & Fay, 1990; Schauble, Klopfer, & Raghavan, 1991; Sandoval
& Millwood, 2005; Lizotte, Harris, McNeill, Marx, & Krajcik, 2003). This chapter proposes that (a)
integrating argumentation and modeling can productively engage students in inquiry-based activities
that support learning of complex scientific concepts as well as the core argumentation and modeling
practices at the heart of scientific inquiry, and (b) each of these activities can productively scaffold the
other. This in turn can lead to higher academic achievement in schools, increased self-efficacy in science,
and an overall increased interest in science that is absent in most traditional classrooms. This chapter
provides a theoretical framework for engaging students in argumentation and a particular genre of com-
puter modeling (i.e., agent-based modeling), illustrates the framework with examples of the authors’
own research and development, and introduces readers to freely available technologies and resources
to adopt in classrooms to engage students in the practices discussed in the chapter.
Chapter 6
Reification of Five Types of Modeling Pedagogies with Model-Based Inquiry (MBI) Modules for
High School Science Classrooms ......................................................................................................106
Todd Campbell, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, USA
Phil Seok Oh, Gyeongin National University of Education, Korea
Drew Neilson, Logan High School, USA
It has been declared that practicing science is aptly described as making, using, testing, and revising
models. Modeling has also emerged as an explicit practice in science education reform efforts. This
is evidenced as modeling is highlighted as an instructional target in the recently released Conceptual
Framework for the New K-12 Science Education Standards: it reads that students should develop more
sophisticated models founded on prior knowledge and skills and refined as understanding develops.
Reflecting the purpose of engaging students in modeling in science classrooms, Oh and Oh (2011) have
suggested five modeling activities, the first three of which were based van Joolingen’s (2004) earlier
proposal: 1) exploratory modeling, 2) expressive modeling, 3) experimental modeling, 4) evaluative
modeling, and 5) cyclic modeling. This chapter explores how these modeling activities are embedded in
high school physics classrooms and how each is juxtaposed as concurrent instructional objectives and
scaffolds a progressive learning sequence. Through the close examination of modeling in situ within
the science classrooms, the authors expect to better explicate and illuminate the practices outlined and
support reform in science education.