Learning Progressions in Environmental Science Literacy

Learning Progressions in Environmental Science Literacy
Kristin Gunckel, University of Arizona Lindsey Mohan, Michigan State University Beth Covitt, University of Montana Andy Anderson, Michigan State University Important Contributors: Blakely Tsurusaki, Hui Jin, Jing Chen, Hasan Abdel-Kareem, Laurel Hartley, Brooke Wilke, Edna Tan, Jonathon Schramm, Hsin-Yuan Chen, Kennedy Onyancha, Hamin Baek, Josephine Zesaguli, Courtney Schenk, Rebecca Dudek, Mark Wilson, Karen Draney, Yong-Sang Lee, and Jinnie Choi.

Research Grants and Partners
This research is supported in part by grants from the National Science Foundation: Developing a Research-based Learning Progression for the Role of Carbon in Environmental Systems (REC ), the Center for Curriculum Materials in Science (ESI ), Learning Progression on Carbon- Transforming Processes in Socio-Ecological Systems (NSF ), and Targeted Partnership: Culturally relevant ecology, learning progressions and environmental literacy (NSF ). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Learning Progression Framework for the Environmental Literacy Project
Today I’m going to give an overview of the frameworks we use in the Environmental Literacy Project.

Environmental Literacy Project
Environmental Science Literacy - the capacity to understand and participate in evidence-based decision-making about socio-ecological systems. Water in socio-ecological systems Carbon in socio-ecological systems Biodiversity Citizenship Learning progressions are usually defined around a big idea in science. Our learning progressions are designed to support students in becoming environmentally literate citizens. We define environmental literacy as the capacity to understand and participate in evidence-based decision-making about socio-ecological systems. We are developing learning progressions around 4 strands of environmental literacy water in socio-ecological systems carbon in socio-ecological systems biodiversity citizenship practices I will give examples today in the context the water strand and Lindsey will give examples in the context of the carbon strand.

Two Aspects of Students’ Learning
Cognitive: What do students’ learning performances tell us about what they do and do not understand about a big idea? Goal: Identify and describe patterns in student thinking Sociocultural: Why do students’ responses make sense to the students? Goal: Explain and situate patterns of thinking in the communities in which students participate In our learning progressions, we are concerned with two aspects of students learning. Most learning progressions focus on the cognitive aspects of learning and identifying what students do and do not understand about a big idea at different points along the progression. We are concerned about this aspect of learning too and to this end we aim to identify and describe patterns in student thinking. In addition, to understanding what students ideas are, we are also interested in the sociocultural aspects of learning. We want to know also why students ideas make sense to students. In other words, how are students’ ideas situated in the communities in which students participate?

Learning as Mastering a New Discourse
Practice Knowledge Community We define learning using Gee’s idea of Discourse. Discourses are ways of talking, thinking, and acting that define a socially meaningful group. Discourses are enacted in communities. Embedded within Discourses are practices. Practices are the patterns of activity in which members of a community engage. Discourses mediate the practices of the members of a community. Embedded within practice is the knowledge that is necessary for members to participate in the practices of the community. Let’s talk a little more about each of these constructs,

Primary Discourse: Force Dynamic Reasoning
A theory of the world rooted in and shaped by the grammatical structure of language. Actors with Abilities Purposes and Results Needs or Enablers Events or Actions Settings or Scenes Everyone starts out with a primary Discourse. Gee says everyone gets this Discourse for “free”. This is the Discourse of one’s home community. In our research, we see that while there are many different primary Discourses, when it comes to thinking about phenomena, most primary Discourses share common features of force-dynamic thinking. Force-dynamic thinking is really a way of looking at the world that is rooted in and shaped by the basic grammatical structure of many languages, including English. Some of the characteristics of force dynamic thinking include Events are shaped by actors with abilities to make things happen. Humans have the highest abilities, but even water can have abilities to make things happen. Actors have purposes – for examples, the purpose of a tree is to grow or of water is to run downhill And needs that must be met – trees need sun, water, soil & air. these are the enablers that help actors meet their purposes of inhibitors that prevent them from meeting their needs – a sidewalk prevents water from soaking into the ground. These purposes and needs result in events or actions All of this action takes place in settings, with background landscapes or scenery

Secondary Discourse: Scientific Model-Based Reasoning
All phenomena are parts of connected and dynamic systems Operate at multiple scales Atomic-molecular Microscopic Macroscopic Landscape Governed by fundamental principles Conservation of matter and energy Gravity flow Relies on models grounded in data and applied consistently to explain phenomena We conceptualize learning as mastering a secondary Discourse. In our learning progression, the primary Discourse anchors the lower end of the progressions, and the secondary Discourse of Model-Based Reasoning anchors the upper end of our learning progressions. In this view of the world, all phenomena are parts of connected and dynamic systems That operate at multiple scales And are governed by fundamental principles All explanations of phenomena are models that are grounded in data and applied consistently.

Practices Accounts = Explaining & Predicting Practices
Discourses are enacted in communities through the practices in which members of the community engage. Discourses shape and mediate the types of practices of a community. In the Environmental Literacy Project, we are concerned with 4 types of practices, two of which we will focus on today. These are the practices that are necessary for environmentally literate citizens. Investigating practices are concerned with identifying problems, stakeholders and evidence Accounting practices are the Explaining & Predicting practices necessary to figuring out what is happening in a certain situation and what the likely outcomes of different courses of action might be. Deciding practices are concerned with deciding what to do. Most of our learning progressions right now focus on the Accounting Practices of Explaining & Predicting Our citizenship strand does focus on the deciding practices relevant to the other three strands. Accounts = Explaining & Predicting Practices

Knowledge Embedded within practices are the knowledge necessary to engage in the practices of a community. This diagram show the knowledge represented by the upper anchor of the water learning progression. The carbon, water, and biodiversity strands have a diagram like this that we call the loop diagram. These loop diagrams show how environmental and human social and economic systems are connected – we refer to them as socio-ecological systems. In this diagram we highlight the structures and processes that move water and substances in water through socio-ecological systems. Parts of this diagram look like the typical water cycle diagram, but we emphasize the connections to human-engineered systems and we include the processes that mix, move, and unmix substances with water, such as erosion, dissolution, and distillation.

Learning Progression Framework: Water in Socio-ecological Systems
So, how do we think about how these pieces fit into a learning progression? This table shows the general structure of our learning progression framework. Levels of achievement are patterns in learners knowledge and practices – These are the rows in this table Progress variables are aspects of student thinking about phenomena that can be traced across levels of achievement. The way we look at progress variables are as aspects of accounts of a phenomena. A complete account for water in socio-ecological systems must address structures & scale Movement of water Movement of substances Learning performances are the specific characteristics of learner thinking at any level of achievement for any progress variable. They are the contents of the individual cells on the table.

Level 1: Force-Dynamic Narratives
Water as part of the background landscape Movement of water Puddles Question: Where does the water in a puddle go? “I think the water went into the air”(disappeared). Bathtub Question: Could the water from the puddle end up in your bathtub? “No, it already disappeared into the air” Substances in water “lake water,” “ocean water,” “clean water,” “dirty water,” “polluted water” So, just to give you an idea of how the learning progression for water in sociological systems is organized, here are some examples of student thinking at each level of achievement. I’ll show you aspects of the movement of water and movement of substances progress variables. The structure & scale progress variables are part of all of these answers, as you will see. At level 1, we see that students really see water as just part of the background landscape. They think about water really only in its visible forms. for example, when we asked where the water in a puddle goes, students say that the water disappears. When we ask if the water in a puddle could end up in the bathtub, they do not see water in puddles as connected to water in bathtubs. Furthermore, when thinking about water quality, they identify different types of water rather than as substances mixed with water.

Level 2: Force Dynamic: with Hidden Mechanisms
Actors & Enablers Movement of water Bathtub Question “Yes. If it was a rainy day and if there were puddles saved from yesterday and you open the door it could go into the bathroom and there would be puddles in your bathtub.” Substances in water Salty Rain Question: If you live by the ocean, will your rain be salty? Why or why not? “No, because the water is filtered by the sky.” At level 2, students are beginning to recognize that things can happen to water and that something must be responsible for making those things happen. Here, we see lots of actors and enablers that do things to water or that must be present in order for an event to take place. For example, when asked the bathtub question, students say things like….. Similarly, when thinking about substances in water, students also invoke actors and enablers. When asked the if ocean water can make salty rain, students said…….

Level 3: School Science Narratives
Partially connected systems Bathtub Question “Yes. Water could seep down into the ground and slowly reach its way to your pipes, and it would leak in, and could be part of the water in our bathtub.” Substances mixed with water Salty Rain Question “No, because when water evaporates, it only evaporated as water and leaves the salt behind.” At level 3 we see what we call typical school science narratives. These narratives tell the stories about phenomena. They know that water moves through connected systems, but we see that there are holes in their mental models. In this example, there is a hole in the connection between natural and human systems. When we asked the bathtub question, we get answers like….. When we asked about substances in water, we again get school science narratives, often with processes named, but the narratives are usually described at the macroscopic level.

Level 4: Qualitative Model-Based Reasoning
Movement through connected systems at multiple scales Puddles Question “Into the ground and into the air. The moleculs [sic] are soaked into the ground like a sponge. Then in evaporation the molecules are heated and forced to move more, and eventually become gas.” Substances mixed with water at multiple scales Salt in Water Question: What happens when salt dissolves in water? “ When salt is dissolved into water the salt breaks up into its ions of Na+ and Cl-” At level 4, we have reached qualitative model based reasoning. Students are tracing matter – both water and substances in water, through connected systems at multiple scales and applying principles such as conservation of matter and gravity flow.

What Progresses? Home Community Primary Discourse New Community
Secondary Discourse Student Home Community Student Primary Discourse What progresses? In our view, growth along a learning progression represents movement towards mastering a secondary Discourse. Students come to school relying on the practices and knowledge embedded in their primary Discourses. Students primary Discourses shape the way they view the world and the communities they have access to. A central purpose of school is to support students in mastering a secondary Discourse, in our case, the Discourse of Scientific Model-based reasoning necessary for environmental science literacy. One of the important implications of this view of a learning progression is that in learning new Discourses, students’ primary Discourses do not go away. In fact, there are times when a person is participating in a community in which a force-dynamic Discourse shapes the practices of that community. However, by achieving higher levels and learning a new Discourse, students now have access to those communities of practice that are vital for sustaining life and societies. Students who do not achieve higher levels do not have access to communities that rely on model-based reasoning and are excluded from participating. Our evidence suggests that many students do not develop the higher levels of achievement that are necessary for participating in communities where scientific model-based reasoning is part of the Discourse. I’m going to now turn it over to Lindsey who will talk about some of the teaching aspects related to supporting students in learning a new Discourse and reaching higher levels. Learning New knowledge New practices New Discourse

Alternative Pathways and Teaching Experiments

Multi-Dimensionality
ACCOUNTS (explaining/predicting) Processes: Generation (photosynthesis), Transformation (digestion, biosynthesis and food chains), and Oxidation (cellular respiration, combustion) of organic carbon Principles: Matter (conservation of mass and atoms), Energy (conservation and degradation), and Scale. Naming/Explaining: Words and phrases used, and the types of explanations given.

Matter and Energy Dimensions
Based on person-ability estimates Correlation .959, so students likely show similar reasoning about matter and energy Good face validity and make sense to science educators, but for measurement purposes and alternative pathways, these dimensions are not useful.

Multi-Dimensionality
For the practice of accounts(explaining/predicting) Processes: Generation (photosynthesis), Transformation (digestion, biosynthesis and food chains), and Oxidation (cellular respiration, combustion) of organic carbon Principles: Matter (conservation of mass and atoms), Energy (conservation and degradation), and Scale. Naming/Explaining: Words and phrases used, and the types of explanations given.

Structure-First: Details and Names
Level 1: Force-Dynamic Accounts of Actors and Events Level 4: Processes and Systems Constrained by Principles Level 2: Hidden mechanisms about events Level 3: Chemical change with unsuccessful constraints Learning pathway we’ve documented in classrooms without special instructional intervention. Represents a pathway that is more the norm than the exception. Only 10% of HS students reach Upper Anchor on this pathway.

Structure-First: Details and Names
Level 1: Force-Dynamic Accounts of Actors and Events Level 4: Processes and Systems Constrained by Principles Level 2: Hidden mechanisms about events Level 3: Chemical change with unsuccessful constraints Characteristics: Ability to name systems and processes exceeds explanations Detailed stories about individual processes Principles are “assumed”, but not used.

Structure-First: Details and Names EXAMPLE
INTERVIEWER: When the tree grows it becomes heavier, right? It will put on more weight. So where does the mass come from? DRH: It comes from the, like the glucose that it makes, it like keeps building on and building on until it gets as big as it is. INTERVIEWER: So what are the energy sources for the tree? DRH: Well, the same as photosynthesis, vitamins, water, air, light, yeah. …. DRH: Well, yeah I think that it uses like all the same… after it makes its food it uses the glucose for energy. INTERVIEWER: Glucose is a type of energy? DRH: Yep.

Principles-First: Principle-based explanations
Level 4: Processes and Systems Constrained by Principles Level 3: Chemical change with unsuccessful constraints Level 3: Principled accounts at molecular scale w/ few chemical details Level 2: Hidden mechanisms about events Level 2: Successful conservation at macroscopic scale Level 1: Force-Dynamic Accounts of Actors and Events

Level 4: Processes and Systems Constrained by Principles Level 3: Principled accounts at molecular scale w/ few chemical details Testing through teaching experiments Level 2: Successful conservation at macroscopic scale Level 1: Force-Dynamic Accounts of Actors and Events

Level 4: Processes and Systems Constrained by Principles Characteristics: Naming and explaining aligned Connections across systems and processes in terms of matter and energy Principles foregrounded Level 3: Principled accounts at molecular scale w/ few chemical details Level 2: Successful conservation at macroscopic scale Level 1: Force-Dynamic Accounts of Actors and Events

Principles-First: Principle-based explanations EXAMPLE
INTERVIEWER: You said sunlight, can you tell me a little bit about sunlight, how does it supply the tree with energy, do you know how it happens? ER: It comes in, obviously as a form of light energy, and that being a form of energy, it then converts through photosynthesis, it converts that to a form of energy that the tree can use. INTERVIEWER: What form of energy is that? ER: Either kinetic or stored, I am not sure, probably more stored…and it would use kinetic for whatever growing it does at the moment, but it would probably use more stored energy to store it away for another time to use. INTERVIEWER: Where does the tree store its energy? ER: It stores it mostly in the trunk, since that’s the largest area, but in all of the branches of it, in the form of starch. INTERVIEWER: Do you think energy is stored in molecules? ER: No.

Approach to Teaching Experiments
Focus on Principle-based explanations Sustained (but flexible) use of tools for reasoning Scale: Powers of Ten Matter/Energy: Process Tool

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) (gas)
Process Tool Example Car Running Process: Scale: (Matter Input) (Matter Output) (Energy Output) (Energy Input) Chemical Energy Heat Motion Octane (CH3(CH2)6CH3) (liquid) Water (H2O) (gas) Oxygen (O2) (gas) Carbon Dioxide (CO2) (gas) Combustion Atomic-molecular

Powers of Ten Example

Validation & Teaching Experiments
Three Qualities: Conceptually coherent Compatible with current research Empirically validated Teaching Experiments: Help us engage in hypthesis-testing of alternative pathways (documenting what could be as opposed to what is). Help us understand what it takes to get from one level to the next (and how prescriptive instruction must be).

THANK YOU! http://edr1.educ.msu.edu/EnvironmentalLit/index.htm

Learning Progressions in Environmental Science Literacy

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