1. Learning in Science

4. Vygotsky (Constructivist)
Learning stems from experience
Involves language (and discussion)
Clarifies thinking
Requires processing
Within a social and cultural context
Within Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
Is contextually-based
Howe, 1996
Emphasis on language includes “inner speech” (p41)
Nonconscious understanding may precede ability to express it in language (p41)
For Vygotsky – driving force is external (social) – Piaget it is internal
Contextually-based – relates to the degree to which new K can link to prior, articulated K

5. Vygotsky (Constructivist)
People learn
Everyday concepts (spontaneous)
“Scientific” concepts (non-spontaneous)
Concepts
Are constructed
Linked concepts transfer to new experiences
Howe, 1996
“Scientific concepts” – including social sciences, language, math, & natural science – involving systematic hierarchical knowledge (p.37)
Everyday concepts linked to particular instances and not coherent (p.38)
“Scaffolding” supports students social learning

6. Prior Knowledge

7. Piaget (Constructivist)
Learning is active, constructive process
Learning derived from experience
New Knowledge
Assimilated
Accommodated
Learning is individual and internally driven
Developmental stages in learning
Linked to physical development
Limit learning
Howe, 1996

8. Prior Knowledge I’d like the duck, but I have a plane to catch.
I was brought into a large white room and my eyes began to blink because the bright light hurt them.

9. Prior Knowledge

10. Prior Knowledge Which does not belong in this group? Salamander
Jellyfish
Tree
Fish
Jesse Ventura

12. Constructivism Characteristics of Knowledge Builds on Prior Knowledge
Derived from reality
Is adaptive, useful
Is rational
“Created” by individuals
Socially constructed
Shapiro, 1994

13. Constructivism Types of Knowledge Rote (“situated” )
Fuzzy Conceptions (Alternative conceptions)
Meaningful
Cognitive network: Schema
Illustrated through concept maps
“Misconceptions”
Novak, 2002
Rote learning “is arbitrarily and non-substantively incorporated into cognitive structure.” (p549), may result in inability to transfer K
“Meaningful learning” – involves conscious effort by learner to integrate K (p.549)

14. Prior Knowledge Pyrrhuloxia Animal Oxygen Bird Food Fish Reproduce
Trout
Needs
Can
May be a
Pyrrhuloxia

16. Misconceptions
Examples: Leaf color
Seasons
Condensation

17. Misconceptions Constructed from experience, “prior knowledge”
Rational (make sense)
Useful
Common and typical
Stable and resistant to change

18. Conceptual Change Assess prior knowledge Clarify prior knowledge
Create dissatisfaction with current concepts
Discovery process
New concept is understood
New concept is believable
New concept is useful
Continued experience with new concept
“Living” - Venville
“Animal”
“Plant food”
Winter season and solar distance
Strike & Posner, 1982

21. Constructivist terminology
Proposition – A statement identifying the relationship between concepts
Consider:
Flowers have pistils.
Flowers are part of plants.
Dogs have legs.
Water flows down hill.

22. Constructivism Concepts – regularities in events or objects Consider:
Chair
Dog
Running
Blue
Sunny
Novak, 2002
“The meaning of concepts derives from the totality of propositions linked to any given concept, plus emotional connotations associated with these concepts, derivative in part from the experiences, and context of learning during which the concepts were acquired.” (p551)

23. Concept Maps

24. Relevance Learning Motivated by relevance Affected by Unobservables
To learner’s world.
To prior knowledge
To relationships (socially valued knowledge)
Affected by
Unobservables
Sensory perceptions (taste, smell)
Prior ideas, knowledge, models
Schollum & Osborne, 1985
Children view from self-centered or human-centered point of view. (p55)
Children accept multiple explanations (and they don’t have to be scientific or coherent). (p56)
Prior K includes:
Ideas
uninfluenced ideas (boiling water has bubbles of air – instead of bubbles of gaseous water)
Unanticiapted ways – using prior K to conclude evaporation turns water into hydrogen and oxygen
Models – mental model of matter as continuous (no spaces between atoms)
Importance of readiness and linking to relevance

25. Language in the classroom
Teacher’s words may be ignored if unfamiliar
Teacher’s words may be used without understanding (sounding scientific)
Student’s words may be ignored.
May involve unidentified mismatch between student and teacher. (examples: living, animal)
May be identified mismatch.
Bell & Freyberg,, 1985
Language in the science classroom –
To improve situation – be aware, have students clarify their own understanding, then be deliberate in presenting terms.

26. Instructional Mismatches
Intention for activity
Context - conceptual
Purpose – goal of activity
Design – relevant variables
Activity goals
Action may be without skills or direction
Get results
Reflection – considering findings
Tasker & Freyberg, 1985
Strategies:
Have student groups read instructions to ensure understanding
Scramble and cut up instructions to see if students can recreate sequence
Short sentences, key words, repetition
Compare and discuss group results
Assess on multiple levels (interpretive, cognitive, manipulative, social, workshop skills)
Use checklists

27. Pollution misconceptions
Brody – Misconceptions
Anything natural is not pollution
Biodegradable materials are not pollutants.
Things are either pollutants or not pollutants.
The human race is indestructible as a species.
Solid waste in dumps is safe.
Brody, 1987
Worked with 4th, 8th, and 11th grade students and inteviews (n=105) in 11 maine schools.

28. Objectivism Different in world-view and philosophy
Knowledge is waiting to be discovered (or taught)
Systematic, objective observations lead to knowledge (the inductive process)
Learning is a process to obtain “true” knowledge
Shapiro, 1994

29. Knowledge Conceptions Rote Knowledge
Fuzzy Conceptions (Alternative conceptions)
Misconceptions

30. Knowledge Vee
The Knowledge Vee – demonstrates process of constructing/analyzing knowledge
Conceptual components
Principles – relationships among concepts explaining how concepts appear/behave.
Theories – explain why concepts appear/behave the way they do
World View – belief and knowledge system motivating and guiding learning
Novak, 2002

31. Knowledge Vee Methodological components
Records (empirical observations)
Transformations (graphs, etc organizing records)
Knowledge claims – summary statements based on records
Value claims – statements of value of knowledge

32. Beyond Constructivism
Real world can be known objectively
Language is bound by reality (p. 58)
Knowledge
Claims checked against reality
Sources are sensory (empirical)
Sources are culturally transmitted
Osborne,

33. Beyond Constructivism
Critiques of constructivism
Knowledge development not same as K learning
Leads to relativism
Can’t explain knowledge not based on direct experience
Nature of Science (NOS) not necessarily relevant to learning (p. 67)
Osborne,

34. Beyond Constructivism
Science:
Provides Knowledge of objective, real world
Based on experimentation (uses referents)
Involves verification
Is reliable
Is objective
Knowledge is relatively stable
Osborne,

35. Theoretical Perspectives
Constructivism
Social
Radical
Instrumentalism
Postmodernism
Realism
Categories of theories:
1. Radical constructivist = “truth replaced by viability”
“Science is a cultural product distinguishable by its form, not its methods.” (p. 59)
2. Social constructivist = science education is a type of enculturation (p. 60)
Social constructivists have not defense against seeing science as an irrational enterprise where persuasion and force of argument are to be judged
3. Instrumentalist = “Theories are just convenient devices for describing phenomena and connecting one set of events to another.” (p. 57)
4. Realist = scientists act on the world by intervening, manipulating, measuring
Discourse/theories can be checked by careful repetition
5. Postmodernist = reality indifferent to our descriptions of it & language is how “human self is created”

36. Cognitive Processes Progressive differentiation Subsumption
Superordinate learning
Integrative reconciliation
Novak, 2002
Progressive differentiation – makes map more elaborate
Subsumption – concepts can be included as subsets and easily linked in
Superordinate learning – the web is recognized as part of a larger, more inclusive concept
Integrative reconciliation – seemingly different schema are seen as similar or related (p558)
Use “Advance organizers”