ROLE: Facilitating the Understanding of Complex Adaptive Systems Through Computer Simulations

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Interactive computer simulations are increasingly being used to teach studentsscientific principles, but relatively little systematic research has done onthe factors that make a simulation pedagogically effective. This researchexplores how to design a computer simulation so that students learn thescientific principle underlying it, and transfer this principle to newdomains. Principles from the interdisciplinary science of complex adaptivesystems are chosen because these mathematical formalisms are applicable acrossa wide range of domains. Laboratory experiments with students will explore howactive exploration of one simulation benefits or hinders understanding of asubsequently presented simulation based on the same principle. Experimentswill explore the roles of concreteness and idealization, simulation similarity,and individual differences in abstract transfer. The scientific goal of theinquiry is to gain an understanding of how perceptual experience can lead toabstract conceptual understanding, and how conceptual understanding can changeperceptual experience. The practical goal is to translate this understandinginto general educational principles for integrating computer simulations intoclassroom activities.