ROLE Proposal: Understanding in Science: Eyetracking Studies

在信息时代，支持分析、评估、综合和整合信息的思维习惯越来越重要。 这个项目的重点是如何，何时以及为什么这样的思维习惯可能会获得和发展。先前的研究表明，基于探究的学习环境可以支持更深入地理解科学内容，但迄今为止，学生在这些背景下实现深入理解的过程中几乎没有系统的工作。 至于如何支持批判立场的发展，我们所知更少。 批判立场支持对信息的积极评估和对不一致性的检测，这反过来又有助于通过解释性推理指导更深层次的信息处理。这个项目探讨了学习环境和任务在支持对科学信息的批判立场中的作用。我们超越目前的努力，采用各种处理措施，挖掘在线表示和理解，包括口头报告（通过让学生大声思考，因为他们读和写）和眼动模式（监测学生阅读时眼睛对文本不同部分的注视）。结合这些措施，沿着一些理解措施将提供一个特别丰富的数据集，因为我们追求两条线的研究。我们在研究的第一线的目标是检查当人们发展对科学主题的批判性立场，以及促进更好的理解的具体行为。在第二组研究中，我们感兴趣的是，对科学主题采取批判性立场是否可以通过计算机化的合作导师来支持。这些研究代表了识别认知过程的重要第一步，这些认知过程使学生在阅读科学网页时能够理解，以及让新手读者在正式和非正式的学习环境中成为科学交流的关键消费者的环境和任务。

Habits of mind that support the analysis, evaluation, synthesis, and integration of information are increasingly important in the information age. This project focuses on how, when, and why such habits of mind might be acquired and developed. Prior research has shown that inquiry-based learning environments can support deeper understanding of science content, but there is little systematic work thus far on the process by which students achieve deep understanding in these contexts. Even less is known about how to support the development of a critical stance. A critical stance supports the active evaluation of information and the detection of inconsistencies that in turn help direct deeper processing of information through explanatory reasoning. This project explores the role of learning environment and task in supporting a critical stance toward scientific information. We go beyond current efforts by employing a variety of processing measures that tap on-line representation and understanding, including verbal reports (gathered by having students think out loud as they read and write) and eye movement patterns (monitoring the fixations of the eye on different parts of texts as students read). In combination, these measures along with a number of comprehension measures will provide a particularly rich set of data as we pursue two lines of research. Our goal in the first line of research is to examine when people develop a critical stance toward scientific subject matter, and the specific behaviors that promote better understanding. In the second set of studies, we are interested in whether the adoption of a critical stance toward scientific subject matter can be supported through a computerized collaborative tutor.These studies represent an important first step in identifying the cognitive processes that are enabling understanding as students read scientific web pages, and the contexts and tasks that will allow novice readers to become critical consumers of scientific communications in both formal and informal learning contexts.