ROLE Proposal: Understanding in Science: Eyetracking Studies

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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.