Grounded and Transferable Knowledge of Complex Systems Using Computer Simulations

使用计算机模拟获得复杂系统的基础知识和可转移知识

• 批准号: 0527920
• 负责人: Robert Goldstone
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Indiana University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-10-01 至 2009-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0527920&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Grounded; Transferable; Knowledge; Complex; Systems

This project concerns the use of interactive computer simulations to teach scientific concepts governing complex adaptive systems. The formal principles underlying these systems are applicable across a wide range of domains. Although the broad applicability of these principles speaks to their importance, it also represents a challenge to educators to convey these principles in a way that students can appreciate the principle at a sufficiently abstract level that the student can transfer the principle across superficially unrelated domains. The current research addresses the question of when and how do have students transfer what they have learned about scientific principles to new situations. Our proposed research explores methods for teaching students about scientific principles in a manner that leads to grounded yet transportable knowledge. A central inquiry of this proposal concerns the relation between the superficial, concrete details through which a phenomenon is presented, and the abstraction of deeper scientific principles underlying the phenomenon.Our experiments explore the role of perceptually-based simulations in fostering students' scientific understanding. By observing how active exploration of one simulation benefits understanding of a subsequently presented simulation based on the same principle, we can assess whether the scientific principle has been successfully abstracted. Experiments will explore the roles of graphical concreteness, narrative contextualization, language specificity, and diagrams on students' implicit and explicit knowledge of scientific principles. One research outcome will be prescriptions for how and when concrete and highly contextualized materials should be used, compared to idealized and decontextualized materials. One line of research focuses on the language that accompanies interactive computer simulations by manipulating the concreteness and abstractness of words. These experiments explore how best to use words to foster transferable knowledge: by gradually introducing increasingly abstract language, by combining abstract language with concrete visuals (or vice versa), or by using concrete but metaphorically related words.A second line of experiments aims to give participants first-person experiences with scientific principles to test whether they promote spontaneous transfer across analogous situations. Using the scientific principle of Signal Detection Theory, we will compare direct experience with a signal detection task with explicit instruction. Further experiments will determine if the advantages of experience vs. instruction are modulated by the perceptual concreteness of the simulations, and the narrative richness of the training scenario.The scientific goal of the inquiry is to gain an understanding of how perceptual experience can lead to abstract conceptual understanding, and how conceptual understanding can change perceptual experience. The practical goal is to translate this understanding into general educational principles for integrating computer simulations into classroom activities.

这个项目涉及使用交互式计算机模拟来教授管理复杂适应系统的科学概念。 这些系统所依据的形式原则适用于广泛的领域。 虽然这些原则的广泛适用性说明了它们的重要性，但它也对教育工作者提出了挑战，即以一种学生可以在足够抽象的层面上欣赏这些原则的方式来传达这些原则，以便学生可以将这些原则转移到表面上不相关的领域。 目前的研究解决的问题是，学生何时以及如何将他们所学的科学原理转移到新的情境中。我们提出的研究探讨了以一种导致接地但可运输的知识的方式教授学生科学原理的方法。这一建议的中心问题是关注表面的、具体的细节之间的关系，通过它来呈现一个现象，并抽象出更深层次的科学原理。我们的实验探讨了基于感知的模拟在培养学生的科学理解中的作用。 通过观察对一个模拟的积极探索如何有助于理解随后基于相同原理的模拟，我们可以评估科学原理是否已经成功抽象。 实验将探讨图形的具体性，叙事语境化，语言特异性，和学生的科学原理的内隐和外显知识的图表的作用。 一个研究成果将是处方具体和高度语境化的材料应该如何以及何时使用，与理想化和去语境化的材料相比。 一条研究线集中在通过操纵单词的具体性和抽象性来伴随交互式计算机模拟的语言上。这些实验探索了如何最好地使用词汇来培养可转移的知识：通过逐渐引入越来越抽象的语言，通过将抽象语言与具体的视觉形象相结合（反之亦然），或者通过使用具体但隐喻相关的词汇。第二行实验旨在让参与者第一人称体验科学原理，以测试他们是否促进类似情况下的自发转移。 使用信号检测理论的科学原理，我们将比较直接经验与明确指示的信号检测任务。进一步的实验将确定经验与指导的优势是否受到模拟的知觉具体性和训练场景的叙事丰富性的调制。调查的科学目标是了解知觉经验如何导致抽象的概念理解，以及概念理解如何改变知觉经验。 实际目标是将这种理解转化为将计算机模拟融入课堂活动的一般教育原则。