Empirical Research, Emerging Research Strand: A Unified, Cross-domain Approach to Studying Learner Understanding of Emergence

Brem和他的团队建议调查学生在学习一个特定的跨学科现象时必须了解的一般性质-紧急系统(VS)复杂的适应系统。提出者认为，这些共同的性质是可以学习的，主要是通过解决错误的概念和学习困难的领域，然后这些知识可以应用于研究具有这些特征的特定系统。这些属性中有几个是违反直觉的，因为新出现的系统在层次上是复杂的，作为系统是不可约的，并且新奇和不可预测(等等)。具体地说，调查者将使用可视化和面对面的访谈，反复开发、完善和验证一些概念清单(评估工具)，以定义和衡量学生在这一领域的学习。重点将主要放在本科学习上。该团队选择了地质学(侵蚀)、化学(气体中温度和压力的关系)、自然选择(模仿能力的演变)和心理学(探测和避免外来者)作为背景进行研究。这项工作的更广泛影响在于它最终能够帮助学生克服学科和跨学科科学研究中一些常见和一致的学习障碍。

Brem and team propose to investigate general properties that students must understand in learning about a specific cross-disciplinary phenomenon --- emergent systems (vis a vis complex adaptive systems). The proposers argue that these common properties can be learned, primarily through addressing misconceptions and areas of learning difficulty, and such knowledge can then be applied to investigating specific systems that bear these characteristics. Several of these properties are counterintuitive given that emergent systems are complex in hierarchy, are irreducible as systems, and novel and unpredictable (among other things). Specifically, the investigator will use visualizations and face-to-face interviews in iteratively developing, refining, and validating something of a concept inventory (assessment instrument) that will define and measure student learning in this area. The focus will primarily be on undergraduate learning. The team has chosen examples from geology (erosion), chemistry (the relationship of temperature and pressure in gases), natural selection (the evolution of mimetic abilities), and psychology (detecting and avoiding outsiders) as contexts to conduct their research.The broader impacts of this work lie in its ability to ultimately assist students in overcoming some common and consistent learning obstacles in their study of disciplinary and interdisciplinary science.