Exploring Potential Learning Trajectories for the Energy Concept in Middle School

能量在科学的每一个分支都是一个重要的概念，但人们对如何最好地建立学生的能量概念知之甚少，随着时间的推移，使他们的理解变得更加综合，更有用的现象。国家面临的一些最紧迫的社会和环境问题（例如，节能、气候变化、生物多样性丧失和自然资源经济学）从根本上与能源有关。最近的研究表明，有效的K-12能源教学可以在帮助学生发展对能源的理解方面发挥至关重要的作用，这种理解在科学上是准确的，对解释日常事件有用，对解决问题有价值，但不同教学方法的持久影响还没有得到很好的理解。该项目调查了三种有前途的能源教学方法，以了解每种方法如何影响中学生对能源的理解以及参与随后与能源相关的学习的能力。为了评估能量教学的替代方法，研究了两个研究问题：（1）三种不同的能量教学方法如何导致学生理解发展的不同轨迹？（2）如何设计指标来跟踪学生在中学期间的能量知识的发展？第一个研究问题是通过研究三个教学单元使用不同的教学方法的影响，并收集数据（学生访谈，课堂观察，书面评估和文物），旨在揭示方法之间的差异。中学教师将教授这三个单元中的每一个。为了评估结果的可靠性并随着时间的推移跟踪学生，该研究包括两组学生，间隔一年。第二个研究问题将通过开发新的教学指标来解决，以跟踪学生的发展。与揭示学生是否能回忆起或直接应用有关能源的关键思想的评估不同，新的指标将被设计用于跟踪学生在新的背景下推理时是否以及如何将能源思想联系起来。此外，评估的目的是调查学生的自我效能感的影响，有效地使用能源概念的能力，并在新的设置。这项研究将有助于了解如何最好地教中学生关于能源的知识，以及如何开发新的评估，重点关注可能为未来的有效学习和公民身份奠定基础的学习类型。

Energy is a critical concept in every branch of science, yet relatively little is known about how to best build students conceptions of energy over time so that their understanding becomes more integrated and more useful for making sense of phenomena. Some of the most pressing social and environmental issues that face the nation (e.g., energy conservation, climate change, biodiversity loss, and natural resource economics) are fundamentally related to energy. Recent work has shown that effective K-12 energy instruction can play a crucial role in helping students develop an understanding of energy that is scientifically accurate, useful for interpreting everyday events and valuable for solving problems, but the lasting impact of different instructional approaches is not well understood. The project investigates three promising approaches to energy instruction in an effort to understand how each affects middle school student understanding of energy and the ability to engage in subsequent energy-related learning. To evaluate alternative approaches to energy instruction, two research questions are investigated: (1) How do three different approaches to teaching energy lead to different trajectories in the development of students' understanding? and (2) How can metrics be designed to track the development of students' knowledge of energy during middle school? The first research question is addressed by researching the impacts of three instructional units using different instructional approaches, and gathering data (student interviews, classroom observations, and written assessments and artifacts) intended to reveal differences amongst the approaches. Middle school teachers will teach each of the three units. To assess the reliability of results and track students over time, the study includes two cohorts of students, separated by a year. The second research question will be addressed through the development of new instructional metrics in order to track student development across time. Unlike assessments that reveal whether students can recall or directly apply key ideas about energy, the new metrics will be designed to track whether and how students connect energy ideas as they reason in new contexts. Further, the assessments will be designed to investigate the impact of student sense of self-efficacy on the ability to use energy concepts effectively and in new settings. The research will contribute to understanding of how to best teach middle school students about energy and how new assessments can be developed that focus on the types of learning that will likely set the stage for productive future learning and citizenship.