Research on the Utility of Abstraction as a Guiding Principle for Learning about the Nature of Models in Science Education

探索研究K-12项目（DRK-12）旨在通过研究和开发创新资源、模型和工具（rmt），显著提高pre -12学生和教师对科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）的学习和教学。DRK-12计划中的项目建立在STEM教育的基础研究和先前的研究和开发工作的基础上，为拟议的项目提供了理论和实证依据。当代科学教育改革将建模作为理解科学思想的一种手段和一种必须学习的科学实践。建模是开发和精炼表示（或“模型”）作为科学现象的类比的实践。对于建模实践来说，重要的一点是，作为一种模拟，模型提取（或“抽象”）了与现象的所有方面相反的一些方面。然而，在建模教学中一个众所周知的问题是学习者很难理解这一点。学习者通常认为模型是它们所代表的东西的字面解释或复制品。研究人员假设，让学生在自己的模型创建（或“合成”）过程中参与抽象过程——即从多种科学现象中绘制出共同的结构——将有助于学生更好地理解科学模型的本质。重要的是，这种方法将帮助学生发现科学模型不仅仅是对任何单一现象的字面解释或复制。来自佐治亚州和缅因州经济困难社区的16名教师和大约960名学生将参与并受益于高中地球和环境科学课程的研究。该项目将制定一个简短的教学顺序和新的学生学习评估，在地球科学课程中实施。这些发现将有助于该领域了解在模型构建过程中对多种现象进行抽象的过程是否支持学生对与地球科学思想和尺度交叉概念相关的科学模型的理解。该项目将在三年内为多达46名教师提供专业发展讲习班，作为招募研究参与者和围绕建模新方法培养教师领导能力的手段。开发的产品和研究成果将通过科学教育期刊和会议与研究人员、教师教育工作者和教师分享。这项探索性学习链研究建立在乔治亚大学和缅因大学研究人员先前的工作基础上，严格检验了他们的假设，即在模型合成过程中，让学生参与从多源现象中抽象的过程，有助于更科学地准确理解模型的本质。该研究具有以下潜力：(1)产生关于抽象作为学习模型和建模实践的指导原则的潜在价值的新知识；(2)确定特定的课堂条件，包括教师的谈话和行动，如何促进或阻碍学生在模型和建模实践中学习抽象；(3)展示教师如何将建模方法应用于他们所教授的其他科学学科。教师将通过与学校的现有合作伙伴关系以及为两所大学附近的教师提供的专业发展讲习班来招聘。为了实现前两个目标，研究人员将开发和测试一个由两部分组成的教学序列，以解决地球科学的核心思想和规模的交叉概念。教学序列的第一个组成部分是典型的基于模型的探究，第二个组成部分要求学生在综合自己的模型时从多种现象中抽象出结构。12名教师和他们的学生将被随机分配到实验组和对照组。治疗组将经历两部分的教学顺序。对照组最初不会经历第二个部分，但在研究结束时将有机会经历第二个部分。将使用课堂观察、教师访谈、学生知识测试、学生作业和教师日志的定量和定性分析来确定模型综合过程中抽象的有效性，以及使用该方法时促进或阻碍学生学习的课堂条件。为了实现第三个目标，研究人员将记录四位教师在其他科学学科中开发和实施类似教学序列的经验，为“通过抽象进行综合”的建模方法的更广泛应用提供初步证据。一项新的研究评估可以衡量学生对模型本质、地球科学核心思想和尺度交叉概念的理解，这可能对未来在三个知识维度交叉点上的学习研究有广泛的帮助。研究结果将通过传统方式分享，例如同行评议研究和从业者期刊上的论文以及会议报告。研究人员将在第三年为教师举办专业发展研讨会，向实践者传播研究成果和发现，并进一步培养参与其中的教师在科学教育中采用这种新颖的建模实践方法的领导力。

The Discovery Research K-12 program (DRK-12) seeks to significantly enhance the learning and teaching of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by preK-12 students and teachers, through research and development of innovative resources, models and tools (RMTs). Projects in the DRK-12 program build on fundamental research in STEM education and prior research and development efforts that provide theoretical and empirical justification for proposed projects. Contemporary science education reforms consider modeling as a means to understanding science ideas and as an essential scientific practice to be learned. Modeling is the practice of developing and refining representations (or "models") as analogs of scientific phenomena. Important to the practice of modeling is the idea that, as an analog, a model draws out (or "abstracts") some as opposed to all aspects of a phenomenon. However, a well-known problem in modeling instruction is that leaners have difficulty understanding this essential point. Learners often think of models as literal interpretations, or replicas, of what they represent. The investigators hypothesize that engaging students in a process of abstraction -- that is, drawing out common structures from multiple scientific phenomena -- during the creation (or "synthesis") of their own model will help students better understand the nature of scientific models. Importantly, this approach will help students discover that a scientific model is not simply a literal interpretation, or replica, of any single phenomenon. Sixteen teachers and their estimated 960 students from economically challenged communities in Georgia and Maine will participate in and benefit from the research study in the context of high school earth and environmental science classes. The project will develop a short instructional sequence and new student learning assessments that are implemented in earth science classes. The findings will help the field to understand whether the process of abstracting from multiple phenomena during model construction supports students' understanding of scientific models in relation to earth science ideas and the cross-cutting concept of scale. The project will provide professional development workshops to up to forty-six teachers over three years as means of recruiting research participants and to cultivate teacher leadership around the new approach to modeling. The developed products and the research findings will be shared with researchers, teacher educators, and teachers through science education journals and conferences. This Exploratory Learning Strand research study builds upon prior work of investigators at University of Georgia and University of Maine by rigorously testing their hypothesis that that engaging students in the process of abstracting from multiple source phenomena during model synthesis supports more scientifically accurate understandings of the nature of models. The research has the potential to (1) generate new knowledge about the potential value of abstraction as a guiding principle of learning about models and modeling practice; (2) identify ways in which specific classroom conditions, including teacher talk and actions, enable or hinder student learning about abstraction in models and modeling practice; and (3) demonstrate how teachers translate the modeling approach to other science disciplines they teach. Teachers will be recruited through existing partnerships with schools and through professional development workshops offered to teachers nearby the two universities. To address the first two goals, the investigators will develop and test a two-part instructional sequence that addresses core ideas in earth science and the cross-cutting concept of scale. The first component of the instructional sequence is a typical model-based inquiry, and the second component requires that students abstract structures from multiple phenomena during the synthesis of their own models. Twelve teachers and their students will be randomly assigned to either the treatment or the control group. The treatment group will experience the two-part instructional sequence. The control group will initially not experience the second component, but will have an opportunity to do so at the conclusion of the study. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of classroom observations, interviews with teachers, student knowledge tests, student work, and teacher logs will be used to determine the effectiveness of abstracting during model synthesis and classroom conditions that enable or hinder students' learning when the approach is used. To address the third goal, investigators will document the experience of four teachers as they develop and implement a similar instructional sequence in other science disciplines, providing preliminary evidence on the broader utility of the synthesis-through-abstraction approach to modeling. A new research assessment for measuring students' understanding of the nature of models, core ideas of earth science, and the cross-cutting concept of scale may be broadly useful for future research on learning at the intersection of the three knowledge dimensions. Findings will be shared by traditional means, such as papers in peer-reviewed research and practitioner journals and conference presentations. Investigators will conduct professional development workshops for teachers in the third year to disseminate the products and findings of the research to practitioner audiences and to further cultivate participating teachers' leadership around this novel approach to modeling practice in science education.