Talking about Genetics: Using Representations and Language to Understand Complex Science

这个项目将探讨表征和语言在通过基于技术的活动学习复杂科学中的作用。研究人员将进行一系列的设计和课堂研究，在这些研究中，学生将使用表征和语言来支持科学探究和遗传学复杂概念的学习。本研究将研究技术如何以三种方式支持学习：(1)为学生提供模拟，让他们可以对科学现象进行调查；(2)展示多种表征，学生可以使用这些表征来理解解释这些现象的潜在实体和机制；(3)提供结构，支撑他们对这些潜在实体和机制的解释。这种技术支持将来自于将两个独立开发的软件程序集成到一个名为GenTalk的环境中。GenTalk将结合bi模拟和explationconstructor解释支持的功能，为学生解释和讨论他们的研究生成一个丰富的表示和脚手架环境。研究人员将与这些软件包的设计者和高中生物教师合作，实施一个受控的课堂实验，并观察这些软件包对一系列高中生的调查实践、语言使用和科学理解的影响，无论是单独的还是组合的。他们将调查以下问题：哪些表征特征支持学生话语？什么修辞提示和软件支持增加学生的谈话？陈述和修辞提示如何共同影响学生的话语？方法：本项目是一项为期两年的研究计划，旨在调查技术环境中表征与话语之间的关系，以及由此产生的学生对遗传学科学因果机制的理解。第一年将用于设计技术环境和遗传学课程，直至并包括人口水平，第二年将用于在几个教室中实施和研究原型。潜在影响：该项目是一个关于学习科学的认知和社会过程的基础研究项目，将对课堂上使用技术为课程改革和学生成绩服务产生直接影响。

This project will investigate the roles of representations and language in learning complex science through technology-based activities. Researchers will conduct a series of design and classroom studies in which students will use representations and language to support the learning of scientific inquiry and complex concepts in genetics.This research will study how technology can support learning in three ways: (1) providing students with simulations in which they can conduct investigations of scientific phenomena, (2) showing multiple representations which students can use to understand the underlying entities and mechanisms that account for these phenomena, and (3) providing structure that scaffolds their explanation of these underlying entities and mechanisms. This technology support will come from integrating two independently developed software programs into an environment called GenTalk. GenTalk will combine features of BioLogica simulations and ExplanationConstructor explanation support to generate an environment rich both in representations and in scaffolding for students' explanations and discourse about their investigations. Researchers will collaborate with the designers of these software packages and with high school biology teachers to implement a controlled classroom experiment and look at the impact of these software packages, separately and in combination, on the investigation practices, language use, and science understanding of a range of high school students. They will investigate questions such as: What representational features support student discourse? What rhetorical prompts and software supports increase student talk? How do representations and rhetorical prompts work together to influence student discourse?Methods: This project is a two-year plan of research to investigate the relationship between representations and discourse in technology environments, and the resulting student understanding of scientific causal mechanisms in genetics. The first year will be used for a design of the technology environment and curriculum for genetics up to and including the population level, and the second year will be for implementation of, and research on, the prototype in several classrooms.Potential Impact: This project is a program of fundamental research on the cognitive and social processes of learning science that will have direct implications for the classroom use of technology in the service of curriculum reform and student achievement.