ROLE Proposal: Understanding in Science: Eyetracking Studies

在信息时代，支持信息分析、评价、综合和整合的思维习惯变得越来越重要。这个项目的重点是如何，何时，以及为什么这些思维习惯可以获得和发展。先前的研究表明，基于探究的学习环境可以支持对科学内容的更深层次的理解，但迄今为止，关于学生在这些背景下实现深刻理解的过程的系统工作很少。关于如何支持批判立场的发展，我们所知的就更少了。批判的立场支持对信息的积极评价和对不一致的发现，这反过来又有助于通过解释推理指导信息的更深层次处理。这个项目探讨了学习环境和任务在支持对科学信息的批判立场中的作用。我们超越了目前的努力，采用了多种处理方法，利用在线表征和理解，包括口头报告（通过让学生在阅读和写作时大声思考来收集）和眼球运动模式（在学生阅读时监测眼睛对文本不同部分的注视）。结合起来，这些措施以及一些理解措施将在我们进行两条研究路线时提供特别丰富的数据集。我们在研究的第一线的目标是检查人们何时对科学主题形成批判立场，以及促进更好理解的具体行为。在第二组研究中，我们感兴趣的是对科学主题采取批判立场是否可以通过计算机协作导师来支持。这些研究代表了重要的第一步，以确定使学生在阅读科学网页时能够理解的认知过程，以及使新手读者在正式和非正式学习环境中成为科学传播的关键消费者的环境和任务。

Habits of mind that support the analysis, evaluation, synthesis, and integration of information are increasingly important in the information age. This project focuses on how, when, and why such habits of mind might be acquired and developed. Prior research has shown that inquiry-based learning environments can support deeper understanding of science content, but there is little systematic work thus far on the process by which students achieve deep understanding in these contexts. Even less is known about how to support the development of a critical stance. A critical stance supports the active evaluation of information and the detection of inconsistencies that in turn help direct deeper processing of information through explanatory reasoning. This project explores the role of learning environment and task in supporting a critical stance toward scientific information. We go beyond current efforts by employing a variety of processing measures that tap on-line representation and understanding, including verbal reports (gathered by having students think out loud as they read and write) and eye movement patterns (monitoring the fixations of the eye on different parts of texts as students read). In combination, these measures along with a number of comprehension measures will provide a particularly rich set of data as we pursue two lines of research. Our goal in the first line of research is to examine when people develop a critical stance toward scientific subject matter, and the specific behaviors that promote better understanding. In the second set of studies, we are interested in whether the adoption of a critical stance toward scientific subject matter can be supported through a computerized collaborative tutor.These studies represent an important first step in identifying the cognitive processes that are enabling understanding as students read scientific web pages, and the contexts and tasks that will allow novice readers to become critical consumers of scientific communications in both formal and informal learning contexts.