CoMPASS: Integrating digital text in design-based science classes

这个项目研究了概念的多模态表征在学生学习中的使用。概念由文本和概念图表示。该项目有两个主要目标。首先是进一步理解如何在设计类课程中整合从信息文本中获得的概念性学习与实验和实践活动。在不同背景下实施干预将会；通过检查教师实践，学生特征，项目挑战和课堂文化方面的变化，使学生能够利用设计活动和多种电子文本的使用能力，系统地进行研究。其次是理解学生在科学探索中使用多种文本时不断变化的表述。随着电子文本在教育环境中变得无处不在，越来越需要了解在基于项目和基于设计的课堂中，学生如何在探究课堂的背景下从多种文本中学习。本项目旨在通过考虑学生使用的策略、学生的特征，如先验知识、元认知意识、他们的群体互动以及这些与导航和学习的关系，来研究学生的学习轨迹。该方法包括严格的分析工具，系统地研究干预在课堂环境中的实施，从课堂动态和顺序开始。然后，重点将转移到教师的实践，随后放大学生的知识表征。研究结果将有助于(i)将信息资源整合到实践科学活动中的科学知识库；（ii）增加对学生如何处理多个文本的理解，从而使使用超文本、超媒体系统和数字图书馆的研究人员受益；（iii）生成一套在科学探究中整合信息资源的教学指南。这些将对扩大针对K-12科学教育的项目做出重要贡献。干预将在四个中学环境中进行，跨越不同的地理、种族和社会经济区域：(a)康涅狄格州的一所农村学校；(b)康涅狄格州的一所学术和经济困难的学校；(c)威斯康星州的一所城市学校；(d)也是在威斯康星州的一所郊区学校。每个网站都将提供学生准备和动机、教师在主题方面的专业知识和个人课堂动态方面的自然变化。在这个为期5年的项目中，每年都会对影响学习的因素进行研究，得出一套设计原则，然后将其应用于其他环境。

This project investigates the use of multimodal representations of concepts in student learning. The concepts are represented by text and by concept maps. The project has two major goals. First is to further the understanding of integrating the conceptual learning from informational text with the experimental and hands-on activities in a design based classes. The enactment of the intervention across different contexts will; be systematically studied by examining the variations in teacher practices, student characteristics, project challenges and aspects of classroom culture that enable students to take advantage of the capabilities of both design activities and the use of the multiple electronic texts. Second is to understand student's changing representations as they use multiple texts in their science explorations. As electronic texts become ubiquitous in educational settings, there is an increasing need to understand how students in project-based and design-based classrooms engage in learning from multiple texts in the context of an inquiry classroom. This project aims to examine student's learning trajectories by taking into consideration the strategies that students use, student characteristics such as prior knowledge, metacognitive awareness, their group interactions and the relationships of these to navigation and learning. The methodology includes rigorous analytical tools systematically studying the enactment of the intervention in a classroom context starting with a focus on classroom dynamics and sequencing. The focus will then move to teacher practices subsequently zooming in on student's knowledge representations. The results will contribute to (i) the scientific knowledge base on integrating informational resources into hands-on science activities (ii) increase an understanding of how students process multiple texts thereby benefiting researchers using hypertext and hypermedia systems and digital libraries (iii) generate a set of pedagogical guidelines for integration of informational resources in scientific inquiry. These will be important contributions to scaling up projects addressing K-12 science education. The intervention will take place in four middle school settings, across different geographical, ethnic, and socioeconomic areas: (a) a rural school in Connecticut; (b) an academically and economically challenged school in Connecticut; (c) an urban school in Wisconsin; and (d) a suburban school also in Wisconsin. Each of these sites will provide natural variability in student preparation and motivation, teacher expertise in the topic, and individual classroom dynamics. During each year of the 5-year project, a study of the factors affecting learning will lead to a set of design principles that can then be applied in other contexts.