Making the Invisible Visible: Children and Teachers Learning about Physical States and State Changes

这个项目将研究孩子和他们的老师如何理解水循环中隐形的过程和机制，以及水循环中的状态和状态变化。这些研究旨在测试以概念形成和解释为基础的学习和教学方法的有效性。他们还测试了视觉图形和纠正性反馈在学习具有多个同时发生的多个过程的困难物理概念方面的有效性。我们知道，以解释为基础的教学提高了对信息的理解、学习和记忆。以清晰、明确、因果和解释的方式组织文本材料在实现理解和长期理解和保持方面是非常有效的。然而，在关于看不见的物理过程的教学中使用视觉图形可能是确保准确理解的关键变量，而不仅仅是文本的连贯性。接收将正确答案与不正确或不完整答案进行比较的纠正反馈也可能是至关重要的。对小学科学课上使用的关于这一主题的课程材料的审查指出，显然没有明确的概念定义以及解释许多核心概念之间关系的明确的因果联系。此外，从未提及明确承认正在进行的并行进程。相比之下，我们当前研究的课程明确定义了所有概念，解释了所有过程，并将重点放在展开并行过程上。课程设计采用了理想的最终状态模型，即学生对水循环有正确和完整的理解意味着什么。这一模式既是评估的基础，也是教学的基础。该模型还被用来建议何时以及如何将图形最有效地结合到教学中，作为对重要的但看不见的过程的可视解释。这项研究将包括芝加哥公立学校的学生和教师。在头两年的学习中，将抽出三、四年级的教师、三、四年级的学生和七、十二年级的学生对这些理科单位进行专项指导。为了解决学生的误解，教学将根据给予学生的反馈的数量和种类而有所不同，无论学生是否大声地自我解释材料，以及是否存在静态或动态的视觉图形。在第三年，首先在我们的学习中担任学习者的三年级和四年级教师将在自己的课堂上实施和教授单元。新课程的有效性将通过两种方式进行检验。在所有三年中，学习将通过对收到不同版本单元的学生和教师的事后访谈和测试进行评估。我们还会将我们的学生的表现与没有接受我们课程的学生的表现进行比较，但他们使用了其他课程材料，如自由/开源软件系统。学生将根据他们对水循环的知识和对一般科学概念的知识进行比较

This project will study how children and their teachers come to understand the invisible processes and mechanisms that underlie states and state changes in the water cycle. These studies are designed to test the effectiveness of a concept formation and explanation-based approach to learning and instruction. They also test the effectiveness of visual graphics and corrective feedback in learning difficult physical concepts that have multiple processes occurring simultaneously. We know that explanation-based instruction increases understanding, learning, and retention of information. The structuring of text material in clear, explicit, causal, and explanatory ways is highly effective in achieving understanding and retention immediately and over the long term. The use of visual graphics in teaching about invisible physical processes, however, may be a critical variable for ensuring accurate understanding, above and beyond the coherence of a text. Receiving corrective feedback that compares the correct answer to an incorrect or incomplete answer may also be critical. The review of curricular materials used in elementary school science classes on this topic noted the clear absence of explicit concept definitions as well as explicit causal links that explained the relationships among many core concepts. Further, the explicit acknowledgement of ongoing parallel processes was never mentioned. In contrast, our curriculum for the current studies provides explicit definitions of all the concepts, explanations of all the processes, and a focus on the unfolding of parallel processes. The curriculum was designed using an ideal end-state model of what it would mean for a student to have a correct and complete understanding of the water cycle. This model is used as a basis for assessments as well as instruction. The model is also used to suggest when and how graphics may be incorporated most effectively into instruction, as visual explanations of important, but invisible processes. The study will include students and teachers in Chicago public schools. In the first two years of studies, 3rd and 4th grade teachers, 3rd and 4th grade students, and students from 7th and 12th grades will be pulled out for special instruction on these science units. Instruction will vary in terms of the amount and kind of feedback given to students to address misconceptions, whether students self-explain the materials out loud or not, and the presence or absence of static or animated visual graphics. In the third year, 3rd and 4th grade teachers who have first served as learners in our studies will then implement and teach the units in their own classrooms. The effectiveness of the new curriculum will be tested in two ways. In all three years, learning will be assessed via pre-post interviews and tests with students and teachers who receive different versions of the unit. We will also compare our students' performance to the performance of students who have not received our curriculum, but who have used other curricular materials like the FOSS system. Students will be compared on their knowledge of the water cycle and on their knowledge of general science concepts