Empirical Research, Emerging Research Strand: A Unified, Cross-domain Approach to Studying Learner Understanding of Emergence

Brem和团队建议调查学生在学习特定的跨学科现象——紧急系统（相对于复杂的自适应系统）时必须理解的一般属性。提倡者认为，这些共同的属性是可以学习的，主要是通过解决误解和学习困难的领域，然后这些知识可以应用于研究具有这些特征的特定系统。其中一些属性是违反直觉的，因为紧急系统在层次上是复杂的，作为系统是不可简化的，并且是新颖的和不可预测的。具体而言，研究者将使用可视化和面对面访谈来迭代开发、完善和验证概念清单（评估工具）的某些内容，这些内容将定义和衡量学生在该领域的学习情况。重点将主要放在本科学习上。该团队从地质学（侵蚀）、化学（气体中温度和压力的关系）、自然选择（模仿能力的进化）和心理学（探测和避免外人）中选择了例子作为开展研究的背景。这项工作的更广泛的影响在于它能够最终帮助学生克服他们在学科和跨学科科学研究中的一些常见和持续的学习障碍。

Brem and team propose to investigate general properties that students must understand in learning about a specific cross-disciplinary phenomenon --- emergent systems (vis a vis complex adaptive systems). The proposers argue that these common properties can be learned, primarily through addressing misconceptions and areas of learning difficulty, and such knowledge can then be applied to investigating specific systems that bear these characteristics. Several of these properties are counterintuitive given that emergent systems are complex in hierarchy, are irreducible as systems, and novel and unpredictable (among other things). Specifically, the investigator will use visualizations and face-to-face interviews in iteratively developing, refining, and validating something of a concept inventory (assessment instrument) that will define and measure student learning in this area. The focus will primarily be on undergraduate learning. The team has chosen examples from geology (erosion), chemistry (the relationship of temperature and pressure in gases), natural selection (the evolution of mimetic abilities), and psychology (detecting and avoiding outsiders) as contexts to conduct their research.The broader impacts of this work lie in its ability to ultimately assist students in overcoming some common and consistent learning obstacles in their study of disciplinary and interdisciplinary science.