Supporting the acquisition of principle-based cognitive skills in physics: The interplay of guided discovery, interleaved study, and cooperative learning

学生要掌握复杂的科学概念，既要理解基本原理，又要深入实践。在学校背景下，这两个目标需要结合不同的学习阶段，在这些阶段中，通过适当的教学实施有效地支持良好的学习过程。为了促进对物理学中以原理为基础的概念的持久学习，本建议解决了两个可取的困难。第一个学习阶段侧重于通过引导发现产生物理定律，而随后的第二个学习阶段侧重于交错学习，目标是实践和辨别相似的概念。此外，还将调查学生合作对这两个理想困难的有效性的潜在好处。因此，合作(与个体)学习与引导性发现(vs.指导性解释；研究1)以及交错(vs.阻断学习；研究2)的交互作用将被分析。这项研究项目是基于12年级物理课堂上的重要课题，即载流子在电场和磁场中的运动。这两个学习阶段--在引导下发现磁场中的力的方向以及它与电场的区别--都是基于为该项目开发的一个严肃的游戏。前、后和后续的性能测试将允许一方面研究合作与引导发现的相互作用，另一方面研究交错学习。此外，学生的口头交流也会被记录下来，并对共建或互动式话语进行分析。拟议研究的结果将为如何支持持久获取以原则为基础的科学概念提供重要见解。

Students’ acquisition of complex scientific concepts requires the comprehension of the underlying principles as well as intensive practice. In the school context, these two goals necessitate the combination of various learning phases in which favorable learning processes are effectively supported through appropriate instructional implementation. To promote lasting learning of principle-based concepts in physics, the present proposal addresses two desirable difficulties. The first learning phase focuses on generating physical laws through guided discovery, whereas the subsequent second learning phase focuses on interleaved learning with the goal of practicing and discriminating similar concepts. In addition, the potential benefits of student cooperation on the effectiveness of both desirable difficulties will be investigated. Accordingly, the interaction of cooperative (vs. individual) learning with both guided discovery (vs. instructional explanation; study 1) as well as interleaving (vs. blocked study; study 2) will be analyzed. The research project is based on important topics for 12th grade physics classes, namely the motion of charge carriers in electric and magnetic fields. Both learning phases – the guided discovery of the direction of force in the magnetic field as well as its discrimination from the electric field – are predicated on a serious game, which was developed for the project. Pre-, post and follow up performance tests will allow the study of the interaction of cooperation with guided discovery on the one hand, and interleaved learning on the other. In addition, the student’s oral communication is recorded and analyzed regarding co-constructive or transactive utterances. The results of the proposed studies will provide important insights into how to support the lasting acquisition of principle-based scientific concepts.