Developing the use of visual representations to explain basic astronomy phenomena

Several decades of research have contributed to our understanding of students’ reasoning about astronomical phenomena. Some authors have pointed out the difficulty in reading and interpreting images used in school textbooks as factors that may justify the persistence of misconceptions. However, only a few studies have investigated to what extent usual textbook images influence students’ understanding of such phenomena. This study examines this issue exploring 13-14 years old students’ explanations, drawings and conceptions about three familiar phenomena: change of seasons, Moon phases and solar/lunar eclipses. The research questions that guided the study were: RQ1) How are students’ explanations and visual representations about familiar astronomical phenomena affected by different imagesupport conditions? RQ2) How are students’ conceptions about familiar astronomical phenomena affected by different image-support conditions? RQ3) Which features of the used images most affected the students’ visual representations and explanations of familiar astronomical phenomena? To answer our research questions, we designed three instructional contexts under increasing support conditions: textbook images and text; teaching booklets with specially designed images and text; only text. To analyze students’ drawings, we used exploratory factor analysis to deconstruct drawings into their most salient elements. To analyze students’ explanations, we adopted a constant comparison method identifying different levels of increasing knowledge. To investigate students’ conceptions, we used a mixed multiple choice/true false baseline questionnaire. For RQ1, results show that the specially designed images condition was effective in helping students producing informed drawings in comparison to text-only condition for all phenomena, and more effective than textbook images condition when one considers seasonal change drawings. Concerning RQ2, the specially designed images condition was the most effective for all phenomena. Concerning RQ3, prevalent elements of astronomy images that affected students’ explanations and visual representations were: elliptical Earth's orbit, position of the Sun with respect to the Moon orbit, Sun, Moon and Earth alignment. Our findings confirm concerns about textbook astronomy images, whose features may interfere with the identification of the relevant factors underlying the phenomena. Moreover, findings of this study suggest that affordances of the specially designed images may play an essential role in scaffolding meaningful understanding of the targeted phenomena. Implications for teaching through and learning from visual representations in astronomy education are briefly discussed

Systems Modeling As A Means Of Building Accuate Mental Models Of Physiology Core Concepts In Undergraduate And Graduate Health Sciences Students

Accurate medical and health sciences problem solving relies upon a solid foundation of basic sciences content knowledge, primarily physiology. Yet, due to its nature as a dynamic system of interconnected, networked, concepts, physiology is often difficult for students to master. The three studies in this dissertation explore the use of a cognitive tool, systems modeling, to facilitate the development of an accurate mental model of physiology content knowledge in undergraduate and graduate physiology students. In the first study, undergraduate physiology student participation within online asynchronous peer group systems modeling activities was associated with progressive improvement on multiple choice question answer accuracy in the modeling condition versus the written discussion post condition. In the second study, graduate physician assistant students ranked systems modeling to be the top strategy for learning physiology content in the basic sciences year of study and the second to top strategy for retaining that content into the clinical year. In the third study, graduate physician assistant students demonstrated increased use of integrated core concept terms, after systems modeling activity participation, when describing the pathophysiology threshold concept of inflammation in writing. Together, these three studies provide evidence that the systems modeling strategy is an effective cognitive tool that contributes to improved student learning and retention of physiology content through visualization and subsequent refinement of the learner’s mental model of the problem space

Using self-made drawings to support modelling in science education

The value of modelling in science education is evident, both from scientific practice and from theories of learning. However, students find modelling difficult and need support. This study investigates how self-made drawings could be used to support the modelling process. An experiment with undergraduate students (n = 37) at a predominantly technical university led to three conclusions. 1. Most learners created realistic rather than schematic drawings of real world systems. Furthermore, learners who represented situations realistically identified a greater number of important aspects of these situations than learners who represented them purely schematically. 2. Access to simulations during the construction of these drawings led to increased insight into the effects of variables that can be manipulated. However, participants with access to simulations thought of fewer important variables that were not explicitly available in the simulation than participants without this access. 3. Participants almost never drew multiple objects with a single stroke and generally drew objects sequentially. These patterns in the digital drawing process can simplify automatic sketch segmentation, which can be used to support learners in creating models from drawing

O papel do desenho na construção de explicações científicas acerca de fenómenos da química: um estudo com alunos do 8.º ano

As atuais reformas na educação em ciência têm vindo a sublinhar a importância para a prática de construir explicações científicas. Quando envolvidos na construção de explicações científicas, os alunos são levados a raciocinar de forma mecanicista, ou seja, a raciocinar de forma sistemática sobre os fatores e relações subjacentes ao fenómeno a que dão origem e que permitem explicar como e porquê este ocorre. No entanto, na construção de explicações científicas acerca de fenómenos complexos, como os da química os alunos enfrentam desafios. Explicar fenómenos da química requer considerar entidades invisíveis como átomos e moléculas, que participam em complexos processos emergentes responsáveis pelo comportamento macroscópico do fenómeno. Um raciocínio complexo como este requer substancial apoio e prática. Considerando as características inerentes aos fenómenos da química que envolvem níveis escalares impossíveis de observar diretamente, as representações visuais e, em particular, as representações visuais criadas pelos alunos, e.g., a criação de desenhos, têm sido reconhecidas pelo teu potencial para apoiar os alunos a aprender em química. Com efeito, esta tese tem como objetivo conhecer de que forma a criação e uso de desenhos pode apoiar a construção de explicações científicas relacionadas com os fenómenos da química. Com esse objetivo foram desenvolvidos três estudos. O primeiro estudo teve como objetivo desenvolver um sistema de análise para caraterizar as explicações dos alunos e conhecer a natureza das explicações que alunos do 8.º ano constroem. O segundo estudo teve como objetivo examinar o progresso dos desenhos e explicações dos alunos após a implementação de uma estratégia didática com base na criação de desenhos para apoiar a construção de explicações científicas. O terceiro estudo teve como objetivo compreender como o raciocínio mecanicista dos alunos, necessário à construção de explicações, emerge e é concretizado quando envolvidos na criação conjunta de desenhos, bem como explorar o papel do desenho para estabelecer e moldar as interações sócio-cognitivas que ocorrem em torno da criação de desenhos. Os principais resultados destes estudos mostraram que inicialmente as explicações dos alunos tendem a ser superficiais e incompletas, i.e., descrevem o que acontece, mas não relatam ou relatam de forma incompleta e fragmentada os mecanismos pelos quais acontecem. Contudo, quando envolvidos numa estratégia com base na criação e uso de desenhos para apoiar a construção de explicações científicas, as explicações incompletas dos alunos evoluem para relatos mais coerentes e mecanismos mais completos. Adicionalmente, ao explorar o papel do desenho através de uma micro-análise multimodal, mostraram-se algumas das formas únicas como o desenho pode apoiar a construção de explicações científicas. O desenho funcionou i) como "porta-de-entrada" para os alunos raciocinarem de forma mecanicista sobre um fenómeno que tentam explicar e na concretização desta forma de pensar; e ii) como facilitador de processos colaborativos, ajudando a estabelecer um verdadeiro espaço de ação compartilhado, e permitindo o raciocínio coletivo em ação, facilitando a comunicação. Conclui-se com a posição de que criar um desenho é um processo que se estende para lá do ato de criar uma ferramenta para pensar e comunicar. É, assim, o ato de pensar e comunicar em si mesmo; e deve ser estudado e usado na sala de aula como tal.Current science education reform efforts have called for the practice of constructing scientific explanations. Through this practice, students engage in mechanistic reasoning, that is, in systematic reasoning about the underlying factors and relationships that give rise to a phenomenon to explain how and why it occurs. Constructing explanations for chemical phenomena presents particular challenges for students. Explaining a chemical phenomenon requires considering invisible entities, such as atoms and molecules, participating in complex emergent processes that are responsible for the macroscopic behaviour of the phenomenon. To achieve such complex reasoning, students must be provided with rather extensive support and practice. Considering the inherent features of chemistry, dealing with scales that are impossible to see, visual representations and, in particular, student-created visual representations, e.g., drawing, have been recognised as a way to support learning in chemistry. Thus, this dissertation aimed to understand the role that drawing plays to support students’ explanations. With this aim in mind, three studies were developed. The first study aimed to develop a system of analysis to characterise students’ explanations and to know the nature of the 8th-grade students’ explanations. The second study aimed to examine the progress of student’s drawings and explanations, subsequent to being involved in an instructional strategy that explicitly uses drawing as tool to support the construction of scientific explanations. The third study aimed to understand how students' mechanistic reasoning emerges and it is enacted when students are jointly engage in drawing creation, as well as to explore the role that drawing plays in establishing and shaping the socialcognitive interaction among students. The main results revealed that students' initial explanations tend to be superficial and incomplete accounts—accounts describing what happens without providing a mechanism for how and why it happens or providing an incomplete mechanism. However, students’ incomplete explanations evolved into more coherent and complete accounts when involved in creating and using drawings to support the construction of their explanations. Additionally, by exploring the role of drawing through a multimodal microanalysis, some of the distinct ways that drawing supports students’ mechanist reasoning and explanations were shown. These ways were, i) drawing provides a doorway to mechanistic reasoning and to enact this way of reasoning about the phenomenon under explanation; ii) drawing facilitates collaborative processes, specifically helping to establish a genuine shared-action space and enabling collective reasoning-in-action and by simplifying communication.This dissertation demonstrates the importance of encouraging the practice of explanation construction and mechanistic reasoning and the role of drawing to help students succeed in this practice. To conclude, it is argued that drawing is not an act ( of creating a tool) that helps to think or communicate, it is rather an act of thinking and communication in itself, and must be studied and used as such