Public understanding of plant biology: Voices from the bottom of the garden

Many household gardeners accumulate considerable knowledge of plant biology through a range of informal learning sources. This knowledge seldom relates to school biology and is driven by interest, keen motivation and what is termed here ‘vital relevance’. A small opportunity sample of 12 gardeners (6 M, 6 F) is interviewed in terms of their knowledge of plant biology and their motives for learning. They are largely self-educated, their knowledge is quite specific though piecemeal and their motivation has a strong affective dimension

The effect of multiple internal representations on context rich instruction

This paper presents n-coding, a theoretical model of multiple internal mental representations. The n-coding construct is developed from a review of cognitive and imaging studies suggesting the independence of information processing along different modalities: verbal, visual, kinesthetic, social, etc. A study testing the effectiveness of the n-coding construct in an algebra-based mechanics course is presented. Four sections differing in the level of n-coding opportunities were compared. Besides a traditional instruction section used as a control group, each of the remaining three treatment sections were given context rich problems following the 'cooperative group problem solving' approach which differed by the level of n-coding opportunities designed into their laboratory environment. To measure the effectiveness of the construct, problem solving skills were assessed as was conceptual learning using the Force Concept Inventory. However, a number of new measures taking into account students' confidence in concepts were developed to complete the picture of student learning. Results suggest that using the developed n-coding construct to design context rich environments can generate learning gains in problem solving, conceptual knowledge and concept-confidence.Comment: Submitted to the American Journal of Physic

Changing Students’ Approach to Learning Physics in Postsecondary Gateway Courses

This study investigated if and how a combined set of specially developed activities can help students change their approach to learning physics. These activities included (a) reflective-writing activities, (b) critique-writing activities, and (c) reflective write-pair-share activities combined with conceptual-conflict collaborative-group exercises. Each of these activities was previously successfully tested as a stand-alone activity. This investigation was conducted at two different institutions over a three-year period. At each institution the same instructor taught students in two sections. At the first, a university with a substantial graduate school, sections were relatively large (over 100 students each) covering a typical introductory calculus-based mechanics course. At the second, a community college, there were relatively small classes (32 students each) covering a typical algebra-based introductory course in mechanics, electricity, and magnetism. The courses at the two institutions used different textbooks and had different formats. Measured data included student interviews and writing products. We developed rubrics for evaluation of the impact of the writing products and interviews of students. The main results of this study were the changes in students’ approaches to learning physics, especially as revealed in the interviews. Students who experienced the full suite of activities (a) changed their understanding of physics from solving problems to creating a network of interrelated concepts, and they also (b) modified their approach to learning physics from repetitious review to consideration of the interconnections of the subject matter and (c) related their new learning to key concepts in an overall physics framework

What Makes Inquiry Stick? The Quality of Preservice Teachers’ Understanding of Inquiry

This nonexperimental, exploratory, mixed-design study used questionnaires with 167 preservice secondary teachers to identify prior educational experiences associated with student-teachers’ inquiry understanding. Understanding was determined through content analysis then open coding of definitions of inquiry and descriptions of best-experienced inquiry instruction, in terms of 23 potential learner-inquiry outcomes. Only two of seven educational-context variables related to understanding: prior experience doing a thesis or research—especially to definition quality and having taken a research-methods course—especially to description quality. How definitions and descriptions of inquiry are different and similar was analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively. Implications for methodology, theory, and practice were presented, for example, research opportunities and research-methods training during teacher education