An app by students for students – the DPaCK-model for a digital collaborative teamwork project to identify butterflies

Acquiring digital literacy has become one of the most important tasks in school. But also acquiring species knowledge is an important task and essential to understand the value of biodiversity. In order to achieve this, a toolbox was developed to enable students to create an identification key on any group of living species. This can be either a species group of animals or plants or living creatures of the school ground. It is based on the interactive identification tool “ID-Logics” which was changed into an easy-to-use learning platform for the students. The students (n = 26, age 11–13, Gymnasium) were interviewed using the method of Retrospective Inquiry into Learning Process to capture changes in imagination. The results were analyzed and discussed using the DPaCK-Model. Based on the data, we can demonstrate the utility of the DPaCK-Model and discuss the implications for (biology) teaching. The DPaCK-Model proves to be a useful tool for analyzing this student project from the subject didactic perspective. Compared to the TPaCK-Model, digitality brings up new aspects, which we discuss in terms of the implications for (biology) teaching. In summary, the focus of the ID-Nature project is on: Collaboration, cooperation, and participation combined with publication, sharpening the eye for characteristic items for identification. And this is the new challenge of digitality. The orientation framework for the acquisition of digital competences developed for teacher education should also be seen as an enrichment for students. In accordance with these results, guidelines were set up for teaching digital literacy. The project is furthermore seen as an example for Education for sustainable Development (ESD)

Bringing Out-of-School Learning into the Classroom : Self- versus Peer-Monitoring of Learning Behaviour

Based on classroom management fostering autonomy support and intrinsic motivation, this study examines effects of reciprocal peer-monitoring of learning behaviours on cognitive and affective outcomes. Within our study, 470 German secondary school students between 13 and 16 years of age participated in a multimodal hands- and minds-on exhibition focusing on renewable resources. Three groups were separated and monitored via a pre-post-follow up questionnaire: the first conducted peer-monitoring with the performance of specific roles to manage students’ learning behaviours, the second accomplished a self-monitoring strategy, while the third group did not visit the exhibition. In contrast to the latter control group, both treatment groups produced a high increase in short- and long-term knowledge achievement. The peer-monitored group scored higher in cognitive learning outcomes than the self-monitored group did. Interestingly, the perceived level of choice did not differ between both treatment groups, whereas peer-monitoring increased students’ perceived competence and simultaneously reduced the perceived level of anxiety and boredom. Peer-monitoring realised with the performance of specific roles seems to keep students “on task” without lowering indicators for students’ intrinsic motivation. Herewith, we are amongst the first to suggest peer-monitoring as a semi-formal learning approach to balance between teacher-controlled instruction and free-choice exploration

DOES “THINKING IN SYSTEMS” FOSTER A CROSSDISCIPLINARY UNDERSTANDING OF ENERGY?

In school education the concept of energy should be a unifying element between all natural science disciplines. Still, many characteristics of living systems appear to be in contradiction to the laws of physics. Physics often refer to energy conservation in a closed system, whereas biology is often dominated by open ecological or physiological systems with a "dynamic equilibrium“. This makes the underlying, crosscutting scientific concept of energy hard to understand. Our study investigated if the idea of an open energy system (with an in- and output of energy), located within an “idealized” closed system (in which the total amount of energy is conserved), offers the potential for a cross-disciplinary understanding. We developed a learning environment and applied interviews to identify students’ ability to think in open and closed systems. Four teaching experiments with focus groups of three students each (9th grade, secondary school, males = 10) were carried out. Within the learning environment a scaled model illustrated the idea of an open system that is in direct exchange with the environment (representing an “idealized” closed system). We identified specific learning obstacles that are connected with energy conservation within the closed system, where students faced severe difficulties to detect the conversion of energy within the environment. A molecular perspective could “rebuild” the visibility and tangibility of energetic processes. We propose the particle model to bridge the apparent macroscopic – molecular gap

Die Fotosynthese verstehen : ein lernerorientierter Versuch zum Thema Pflanzenernährung im Biologieunterricht

Die Berücksichtigung von Alltagsvorstellungen hat sich als ein zentrales Element guten Biologieunterrichts erwiesen. Das grundlegende Thema Fotosynthese wird jedoch anhand klassischer Versuche vermittelt, die kaum auf Alltagsvorstellungen eingehen. Im folgenden Artikel werden die Versuche von van Helmont und Priestley zur Pflanzenernährung auf ihre Wirksamkeit diskutiert. Darüberhinaus wird ein neuer Versuch vorgestellt, der Schülervorstellungen aufgreift und dabei zum Gegenstand der Vermittlung wird

Upper secondary students’ thinking pathways in cell membrane biology–an evidence-based development and evaluation of learning activities using the Model of Educational Reconstruction

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An app by students for students – the DPaCK-model for a digital collaborative teamwork project to identify butterflies

Acquiring digital literacy has become one of the most important tasks in school. But also acquiring species knowledge is an important task and essential to understand the value of biodiversity. In order to achieve this, a toolbox was developed to enable students to create an identification key on any group of living species. This can be either a species group of animals or plants or living creatures of the school ground. It is based on the interactive identification tool “ID-Logics” which was changed into an easy-to-use learning platform for the students. The students (n = 26, age 11–13, Gymnasium) were interviewed using the method of Retrospective Inquiry into Learning Process to capture changes in imagination. The results were analyzed and discussed using the DPaCK-Model. Based on the data, we can demonstrate the utility of the DPaCK-Model and discuss the implications for (biology) teaching. The DPaCK-Model proves to be a useful tool for analyzing this student project from the subject didactic perspective. Compared to the TPaCK-Model, digitality brings up new aspects, which we discuss in terms of the implications for (biology) teaching. In summary, the focus of the ID-Nature project is on: Collaboration, cooperation, and participation combined with publication, sharpening the eye for characteristic items for identification. And this is the new challenge of digitality. The orientation framework for the acquisition of digital competences developed for teacher education should also be seen as an enrichment for students. In accordance with these results, guidelines were set up for teaching digital literacy. The project is furthermore seen as an example for Education for sustainable Development (ESD)

How a Digital Educational Game can Promote Learning about Sustainability

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has become an essential issue for schools facing major challenges such as bridging the knowledge-action-gap. Interactive simulations could help to focus on action-oriented learning. As part of a design-based research (DBR) process, we investigated the learning potential of game elements within a digital educational game for ESD we are currently developing. The final game aims to convey specific aspects of ESD ranging from sustainable land use to personal power consumption. Seven groups of 2–3 secondary school students (9th and 10th grade, n = 18) played the educational game in an early prototype phase. Following the DBR approach, students were shown screenshots of specific game situations in subsequent group interviews to reveal their conceptions and conceptual developments regarding sustainability. To analyze the causes of possible learning processes, we used the retrospective query on the learning process and qualitative content analysis. The results indicate that the observed learning processes can be primarily traced back to feedback mechanisms and the visualization of processes that would be too complex and long-termed to be experienced by students in real-life. This is how a simulation game, which makes complex interrelations tangible, can contribute to ESD. The possibility to make decisions and act (digitally) within the game allowed students to experience immediate feedback and self-efficacy. Therefore, the easily accessible visualizations and the immediate feedback are essential elements for the final game. It appears however necessary to embed the game in well-structured reflective processes. The study also contributes to adaptive game-based learning as a growing branch of research in which game elements are adopted and adapted for learning based on learner characteristics and the thematic context