Thinking Outside the Box: Enhancing Science Teaching by Combining (Instead of Contrasting) Laboratory and Simulation Activities

The focus of the present work was on 10- to 12-year-old elementary school students’ conceptual learning outcomes in science in two specific inquiry-learning environments, laboratory and simulation. The main aim was to examine if it would be more beneficial to combine than contrast simulation and laboratory activities in science teaching. It was argued that the status quo where laboratories and simulations are seen as alternative or competing methods in science teaching is hardly an optimal solution to promote students’ learning and understanding in various science domains. It was hypothesized that it would make more sense and be more productive to combine laboratories and simulations. Several explanations and examples were provided to back up the hypothesis. In order to test whether learning with the combination of laboratory and simulation activities can result in better conceptual understanding in science than learning with laboratory or simulation activities alone, two experiments were conducted in the domain of electricity. In these experiments students constructed and studied electrical circuits in three different learning environments: laboratory (real circuits), simulation (virtual circuits), and simulation-laboratory combination (real and virtual circuits were used simultaneously). In order to measure and compare how these environments affected students’ conceptual understanding of circuits, a subject knowledge assessment questionnaire was administered before and after the experimentation. The results of the experiments were presented in four empirical studies. Three of the studies focused on learning outcomes between the conditions and one on learning processes. Study I analyzed learning outcomes from experiment I. The aim of the study was to investigate if it would be more beneficial to combine simulation and laboratory activities than to use them separately in teaching the concepts of simple electricity. Matched-trios were created based on the pre-test results of 66 elementary school students and divided randomly into a laboratory (real circuits), simulation (virtual circuits) and simulation-laboratory combination (real and virtual circuits simultaneously) conditions. In each condition students had 90 minutes to construct and study various circuits. The results showed that studying electrical circuits in the simulation–laboratory combination environment improved students’ conceptual understanding more than studying circuits in simulation and laboratory environments alone. Although there were no statistical differences between simulation and laboratory environments, the learning effect was more pronounced in the simulation condition where the students made clear progress during the intervention, whereas in the laboratory condition students’ conceptual understanding remained at an elementary level after the intervention. Study II analyzed learning outcomes from experiment II. The aim of the study was to investigate if and how learning outcomes in simulation and simulation-laboratory combination environments are mediated by implicit (only procedural guidance) and explicit (more structure and guidance for the discovery process) instruction in the context of simple DC circuits. Matched-quartets were created based on the pre-test results of 50 elementary school students and divided randomly into a simulation implicit (SI), simulation explicit (SE), combination implicit (CI) and combination explicit (CE) conditions. The results showed that when the students were working with the simulation alone, they were able to gain significantly greater amount of subject knowledge when they received metacognitive support (explicit instruction; SE) for the discovery process than when they received only procedural guidance (implicit instruction: SI). However, this additional scaffolding was not enough to reach the level of the students in the combination environment (CI and CE). A surprising finding in Study II was that instructional support had a different effect in the combination environment than in the simulation environment. In the combination environment explicit instruction (CE) did not seem to elicit much additional gain for students’ understanding of electric circuits compared to implicit instruction (CI). Instead, explicit instruction slowed down the inquiry process substantially in the combination environment. Study III analyzed from video data learning processes of those 50 students that participated in experiment II (cf. Study II above). The focus was on three specific learning processes: cognitive conflicts, self-explanations, and analogical encodings. The aim of the study was to find out possible explanations for the success of the combination condition in Experiments I and II. The video data provided clear evidence about the benefits of studying with the real and virtual circuits simultaneously (the combination conditions). Mostly the representations complemented each other, that is, one representation helped students to interpret and understand the outcomes they received from the other representation. However, there were also instances in which analogical encoding took place, that is, situations in which the slightly discrepant results between the representations ‘forced’ students to focus on those features that could be generalised across the two representations. No statistical differences were found in the amount of experienced cognitive conflicts and self-explanations between simulation and combination conditions, though in self-explanations there was a nascent trend in favour of the combination. There was also a clear tendency suggesting that explicit guidance increased the amount of self-explanations. Overall, the amount of cognitive conflicts and self-explanations was very low. The aim of the Study IV was twofold: the main aim was to provide an aggregated overview of the learning outcomes of experiments I and II; the secondary aim was to explore the relationship between the learning environments and students’ prior domain knowledge (low and high) in the experiments. Aggregated results of experiments I & II showed that on average, 91% of the students in the combination environment scored above the average of the laboratory environment, and 76% of them scored also above the average of the simulation environment. Seventy percent of the students in the simulation environment scored above the average of the laboratory environment. The results further showed that overall students seemed to benefit from combining simulations and laboratories regardless of their level of prior knowledge, that is, students with either low or high prior knowledge who studied circuits in the combination environment outperformed their counterparts who studied in the laboratory or simulation environment alone. The effect seemed to be slightly bigger among the students with low prior knowledge. However, more detailed inspection of the results showed that there were considerable differences between the experiments regarding how students with low and high prior knowledge benefitted from the combination: in Experiment I, especially students with low prior knowledge benefitted from the combination as compared to those students that used only the simulation, whereas in Experiment II, only students with high prior knowledge seemed to benefit from the combination relative to the simulation group. Regarding the differences between simulation and laboratory groups, the benefits of using a simulation seemed to be slightly higher among students with high prior knowledge. The results of the four empirical studies support the hypothesis concerning the benefits of using simulation along with laboratory activities to promote students’ conceptual understanding of electricity. It can be concluded that when teaching students about electricity, the students can gain better understanding when they have an opportunity to use the simulation and the real circuits in parallel than if they have only the real circuits or only a computer simulation available, even when the use of the simulation is supported with the explicit instruction. The outcomes of the empirical studies can be considered as the first unambiguous evidence on the (additional) benefits of combining laboratory and simulation activities in science education as compared to learning with laboratories and simulations alone.Siirretty Doriast

Bringing simulations to the classroom: teachers' perspectives

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Exploring the effects of concreteness fading across grades in elementary school science education

The present study investigates the effects that concreteness fading has on learning and transfer across three grade levels (4–6) in elementary school science education in comparison to learning with constantly concrete representations. 127 9- to 12-years-old elementary school students studied electric circuits in a computer-based simulation environment, where circuits remained concrete (bulbs) throughout the learning or faded from concrete to abstract (bulbs to resistors). The most important finding was that the outcomes seemed to be influenced by a developmental factor: the study found a significant interaction between condition and grade level in relation to learning outcomes, suggesting that the outcomes generally improved as a function of grade level, but that there were notable differences between the conditions regarding the improvement of outcomes across the three grades. According the results, learning with constantly concrete representations either took less time or resulted in better learning compared to concreteness fading. Because transfer is one of the central arguments for concreteness fading, a somewhat surprising finding was that the concrete condition succeeded at least as well as the fading condition on transfer tasks. The study also discusses why the results and issues related to the conceptualisation and operationalisation of central concepts in the study call for caution towards generalization and for more research with young learners across different grades.</p

Video outperforms illustrated text : Do old explanations for the modality effect apply in a learner-paced fifth-grade classroom context?

The modality effect occurs when people learn better from a combination of pictures and narration than from a combination of pictures and written text. Despite the strong empirical results in earlier studies, the modality effect has been less prominent in later studies of children in learner-paced settings. However, the generalizability of these results in practice may be limited because the studies included notable differences compared to a classroom context. The present study examined the modality effect in a learner-paced classroom context. In a within-subjects experiment, fifth graders learned from illustrated texts and videos and completed pre-, post-, and delayed tests on two science topics. The video group outperformed the illustrated text group in retention, delayed retention, cognitive load, and efficiency measures but there were no statistical differences in transfer. In both learning conditions, the cognitive load was moderate and did not correlate with any learning outcomes. The results suggest that while the modality effect can occur in a learner-paced classroom context, it may not be based on the avoidance of cognitive overload. Alternative explanations concerning the differences in settings and materials between classroom contexts and modality effect research are discussed.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

Stability condition for the drive bunch in a collinear wakefield accelerator

The beam breakup instability of the drive bunch in the structure-based collinear wakefield accel- erator is considered and a stabilizing method is proposed. The method includes using the specially designed beam focusing channel, applying the energy chirp along the electron bunch, and keeping energy chirp constant during the drive bunch deceleration. A stability condition is derived that defines the limit on the accelerating field for the witness bunch.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure

Yhteiskuntaopin opetus ja poliittinen kiinnittyminen peruskoulun yläluokilla

Artikkelissa raportoitavan tutkimuksen kohteena on peruskoulun yhteiskuntaopin opetuksen yhteys nuorten poliittiseen kiinnittymiseen, joka jaetaan tutkimuksessa neljään ulottuvuuteen: poliittiseen kiinnostukseen, poliittiseen tietämykseen ja itsearvioon tietämyksestä, poliittiseen osallistumishalukkuuteen sekä politiikkaa koskeviin käsityksiin. Tutkimusaineistona on peruskoulun yläkouluikäisten nuorten vastaukset poliittista kiinnittymistä mittaavaan kyselyyn kahtena eri ajankohtana. Osallistujat olivat ensimmäisen mittauksen aikana kahdeksannella luokalla (n = 67) ja toisen mittauksen aikana yhdeksännellä luokalla (n = 63). Nuoret opiskelivat mittausten välillä lukuvuoden ajan yhteiskuntaoppia ensimmäistä kertaa koulu-urallaan. Tulosten mukaan nuorten poliittinen kiinnostus, tietämys ja itsearvio tietämyksestä olivat 9. luokalla tilastollisesti korkeampia kuin 8. luokalla. Osallistumishalukkuudessa ei havaittu eroja ikäryhmien välillä, ja politiikkaa koskevien käsitysten osalta eroja ilmeni yhden väitteen kohdalla. 8.-luokkalaiset pitivät kotia tärkeimpänä lähteenä oppia tietoja yhteiskunnallisten asioiden ymmärtämiseksi, kun taas 9.-luokkalaisille koulu oli keskeisin tietolähde yhteiskunnallisten asioiden oppimisessa. Tulosten mukaan koulu näyttäisi onnistuvan yhteiskunnallisen kasvatuksen tavoitteissaan vain osittain. Jatkossa olisi tärkeää kiinnittää huomiota siihen, miten koulussa voitaisiin tukea tiedollisten sisältöjen oppimisen lisäksi nuorten yhteiskunnallista osallistumista edistävien valmiuksien omaksumista.</p

Teachers’ Experiences of an Inquiry Learning Training Course in Finland

This paper reports outcomes of a 2-day inquiry learning training course for in-service teachers (N=102) with a specific focus on teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs, perceptions of inquiry learning, and satisfaction with the training course. Teachers’ self-efficacy and their perceptions of inquiry learning were measured both at the beginning and at the end of the training course. Satisfaction with the training course was measured only at the end of the training. The study identified three distinct self-efficacy profiles among the participants: Low, moderate, and high. The self-efficacy of teachers belonging to the high and the moderate group remained unchanged throughout the training, while the self-efficacy for student engagement improved in the low-efficacy group. At the beginning of the training course, differences were found between the low and high self-efficacy profiles in terms of teachers’ perceptions of resources for inquiry learning and their anxiety toward inquiry learning; however, only the former difference remained based on the post-test results. Interestingly, although there were three clear self-efficacy profiles and these groups also differed in terms of prior experiences with inquiry learning, all teacher groups were both satisfied in general with the training course and with the utility value of the training.</p

Explainability via Short Formulas: the Case of Propositional Logic with Implementation

We conceptualize explainability in terms of logic and formula size, giving a number of related definitions of explainability in a very general setting. Our main interest is the so-called special explanation problem which aims to explain the truth value of an input formula in an input model. The explanation is a formula of minimal size that (1) agrees with the input formula on the input model and (2) transmits the involved truth value to the input formula globally, i.e., on every model. As an important example case, we study propositional logic in this setting and show that the special explainability problem is complete for the second level of the polynomial hierarchy. We also provide an implementation of this problem in answer set programming and investigate its capacity in relation to explaining answers to the n-queens and dominating set problems.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

Voluntary vs Compulsory Playing Contexts: Motivational, Cognitive, and Game Experience Effects

Background. Serious games are often used in formal school contexts, in which students’ lack of control over the playing situation may have repercussions on any motivational gains.Aims and Method. The first aim was to investigate to what extent n = 579 fifth grade students in Mexico who received a mathematics serious game played it voluntarily. Then, we explored how students who played voluntarily (n = 337) differed from those who did not by either gender or pre-test mathematical skills or motivation. The second aim was to find out whether two play contexts, the group of voluntary players and a second group consisting of students playing at school as a compulsory part of their regular mathematics lessons (n = 482), differed in game experience, game performance, and cognitive and motivational outcomes.Results. Students from the volunteer group who played had higher pre-test mathematical skills and math interest than those who did not play. Students in this group did not otherwise differ. Compared to students from the volunteer group who played, students in the school group played for longer, completed more tasks, and enjoyed playing the game more. However, their advanced mathematical skills did not improve as much.Conclusion. Motivation did not improve regardless of play context, suggesting serious games should be implemented for their learning content rather than because they are assumed to be motivating.</p

ROTS: An R package for reproducibility-optimized statistical testing

Differential expression analysis is one of the most common types of analyses performed on various biological data (e.g. RNA-seq or mass spectrometry proteomics). It is the process that detects features, such as genes or proteins, showing statistically significant differences between the sample groups under comparison. A major challenge in the analysis is the choice of an appropriate test statistic, as different statistics have been shown to perform well in different datasets. To this end, the reproducibility-optimized test statistic (ROTS) adjusts a modified t-statistic according to the inherent properties of the data and provides a ranking of the features based on their statistical evidence for differential expression between two groups. ROTS has already been successfully applied in a range of different studies from transcriptomics to proteomics, showing competitive performance against other state-of-the-art methods. To promote its widespread use, we introduce here a Bioconductor R package for performing ROTS analysis conveniently on different types of omics data. To illustrate the benefits of ROTS in various applications, we present three case studies, involving proteomics and RNA-seq data from public repositories, including both bulk and single cell data. The package is freely available from Bioconductor (https://www.bioconductor.org/packages/ROTS)