From Familiar Analogs to Higher Order Thinking: Effects of Training Scientists in the Use of Teaching Analogies

The pedagogical training of science graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) could be a key element of change in the teaching practices of university STEM courses over time. Our course, Teaching Science at University (TSAU), focuses on university science pedagogies and centers assignment work around consideration of student prior knowledge and interests. Here we use qualitative content analysis to evaluate 75 course participants’ assignments on analogy design, specifically their choice of science concept and analog and their reflections on the analogy’s learning impact. We found the majority constructed analogies mapping suitably abstract, complex science concepts to familiar, every day, experience-based analogs. Some analogs, though familiar, were nevertheless problematic as they required a technical understanding (e.g. how a copy machine works) before mapping to the science concept (e.g. polymerase chain reaction) could be fruitful. Mapping of the mismatches, where the analogy no longer works, was a new teaching concept for participants and one they saw as valuable. To assess their students’ learning with analogies, two thirds of participants focused on lower-level cognitive tasks like recalling or summarizing scientific content and the rest focused on higher-level thinking such as using the analogy in a new setting or creating an improved version of the analogy. Analogies’ facilitation of greater student critical thinking by the latter group is interesting in the light of research showing most assessment in university science courses focuses on lower cognitive levels such as recall of information. Overall, we found that specific instruction in planned and thorough use of analogies is fruitful, and a structured guide to analogy construction works well for a university audience

Perspectives on education for sustainability in chemistry teaching

The media landscape and the public debate are full of reports about the threats caused by unsustainable lifestyles by large parts of the global society today. Climate is changing, water is polluted more and more, natural resources are progressively exploited, inequalities are increasing. It is under constant debate whether and how far humans can continue affecting our planet until these developments lead to irreversible changes in the environment and human life. Regardless of exactly how these changes come to place and what they cause in the end, the political answer is the demand for more sustainability. Sustainable development asks for a way of life that does not permanently damage our planet, so that future generations can still live on earth and meet their needs without being too restricted by both today’s contamination of the environment and consumption of resources. It is clearly suggested that this task applies to all school subjects, including chemistry. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of selected concepts in the context of sustainability and refers them to education in general, and chemistry teaching in particular

Analysis of the serotonergic system in a mouse model of Rett syndrome reveals unusual upregulation of serotonin receptor 5b

Mutations in the transcription factor methyl-CpG-binding-protein 2 (MeCP2) cause a delayed-onset neurodevelopmental disorder known as Rett syndrome (RTT). Although alteration in serotonin levels have been reported in RTT patients, the molecular mechanisms underlying these defects are not well understood. Therefore, we chose to investigate the serotonergic system in hippocampus and brainstem of male Mecp2(-/y) knock-out mice in the B6.129P2(C)-Mecp2(tm1.1Bird) mouse model of RTT. The serotonergic system in mouse is comprised of 16 genes, whose mRNA expression profile was analyzed by quantitative RT-PCR. Mecp2(-/y) mice are an established animal model for RTT displaying most of the cognitive and physical impairments of human patients and the selected areas receive significant modulation through serotonin. Using anatomically and functional characterized areas, we found region-specific differential expression between wild type and Mecp2(-/y) mice at post-natal day 40. In brainstem, we found five genes to be dysregulated, while in hippocampus, two genes were dysregulated. The one gene dysregulated in both brain regions was dopamine decarboxylase, but of special interest is the serotonin receptor 5b (5-ht(5b)), which showed 75-fold dysregulation in brainstem of Mecp2(-/y) mice. This dysregulation was not due to upregulation, but due to failure of down-regulation in Mecp2(-/y) mice during development. Detailed analysis of 5-ht(5b) revealed a receptor that localizes to endosomes and interacts with G(αi) proteins

A partial order semantics approach to the clock explosion problem of timed automata

AbstractWe present a new approach to the symbolic model checking of timed automata based on a partial order semantics. It relies on event zones that use vectors of event occurrences instead of clock zones that use vectors of clock values grouped in polyhedral clock constraints. We provide a description of the different congruences that arise when we consider an independence relation in a timed framework. We introduce a new abstraction, called catchup equivalence which is defined on event zones and which can be seen as an implementation of one of the (more abstract) previous congruences. This formal language approach helps clarifying what the issues are and which properties abstractions should have. The catchup equivalence yields an algorithm to check emptiness which has the same complexity bound in the worst case as the algorithm to test emptiness in the classical semantics of timed automata. Our approach works for the class of timed automata proposed by Alur–Dill, except for state invariants (an extension including state invariants is discussed informally). First experiments show that the approach is promising and may yield very significant improvements

Understanding Needs Embodiment: A Theory-Guided Reanalysis of the Role of Metaphors and Analogies in Understanding Science

Many authors stress the importance of basing teaching on students' prior knowledge. To build a bridge between students' everyday knowledge and scientific concepts, the role of metaphors and analogies came into the focus of the science education community during the past two decades. Approaches using metaphor-based teaching strategies often regard metaphors and analogies as teaching tools that can be adopted by a teacher. On the basis of the theoretical framework of experientialism, we argue that not only teaching but also thinking about and understanding science without metaphors and analogies is not possible. An analysis of studies dealing with metaphors and analogies in science education shows that instructional analogies and metaphors are often not understood as intended or not used by students in their own explanations. By reanalyzing 199 instructional metaphors and analogies on the basis of a metaphor analysis, we show that it takes more than making a connection to everyday life to communicate science fruitfully. We show that good instructional metaphors and analogies need embodied sources. These embodied sources are everyday experiences conceptualized in, for example, schemata such as containers, paths, balances, and up and down. For the analysis, we introduce the concept of conceptual metaphors for analyzing metaphors as well as analogies

Den Klimawandel verstehen : eine didaktische Rekonstruktion der globalen Erwärmung

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Instructional guidelines based on conceptions of students and scientists about economic and population growth within planetary boundaries

The burden placed by human activities on Earth is ever-increasing. Global environmental changes have profoundly affected the Earth’s core systems and processes, thus, risking their stability. These core systems and processes are described in the planetary boundary framework. The drastic rate of environmental change over the last 200 years, which is also known as the Great Acceleration, has been depicted graphically by the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program. This study is aimed to (1) examine the conceptions of students and scientists regarding socioeconomic growth within planetary boundaries, and (2) develop instructional guidelines based on the comparison of their conceptions. Accordingly, relevant conceptions of 22 junior and 20 senior secondary school students were analyzed. Scientists’ conceptions were extracted by thoroughly analyzing nine publications, which were selected by systematic literature search. Student statements and scientific inferences were coded following established protocols. Our results indicated that junior and senior secondary school students considered global population growth to be the primary cause of global environmental changes. On the contrary, the scientists considered the quantity of natural resources consumed by rich countries in their economic pursuits as the most critical factor in environmental degradation. Based on our findings, we proposed instructional guidelines for planning lessons on changing current socioeconomic systems to enable humans to live within planetary boundaries

Improving university life science instruction with analogies: insights from a course for graduate teaching assistants

Abstract concepts dominate university science teaching, and much of this content is taught without sufficient connection to students’ prior knowledge or everyday experienc- es. As this can be problematic for students, the aim of this research was to determine the utility and effectiveness of a professional development module on using analogies to make these important connections for learning. We conducted qualitative content analysis of analogies in teaching plans designed by 75 graduate teaching assistants who participated in the module between 2018 and 2021. The module is part of a course on Teaching Science at University (TSU) and pairs cognitive science with a structured analogy design tool, orig- inally developed for K–12 education. Most course participants used the tool systematically and developed analogies linking abstract science target concepts with students’ everyday experiences; however, some analogies contained a high cognitive load or unaddressed anthropomorphic logic that might negatively impact learning. Participants’ reflections on their learning in the module suggested a new awareness of the need for planning and for active student discussion of analogies, particularly where they break down. This research has shown that TSU’s stepwise guidance using a structured pedagogical tool for planning and teaching with analogies is highly suitable for higher education

Nachhaltigkeitsdilemmata – eine Einführung: Ausreden, alte Fehler und neue Aufbrüche

Wenn es um nachhaltige Entwicklung geht, wird es schnell verzwickt. Denn die Entscheidung für eine Problemlösung wirkt sich häufig nachteilig auf andere Bereiche aus. Viele der beklagten Dilemmata sind aber eigentlich Ausreden fürs Nichtstun, Ablenkungen, Verkürzungen, Folgen falscher politischer Steuerungen oder eines veralteten Nachhaltigkeitsverständnisses