The Case for Dynamic Models of Learners' Ontologies in Physics

In a series of well-known papers, Chi and Slotta (Chi, 1992; Chi & Slotta, 1993; Chi, Slotta & de Leeuw, 1994; Slotta, Chi & Joram, 1995; Chi, 2005; Slotta & Chi, 2006) have contended that a reason for students' difficulties in learning physics is that they think about concepts as things rather than as processes, and that there is a significant barrier between these two ontological categories. We contest this view, arguing that expert and novice reasoning often and productively traverses ontological categories. We cite examples from everyday, classroom, and professional contexts to illustrate this. We agree with Chi and Slotta that instruction should attend to learners' ontologies; but we find these ontologies are better understood as dynamic and context-dependent, rather than as static constraints. To promote one ontological description in physics instruction, as suggested by Slotta and Chi, could undermine novices' access to productive cognitive resources they bring to their studies and inhibit their transition to the dynamic ontological flexibility required of experts.Comment: The Journal of the Learning Sciences (In Press

Using Schema Training to Facilitate Students\u27 Understanding of Challenging Engineering Concepts in Heat Transfer and Thermodynamics

Background: Chi and colleagues have argued that some of the most challenging engineering concepts exhibit properties of emergent systems. However, students often lack a mental framework, or schema, for understanding emergence. Slotta and Chi posited that helping students develop a schema for emergent systems, referred to as schema training, would increase the understanding of challenging concepts exhibiting emergent properties. Purpose: We tested the effectiveness of schema training and explored the nature of challenging concepts from thermodynamics and heat transfer. We investigated if schema training could (a) repair misconceptions in advanced engineering students and (b) prevent them in beginning engineering students. Method: We adapted Slotta and Chi\u27s schema training modules and tested their impact in two studies that employed an experimental design. Items from the Thermal and Transport Concept Inventory and expert-developed multiple-choice questions were used to evaluate conceptual understanding of the participants. The language used by students in their open-ended explanations of multiple-choice questions was also coded. Results: In both studies, students in the experimental groups showed larger gains in their understanding of some concepts—specifically in dye diffusion and microfluidics in Study One, and in the final test for thermodynamics in Study Two. But in neither study did students exhibit any gain in conceptual questions about heat transfer. Conclusion: Our studies suggest the importance of examining the nature of the phenomena underlying the concepts being taught because the language used in instruction has implications for how students understand them. Therefore, we suggest that instructors reflect on their own understanding of the concepts

From graduate students to faculty: Portraits of balance in the professional development plans of engineering graduate students

The job of a college engineering faculty member is multifaceted. Faculty are not only expected to teach and conduct research but also to write proposals, consult, network, engage in administrative duties, and the list continues. The relative importance and time allocated to these different functions vary according to the nature and focus of the institution and the interests of the faculty. However, engineering graduate students aspiring to careers in academe are not usually trained in the multiple facets of the profession. As a result, when they become faculty members they often struggle to find ways to balance the parallel and many times competing demands of these functions. This paper examines the professional development plans of six engineering graduate students with a marked interest in an academic career. These plans are one of the major deliverables of a three-credit graduate course at a large, research-intensive unive rsity. The overarc hing goal of this course, as stated on its syllabus, is to provide students with an opportunity to learn and practice the skills that complement and enhance classroom teaching and learning in a tenure-track faculty position, either at a research-inte nsive university or at an institution that focuses on undergraduate engineering education. The research questions that orientate the study are: What do the professional development plans of engineering graduate students portray about their striving for balance in their future faculty careers? How does writing a professional development plan with expert guidance in a formal class help these students prepare for a faculty position? The analysis of students' professional development plans as qualitative artifacts, under the lens of expectations and values, reveals a wide variety of approaches to the role of faculty. Subsequent individual reflection on these plans allowed researchers to gather insights into why students chose to focus on different perspectives of the faculty job. Finally, a follow-up group conversation with the students shows that beneath these different perceptions and expectations lies the idea of balance, evolved and transformed by the discussions and activities of the course. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2017