1 / 16

Taking first steps towards understanding transfer of scientific abilities

Taking first steps towards understanding transfer of scientific abilities. AAPT National Meeting, Salt Lake City, August 2005 Sahana Murthy Eugenia Etkina, Maria Ruibal, Anna Karelina Rutgers University, NJ http://paer.rutgers.edu/scientificabilities.

laurence
Download Presentation

Taking first steps towards understanding transfer of scientific abilities

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript

  1. Taking first steps towards understanding transfer of scientific abilities AAPT National Meeting, Salt Lake City, August 2005 Sahana Murthy Eugenia Etkina, Maria Ruibal, Anna Karelina Rutgers University, NJ http://paer.rutgers.edu/scientificabilities Supported in part by NSF Grant DUE #0241078

  2. Overview Can students transfer abilities they learn in labs? What do we want our students to learn? How do we help them learn it? Description of study Do they learn it? Are they able to transfer what they learned?

  3. What do we want students to learn? In addition to physics content, scientific abilities: • Represent information in multiple ways: diagrams, graphs, tables, verbal, mathematical • Design and perform experimental investigations • Design experiment to test a hypothesis • Make a prediction about the outcome based on the hypothesis • Make a judgment about the hypothesis based on the outcome • Suggest multiple experiments to accomplish goals • Communicate the details of an experimental procedure clearly

  4. Rubrics: guidelines and assessment SCORE ABILITY 0: Missing 1: Not adequate 2: Needs some improvement 3: Adequate To make a reasonable prediction based on a relationship, rule or explanation No attempt to make a prediction is made. The experiment is not treated as at testing experiment. A prediction is made but it doesn’t follow from the relationship being tested, or it ignores some assumptions inherent in the relationship. A prediction is made that follows from the relationship and incorporates the assumptions, but it contains minor errors, inconsistencies, or omissions. A correct prediction is made that follows from the relation-ship, and incorporates assumptions. Communication

  5. Transfer • Models of transfer: (Bransford & Schwartz,1999) • Direct Application • Preparation for Future Learning • Classification: near or far (Barnett & Ceci,2002) • Knowledge domain Near • Physical, social and temporal contexts Far • What promotes transfer • Student-centered learning • Acquisition of deep and meaningful knowledge • Pattern recognition among cases • Induction of general schema (Catrambone & Holyoak, 1989) • Meta-cognitive reflection (Saloman & Perkins,1989)

  6. Implementation Course: • Large enrollment -- 190 students • Science majors: biology, pre-med, exercise science • Integrated lecture-lab-recitation • Open-ended labs, taught via ISLE approach • Students develop scientific abilities

  7. Description of study Study: • Same experimental task in lab and exam • Lab experiment in week 2 in lab (total 11 labs) • Exam question during week 14 • Task: Testing a proposed rule experimentally Design an experiment to test the proposed rule: An object always moves in the direction of the net force exerted on it by other objects. Equipment: Dynamics cart and track, spring scale, bowling ball, tennis ball, mallet, masking tape, cushion.

  8. Guidelines in lab task Design an experiment to test the following rule: An object always moves in the direction of the net force exerted on it by other objects. Brainstorm the task. Make a list of possible experiments whose outcome you can predict. Decide what experiments are best. Draw a labeledsketch your chosen experiment. Write a brief description of your procedure. Construct a free body diagram of the object. List assumptions you make. How could they affect the prediction? Make a predictionabout the outcome of the experiment based on the rule you are testing. Perform the experiment. Record the outcome. Based on your prediction and the outcome of your experiment, what is your judgmentabout the rule? NO guidelines or instructions in exam!

  9. Student-centered learning Acquisition of meaningful knowledge Pattern recognition General schema Reflection What do we do to achieve transfer? • Students design their own experiments. • Students (not TA) solve problems in recitation. • Course follows ISLE approach: • Find trends in data, construct relationships • Test relationships using hypothetico-deductive reasoning, • Apply relationships to practical situations • Multiple representations • Rubrics for all labs • Strategies: Evaluation, problem-solving • Why did we do it? How do you know? What do we do next? • Self-assess their work in labs.

  10. Findings: Example of student’s exam Designing an experiment to test a hypothesis. Verbal description of design Diagram of experiment Physics representations: Free-body diagram, motion diagram Additional assumptions made Prediction based on hypothesis How assumptions may affect prediction

  11. PHYSICAL REPRESENTATIONS PICTURES Constructed representation: Free-body diagram, motion diagram Drew clear pictures 45% 94% No pictures 6% 55% No representation Findings: Exam question N students =181

  12. Findings: Exam question EXPERIMENT PREDICTION Based on rule and effects of assumptions Designed to reject rule No prediction 16% 4% 58% 2% 32% 48% Wrote nothing 41% Not based on rule but on knowledge of Newton’s laws Based on rule (but did not discuss effects of assumptions) Designed to support rule N students =181

  13. Summary What do we want our students to learn? Scientific abilities -- designing experiments, testing hypotheses, multiple representations, communication. How do we help them learn it? Rubrics, construct own knowledge, group work Do they learn it? Mostly, yes. (Murthy & Etkina, 2004) Are they able to transfer what they learned? Very well: communications, representations Somewhat well: designing reliable experiments to test a rule Not too well: considering effect of assumptions

  14. References Bransford & Schwartz (1999) Barnett & Ceci (2002) Catrambone & Holyoak (1989) Saloman & Perkins (1989)

  15. My observations (data) more Patterns Multiple explanations or relationships between physical quantities Check, different different Revise explanation, or collect more data or check assumptions + Assumptions Testing experiments:Does outcome match prediction based on explanation/relationship? Predictions no yes Applications Investigative Science Learning Environment

  16. Our study, in terms of transfer • Direct Application • Same task in lab and exam • Near transfer in terms of : • Knowledge domain (same experiment) • Far transfer in terms of • Physical context (Laboratory versus exam hall) • Functional context (Performing a lab versus answering exam question) • Social context (Group versus individual) • Temporal (3 months difference)

More Related