Conceptual Boundaries and Distances: Students' and Experts' Concepts of the Scale of Scientific Phenomena

Autor/inn/en	Tretter, Thomas R.; Jones, M. Gail; Andre, Thomas; Negishi, Atsuko; Minogue, James
Titel	Conceptual Boundaries and Distances: Students' and Experts' Concepts of the Scale of Scientific Phenomena
Quelle	In: Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 43 (2006) 3, S.282-319 (38 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0022-4308
DOI	10.1002/tea.20123
Schlagwörter	Measures (Individuals); Educational Change; Science Education; Science Curriculum; Interviews; Concept Formation; Scientific Concepts; Elementary Education; Secondary Education; Higher Education; Thematic Approach; Curriculum Development; Graduate Students; Spatial Ability; Experiential Learning; Prior Learning; Thinking Skills; Research Methodology + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Messdaten; Bildungsreform; Naturwissenschaftliche Bildung; Interviewing; Interviewtechnik; Concept learning; Begriffsbildung; Elementarunterricht; Sekundarbereich; Hochschulbildung; Hochschulsystem; Hochschulwesen; Themenzentrierter Unterricht; Curriculum; Development; Curriculumentwicklung; Lehrplan; Entwicklung; Graduate Study; Student; Students; Aufbaustudium; Graduiertenstudium; Hauptstudium; Studentin; Räumliches Vorstellungsvermögen; Experiental learning; Erfahrungsorientiertes Lernen; Vorkenntnisse; Denkfähigkeit; Research method; Forschungsmethode
Abstract	To reduce curricular fragmentation in science education, reform recommendations include using common, unifying themes such as scaling to enhance curricular coherence. This study involved 215 participants from five groups (grades 5, 7, 9, and 12, and doctoral students), who completed written assessments and card sort tasks related to their conceptions of size and scale, and then completed individual interviews. Results triangulated from the data sources revealed the boundaries between and characteristics of scale size ranges that are well distinguished from each other for each group. Results indicate that relative size information was more readily understood than exact size, and significant size landmarks were used to anchor this relational web of scales. The nature of past experiences situated along two dimensions--from visual to kinesthetic in one dimension, and wholistic to sequential in the other--were shown to be key to scale cognition development. Commonalities and differences between the groups are highlighted and discussed. (Author).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10