ThinkerTools: Causal Models, Conceptual Change, and Science Education

White, Barbara Y.

doi:10.1207/s1532690xci1001_1

Cited by 372 publications

(204 citation statements)

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“…Hestenes, 1992); (ii) it fosters students' conceptual development (e.g. White, 1993), (iii) it enhances the understanding of abstract concepts through the exploration of concrete, visual structures (Barab, Hay, Barnett, & Keating, 2000) and (iv) it fosters the meta-cognitive abilities necessary to improve learning, such as the ability to express and externalize thinking (Gilbert J.K., 1995;White, 1993). Other research studies stress the potential of modelling in developing epistemic skills (e.g.…”

Section: Theoretical Framework and Research Questionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring students’ epistemological knowledge of models and modelling in science: results from a teaching/learning experience on climate change

Tasquier

Levrini

Dillon

2016

International Journal of Science Education

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The scientific community has been debating climate change for over two decades. In the light of certain arguments put forward by the aforesaid community, the EU has recommended a set of innovative reforms to science teaching such as incorporating environmental issues into the scientific curriculum, thereby helping to make schools a place of civic education. However, despite these European recommendations, relatively little emphasis is still given to climate change within science curricula.Climate change, although potentially engaging for students, is a complex topic that poses conceptual difficulties and emotional barriers, as well as epistemological challenges. Whilst the conceptual and emotional barriers have already been the object of several studies, students' reactions to the epistemological issues raised by climate changes have so far been rarely explored in science education research and thus are the main focus of this paper. This paper describes a study concerning the implementation of teaching materials designed to focus on the epistemological role of "models and the game of modelling" in science and particularly when dealing with climate change. The materials were implemented in a course of 15 hours (five 3-hour lessons) for a class of Italian secondary school students (grade 11; 16-17 years old). The purpose of the study is to investigate students' reactions to the epistemological dimension of the materials, and to explore if and how the material enabled them to develop their epistemological knowledge on models.

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Section: Theoretical Framework and Research Questionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring students’ epistemological knowledge of models and modelling in science: results from a teaching/learning experience on climate change

Tasquier

Levrini

Dillon

2016

International Journal of Science Education

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“…Thus, research in this line relies heavily on technologically advanced multimedia and/or hypermedia materials. A number of landmark systems have been devel-oped that provide learners with information sources as well as with other tools and cognitive scaffolds, such as WISE (Web-based Inquiry Science Environment; Slotta, 2004), ThinkerTools (White, 1993), SimQuest de Jong, 2003), andCo-Lab (van Joolingen, de Jong, Lazonder, Savelsbergh, &Manlove, 2005). For example, a WISE application on thermodynamics would be a collection of simulations, texts, images that runs within the WISE environment, which turns out to be a multimedia learning environment which is used for the specific instructional approach of inquiry learning.…”

Section: Technological Trends: Interactivity and Personalizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Learning from Multimedia and Hypermedia

Gerjets

Kirschner

2009

Technology-Enhanced Learning

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Computer-based multimedia and hypermedia resources (e.g., the world wide web) have become one of the primary sources of academic information for a majority of pupils and students. In line with this expansion in the field of education, the scientific study of learning from multimedia and hypermedia has become a very active field of research. In this chapter we provide a short overview with regard to research on learning with multimedia and hypermedia. In two review sections, we describe the educational benefits of multiple representations and of learner control, as these are the two defining characteristics of hypermedia. In a third review section we describe recent scientific trends in the field of multimedia/hypermedia learning. In all three review sections we will point to relevant European work on multimedia/hypermedia carried out within the last 5 years, and often carried out within the Kaleidoscope Network of Excellence. According to the interdisciplinary nature of the field this work might come not only from psychology, but also from technology or pedagogy. Comparing the different research activities on multimedia and hypermedia that have dominated the international scientific discourse in the last decade reveals some important differences. Most important, a gap seems to exist between researchers mainly interested in a "serious" educational use of multimedia/hypermedia and researchers mainly interested in "serious" experimental research on learning with multimedia/hypermedia. Recent discussions about the pros and cons of "design-based research" or "use-inspired basic research" can be seen as a direct consequence of an increasing awareness of the tensions within these two different cultures of research on education.

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“…Micro worlds are elaborate simulated environments in which students explore to learn about specific domains. The use of ThinkerTools, a micro world designed to teach Newtonian physics, resulted in sixth-grade students who outperformed high school students in a traditional physics class (White, 1993). Other examples include a simulated cardiovascular system that reduced misconceptions in biology students (Windschitl & Andre, 1998) and an interactive simulation of projectile motion, which resulted in significant improvement in physics knowledge (Rieber & Parmley, 1995).…”

Section: Which Teaching Methods Are Most Effective?mentioning

confidence: 99%