Cognition and Instruction

Herrenkohl, Leslie Rupert; Tasker, Tammy; White, Barbara

doi: 10.1080/07370008.2011.534309pmid: N/A

This article examines the pedagogical practices of two science inquiry teachers and their students using a Web-based system called Web of Inquiry (WOI). There is a need to build a collective repertoire of pedagogical practices that can assist elementary and middle school teachers as they support students to develop a complex model of inquiry based on testing alternative hypotheses. A repertoire of effective instructional practices may help students learn the language of science, develop an understanding of scientific tools and representations, and take up a scientific worldview that emphasizes the generative, social nature of science (National Research Council [NRC], 2007). The Web of Inquiry (WOI) (http://www.webofinquiry.org) is a dynamic website where students carry out scientific inquiry projects to develop and test their theories; learn scientific language, tools, and practices of investigation; engage in self assessment; and provide feedback to peers. Two teachers and their classes participated in this study using a variety of science content. We examine and discuss the teachers’ use of instructional strategies to support students to develop a coherent and theoretically driven model of scientific inquiry using the WOI. Implications of this work are addressed with respect to student and teacher learning and preservice teacher education.

Liben, Lynn S.; Kastens, Kim A.; Christensen, Adam E.

doi: 10.1080/07370008.2010.533596pmid: N/A

To study the role of spatial concepts in science learning, 125 college students with high, medium, or low scores on a horizontality (water-level) spatial task were given information about geological strike and dip using existing educational materials. Participants mapped an outcrop's strike and dip, a rod's orientation, pointed to a distant building and north, and completed 3-dimensional horizontality and verticality tasks. Many students, particularly those with low water-level scores, experienced difficulty on both field and laboratory tasks and failed to use good field-observation strategies. Error patterns implicated roles of cognitive regularization of the environment, embodied spatial cognition, and map experience. Data relating performance to participants’ spatial skills, gender, self-reported confidence in responses, spatial awareness, and strategy use suggest a range of instructional approaches.

Nolen, Susan Bobbitt; Horn, Ilana S.; Ward, Christopher J.; Childers, Sarah A.

doi: 10.1080/07370008.2010.533221pmid: N/A

We present a longitudinal study of novice teachers’ appropriation, negotiation, and recontextualization of assessment tools and practices. During the four years of the study, we observed and interviewed beginning mathematics and social studies teachers, along with their colleagues, mentors, and supervisors, from their time in a graduate secondary teacher education program through their second year of professional teaching. Analysis of fieldnotes, interview transcripts, and artifacts suggests that assessment tools function as boundary objects in negotiations within and between the social worlds in which novices learn to teach. Boundary objects serve as reifications or representations of values, goals, and meanings (Bowker & Star, 1999; Star & Griesemer, 1989; Wenger, 1998). Assessment tools and artifacts, as boundary objects, facilitate engagement of teachers, administrators, students, and their families in coordinating activity across social boundaries and are central to the function of educational organizations. Novice teachers’ motivation to learn promoted assessment tools and their affiliated practices changed as they crossed boundaries between university and school and changed positions from student teacher to newcomer to experienced novice. Implications of this analysis for understanding novice teacher learning and motivation, and for assessment policy more broadly, are discussed.

Stieff, Mike; Hegarty, Mary; Deslongchamps, Ghislain

doi: 10.1080/07370008.2010.507318pmid: N/A

Increasingly, multi-representational educational technologies are being deployed in science classrooms to support science learning and the development of representational competence. Several studies have indicated that students experience significant challenges working with these multi-representational displays and prefer to use only one representation while problem solving. Here, we examine the use of one such display, a multi-representational molecular mechanics animation, by organic chemistry undergraduates in a problem-solving interview. Using both protocol analysis and eye fixation data, our analysis indicates that students rely mainly on two visual–spatial representations in the display and do not make use of two accompanying mathematical representations. Moreover, we explore how eye fixation data complement verbal protocols by providing information about how students allocate their attention to different locations of a multi-representational display with and without concurrent verbal utterances. Our analysis indicates that verbal protocols and eye movement data are highly correlated, suggesting that eye fixations and verbalizations reflect similar cognitive processes in such studies.