Effects of Terminological Concreteness on Middle-School Students' Learning of Experimental Design

Autor/inn/en	Siler, Stephanie Ann; Klahr, David
Titel	Effects of Terminological Concreteness on Middle-School Students' Learning of Experimental Design
Quelle	In: Journal of Educational Psychology, 108 (2016) 4, S.547-562 (16 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	Weitere Informationen
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0022-0663
DOI	10.1037/edu0000072
Schlagwörter	Middle School Students; Learning; Science Experiments; Research Design; Science Instruction; Transfer of Training; Individual Differences; Student Characteristics; Grade 6; Grade 7; Pretests Posttests; Concept Formation; Instructional Materials; Pennsylvania + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Middle school; Middle schools; Student; Students; Mittelschule; Mittelstufenschule; Schüler; Schülerin; Lernen; Forschungsdesign; Teaching of science; Science education; Natural sciences Lessons; Naturwissenschaftlicher Unterricht; Training; Transfer; Ausbildung; Individueller Unterschied; School year 06; 6. Schuljahr; Schuljahr 06; School year 07; 7. Schuljahr; Schuljahr 07; Concept learning; Begriffsbildung; Lehrmaterial; Lehrmittel; Unterrichtsmedien
Abstract	One obstacle to understanding abstract concepts such as the "control of variables" strategy (CVS) is the tendency for learners to focus on surface rather than deep features in instructional materials. However, in tasks such as learning CVS, these same surface features may also support understanding, provided learners realize the underlying task goal. In this study, we explored the effect of surface features in textually described experiments on middle-school students' understanding of CVS. We investigated whether the amount of surface detail--or surface-level concreteness--of experiments interacts with student tendency to focus on deep or surface features. As predicted, deep focusers showed better posttest performance when given all concrete examples (concrete-only condition) than when subsequent examples became more concrete (abstract-fading condition) or less concrete (concrete-fading condition). Concrete representations helped deep focusers understand the rationale for controlling variables. Although surface focusers who were given only concrete examples showed better understanding on some measures, they generally failed to develop complete explicit understanding of CVS, including its rationale. Consequently, surface focusers showed similarly poor transfer across conditions. Although students generally benefited from concrete representations, surface focusers may need more support to develop sufficiently coherent understandings that facilitate transfer. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01