Learning and teaching about scientific models with a computer-modeling tool.
The study presents efforts to support pre-service primary school teachers in learning and teaching about scientific models, and discusses the impact of these efforts on their understandings. We provided pre-service primary school teachers with a module on computer modeling and studied the effects of...
| Published in: | Computers in Human Behavior Vol. 24; no. 2; pp. 220 - 234 |
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| Main Authors: | , |
| Format: | Article |
| Published: |
Elsevier Science
March 2008
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=508050439&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 508050439 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 07475632 JC4 jtl: Computers in Human Behavior issn: 07475632 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: March 2008 vid: 24 iid: 2 pid: 2410 pub: Elsevier Science artinfo: ui: 508050439 10.1016/j.chb.2007.01.005 ppf: 220 ppct: 14 formats: tig: atl: Learning and teaching about scientific models with a computer-modeling tool. aug: au: Valanides, Nicos Angeli, Charoula su: Science education Computers in education Education software sug: subj: Science education Computers in education Education software keyword: Computers -- Educational use ab: The study presents efforts to support pre-service primary school teachers in learning and teaching about scientific models, and discusses the impact of these efforts on their understandings. We provided pre-service primary school teachers with a module on computer modeling and studied the effects of this experience on their abilities to construct viable scientific models with a computer-modeling tool, namely, Model-It [Metcalf, J. S., Krajcik, J., & Soloway, E. (2000). MODEL-IT: A Design Retrospective. In M. J. Jacobson & R. B. Kozma (Eds.), Innovationsin Science and Mathematics Education (pp. 77-115). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates], in order to teach a sixth-grade science lesson. The results of the study showed that Model-It, through its scaffolds (i.e., Plan, Build, and Test), enabled the majority of pre-service teachers to build models that were structurally correct, but simplistic. The participants showed a tendency to teach science using more often the explorative modeling method than the expressive method, and only few of them employed both methods in their lessons. In essence, Model-It effectively scaffolded pre-service teachers' first modeling experiences and enabled them to quickly build and test their models as well as reflect on the viability of their models. However, according to the results, teachers need extensive learning experiences in order to achieve a comprehensive understanding of the process of scientific modeling in science. Copyright (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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