Carla van Boxtel

Collaborative Concept Mapping: Provoking and Supporting Meaningful Discourse

A N IMPORTANT AIM OF INSTRUCTION in schools is that students learn the concepts that are used within specific domains, and that they improve their ability to use these concepts in their mutually agreed-upon “scientific” meanings. Several authors suggest that students learn domainspecific concepts by using them in spoken communication—through talking about and “with” concepts (Duit & Treagust 1998; Lemke, 1990; Palincsar, Anderson, & David, 1993). From this point of view, then, collaborative learning tasks have a strong potential to contribute to the learning of concepts, because they can provide students with the opportunity to talk about and use them to describe and explain phenomena. In addition to the composition of the group, the group size, the reward structure, and the preparation for group work, the task itself has an important role in shaping the quality of the student interaction (Derry, 1999; Van der Linden, Erkens, Schmidt, & Renshaw, 2000; Webb & Palincsar, 1996). In this article we discuss the potential of collaborative concept-mapping tasks. In our research, we used a concept-mapping task in three experimental studies. Participants in the studies were 15to 16-year-old students from secondary-level physics classes. The students collaborated in pairs on a concept-mapping task that functioned as the introduction to a new course about electricity. In each study, we manipulated the task design and compared the student interaction that emerged in the different task conditions. In all studies, we videotaped and transcribed the student interactions and analyzed the transcripts. Several studies (Horton, McConny, Gallo, Woods, & Hamelin, 1993) have shown that concept mapping results in meaningful learning. Making a concept map helps learners become aware of and reflect on their own (mis)understandings; it helps students take charge of their own meaning-making. Further, it contributes to the development of an integrated conceptual framework. Most of the concept-mapping studies focus on the construction of a concept map by individual students or a teacher. In line with the findings of Roth and Roychoudhury (1993, 1994) and Sizmur and Osborne (1997), we concluded that concept mapping, as a collaborative learning activity, is successful in provoking and supporting a student discourse that contributes to the appropriation of physics concepts. Students in the three studies in which we used concept mapping as a group task showed significant learning gains (van Boxtel, 2000). It appeared that the learning outcomes were related to the quality of the student interaction. The more talk about physics concepts and the more elaborative that talk, the higher the learning outcomes. Carla van Boxtel Jos van der Linden Erik Roelofs Gijsbert Erkens

That's in the time of the Romans! Knowledge and strategies students use to contextualize historical images and documents

An important goal of history education is the development of a chronological frame of reference that can be used to interpret and date historical images and documents. Despite the importance of this contextualization goal, little is known about the knowledge and strategies that allow students to situate information historically. Two studies were conducted to uncover the contextualization process. The first exploratory process investigation involved 18 students working in dyads to interpret and date two cartoons and a historical text. Subsequently, we conducted an experimental study with 114 students to investigate the effects of a knowledge training and strategic support. Outcomes support the idea that a rich associative network of historical knowledge organized around key historical concepts and knowledge of landmarks helps students anchor and calibrate timelines for effective contextualization. Results also suggest that systematic consideration of potential clues will not contribute additional contextua...An important goal of history education is the development of a chronological frame of reference that can be used to interpret and date historical images and documents. Despite the importance of this contextualization goal, little is known about the knowledge and strategies that allow students to situate information historically. Two studies were conducted to uncover the contextualization process. The first exploratory process investigation involved 18 students working in dyads to interpret and date two cartoons and a historical text. Subsequently, we conducted an experimental study with 114 students to investigate the effects of a knowledge training and strategic support. Outcomes support the idea that a rich associative network of historical knowledge organized around key historical concepts and knowledge of landmarks helps students anchor and calibrate timelines for effective contextualization. Results also suggest that systematic consideration of potential clues will not contribute additional contextualization power prior to internalization of relevant knowledge.

Scaffolding of small groups’ metacognitive activities with an avatar

Metacognitive scaffolding in a computer-supported learning environment can influence students’ metacognitive activities, metacognitive knowledge and domain knowledge. In this study we analyze how metacognitive activities mediate the relationships between different avatar scaffolds on students’ learning. Multivariate, multilevel analysis of the 51,339 conversation turns by 54 elementary school students working in triads showed that scaffolding has an effect on students’ learning. Students receiving structuring or problematizing metacognitive scaffolds displayed more metacognitive knowledge than students in the control group. Metacognitive activities mediated the effects of scaffolding, and increased metacognitive activities supported students’ metacognitive knowledge. Moreover, students who were engaged in proportionately more cognitive activities or fewer off-task activities also outperformed other students on the metacognitive knowledge test. Only problematizing scaffolds led to more domain knowledge and metacognitive activities mediated the effects of the problematizing scaffolds. Moreover, students in the problematizing condition who engaged in more cognitive activities or whose group mates used more relational activities had greater domain knowledge acquisition than other students.

Concrete and abstract visualizations in history learning tasks.

BACKGROUND History learning requires that students understand historical phenomena, abstract concepts and the relations between them. Students have problems grasping, using and relating complex historical developments and structures. AIMS A study was conducted to determine the effects of tasks with abstract and/or concrete visualizations on the learning of historical developments and structures. The hypothesis was that students receiving visualizations would learn and retain more historical knowledge and concepts than those not receiving visualizations. SAMPLE First-year pupils in vocational middle school (N=104) worked in randomly assigned pairs. METHODS After reading a text, the pairs were given a learning task in one of four conditions: Textual, Concrete visualized, Abstract visualized, and Combined. RESULTS Post-test and retention test results showed no significant differences. There were some significant differences on the evaluation questionnaire. CONCLUSIONS Combining text and different types of visualizations in learning tasks does not necessarily enhance history learning. Possible explanations given are the ecological setting, the semiotics of the domain of history--that are not defined clearly--and the difficulty of unequivocally visualizing historical concepts.

Conceptual learning in relation to near and far transfer in the secondary school subject of economics

In this study we investigated the effects of two treatments supplementing students’ (16 to 18 years of age and in pre-university education) regular course in economics. One treatment, labelled concept treatment, aimed at the solidification of the students’ knowledge about economic concepts and their interrelations. The other treatment, labeled context treatment, aimed at the solidification of the connections between economic concepts and practical contexts.The aim of the study was to find out which treatment was most effective in meeting two demands that have been made by educators and advisory boards. The first demand is that students should gain competence in analysing practical problems from an economic perspective. The second demand is that students should be prepared for transfer of what they learned in the lessons to problems that are new to them.We expected that near transfer is reached more readily than semifar transfer. This was the case for the solidification of connections between concepts and contexts. The context condition performed better. It was not the case for the solidification of the concepts which was the aim for the concept treatment. There was no difference in the results on the concept test between the two conditions. As to the assumption that a solid conceptual network is a prerequisite for far transfer, the findings are inconclusive.RésuméDans cette étude nous avons étudié les effets de deux types d’instruction, supplémentaires aux classes normales d’économie. (éléves de 16–18 ans, classes préparatoires au bac). La première instruction, du type ‘instruction Concept’ accentue le renforcement des connaissances préalables dans le domaine de l’économie, tandis que l’autre type, appelé ‘instruction Context’, mise à intensifier la relation entre certains concepts économiques et des contextes pratiques.L’objectif de la présente étude consistait à analyser l’efficacité de ces deux types d’instruction. L’expérience devait démontrer laquelle des deux instructions serait la plus efficace pour bien répondre à deux questions posées par les enseignants et par les organismes consultatifs.La première question servait à mesurer s’il y avait une augmentation de la compétence analytique des éléves en ce qui concerne des problèmes pratiques économiques. La deuxième question servait à voir si les élèves étaient préparés à transférer leurs connaissances économiques à des problèmes jusque-là inconnus.Nous nous attendions à ce que le transfert proche serait plus facile que le transfert semi-lointain. Cela était le cas pour le renforcement des relations entre les concepts et les contextes: l’instruction ‘Contexte’ rendait plus de réponses correctes. Mais ce n’était pas le cas pour l’instruction ‘Concept’ qui avait comme objectif d’intensifier les concepts économiques. Il n’y avait aucune différence entre les deux conditions quant aux résultats du test ‘Concept’.Cette étude n’a donc pas confirmé notre hypothèse qu’un réseau conceptuel solide est une condition indispensable pour le transfert lointain.

The Understanding of Historical Time in the Primary History Curriculum in England and the Netherlands.

This study focuses on the comparison of the English and the Dutch primary history curriculum regarding the understanding of historical time. We compare different aspects of both curricula that can apply to other subjects as well, for example the question ‘what age would be appropriate to start a subject in primary school?’ Here, we emphasize that exposure to different learning processes is more important than pupils’ age and maturity. Drawing on analyses of curriculum documents, surveys (n = 128) and interviews (n = 25), we explored how the understanding of historical time is addressed in the intended and the implemented primary curricula for history. The analysis of the data indicates that teachers in both countries do not teach all objectives of the understanding of historical time. Although in England the history curriculum starts earlier, the episodic structure of the curriculum is not very helpful to support pupils’ understanding of historical time. In the Netherlands the framework of 10 eras is mostly taught chronologically; however, neither the sequence nor the dates of historical periods are explicitly taught. Apparently, the teaching and learning of historical time in both countries needs improvement and we conclude with some suggestions to accomplish this.

The effects of explicit teaching of strategies, second-order concepts, and epistemological underpinnings on students’ ability to reason causally in history

This article reports an experimental study on the effects of explicit teaching on 11th grade students’ ability to reason causally in history. Underpinned by the model of domain learning, explicit teaching is conceptualized as multidimensional, focusing on strategies and second-order concepts to generate and verbalize causal explanations and epistemological underpinnings connected to causal reasoning in history. In a randomized pretest–posttest design (N = 95), with a treatment and a control condition, effects of explicit teaching were investigated on students’ (a) second-order and strategy knowledge, (b) their epistemological beliefs, and (c) their ability to construct a causal explanation, as well as (d) their topic knowledge, and (e) their individual interest. Results show that students in the experimental group scored significantly higher at the posttest on knowledge of causal-reasoning strategies and second-order concepts (sr2 = .09), attributed a significantly higher value to criterialist epistemological beliefs (sr2 = .04), and reported a higher individual interest (sr2 = .02). We found no differences between conditions in the overall quality of students’ written explanations. However, the experimental group scored significantly higher on 1 core criterion, that is, the “use of second-order language and causal connections” (sr2 = .06). No differences were found on first-order knowledge. Furthermore, self-reports on learning gains and correlational analysis were applied to explore the interrelatedness of second-order and strategy knowledge, epistemological beliefs, student’s ability to construct a causal explanation, topic knowledge, and individual interest.

Toward Historical Perspective Taking: Students’ Reasoning When Contextualizing the Actions of People in the Past

Abstract An important goal of history education is to promote the student’s ability to perform historical perspective taking (HPT). HPT refers to the ability to understand how people in the past viewed their world at various times and in various places to explain why they did what they did. In this study, we assessed a sample of 15- and 16-year-old students (n = 143) to determine their ability to contextualize the actions of people in the past. Subsequently, we explored their reasoning (n = 36) to uncover their contextualization process. The results of this mixed methodology study indicate that most of the students in the sample performed well when engaging in HPT. Moreover, protocol analysis identified the different reasoning strategies that students employed to successfully perform HPT. The results of this study provide insight into history instruction regarding HPT and into strategies for designing valid and reliable HPT tasks.

Primary school pupils’ performances in understanding historical time

This study focuses on the development of the understanding of historical time of pupils in primary school. We present a developmental model with three stages: emergent, initial and continued understanding of historical time. Based on this model, we constructed an instrument to measure how pupils aged 6–12 perform. The participants were 1457 pupils from 7 Dutch primary schools. The analysis of the data showed that in all three stages pupils in higher grades significantly outperformed pupils in lower grades and that pupils’ performances were influenced by the variables gender and parents’ education. In all grades, there seemed to be room for improvement, especially in the lower grades (ages 6–9) where pupils have hardly had any teaching on the understanding of historical time. However, in the higher grades as well (ages 10–12), pupils could improve on the level of continued understanding of historical time.

Engaging Students in Historical Reasoning: The Need for Dialogic History Education

In this chapter, Van Boxtel and Van Drie argue that dialogic teaching is needed to develop students’ historical reasoning ability. First, the authors specify types of historical reasoning and the activities and underlying knowledge, interest and beliefs that constitute a historical reasoning. Second, important characteristics of dialogic teaching are discussed. In dialogic education, the teacher and students explore multiple perspectives, challenge ideas and co-construct historical insights. The chapter offers examples of how a dialogic way of teaching opens up, widens and deepens historical reasoning in the classroom. Students are enhanced to ask historical questions, to explain and compare, and critically assess interpretations and evidence. It is concluded that dialogic history education can prepare students to become more able and informed participants in a democratic society.