Dominique Colinvaux

Grasping Mental Models

Mental models have been approached from a number of different perspectives, from cognitive psychology to philosophy of science and science education. As a result, several definitions have been proposed that emphasise distinct aspects. It has also been suggested that researchers have access to people’s mental models by means of the examination of individuals’ expressed models. We argue that, in order to grasp mental models, a fruitful strategy involves developing two complementary approaches: one that focuses on how mental models are developed and the other one on their key features when people make use of them to think. In particular, we will deal with three basic issues: to what extent can we talk about mental models by examining expressed models? What are the tools individuals make use of in order to build mental models? What are the main features of mental models? Each issue is addressed below, starting from a critical analysis of existing literature so as to suggest and discuss a framework that could help us grasp mental models.

From scientists' and inventors' minds to some scientific and technological products: relationships between theories, models, mental models and conceptions

The concepts of model and mental model have had an increasing role in science education literature. The nature of mental models is a well developed issue in psychology and some researchers have borrowed psychological theories to carry out research in science education. Despite considering this route as a fruitful one, we argue for the need of theoretical work on mental models within the field of science education. Our approach starts with consensus but vague definitions of model and mental model and aims at improving these notions by considering the relationships between both models & theories and mental models & conceptions. The former relationship is examined in the light of both the Kuhnian concept of models as an element of paradigms and the notion proposed by Nersessian of models as a working device for building theories. The latter is developed by means of two case-studies derived from the history of science and technology. These are Galileos observation of the Moon and the development of aeroplane...

A model‐based approach to science exhibition evaluation: A case study in a Brazilian astronomy museum

A models and modelling approach was adopted to investigate the educational potential of a science museum exhibition. It focused on patterns of relationship between the teaching models proposed by designers and students models in regard to four exhibits concerning astronomical cycles. Student’s models were elicited by interviewing 21 pupils selected from among those who showed a change of their models between pre‐visit and post‐visit questionnaires. Four patterns of relationship were identified, ranging from low to high degrees of convergence between designers and students. Exhibits designed by fragmenting the phenomena (analytical approach) tend to promote less convergent patterns than exhibits that maintain the complexity of the phenomena (synthetic approach). We argue that the two approaches are complementary: without synthetic models visitors find it difficult to identify the phenomenon addressed by analytical models, while the latter may bring to visitors’ attention aspects that otherwise might be hidden by the complexity of synthetic models.

Developing adults’ views on the phenomenon of change of physical state in water∗

This study describes the alternative conceptions of changes of the physical state in water held by a group of adult students and discusses the evolution of these concepts within the dynamics of a classroom situation, starting from simple experiments using group work and some intervention by a teacher researcher. The students were enrolled in a reading and writing course at an adult evening school from a deprived area (slum) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The article analyses and discusses some characteristics of the students’ conceptions, some results of the teacher researcher intervention, the confrontation of interpretations that followed and the final discussion between students. ∗ This work was partially supported by FINEP e CNPq (Brazil). A preliminary report on this work was presented at the First International Congress on Research in Science and Mathematics Education held in 1985 in Barcelona, Spain. ‡ Estimates vary from 20% to 50% according to the strictness of the definition. § Previous work (Dibar ...

E. Claparède: os primeiros estudos sobre a psicologia das crianças pequenas no Institut Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Edouard Claparede, pesquisador genebrino que viveu de 1873 a 1940, e um nome bastante familiar no Brasil, particularmente para os que realizaram estudos universitarios em psicologia e em pedagogia, em um periodo anterior a 1980. Varios de seus livros, escritos na primeira metade do seculo XX, eram frequentemente lidos pelos estudantes desejosos de melhor compreender o pensamento infantil e as ideias do movimento de renovacao educacional, denominado “Escola Nova”. Entre eles, destacam-se: Psicologia da crianca e pedagogia experimental (Psychologie de l´enfant et pedagogie experimentale, 1905), A escola sob medida (L’ecole sur mesure, 1920) e A educacao funcional (L’education fonctionnelle, 1931). Ele proprio esteve no Brasil em 1930, a convite de sua ex-aluna e colaboradora russa, Helena Antipoff, formada em Paris e em Genebra, cujo nome esta estreitamente relacionado a importantes trabalhos no campo educacional em nosso pais, particularmente em Minas Gerais e no Rio de Janeiro2