Ilonca Hardy

Effects of Instructional Support Within Constructivist Learning Environments for Elementary School Students' Understanding of "Floating and Sinking"

In a repeated measures design (pretest, posttest, 1-year follow-up) with 161 3rd-grade students, the authors compared 2 curricula on floating and sinking within constructivist learning environments, varying in instructional support. The 2 curricula differed in the sequencing of content and the teachers cognitively structuring statements. At the posttest, both instructed groups showed significant gains on a test on understanding the concepts of density and buoyancy force as compared to a baseline group without instruction. One year later, the group of high instructional support was superior to the group of low instructional support on the reduction of misconceptions and the adoption of scientific explanations. Thus, instructional support within constructivist learning environments fostered elementary schoolchildrens conceptual change in the domain of physics.

Embedded Formative Assessment and Classroom Process Quality How Do They Interact in Promoting Science Understanding

In this study we examine the interplay between curriculum-embedded formative assessment—a well-known teaching practice—and general features of classroom process quality (i.e., cognitive activation, supportive climate, classroom management) and their combined effect on elementary school students’ understanding of the scientific concepts of floating and sinking. We used data from a cluster-randomized controlled trial and compared curriculum-embedded formative assessment (17 classes) with a control group (11 classes). Curriculum-embedded formative assessment and classroom process quality promoted students’ learning. Moreover, classroom process quality and embedded formative assessment interacted in promoting student learning. To ensure effective instruction and consequently satisfactory learning outcomes, teachers need to combine specific teaching practices with high classroom process quality.

Impact of Additional Guidance in Science Education on Primary Students’ Conceptual Understanding

ABSTRACT A cognitive and a guidance dimension can describe the support of students’ conceptual understanding in inquiry-based science education. The role of guidance for student learning has been intensively discussed. Furthermore, inquiry learning may pose particular challenges to students with low language proficiency. The present intervention in primary school (54 teachers, 1,070 students) aimed to examine the effects of additional guidance. Therefore, the control group uses a science unit mainly addressing the cognitive dimension of inquiry. In the 3 treatment groups, this unit was enriched with guidance through scaffolding instructional discourse, formative assessment, or peer-assisted learning. The results (43 teachers, 873 students) confirm that in each intervention condition, students’ conceptual understanding significantly improves. In the formative assessment group, students’ mean conceptual understanding is higher than in the control group. Moreover, formative assessment and scaffolding instructional discourse provided particular support to the conceptual understanding of students with poor language proficiency.

Concept Maps wirkungsvoll als Strukturierungshilfen einsetzen

In dieser Studie wurden die Effekte unterschiedlich stark strukturierter Concept Maps fur das Verstandnis naturwissenschaftlicher Textinhalte und fur das selbststandige Erstellen von Concept Maps in einem neuen Inhaltsgebiet bei 46 jungen Erwachsenen untersucht. Wir nahmen an, dass eine Balance zwischen Selbstkonstruktion und vorgegebener Strukturierung bei Lernenden sowohl die Wahrnehmung der inhaltlichen Zusammenhange als auch der Anforderungen der Strategie des Concept Mappings unterstutzen wurde. Im ersten Untersuchungsteil erstellten Lernende entweder Concept Maps selbst aus den Textinhalten, arbeiteten mit erweiterbaren Lucken-Concept Maps oder nutzten vorgegebene Experten-Concept Maps zum Textverstandnis. Im zweiten Untersuchungsteil erstellten Teilnehmer aller drei Gruppen selbststandig ein Concept Map in einem neuen Inhaltsgebiet. Gemas unseren Annahmen war die strukturelle Unterstutzung bei den Experten-Concept Maps bzw. Lucken-Concept Maps fur das inhaltliche Verstandnis von Vorteil, wahrend fu...

Children’s scientific reasoning in the context of bilingualism

Aims and objectives: A number of studies revealed effects of bilingualism on the cognitive development of both children and adults. Executive functions in particular seem to be enhanced due to the constant use of two language systems. In the present study, we explored whether effects of enhanced executive functioning are also related to bilinguals’ performance on a scientific reasoning task. Methodology: In a quasi-experimental design we compared monolingual and bilingual elementary school students on a variety of measures including language proficiency, cognitive ability, executive functions, and a modified reasoning task adapted from Kuhn and Pease (2006). Data and analysis: The data of 57 elementary school students were analyzed using multiple regression analysis and group comparisons via multivariate ANOVAs. Findings: Results revealed specific group differences on the measures of executive functions. On the measure of inhibition, the bilingual group showed superior performance, while no differences on the measure of attentional control were found. Moreover, regression analyses revealed that students’ performance on the reasoning task was best explained by the measures of cognitive ability and attentional control. However, the total amount of variance explained by our measures was less than 20%. Since there were no group differences on these variables, an advantage of bilingualism on the reasoning task was not detected. Originality: The results of the study contribute to the body of research on the cognitive effects of bilingualism and its specifics. Moreover, they extend research on the positive effects of bilingualism to more applied contexts. Implications: The results emphasize the necessity to specify the role of executive functions in reasoning tasks in order to reliably test for a possible transfer of bilingual advantages to academic learning contexts.

Fostering diagrammatic reasoning in science education

In a study with 56 third-graders, we tested whether reasoning with line graphs can be enhanced by representational activities within a curriculum on floating and sinking of objects in water. We hypothesized that representing mass and volume on the opposite arms of a balance beam allows the simultaneous consideration of both dimensions for a representation of density, and therefore will be particularly helpful for drawing inferences from the slopes of line graphs. In an experimental classrooms study, half of the students used the balance beam, while the other half worked with self-constructed representations. Five months after the instructional unit, students who had been familiarized with the quantitative interpretation of proportional information on the balance beam outperformed students who had worked with self-constructed representation in their interpretation of line graphs referring to density, but only marginally when referring to speed.

Science-P I: Modeling Conceptual Understanding in Primary School

In the Science-P project (Science Competency in Primary School), we aimed at modeling scientific literacy in two dimensions—scientific reasoning and conceptual understanding—to describe science learning in primary school. The present chapter focuses on conceptual understanding exemplified by two content areas: floating and sinking (FS) and evaporation and condensation (EC). Drawing on results from conceptual change research in developmental psychology and science education, we devised a model with three hierarchically ordered levels of understanding—naive, intermediate and scientifically advanced—as the foundation of item and test construction. The two content areas engendered a two-dimensional structure in our test instrument. A validation study underscored that responses to our paper-pencil items were systematically related to responses obtained in interviews. Our test instrument was used to capture the development of primary school students’ conceptual understanding from second to fourth grade, in both a cross-sectional and a longitudinal study. For cross-sectional data, students’ proficiency in scientific reasoning was found to predict their conceptual understanding. In future analyses, we will test this finding with our longitudinal data.

Selbstwirksamkeitserwartungen von Lehramtsstudierenden zum Umgang mit Heterogenität – Entwicklung eines Instruments und erste Ergebnisse

Selbstwirksamkeitserwartungen gelten als bedeutsamer Aspekt professioneller Kompetenz von Lehrkraften. Im Kontext des Unterrichtens in heterogenen Lerngruppen wurden diese bislang jedoch nur selten untersucht. Im Mittelpunkt dieses Beitrags stehen die Entwicklung eines Instruments zur Erfassung von Selbstwirksamkeitserwartungen zum Umgang mit Heterogenitat und erste Ergebnisse einer Pilotstudie.

Die Erfassung naturwissenschaftlicher Kompetenz im Vorschulalter: Ergebnisse einer Pilotierungsstudie

Naturwissenschaften sind ein Schwerpunkt der Bildungsplane fur den Elementarbereich (Fthenakis 2009). Die Wirksamkeit von Masnahmen zur naturwissenschaftlichen Bildungsarbeit wurde jedoch bislang kaum untersucht. Im Projekt EASI-Science (EArly Steps Into Science; Steffensky et al. 2014) wird u. a. der Frage nachgegangen, inwiefern Bildungsinitiativen sich auf die naturwissenschaftliche Kompetenz der von den fortgebildeten Fachkraften betreuten Kinder auswirken. Im Mittelpunkt dieses Beitrags stehen Ergebnisse der Pilotierungsstudien von Testinstrumenten zur standardisierten Erfassung prozess- und konzeptbezogenen Wissens von Vorschulkindern.

Erfassung von strukturierenden Lehreräußerungen im Unterrichtsdiskurs

Forschungsbefunde zur Qualitat von Sachunterricht in der Grundschule verweisen auf die bedeutende Rolle einer Strukturierung und Sequenzierung von Unterrichtsinhalten insbesondere fur Schulerinnen und Schuler mit schwacheren Eingangsvoraussetzungen (vgl. Moller 2012; Kleickmann/Vehmeyer/Moller 2010). Auf Seiten der Lehrkraft setzt eine erfolgreiche Unterrichtsgestaltung Wissen uber eine angemessene Gesprachsfuhrung unter Einsatz kognitiv strukturierender Impulse voraus. Hierzu zahlen u.a. das Fokussieren der Lehrkraft auf relevante Aspekte einer Aufgabe oder das Modellieren von Wissen und Strategien (Pea 2004; Reiser 2004). Ebenfalls von Bedeutung sind in diesem Zusammenhang Aufforderungen der Lehrkraft an die Schulerinnen und Schuler auf einem kognitiv anregenden Niveau.