(2019)
(2019)
(2019)
(2019)
(2019)
(2019)
(2019)
(2019)
(2019)
(2018)
(2018)
(2018)
(2018)
(2018)
(2018)
(2018)
(2018)
(2018)
(2018)
(2017)
(2017)
(2017)
(2017)
(2017)
(2017)
(2017)
(2017)
(2017)
(2017)
(2016)
(2016)
Special Issue - (2016)
(2016)
(2016)
(2016)
(2016)
(2016)
(2016)
(2016)
(2016)
(2016)
(2016)
(2016)
(2016)
(2016)
(2016)
(2016)
(2015)
(2015)
Special Issue - (2015)
(2015)
(2015)
(2015)
(2012)
(2012)
(2012)
Special Issue - (2012)
pp. 11127-11048 | Article Number: ijese.2016.807
Published Online: November 11, 2016
Abstract
This study examines to what extent students transferred their knowledge from a familiar aquatic ecosystem to an unfamiliar rainforest ecosystem after participating in a technology-rich inquiry curriculum. We coded students’ drawings for components of important ecosystems concepts at pre and post test. Our analysis examined the extent to which each of the drawings showed evidence of understanding of photosynthesis, cellular respiration and decomposition. The results demonstrate that students experienced greater learning gains in aquatic systems (the learning measure) than in the rainforest (the transfer measure). However, they also made significant learning gains on the rainforest task from pre- to posttest, suggesting that students transferred some knowledge from one system to another. Further research is needed to examine a wider range of relevant concepts and more distant contexts.
Keywords: Transfer, Ecosystem, Inquiry Learning
References
Alparslan, C., Tekkaya, C., & Geban, O. (2003). Using the conceptual change instruction to improve learning. Journal of Biological Education, 37(3), 133-137.
Andrews, K., Tressler, K. & Mintzes, J. J. (2008). Assessing environmental understanding: An application of the concept mapping strategy. Environmental Education Research, 14(5), 519-536.
Barnett, S.,& Ceci, S. J. (2002).When and where do we apply what we learn? A taxonomy for far transfer. Psychological Bulletin, 128, 612-637.
Basile, C. G. (2000). Environmental education as a catalyst for transfer of learning in young children. The Journal of Environmental Education, 32(1), 21-27.
Campbell, N. A., Mitchell, L. G., & Reece, J. B. (1997). Biology: concept and connections.
Collins, A., Brown, J. S., & Newman, S. E. (1989). Cognitive apprenticeship: Teaching the crafts of reading, writing, and mathematics. In L. B. Resnick (Ed.), Knowing, learning, and instruction: Essays in honor of Robert Glaser (pp. 453-494). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Crawford, B., R.C. Jordan. (2013). Inquiry, models, and complex reasoning to transform learning in environmental education. In: Krasny and Dillon (eds.) Transdisciplinary Research in Environmental Education. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Hmelo-Silver, C. E., Eberbach, C. & Jordan, R. (2014). Systems and Cycles: Learning about Aquatic Ecosystems. Eurasia Journal of Math, Science, and Technology Education, 10, 405-413. DOI: 10.12973/eurasia.2014.1170a.
Eilam, B. (2012). System thinking and feeding relations: Learning with a live ecosystem model. Instructional Science, 40, 213-239.
Eisen, Y. & Stavy, R. (1993). How to make the learning of photosynthesis more relevant. International Journal of Science Education, 15, 117 -125.
Ernst, J., & Monroe, M. (2004). The effects of environment‐based education on students' critical thinking skills and disposition toward critical thinking. Environmental Education Research, 10(4), 507-522.
Entwistle, N. J. (2013). Styles of learning and teaching: An integrated outline of educational psychology for students, teachers and lecturers. Routledge.
Gick, M. L., & Holyoak, K. J. (1980). Analogical problem solving. Cognitive Psychology, 12, 306–355.
Gick, M. L., & Holyoak, K. J. (1983). Schema induction and analogical transfer. Cognitive Psychology, 15, 1-38.
Goldstone, R. L., & Sakamoto, Y. (2003). The transfer of abstract principles governing complex adaptive systems. Cognitive Psychology, 46, 414-466.
Hogan, K. & Fisherkeller, J. (1996). Representing students’ thinking about nutrient cycling in ecosystems: Bidemensional coding of a complex topic. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 33, 941-970.
Holyoak, K. J. (1984). Mental models in problem solving. In J. R. Anderson & S. M. Kosslyn (Eds.), Tutorials in learning and memory: Essays in honor of Gordon Bower (pp. 193-218). San Francisco: W.H. Freeman.
Holyoak, K. J. (2005). Analogy. In K. J. Holyoak & R. G. Morrison (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Thinking and Reasoning (pp. 117-142). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Hmelo-Silver, C. E., Marathe, S., & Liu, L. (2007). Fish swim, rocks sit, and lungs breathe: Expert-novice understanding of complex systems. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 16, 307-331.
Hmelo-Silver, C. E., Jordan, R., Liu, L., Gray, S., Demeter, M., Rugaber, S., et al. (2008). Focusing on function: Thinking below the surface of complex natural systems. Science Scope, 31(9), 27-35.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2007). Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science basis. Generva Switzerland: IPCC. www.ipcc.ch.
Jordan, R., Gray, S., Demeter, M., Liu, L. & Hmelo-Silver, C. E. (2009). Promoting an Understanding of Ecological Concepts: A Review of Student Conflations of Ecological Systems and Cycles. Journal of Applied Environmental Education And Communication, 8, 40-48.
Jordan, R., Singer, F., Vaughan, J., & Berkowitz, A. (2009). What should every citizen know about ecology? Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 7(9), 495-500.
Lave, J. (1988). Cognition in practice: Mind, mathematics, and culture in everyday life. Cambridge,United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press.
Leach, J., Driver, R., Scott, P. & Wood-Robinson, C. (1996). Children's ideas about ecology 2: ideas found in children aged 5-16 about the cycling of matter. International Journal of Science Education 18, 19-34.
Liu, L., & Hmelo-Silver, C. E. (2009). Promoting complex systems learning through the use of conceptual representations in hypermedia. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 46, 1023-1040.
Maloney. J. 2007. Children’s role and use of evidence in science: An analysis of decision making in small groups. British Educational Research Journal, 33: 371–401.
Milà, C., & Sanmartí, N. (1999). A model for fostering the transfer of learning in environmental education. Environmental Education Research, 5, 237-266.
Mohan, L., Chen, J., & Anderson, C. W. (2009). Developing a multi-year learning progression for carbon cycling in socio-ecological systems. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 46, 675-698.
North American Association for Environmental Education. (2011). DEVELOPING A FRAMEWORK FOR ASSESSING ENVIRONMENTAL LITERACY. Washington, D.C. http://www.naaee.net/sites/default/files/framework/EnvLiteracyExeSummary.pdf
Nicolaou, C. T., Korfiatis, K., Evagorou, M., & Constantinou, C. (2009). Development of decision making skills and environmental concern through computer based scaffolding learning activities. Environmental Education Research, 16(1), 39-54.
Ozay, E., & Oztas, H. (2003). Secondary students' interpretations of photosynthesis and plant nutrition. Biological Education, 37(2), 68-70.
Pask, G., & Scott, B. C. E. (1972). Learning strategies and individual competence. International Journal of Man-Machine Studies, 4(3), 217-253.
Perkins, D. N. (1993). Teaching for Understanding. American Educator. 17(3), 28-35.
Reed, S. K. (2012). Learning by mapping across situations. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 21, 353-398.
Salomon, G., & Perkins, D. N. (1989). Rocky roads to transfer: Rethinking mechanisms of a neglected phenomenon. Educational Psychologist, 24, 113-142.
Sanders, M. & Cramer, F. (1992). Matric biology pupils' ideas about respiration: implications for science educators. South African Journal of Science, 88, 543 - 548.
Schönborn, K. J., & Bögeholz, S. (2009). KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER IN BIOLOGY AND TRANSLATION ACROSS EXTERNAL REPRESENTATIONS: EXPERTS'VIEWS AND CHALLENGES FOR LEARNING. International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 7(5), 931-955.
Sinha, S., Gray, S., Hmelo-Silver, C. E., Jordan, R., Eberbach, C., Goel, A., & Rugaber, S. (2013). Conceptual representations for transfer: A case study tracing back and looking forward. Frontline Learning Research, 1, 3-23
Vattam, S., Goel, A. K., Rugaber, S., Hmelo-Silver, C. E., Jordan, R., Gray, S., et al. (2011). Understanding complex natural systems by articulating structure-behavior-function models. Educational Technology & Society, 14, 66-81.
Warburton, K. (2003). Deep learning and education for sustainability.International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 4(1), 44-56.
Wals, A.E.J., Brody, M., Dillon, J. and Stevenson, R.B. (2014) Convergence Between Science and Environmental Education, Science, 344, p. 583-584.
Wilensky, U., & Reisman, K. (2006). Thinking like a wolf, sheep, or firefly: Learning biology through constructing and testing computational theories-an embodied modeling approach. Cognition and Instruction, 24 (2), 171-210.