Development of explanation: Incremental and fundamental change in children's physics knowledge

Metz, Kathleen E.

doi:10.1002/tea.3660280906

Cited by 62 publications

(68 citation statements)

References 9 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…A more general developmental achievement relates to understanding causality in physical systems. Several studies have demonstrated that during these years, one can observe a shift in understanding causality from a global-functional framework to one that searches for specific local trains of cause-and-effect in the components of the system (Piaget 1956;Metz 1991;Lehrer and Schauble 1998). It would seem that during this sensitive time, it would be most opportune to support children in creating alternative schemas of causality, rather than locking into a single schema of a ''direct'' chain of sequential cause-and-effect links.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The research literature refers to a number of dyads describing people's stance toward artifacts: animate or human-like intention versus inanimate technological purpose (Ackermann 1991;Turkle 1984;Scaife and van Duuren 1995;Okita and Schwartz 2006;Bernestein and Crowley 2008;Jipson and Gelman 2007); function versus mechanism (Piaget and Inhelder 1972;Granott 1991;Metz 1991;Levy and Mioduser 2008); function versus physical appearance (Kemler Nelson and 11 Swarthmore College Students 1995; Diesendruck et al 2003) and original (designer's) intended function versus current function (Bloom 1996;Matan and Carey 2001;Defeyter 2003).…”

Section: Conception Of Artificial Adaptive Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

“…More specifically, we will report on our findings concerning the following questions: By examining these questions we wish to contribute to current theoretical and research knowledge at three main levels: (a) young children's understanding of artificial adaptive behavior; (b) the potential role of the (demands and affordances) of behavior-construction processes for stretching their developmental boundaries as reported in the literature (e.g., Metz 1991); and (c) the role of the partners in the working/learning environment (adult, interface, physical system) for supporting these understandings and conceptions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Making Sense by Building Sense: Kindergarten Children’s Construction and Understanding of Adaptive Robot Behaviors

Mioduser

Levy

2010

Int J Comput Math Learning

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study explores young children's ability to construct and explain adaptive behaviors of a behaving artifact, an autonomous mobile robot with sensors. A central component of the behavior construction environment is the RoboGan software that supports children's construction of spatiotemporal events with an a-temporal rule structure. Six kindergarten children participated in the study, three girls and three boys. Activities and interviews were conducted individually along five sessions that included increasingly complex construction tasks. It was found that all of the children succeeded in constructing most such behaviors, debugging their constructions in a relatively small number of cycles. An adult's assistance in noticing relevant features of the problem was necessary for the more complex tasks that involved four complementary rules. The spatial scaffolding afforded by the RoboGan interface was well used by the children, as they consistently used partial backtracking strategies to improve their constructions, and employed modular construction strategies in the more complex tasks. The children's explanations following their construction usually capped at one rule, or two condition-action couples, one rule short of their final constructions. With respect to tasks that involved describing a demonstrated robot's behavior, in describing their constructions, explanations tended to be more rule-based, complex and mechanistic. These results are discussed with respect to the importance of making such physical/computational environments available to young children, and support of young children's learning about such intelligent systems and reasoning in developmentally-advanced forms.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Conception Of Artificial Adaptive Behaviormentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Making Sense by Building Sense: Kindergarten Children’s Construction and Understanding of Adaptive Robot Behaviors

Mioduser

Levy

2010

Int J Comput Math Learning

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Several researchers have used the gear domain as a starting point and context for learning. For example, Metz (1991) explored how elementary children think about gears through the use of physical models. Children constructed a variety of gear arrangements on a gearboard and used a "think out loud" strategy to explain what they were doing and thinking.…”

Section: Background To the Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing conceptual understanding of mechanical advantage through the use of Lego robotic technology

Chambers

Carbonaro

Murray³

2008

AJET

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Science educators advocate hands on experiences and the use of manipulatives as important for children's conceptual development. Consequently, the utilisation of Lego robotic technologies in teaching and learning has become more prevalent in school science classrooms. It is important to investigate their value as educational tools, particularly their role in helping children develop conceptual understanding of scientific principles. The purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of robotic technology with elementary age children, specifically focusing on the children's conceptual development concerning gear function and mechanical advantage. Our results indicate the robot sessions helped develop the students' understanding of gear function in relation to direction of turning, relative speed, and number of revolutions. However, when we examine the children's understanding around the concept of mechanical advantage, we still see the majority of children unable to provide an accurate explanation. The children had difficulty explaining the reasons underpinning their gear arrangement choices for making their robots fast or powerful. The results suggest that providing students with physical experiences is not enough for students to "discover" the relationship of gears to a vehicle's power and speed. A guided inquiry instructional approach is important during the early stages of developing a conceptual understanding of mechanical advantage. IntroductionRooted in constructivist theories of learning, science educators advocate hands on experiences and the use of manipulatives as important for children's conceptual development. In concert with this notion, the use of simple robotic building technologies (e.g. LEGO Mindstorms) in teaching and learning has become more prevalent in school science and technology classrooms. It is important to investigate their value as educational tools, particularly their role in helping children develop conceptual understanding of scientific principles. The purpose of this study was to explore the effectiveness of robotic building technology with elementary age children, specifically focusing on the children's conceptual development about gears in a problem solving context. Children in a Year four classroom (8 to 9 years of age) were asked to build a LEGO Mindstorms robot and, through manipulation of the gear configuration, to examine the function of gears with respect to: a) direction of turning, b) relative speed, c) the number of revolutions, and d) mechanical advantages concerning the principles of power and speed. Of particular interest, and the focus for this paper, is the children's conceptual development and understanding concerning

show abstract

“…The role and effect of explanations in science education and school science (Metz, 1991) have gained recognition and attention has now been directed to explanations within the context of teaching and learning (Knowles, 1990;Ruben, 1993). Studies of scientific explanations from various perspectives have resulted in investigations into how these scientific explanations may be transformed into effective teaching explanations.…”

Section: Explanatory Behaviourmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beliefs that manifest through newspaper items in relation to peoples’ life challenges and their potential to enhance a sustainable learning environment in school science

Mamiala

2013

TDSA

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The paper documents beliefs that manifest themselves through newspaper items and elaborates on their potential to enhance a sustainable learning environment in a school science lesson. "Learning environment" is depicted from different angles and includes virtual and real learning environments, school environments and classroom environments. Descriptive and item analyses were conducted on sixty-eight newspaper items that were identified. The nature of problems and prescriptions/solutions was categorised for each item and the paper further provides elaboration on the types of problems and recommended solutions. The results show that the "believed" structure contents in their newspaper items to catch the attention of the "believer". Lessons on the power of belief must be learnt by school science teachers if they are to succeed in creating a sustainable learning environment with improved performance in school science.

show abstract

Development of explanation: Incremental and fundamental change in children's physics knowledge

Abstract: In contrast to predictions or actions, explanations require articulating a model that accounts for the physical phenomenon.

Cited by 62 publications

References 9 publications

Making Sense by Building Sense: Kindergarten Children’s Construction and Understanding of Adaptive Robot Behaviors

Making Sense by Building Sense: Kindergarten Children’s Construction and Understanding of Adaptive Robot Behaviors

Developing conceptual understanding of mechanical advantage through the use of Lego robotic technology

Beliefs that manifest through newspaper items in relation to peoples’ life challenges and their potential to enhance a sustainable learning environment in school science

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About