Promoting Transfer by Grounding Complex Systems Principles

Goldstone, Robert L.; Wilensky, Uri

doi:10.1080/10508400802394898

Cited by 177 publications

(154 citation statements)

References 114 publications

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“…For instance, flocking formations emerge from simple rules and interactions among birds (i.e., stay close to other birds, fly in the same direction as other birds, and stay a certain distance away from other birds), yet learners are likely to endorse the idea that an alpha goose must lead the rest. Further, learners resist seeing randomness as conducive to order and pattern (Goldstone and Wilensky, 2008). Learners may not fully endorse self-organization and decentralization because they cannot mentally model complex systems.…”

Section: Complex Systems Principles Are Important But Difficult To Lmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Complex systems are systems made up of many independent units (aka "agents") whose interaction produce higher order emergent behavior [for more details, see Goldstone and Wilensky (2008)]. Complex systems approaches, which enable researchers to study phenomena that have multiple causes and consequences and have structure at many different temporal, spatial, and organizational levels, have had a large impact on the fields of math and science (e.g., Deneubourg et al, 1986;Forrest, 1991;Dawkins, 1996;Epstein and Axtell, 1996) and are having an increasing impact on engineering, medicine, finance, law, and management (Jacobson and Wilensky, 2006).…”

Section: Complex Systems Principles Are Important But Difficult To Lmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, student interactions with physical elements during modeling has produced transferable knowledge, especially when the models are relatively idealized (Goldstone and Sakamoto, 2003;Goldstone and Wilensky, 2008). For example, students who learned about "competitive specialization" in a situation involving abstract ants and food transferred that knowledge to a situation involving neurons learning to differentially respond to patterns (Goldstone and Son, 2005).…”

Section: Transferring Complex Systems Principles Is Particularly Diffmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Through well-designed experiences, the perceived similarity between instances can be adapted so that formerly dissimilar situations seem similar (Goldstone and Wilensky, 2008;Goldstone et al, 2011). Subjective similarities between situations are malleable rather than fixed.…”

Section: Transferring Complex Systems Principles Is Particularly Diffmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Sixth, computer modeling languages offer new cognitive tools for describing complex systems phenomena (Goldstone and Wilensky, 2008). Teaching children relational language, language that emphasizes relations between objects, prompts them to notice abstract commonalities (Loewenstein and Gentner, 2005); teaching students a new computer modeling language may shift how they view and describe situations.…”

Section: Programming Should Promote Complex Systems Transfermentioning

confidence: 99%

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Instruction in Computer Modeling Can Support Broad Application of Complex Systems Knowledge

Tullis

Goldstone

2017

Front. Educ.

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Learners often struggle to grasp the important, central principles of complex systems, which describe how interactions between individual agents can produce complex, aggregate-level patterns. Learners have even more difficulty transferring their understanding of these principles across superficially dissimilar instantiations of the principles. Here, we provide evidence that teaching high school students an agent-based modeling language can enable students to apply complex system principles across superficially different domains. We measured student performance on a complex systems assessment before and after 1 week training in how to program models using NetLogo (Wilensky, 1999a). Instruction in NetLogo helped two classes of high school students apply complex systems principles to a broad array of phenomena not previously encountered. We argue that teaching an agent-based computational modeling language effectively combines the benefits of explicitly defining the abstract principles underlying agent-level interactions with the advantages of concretely grounding knowledge through interactions with agent-based models.

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Section: Complex Systems Principles Are Important But Difficult To Lmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Complex Systems Principles Are Important But Difficult To Lmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Transferring Complex Systems Principles Is Particularly Diffmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Transferring Complex Systems Principles Is Particularly Diffmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Programming Should Promote Complex Systems Transfermentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Instruction in Computer Modeling Can Support Broad Application of Complex Systems Knowledge

Tullis

Goldstone

2017

Front. Educ.

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Video‐game training and naïve reasoning about object motion

Masson

Bub

Lalonde

2011

Applied Cognitive Psychology

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Naïve conceptions and associated misconceptions about object motion arise in part from limitations on perceptual experience. Certain commercial video games, such as Enigmo, provide interactive experience with realistic trajectories and practice at purposefully manipulating those trajectories. We tested the possibility that this experience could modify naïve intuitions about object motion, bringing them into closer alignment with Newtonian principles of mechanics. Fifty-one middle-school children were randomly assigned to play either Enigmo or a strategy game for six sessions. Only the Enigmo group improved their ability to generate realistic trajectories, but this improvement was limited to learning about the general parabolic shape of trajectories. After training, both groups received a 30-minute tutorial on Newtonian principles which generated a much larger improvement in producing realistic trajectories than did game play. This improvement was of similar magnitude in both training groups, indicating that gaming experience provided no advantage in deriving benefits from direct instruction.

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A dual step transfer model: Sport and non‐sport extracurricular activities and the enhancement of academic achievement

Bradley

Conway

2016

British Educational Res J

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This paper explores the influence that school sport and non-sport extracurricular activities (ssEC and nsEC) can have on academic achievement. A central thesis of this paper is that, despite the literature on the perceived and presumed benefits of school sport and of non-sport activities, theorising a model of the process by which the benefit is attained, which we conceptualise as a case of transfer, has been neglected.Cognisant of the long-standing literature on transfer and the recent resurgence in transfer research, we present a dual step transfer hypothesis by which ssEC and nsEC activities confer academic achievement benefits. Key to this dual step transfer hypothesis is the influence these activities have on non-cognitive skills, whereby the activity promotes non-cognitive skills (i.e. motivational-social skills), which in turn promotes learning and academic achievement. We present an overview of transfer from the early discussions framing transfer to either mental muscle or identical elements mechanisms, to more recent discussions and new perspectives on what counts as transfer. To this discussion we compare research linking academic achievement to school physical education, school sport, and school non-sport activities. We place particular emphasis on extracurricular activities and the potential influence they can have on non-cognitive characteristics. In making our argument we weigh up the relative support for dual step transfer within extant literature on both areas, and in doing so return to take a position on the long-standing and divergent framing of transfer in terms of either mental muscle or identical elements mechanisms.

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Promoting Transfer by Grounding Complex Systems Principles

Abstract: Journal of the Learning SciencesPublication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information:

Cited by 177 publications

References 114 publications

Instruction in Computer Modeling Can Support Broad Application of Complex Systems Knowledge

Instruction in Computer Modeling Can Support Broad Application of Complex Systems Knowledge

Video‐game training and naïve reasoning about object motion

A dual step transfer model: Sport and non‐sport extracurricular activities and the enhancement of academic achievement

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