Relationships among level of intellectual development, cognitive style, and grades in a college biology course

Lawson, Anton E.

doi:10.1002/sce.3730640111

Cited by 37 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 16 publications

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“…A Cronbach ␣ reliability coefficient of .75 was obtained in a pilot study of 37 10th-grade students. Validity of the test was established through numerous studies (e.g., Lawson, 1978Lawson, , 1979Lawson, , 1980aLawson, , 1980bLawson, , 1982Lawson, , 1983Lawson & Weser, 1990).…”

Section: Instrumentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Linking Brain Growth with the Development of Scientific Reasoning Ability and Conceptual Change during Adolescence

Kwon

Lawson

2000

J. Res. Sci. Teach.

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The hypothesis that an early adolescent brain growth plateau and spurt exists and that this plateau and spurt influence students' ability to reason scientifically and to learn theoretical science concepts was tested. In theory, maturation of the prefrontal lobes during early adolescence allows for improvements in students' abilities to inhibit task-irrelevant information and coordinate task-relevant information, which along with both physical and social experience influences scientific reasoning ability and the ability to reject scientific misconceptions and accept scientific conceptions. Two hundred ten students ages 13 -16 years enrolled in four Korean secondary schools were administered tests of four prefrontal lobe activities, a test of scientific reasoning ability, and a test of air pressure concepts derived from kinetic-molecular theory. A series of 14 lessons designed to teach the concepts were then taught. The concepts test was then readministered following instruction. As predicted, among the 13-and 14-year-olds, performance on the prefrontal lobe measures remained similar or regressed. Performance then improved considerably among the 15-and 16-year-olds. Also as expected, the measures of prefrontal lobe activity correlated highly with scientific reasoning ability. In turn, prefrontal lobe activity and scientific reasoning ability predicted concept gains and posttest performance. A principal components analysis showed that the study variables had two main components, which were interpreted as an inhibiting and a representing component. Therefore, theoretical concept acquisition was interpreted as a process involving both the inhibition of task-irrelevant information (i.e., the rejection of intuitively derived misconceptions) and the representation of task-relevant information (i.e, complex hypothetico-deductive arguments and counterintuitive scientific conceptions about nonobservable entities). © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: [44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59][60][61][62] 2000 Theoretical RationaleThe purpose of the present research was to test the theory that the acquisition of theoretical concepts (e.g., air pressure) as a consequence of science instruction depends also on the development of hypothetico-deductive reasoning ability. Furthermore, the development of hypothetico-deductive reasoning depends in part on maturation of the brain's prefrontal lobes. In theory, the acquisition of a theoretical concept such as air pressure depends in part on the development of hypothetico-deductive reasoning ability because this ability is needed to construct arguments used to reject intuitively derived misconceptions (e.g., suction) prior to acquiring theoretically derived scientific concepts (i.e., undergo the necessary conceptual change). As depicted in Figure 1, the development of hypothetico-deductive reasoning ability depends in part on maturation of the brain's prefrontal lobes. Presumably this is so because such maturation results in increases i...

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Section: Instrumentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Linking Brain Growth with the Development of Scientific Reasoning Ability and Conceptual Change during Adolescence

Kwon

Lawson

2000

J. Res. Sci. Teach.

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“…Neimark (1977) has further suggested that: (a) the apparent nonuniversality of incidence of formal operations might well be an artifact of poor performance of nonanalytic individuals under the traditional ambiguous instructions, and (b) the proportion of nonformal subjects in various reported studies roughly corresponds to the reported relative frequency of field dependence in that population. Recent evidence, however, shows that not all concrete operational subjects are field-dependent, as Neimark's position would suggest (Lawson, 1980;Niaz, 1987a).…”

Section: Student Performance In Watermentioning

confidence: 91%

Student Performance in Water Pouring and Balance Beam Tasks: effect of manipulation of perceptual field factor

Níaz

1988

Research in Science & Technological Education

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“…There are encouraging signs that explicit efforts, directed at providing students with repeated opportu-nities for abstract reasoning in circumstances they can encompass without being rushed beyond endurance, do lead to statistically significant improvement in reasoning capacity (Arons, 1976(Arons, , 1977(Arons, , 1990Lawson, 1980;McDermott, Piternick, & Rosenquist, 1980;Whimbey & Whimbey, 1975).…”

Section: Research On Intellectual Developmentmentioning

confidence: 94%

Uses of the past: Reflections on United States physics curriculum development 1955 to 1990

Arons

1993

Interchange

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A personal assessment is made of the United States experience in physics curriculum development and teacher education over the past 35 years. It is concluded that, although substantial improvements were achieved in the development of hands-on primary and secondary school curricula, their effectiveness was in large part negated by logistic problems in implementation and deficiencies in teacher preparation. At the college/tmiversity level, existing materials tend to cover far too much material far too rapidly, and, except for small, separated pockets of promising activity, inadequate attention is being paid, in the aggregate, to students' levels of cognitive development and to the learning problems revealed in research on teaching and learning. Some directions of effort that might prove helpful are described.

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Relationships among level of intellectual development, cognitive style, and grades in a college biology course

Cited by 37 publications

References 16 publications

Linking Brain Growth with the Development of Scientific Reasoning Ability and Conceptual Change during Adolescence

Linking Brain Growth with the Development of Scientific Reasoning Ability and Conceptual Change during Adolescence

Student Performance in Water Pouring and Balance Beam Tasks: effect of manipulation of perceptual field factor

Uses of the past: Reflections on United States physics curriculum development 1955 to 1990

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