Seeding evolutionary thinking by engaging children in modeling its foundations

Abstract

Although the core work of science is oriented toward constructing, revising, applying, and defending models of the natural world, models appear only rarely in school science, and usually only as illustrations, rather than theory building tools. We describe the rationale and structure for a learning progression to understand the development of modeling under supportive forms of instruction. In this case, elementary and middle school students are modeling “big ideas” in the life sciences that hold the promise of serving as a conceptual foundation for reasoning about the theory of evolution later in their education. In this conceptual paper, we sketch changes from grades K through 6 in representational and modeling practices across three interlocking constructs that, considered collectively, comprise the aforementioned conceptual foundation: Change (in individuals and populations), Variation, and Ecosystems. The paper closes by delineating pedagogical principles for supporting the development of modeling across grades of instruction. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed 96:701–724, 2012

Exploring the Impact of Students’ Learning Approach on Collaborative Group Modeling of Blood Circulation

“…In practice, students are provided with scientists' models to serve as simple illustrations; however, they generally receive little time for exploring the evidence of the models, or for constructing their own explanatory models of the phenomena (Lehrer and Schauble 2012;Windschitl et al 2008). Accordingly, students frequently cannot see the value of the models explaining the phenomena, and they fail to see the differences between the scientific models and the actual phenomena (Krajcik and Merritt 2012).…”

“…Accordingly, students frequently cannot see the value of the models explaining the phenomena, and they fail to see the differences between the scientific models and the actual phenomena (Krajcik and Merritt 2012). Consequently, it has been acknowledged that modeling practices should be encouraged cumulatively and systemically, as opposed to being imparted as if they were a matter of course in which the evidence is completely defined without being open to question or argument (Lehrer and Schauble 2012;Windschitl et al 2008). Clement (2008) suggested the co-construction of models in a group modeling context as a way to overcome the problems surrounding model-based learning.…”

Decentralized thinking and understanding of evolution in K-12 evolution education

“…Previous work (Bishop and Anderson, 1990;Anderson et al 2002;McVaugh et al 2011;Lehrer and Schauble 2012), proposed four core areas of critical importance for understanding the concept of evolution-variation, selection, inheritance, and deep time-all of which present challenges to understanding evolution. The current work proposes adding a fifth component: a decentralized mindset (Smith 2010;Yates and Marek, 2013).…”

“…Evolution then is a mixture of both types of processes and understanding these characteristics is essential to understanding evolution. Previous work (Bishop and Anderson, 1990;Anderson et al 2002;McVaugh et al 2011;Lehrer and Schauble 2012) described the core ideas of variation, selection, inheritance, and deep time as all being essential to integrate within a kindergarten through undergraduate college (K-16) biology curriculum in order to obtain a deeper conceptual understanding of evolution. The current work describes the proposed addition of decentralized thinking to an existing framework (McVaugh et al 2011) and illuminates instances where a lack of understanding of decentralized thinking is apparent in classroom instruction.…”

Developing a Four-level Learning Progression and Assessment for the Concept of Buoyancy

“…Besides the molecular genetics concept, learning progression studies in the field of life science have also been conducted on the concept of biodiversity and ecosystem. Examples include the study on the development of complex thinking about biodiversity (Songer, Trinh, & Killgore, 2009); a sketch of the changes in Kindergarteners' representational and modeling practices about the concept of change, variation, and ecosystem (Lehrer & Schauble, 2012); an interpretation of student responses to a multiple-choice classroom assessment linked to a learning progression for natural selection (Furtak, Morrison, & Kroog, 2014); and a study on evaluating arguments to present evidence about knowledge of ecology (Gotwals & Songer, 2013). Gotwals and Songer (2013) conducted a dualpronged validity study using a think-aloud protocol and an item difficulty analysis.…”