The Conceptual Complexity of Vocabulary in Elementary‐Grades Core Science Program Textbooks

Investigation of Prospective Science Teachers’ Understandings on Ergastic Substances with the Semantic Mappings

“…According to the results obtained from the research, it can be said that conducting experiments and preparing the semantic mappings of concepts have important contributions to the teaching, researching and associating of concepts. When the related literature was examined, it was found that semantic mappings of concepts and experiments were effective in concept teaching and that their results showed parallelism with the results of this study (Antonacci, 1991;Candan, 1998;Çepni & Ayvacı, 2006;Dilek & Yürük, 2013;Fitzgerald, Elmore, Kung & Stennen, 2017;Gödek, Polat & Kaya, 2018;Kesercioğlu, Balım, Öztürk & Çavaş, 2004;Lowe, Newcombe & Stumpers, 2012;Olympiou & Zacharias, 2012;Patrizi, Ice & Burgess, 2013;Reza & Azizah, 2019). According to the results of this research, it can be said that prospective science teachers have difficulties to prepare the semantic mappings.…”

“…Concepts in science that involve complex and interrelated concepts should be organized to form coherent information structures (Koponen & Pehkonen, 2010). According to Fitzgerald, Elmore, Kung and Stennen (2017), various researches have revealed that individuals have learned many concepts, especially more complex ones, by establishing relationships between concepts (by forming networks). One of the two-dimensional visual tools demonstrating the relationships between concepts by showing the names and properties of concepts and how they are used by students are a semantic mapping (İnel-Ekici, 2014).…”

Using a Sequential Multiple Assignment Randomized Trial (SMART) to Develop an Adaptive K–2 Literacy Intervention With Personalized Print Texts and App-Based Digital Activities

“…In other words, meaningful learning enables children to “hook” newly learned content from text into existing information and to grow their domain knowledge (Ausubel, 1968; P. C. Brown, Roediger, & McDaniel, 2014; Fitzgerald, Elmore, Kung, & Stenner, 2017). In addition to meaningful learning, apps should promote social interactions between children and parents (and other family members) to foster language development (Kremar, Grela, & Lin, 2007; Roseberry, Hirsh-Pasek, Parish-Morris, & Golinkoff, 2009; Sawyer, 2006).…”

When Complexity Is Your Friend: Modeling the Complex Problem Space of Vocabulary

“…Recent work indicates there are a core group of words present in these texts (i.e., 2451 morphological families making up 58% of the 19,500 most frequent words in text [12] and we also know there are a larger set of academic words that students tend to encounter in their school learning [13][14][15]. We further know that words are learned in networks, including conceptual groups [16] and in morphological families [17]. This suggests that overall word knowledge likely matters more than knowledge of a specific word or set of words, unless that set of words represents a larger instructionally relevant principle (such as a concept or skill like learning words in morphological families).…”

“…That is, "a person who already knows the words hot, cold, and cool has already acquired some of the components of the word warm" [20] (p. 272). Fitzgerald, Elmore, Kung, and Stenner [16] argue that, especially in science learning, the development of complex networks of interrelated vocabulary knowledge co-develops with children's understandings of complex concepts about the world around them. This is important because the goal of vocabulary growth is not an end, but a means of supporting students in communicating effectively with a myriad of audiences.…”