How Children Construct Understanding of Science

What is Understanding?

inert knowledge: learner lacks the connection and relationship of between ideas and cannot apply the knowledge into appropriate situations.

Instead of inert knowledge, students have to develop integrated, meaningful understanding.

Understanding is a function of knowledge accumulation and knowledge integration.

Four types of understanding:

1- Inert knowledge, disconnected, unusable fragments of knowledge

2- some accumulated knowledge, integrated

3- accumulated knowledge but little integration

4- accumulated knowledge and developed integrated understanding

Types of knowledge:

Content: central concepts, principles and theories . e.g. force - Newton's first law of motion

Procedural: is necessary to find solutions to problems, e.g. knowing how and when to control variables

Metacognitive: knowledge about cognition, awareness of one's own cognition:

• strategic knowledge: e.g knowing how to use search terms to find something on Google
• knowledge of cognitive tasks: e.g understanding that data analysis might include  transforming the data into a different representation
• self-knowledge: knowing one's own weaknesses and strength in learning

Models of Teaching

1- Transformational: supporting students to make sense of material, e.g Project-based science

2 -Receptional: transmitting info and students receiving it

Social Construction of Knowledge

Stages of the 5E Instructional Model

What teacher does

• Stage 1: Engagement

pick students' interest

determine prior knowledge

invite students to ask their own questions

• Stage2: Exploration

Encourage student to student interaction

Observe students' interaction

Ask probing questions to redirect the students’ investigation and to make sense of their experiences

Give time for students to think through

• Stage 3: Explanation

Let student to use their data and experience to explain

Ask questions to help them express

Provide time for them to compare ideas

Introduce terminology when student shows interest

• Stage 4: Elaboration

Encourage student to use their experience for a new event

Reinforce students to use the terms they learned while explaining

Ask questions to help students draw conclusions

• Stage 5: Evaluation

Observe students' interaction

Let them compare ideas

Interview students to assess their understanding

Encourages students to assess their own progress

What student does

• Stage 1: Engagement

Express curiosity

think about what they already know about this

• Stage 2: Exploration

mess around materials

investigate and try different ways to find answers

compare ideas with others

• Stage 3: Explanation

explain using their own words based on their experience

interact with others

record their understandings

• Stage 4: Evaluation

Make connections between new and past experiences

Use what they have learned to explain a new event

Use scientific terms and descriptions

• Stage 5: Evaluation

Demonstrate what they understand

Compare their understanding with others and revise if necessary

Assess their own progress by comparing their current understanding with their prior knowledge

Ask new questions tfor deep understanding

Perfromance Objectives

Students will be able to (SWBAT)   +  Power Verb          +               Specific description of    assess                                      what the students
combine                 will know or will be able to do

        analyze

       apply

       summarize

     list

Ch 3 - History of Instructional Design and Technology

History of Instructional Media
Instructional media: physical means via which instruction is presented to learners.
-prior to the twentieth century, three primary means of instruction: teacher, chalkboard, and textbook
School museums: portable exhibits, stereographs, slides, films, charts - not intended to supplant the teacher
Visual instructional movement and instructional films: lantern slide projectors and stereograph viewers. Thomas Edison argued that motion picture will replace textbooks. 1914-1923, movement grew
Audiovisual Instruction movement and Instructional Radio: broadcasting, sound motion pictures, sound recordings - 1920s - 1930s
Radio gained a big attention
World War II : instructional movements slowed. But large amount of training films and filmstrips were used in military. Overhead projectors were produced.
Instructional Television: most important that affects the audiovisual movement was interest in television. Increase in 1950s -funded by Ford Foundation. In 1960s, the interest is declined.
it is been realized that instructional television had small potential in practice. Reasons include:
- the teacher resistance to change: top-down change: change by school administrators with little or no input from teachers.
- the quality of the tv programs.
- the expense of installing and maintaining tv systems in schools and failure to provide teachers with guidance
Computers for Instructional Purposes: In 1950s at IBM, computer-aided instruction (CAI) was done- which had a little impact on education.
In 1984, Papert indicated that computer was going to be a catalyst of very deep and radical change in educational system.
Recent Developments: Training in companies done by instructional media
Social media used in higher education for instructional purposes
read and create blogs, wikis, view online videos and listen podcasts
use of distance learning in higher education
availability of technology has increased in first decade of 21st century
instead of technology being used in 1990s as a drill and practice, in 21st century, technology used for:
-solve problems, analyze data, perform calculations, develop multimedia presentations, create art/music/movies/webcasts/graphics/visual displays.
-major role in US military
Reasons for instructional technology to increase in education:
- low cost
- easy accessibility of computers
-increased interactive capabilities - Moore (1989) describes three types of interactivity:
               1- between learners and instructional content
               2- between learners and the instructor
               3- among learners themselves
               Nowadays, via chat rooms, email, bulletin boards, learners can interact with the instructor and  themselves as well as the content.
- use of social media lets learners share  information and acquire new skills and knowledge


 History of Instructional Design
Origins: World War II
The Programmed Instruction Movement: mid-1950s through 1960s. Skinner's ideas regarding requirements of increasing human learning and the desired characteristics of effective instructional materials - programmed instructional materials - should present instruction in small steps, require active responses to frequent questions, provide immediate feedback, allow for learner self-pacing.
Popularization of Behavioral Objectives: identifying specific objectives learners would be expected to attain.
Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives(1956) - within the cognitive domain there are various types of learning outcomes and that there was a hierarchical relationship between the various types of outcomes.
The Criterion-Referenced Testing Movement: could be used
 - to assess students entry-level behavior
 - to determine the extent to which students had acquired the behaviors an instructional program was designed to teach.
Robert M. Gagne: Domains of Learning, Events of Instruction, and Hierarchical Analysis:
1965 - The Conditions of Learning, by Gagne: describes five domains of learning outcomes: verbal information, intellectual skills, psychomotor skills, attitudes, cognitive strategies,
Sputnik: The Indirect Launching of Formative Evaluation: a space satellite, launched in 1957, have effects on instructional design
formative evaluation: try out the drafts of instructional materials with learners prior to the final form of the materials and revise them
summative evaluation: testing the instructional materials after they are in the final form.
Early Instructional Design Models:
concepts developed: task analysis, objective specification, criterion-referenced testing
terms: instructional  design, instructional development, systematic instruction, instructional system.
1970s: Burgeoning of Interest in the Systems Approach:
interest in personal computers in 1980s has major effect on instructional design
1990s: Recognizing the Importance of Performance:
interest in constructivist views of teaching and learning has major influence on instructional design
authentic learning tasks, that reflect the complexity of the real world environment in which the learners will be using the skills they are learning
21st Century: e-Learning and Informal Learning: Internet as a means of presenting instructions to learners
Informal methods, as a means of improving learning and performance in the workplace
Social Media to share knowledge ad skills as an example of informal methods

Ch 2 - Characteristics of Instructional Design Models

A system of procedures for developing education

1-  Early ID models based on behaviorism

2-  General Systems theory become another fundamental tenet f ID.

Nine characteristics GST: Systematic: adapting rules and procedures as a way to move through a process.

Systemic: application of the creative problem-solving methods.

Responsive: accepting whatever goals are established

Interdependence:  all elements within a system are connected and depend on each other.

Redundancy: duplicate processes and duplicate procedures to prevent from failure

Dynamic: system can adjust to changing conditions.

Cybernetic:  elements communicate among themselves

Synergistic: all together elements achieve better than one can

Creativity: use of special human talents

ADDIE: based on a systematic product development

Analyze: needs assessment, identifying a problem and stating a goal.

Design: writing objectives, specifying learning activities and media,

Develop: preparing student and instruction materials

Implement: delivering the instruction in the setting which it was designed

Evaluate: both formative evalution: involves collecting data to identify needed revisions, summative evalution: collecting data to assess overall effectiveness, and revision: making necessary changes based on the formative evaluation data.

In ADDIE, one can move back and forth, doesn’t have to be step by step.

ADDIE is iterative and self correcting

Characteristic of ID:

1-    student centered: learners can be given to select their own learning objectives

2-    goal oriented:

3-    focuses on meaningful performance: instead of learners recalling information, ID prepares learners for complex behaviors and solvings of authentic problems

4-    assumes outcomes can be measured in a valid way:opposite of a paper and pencil test, observer observing learner’s performance with a checklist

5-     empirical, iterative, self-correcting: data is the heart of ID. Not linear, or sequential

6-    team effort

Pebble-in-the-Pond Approach (Merrill)

For whole problems or task

An alteration to traditional ID

Traditional ID starts with some abstract representation and has actual content  is delayed until the development of the ID process

1-    casting in a pebble, identify the problem

2-    identify the progression of such problems

3-    identify the component knowledge and skill required

4-    determine the instructional strategy

5-    interface design

4C/ID model:(Merrienboer and Kirschner)

ten steps approach:

-specifying a series of learning tasks

-learner will perform a simpler version of the whole skill and gradually move on to complex versions.

Ch 1- What field did you say you were in?

Instructional Technology definitions:
- 1963 definition:  "the design and use of messages which control the learning process"
- 1970 definition: 1 - media born of communications revolution which can be used for instructional purposes...
2- a systematic way of designing, carrying out and evaluating whole process of learning and teaching in terms of specific objectives...
1977 definition: educational technology is a complex, integrated process involving people, procedures, ideas, devices and organization, for analyzing problems and devising, implementing, evaluating and managing solutions to those problems involving all aspects of human learning.
1994 definition: beyond viewing Instructional Technology as a Process: is the theory and practice of design development, utilization, management, and evaluation of processes and resources for learning.
- Early definitions focuses on instructional media that is being produced by professionals
Definition by AECT: educational technology is study and ethical practice of facilitating learning and improving performance by creating, using and managing appropriate technological processes and resources.
 - ethical, focuses on the ones that should maintain a high level of professional conduct.
Book's definition: 
"instructional design and technology encompasses analysis of the learning and performance problems, and the design, development, implementation, evaluation and management of instructional and non-instructional processes and resources intended to improve learning and performance in a variety of settings."
- the goal of the field has changed over the years and the most recent goal is: to improve learning and performance

Cognitive conceptions of learning

Shuell, T. J. (1986, Winter). Cognitive conceptions of learning. Review of Educational Research, 56(4), 411-436.


Cognitive approaches  vs Behavioral approaches
Cognitive approaches argues that learner is active during the learning process whereas the behaviorists argue that the change happens around the learner who is passive. 
Active learner:   
1- active in metacognitive process, setting goals, plans, etc
2- active selection of stimuli
3- attempt to organize the material 
4- construction of appropriate responses
-Memory and learning require actively constructing new knowledge
Learning paradox: when the learner acquires new cognitive structure that is more advanced then the one present.
Higher level Processes in Learning
two types of metacognitive activities: 1 - regulation and orchestration 
2- what one does and does not know about material being learned