STUDENTS' MISPERCEPTIONS OF DYNAMICS IN SCIENCE

During the last decades most of the research inscience education has focused on the diagnosis anddocumentation of students' difficulties inunderstanding sciences. These investigations haveshown that students have frequent misperceptions ofbasic dynamics which in addition to appear acrosssituations and domains, are strongly resistant totraditional education. We propose an analyticalframework to interpret the cognitive effects ofsystem dynamics interventions in students' scienceknowledge. Based on a cognitive theory of sciencelearning denominated coordination, we suggest'seeing in levels' -thought as the ability torecognize the stock and flow structure of a system-as an appropriate mechanism for addressing studentsmisconceptions of dynamics in school sciences. Weargue that 'seeing in levels' may help students inreasoning about scientific concepts, given that itprovides a strategy for both thinking and organizingperception.

Autorentext

Maria Saldarriaga was born in Medellin, Colombia, and has incorporated system dynamics into her undergraduate, masters and ongoing PhD work. Seeing potential for system dynamics in education, she is currently living and working in Bangalore at Trio World School, where she will engage both teachers and students in system dynamics tools and methods.

Klappentext
During the last decades most of the research in science education has focused on the diagnosis and documentation of students' difficulties in understanding sciences. These investigations have shown that students have frequent misperceptions of basic dynamics which in addition to appear across situations and domains, are strongly resistant to traditional education. We propose an analytical framework to interpret the cognitive effects of system dynamics interventions in students' science knowledge. Based on a cognitive theory of science learning denominated coordination, we suggest 'seeing in levels' -thought as the ability to recognize the stock and flow structure of a system- as an appropriate mechanism for addressing students misconceptions of dynamics in school sciences. We argue that 'seeing in levels' may help students in reasoning about scientific concepts, given that it provides a strategy for both thinking and organizing perception.