Concord Consortium Blog

Dr. Gale Sinatra of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, gave a brown bag lunch at CC on the topic of using beliefs and dispositions to make judgements about scientific theories.

Summary

A Little Knowledge Can be a Dangerous Thing: Using Beliefs and Dispositions to Make Judgments about Scientific Theories

In our work on epistemological beliefs and acceptance of biological evolution (Sinatra, Southerland, McConaughy, Demastes, 2003; Sinatra & Southerland, 2002; Southerland, Sinatra, & Matthews, 2001) we have argued that learning about evolution involves epistemic conceptual change.  That is, conceptual change in the domain of science involves a change in students' beliefs about the nature of knowledge and knowing. In this presentation, I will present the results of three studies investigating the relationship between knowledge, epistemological beliefs, and acceptance of scientific explanations of phenomena.  Students with high and low levels of biology knowledge will be compared in terms of their acceptance of scientific theories and their epistemological beliefs and dispositions. The results of all three studies show that students' who view knowledge as changing and who hold a more open-minded disposition toward change, report greater acceptance of the scientific view of human evolution.  We posit that epistemic conceptual change is a result of increasing appreciation of the epistemic and ontological assumptions of the nature of science. I conclude with a description of a "nested" view of conceptual change as involving cognitive and affective change.  Finally, challenges for research and instruction are discussed.

Take part in an Arctic expedition this summer -- in comfort! Ed Hazzard, a former physics teacher and part of a team at the Concord Consortium that develops innovative uses of technology for science teaching, is traveling on a 45' wooden sailboat around the perimeter of Baffin Bay during July and August. Ed will make observations and take simple measurements, using tools that could be used in classrooms at a relatively modest cost. A blog is located at http://arctic.concord.org. Carolyn Staudt, his liaison at CC, will suggest parallel activities that students could do in their own regions.

The crew of four will leave from Nova Scotia on July 10, travel to Newfoundland, up the west coast of Greenland, down the east coast of Baffin Island and Labrador, and back to Nova Scotia by September 1. Ed signed on as the cook, but he couldn't resist doing some science along the way. He will log ocean temperature, salinity, zooplankton, and weather, and post sound files, data, and pictures at the blog.

Onset Computer Corporation, the maker of Hobo dataloggers for industry and education, is donating some of the data-collecting equipment. Rich Marvin, the iScienceProject Program Manager at Onset, is excited about this chance to tie real field measurements to discussions of global climate change. Teachers who want to try parallel weather and water measurements and write their own activities can obtain free dataloggers from Hobo. (http://www.iscienceproject.com/)

Visit the Arctic Blog now

Several Concord Consortium staff members including Janice Gobert, Paul Horwitz and Barbara Buckley, are attending the 7th annual International Conference of the Learning Sciences this week in Bloomington, Indiana. They are running a full day workshop on Monday entitled "Authoring, Assessment & Open Source: Implications for Research and Classroom Application."

This workshop will present several complementary educational technologies that support science learning through curriculum authoring and delivery, scaffolded student activities, and the logging and reporting of student interactions for purposes of research and assessment. Participants will have hands-on experience with authoring environments that allow the design of highly interactive curriculum, fine-grained data logs and reports, and scalable portal functionality. These technologies take advantage of open source models to support dynamic communities of exchange. 

Dr. William Barnett of the Chicago Field Museum gave a brown bag lunch at CC on the topic of Museums and Technology. 

Summary

Museums have a great public value that is intrinsic to our society. Museums, however, are traditional organizations, many dating back intellectually to the age of discovery.   Natural history museums are still perceived by the American populace as 'Dead Zoos' of collections. The rapid development of online content, portable technologies, and changing modes of public information consumption and creation have been a challenge for our traditional delivery of informal education and entertainment. Museums can best respond by understanding the impact on these trends for knowledge providers, rethinking their role in creating public value, and by strategic partnerships with other organizations.

Robert Tinker, CC's president, writes about the lack of Educational Innovations in our Spring 2006 @Concord newsletter:

Education cannot thrive without innovation, but effective innovations do not just happen. They need to be based on solid ideas, they need to be developed by a talented team with diverse skills, and they need to be widely disseminated…

He compares the way that Education funding is done to other large-scale projects like those of NASA, concluding:

Our radically decentralized system is duplicative and inefficient. When pushed by standards and possible sanctions, it may be able to do some things adequately, such as basic literacy and numeracy, but it fails in science and math education because these areas are complex, ever changing, and difficult to teach.

Read the full article