contrasting cases can facilitate middle school science learning at scale
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Contrasting Cases can Facilitate Middle
School Science Learning at
ScaleChristian Schunn, Liz Richey, Louis Alfieri,
Kalyani Raghavan, & Mary Sartoris
Funded by: Grant R305C080009 to The 21st Century Partnership for STEM Education. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent views of the U.S. Department of Education
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The 21st Century Center for Research and Development in Cognition and
Science
The 21st Century Partnership for STEM Education
Objective: To improve current science curricula and identify general principles for the design of curriculum that could be easily applied to other science curricula to improve student learning.
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Textbook Kit based
The Design Challenge
Curriculum
Holt Full Option Science System (FOSS)
Biological Sciences
Cells, Heredity, & Classification Diversity of Life
Earth Sciences Inside the Restless Earth Earth History Weather
and Water
Physical Sciences Introduction to Matter NA
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PK/
Mis
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Overview of Cognitive Science PrinciplesContrasting Cases: Introducing new material
by simultaneously comparing and contrasting several relevant cases
Prior Knowledge & Misconceptions: Identifying areas of known conceptual difficulty in science learning in order to guide emphasis in planning modifications and conducting teacher professional development
Visualizations: Helping students gain proficiency with conventions used in scientific graphics, such as labeling, captions, relative scale, perspective, etc.
Spaced Testing: Systematically revisiting material learned earlier and having students recall it repeatedly over extended periods of time
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Theo
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Contrasting Cases—TheoryMultiple analogs, restatement of
principle support schema acquisition (Gick & Holyoak, 1983)
Guided comparison better than instructions to compare only (Gentner, Lowenstein, & Thompson, 2003)
Contrasting cases before direct instruction are more beneficial (Schwartz & Bransford, 1998)
Analogies used in classrooms, often without cognitive supports (Richland, Zur, & Holyoak, 2007)
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Theo
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Contrasting Cases: It’s this one!Science seeks make parsimonious
explanations of complex phenomena:Only some features of rich situations
participateFeatures can be abstract
Students often don’t see these features
Experiments, lectures, readings are then misencoded
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T. rex
• found in marine environments• moves by swimming• eats plankton
• found in African rainforests• also walks on all fours• eats fruits, leaves, and small animalsBonoboBarnacle
• lived 65 to 68 million yrs ago• ate other animals
• found on land• move by walking upright
• made up of many different kinds of cells• each cell has nucleus• move• ingest food found in environment• reproduce sexually
Conduct within-category contrasts to pull out critical features
Inte
rven
tion
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Inte
rven
tion
Conduct between-category contrasts to highlight similarities and differences
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Inte
rven
tion
Many Issues in Translation1. Same effect in both curricula?
1. Inquiry -> More direct instruction2. Textbook -> More inquiry
2. Incomplete principles (many decisions remain)
3. No free time: What gets deleted?
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Pilo
t D
ata
Pilot Study, Textbook Unit3 teachers, teach both ways across
sections112 Control students168 Experimental students
General CC-Direct CC-Transfer0.25
0.30
0.35
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0.65
ControlExperiment
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Next stepsWave 2: More assessment practice
Cases propose, materials refine, what cements?
Fidelity of implementation?How do teachers enact at the micro-
level?What factors prevent enactment at the
macro-level?
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