Abstract
Modern science standards emphasize knowledge-in-use, i.e., connecting scientific practices with content. For knowledge to become usable in knowledge-in-use performances, students need well organized knowledge networks that allow them to activate and connect sets of relevant ideas across contexts, i.e. students need integrated knowledge. We conducted a longitudinal interview study with 30 students in a 7th grade energy unit and used network analysis to investigate students’ integrated knowledge, i.e., their knowledge networks. Linking these results with results from knowledge-in-use assessments, we found a strong connection between integrated knowledge and knowledge-in-use about energy. Further, we found evidence that well-connected ideas around the idea of energy transfer were particularly helpful for using energy ideas in the knowledge-in-use assessments. We present network analysis as a valuable extension of existing approaches to investigating students’ knowledge networks and the connection between them and knowledge-in-use.
Highlights
We conducted a longitudinal interview study with 30 students in a 7th grade energy unit and used network analysis to investigate students’ integrated knowledge, i.e., their knowledge networks. Linking these results with results from knowledge-in-use assessments, we found a strong connection between integrated knowledge and knowledge-in-use about energy
Science standards such as the US generation science standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013) or the German Bildungsstandards (Sekretariat der ständigen Konferenz der Kultusminister der Länder in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, 2004) emphasize that a central goal of science education is that students are enabled to use their knowledge to make sense of the designed and natural world, i.e., students should be enabled to demonstrate knowledge-in-use by integrating disciplinary knowledge with scientific practices (Harris, Krajcik, Pellegrino, & McElhaney, 2016)
The premise of the many current standards documents emphasis on a small set of powerful science ideas, such as the US Framework for K-12 Science Education (National Research Council, 2012) or the German Bildungsstandards (Sekretariat der ständigen Konferenz der Kultusminister der Länder in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, 2004), is that having a well-developed knowledge base organized around major ideas of a domain is the basis of scientific literacy (Bransford, 2000)
Summary
Science standards such as the US generation science standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013) or the German Bildungsstandards (Sekretariat der ständigen Konferenz der Kultusminister der Länder in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, 2004) emphasize that a central goal of science education is that students are enabled to use their knowledge to make sense of the designed and natural world, i.e., students should be enabled to demonstrate knowledge-in-use by integrating disciplinary knowledge with scientific practices (Harris, Krajcik, Pellegrino, & McElhaney, 2016). L. Liu, Ryoo, Linn, Sato, & Svihla, 2015; Nordine, Krajcik, & Fortus, 2011; Won, Krabbe, Ley, Treagust, & Fischer, 2017) These studies have often used the knowledge integration perspective (Linn, 2006), which views learning as a process in which students develop increasingly better organized networks of ideas, i.e., while students learn, they (re)organize their knowledge networks around core ideas in a domain. These knowledge networks are considered to be the basis that allows students to Kubsch et al / Students’ Integrated Knowledge and Knowledge-in-Use. Knowledge, or the organization of knowledge, is often characterized as a network-like structure (e.g., Anderson, 1983; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2018). Students that have an integrated knowledge have well organized knowledge networks around core ideas which allow them to activate and connect relevant ideas across context
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