Conceptual Change Research Articles

Non-empirical methods for ethics research on digital technologies in medicine, health care and public health: a systematic journal review

Bioethics has developed approaches to address ethical issues in health care, similar to how technology ethics provides guidelines for ethical research on artificial intelligence, big data, and robotic applications. As these digital technologies are increasingly used in medicine, health care and public health, thus, it is plausible that the approaches of technology ethics have influenced bioethical research. Similar to the “empirical turn” in bioethics, which led to intense debates about appropriate moral theories, ethical frameworks and meta-ethics due to the increased use of empirical methodologies from social sciences, the proliferation of health-related subtypes of technology ethics might have a comparable impact on current bioethical research. This systematic journal review analyses the reporting of ethical frameworks and non-empirical methods in argument-based research articles on digital technologies in medicine, health care and public health that have been published in high-impact bioethics journals. We focus on articles reporting non-empirical research in original contributions. Our aim is to describe currently used methods for the ethical analysis of ethical issues regarding the application of digital technologies in medicine, health care and public health. We confine our analysis to non-empirical methods because empirical methods have been well-researched elsewhere. Finally, we discuss our findings against the background of established methods for health technology assessment, the lack of a typology for non-empirical methods as well as conceptual and methodical change in bioethics. Our descriptive results may serve as a starting point for reflecting on whether current ethical frameworks and non-empirical methods are appropriate to research ethical issues deriving from the application of digital technologies in medicine, health care and public health.

Engaging seventh-grade students in prediction-observation-explanation of plant absorbance/transport phenomena: impact on relational conceptual changes and scientific inquiry abilities

ABSTRACT This study examined the impact of a Prediction-Observation-Explanation (POE) intervention on 15 seventh-grade students’ relational conceptual changes and scientific inquiry abilities as they investigated the plant absorbance/transport phenomena in a photosynthesis learning sequence. The variation theory of learning that promotes intellectual empathy underpinned the study’s pedagogy. A granular phenomenography analysis of students’ pre-post inter-intra-explanations through writing and drawing resulted in seven theoretical descriptive categories. A relational conceptual change perspective involved in the interventional investigations resulted in 1) adding and deleting categories of ideas from pre-to-post teaching, 2) change in the number of students within the categories of ideas, 3) the replacement of everyday language with scientific knowledge, and 4) the complexity of students’ responses from pre-to post-teaching. In assessing students’ scientific inquiry ability levels with a POE analytic rubric of writing and drawing worksheets, 18% and 82% were developing and proficient, respectively.

Adenosine Triphosphate and Adenylate Energy Charge in Ready-to-Eat Food.

It is commonly accepted that dietary nucleotides should be considered as essential nutrients originating mainly but not exclusively from meat and fish dishes. Most research in food science related to nutrition nucleotides is focused on raw products, while the effects of thermal processing of ready-to-eat food on nucleotide content are largely overlooked by the scientific community. The aim of this study is to investigate the impact of thermal processing and cold storage on the content of dietary nucleotides in freshly prepared and canned ready-to-eat meat and fish food. The concentrations of ATP, ADP, AMP, IMP, Ino, and Hx were determined using NMR, HPLC, FPMLC, and ATP bioluminescence analytical techniques; freshness indices K and K1 and adenylate energy charge (AEC) values were estimated to assess the freshness status and confirm a newly unveiled phenomenon of the reappearance of adenylate nucleotides. It was found that in freshly prepared at 65 °C ≤ T ≤ +100 °C and canned food, the concentration of free nucleotides was in the range of 0.001-0.01 µmol/mL and remained unchanged for a long time during cold storage; the correct distribution of mole fractions of adenylates corresponding to 0 < AEC < 0.5 was observed compared to 0.2 < AEC < 1.0 in the original raw samples, with either a high or low content of residual adenylates. It could be assumed that heating at nonenzymatic temperatures T > 65 °C can rupture cell membranes and release residual intracell nucleotides in quite a meaningful concentration. These findings may lead to a conceptual change in the views on food preparation processes, taking into account the phenomenon of the free adenylates renaissance and AEC bioenergetics.

Neural evidence of core foundations and conceptual change in preschool numeracy.

Symbolic numeracy first emerges as children learn the meanings of number words and how to use them to precisely count sets of objects. This development starts before children enter school and forms a foundation for lifelong mathematics achievement. Despite its importance, exactly how children acquire this basic knowledge is unclear. Here we test competing theories of early number learning by measuring event-related brain potentials during a novel number word-quantity comparison task in 3-4-year-old preschool children (N=128). We find several qualitative differences in neural processing of number by conceptual stage of development. Specifically, we find differences in early attention-related parietal electrophysiology (N1), suggesting that less conceptually advanced children process arrays as individual objects and more advanced children distribute attention over the entire set. Subsequently, we find that only more conceptually advanced children show later-going frontal (N2) sensitivity to the numerical-distance relationship between the number word and visual quantity. The nature of this response suggested thatexact rather than approximate numerical meanings were being associated with number words over frontal sites. No evidence of numerical distance effects was observed over posterior scalp sites. Together these results suggest that children may engage parallel individuation of objects to learn the meanings of the first few number words, but, ultimately, create new exact cardinal value representations for number words that cannot be defined in terms of core, nonverbal number systems. More broadly, these results document an interaction between attentional and general cognitive mechanisms in cognitive development. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Conceptual development in numeracy is associated with a shift in attention from objects to sets. Children acquire meanings of the first few number words through associations with parallel attentional individuation of objects. Understanding of cardinality is associated with attentional processing of sets rather than individuals. Brain signatures suggest children attribute exact rather than approximate numerical meanings to the first few number words. Number-quantity relationship processing for the first few number words is evident in frontal but not parietal scalp electrophysiology of young children.

الإنسان وبيئة الوسيط الرقمي: تأثير مواقع التواصل الاجتماعي على طرق تفكير وتعبير الإنسان

This paper seeks, using the interpretive philosophical approach, to look into the issue of the impact of digital media on human life and ways of thinking and expression. This paper aims to analyze this issue interpretatively and link it to historical transformations in the field of media ecology in order to adopt a forward-looking view instead of a numerical analysis of the available information. The issue, as this paper sees it, lacks the philosophical dimension to discuss the characteristics of social media and link changes that these social media have brought on humans with changes that humans have brought on various concepts such as culture, thought, and society. This paper concluded that social media are a different revolution in communication media. It changed the procedures of the communication process, bringing the margin groups into the position of the elites and returning the elites to a position that is close to the position of the margin groups. The margins have become the agent that determines the ways of building new social relationships and carries out the process of transforming from traditional relationships to digital relationships. Thus, concepts change and are shaped by a different perception (the margin group). By carefully reading the characteristics of three social media (Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp), three common characteristics and features emerged that shaped and influenced their users: openness, permanence and continuity, and changing concepts.

Weathering Words: A Cross-linguistic Analysis of Metaphorical Frames of Climate Change Discourse in English and German Online News Outlets

Climate change is undeniably a major challenge of the 21st century and those to come. While scientists agree on this, the public does not as opinions range from climate change deniers to those who devote their lives to fighting it. News media play a crucial role in shaping the public’s opinion on climate change and as they have a significant influence on the public discourse. This paper offers a cross-linguistic comparison of conceptual climate change metaphors in online news outlets from four different countries and two languages. Using conceptual metaphor analysis, I identified prevalent source domains to conceptualize the causes, effects, and responses to climate change. Overall, I found three shared metaphorical frames: war, destination, and construction, as well as additional metaphors in each language. The analysis revealed war and destination as most dominant source domains through which effects and responses are framed. This suggests news media emphasize the severity of effects and urgency to respond through creating a threatening image of climate change, which we do have the power to fight. The pervasive use of these two metaphors in both languages suggest a common understanding climate change.

Research on University Translation Pedagogy Guided by the Theory of Multiple Intelligences

Translation pedagogy is a key and difficult part of college English, and students have certain difficulties to learn and master. With the deepening implementation of educational reform, there is an urgent need for a drastic reform of translation pedagogy. Only in this way can we cultivate high-quality skilled talents that meet the needs of society. Applying the theory of multiple intelligences to translation pedagogy not only promotes conceptual change but also makes translation pedagogy more personalized, which is conducive to stimulating students’ learning and exploration enthusiasm and improving the level of translation pedagogy. This article provides an in-depth analysis of translation pedagogy based on the theory of multiple intelligences in order to provide a useful reference for frontline teachers.

Addressing the climate emergency with educational approaches: a bibliometric analysis of climate change education scholarship

This study uses bibliometric techniques to explore the international knowledge base on climate change education (CCE), which considers education as crucial for addressing the climate emergency through fostering climate-literate citizens. Analyzing two decades of scientific literature on CCE, we identify evolving considerations, foci, trends, and recommendations, examining a total of 1,264 articles published between 2000 and 2022 in educational-related fields in Web of Science. Using bibliometric techniques, we assessed research trends, author co-citations and journal citations to reveal an evolving publication landscape, including shifts in locations of productive researchers, influential articles, and leading journals publishing CCE studies. Bibliometric techniques help to identify the intellectual knowledge structure and inter-journal referencing, encompassing Theoretical Basis of CCE, Psychology of CCE and Communication, Climate Change within Socioscientific Issues, Conceptions of Climate Change, and Epistemology in CCE. Based on the trends, association networks, limitations and gaps revealed by this analysis, we conclude with suggestions for future research.

Analysis of Interview Results on The Remediation Process of The Dynamic Equilibrium Concept With The Representation-Metacognitive Reinforcement Conceptual Change Model (R-MR CCM)

Objective: This research aims to determine conceptions and changes in conceptions and analyze the results of interviews regarding the remediation process of the dynamic equilibrium concept. Theoretical Framework: Theories associated with student misconceptions, methods for identifying student misconceptions, and methods for resolving student misconceptions. Method: The method used in this study is a mixed method which is a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, namely the Concurrent Embedded Strategy, which is a combination of qualitative methods and quantitative methods carried out at the same time. This method is very useful for students to find out the conceptions and misconceptions that occur in students. Results and Discussion: After conducting interviews and tests on respondents, the results of the analysis were obtained in the form of misconceptions among respondents that could be identified in the test and interview results at the stage of creating cognitive conflict and respondents could realize the misconceptions experienced after going through the stage of providing assistance for equilibration and using metacognition on an example of a concept so that respondents could dispelling misconceptions altogether. Research Implications: To reduce students' misconceptions about chemical equilibrium material, it is necessary to carry out research on this. With this gradual test instrument, students can get instant feedback and correct any misconceptions they have. Originality/Value: To provide insight into students' perceptions of the misconceptions they experience and how to reduce existing misconceptions. Apart from that, it is to provide insight to teachers regarding how to identify and reduce misconceptions that occur in students.

Teacher Knowledge and Confidence Integrating Social Change Concepts in K–12 Classrooms

The purpose of this survey research was to examine the perspectives of K–12 classroom teachers about their knowledge of social change concepts and their confidence in implementing these into their existing curriculum. A questionnaire was used to (a) examine the perspectives of K–12 classroom teachers about the knowledge, skills, and resources they need to implement social change concepts into their teaching and (b) define areas of social change that teachers struggle to implement in K–12 classrooms. We employed Wilcoxen signed rank tests to determine if differences existed between what teachers reported they knew and their confidence in integrating 11 social change issues and their self-reported comfort level integrating those issues into a classroom. Findings showed that teachers are concerned about social change issues, as most of the 199 participants listed issues about race and digital literacy among the top issues needing to be integrated into K–12 curriculum. Open-ended responses were open-coded and indicated that teachers have social change knowledge but may lack the training and support from the administration to successfully integrate these issues into their teaching.

On a New Taxonomy of Concepts and Conceptual Change: In Search of the Brain’s Probabilistic Language of Learning Scientific Concepts

On a New Taxonomy of Concepts and Conceptual Change: In Search of the Brain’s Probabilistic Language of Learning Scientific Concepts

The Development and Varieties of “Oneness” in Early Daoism

Abstract Having both similarities with and differences from dao 道, yi 一 is an important concept which occupies an important position in early Daoist thought. As is the case with dao, “oneness” can also be traced back to the Laozi and subsequently went through a complex process of conceptual change. As a foundational concept, it serves as a description of dao while also referring to the innermost basis for the emergence and unity of everything that exists. As the foundation of the dao of political authority and effective governance, “oneness” refers to a basic principle and method which the ruler should grasp and put into practice 執一, but also designates an elementary goal and value in the ruler’s own process of self-cultivation 貴一. In comparison to the idea of dao, the concept of “oneness” approaches the relation between the one and the many as entailing a rich variety of relations of identity/difference and commonality/diversity which manifest themselves within the myriad things and affairs in the world in a more direct manner.

An experimental review of the ensemble-based data stream classification algorithms in non-stationary environments

Data streams are sequences of fast-growing and high-speed data points that typically suffer from the infinite length, large volume, and specifically unstable data distribution. Ensemble learning as a prevalent classification approach is widely used in data stream mining studies. Besides the impressive performance of ensemble learning algorithms in providing a collection of diverse and accurate classifiers, they are specifically efficient in handling non-stationary data streams. Due to the component-based nature and the chance of dynamic updates for the components of the ensemble, this category is appropriate for dynamically learning the changing concepts of the data. Several review research have been conducted on the challenges of non-stationary data streams so far. None of the available surveys are dedicated to examine the effect of ensemble learning models on concept drift handling. This paper aims to provide a thorough theoretical and experimental review of the most significant ensemble-based data stream classification approaches in confronting with various types of concept drifts. In this comprehensive experimental analysis, 21 state-of-the-art ensemble algorithms are tested on 30 synthetic datasets under various types and volumes of concept drifts. This experimental analysis involves analyzing the classification accuracy, kappa score and running time of the algorithms, along with performing various statistical tests. In addition to conducting experimental analysis, a comprehensive investigation is carried out on the most significant challenges posed by non-stationary data streams, which provides the reader with valuable insights.

Knowledge and the Extent of Integration of Climate Change and Adaptation at Universities in Kenya

Purpose: This study investigated levels of awareness on climate change in five public universities in Kenya. The study aimed at assessing levels of knowledge on climate change issues among lecturers and students and documenting levels of access to information on climate change among lecturers and students. Methodology: The study adopted a survey design. The population for the study consisted of 200 hundred undergraduates and lecturers. Data was analysed using both descriptive (frequency counts, percentages, means and standard deviations) and inferential statistics (Chi-square test) and presented in forms of charts and graphs. Findings: The results showed that teaching staff and students possessed high level of awareness on the concept of climate change, have access to the sources of information and factors of personal experience, public sources and education greatly influence their awareness. There was a statistically significant association between years teaching at the University (Chi-Sq. = 72.844, DF = 3, P-Value = 0.000) and integration of climate change in the courses taught. However, we found no association between gender (Chi-Sq. = 2.534, DF = 1, P-Value = 0.111) and University (Chi-Sq. = 1.279, DF = 4, P-Value = 0.865) where a lecturer was teaching in terms of integration of climate change in the courses taught. Unique Contributions to Theory, Practice and Policy: These findings indicate the teaching staff and students in Kenya have a widespread awareness of climate change and its immediate threat to human society, while knowledge of how to deal with the challenge due to climate change is still limited. Almost half the respondents believed climate change would result in impacts on human life. Nevertheless, the teaching staff and students need regular capacity development on climate change effects and in turn upscale the knowledge to the wider society.

The Pathobiology of Behavioral Changes in Multiple System Atrophy: An Update.

While cognitive impairment, which was previously considered a red flag against the clinical diagnosis of multiple system atrophy (MSA), is a common symptom of this rare neurodegenerative disorder, behavioral disorders are reported in 30 to 70% of MSA patients. They include anxiety, apathy, impaired attention, compulsive and REM sleep behavior disorders (RBD), and these conditions, like depression, are early and pervasive features in MSA, which may contribute to disease progression. Despite changing concepts of behavioral changes in this synucleinopathy, the underlying pathophysiological and biochemical mechanisms are poorly understood. While specific neuropathological data are unavailable, neuroimaging studies related anxiety disorders to changes in the cortico-limbic system, apathy (and depression) to dysfunction of prefrontal-subcortical circuits, and compulsive behaviors to impairment of basal ganglia networks and involvement of orbito-frontal circuits. Anxiety has also been related to α-synuclein (αSyn) pathology in the amygdala, RBD to striatal monoaminergic deficit, and compulsive behavior in response to dopamine agonist therapy in MSA, while the basic mechanisms of the other behavioral disorders and their relations to other non-motor dysfunctions in MSA are unknown. In view of the scarcity of functional and biochemical findings in MSA with behavioral symptoms, further neuroimaging and biochemical studies are warranted in order to obtain better insight into their pathogenesis as a basis for the development of diagnostic biomarkers and future adequate treatment modalities of these debilitating comorbidities.

Assessing conceptions of climate change: an exploratory study among Japanese early adolescents

In Japan where climate change education has yet to be recognised as a field of environmental education, understanding climate change conceptions possessed by potential learners is critical for more impactful design and implementation of CCE. This exploratory study aims to investigate climate change conceptions among Japanese early adolescents from the perspective of cognitive, affective, and behavioural learning dimensions, while exploring the complex interplay of those learning dimensions. Questionnaire surveys were conducted targeting 423 students aged 12–14 in three Japanese public junior high schools. Findings suggest that majority of Japanese early adolescents belong to groups that exhibit lower levels of cognitive, socio-emotional, and behavioural domain in relation to climate change conceptions. The relationships among those dimensions were found to be positive and bidirectional. Moreover, several misconceptions about climate change and effectiveness of its solutions were identified among the sample.

The role of achievement goals in productive collaborative argumentation

AbstractCollaborative argumentation has been recognized as a powerful means to facilitate conceptual change of scientific concepts for which students have robust misconceptions. However, eliciting and maintaining collaborative argumentation that yields such productive outcomes is known to be difficult. Specifically, social‐motivational antecedents have not yet been explored. Over 13 weeks, we conducted a controlled experiment to examine the role of achievement goals in productive collaborative argumentation in the context of scientific concept learning while fully considering the effects on conceptual change, argumentative discourse, and perceptions of conflicts. Three types of achievement goals were identified among 94 undergraduates: mastery goal‐dominant (a focus on developing competence and task mastery), two goals‐balanced (pursuing mastery and performance goals simultaneously) and performance goal‐dominant (a focus on demonstrating competence relative to others). Eighteen homogeneous groups participated in four collaborative argumentation activities concerning four scientific topics of varying controversy levels. The results showed that for highly controversial topics, mastery goal‐dominant students and two goals‐balanced students exhibited greater conceptual change than performance goal‐dominant students over a longer period. Dialogue protocol analysis further revealed a combined pattern of argumentative discourse (i.e., both deliberative argumentation and co‐consensual construction frequently occurred, while disputative argumentation rarely occurred) among mastery goal‐dominant students and two goals‐balanced students concerning highly controversial topics. Responses to stimulated recall interviews also indicated that perceptions of conflicts among the three types of students differed in terms of five aspects: their first impression of disagreements, their feelings in response to peer disagreement, their reasons for changing or maintaining to their original ideas, the meaning of group consensus, and the degrees to which they accepted group consensus. This study sheds light on the role of social‐motivational antecedents, deepening our understanding of whether different achievement goals might orient students to different perceptions of conflicts, triggering different argumentative discourse, producing different conceptual change.

Remediation of Chemical Bonding Misconception through Conceptual Change Text

The study was conducted to explore the impact of conceptual change texts integrated instruction on 10th class students’ understanding of chemical bonding concepts. It mainly aimed to investigate how conceptual change texts stimulate students’ prior knowledge, identifying misconceptions, and to help them to understand the chemical bonding concepts by using analogies, explanations, and examples. In conceptual changes text, analogies were used to deal with students’ misconceptions. The results analysis revealed that conceptual change texts-oriented instructions have a positive impact on students’ understanding of scientific conceptions related to chemical bonding and also helpful in resolving the misconceptions. Mean scores of both groups showed that students in the experimental group performed better with respect to chemical bonding concepts.

Mengenalkan Perubahan Warna dengan Pendekatan Interaktif di RA Al- Abror melalui Eksperimen Sains Pencampuran Warna-warna

Through the use of experimental methods, this researcher seeks to increase children's focus. Kindergarten A RA Al-Abror. Class Action Research (PTK) is the research method used. The design developed by Kemmis and McTaggart was used in this research. Ten class A students served as study participants. The data collection approach is through observation with instruments. The aim of this research is to explore the effectiveness of an interactive approach in teaching the concept of color change to preschool children at RA Al-Abror. Research shows that children can improve their focus by experimenting with mixing colors. In this study, in the first indicator there were nine children who were in the BSH stage and one person was still in the MB stage, in the second indicator there were eight children who were in the BSH stage and two were still in the MB stage and in the third indicator there were eight children who were in the BSH stage. BSH and two people are still in the MB stage. before the experiment, the focus value was MB (Starting to Develop), but after the experiment, the value changed to BSH (Developing According to Expectations). This indicates a change in the child's focus as a result of the intervention carried out during the experiment. The results of this experiment are increased focus, knowing colors, mixing colors, changing colors, increasing thinking and creativity and being able to create good and creative ideas.

Qualitative Meta-analysis on Students’ Understanding of Earth Science Concepts from the Perspective of Collective PCK: Focusing on the Concepts of Greenhouse Effect, Global Warming, and Climate Change

Qualitative Meta-analysis on Students’ Understanding of Earth Science Concepts from the Perspective of Collective PCK: Focusing on the Concepts of Greenhouse Effect, Global Warming, and Climate Change