Development Of Conceptual Knowledge Research Articles

Modifying the Gram Stain Lab for Skill Proficiency and Conceptual Understanding

Traditional microbiology laboratory activities tend to focus solely on skill development, leaving untapped the great potential for students’ deep understanding of underlying fundamental microbiology concepts. To address this issue, I present an inquiry-based instructional sequence for a common skill-based lab in undergraduate majors’ and non-majors’ biology: the Gram stain. The modified lab includes elements of inquiry without completely overhauling the original activity to allow for both skill-based and conceptual knowledge development. With a few alterations, this instructional sequence could easily be tailored to suit similar microbiology labs. This instructional sequence could also be used to modify biology labs into inquiry lessons at any grade level.

Safety culture as competitive advantage for slovenian natural health resorts

BACKGROUND: Many studies are focused on safety culture. There is no study on employees’ perceptions of safety culture in natural health resorts. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to examine the concept of safety culture from the perspective of the employees in natural health resorts in Slovenia. METHODS: The survey was administered to a sample of 268 employees in six Slovenian natural health resorts to measure the attitudes, practices/behaviors, knowledge, and training of employees. RESULTS: The results of the survey did not show a statistical correlation between the employees’ safety attitudes and their age, their level of education and their position within the organization. However, this study revealed significant differences in understanding of the safety measures and selected safety attitudes across six resorts. Similarly, the study revealed significant differences in knowledge and understanding of the safety protocols across six resorts. The results are reflecting higher management safety awareness in selected resorts what could result in an important competitive advantage for a selected organization. CONCLUSIONS: The research provides an in-depth insight into the concept of safety culture, presented through the attitudes, practices/behaviors, knowledge, and training of employees in natural health resorts in Slovenia. Findings contribute to the development of conceptual knowledge in safety science.

Do team-based written or video explanations of course content enhance accounting students’ knowledge, communication, and teamwork skills?

This study explores students’ knowledge, communication, and teamwork skills development when using team-based explanations, in either written or video mode, during an assessment for learning in a competency-based accounting education context. Both modes of team-based explanation, written or video, seem to enhance conceptual and transfer knowledge among weaker and moderate-performing students. When viewed as an interconnected and indivisible process, the video explanation mode appears more beneficial for top-performing students’ conceptual knowledge development than the written explanation mode. The team-based video explanation mode also appears to be the preferred method for developing teamwork skills, while both modes are perceived as beneficial for developing communication skills. Overall, the video mode of a team-based explanation assessment for learning appears to be the favored choice, as it facilitates whole-class knowledge development while also allowing greater opportunities for students’ teamwork and communication skills development in a competency-based education context.

Teacher Educators Experience Adopting Problem-Based Learning in Science Education

Higher educational institutions have utilized problem-based learning (PBL) approaches over the last two decades. The approach has been found to enable educators to adopt different teaching and learning strategies. This study examined how teacher educators have adopted technology integrated PBL in teacher education. The study aimed to understand teacher educators perceptions of adopting the approach in their classrooms. Interviews were conducted with three teacher educators in Ghana. A thematic analysis was used to analyse the data from the interviews. The teacher educators believed integrating PBL into the curriculum emphasizes students learning roles to support their independent and self-directed learning. They also perceived that the PBL approach enabled them to create collaborative learning activities to interact and communicate with students, which can lead to conceptual knowledge development. The educators also indicated challenges such as a lack of beliefs and competence, inadequate resources, and limited time allocation for school inquiry-based lessons.

How do we design curricula to foster innovation, motivation and interest in STEM learning?

PurposeThe authors designed a science and engineering curricular program that includes design features that promote student interest and motivation and examined teachers' and students' views on meaningfulness, motivation and interest.Design/methodology/approachThe research approach consisted of mixed methods, including content analyses and descriptive statistics.FindingsThe curricular program successfully included all four of the US National Academies of Sciences' design features for promoting interest and motivation through scientific investigation and engineering design. During interviews, teachers and students expressed evidence of design features associated with interest and motivation. After experiencing the program, more than 60% of all students scored high on all four science and engineering meaningfulness and interest survey items.Originality/valueA curricular program that extends science learning through the engineered design of solutions is an innovative approach to foster both conceptual knowledge development and interest and motivation in science and engineering.

Game-based learning in Ghanaian primary schools: listening to the views of teachers

ABSTRACT This research explores how primary school teachers use games to enhance pupils’ learning and development of conceptual knowledge. The study employs an illustrative case study design; data was collected through interviews with thirty (30) teachers who were selected using purposive sampling technique. Twenty teachers had some knowledge of game-based learning, ten teachers, however, did not know anything about the concept game-based learning. The results show that the use of non-digital games of different kinds to engage pupils is common in the learning of Maths, English, and Science. Teachers ascribed positively that the integration of game-based learning motivates pupils to come to school, actively engages them in the learning process, helps pupils to easily assimilate lesson contents, makes lessons lively and fun, and builds collaborative skills amongst pupils. Inadequate resources, noisy classes, time constraints, large class sizes, the reluctance of some pupils to participate, and inadequate knowledge are challenges reported by the teachers.

Exploring students’ learning support use in digital game-based math learning: A mixed-methods approach using machine learning and multi-cases study

Digital game-based math learning environments (math DGBLE) are promising platforms that provide students with opportunities to master conceptual understanding and cultivate mathematical thinking, on which the contemporary mathematics education places an emphasis. Literature on learning support in digital game-based learning (DGBL) rarely investigate learners' support-use behaviors and interaction patterns in relation to math learning. We addressed this research gap in this exploratory mixed-methods study. We designed and developed a packet of learning supports (i.e., Task Planner and Math Story) in a math DGBLE. Task Planner is designed to assist learners' systematic and planned efforts for math problem solving whereas Math Story features historical stories and real-life applications of math concepts. With the data collected via mixed-methods approach, we extracted six clusters of learning-support-use behaviors via unsupervised machine learning technique (i.e., Gaussian Mixture Model), including 1) skills development and application of mathematical problem decomposition, 2) conceptual knowledge development, 3) metacognitive mathematical connections, 4) metacognitive regulation, 5) information selection using cognitive aids, and 6) sustained motivation for necessary aversive practices. Qualitative multi-cases study revealed nuanced details regarding learners’ interactions with the learning supports in DGBLE. Results showed that the designed in-game learning supports facilitated individual meaningful and mindful math problem-solving experiences. The findings suggested that a mixed-methods research design integrating machine learning with multi-cases study could act as a tool for learner behavior and interaction pattern research that informs the design of adaptive and effective DGBL.

Poor conceptual knowledge in the food domain and food rejection dispositions in 3- to 7-year-old children

Previous research established that children with poorer taxonomic knowledge in the food domain display increased levels of food rejection. However, the food domain heavily lends itself to script and thematic conceptual knowledge (e.g., pancakes at breakfast), to which young children already attend. This series of studies investigated the development of conceptual knowledge, specifically in the food domain, and the link with food rejection. Study 1 used a nonconflicting triad task testing children’s knowledge of four subtypes of script and thematic associations (food–food pairs, food–utensil pairs, event scripts, and meal scripts) with children aged 3–6 years living in the United States (18 males and 14 females). Study 2 employed the same design along with a measure of food rejection in 3- to 6-year-olds living in France (67 males and 62 females). There was significant conceptual development in both groups, but thematic food concepts are acquired earlier than meal script concepts. Study 3 investigated the link between thematic and script cross-classification and food rejection in 39 females and 33 males living in France (4- to 7-year-olds). Results demonstrate that children as young as 3 years old are already attending to thematic and script structures to inform food-based decision making. Even more critically, Study 3 showed that increased food rejection tendencies are negatively related to script and thematic understanding in the food domain. Such seminal studies illustrate the importance of conceptual knowledge in children’s interpretation and acceptance of food, highlighting promising avenues for knowledge-based interventions to foster dietary variety.

Investigating the effects of different levels of guidance in inquiry-based hands-on and virtual science laboratories

ABSTRACT Inquiry-based learning can be an effective approach when students are provided with sufficient guidance. However, there is an ongoing debate among practitioners about the nature, type, and level of such guidance. This study investigated the effects on middle school students’ (N = 116) conceptual knowledge and inquiry skills acquisition of providing two different levels of guidance (support or direct presentation of information related to the inquiry process) in hands-on and virtual science laboratories on the topic of electricity. The study was based on a 2 × 2 between-subjects factorial quasi-experimental design. The effects of two different levels of guidance combined with either a hands-on or a virtual laboratory were examined. Findings revealed that although the level of guidance was important for students’ conceptual knowledge development, it had no significant impact on their acquisition of inquiry skills. In terms of laboratory environments, it appears that a virtual laboratory and a hands-on laboratory are equally effective for the development of middle school students’ conceptual knowledge and inquiry skills.

Neuropsychological assessment of Boucher-Neuhäuser syndrome: A case report

Objective Boucher-Neuhäuser Syndrome (BNS) is a rare autosomal recessive disorder characterized by hypogonadotropic hypogonadism, spinocerebellar ataxia, and chorioretinal syndrome, and associated with a variant in the PNPLA6 gene. Although many reports have mentioned the presence of cognitive impairment, a neuropsychological assessment of a BNS case has never been published. Here, we provide a detailed description of a young adult patient with BNS who has a homozygous pathogenic variant in the PNPLA6 gene. Method A 21-year-old man with progressive ataxia and a history of hypogonadotropic hypogonadism and chorioretinal dystrophy was diagnosed with BNS. A comprehensive cognitive evaluation was performed, requiring the ad hoc selection and adaption of neuropsychological tests to overcome visual and motor impairments that characterize this syndrome. Results The patient presented an intact global cognitive profile with selective executive dysfunction and mild verbal reasoning dysfunction. In particular, attentional-inhibitory control, working memory, and set switching were impaired, and inadequate development of conceptual knowledge and abstract reasoning was observed. Conclusions This is the first report of an explicitly documented comprehensive neuropsychological assessment in a patient with BNS. The battery we composed is an example of a methodology that can be used to conduct a detailed cognitive examination without being penalized for physical impairment. Further studies are needed to define the typical cognitive features that characterize BNS and possibly identify its cognitive phenotype(s).

Instructed concept appropriation for developing knowledge of second language academic discourse context

Recent studies from sociocultural perspectives have explored the effects of Concept-based Language Instruction (C-BLI) on L2 development through the explicit teaching of scientific concepts. However, there has been little research into the effects of C-BLI on the development of L2 academic literacy. This article reports on a case study of how C-BLI mediated a Chinese doctoral student's development of conceptual knowledge of context and subsequent context-specific performance in academic writing. Drawing on data from writing tutorials and interviews, the learner's drafts and invited comments, and think-aloud protocols, the study revealed that the C-BLI interventions that integrated symbolic and dialogic mediation helped the learner attain and enhance awareness of contextual components. The learner appropriated the concept as a tool for thinking in judging appropriateness of rules of thumb and choices of exclusive discourse features in specific contexts of use, which consequently mediated his planning for writing and resulted in the development of performance. The study demonstrates the potential of C-BLI as a driving force for the development of conceptual knowledge and context-specific performance in the academic literacy of L2 learners. It has pedagogical implications for curriculum design, C-BLI-informed literacy and concept-based materials, and teacher development to stimulate teacher awareness in C-BLI.

Utilizing Peer Review and Revision in STEM to Support the Development of Conceptual Knowledge Through Writing

While many STEM faculty believe Writing-to-Learn to be an effective instructional tool, instructional barriers such as the time and effort required to provide substantive feedback to their students limit the use of writing in STEM classrooms. Incorporating peer review and revision into the writing process can help mitigate these barriers while additionally supporting the learning process. This study presents an analysis of a Writing-to-Learn assignment that incorporates peer review and revision into a large introductory statistics course, where this study specifically focused on whether engaging with these processes results in changes in how students write about the content targeted by the assignment. Our results demonstrate that students made content-focused revisions between drafts that increased the amount of content they explained correctly. Additionally, our study provides evidence that students benefit from reading peers’ work in a content-focused peer review and revision process. Overall, this study shows that incorporating peer review and revision into writing assignments focused on developing content knowledge provides students with substantive feedback and enhances students’ conceptual learning.

A Valid and Reliable Scale for Developing Programming-Oriented Computational Thinking

In this research, a scale was developed to determine the programming-oriented computational thinking skills of university students. The participants were 360 students studying in various departments at different universities in Turkey for computer programming. The scale consists of 33 items under conceptual knowledge, algorithmic thinking, and evaluation subscale. While there was no significant difference between the students’ conceptual knowledge and algorithmic thinking skills, the evaluation skills of male students differed significantly compared to females. Programming experience has a significant effect on conceptual knowledge, algorithmic thinking, and evaluation. The algorithmic thinking skills of the students who have low, middle, and high-level programming experience differed significantly. In terms of the development of conceptual knowledge and evaluation skills, it was observed that students should have at least one year of programming experience, but this experience will not make a significant difference if it is four years or more. It is thought that this scale, which is structured for different applications (e.g., web, game, robot) and learning environments (e.g., text, block) within the framework of its programming capabilities (conceptual, semantic, strategic knowledge), will contribute significantly to the evaluation of computational thinking as programming oriented.

Promoting prospective teachers’ conceptual knowledge through web-based blended learning

Fractions remain a difficult concept for students at the elementary level. On that ground, prospective teachers need to develop the conceptual knowledge to have a deep understanding of the concept and how the concepts are related to each other. Furthermore, they must be able to explain the concepts through media in the form of concrete objects or images to help students grasp the whole concept of fractions. This research investigates the effect of web-based blended learning on the development of Conceptual Knowledge of prospective teachers. Web-based blended learning is a combination of online learning and face to face classroom group discussion. Prospective teachers use Edmodo as the learning management system that contains various learning resources such as videos, documents, and students’ assignments in the form of Google Forms. This study design is a non-experimental post-test. The data obtained by using open tests and analyzed descriptively. Participants are prospective teachers who enrolled in the Teaching Arithmetic course in the 7th semester of the 2018/2019 academic year at the Department of Primary School Teacher Training, Universitas Negeri Jakarta, Indonesia. This study found web-based blending learning is an effective learning system to develop prospective mathematics elementary teachers’ conceptual abilities of fractions. It is recommended that this learning system be included in the prospective teachers’ Education module.

Abstraction and concepts: when, how, where, what and why?

ABSTRACTIt is increasingly apparent that sensorimotor information is a constitutive part of conceptual knowledge. Yet all concepts, even highly concrete ones (e.g. dog) include information that is abstracted across individual episodes of experience, departing somewhat from direct sensory or motor input. This process of abstraction is the essence of conceptual structure. This Special Issue brings together developmental, experimental, computational and cognitive neuroscientific perspectives on abstraction. The contributions address questions like: When during development do our concepts become less directly tied to sensory or motor knowledge? How (and where) in the brain does the process of abstraction happen? And what is the role of a concept’s label in abstraction? In answering these questions, the contributions highlight that context–the developmental contexts of our first episodic experiences, and the linguistic contexts that accompany the development of conceptual knowledge in both children and adults–is at the root of conceptual knowledge.

Learners’ Conceptual Knowledge Development and Attitudinal Change towards Calculus Using Jigsaw Co-operative Learning Strategy Integrated with GeoGebra

This study examined the influence of the jigsaw co-operative learning strategy integrated with GeoGebra (JCLGS), on Ethiopian undergraduate statistics and chemistry learners’ conceptual knowledge development and attitudinal change towards calculus. The post-positivism quantitative methods approach employed in a non-equivalent pre-and post-test comparison group quasi-experimental design. The samples had drawn using two-stage random sampling techniques. The sample size was 150 in both the experimental and comparison groups. Data were collected by using the calculus classroom achievement test and the five points Likert-scale attitude questionnaire. Data were analyzed using descriptive analysis, an independent-samples t-test and Two-Way ANOVA for repeated measures using SPSS 23.0. The results showed a statistically significant difference between the two groups of pre-post test scores on the Two-Way ANOVA, F(1,148)=106.913; η2=.419 ; p<.01. The finding also implies that the blended learning strategy grounded in Vygotsky’s social constructivism cognitive development learning theory had big practical significance on learners’ conceptual knowledge development. Learners viewed the JCLGS as enjoyable and interesting. It was also a socially interactive and collaborative environment that allows learners’ to be reflective, share prior experience and knowledge and independent learners. It encourages them to have a positive attitude towards calculus and GeoGebra. Because of this finding, mathematics and science educators are advised to model a similar blended learning strategy in a classroom instructional setting. It will benefit their learners to adequately construct conceptual knowledge and positively change their attitude towards mathematics.

Does cardiorespiratory fitness knowledge carry over in middle school students?

Conceptual knowledge development in physical education is critical to helping learners become physically literate. Understanding physical education learners' long-term knowledge development is one of the first steps in designing effective curriculum. Guided by the constructivist learning theory, this study aimed to determining the extent to which the cardiorespiratory fitness knowledge learned in the first year contributed to further knowledge development in the second year. A two-year longitudinal design was adopted to track 716 students' learning documented in their physical education workbook from sixth grade to seventh grade. Canonical correlation and multivariate multiple regression analyses were conducted to determine the relationship of learning during the two years. The results showed that student knowledge development in the first year did facilitate their knowledge development in the second year (Rc = 0.54; Wilks' λ = 0.69, F(9, 1728.1) = 30.99, p < .01, η2 = .31). Specifically, students' three types of knowledge development (descriptive, relational, and reasoning) were all significant contributors (descriptive: Wilks' λ = 0.96, F(3, 710) = 9.34, p < .01, η2 = .04; relational: Wilks' λ = 0.98, F(3, 710) = 4.44, p < .01, η2 = .02; reasoning: Wilks' λ = 0.90, F(3, 710) = 26.13, p < .01, η2 = .10) to their further learning with the knowledge development from the reasoning assignments to be the strongest facilitator. Students' overall learning in the first year significantly contributed to their descriptive (R2 = 0.12), relational (R2 = 0.26), and reasoning (R2 = 0.21) knowledge learning in the second year.

Affordances for learning linear functions: A comparative study of two textbooks from South Africa and Germany

Textbook content has the ability to influence mathematical learning. This study compares how linear functions are presented in two textbooks, one of South African and the other of German origin. These two textbooks are used in different language-based streams in a school in Gauteng, South Africa. A qualitative content analysis on how the topic of linear functions is presented in these two textbooks was done. The interplay between procedural and conceptual knowledge, the integration of the multiple representations of functions, and the links created to other mathematical content areas and the real world were considered. It was found that the German textbook included a higher percentage of content that promoted the development of conceptual knowledge. This was especially due to the level of cognitive demand of tasks included in the analysed textbook chapters. Also, while the South African textbook presented a wider range of opportunities to interact with the different representations of functions, the German textbook, on the other hand, included more links to the real world. Both textbooks linked ‘functions’ to other mathematical content areas, although the German textbook included a wider range of linked topics. It was concluded that learners from the two streams are thus exposed to different affordances to learn mathematics by their textbooks.

Defining embodied cognition: The problem of situatedness

Abstract The embodied view of cognition rejects the substantial dualism between brain and body, claiming the primary role of sensorimotor experience on the development of conceptual knowledge. From this perspective, knowledge is grounded on physical properties of the body and the surrounding world. Furthermore, cognition is situated in a social and environmental context. However, the terms embodied, grounded, and situated are not univocally defined. This article focuses on the notion of situatedness, developing the discussion from the point of view of a computational modeler and roboticist, showing that minor and negligible differences on the definition of the field causes major operational divergences in synthetic models of cognition. A definition of two notions of situatedness are developed a posteriori, that is, by considering epistemological and ontological differences on artificial models. Finally, strengths and weakness of the two approaches are discussed.

The impact of standards-based assessment on knowledge for history education in New Zealand

This paper examines how a standards-based form of assessment in operation in New Zealand has impacted upon the knowledge taught to secondary history students. The segmentation of history into assessable components along with assessment mechanisms which encourage the reduction in the number of standards being attempted has impacted upon both the breadth and range of historical content in history programmes. The reduction in knowledge is problematic as it diminishes learners’ opportunities to draw connections between inter-related historical concepts from a wider knowledge base. Social realists have raised concerns about the reduced focus on knowledge in education and its effects in restricting students’ development of conceptual knowledge which enables higher order, more abstract thinking. Experiences of standards-based assessment for history in New Zealand are indicative of this reductive phenomenon. In a culture of accountability, standards-based assessment, as enacted in New Zealand, may impede delivery of critical knowledge.