Models and Modeling: Cognitive Tools for Scientific Enquiry

✍ Scribed by Richard K. Coll, Denis Lajium (auth.), Myint Swe Khine, Issa M. Saleh (eds.)

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands
• Year: 2011
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 300
• Series: Models and Modeling in Science Education 6
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The process of developing models, known as modeling, allows scientists to visualize difficult concepts, explain complex phenomena and clarify intricate theories. In recent years, science educators have greatly increased their use of modeling in teaching, especially real-time dynamic modeling, which is central to a scientific investigation. Modeling in science teaching is being used in an array of fields, everything from primary sciences to tertiary chemistry to college physics, and it is sure to play an increasing role in the future of education.

Models and Modeling: Cognitive Tools for Scientific Enquiry is a comprehensive introduction to the use of models and modeling in science education. It identifies and describes many different modeling tools and presents recent applications of modeling as a cognitive tool for scientific enquiry.

The processes of modelling and the use of the resulting models to inform predictions play key roles in the nature of science and hence in science education, especially in inquiry-based approaches. Against a background of the philosophical basis for modelling and models, the implications for science education are explored. Well-designed and thoroughly classroom-tested schemes to support students in learning how to model are reviewed. Research into teachers’ understanding of models and their place in the nature of science are reviewed as are successful strategies for the further development of that knowledge. This book has a major contribution to make to the pre- and in-service education of elementary (primary) and high (secondary) school science teachers.

John K. Gilbert
Professor Emeritus, The University of Reading
Visiting Professor, King's College London
Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Science Education

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-viii
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
Modeling and the Future of Science Learning....Pages 3-21
A Study of Expert Theory Formation: The Role of Different Model Types and Domain Frameworks....Pages 23-40
The Nature of Scientific Meta-Knowledge....Pages 41-76
From Modeling Schemata to the Profiling Schema: Modeling Across the Curricula for Profile Shaping Education....Pages 77-96
Front Matter....Pages 97-97
Helping Students Construct Robust Conceptual Models....Pages 99-120
The Molecular Workbench Software: An Innovative Dynamic Modeling Tool for Nanoscience Education....Pages 121-139
Lowering the Learning Threshold: Multi-Agent-Based Models and Learning Electricity....Pages 141-171
Engineering-Based Modelling Experiences in the Elementary and Middle Classroom....Pages 173-194
Engaging Elementary Students in Scientific Modeling: The MoDeLS Fifth-Grade Approach and Findings....Pages 195-218
Front Matter....Pages 219-219
Relationships Between Elementary Teachers’ Conceptions of Scientific Modeling and the Nature of Science....Pages 221-237
Science Teachers’ Knowledge About Learning and Teaching Models and Modeling in Public Understanding of Science....Pages 239-261
Teaching Pre-service Elementary Teachers to Teach Science with Computer Models....Pages 263-279
Back Matter....Pages 281-290

✦ Subjects

Science Education; Learning & Instruction