Designing Critique for Knowledge Integration by Mie Elissa Sato A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Science and Mathematics Education in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Marcia F. Linn, Chair Joseph C. Campione Robert C. Rhew Michael J. Clancy Summer 2015 Designing Critique for Knowledge Integration © 2015 by Mie Elissa Sato Abstract Designing Critique for Knowledge Integration by Mie Elissa Sato Doctor of Philosophy in Science and Mathematics Education University of California, Berkeley Professor Marcia C. Linn, Chair Generating explanations is central to science and has the potential to have a powerful impact on students’ conceptual understanding in science instruction. However, improving conceptual understanding by generating explanations is a fraught affair: students may struggle with the sense of false clarity that may arise from generating explanations, fail to detect gaps in their understanding, and dismiss salient information that contradict their beliefs. Critiquing explanations has the potential to counteract these pitfalls by exposing students to alternative ideas to contrast with their own. This dissertation seeks to clarify how to design critique in technology-enhanced science instruction to support students in revising their explanations about scientific phenomena, and in doing so, refining their conceptual understanding. Using the Knowledge Integration framework, I revised two technology-enhanced curriculum units, Plate Tectonics and Global Climate Change, in a design partnership between teachers, researchers, and technologists. I conducted a series of studies with sixth-grade students to investigate the conditions under which guided critique of explanations can support revision. The pilot critique study investigated the impact of the revised Plate Tectonics unit on students’ understanding of convection, as well as of a preliminary design of critique where students generated and applied their own criteria for what makes a good explanation in science. The guidance study explored how incorporating a complex selection task that features meta- explanatory criteria into critique supports students in distinguishing among different criteria, as well as how students use peer or expert guidance on their initial explanation during revision. The critique study investigated how designing critique with a complex selection task that features plausible alternative ideas and giving guidance on students’ critiques support students in distinguishing among a range of relevant ideas and making productive revisions to their initial explanations. These studies clarify how critique can be designed to help students sort through various ideas in their conceptual repertoire, be they ideas about meta-explanatory criteria or science ideas about a specific phenomenon. The study findings illuminate the challenges of guiding students to examine or re-examine the full range of ideas for knowledge integration. Students struggle to identify salient, missing, or normative ideas in their own or another explanation, and to incorporate their insights in a coherent way through revision. The studies demonstrate that embedding complex selection tasks in critique encourages students to consider a broad range of ideas and supports them in making conceptual revisions of their explanations. The results have implications for the design of critique in technology-enhanced science instruction. 1 Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... 1 Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... v Chapter 1: Introduction and Rationale ...................................................................................... 1 Generating Explanations ............................................................................................................. 2 Critiquing Explanations............................................................................................................... 2 Using Guidance to Revise Explanations ..................................................................................... 3 Designing Instruction and the Knowledge Integration Framework ............................................ 4 Dissertation Overview ................................................................................................................. 4 Chapter 2: Curriculum Design .................................................................................................... 8 Design-Based Research ............................................................................................................... 8 Curriculum Focus: Role of Energy in Global Climate Change .................................................. 8 Curriculum Design ...................................................................................................................... 9 Activity 1: Global and Local ................................................................................................................. 9 Activity 2: Energy from the Sun ......................................................................................................... 10 Activity 3: Reflected Light ................................................................................................................. 10 Activity 4: The Natural Greenhouse Effect ........................................................................................ 11 Activity 5: Your Actions ..................................................................................................................... 11 Activities 6 and 7: Littering or Eating Meat; Walking or Reducing Electricity Use .......................... 12 Assessments .............................................................................................................................. 13 Analysis ..................................................................................................................................... 14 Knowledge Integration Assessments .................................................................................................. 14 Qualitative Case Studies ..................................................................................................................... 15 Chapter 3: Pilot Critique and Guidance Study in the Redesigned Plate Tectonics Unit ..... 17 Rationale.................................................................................................................................... 17 Overall Redesign of Plate Tectonics Unit ................................................................................. 18 Activity 1: What’s Our Country Like? ............................................................................................... 18 Activity 2: What’s Happening Outside? ............................................................................................. 19 Activity 3: What’s Going on Inside? .................................................................................................. 19 Activity 4: Express Your Knowledge ................................................................................................. 20 Activity 5: Reflection .......................................................................................................................... 20 i Design of Activity 3 Sequence Emphasizing Convection .................................................................. 21 Methods ..................................................................................................................................... 23 Participants and Study Design ............................................................................................................ 23 Critique Activity Sequence ................................................................................................................. 23 Design of the Critique Guidance ......................................................................................................... 24 Data Sources ....................................................................................................................................... 25 Results ....................................................................................................................................... 26 Impact of the Plate Tectonics Unit on Overall Learning Gains .......................................................... 26 Student Explanation and Revision ...................................................................................................... 29 Student Criteria ................................................................................................................................... 29 Peer Guidance ..................................................................................................................................... 30 Teacher Guidance ............................................................................................................................... 31 Summary and Discussion .......................................................................................................... 32 Chapter 4: Comparing