74 research outputs found
Modelling Students’ Thematically Associated Knowledge : Networked Knowledge from Affinity Statistics
Get PDFPeer reviewe
Agent-based-model of students’ sociocognitive learning process in acquiring tiered knowledge
Get PDFPeer reviewe
Nature of Science (NOS) Being Acquainted with Science of Science (SoS) : Providing a Panoramic Picture of Sciences to Embody NOS for Pre-Service Teachers
Get PDFUnderstanding about nature of science is important topic in science education as well as in pre-service science teacher education. In science education, Nature of Science (NOS), in its different forms of educational scaffoldings, seeks to provide with students an understanding of features of scientific knowledge and science in general, how scientific knowledge changes and becomes accepted, and what factors guide scientific activities. For a science teacher, deep and broad enough picture of sciences is therefore of importance. This study attempts to show that the research field called Science of Science (SoS) can significantly support building such a panoramic picture of sciences, and through that, significantly support NOS. The SoS approaches the structure and dynamics of science quantitatively, using scientific documents (e.g., publications, reports, books and monographs and patent applications) as trails to map the landscape of sciences. It is argued here that SoS may provide material and interesting cases for NOS, and in so doing enrich NOS in a similarly significant way as history, philosophy and sociology of science (HPSS) scholarship has done thus far. This study introduces several themes based on SoS that are of relevance for NOS as they were introduced and discussed in a pre-service science teachers’ course. The feedback from pre-service teachers shows that introducing SoS, with minimal additional philosophical interpretations and discussions, but simply as evidential facts and findings, sparks ideas and views that come very close to NOS themes and topics. Discussions related to nature of science, and specific educational NOS scaffoldings for it, can find a good companion in SoS; the latter providing facts and evidence of thee structure and dynamics of sciences, the former providing perspectives for interpretations
Systemic States of Spreading Activation in Describing Associative Knowledge Networks II : Generalisations with Fractional Graph Laplacians and q-Adjacency Kernels
Get PDFAssociative knowledge networks are often explored by using the so-called spreading activation model to find their key items and their rankings. The spreading activation model is based on the idea of diffusion- or random walk -like spreading of activation in the network. Here, we propose a generalisation, which relaxes an assumption of simple Brownian-like random walk (or equally, ordinary diffusion process) and takes into account nonlocal jump processes, typical for superdiffusive processes, by using fractional graph Laplacian. In addition, the model allows a nonlinearity of the diffusion process. These generalizations provide a dynamic equation that is analogous to fractional porous medium diffusion equation in a continuum case. A solution of the generalized equation is obtained in the form of a recently proposed q-generalized matrix transformation, the so-called q-adjacency kernel, which can be adopted as a systemic state describing spreading activation. Based on the systemic state, a new centrality measure called activity centrality is introduced for ranking the importance of items (nodes) in spreading activation. To demonstrate the viability of analysis based on systemic states, we use empirical data from a recently reported case of a university students’ associative knowledge network about the history of science. It is shown that, while a choice of model does not alter rankings of the items with the highest rank, rankings of nodes with lower ranks depend essentially on the diffusion model
Pre-Service Teachers’ Knowledge of Relational Structure of Physics Concepts: Finding Key Concepts of Electricity and Magnetism
Get PDFRelational interlinked dependencies between concepts constitute the structure of abstract knowledge and are crucial in learning conceptual knowledge and the meaning of concepts. To explore pre-service teachers’ declarative knowledge of physics concepts, we have analyzed concept networks, which agglomerate 12 pre-service teacher students’ representations of the key elements in electricity and magnetism. We show that by using network-based methods, the interlinked connections of nodes, locally and globally, can be analyzed to reveal how different elements of the network are supported through their connections to other nodes in the network. Nodes with high global connectivity initialize contiguous concept patchworks within the network and are thus most often found to be abstract, general, and advanced concepts. Locally cohesive concepts, on the other hand, are nearly always auxiliary supporting concepts, related to specific textbook-type experiments and model-type conceptional elements. Comparisons of group-level knowledge and individual pre-service teacher students’ knowledge in the form of networks shows that while in group-level the aggregated knowledge is expert-like, at the individual level pre-service teacher students possess only a fraction of that knowledge
Agent-Based Modeling of Consensus Group Formation with Complex Webs of Beliefs
Get PDFFormation of consensus groups with shared opinions or views is a common feature of human social life and also a well-known phenomenon in cases when views are complex, as in the case of the formation of scholarly disciplines. In such cases, shared views are not simple sets of opinions but rather complex webs of beliefs (WoBs). Here, we approach such consensus group formation through the agent-based model (ABM). Agents’ views are described as complex, extensive web-like structures resembling semantic networks, i.e., webs of beliefs. In the ABM introduced here, the agents’ interactions and participation in sharing their views are dependent on the similarity of the agents’ webs of beliefs; the greater the similarity, the more likely the interaction and sharing of elements of WoBs. In interactions, the WoBs are altered when agents seek consensus and consensus groups are formed. The consensus group formation depends on the agents’ sensitivity to the similarity of their WoBs. If their sensitivity is low, only one large and diffuse group is formed, while with high sensitivity, many separated and segregated consensus groups emerge. To conclude, we discuss how such results resemble the formation of disciplinary, scholarly consensus groups
Usage of Terms “Science” and “Scientific Knowledge” in Nature of Science (NOS): Do Their Lexicons in Different Accounts Indicate Shared Conceptions?
Get PDFNature of science (NOS) has been a central theme in science education and research on it for nearly three decades, but there is still debate on its proper focus and underpinnings. The focal points of these debates revolve around different ways of understanding the terms “science” and “scientific knowledge”. It is suggested here that the lack of agreement is at least partially related to and reflected as a lack of common vocabulary and terminology that would provide a shared basis for finding consensus. Consequently, the present study seeks motivation from the notions of centrality of lexicons in recognizing the identity of disciplinary communities and different schools of thought within NOS. Here, by using a network approach, we investigate how lexicons used by different authors to discuss NOS are confluent or divergent. The lexicons used in these texts are investigated on the basis of a network analysis. The results of the analysis reveal clear differences in the lexicons that are partially related to differences in views, as evident from the debates surrounding the consensus NOS. The most divergent views are related to epistemology, while regarding the practices and social embeddedness of science the lexicons overlap significantly. This suggests that, in consensus NOS, one can find much basis for converging views, with common understanding, where constructive communication may be possible. The basic vocabulary, in the form of a lexicon, can reveal much about the different stances and the differences and similarities between various disciplinary schools. The advantage of such an approach is its neutrality and how it keeps a distance from preferred epistemological positions and views of nature of knowledge
Recommended from our members
Modelling conceptual change as foraging for explanations on an epistemic landscape
Get PDFPeer reviewe
Network cartography of university students’ knowledge landscapes about the history of science: landmarks and thematic communities
Get PDFAbstract We examine students’ representations of their conceptions of the interlinked nature of science history and general history, as well as cultural history. Such knowledge landscapes of the history of science are explored by using the knowledge cartographic, network-based method of analysis to reveal the key items, landmarks, of the landscapes. We show that Katz centrality and Katz centrality efficiency are robust and reliable measures for finding landmarks. It is shown that landmarks are most often persons but include also colligatory landmarks, which refer to broader sets of events or ideas. By using Katz centrality we study how landmarks depend on periodisation of the networks to see what kinds of changes occur by changing the time window on history. The community structure of the networks is studied by using the Louvain method, to reveal the strong thematic dependence of the communities. When landmarks are studied in relation to community structure, it is found that colligatory landmarks gain importance in relation to person-centred landmarks. Network-based cartography thus reveals many features about landmarks, how communities emerge around them and how they depend on periodisation, which traditional methods can only detect or identify with difficulty. Such knowledge has direct impact on the design and planning of education and courses which could better address the need to facilitate a deeper understanding of the related nature of science history and history in general
- …
