Title: Understanding what's hard in learning about complex systems
Abstract: One approach to conceptual change suggests that ontological barriers may impose beliefs that contribute to learners' misconceptions and misunderstanding of many science concepts (e.g., Chi, Slotta, and deLeeuw, 1994). If beliefs about the nature of the world affect how one explains observations and the functioning of phenomena then it is possible that the lack of certain types of explanations may impose substantial limitations to learning. Overcoming problems in learning concepts such as diffusion, force, evolution, may require instruction of an ontological category (i.e., emergent causal processes), which is unfamiliar to most novice learners. We argue that it may be possible to accomplish this objective using complex systems thinking. This study investigated the acquisition of a set of complex systems concepts through simulations in an attempt to identify which concepts are easier and which are more difficult to learn and apply as an alternative causal explanation.
Publication Year: 2004
Publication Date: 2004-06-22
Language: en
Type: article
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 1
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot