分类:Toward a Neurobiological Basis for Understanding Learning in University Modeling Instruction Physics Courses

来自Big Physics
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Eric Brewe etal, Toward a Neurobiological Basis for Understanding Learning in University Modeling Instruction Physics Courses, Front. ICT, 24 May 2018 https://doi.org/10.3389/fict.2018.00010


Abstract

Modeling Instruction (MI) for University Physics is a curricular and pedagogical approach to active learning in introductory physics. A basic tenet of science is that it is a model-driven endeavor that involves building models, then validating, deploying, and ultimately revising them in an iterative fashion. MI was developed to provide students a facsimile in the university classroom of this foundational scientific practice. As a curriculum, MI employs conceptual scientific models as the basis for the course content, and thus learning in a MI classroom involves students appropriating scientific models for their own use. Over the last 10 years, substantial evidence has accumulated supporting MI's efficacy, including gains in conceptual understanding, odds of success, attitudes toward learning, self-efficacy, and social networks centered around physics learning. However, we still do not fully understand the mechanisms of how students learn physics and develop mental models of physical phenomena. Herein, we explore the hypothesis that the MI curriculum and pedagogy promotes student engagement via conceptual model building. This emphasis on conceptual model building, in turn, leads to improved knowledge organization and problem solving abilities that manifest as quantifiable functional brain changes that can be assessed with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We conducted a neuroeducation study wherein students completed a physics reasoning task while undergoing fMRI scanning before (pre) and after (post) completing a MI introductory physics course. Preliminary results indicated that performance of the physics reasoning task was linked with increased brain activity notably in lateral prefrontal and parietal cortices that previously have been associated with attention, working memory, and problem solving, and are collectively referred to as the central executive network. Critically, assessment of changes in brain activity during the physics reasoning task from pre- vs. post-instruction identified increased activity after the course notably in the posterior cingulate cortex (a brain region previously linked with episodic memory and self-referential thought) and in the frontal poles (regions linked with learning). These preliminary outcomes highlight brain regions linked with physics reasoning and, critically, suggest that brain activity during physics reasoning is modifiable by thoughtfully designed curriculum and pedagogy.

总结和评论

这个工作[1]对比了一门物理课《Modeling Instruction》之前和之后的物理知识检测以及大脑活动检测的结果,发现了某些新的有活动的大脑区域。

尽管我对这个工作的结果仍然持比较怀疑的态度,但是,这是有可能的。这个可能性来自于大脑可能从物理学习中获得了新的思维方式,当然也可能是新的知识的效果。

下一步工作

  1. 检验一下是新的知识的效果还是新的思维方式的效果。这个只需要做实验来做单纯的知识的学习,和,思维方式的学习的对比,再来看效果。
  2. 其次,任何一个学科的学习,实际上,都是有可能会带来新的思维方式和新的知识,是不是新的知识就有类似的效果,是不是必须要思维方式才有类似的效果?
  3. 结合分类:知道到运用的距离的研究,我们还可以看看是不是必须达到了会用的境界才会有这个效果,还是只要了解就会有这个效果。
  4. 同时,除了知识检测和大脑成像检测,还可以试试创造力量表检测,看看效果。

参考文献

  1. Eric Brewe etal, Toward a Neurobiological Basis for Understanding Learning in University Modeling Instruction Physics Courses, Front. ICT, 24 May 2018 https://doi.org/10.3389/fict.2018.00010 .

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