How to design textbook to improve students’ learning? There is no single and easy solution

Author(s):

Slobodanka Antić(presenting / submitting)

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

27. Didactics - Learning and Teaching

Format:

Paper

Session Information

27 SES 08 B, Textual Resources for Fostering Students' Argumentation and Knowledge Construction

Paper Session

Time:

2014-09-04

09:00-10:30

Room:

B016 Anfiteatro

Chair:

Bernard Schneuwly

Contribution

Socioconstructivistic understanding of learning and teaching processes have become a dominant paradigma in scientific and professional literature in recent decades. Creating of such an environment for learning, in which a student has a participative role and constructs his knowledges through his personal intellectual activities, is both an ideal, towards which we are aiming, and a criterion for the evaluation of the teaching process.

In contrast to a fruitfull and rich research area that has in its focus sociocontructivistic teaching/learning environment, learning processes, teaching/learning methods, as well as the role of the teacher and a student, socioconstructivistic design of textbooks is a novelty. On the other hand, the textbook is seen as one of the pillars for improving the quality of education. Good quality textbook can amortize the poor conditions of schools (especially in less economically developed countries), insufficiently motivated or trained teachers, social and cultural differences among children.

In socioconstructivistic view, textbooks have a much more complex role than transmission of the content. Textbooks have developmental and formative role in students’ construction of knowledge and both cognitive and personal development (Ivić, Pešikan& Antić, 2013). This is possible because, in the construction of textbooks focus is shifted from the content to the process of studying and acquiring that content. On the other hand, process of acquiring knowledge is seen as active construction of reliable and useful knowledge through students’ own intellectual efforts and actions. Textbook’s role is to provide conditions for the student’s independent construction of knowledge. This view emphasizes didactic design of the textbook’s content. That means that knowledge and information on a particular subject matter is didactically designed for a specific educational level and students’ age group. To fulfill developmental and formative role, textbooks should consider all relevant characteristic of student, his ages, cognitive level, vocabulary, prior knowledge, way of living etc. Main elements of didactic design are different structural components of textbook which can facilitate and improve student’s construction of knowledge. Structural components and their compositions can provide conditions for student’s learning.

Method

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects and processes of learning from two textbook models: one based on socioconstuctivistic understanding of the teaching/learning process and second one on a transmissive model of teaching/learning. Constructed materials, that follow socioconstructivistic model of textbook, from which children are taught, differed in eighteen components of the didactic apparatus (structural components and/or their composition) from the second model which was based on a transmissive model of learning/teaching. Important role in the didactic apparatus of the constructed materials had inserted questions whose function was to question existing knowledge, create dilemmas, activate process of thinking, scaffold and help students through the process of understanding construction. The content we have chosen to test the research questions on was the content of chemistry. We chose this subject because it is specific on intellectual demands towards students (simultaneous processing of macro, micro and symbolic levels, a substantial domain of spontaneous life experiences that can serve both as a support and as an obstacle factor). Selected content was related to theoretical chemistry, specifically the Law of mass conservation, as one of the most important laws that organize the understanding of chemical phenomena. At the same time the choice of this content may, through the activity of learning from textbooks, provoke thinking activities relevant for development of the specific way of thinking in the chemistry as a scientific discipline. In experimental design, we compared effects of learning same thematic unit from different textbook models, in regular school conditions. Seventh-grade students, who participated in the experiment, are equalized in prior knowledge and competence of reading comprehension, two variables shown to be particularly important for the outcome of learning textual content. After learning section, we tested the effect of learning on multiple choice test and written retelling of the learned.

Expected Outcomes

By quantitative analysis of learning effects, main effects of prior knowledge (F (4,216)=2.716, p< .05) and reading competencies were obtained (F(4, 216)=7.178, p<.01), but they did not provide main effect of the type of textbook. Also, none of the interactions are significant. A significant effect of prior knowledge and reading competence were in accordance with the findings from the fields of reading and learning textual content. The absence of effect of the variable type textbook was surprising. We assumed that students did not notice the difference between the two models and textbooks, or were not willing to enter into the interaction with the text of the textbook model of constructivist didactic apparatus. By qualitative analysis of the data, it was obtained that students used only 16.36% of the components that are suppose to serve the activation and management of intellectual activities and the construction of knowledge. Analysis of behavior and cognitive patterns of student dealing with a book, has indirectly made very visible several practices - the practice of teaching/learning, the role of teachers and students, their patterns of learning behavior in using textbooks, even if it was not a direct objective of the research. The analysis showed that in the usual pattern of students’ behavior, the textbooks are used mainly outside of school, in a situation of self-study (there was an expectation that the textbook serves only as a carrier of information from teacher to student). The dominant learning strategies that students apply during learning from textbooks are reduced to memory. The findings of this study indicate that the attitude towards textbooks should be built up in the course of education. Textbooks alone, without the support of teachers who will integrate them into the learning process, cannot achieve its formative role in the development of the individual.

References

Bransford, J.D., Donovan, S.(2005). Scientific Inquiry and How People Learn in S.Donovan, J.D. Branford (eds). How students learn: science in the classroom. Wahington, D.C: The National Academies Press, str. 397-420 Britton, B., Gulgoz, S. & Glynn, S. (1993). Impact of good and poor writing on learners: Research and theory in B. Britton, A. Woodward & Binkley (Eds). Learning from textbooks: Theory and practice. Hillsdale, NJ, England: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates pages 1-46 Callender, McDaniel (2007). The Benefits of Embedded Question Adjuncts for Low and High Structure Builders. Journal of Educational Psychology, Vol. 99, (2), 339–348 Danielson, K. (2010). Learning Chemistry: Text Use and Text Talk in a Finland - Swedish Chemistry Classroom. IARTEM e-Journal, Vol. 3 (2) 1 – 28 Ivić, I. (1996). A Draft of a Necessary Curriculum Theory in Zindović-Vukadinović, G., Krnjajić, S. (eds) Towards a Modern Learner-Centred Curriculum. Beograd: Institut za pedagoška istraživanja Ivić, I., Pešikan, A. & Antić, S.( 2013). Textbook quality: A Guide to textbook standards. Gottingen: V&R unipress Ivić, I., Pešikan, A.& Antić, S. (2002). Active Learning: Manual for implementation of active learning/teaching methods 2. Beograd: Institut za psihologiju & UNICEF Johnsen, E.B. (2001). Textbooks in the Kaleidoscope A Critical Survey of Literature and Research on Educational Texts. Tønsberg: Vestfold College, digital edition, retrieved from http://www-bib.hive.no/tekster/pedtekst/kaleidoscope/forside.html Magnusson, S.J., Palincsar, A.S. (2005). Teaching to Promote the Development of Scientific Knowledge and Reasoning About Light at the Elementary School Level in Donovan, S., Branford, J.D. How students learn: science in the classroom. Wahington, D.C: The National Academies Press, str. 420 – 511 Mayer, R.E. (2002). Using illustrations to promote constructivist learning from science text. in Otero, J., León, J. & Graesser, A. (eds). The Psychology of Science Text Comprehension. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, str.333-357 McNamara, D. et all.(1996). Are Good Texts Always Better? Interactions of Text Coherence, Background Knowledge, and Levels of Understanding in Learning From Text. Cognition And Instruction, 14(1) 1-43 McNammara, D. (ed) (2007). Reading Comprehension Strategies: Theories, Interventions, and Technologies. Mahwah, New Jersey : LEA Otero, J., León, J. & Graesser, A. (2002). Introduction to The Psychology of Science Text Comprehension, in Otero, J., León, J. & Graesser, A. (eds). The Psychology of Science Text Comprehension. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 1-19 Palincsar, A.S. & Magnusson, S.J, (2000). The Interplay of Firsthand and Text-Based Investigations in Science Education. Ann Arbor: Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement, University of Michigan

Author Information

Slobodanka Antić (presenting / submitting)

Faculty for Special Education and Rehabilitation, Serbia

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