Designs for learning about climate change as a complex system
Ninth-grade students who worked agent-based climate models before the lesson outscored a direct-instruction comparison on explanation and transfer.
The idea
Climate change is difficult to learn because the causes interact. This classroom study used the same agent-based computer models in two orders. In the productive-failure design, ninth-grade students worked challenge problems first and then received teacher instruction on the targeted climate and complexity ideas. In the direct-instruction design, the lesson came first and the same models and problems followed.
The approach
The productive-failure group scored higher on the post-test for climate and complex-systems explanatory knowledge, and for both near and far transfer. The comparison is the order of exploration and instruction, not a different set of facts.
- Ninth grade, agent-based models of climate and complexity
- Productive failure versus direct instruction
- Same models and challenge problems in both conditions
- Higher explanatory knowledge, near transfer, and far transfer after productive failure
- Jacobson, Markauskaite, Portolese, Kapur, Lai, and Roberts. Learning and Instruction, 52, 1-14
The paper: hdl.handle.net .