High‐school students’ reasoning while constructing plant growth models in a computer‐supported educational environment

Abstract

This paper highlights specific aspects of high‐school students’ reasoning while coping with a modeling task of plant growth in a computer‐supported educational environment. It is particularly concerned with the modeling levels (‘macro‐phenomenological’ and ‘micro‐conceptual’ level) activated by peers while exploring plant growth and with their ability to shift between or within these levels. The focus is on the types of reasoning developed in the modeling process, as well as on the reasoning coherence around the central concept of plant growth. The findings of the study show that a significant proportion of the 18 participating dyads perform modeling on both levels, while their ability to shift between them as well as between the various elements of the ‘micro‐conceptual’ level is rather constrained. Furthermore, the reasoning types identified in peers’ modeling process are ‘convergent’, ‘serial’, ‘linked’ and ‘convergent attached’, with the first type being the most frequent. Finally, a significant part of the participating dyads display a satisfactory degree of reasoning ‘coherence’, performing their task committed to the main objective of exploring plant growth. Teaching implications of the findings are also discussed.

Acknowledgements

This work was made possible due to financial support by the project ‘Pythagoras’ of the Greek Ministry of Education, the IST2000/ModelingSpace Project of the European Union and also by the ModelsCreator/Pinelopi Project of the Greek Ministry of Education under which the computer‐supported educational environment we used has been developed. Special thanks are also given to Athens’ ‘Leonteios School’ and to Dr Alexandros Pantazidis and his first‐grade high school students who voluntarily participated in the study.