A Cross-cultural Study: Comparing Learning Progression for Carbon-Transforming Processes of American and Chinese Students

2010 NARST PresentationWritten by:Hui Jin, Li Zhan, and Charles W. Anderson (Michigan State University)

Culturally relevant ecology, learning progressions and environmental literacyLong Term Ecological Research Math Science Partnership

April 2010Disclaimer: This research is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation: Targeted Partnership: Culturally

relevant ecology, learning progressions and environmental literacy (NSF-0832173). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the

National Science Foundation.

A Cross-cultural Study: Comparing Learning Progression for Carbon-Transforming Processes of American and

Chinese StudentsHui Jin Li Zhan

Charles W. AndersonMichigan State University

Research Questions

How do K-12 students from the US and China reason about carbon-transforming process?

How do American and Chinese students progress? How are their progress patterns similar or different?

What could be possible factors that affect students’ progress patterns?

Research Focus: Carbon-transforming Processes

Culture and Education in US and China1. Language

Language: Both English and Chinese have implicit theories of cause and action—force-dynamic reasoning (Pinker, 2007; Dai, 2005)

Result: Tree growthResult: Tree growth

Sunlight

Air

Soil Water

Culture and Education in US and China2. Educational Approach

Educational Approach Due to the pressure from entrance examinations, Chinese teachers

use much more written assessments with students. Classroom teaching is concentrated on practice for examinations.

Research Methods

Interview protocol

Interview protocol: two set of Interview questions to uncover students intuitive accounts:

Lower-level Questions:

What does the tree need in order to grow?

You said that the tree needs air to grow. Then how does air help the tree to grow?

Do you think that the air will change into other materials inside the tree’s body?

The tree gets heavier as it grows. How does that happen?

Follow-up Higher-level Questions:

If the student mentions glucose/starch/sugar/cellulose/carbohydrates, ask: Do you think it contains carbon atoms? If yes, where does that carbon atom come from?

If the student associate sunlight with energy, ask: Where does the light energy go? Do you think it is used up, becomes other things, or else?

Research Participants

China -- 24 students 8 elementary school students, 8 middle school students and 8 high school

students from urban school

Level Number School

Elementary 8 Two rural public schools

Middle 8 Two rural public schools

High 8 One is math and science centerAnother one is rural public school

US -- 24 students 8 elementary school students, 8 middle school students and 8 high school students

Level Number School

Elementary 8 Urban school (low socioeconomic)

Middle 8 Rural school

High 8 Urban school (selective school)

Data Analysis

Step 1: Develop the coding rubrics—exemplar worksheet

Step 2: Use rubric to code data and conduct reliability check (Eight graduate students coded American data; The first two authors coded Chinese data).

Step 3: Generate distribution graphs to depict learning trajectories

Findings

Explaining Progress Variable (nature of the accounts): The performance of using specific reasoning patterns to construct the accounts

Naming Progress Variable: The performance of verbatim reproduction of vocabulary.

Naming and Explaining as Progress Variables

Pattern: Discrepancy of Development (Secondary Level)

Naming Explaining

Pattern: Discrepancy of Development (Secondary Level)

Organic molecules

Energy forms Chemical Processes

Chinese Accounts

glucose, carbohydrateglycogenmonosaccharide

light energyelectrical energykinetic/motion energy (动能 , Level 2.5)chemical energy

oxidationcellular respiration (呼吸作用 , Level 2.5)combustion (燃烧 , Level 2.5)light reaction, dark reaction

American Accounts

glucose cellulose

Light energykinetic energy

combustion

Pattern: Discrepancy of Development (Elementary Level)

Chinese elementary school interview

American elementary school pre interview

Both Chinese and American elementary school students tend toward Level 1 in explaining performance

NamingExplaining

Pattern: Discrepancy of Development (Example)

Naming Level 2; Explaining Level 1Girl Running: Chinese interview (4th grader)

Researcher: Ok. So, how does the food help her to run? LJQ: The foods provide nutrients to make her body strong. Then she can run. Researcher: Do you think air can help her to run? LJQ: Yes. We inhale carbon dioxide and carbon dioxide has nutrients in it. Researcher: Ok. Do you think the carbon dioxide will change when it goes into the girl's body? LJQ: [Silence]Researcher: That's fine. Let's look at the other picture.

Naming Level 3; Explaining Level 2Baby Girl Growth: Chinese interview (6th grader)

Researcher: Could you talk more about the process of digestion? XYW: The useful and nutritious materials of food are extracted and separated from useless materials. Useless materials are expelled outside of the body. … … Researcher: Where does that energy come from? XYW: It comes from food. Food has starch. That's carbohydrates. The body absorbs them. That provides people energy. Researcher: What do you mean by carbohydrates? XYW: Like rice has starch. Researcher: Do you think water is also carbohydrate? XYW: It seems water is not. Researcher: Why? XYW: Human body needs six important classes of substances. Water and carbohydrates are in different classes. Researcher: Ok. Do you think carbohydrates are composed of atoms or molecules? XYW: I don't know.

Pattern: Discrepancy of Development (Example 2)

Implication

Although American and Chinese students came from different cultural and educational contexts, they tended to rely on similar intuitive reasoning patterns (force-dynamic) to account for environmental events.

Intensive science learning in Chinese schools helps students to memorize scientific vocabulary but does not effectively help them to develop scientific reason

Environmental Literacy Research Project

Environmental Literacy Research Project: http://edr1.educ.msu.edu/EnvironmentalLit/index.htm

Jing Chen, Kennedy Onyacha, Hamin Beak, Jonathon Schramm, Jennifer Doherty, Dante Cisterna from Michigan State University; Karen Draney, Mark Wilson, Jinnie Choy, Yongsang Lee from University of California, Berkeley