Abstracts - Earli

A study of pupils’ science learning behavior in heterogeneous/homogeneous groupsChia-Ling Chiang, National Univ. of Tainan, TaiwanI-Che Chung, Cishan Elementary School, TaiwanThe purpose of the study was to understand pupils’ learning behavior in heterogeneous/homogeneous groups. This study proceeded in a primary school at a satellite town and lasted foreight months. Thirty-six forth-grade pupils of two classes participated in this study, and studentswith high/low ability were removed from his/her group in different stages. Classroom observationwith the checklist, named: "the Checklist of Groupworks in Science Learning" was conducted.After analyzing the data qualitatively and quantitatively, it was found that the low-ability studentshad better performance in homogeneous group than in heterogeneous group (p . But high-abilitystudents showed the similar behavior in homogeneous group and in mid-heterogeneous group withlower ability (p > .05). In addition, some of the low-ability students would engage in groupactivities and cooperate with others in homogeneous group, but some of the high-ability studentswho used to be the leaders in heterogeneous groups showed off-task behavior in homogeneousgroup. It showed that the learning behavior of a student was indeed influenced by group members.Besides, it was also found that whatever the group was heterogeneous or not, the interactionstructure of groups became stable swiftly after removing students. It is worth noting that theinteraction structure of each group is quite similar, that is, only 1-3 members are engaging in grouptasks, other members are just idle around. It implies that the group interaction is influenced by awider and deeper belief/value of culture, which needs more studies and discussion.Modelling children’s conceptual thinking in an inquiry-based learning environment: towards anintegrated description techniqueMarjatta Kangassalo, University of Tampere, FinlandKristiina Kumpulainen, University of Helsinki, FinlandSatu Vasama, University of Oulu, FinlandEva Tuominen, University of Tampere, FinlandThis paper is challenged by the question of how to model and describe the development ofconceptual thinking and exploratory learning in the social context of a multimedia environment inan early year’s science classroom. The study investigates the development of conceptual thinkingamong young children aged between six to eight years old in an activity context in which childrenhave to opportunity to spontaneously explore and model natural and astronomical phenomenausing traditional and multimedia tools. The data for the study has been collected by means of preandpost-interviews and video-recordings of children’s spontaneous, self-initiated explorations inthe learning environment in question. The analysis methods are based upon theories and conceptsderived from cognitive and social psychology, cognitive science, studies of discourse and socialpractice and they aim at highlighting the socio-cognitive dynamics in collaborative knowledgeconstruction (Kumpulainen, Salovaara & Mutanen 2001) as well as the processes of children’sconceptual thinking in an open, tool rich learning context (Kangassalo 1997). The paper considersthe potential and challenges of theoretical and methodological triangulation in the investigation ofconceptual thinking and learning among young learners as an aim to develop an integrated,dynamic and visual computer technology- based description technique. The first steps andexamples towards the description technique are described.– 217 –