Abstracts - Earli

Exploring the development of scientific explanations and its effects on student learningMaria Araceli Ruiz-Primo, University of Colorado at Boulder, USAShin-Ping Tsai, University of Washington, USAMin Li, University of Washington, USAScientific explanations are important for students to construct their understanding scientificknowledge and link the knowledge with evidence. It is vital to instructionally support and measurethe growth of students’ explanations in teachers’ daily practice. The purpose of this study is toexplore methods to model the general growth trajectory of students’ learning of scientificexplanations as well as its variability. Using the student notebook scores on four investigationswithin a physical science unit, a series of three-level hierarchical linear models will be conductedto identify the learning trajectory of student learning in the context of inquiry-based instructions.We will examine the mean and variability of the individual and group growth curves on students’proficiency in scientific inquiry. Finally, we will discuss the issues related to methodologicalchallenges and educational implications regarding to inquiry-based instructional and assessmentpractice.Students’ handling of graphs in universityMaria-Puy Perez-Echeverria, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, SpainYolanda Postigo, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, SpainJuan-Ignacio Pozo, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, SpainAna Pecharroman, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, SpainThe fundamental aim of this presentation is to show research about the psychology students’ skillsto read and interpret graphic information. We are interested in analyze the influence of content inthese skills. Our previous results (study 1) showed that psychology students were able to read andconstruct simple graphics but they had problems to reach inferences and make generalizationsfrom graphic data. In the present research we confronted psychology students with real graphicsproblems extracted from psychology books and papers. In the first condition, the graphic contentsare those showed in the psychological books. In the non psychological condition, the graphiccontents were about problems related to health. In the study 2, the students had to choose thegraphic that better represented the results of experiment and justify their election whereas in thestudy 3 they had to reach conclusions from data graphic. There were four different problems ineach study. The first problem showed categorical data whereas in the other the data showed theresults of a variable, the relationships between two variables without interaction and withinteraction respectively. Our preliminary results indicate that there are no differences in the taskswith psychological and non psychological content. In general it was easiest to choose the correctgraphic than to reach inferences. The graphic which was easier to choose was the one presentingcategorical data and the most difficult was the one that presented two variables with interaction.The more common mistakes were to choose a less adequate format of representation (bar or linear)and not recognizing the interactions factors.Between planning and practice: Toward the implementation of integrative learning in anexperimental teachers education programEdith Tabak, Levinsky College of Education, IsraelIlana Margulin, Levinsky College of Education, IsraelThis qualitative-interpretive study, framed by Activity-Theory, was conducted in the context of anexperimental teacher education program. Its aims are to describe the process of developing an– 456 –