Textbook as a tool for construction and co-construction of school knowledge

Abstract

Socioconstructivistic understanding of learning and teaching process has become a domnant paradigma in scientific and professional literature in recent decades. Creating of such an environment for learning, in which a student has a participative role and construct his knowledges through his personal intellectual activities, is both an ideal, towards we are aiming and a criterion for the evaluation of the teaching process. In contrast to a fruitfull and rich research area that has in its focus teaching/learning environment, the role of the teacher and a student, as well as the teaching/learning methods, socioconstructivistic designing textbooks is a novelty. The aim of this study was to investigate the possibility that this socioconstuctivistic paradigm to be incorporated in a textbook. In experimental design, we investigated the effects and processes of learning from two textbooks models: one based on socioconstuctivistic understanding of the teaching/learning process, and the second based on a transmissive model of teaching/learning. Students who participated in the experiment are equivalised on prior knowledge and competence of reading comprehension, the two variables that have shown to be particularly important for the outcome of learning textual content. The content we have chosen to test the research questions was the content of chemistry, specific on intellectual demands towards students (simultaneous processing of macro, micro and symbolic levels, a substantial domain of spontaneous life experiences that can serve both as a support and an obstacle factor). Selected content were related to theoretical chemistry, specifically the law of conservation of mass as one of the most important laws that organize the understanding of chemical phenomena. At the same time the choice of this content may, through the activity of learning from textbooks, provoke thinking activities relevant to adopt chemistry as a scientific discipline. 8 Constructed materials from which children are taught, differed in eighteen components of the didactic apparatus (structural components and/or their composition), from the second model which was based on a transmissive model of learning/teaching. Important role in the didactic apparatus of the constructed materials had inserted questions, whose function was to question existing knowledge, create dillemmas, help and lead students through the process of constructing of understanding. By quantitative analysis of learning effects main effects of prior knowledge and reading competencies were obtained, but it did not provide a main effect of the type of textbook. A significant effect of prior knowledge and reading competence were in accordance with the findings from the fields of reading and learning textual content. The absence of effect of the variable type textbook was surprising. We suggest that students did not notice the difference between the two models and textbooks, or were not willing to enter into the interaction with the text of the textbook model of constructivist didactic apparatus. By qualitative analysis of the data it was obtained that students used only 16:36% of the components that are supposed to serve the activation and management of intellectual activities and the construction of knowledge...

Sociokonstruktivističko razumevanje procesa učenja i nastave postalo je dominantna paradgima u naučnoj i stručnoj literaturi poslednje decenije. Stvaranje ambijenta za učenje u kome učenik ima participativnu ulogu i kroz vlastite misaone aktivnosti izgrađuje svoja znanja istovremeno je ideal kome se teži ali i kriterijum za evaluaciju nastavnog procesa. Za razliku od bogatog istraživačkog polja koje ima u fokusu nastavni ambijent, uloge nastavnika i učenika i načine rada, sociokonstruktivističko koncipiranje udžbenika je novina. Cilj ovog rada je bio da istraži mogućnosti da se ova sociokonstuktivistička paradigma ugradi u udžbenik. U ekperimentalnom dizajnu, istraživali smo efekte i procese učenja iz dva modela udžbenika, jednog zasnovanog na sociokonstruktivističkom razumevanju procesa nastave/učenja i drugog zasnovanog na transmisivnom modelu nastave/učenja. Učenici koji su učestvovali u eksperimentu izjednačeni su po predznanju i kompetenciji razumevanja pročitanog, varijablama koje su se pokazale kao posebno značajne za ishod učenja tekstualnog sadržaja. Sadržaj koji smo izabrali za proveru istraživačkih pitanja je sadržaj hemije specifičan po intelektualnim zahtevima koje postavlja pred učenika (simultano procesiranje na makro, mikro i simboličkom nivou, značajan domen životnog, spontanog iskustva koje može da bude podrška ali i otežavajući faktor). Izabran sadržaj se odnosi na teorijsku hemiju, konkretno Zakon održanja mase, kao jedan od najvažnijih zakona koji organizuju razumevanje hemijskih fenomena. Istovremeno izbor ovakvog sadržaja može da, kroz aktivnost učenja iz udžbenika, pokrene relevante misaone aktivnosti za usvajanje hemije kao naučne discipline. Konstruisani materijal iz koga su deca učila, razlikuje se u osamnaest komponenti didaktičke aparature (strukturalne komponente i/ili njihove kompozicije) od drugog modela zasnovanog na transmisivnom modelu učenja/nastave. Važnu ulogu u didaktičkoj aparaturi konstruisanog materijala imaju umetnuta pitanja (inserted questions) čija je funkcija da problematizuju postojeće znanje, otvaraju dileme, pomažu i vode učenika kroz proces konstrukcije razumevanja. Kvantitativnom analizom efekata učenja, dobijeni su glavni efekti predznanja i kompetencije razumevanja pročitanog, ali nije dobijen glavni efekat tipa udžbenika. Značajan efekat predznanja i kompetencije pročitanog su u skladu sa nalazima iz oblasti čitanja i učenja tekstualnog sadržaja. Izostanak efekta varijable tip udžbenika je bio iznenađujući. Nalazi sugerišu da učenici nisu primetili razlike između dva modela udžbenika ili nisu bili spremni da uđu u interakciju sa tekstom modela udžbenika sa konstruktivističkom didaktičkom aparaturom. Kvalitativnom analizom podataka dobijeno da učenici koristili svega 16.36% komponenti koje su trebalo da posluže aktiviranju i vođenju misaonih aktivnosti i konstrukcije znanja...