The Use of Qualitative Modelling and Simulation Tools in High School Education: an Engineering Study

Samenvatting

Recent studies show that learners develop a richer understanding of phenomena when learning involves the construction of a graphical representation of their knowledge. Building such representations helps learners in externalizing though and thus provides opportunities for expressing, testing, reflecting, and adjusting conceptions about the real world. A shared representation also provided opportunities for discussion of ideas with peers and therefore cooperation. In this thesis the use of such a representation method is evaluated in a high school setting. First, the theory underlying the model-building method is described. Next, a curriculum is designed for high school learners cooperatively building models about the process of osmosis. In this curriculum learners are given different types of guidance to help them build their models. The model-building task is evaluated in terms of learning opportunities that occurred and practical implications for context of use of the method. In this context analysis the focus is on the role of the teachers and the usefulness of specific forms of guidance.