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PROJECT SUMMARY
In a first-year seminar on abrupt change in climate and human networks, I have analyzed student writing for integrative science learning that "goes beyond". My research maps what students gain as they go beyond: the science, individual learning, science as facts, simple systems, the human time frame, and passive learning.
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RESEARCH QUESTION
In what ways are students "going beyond" as they make integrative moves in an inquiry seminar that circled a single transdisciplinary concept - abrupt change - with richly related perspectives from science and social science? This question grew from a desire to help faculty understand how to help pre-disciplinary college students begin to engage effectively in interdisciplinary science thinking and practices. This project has, from the start, been a rich collaboration with Joanne Stewart. At Hope College, she twice taught a similar course for general education students. Her research and insight have enriched this project.
Joanne Stewart's Carnegie Project Snapshot
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CONTEXT: THE INTEGRATIVE SEMINAR
Natural Networks: Abrupt Climate Change In the IDCS 100 seminar at Carleton College, we studied what Kuhn calls "extraordinary science" by using historical climate data records and theories to investigate the emerging paradigm of abrupt change in global climate systems. This approach allowed for exploration of complex natural systems and the dynamic human processes for building science knowledge. Our inquiry circled through climate data interpretation going increasingly further back in time, and through authentic questions that climate researchers are asking themselves today: 1) How fast does global climate change? 2) Why does climate change quickly? 3) How have humans been affected by abrupt climate change? and 4) Is abrupt climate change in our future? Human Networks: Mind Change Seminar students also engaged in learning activities with a second seminar (taught by Larry Wichlinski, Psychology) under the common theme of paradigm shifts in science. Larry's seminar focused on the mind-brain relationship in neuroscience. Jointly, we read Gladwell's Tipping Point, Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, and portions of Gardner's Changing Minds and Diamond's Collapse . Students studied abrupt changes of the human mind at the level of individuals, social groups, scientific communities, and civilizations. Playful Authentic Inquiry The "open playground for inquiry" in the seminar rested on several essential elements: A "pedagogy of uncertainty" (Shulman, 2005). Uncertainty lurked in the scientific knowledge base, in my role as authority figure, and in the inherently unpredictable nature of complex systems. A pedagogy of "integrative spiraling" with recurring inquiry through climate research questions and perspectives from social science.Extraordinary science as subject. This created open ground for debate and investigation while placing the human processes of doing science into high relief.Intellectual toys with teacher as playground usher. The inquiry playground held a rich set of toys: climate data, theories, conflict, debate, future consequences, and the daily invitation for creativity and engagement. I modeled and we discussed interpretation of climate data and theory explanation. Later, students led by demanding more climate data, by bringing in information to share, and by posing sophisticated questions for our consideration.
The Carleton College Context
Carleton's Interdisciplinary Science & Math Initiative
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RESEARCH FINDINGS
I looked for moments and moves where these novice learners "went beyond" - to produce insight by and for themselves through a process of integration that leveraged one or more perspectives, disciplinary or otherwise (Mansilla, 2005). I found insightful integrative moments richly scattered across student work. My initial findings indicate that students went beyond: The science to leverage related perspectives from social science (drawing on concepts for human networks) and themselves (prior knowledge, experience, values, beliefs, curiosity, etc.). Students drew extensively on "the human" to understand science.A human time frame to perspectives over geological time.Simple system understanding to multi-causal explanations and the nature of complex system behavior (feedbacks, thresholds, triggers, inherent uncertainty, connectedness).Science knowledge as facts to the recursive processes for inquiry (cycling through data and theory to extract meaning), science as a dynamic human enterprise (with conflict, resistance, crises, anomalies, beliefs, paradigms and paradigm shifts), and understanding the role of struggle and resistance in building knowledge.Passive learning to active inquiry while engaged in interpretation of climate data, question posing that opens integrative inquiry, moves toward skepticism and critique, and metacognition about their own learning.Individual learning to group inquiry in the community zone of the seminar.Future work will examine these areas more closely along with moments when students got stuck, frustrated, or intimidated.
A Portrait of Community Learning
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STUDENT VOICES
"I had always thought people learned a new concept and that was that. I never really understood how complex the process really was and how skepticism really leads to better understanding." -- Beyond passive learning "Now I'm thinking more in terms of inherent unpredictability. Thresholds, feedbacks, and complex processes abound in our climate, and we can't be certain what they'll do, and we're even less certain about when they'll do it. We simply can't factor in every process that's occurring in...climate. We can, however, make some predictions about cause and effect, and despite not knowing, we can take measures to nudge the vast machinery in a favorable direction." -- Beyond simple system understanding "In my own view of the global climate trends, Gladwell's idea of the 'power of context' also applies...After looking at various graphs of different historical records of global temperatures, I realized how vital the 'context' or time frame of the graph had on my views of our current climate trend." -- Beyond science, the human time frame, and passive learning "Is there a connection between the growth of human agriculture and civilization and the last 10,000 years of stable and warm climate?" -- Beyond science and passive learning "I have progressed myself while learning about progression [of ideas in science]. I used to think that there was a box that one could reach every corner of and search every inch of and when that was done, everything would be known and truth would be found. However, after reading Kuhn, I changed my mind to believe that the box is not a set shape. In my 'pre-Kuhn' box you could bounce off of the boundaries and back into the box. However, after reading Kuhn I realized that...when studying normal science, a paradigm shift could occur which would hit the boundaries of the box but instead of rebounding back into the box, the shift would actually change the shape of the box itself." -- Beyond science knowledge as facts
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INSIGHTS & IMPLICATIONS
SOCIAL SCIENCE AS A "GATEWAY" TO SCIENCE. Starting the course with Gladwell's Tipping Point helped students relate to and work with ideas about abrupt change in human networks. With guidance, students were able to transfer these concepts to the climate system and enhance their scientific understanding of abrupt climate change. STUDENT PERSPECTIVES AS "GATEWAYS" TO SCIENCE. A striking result from this study is that students often bring something of themselves to the seminar (values, experience, identity, prior knowledge) and integrate this with ideas in the seminar to create productive new insight. The pedagogy was critical in encouraging this. The scientific disciplines can devise effective ways to surface and use student perspectives to enhance science learning. AN EMERGING DEVELOPMENTAL FRAMEWORK FOR INTEGRATIVE SCIENCE LEARNING. The above insight led me to slice students' integrative moves in the developmental dimension, with two categories easily apparent in my evidence. Personal-course integration.Students draw heavily on what they bring, mixed with a course perspective. Students offer their own perspective often in response to an open-ended question or assignment. Starting early with personal integration may help students engage in learning and become highly developed "contextual knowers" (Baxter-Magolda, 2001) who integrate both personal and expert knowledge.Expert integration. Most effective when guided by the instructor, involves integration of course and disciplinary perspectives. Much of this is "interdisciplinary" as instructors privilege multiple disciplinary perspectives.
Bibliography & Resources
Acknowledgements
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