Students

1
Students learning and conceptual change - some
emerging issues on emotions and values

• Cecilia Lundholm
• Research on Conceptual Development
• www. ped.su.se/rcd
• Department of Education Stockholm Resilience
  Centre, Stockholm University
• Staffordshire University

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Current projects

• Learning in economics, including env. aspects
  (with Prof
  Davies, Business school, Staffordshire
  University)
• Learning about climate change considering
  understanding of nature, society and the
  individual (PhD student Li Wang,
  www.ped.su.se/rcd)
• Synthesising empirical work on students
  environmental learning
  (Dr Rickinson Dr Hopwood, Oxford
  University)

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On knowledge and learning in informal settings..

• Ecological knowledge and sustainable resource
  (fishery) management
  (PhD student Dr Crona, Stockholm
  Resilience Centre, Stockholm University)
• The role of learning and participation in
  management of Biosphere reserves, UNESCO
  programme
  (colleagues at the Stockholm Resilience
  Centre)

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Outline
Outline of presentation

• The emerging focus on the affective domain, and
  the interaction of cognition and the affective
• Examples from studies in biology, environmental,
  physics, history and, economics education.

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• The battle between cognition and emotion,
  between reason and unreason, between logic and
  illogical thinking, between fantasy and reality,
  which takes place in the work of representations,
  continues throughout adult and social life
  (Jovchelovitch, 2007, p.
  33)
  

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Cold conceptual change

• The students needs to be
• - dissatisfied with existing conceptions and
  knowledge, and find new conceptions
• - intelligible and plausible. Finally, the
  student must find that new conceptions are -
  fruitful and lead to new insights.
• (Posner et al. 1982)

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The warming trend in conceptual change - whats
hot?

• Motivation
• Emotions
• Beliefs and values
• Meta cognition
• Epistemological understanding
• Social context

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Motivation and conceptual change

• Bringing two strands of research together
  (Pintrich, Marx, and Boyle, 1993)
• Motivation research focused what motivates,
  and, CC research assumed students engagement
  (thus leading to conceptual change)
• Key message is that the quality of engagement
  will determine conceptual change
  (mastery goals, personal interest, values,
  importance, epistemological beliefs,
  self-efficacy and control beliefs)

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Emotions

• In the past 10 years, educational research has
  begun to pay attention to the growing importance
  of emotion research in basic disciplines of
  psychology and neuroscience.

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Results

• Emotions are situated and dynamic
• Students emotions are manifold and much richer
  in nature than traditional views seemed to
  suggest
• Emotions may be central to students interest,
  motivation, volition and effort.
• In sum, the papers show the multiplicity and
  functional relevance of students' emotions.

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Questions raised

• Concerning boundaries What's the difference
  between emotion, interest, well-being and
  feelings?
• Different emotions might be experienced
  simultaneously
• How to research empirically (reciprocal)
  causation?
• (Pekrún, 2005)

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1. Emotions - as in distaste for the topic

• 1. Students who have difficulties in learning the
  topic but who make no reference to their like or
  dislike for the particular material
• 2. Students who are inhibited in their learning
  through distinct distaste for the topic itself
• 3. Those who have arrived at equilibrium between
  their wariness of the issues and an informed view
  of the risks involved
  (Watts Alsop, 1997. p. 359)

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• Melanie
• The second video ... didnt seem very
  interesting - cutting down trees, I dont think
  thats very my sort of thing, I dont like things
  like that. I dont like cutting down trees, I
  dont like animals being hurt or moved or
  anything. I dont like anything like that. Yeah
  Im very against it, I think its awful.
• The way she reacted led to..
• I was hardly watching it, I was just paying a
  little bit of attention

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Where issues are unpalatable or unsavoury
there is a tendency for people to ignore them, to
undergo conceptual avoidance
(Watts Alsop, 1997, p.
361)
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2. Emotions - directing attention and focus

• Students can for example focus on succeeding
  with exams and getting the teachers approval
  (swot stance), but, they can also strive for
  deep understanding and hence emotions influence
  to what the students will attend and put in focus
  (boffin stance)
  (Claxton, 1991)

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• Nina Okay, then I also think we can discuss ?in
  the students written report? that an important
  aspect of good environmental work within the
  companies, is that the staff is involved in the
  environmental work, and not only the boss -
• Lena But Ive written that already
• Nina Yes, but Hans questions that
• Hans Yes, I dont think its relevant to the
  focus of our work, which we decided upon from the
  beginning
• Nina But you havent reacted to that in our
  discussion!

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• Hans No, but I admit, its really difficult. I
  have to think all the time What am I looking
  for, really? Its like thinking in math about
  logarithms every time you see them you have to
  think, what does this mean?
• Karin Yes, its hard to stay on track
• Lena and Nina Its very difficult
• Karin We cant get too emotionally involved,
  thats the problem!
• Hans No

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3. Emotions - as in identity or feelings of
belonging to a group

• Identity and affect come into play as students
  position themselves in arguing for different
  explanations. This seems to lead to difficulties
  in identifying contradictions and incorrect
  explanations. (Limón,
  2003 )

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Beliefs and values

• In order to construct an understanding of
  evolution, the study shows that the students
  readiness to question and reflect on ones
  beliefs, more than the content of those beliefs,
  are of importance.
  (Southerland Sinatra, 2003)

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• In discussing the generality of the findings the
  authors write
• Evolution is a complex topic that is inherently
  difficult to learn even when ones personal
  beliefs do not conflict with the content. The
  situation becomes even more complex when firmly
  held religious beliefs are perceived to be in
  direct conflict with the scientific explanations
  of human evolution in general, and heightened for
  explanations of human origins. //

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• Thus, whether intentional constructs come into
  play when learning new scientific concepts may
  depend on the complexity of the topic, the degree
  to which the content is perceived to be in
  opposition to the learners prior conceptions,
  and, the perceived conflict with the learners
  broad, culturally-based belief systems.
  (Southerland Sinatra, 2003, p. 336-337)

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Comparing with learning in economics

• In introductory economics courses students reveal
  their anger or disbelief in the approach
  taken by the discipline. (Shanahan
  Meyer, 2006)

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• They just dont believe, for example, that
  it is appropriate to put prices on say, wildlife,
  or that some pollution may be acceptable if the
  benefit from the activity causing the pollution
  exceeds the pollution costs. This may be despite
  students agreeing that such approaches can serve
  to achieve objectives consistent with their
  original beliefs (such as wildlife preservation).
  In the extreme, such resistance to an alien
  approach can result in the student withdrawing
  from the course. (Shanahan Meyer, 2006, p.
  104)

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Students values in learning economics

• Alien ways of thinking
• Anna You have to think in terms of money all
  the time. Not values or something like that, but
  the fact that everything has to be shown in
  dollars and cents when a decision is to be made,
  - my world view really opposes to that. //
  Its difficult for me because often enough the
  value you put on nature is minimalistic, the real
  values are so much higher, and so often they are
  valued less than they should be.

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Pricing - what?

• Ecosystems services and biodiversity - not
  included
• Air and ocean (basic needs)
• Limited resources

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• Cornelia These big ecosystems services from the
  ocean and the air, nobody owns that. The rights
  of owning are perhaps limited to, whats it
  called, a fishing certificate, and theres no
  ownership, no selling and buying, so how to find
  a value

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Explaining the challenges

• Prior knowledge
• Values of nature
• The emotional aspect
• The social aspect (situation and society)

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Intentional perspective - as in understanding
students goals projects

• Possible explanation for the students being
  successful (and not retrieving) are
  students professional projects
  an interest in using economics
  professionally for making the world
  environmentally better
• Thus, there is a willingness to learn and engage
  in an opposing view.

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Sum up

• Motivation
• Emotions
• Beliefs and values
• Meta cognition
• Epistemological understanding
• Social context

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• What they are up to (in all senses) is the
  outcome of a tacit decision-making process based
  only on subjective estimates of competing
  priorities, opportunities, demands, resources and
  risks, which is, in their terms, sensible and
  vital. Only if the emotional/motivational factors
  in this decision permit or encourage intellectual
  learning and the subjective assessments are
  accurate, will achievement be limited by such
  cognitive factors as ability or alternative
  conceptions. (Claxton, 1991, p. 159)