Ahoranta, Vuokko
Oppimisen laatu peruskoulun vuosiluokilla 4-6 yleisdidaktiikan näkökulmasta käsitekarttojen ja vee-heuristiikkojen avulla tutkittuna
(Quality of Learning in a Primary School Grades 4-6 From The Viewpoint of General Didactics Using Concept Maps and Vee-Heuristics)
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to research and develop teacher’s work and pupils learning from the viewpoint of general didactics in sustainable development. This research was part of the OECD/ENSI-project (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development/Environment and School Initiatives) in Finland. In this research didactics is understood as studying and developing teacher’s work. The research problem is to find out how concept maps and Vee heuristics help a teacher in following and promoting pupils’ learning. In addition the research task was as far as possible to develop the method of concept mapping and the method of Vee heuristics.
Subjects in this research and development project were two separate groups of pupils, both of which had about 20 pupils. The pupils in the first group were followed in the grades 4th –6th in 1997-2000. The pupils in the second group were followed also in the grades 4th –6th in 2000-2003. Teaching was carried out according to valid national curriculum. From the teacher’s viewpoint, teaching was planned as design experiments and from the pupils’ viewpoint as learning projects. There were fourteen learning projects in 1997-2000 and nine learning projects in 2000-2003. Always at the beginning of a new learning project the pupils constructed their first concept maps. These concept maps were used to reveal pupils knowledge at the beginning of a learning project. Likewise at the beginning of a learning project the pupils completed the left side of their Vee heuristics. These Vee heuristics were used to follow pupils’ thinking during the learning project. Always at the end the pupils constructed their second concept maps and the rest of their Vee heuristics. To enable the precise analyse nine pupils (three high achievers, three average achievers and three low achievers) were selected according to their earlier school achievement. The concept maps of these nine pupils were analysed both qualitatively and quantitatively. In a qualitative research for example possible misunderstandings in pupils’ concept maps were searched to correct them together during a learning project if possible. In this report quantitative analysis is confined to analyse and tabulate only the amount of essential concepts and propositions.
The first main result was that it is possible to follow and promote pupils’learning and thinking by using concept maps and Vee heuristics systematically for many years. As far as known this is also internationally a new research result. The teacher felt that the main advantage in using these methods was the development of pupils’ self-esteem and self assessment. The special merit in concept mapping proved to be the fact that all the pupils individually got strong support of learning a lot during the learning projects. The pupils could see clearly how much the amount of relevant concepts and propositions encreases. Also an experienced teacher felt that by using these methods she got plenty of such new knowledge about her pupils’ learning and thinking which otherwise would have been impossible to get. Both concept maps and Vee heuristics reveal versatile knowledge to a teacher and to pupils themselves about pupils’ learning and thinking. By knowing this it was possible to the teacher to guide and promote her pupils’ learning and thinking better than earlier. Furthermore it was observed that all pupils concentrated really well without disorder to construct their concept maps and Vee heuristics.
The second main result was that concept maps reveal only what is in pupils’ metakognition and what they are able to construct in their maps. When the teacher designed a school achievement test (short answer test) and transformed pupils’ ordinary answers proposition by proposition into concept maps turned out that pupils know much more than they themselves presented in their own concept maps.
A well working and reveiling version of Vee heuristics for the 4th –6th graders was successfully developed during this research. To analyse the results in concept mapping a new practice was invented: how many intensively-studied pupils mentioned a concept in his or her concept map. Earlier in the research in didactics of sustainable development analysis based on counting the amount of relevant links in connection to a concept. These two different ways of analysing concept maps produce complementary knowledge about pupils’ learning. According to preliminary analysis it seems that both girls and boys benefit equally much when they use concept maps and Vee heuristics.
The results in this research have been utilized since 1997 in teacher training in the University of Joensuu in Savonlinna Department of Teacher Education. According to the researcher’s experience the combined use of concept maps and Vee heuristics is more efficient for a teacher and pupils to follow and develop their own learning and thinking than any other method they have used earlier.
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