The Teaching Research Of Biological Model Construction Under The Guidance Of Social Constructivism Learning Theory

As a kind of teaching activity,model construction has great educational value and plays an important role in science education.With the advancement of the new curriculum reform,there are more and more researches on how to design and effectively apply teaching centered on model construction activities.However,there are still some problems in the relevant teaching practices.For example,some teachers lack understanding of models and regard the model construction as a kind of manual activity,which leads to the formalization and superficialization of the model construction activities during class.To solve the above problems,this study redefines the model from five perspectives: what is the model,the purpose of modeling,the function of the model,the modeling process and the expression form of the model.Under the guidance of the learning theory of social constructivism,this study also attempts to design a teaching process centered on modeling construction activities.This teaching process includes four parts: situation,target,model construction and model deployment,of which model construction consists of three stages: individual construction,group negotiation and collective sharing,with all the three stages focusing on individual psychological changes as well as communication and cooperation among individuals.Under the guidance of this teaching process,43 students in a class of the practice school were selected as research objects for a three-month empirical research.Before and after the modeling instruction,the students' understanding of models and modeling process was measured by test papers.These data obtained was analyzed quantitatively by SPSS software to know the changes of students' understanding of models and modeling process before and after the teaching.After the modeling instruction,teachers and students were interviewed to know their real feelings in the teaching process.The research data shows that before the modeling instruction,from the perspective of nature of models,the proportions of students who agreed that the models were the replication of the original,the idealized representation of the original or the theoretical reconstruction of the original were 47.6%,50.0% and 2.3%respectively.After the modeling instruction,the corresponding proportions are 16.7%,45.2% and 38.1%.From the perspective of multiple models,the rates of students who thought that the models were diversified because of their different appearances,different focuses on the original or different hypotheses on the original were 66.7%,28.6% and 4.7% respectively before the modeling instruction.While after the modeling instruction,the corresponding rates are 35.7%,42.9% and 21.4%.From the perspective of purpose of models,the proportions of students who thought that modeling was to describe,to explain or to predict the original were 35.7%,61.9% and2.3% respectively before the modeling instruction.After the modeling instruction,the corresponding proportions are 19.0%,57.1% and 23.8%.From the perspective of testing models,the proportions of students who agreed that testing models was to test models themselves,to check the matching degree between the model and the prototype or to test if the assumption of prototype applicable were 61.9%,28.6% and9.5% respectively before the modeling instruction.After the modeling instruction,the corresponding proportions are 40.5%,45.2% and 14.3%.From the perspective of changing models,the rates of students who thought that the reasons of changing models were that the models were defective,that there were new insights or that there were changes in hypotheses were 47.6%,47.6% and 4.7% respectively before the modeling instruction.After the modeling instruction,the corresponding proportions are 26.1%,57.1% and 16.6%.It is clear that students' understanding of models and every perspective of modeling was generally low before the modeling instruction,but it has been improved after the modeling instruction.The data from paired sample t-test shows that students' average understanding of each dimension of models and modeling has increased and the difference is significant(p value is less than 0.01),which also indicates that the students' understanding of models and modeling process was improved after the modeling instruction.In addition,the interview results show that students' comprehension of knowledge was deepened as well.According to the results of the study,the preliminary conclusion is that it is feasible to use the teaching process of biological modeling under the guidance of social constructivism learning theory to lead modeling instruction,whose application can promote students' understanding of models and modeling and help students deepen their comprehension of knowledge.