Dissertation Abstract
A Case Study Of The Abductive
Reasoning Processes
Of Pre-Service Elementary Education Students
In A Role Playing Setting concerning A
Mock Senate Hearing
On Global Climate Change
by
Michael Eugene Petty
Degree: Ph.D.
Year: 2001
Pages: 00179
Institution:
Advisor: Chairman Hans Andersen
Source: DAI, 63, no. 01A (2001): p. 133
Standard
No: ISBN: 0-493-52031-7
Science education has a rich history of studies
into the impact of analogical reasoning upon researcher and student alike.
These have focused on how induction and deduction are utilized in determining
the appropriateness of the analogy being scrutinized. Research in artificial intelligence
has demonstrated that human cognition cannot be modeled with only inductive and
deductive forms of logic. Charles S. Peirce proposed abduction as a form of
logic central to the process of inquiry and discovery. This involves reasoning
from observation to best explanation or hypothesis. Peirce's Theory of Signs
provided the theoretical foundation and a model of abduction developed by Shank
and Cunningham from Peirce's theory offered the conceptual basis for the study.
This
study uses discourse analysis to attempt to understand the abductive reasoning
processes of two groups of students as they interpret new information
concerning the political and scientific perspective of the Greening Earth
Society and the Center for Disease Control in an authentic, undergraduate-level
classroom setting. The five students were members of a capstone course in
science education for pre-service elementary education majors who had an
interest in science education. The entire class was comprised of fourteen
students partitioned into five groups for the culminating exercise for the
course. Analysis was carried out using journal entries, audiotapes of planning
sessions, a brief summary of their understanding, and videotapes of the mock
Senate hearings. The results demonstrated that different members of the group
arrived at their understanding using different pathways suggested by the model.
While some proceeded linearly, others skipped some stages and later came back
to find supportive evidence to strengthen their beliefs. The model is useful in
understanding their abductive processes and may provide insight into how we
might consider the process in the design of future curriculum for elementary
science education.
SUBJECT(S)
Descriptor: EDUCATION, SCIENCES
EDUCATION,
CURRICULUM AND INSTRUCTION
EDUCATION,
ELEMENTARY
EDUCATION,
TEACHER TRAINING
Accession
No: AAI3038542
Provider: OCLC