Peter Edelsbrunner

Last Name

Edelsbrunner

First Name

Peter

ORCID

0000-0001-9102-1090

Show all metadata

Search Results

Publications1 - 10 of 48

Examining and comparing the relation between representational competence and conceptual knowledge across four samples
Edelsbrunner, Peter; Hofer, Sarah Isabelle (2024)
Frontiers in Education
Introduction: Whereas it is commonly assumed that in learning science, representational competence is a critical prerequisite for the acquisition of conceptual knowledge, comprehensive psychometric investigations of this assumption are rare. We undertake a step in this direction by re-analyzing the data from a recent study that found a substantial correlation between the two constructs in undergraduates in the context of field representations and electromagnetism. Methods: In this pre-registered contribution, we re-analyzed the data (N = 515 undergraduate students; Mage = 21.81, SDage = 4.04) to examine whether the relation between representational competence and conceptual knowledge, both measured with psychometrically validated test instruments, is similar or varies between four samples from two countries. To this end, we employed correlational analysis and scatter plots. Employing these methods, we examined whether a positive relation between representational competence and conceptual knowledge can be found and is of similar magnitude in all samples. We also employed multiple-group latent profile analysis to examine how the more detailed association between the two constructs varies or is similar across samples. Results: We found that the relation between the two constructs was positive in all four samples, but was stronger in the samples consisting primarily of engineering and physics students than in environmental sciences and teacher education-students. All latent profiles indicated that high representational competence is a prerequisite for high conceptual knowledge, but not vice versa. We found little relation to learners’ gender and topic-specific learning opportunities in high school. Discussion: These results indicate that the qualitative findings of a positive relation between representational competence and conceptual knowledge, with no evidence of learners that achieve high conceptual knowledge with low representational competence, generalize across different populations. We derive hypotheses for further moderating factors that can be examined in future research.
A literature review of children's and youth's conceptions of the internet
Babari, Parvaneh; Hielscher, Michael; Edelsbrunner, Peter; et al. (2023)
International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction
The Internet has become an important environment in everyday life of children and youth. Consequently, understanding basic Internet concepts has been listed as a target competence in many school curricula. However, any constructive approach to teaching concepts of the Internet should take into account learners’ initial conceptions, shaped by daily experiences, that they bring into the classroom. Based on a systematic literature review of research published between January 2000 and March 2022, we synthesized more than 400 descriptions reported by children and youth and classified them into five categories: (1) the structure of the Internet, (2) responsibility for the operation of the Internet, (3) web search engines and their function, (4) transmission techniques and (5) services of the Internet, as well as into subcategories that encompass commonly found kinds of conceptions within these categories. In addition, we classified all conceptions into three types: (1) intuitive, (2) elaborate and (3) misconception. The results show that children and youth hold more intuitive than elaborate conceptions. They also hold many misconceptions in all five categories. Although it has been suggested that age or user's online experiences may be important factors for shaping elaborate conceptions about the Internet, we observed that many intuitive conceptions and misconceptions seem to be persistent across different age groups. This indicates that these factors, although necessary, but may not be sufficient for developing adequate conceptions. Instead, we argue that an elaborate conception of the structure of the Internet requires explicit learning and instruction. Finally, we explain implications of our findings for education and for future research.
Screen time Screen time vs. scream time: Developmental interrelations between young children's screen time, negative affect, and effortful control
Brauchli, Valérie; Edelsbrunner, Peter; Paz Castro, Raquel; et al. (2024)
Computers in Human Behavior
This study aimed to examine developmental relations of screen time, negative affect and effortful control in children aged 12–36 months. Parents of 462 children up to 3 years of age at the start of the study (M = 1.28 years, SD = 0.61; 50% female) participated in four assessments within 10 months. Parents reported their children's screen time, negative affect, and effortful control at each assessment in a diary study. Results of multivariate Bayesian multilevel growth modeling revealed correlations between growth parameters of (1) children's screen time and their negative affect and (2) children's negative affect and their effortful control but not between growth parameters of (3) children's screen time and their effortful control. Overall, these results indicate that children's screen time may be associated with their negative affect independently of their effortful control. Hence, we found no evidence of displacement in the development of self-regulatory strategies in children of parents with higher levels of education. Future research on this topic should focus on children's excessive screen media use, considering contextual and content-related screen media factors and other factors in the child's immediate and broader environment.
The Psychometric Modeling of Scientific Reasoning: a Review and Recommendations for Future Avenues
Edelsbrunner, Peter; Dablander, Fabian (2019)
Educational Psychology Review
Psychometric modeling has become a frequently used statistical tool in research on scientific reasoning. We review psychometric modeling practices in this field, including model choice, model testing, and researchers’ inferences based on their psychometric practices. A review of 11 empirical research studies reveals that the predominant psychometric approach is Rasch modeling with a focus on itemfit statistics, applied in a way strongly similar to practices in national and international large-scale educational assessment programs. This approach is common in the educational assessment community and rooted in subtle philosophical views on measurement. However, we find that based on this approach, researchers tend to draw interpretations that are not within the inferential domain of this specific approach and not in accordance with the related practices and inferential purposes. In some of the reviewed articles, researchers put emphasis on item infit statistics for dimensionality assessment. Item infit statistics, however, cannot be regarded as a valid indicator of the dimensionality of scientific reasoning. Using simulations as illustration, we argue that this practice is limited in delivering psychological insights; in fact, various recent inferences about the structure, cognitive basis, and correlates of scientific reasoning might be unwarranted. In order to harness its full potential, we make suggestions towards adjusting psychometric modeling practices to the psychological and educational questions at hand.
Preparation for Future Learning in Physics: The Importance of Overlap in Prior Knowledge
Thurn, Christian Maximilian; Edelsbrunner, Peter; Schumacher, Ralph; et al. (2023)
Content areas, which form both school subjects and academic disciplines, are based on a broad body of intertwined knowledge that emerges from long-term learning activities. The acquisition of expertise in such areas results from a time-consuming process of chunking pieces of knowledge into broader abstract units, and from expanding and restructuring existing concepts. Being able to build on prior knowledge is seen as an utmost important precondition for future learning in all areas, among them in the STEM fields. In areas such as physics and mathematics, learners need to go through various steps of restructuring in order to acquire scientific concepts, so laying the foundations for this process by providing learning opportunities at an early age is considered essential (Stern, 2005). Based on this claim, we launched a longitudinal study on the potential benefits of implementing inquiry-based physics curricula units in primary school. In this presentation, we discuss the extent to which prior knowledge established in these units is beneficial for future learning (Bransford & Schwartz, 1999) when undergoing new curriculum units that share knowledge with the primary school units. According to Brod (2021), prior knowledge could support future learning if it is activated and relevant for as well as congruent with the new knowledge. Methodology In the Swiss MINT Study, primary school teachers were trained in delivering instruction in four basic teaching units on the Stability of Bridges, Sound, Floating & Sinking, and Air & Atmospheric Pressure. These topics were mainly taught in grades 3-4 and were supposed to support students in acquiring domain-specific content knowledge as well as in applying systematic scientific inquiry and experimentation skills. Pre- and posttest allowed to measure learning progress. To date, 600 classes have participated in these topics. The Swiss MINT study allowed to set up within-classroom quasi-experimental intervention designs in secondary school, when classes were newly composed of students who did (intervention group) and who did not (control group) receive early physics instruction with the basic units. Independent intervention studies were set up, with three of them discussed here. In the Proportionality Study (n = 566, M_age = 11.24 years) we wanted to find out whether students of the intervention group had an advantage when proportionality was taught on the example of density, a concept that played a major role in the unit on Floating & Sinking. In addition, we compared the effects of the density example with the often-used example of speed for explaining proportionality. In the Hydrostatic Pressure Study (n = 1375, M_age = 13.64 years), students learned about the forces acting on objects immersed in liquids. There was overlapping knowledge with the units on Floating & Sinking and Air and Atmospheric pressure, which addressed such kind of knowledge in a more basic manner. However, to allow a fair design, the unit on hydrostatic pressure did not necessarily presuppose this knowledge, although it was supposed to be helpful. In the Magnetism Study (n = 1840, M_age = 12.12 years), the contents did not build upon the contents that students had acquired within the basic units, but there was an overlap in knowledge about scientific inquiry and experimentation, such as the control-of-variables strategy. A previous study (Schalk et al., 2019) revealed an effect of the basic curricula on experimentation skills. Results and discussion The Proportionality Study revealed that learning in the example of speed was more beneficial (d = 0.29) than in the example of density. This result was contrary to our expectations but likely pointed towards the benefit of a second instruction context to make prior knowledge in physics transferable to the target context in mathematics. The Hydrostatic Pressure Study revealed a clear impact of early physics education, as the intervention group outperformed the control group by d = 0.26. A multilevel regression analysis with the posttests of the four teaching units in elementary school as predictors for learning outcomes in hydrostatic pressure only revealed an impact of the tests on Floating & Sinking and on Air and Atmospheric pressure. Achievement in the tests on Stability of Bridges and on Sound did not account for additional variance, as there was no overlap in knowledge. In the Magnetism Study, the intervention group outperformed the control group with d = 0.22. Although the goal of the Swiss MINT study was to deliver all four teaching units to all participants of the intervention group, for different reasons this could not always be realized. We took advantage of this disadvantage by determining a dosage score for each participant (the number of units they underwent), and this score showed a positive impact on learning outcomes. The more opportunities students got to acquire knowledge about scientific inquiry and experimentation, the better they could apply it to a new topic. Theoretical and educational significance To sum up, primary school children who underwent physics curricula acquired knowledge that they could use for future learning if there was an overlap in relevant and congruent knowledge. This collection of studies represents a first large-scale evaluation of the idea of preparation for future learning across different levels of schooling. Future research should focus on increasing the impact, for instance by supporting students in activating their knowledge, and on exploring factors that explain variation in effects across teachers and their classrooms. References Bransford, J. D., & Schwartz, D. L. (1999). Chapter 3: Rethinking transfer: A simple proposal with multiple implications. Review of Research in Education, 24(1), 61-100. Brod, G. (2021). Toward an understanding of when prior knowledge helps or hinders learning. npj Science of Learning, 6(1), 1-3. Schalk, L., Edelsbrunner, P., Deiglmayr, A., Schumacher, R., Stern, E. (2019). Improved Application of the Control-of-Variables Strategy as a Collateral Benefit of Inquiry-Based Physics Education in Elementary School. Learning and Instruction, 59, 34-45. Stern, E. (2005). Knowledge restructuring as a powerful mechanism of cognitive development: How to lay an early foundation for conceptual understanding in formal domains. In P. D. Tomlinson, J. Dockrell & P. Winne (Eds.), Pedagogy – teaching for learning (pp. 153–169). Leicester: British Psychological Society.
A model and its fit lie in the eye of the beholder: Long live the sum score
Edelsbrunner, Peter (2022)
Frontiers in Psychology
Epistemic Beliefs in Science – A Systematic Integration of Evidence From Multiple Studies
Schiefer, Julia; Edelsbrunner, Peter; Bernholt, Andrea; et al. (2022)
Educational Psychology Review
Recent research has integrated developmental and dimensional perspectives on epistemic beliefs by implementing an approach in which profiles of learners' epistemic beliefs are modeled across multiple dimensions. Variability in study characteristics has impeded the comparison of profiles of epistemic beliefs and their relations with external variables across studies. We examined this comparability by integrating data on epistemic beliefs about the source, certainty, development, and justification of knowledge in science from six studies comprising N = 10,932 German students from elementary to upper secondary school. Applying latent profile analyses to these data, we found that profiles of epistemic beliefs that were previously conceptualized were robust across multiple samples. We found indications that profiles of epistemic beliefs homogenize over the course of students' education, are related to school tracking, and demonstrate robust relations with students' personal characteristics and socioeconomic background. We discuss implications for the theory, assessment, and education of epistemic beliefs.
Network models of conceptual understanding in magnetism
Thurn, Christian Maximilian; Hänger, Brigitte; Edelsbrunner, Peter; et al. (2022)
Editorial: From "modern" to "postmodern" psychology: Is there a way past?
Hanfstingl, Barbara; Uher, Jana; Edelsbrunner, Peter; et al. (2023)
Frontiers in Psychology
The relation between working memory and mathematics performance among students in math-intensive STEM programs
Berkowitz, Michal; Edelsbrunner, Peter; Stern, Elsbeth (2022)
Intelligence
This study examined how working memory (WM) and mathematics performance are related among students entering mathematics-intensive undergraduate STEM programs (N = 317). Among students of mechanical engineering and math-physics, we addressed two questions: (1) Do verbal and visuospatial WM differ in their relation with three measures of mathematics performance: numerical reasoning ability, prior knowledge in mathematics, and achievements in mathematics-intensive courses? (2) To what extent are the effects of WM on achievements in mathematics-intensive courses mediated by numerical reasoning ability and prior knowledge in mathematics? A latent correlational analysis revealed that verbal WM was at least as strongly associated with the three mathematics measures as visuospatial WM. A latent mediation model revealed that numerical reasoning fully mediated the effects of WM on achievements in math-intensive courses, both directly and in a doubly mediated effect via prior knowledge in mathematics. We conclude that WM across modalities contributes significantly to mathematics performance of mathematically competent students. The effect of verbal WM emerges as being more pronounced than has been assumed in prior literature.

Publications1 - 10 of 48

Peter Edelsbrunner

Last Name

First Name

ORCID

Organisational unit

Filters

Search Results