Appropriating conceptual representations: a case of transfer in a middle school science teacher

This paper presents a case study in which a middle school science teacher modifies her classroom instruction and teaching materials using the Structure, Behavior, and Function (SBF) representational framework to transfer her reasoning about one natural system (an aquarium ecosystem) to another natural system (human cells and body systems). Promoting an understanding of complex systems is a difficult yet important component of scientific literacy (Sabelli, 2006). Through emergent processes and localized interactions, the behaviors of a system’s components affect its overall function (Jacobson & Wilensky, 2006). These interactions are often dynamic and invisible which make them difficult for learners to understand and presents challenges for teachers (Feltovich et al.,2001 Hmelo-Silver et al., 2007). The Structure-Behavior-Function (SBF) conceptual representation allows students to understand the relationships between the structures, behaviors, and functions of systems and to map SBF across multiple levels. In the science classroom, academic researchers have developed tools utilizing the SBF representation as a way to teach about multiple complex systems (Hmelo-Silver et al., 2007; Liu & HmeloSilver, 2009). Structures are defined as the components of a system, behaviors as the mechanisms or processes that occur within a system and functions as system outputs (Goel et al, 1996; 2009). We present a case study of a teacher who appropriated the SBF conceptual representation that was originally introduced by a team of researchers, to create tools to meet her curricular needs. The focus of the study is to understand how the teacher transferred the use of the SBF representation between two different curriculum units. Some of the common critiques against the classical approach of transfer have put the spotlight on questions related to the conditions that facilitate transfer, the context of instruction, and the pertinent cues that learners need to be able to identify that signal the application of appropriate problem solving strategies (Lave, 1988, Bransford et al., 2000; Mestre, 2003). The study looks at transfer under two alternate perspectives and the possible synergy between using multiple perspectives to study transfer. Our study considers transfer from both an actor oriented approach (Lobato, 2002, 2006) and a preparation for future learning perspective (Bransford & Schwartz, 1999) to investigate the teacher as learner applying knowledge in a new area. We look at the influence of previous activities and procedures adopted by a learner to construe similarities in new situations (Lobato, 2006). In particular our interest is in understanding how a teacher constructs the relationships and similarities between two systems; one provided by researchers and one designated by the teacher. Adopting an actor oriented perspective requires considering which connections the learners make, on what basis, and how and why those connections are productive (Lobato, 2002). Evidence for transfer from this perspective is found by scrutinizing a given activity for any indication of influence from previous activities. Additionally, we investigate how a greater understanding of SBF might have contributed to transfer from a preparation for future learning (PFL) perspective. This provides a framework for evaluating the quality of particular kinds of learning experiences (Bransford & Schwartz, 1999). The PFL perspective allows us to uncover strategies that have been adopted to interpret a new situation; “Interpretation of the situation invariably involves some use of a previous experience it cannot be reduced to a simple replication of that experience” (Broudy, 1977, p. 11). Integration of these two perspectives on transfer was crucial to understanding the importance of activities and experiences (from an actor oriented perspective) which prepare the learner to develop new concepts that, in this case, focuses on transfer between complex systems. ICLS 2010 • Volume 1