Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 7-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Effects of High and Low Prior Knowledge on Construction of a Joint Problem Space

Effects of High and Low Prior Knowledge on Construction of a Joint Problem Space Abstract The participants were 4th-year medical students designing a clinical trial to test a new hypothetical anticancer drug. They worked with the computer simulation the Oncology Thinking Cap in facilitated groups that differed in terms of their prior knowledge. Both groups engaged in constructive activity and reached similar endpoints. The groups differed qualitatively in how they went about constructing and navigating the joint problem space. The high-prior-knowledge group used their knowledge to help them construct plans, evaluate their actions, and stay focused on the goals of the experimental design task. The low-prior-knowledge group searched through the data exhaustively and used them to generate their plans. They were unsystematic in their planning and interpretation. They used the computer representations in their reasoning and worked at mapping the connections between the representations. The computer scaffolding played an important role for both groups, but the facilitator played a greater role in the low-prior-knowledge group. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png The Journal of Experimental Education Taylor & Francis

Effects of High and Low Prior Knowledge on Construction of a Joint Problem Space

Download PDF
21 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/taylor-francis/effects-of-high-and-low-prior-knowledge-on-construction-of-a-joint-iitu9SnBzo

References (28)

Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN
1940-0683
eISSN
0022-0973
DOI
10.1080/00220970009600648
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Abstract The participants were 4th-year medical students designing a clinical trial to test a new hypothetical anticancer drug. They worked with the computer simulation the Oncology Thinking Cap in facilitated groups that differed in terms of their prior knowledge. Both groups engaged in constructive activity and reached similar endpoints. The groups differed qualitatively in how they went about constructing and navigating the joint problem space. The high-prior-knowledge group used their knowledge to help them construct plans, evaluate their actions, and stay focused on the goals of the experimental design task. The low-prior-knowledge group searched through the data exhaustively and used them to generate their plans. They were unsystematic in their planning and interpretation. They used the computer representations in their reasoning and worked at mapping the connections between the representations. The computer scaffolding played an important role for both groups, but the facilitator played a greater role in the low-prior-knowledge group.

Journal

The Journal of Experimental Education – Taylor & Francis

Published: Jan 1, 2000

Keywords: Constructivism; prior knowledge; sociocultural theory

There are no references for this article.