A growing body of research has examined the experiential grounding of scientific thought and the role of experiential intuitive knowledge in science learning. Meanwhile, research in cognitive linguistics has identified many "conceptual metaphors" (CMs), metaphorical mappings between abstract concepts and experiential source domains,…

A total of 136 eighth-grade math students from 2 Singapore schools learned from either productive failure (PF) or vicarious failure (VF). PF students "generated" solutions to a complex problem targeting the concept of variance that they had not learned yet before receiving instruction on the targeted concept. VF students…

Many types of learning require the mapping of information across situations. The proposed organizational framework extends the cognitive study of mappings across problems to include mappings across representations, solutions, and sociocultural contexts. I apply one-to-one, one-to-many, and partial mappings to analyze representative cases that…

Investigations of people's understanding of the evolution of species have focused mainly on secondary school and university students. Very few investigations have taken into consideration younger students, and none have related children's ideas about the origin of species to formal instruction on this topic. To help fill this gap, the present…

This article explores 11- to 16-year-old students' explanations for phenomena commonly studied in school chemistry from an inclusive cognitive resources or knowledge-in-pieces perspective that considers that student utterances may reflect the activation of knowledge elements at a range of levels of explicitness. We report 5 themes in student…

Comments on four articles in a special issue of the Journal of the Learning Sciences on methodology in learning sciences. Analyzes the articles within a general model seeking to analyze human activity across multiple time scales. (Author/MM)

Introduces a special issue of the Journal of the Learning Sciences on methodology in learning sciences. Focuses on how one begins to account for learning and the potential of a learning context to support learning. (Author/MM)

Advances a methodology for capturing and tracing the emergence, evolution, and diffusion of a practice, conceptual understanding, resource, or student-constructed artifact. Presents the Constructing Networks of Action-Relevant Episodes (CN-ARE) methodology which allows researchers to identify relevant data from a complex, evolving environment, and…

Analyzes two classroom episodes using a classroom mathematical practice together with students' diverse ways of contributing to its continual regeneration as the unit of analysis. Asserts that a classroom mathematical practice is composed of three interrelated types of norms: a normative purpose, normative standards of argumentation, and normative…

Introduces a special issue on the ways in which symbolic tools enable, mediate, and shape mathematical thinking while being themselves a product of these processes. (Author/MM)

Presents a cultural-developmental framework for the analysis of children's mathematics in collective practices and illustrates the heuristic value of the framework through the analysis of videotaped episodes drawn from a middle-school classroom. Discusses the promise and limitations of the framework as a method for furthering understanding of the…

Analyzes two classroom episodes guided by the assumption that thinking can be conceptualized as an activity of communication and learning can be regarded as modifying and extending one's discursive ways. Aims to uncover the ways in which the discursive uses of such new symbolic tools were interactively constructed by the students. Concludes that…

Considers individual students' progress as they use tools, discuss data distributions, and interact with teachers and their peers. Suggests that data display tools provide a partial context for discussions but do not constrain the students' interpretations or the way they reason about the data. (Author/MM)

Describes a methodology for analyzing the collective learning of the classroom community in terms of the evolution of classroom mathematical practices. In developing the rationale for this approach, grounds the discussion in work of mathematics educators who conduct classroom-based design research. Frames sample analysis as a paradigm case in…

Describes what a methodology for situated action should do for students given problem solving in school settings. Proposes that a methodology for understanding situated action should afford the instructional designer, the methodologist, and the problem solver opportunities to co-construct coupling dynamics that operate on multiple space and time…