“Good air” is oxygen: first teach concepts, then add vocab, study says

September 5, 2008

“Good air” is oxygen: first teach concepts, then add vocab, study says

by Kelly Vaughan, at 10:30 am

Screenshot originally posted at the Stanford News Service.

Photosynthesis, glucose, chloroplasts: the language of science can sometimes be a stumbling block for students as they try to understand new concepts. A new study from Stanford University’s School of Education suggests that teaching the ideas first, using simple language, helps students learn a topic better. The researchers created interactive software to teach students about photosynthesis. One version used simple language at the beginning, then added scientific language after students grasped the basic concepts. The other version used the simple language only once before switching to scientific vocabulary.

“The thing that we’re most excited about is that the students in the treatment group”—which learned the basics in everyday English first—”got higher scores on every type of question—multiple choice and open-ended,” Brown said. “They got higher scores when questions were asked in everyday language. They got higher scores when questions were asked in science language. And when they were asked to write answers to open-ended questions, they were much better at writing their ideas in science language.”

The researchers caution that more research is needed with a larger sample size, though they acknowledge that many people find their work intuitively sensible, asking, “Isn’t that just good teaching?”

Teachers, what do you think? Have you tried presenting concepts — in Science or other subject areas — in simple language before transitioning to technical vocabulary?

And parents, I think this presents a possibility for helping your children with topics they are struggling with: break it down for them in language they can understand, but don’t neglect to introduce the vocab once they’ve got the concepts mastered.

http://deleted Ira

Makes sense, particularly with science. Some of my favorite science writers/reporters do this pretty well (eg. the guys from Radio Lab).
My question is, how well does this work with general non-scientific vocabulary? I’m not so sure
http://stacy@sciencetoybox.com Stacy

I think the key phrase in this article is “”then add vocab”. Science teachers must not stop at teaching the concepts in simple language or students will leave thinking “good air” is oxygen and upper level teachers will have a heck of a time dissuading students of their misconceptions. Teachers need to choose their “simple language” carefully so that it is accurate, yet simple and generic. That way they can still be true, just not in a strictly technical sense.
http://www.fun-science-project-ideas.com Len

I tend to agree that it is better to explain things clearly.

There are cases when plain language is more precise than technical language.

For instance, almost all Middle School and High School textbooks say that Photosynthesis produces “Glucose.”

This is simply not true. The light reactions mainly produce ATP and NADPH, both of which can be used for a lot of things. The dark reactions mainly produce PGAL, which can be used to make 6-carbon sugars, but can be used to make longer carbohydrates, or even amino acids and lipids.

Therefore, I have always said that photosynthesis produces “food.” This is a much more widely known term than “glucose,” and it may be more accurate.
http://bbc.co.uk Tanesha Beedy

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September 5, 2008

“Good air” is oxygen: first teach concepts, then add vocab, study says

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