Modeling as Inquiry
David Dirlam (ddirlam who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu)
Mon, 20 Oct 1997 10:27:16 -0700 (PDT)
By the way, in the context of the new paper you sent that
describes a CHAT approach to studying collaboration on models by seventh
grade students, I thought you would find the following paper very
interesting:
Okada, T. and Simon, H. A. (1997). Collaborative Discovery in a
Scientific Domain. *Cognitive Science, 21*, 109-146. Here are two juicy
quotes: "Hypotheses and justifications are co-constructed by the members
of the collaborative group." and "We need to understand the on-line
processes whereby an individual understands and interprets information
from his/her environment, and the environment itself changes by virtue of
the individual's actions."
The paper misses the CHAT theoretical framework (while
incorporating CHAT concepts like the preceding). Checking around the lab
for CHAT studies of scientific collaboration, Kathy Brown pointed out Yrjo
Engestrom's *Learning by Expanding* which could be very helpful in
enriching Ocada and Simon's conception of what is involved. The diversity
of the constraints on science are well illustrated by Yrjo's distinction
between "craft science" and "rationalized science" as typified by the
contrast between Mendeleev's discovery of the periodic law and Los Alamos
construction of the atomic bomb.
Does anyone know of other examples of CHAT studies of scientific
discovery?
David