Research behind the Causal Patterns Curriculum: An Overview
The Causal Patterns in Science Curriculum approach is the result of over ten years of research on student learning funded by the National Science Foundation. This document explains the research behind the program in accessible terms to help you understand it and explain it to others, such as administrators and parents. If you would like more in-depth information, we encourage you to visit our research page on the Project Zero website where you will find links to the research studies and specific references for the work.
The work started as a project, called The Understandings of Consequence Project. It aimed to address the following puzzles/challenges:
- A long history of research on misconceptions (or alternative conceptions) showed that students typically struggle with fundamental science concepts.
- Our observation in classrooms revealed that despite "best practices" teaching and highly dedicated teachers, students still reverted to nonscientific explanations.
- Emphasize developing understanding and the importance of transferring understanding to new contexts as opposed to right answers.
- Even "everyday" scientific concepts assume an extensive repertoire of causal models. In addition, students are being asked to reason about an increasingly complex and global world.
- Students appeared to have limited knowledge about the nature of causality (although developmental research shows that they have more than expected based upon their ideas in science class!) and little opportunity to learn about it.
Do limited notions of causality contribute to students' misunderstandings of everyday science concepts? Will teaching causal patterns enhance their understanding?
Are there ways to teach the patterns and features of causal complexity for today and tomorrow's world in the context of today's curriculum?
Main Research Findings:
- Students often frame the underlying causality in science concepts differently than scientists do.
- Opportunities to learn the underlying causal patterns improves students' understanding of the science concepts.
- While explicitly unpacking the causal patterns improves the learning of all students, lower level achievers often improve the most.
- Learning causal patterns in one topic can transfer to other topics, particularly when teachers engage students in thinking about connections.
