Cognitive Biases of Students’ Conceptions: Effect of Biased Explanations in Popular Science Media and of Metacognitive Instruction on Conceptual Knowledge About Evolution

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Helge Martens
• Subject Area: General and Domain-Specific Teaching and Learning
• Term: since 2019
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 432974998

Student conceptions regarding scientific phenomena are frequently based on cognitive biases, such as anthropomorphism, teleology, and essentialism. In popular science media, such as YouTube videos, podcasts or documentaries, students are confronted with explanations based on these cognitive biases. For science education, it is vital to know if cognitive biases in popular science media influence students’ conceptions and how students can be made aware of biased explanations to deal with them critically. Research on metacognition and self-regulated learning provides promising instructional strategies for science education to foster conceptual knowledge. Based on the DFG-funded research project “Enhancing conceptual knowledge about evolution through self-assessment and conditional knowledge”, empirical findings will be extended regarding the effect of instruction on conditional metaconceptual knowledge (about when and in which contexts to apply specific types of explanations) on conceptual knowledge. Explanations based on cognitive biases may be helpful in everyday contexts and appealing to an audience of popular science media, but inappropriate in scientific contexts. Because conditional metaconceptual knowledge proved effective in the context of biology classes, it has a great potential to also support students identify cognitive biases in the context of popular science media. In this project, the main research questions are, to what extent (a) instruction on conditional metaconceptual knowledge and (b) cognitive biases in popular science media and influence the use of core concepts of evolution and students’ cognitive biases. Furthermore, the intervention effects on affective variables relevant to conceptual knowledge as well as the mediation of intervention effects by affective variables are investigated. These research questions are investigated in a 2x2-factorial intervention design conducted in biology classes (grades 7–10) with an online intervention, ensuring ecological validity and individual randomization. The interdisciplinary project within the research areas of biology education and educational psychology is innovative as it investigates the effect of a specific approach based on metacognition and self-regulated learning on conceptual knowledge to enable students to deal with cognitive biases that they may hold themselves and that they encounter in popular science media.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: USA
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Ross H. Nehm, Ph.D.