LAW ENCODING DIAGRAMS AS SUPPORT FOR SCIENCE LEARNING

Understanding science involves the mastery of complex networks of conc epts. To design effective computer based systems for learning science it is essential to adequately characterize the nature of those concept ual networks. This paper considers a novel class of representations fo r science instruction - Law Encoding Diagrams (LEDs) - and describes t he nature of scientific understanding based on these representations. A framework of four classes of schemas has been proposed to characteri ze knowledge acquisition and problem solving with LEDs. How the framew ork encompasses complex networks of concepts is discussed and the impl ications for the design of computer based learning environments based on LEDs are considered.