The role of ideational networks in laboratory inquiry learning and knowledge of evolution among seventh grade students

Ideational networks were assessed based on written narrative of seventh gra de students who had begun a unit on evolution. The amount of ideational net work linkages in narrative, elicited by showing the students a diagram of a n evolutionary branching tree of life, was analyzed using flow-map techniqu es. The number of network linkages in the students' narrative was positivel y correlated with mean scores on subsequent inquiry laboratory work on evol ution (r = 0.5, p much less than .01). final unit test score on knowledge o f biological evolution (r = 0.35, p < .01), and the extent of correct conce ptions about evolution contained in the students' written essays as determi ned by content analyses (r = 0.7, p much less than .01). Students, who scor ed high on the content analyses of their written narrative and whose narrat ive contained extensive ideational network linkages, also tended to use a l ogical sequential rule of ordering their thoughts based on a phylogenetic p rinciple of evolutionary change accompanying increasing complexity of life (i.e., progression from one-celled organisms to complex multicelled organis ms). Moreover, the mean frequency of occurrences of higher level categorica l thought in narrative increased with increasing amount of ideational linka ges in recall. (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.