Modelling Mental Activity

Abstract

Progress in a research programme requires explicit accounts of the nature of what is being researched that are open to critique and, where necessary, revision. As a starting point for shifting away from the ‘taken-for-granted’ approach to discussing mental phenomena that characterises everyday discourse, towards a more analytical approach suitable for a progressive research programme, this chapter explores how we might understand the mind in science education, and the role it plays in relation to common foci of research such as student understanding, knowing and learning. Three complementary levels for thinking about such foci as thinking, knowledge and so forth are considered: the physical level (in terms of physiology and anatomy); the mental level (in terms of how we describe our subjective experience of mental life); and a functional or ‘systems’ level. It is argued that whilst it is important for research in science education to adopt models constrained by what is learned at the physical level (e.g., in neuroscience), the most productive level to model such matters as student knowledge and learning for most research in science education is the system level, analysing the learner’s cognition in terms of a system that processes information.