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Operationalizing Criteria to Assess Interdisciplinary Thinking Using
Textbook Analysis
K. K. Mashood1,a,b,2,f, Vashti Sawtelle1,a,c, Charles W. Anderson1,d, Rebecca Matz1,b, Emily Scott1,d and Sonia M. Underwood2,e,f
Michigan State University1, Florida International University2
Dept of Physics and Astronomya, CREATE for STEMb, Lyman Briggs Collegec , Dept of Teacher Educationd, Dept of Chemistry and Biochemistrye, STEM Transformation Institutef
Introduction and Motivation
Interdisciplinary thinking - Integral to developing a coherent understanding of
science.
Tracing the disciplinary roots of ideas in student
explanations…....
Coding scheme based on Textbook analysis – To operationalize the disciplines
 Identify
 Seeking expert opinions
We require the next generation not to be “students of some subject matter, but
students of problems. And problems may cut right across the borders of any
subject matter or discipline” [1].
Broad !
Vague !
 Seeking Student reflections
With interdisciplinary courses coming up, more work required on assessing
interdisciplinary thinking
Aim: Develop a framework to assess interdisciplinarity of student explanations.
What about mapping the ideas to textbooks ?
 Textbooks
Contexts
Everyday phenomena - Relevant, inclusive and authentic to student experiences.
 Technical vocabulary
 Knowledge elements
underlying student explanations
Map them to content presentations in introductory level physics, chemistry and
biology textbooks.
How can someone sneezing make another person sick?
How does an ultrasound machine produce the image of a gallstone?
How do blisters form upon touching a hot pan?
How do Hollywood actors build huge muscles?
Phenomena were chosen on the basis of :
• Familiarity to students
• Optimal amount of content required to produce a satisfactory explanation
• Involve ideas from physics, chemistry and biology
Methodology and Data Collection
Technical
vocabulary
• Largely dictates the content taught in our classrooms
• Major source of reference for students and teachers
A justifiable normative artifact !
Student response
Technical
vocabulary
Knowledge elements
Entropy decreases because the egg white
becomes solid.
Natalie: You’re decreasing the entropy of it
because you’re forming it into a solid, you’re
changing its state, less arrangements, less
movement because it’s not a liquid
anymore.
entropy,
solid,
liquid
There is a change of state from liquid to
solid.
There are less arrangements, less
movements in solids than liquids.
change of state
Textbook
pages
Index
The proximity of the knowledge elements to presentation in a particular disciplinary
textbook is considered to be indicative of the invoked idea aligning with that discipline.
 What happens to egg white when an egg is boiled?




Low inference descriptors
of student responses
Textbook quotes
Inference
Chemistry: In summary, we generally expect the
entropy of a system to increase for processes in which
…Liquids or solutions form from solids
[ 2, p. 798]
Strong alignment with
CHEMISTRY
Physics: …How much does the entropy of the water-ice
system change during the freezing process?
[ 3, p.639]
Moderate alignment with
PHYSICS
Modes of data collection




Semi-structured interviews
Undergraduate students (N=12)
Duration ∼ 1 hour (3-4 phenomena covered)
Asked to explain each phenomenon on the basis of what they have learned in
different science courses
 Reasoning probed at different scales
 Video recorded and the audio was transcribed verbatim for analysis
Background 2 for boxes/sections (accent 6, lighter 80%)
Julie: So it’s more like the energy transfer
from the heat goes to the water and the
water energy transfers to the egg… So
basically you can’t destroy (unclear), you
just transfer around.
Energy,
heat,
transfer
Energy from heat goes to water.
Energy in water transfers to the egg.
Energy can’t be destroyed but transferred
around.
 A criterion for assessing interdisciplinarity of student
explanations
Future Directions
 Analysis of survey data - (N ∼ 1000)
 Open-ended assessment questions- Developed on the basis
of insights from the interviews - Administered on beSocratic
 Extent to which students integrate ideas from different
disciplines - Another criterion?
 How to operationalize?
• Explanation requires integration of ideas. Will models of
explanations help operationalize the criterion?
Chemistry: …energy is neither created nor destroyed in
any process… heat transferred between a system and
its surroundings…. [ 2, p.786]
Equal alignment with PHYSICS,
CHEMISTRY AND BIOLOGY
Physics: …energy is conserved. Heat and work can be
transformed… but no energy is lost. [3,p. 552]
Preliminary Indicator of Interdisciplinary Thinking
 Extent to which students invoke ideas from different
disciplines
Biology: …transferred energy is called heat [p.28].
Energy cannot be created or destroyed, but only
transferred and transformed [4, p. 29]
Danielle: ….if the equation is delta G equals
changing H minus T delta S, so that’s the
enthalpy and that’s the entropy, and that’s
the temperature. Then as the temperature
goes up if they’re both at the ends of a
negative thing and the reaction will go. So
as long as the reaction is a negative then
the egg whites will become ….(solid)... egg
white instead of just kind of embryo.
The equation is delta G = delta H - T delta S,
where the terms are enthalpy, entropy and
temperature.
The sign of delta G, which tells us whether a process is
spontaneous, depends on the signs and magnitudes of
As temperature goes up, if entropy and
delta H and T delta S
[2, p809]
enthalpy are at the ends of a negative thing,
the reaction will go.
Chemical reactions are spontaneous when delta G is
less than zero. [4, p30]
As long as the reaction is a negative the egg
white becomes solid instead of an embryo.
equation, delta G,
chnaging H,
delta S, enthalpy,
entropy,
temperature,
reaction,
embryo
Can we make a claim on the disciplinary roots ?
• In addition to textbooks, students may appropriate
ideas from other sources
 Alignment with textbooks - An indicator of alignment with the discipline
 A criterion for assessing interdisciplinarity operationalized !
References: [1] Facilitating interdisciplinary research (National Academies Press, Washington, DC, 2005).
Moderate alignment with
BIOLOGY
Textbook analysis: Results and advantages
 Mapping shows alignment of student ideas with a disciplinary textbook
 Not a definitive claim
Strong alignment with
CHEMISTRY
[2] T. L. Brown et al., Chemistry-The Central Science (Pearson, Boston, 2012). [3] W. Bauer and G. D Westfall, University Physics (McGrawhill, New York, 2014)
This work was funded by a LPF-CMP 2 Innovation grant instituted by CREATE for STEM, MSU.
 DETAILED !
 IN DEPTH !
 OBJECTIVE !
[4] S. Freeman, Biological Sciences (Pearson, San Fransisco, 2011)