What's in a Name? Young Adolescents' Implicit Conceptions of Invention.

The past few years have seen an increase in the amount of attention focused on invention and design education at the college and K-12 levels. Given these efforts, the dearth of research on students' preexisting conceptions of invention is surprising. Knowledge of invention beliefs and attitudes will inform educational efforts by allowing educators to target the curriculum and accompanying activities more effectively than is possible without this knowledge. In this study, 55 sixth-grade students completed open-ended survey questions related to their conceptions of “invention.” Results suggest that students have few or simplistic conceptions of the invention and patent processes. Prior exposure to invention instruction or previous experience with inventing did not appear to have an impact on students' conceptions of invention. In order to dispel these superficial implicit theories, educators involved with invention programs should consider the use of active, situated teaching techniques such as project- and problem-based learning. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Sci Ed86:149–160, 2002; DOI 10.1002/sce.10011

[1]  J. Dewey.  Experience and Education , 1938 .

[2]  J. Novak,et al.  Educational Psychology: A Cognitive View , 1969 .

[3]  R. Sternberg,et al.  People's conceptions of intelligence. , 1981 .

[4]  A. Westerberg.  Design Research: Both Theory and Strategy. , 1982 .

[5]  M. Runco.  Teachers' Judgments of Creativity and Social Validation of Divergent Thinking Tests , 1984 .

[6]  R. Sternberg.  Implicit theories of intelligence. creativity, and wisdom , 1985 .

[7]  M. Runco,et al.  Implicit Theories of Artistic, Scientific, and Everyday Creativity* , 1986 .

[8]  R. Sternberg.  Implicit Theories: An Alternative to Modeling Cognition and Its Development , 1987 .

[9]  B. E. Shlesinger.  Teaching Problem Solving through Invention. , 1987 .

[10]  B. E. Shlesinger.  How to Invent , 1987 .

[11]  Christine Kuehn.  Inventing: Creative Sciencing. , 1988 .

[12]  J. M. Fitzgerald,et al.  How Do People Think About Intelligence? , 1988, Multivariate behavioral research.

[13]  K. Brown.  Inventors at work , 1988 .

[14]  D. Ruble,et al.  Mothers' implicit theories of discipline: Child effects, parent effects, and the attribution process. , 1989 .

[15]  M. Gorman,et al.  Interpreting Invention as a Cognitive Process: The Case of Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, and the Telephone , 1990 .

[16]  Michael E. Gorman,et al.  Understanding Invention as a Cognitive Process: The Case of Thomas Edison and Early Motion Pictures, 1888-91 , 1990 .

[17]  R. Sternberg.  Wisdom: Wisdom and its relations to intelligence and creativity , 1990 .

[18]  L. Schauble,et al.  Belief revision in children: the role of prior knowledge and strategies for generating evidence. , 1990, Journal of experimental child psychology.

[19]  Jack Oliver,et al.  The Incomplete Guide to the Art of Discovery , 1991 .

[20]  M. Linn,et al.  How do students' views of science influence knowledge integration? , 1991 .

[21]  L. Schauble,et al.  Students' transition from an engineering model to a science model of experimentation , 1991 .

[22]  Linda L. Jester.  A Chain Reaction. , 1992 .

[23]  N. Colangelo,et al.  The Iowa inventiveness inventory: Toward a measure of mechanical inventiveness , 1992 .

[24]  M. Runco.  Parents' and Teachers' Implicit Theories of Children's Creativity. , 1993 .

[25]  Teachers' Implicit Theories Concerning Questioning , 1994 .

[26]  A. Woolfolk,et al.  Teachers' Implicit Theories of Intelligence and Their Educational Goals. , 1994 .

[27]  J. Savoie,et al.  Problem-Based Learning as Classroom Solution. , 1994 .

[28]  E. Soloway,et al.  A Collaborative Model for Helping Middle Grade Science Teachers Learn Project-Based Instruction , 1994, The Elementary School Journal.

[29]  Baruch Nevo,et al.  Cross-cultural, gender, and age differences in Singaporean mothers' conceptions of children's intelligence. , 1995, The Journal of social psychology.

[30]  Michael E. Gorman,et al.  Teaching Invention and Design: Multi‐Disciplinary Learning Modules , 1995 .

[31]  Thomas M. Duffy,et al.  Problem Based Learning: An instructional model and its constructivist framework , 1995 .

[32]  Gregory Schraw,et al.  Beliefs about Intelligence and Academic Goals , 1995 .

[33]  Karen L. Westberg.  The Effects of Teaching Students How To Invent. , 1996 .

[34]  L. Schauble,et al.  The development of scientific reasoning in knowledge-rich contexts. , 1996 .

[35]  H. L. Hom,et al.  Conceptions of Ability and the Interpretation of Praise, Blame, and Material Rewards. , 1996 .

[36]  C. J. Mills,et al.  Implicit theories of intelligence and self-perceptions of academically talented adolescents and children , 1996 .

[37]  D. Stipek,et al.  Children's beliefs about intelligence and school performance. , 1996 .

[38]  J. Griffin,et al.  Moving from task‐oriented to learning‐oriented strategies on school excursions to museums , 1997 .

[39]  L. Schauble,et al.  Building Functional Models: Designing an Elbow , 1997 .

[40]  Joseph Krajcik,et al.  ScienceWare's Model-It: Technology to Support Authentic Science Inquiry , 1997 .

[41]  Shelagh A. Gallagher,et al.  Problem-Based Learning: Where Did it Come from, What Does it Do, and Where is it Going? , 1997 .

[42]  Jon Agar,et al.  History of computing: approaches, new directions and the possibility of informatic history , 1998 .

[43]  Jennifer A. Fredricks,et al.  Inquiry in Project-Based Science Classrooms: Initial Attempts by Middle School Students , 1998 .

[44]  Sasha A. Barab,et al.  Grounded constructions and how technology can help , 1998 .

[45]  L. Schauble,et al.  Reasoning about Structure and Function: Children's Conceptions of Gears , 1998 .

[46]  Daniel L. Schwartz,et al.  Doing with Understanding: Lessons from Research on Problem- and Project-Based Learning , 1998 .

[47]  M. Gorman,et al.  Using History to Teach Invention and Design: The Case of the Telephone , 1998 .