Circulating Reference: Local Conjecture Maps and Abstract Conceptual Frameworks

• In Event: Conjecture Mapping: New Approaches to Broadening Processes of Educational Design Research

Abstract

Objectives:
This presentation explores the role of conjecture maps in a longitudinal design-based research project aimed at supporting elementary science teachers through professional development. We have found conjecture maps fruitful for analyzing expected and unexpected outcomes at the grain-size of a research question (Author, 2021b). Yet, attempting to expand these conjecture maps to include multiple design iterations and research questions has resulted in unwieldy diagrams that overwhelm the researchers. Instead, we propose pairing specific, fine-grained conjecture maps with abstract conceptual frameworks. Here, we explore both when and how researchers could move back and forth between such representations to make progress on lines of inquiry.

Theoretical Framework:
Studies of professional science demonstrate the importance of attending to generality and specificity across representations (Burian et al., 1996; Latour, 1999; Nersessian, 2017). For instance, Latour illustrates how, stage-by-stage, scientists negotiated trade-offs between reducing real-world phenomena to abstractions (for standardization and generalization) and amplifying phenomena by returning to the forest they studied (for particularity and materiality). We propose that conjecture maps are a generative tool for helping design-based researchers attend to specific, local processes and outcomes related to their designs. These tools can be paired with abstract representations that support generalizable applications of these findings.

Methods and Data:
We present a case study (Yin, 2014) that describes our research team’s work with conjecture mapping over the course of a 3-year project. We analyze the conjecture maps developed by the team, as well as conceptual frameworks that were developed alongside these artifacts to understand how they were used to link specific, local outcomes to implications (for future design iterations, and for theoretical knowledge about supporting teacher learning).

Results and Significance:
We found that conjecture maps helped the research team make sense of specific local phenomena, but conceptual frameworks were needed to apply these findings to design revisions and to consider broader implications. Specifically, the process of creating conjecture maps helped the research team identify expected and unexpected mediating processes that led to specific outcomes in our data. For instance, although our design was intended to support teachers’ development of expansive ideologies, in our data, we noticed that teachers expressed expansive ideologies about science learning, but constraining ideologies about students’ linguistic resources (Author, 2021a). The process of refining our conjecture map (focusing on embodiment and mediating processes to identify overlooked design features) helped us explain expected and unexpected outcomes (Figure 4). However, when we attempted to add to and expand this conjecture map to (a) bring in new theoretical perspectives and (b) imagine revisions to our design, we found that conjecture maps became too large and complex to make progress on these ideas. Using conjecture maps to inform more abstract conceptual frameworks (Figure 5) shows promise for helping researchers move between fine-grained analysis and more abstract design implications within and across design iterations. Attending to this process of “circulating reference” can contribute to our understanding of how longitudinal research projects can effectively use conjecture maps to support fine-grained analysis that leads to generalizable findings.

Authors

• Ashlyn Pierson, The Ohio State University

• D. Teo Keifert, University of North Texas

• Bethany Daniel, Vanderbilt University