A problem-posing approach to teaching the topic of radioactivity

This thesis highlights a problem-posing approach to science education. By this is meant an approach that explicitly aims at providing students with content-related motives for extending their existing conceptual resources, experiential base and belief system in a certain direction, such that a further development in that direction eventually leads to a proper understanding of science. An elaboration of that approach consists in designing, testing, improving, etc, concrete didactical structures. The eventual aim of the approach is a coherent, and by means of developmental research empirically supported, didactical structure that covers the whole of science education. The thesis also contains a few steps in the direction suggested by this programmatic view. It contains an illustration of the heuristic value of an articulation of a didactical structure in some main substructures, based on the work of van Hiele and ten Voorde. It further contains a discussion of some methodological aspects relating to the design and evaluation of a didactical structure, and of the role that a further developed version of Davidson's theory of interpretation could play in this respect. A detailed didactical structure of the topic of radioactivity is presented, evaluated and, on the basis of the evaluation, judged as `good enough.' Also the role of the teacher in a problem-posing approach is dis-cussed, and in particular the consequences for that role of giving students control over and responsibility for the progress of their learning process with respect to content

Використання джерелознавчих документів і матеріалів у процесі викладання «Релігієзнавства» у вищій школі

We interpret problem posing not as an end in itself, but as a means to add quality to students' process of learning content. Our basic tenet is that all along students know the purpose(s) of what they are doing. This condition is not easily and not often satisfied in education, as we illustrate with some attempts of other researchers to incorporate mathematical problem-posing activities in instruction. The emphasis of our approach lies on providing students with content-specific motives and on soliciting seeds in their existing ideas, in such a way that they are willing and able to extend their knowledge and skills in the direction intended by the course designer. This requires a detailed outlining of teaching–learning activities that support and build on each other. We illustrate and support our theoretical argument with results from two design-based studies concerning the topics of radioactivity and calculus

Introducing mechanics by tapping core causal knowledge

This article concerns an outline of an introductory mechanics course. It is based on the argument that various uses of the concept of force (e.g. from Kepler, Newton and everyday life) share an explanatory strategy based on core causal knowledge. The strategy consists of (a) the idea that a force causes a deviation from how an object would move of its own accord (i.e. its force-free motion), and (b) an incentive to search, where the motion deviates from the assumed force-free motion, for recurring configurations with which such deviations can be correlated (interaction theory). Various assumptions can be made concerning both the force-free motion and the interaction theory, thus giving rise to a variety of specific explanations. Kepler’s semi-implicit intuition about the force-free motion is rest, Newton’s explicit assumption is uniform rectilinear motion, while in everyday explanations a diversity of pragmatic suggestions can be recognized. The idea is that the explanatory strategy, once made explicit by drawing on students’ intuitive causal knowledge, can be made to function for students as an advance organizer, in the sense of a general scheme that they recognize but do not yet know how to detail for scientific purposes

Introducing mechanics by tapping core causal knowledge

This article concerns an outline of an introductory mechanics course. It is based on the argument that various uses of the concept of force (e.g. from Kepler, Newton and everyday life) share an explanatory strategy based on core causal knowledge. The strategy consists of (a) the idea that a force causes a deviation from how an object would move of its own accord (i.e. its force-free motion), and (b) an incentive to search, where the motion deviates from the assumed force-free motion, for recurring configurations with which such deviations can be correlated (interaction theory). Various assumptions can be made concerning both the force-free motion and the interaction theory, thus giving rise to a variety of specific explanations. Kepler’s semi-implicit intuition about the force-free motion is rest, Newton’s explicit assumption is uniform rectilinear motion, while in everyday explanations a diversity of pragmatic suggestions can be recognized. The idea is that the explanatory strategy, once made explicit by drawing on students’ intuitive causal knowledge, can be made to function for students as an advance organizer, in the sense of a general scheme that they recognize but do not yet know how to detail for scientific purposes