Using a disciplinary discourse lens to explore how representations afford meaning making in a typical wave physics course

We carried out a case study in a wave physics course at a Swedish university in order to investigate the relations between the representations used in the lessons and the experience of meaning making in interview–discussions. The grounding of these interview–discussions also included obtaining a rich description of the lesson environment in terms of the communicative approaches used and the students’ preferences for modes of representations that best enable meaning making. The background for this grounding was the first two lessons of a 5-week course on wave physics (70 students). The data collection for both the grounding and the principal research questions consisted of video recordings from the first two lessons: a student questionnaire of student preferences for representations (given before and after the course) and video-recorded interview–discussions with students (seven pairs and one on their own). The results characterize the use of communicative approaches, what modes of representation were used in the lectures, and the trend in what representations students’ preferred for meaning making, all in order to illustrate how students engage with these representations with respect to their experienced meaning making. Interesting aspects that emerged from the study are discussed in terms of how representations do not, in themselves, necessarily enable a range of meaning making; that meaning making from representations is critically related to how the representations get situated in the learning environment; and how constellations of modes of disciplinary discourse may be necessary but not always sufficient. Finally, pedagogical comments and further research possibilities are presented.Web of Scienc

Miniprojects and Context Rich Problems : Case studies with qualitative analysis of motivation, learner ownership and competence in small group work in physics

This thesis reports case studies of students working with context rich problems (CRP) and mini projects (MP) in physics in an upper secondary school class and in a physics teacher education class at university. The students report a big shift from physics in secondary school as fun and easy, to physics in upper secondary school as boring, difficult and with lack of time for reflections and physics talking, but they also found physics as interesting in itself. In order to study how group discussions in physics influence the students learning and to study the phenomena of students’ ownership of learning (SOL) we introduced CRP and MP. We video recorded five groups with 14 teacher students at university in the end of 2002, and five group with 15 students at upper secondary school during the beginning of their second physics course in the spring term in 2003. MP and CRP in physics were used as instructional settings in order to give students possibility to strengthen their holistic understanding and their possibilities to ownership. When students get the opportunity to manage their own learning and studying by open-ended tasks in physics, without the teacher determining all details of the performance, this gives more ownership of learning. The advantage of MPs and CRPs from the student’s point of view is more freedom to act, think and discuss and from the teacher’s view, to get insights of the students’ ability and how they really think in physics. The ownership is found to be crucial for motivation and development of competence. Students’ ownership of learning (SOL) is the students’ influence/impact to affect tasks and the learning environment in such a way that the students have a real opportunity to achieve learning of physics. Students’ ownership of learning (SOL) is found at two levels: Group level: At the start of a task the SOL is determined by the design of the task. The choice of task, the performance (when, how, where), the level of result and presentatio n and report have to be determined by the students themselves. Individual level: A person’s experiences and anomalies of understanding have created unique questions that can create certain aspects of the task that drive this person to be very active and highly motivated. This gives the person a high individual ownership. We developed hypotheses concerning the relation between ownership, motivation and competence and we see some evidence in the cases reported in this thesis. The importance of exploratory talks to enhance learning, and to see aspects of communication as part of the motivation are discussed in the model of ownership, motivation and competence that is proposed

Two dimensions of Student Ownership of Learning during Small-Group Work with Miniprojects and Context Rich Problems in Physics

In this thesis the theoretical framework student ownership of learning (SOL) is developed both theoretically and with qualitative research, based on studies of small-group work in physics with miniprojects and context rich problems. Ownership is finally defined as actions of choice and control, i.e. the realised opportunities to own organisation of the work. The dimension group ownership of learning refers to the groups’ actions of choice and control of the management of the task: how the task is determined, performed and finally reported. The other dimension, the individual student ownership of learning, refers to the individual student's own question/idea that comes from own experiences, interests, or anomalies of understanding; an idea/question that recurs several times and leads to new insights. From literature and from own data, categories are constructed for group and individual student ownership of learning, which have been iteratively sharpened in order to identify ownership in these two dimensions. As a consequence, the use of the framework student ownership of learning is a way to identify an optimal level of ownership for better learning and higher motivation in physics teaching. The first part of the thesis gives an overview of the theoretical background to the studies made, and summarises the findings. The second part consists of six articles that report case studies with analyses of audio/video-recorded student cooperative work, and student group discussions, from three collections of data: 1) students working with miniprojects in teacher education, 2) upper secondary school students taking a physics course that includes both context rich problems with group discussions and miniprojects, and 3), aeronautical engineering students working with context rich problems in an introductory physics course at university. The thesis describes in a fine-grained analysis the conversation in the groups based on Barnes discourse moves, and finds that ownership and communication are related. Group discussions are found to be an indicator for group ownership of learning and exploratory talks often promotes individual student ownership of learning

Two dimensions of Student Ownership of Learning during Small-Group Work with Miniprojects and Context Rich Problems in Physics

In this thesis the theoretical framework student ownership of learning (SOL) is developed both theoretically and with qualitative research, based on studies of small-group work in physics with miniprojects and context rich problems. Ownership is finally defined as actions of choice and control, i.e. the realised opportunities to own organisation of the work. The dimension group ownership of learning refers to the groups’ actions of choice and control of the management of the task: how the task is determined, performed and finally reported. The other dimension, the individual student ownership of learning, refers to the individual student's own question/idea that comes from own experiences, interests, or anomalies of understanding; an idea/question that recurs several times and leads to new insights. From literature and from own data, categories are constructed for group and individual student ownership of learning, which have been iteratively sharpened in order to identify ownership in these two dimensions. As a consequence, the use of the framework student ownership of learning is a way to identify an optimal level of ownership for better learning and higher motivation in physics teaching. The first part of the thesis gives an overview of the theoretical background to the studies made, and summarises the findings. The second part consists of six articles that report case studies with analyses of audio/video-recorded student cooperative work, and student group discussions, from three collections of data: 1) students working with miniprojects in teacher education, 2) upper secondary school students taking a physics course that includes both context rich problems with group discussions and miniprojects, and 3), aeronautical engineering students working with context rich problems in an introductory physics course at university. The thesis describes in a fine-grained analysis the conversation in the groups based on Barnes discourse moves, and finds that ownership and communication are related. Group discussions are found to be an indicator for group ownership of learning and exploratory talks often promotes individual student ownership of learning

Nanoteknik och riskbedömning som nytt kunskapsinnehåll i gymnasiets naturvetenskapliga kurser – en designstudie

Nanoscience and nanotechnology (NST) is a rapidly developing knowledge area, which need incorporating in the school science curricula. The many uncertainties of risks and benefits with NST also open up for using NST as a socio-scientific issue (SSI). We present the two first iterations of a teaching sequence aimed for upper secondary school physics. The sequence contains content knowledge on NST and risk assessment and employs traditional classroom teaching, and a debate about NST as a SSI. The aims are to explore 1) students assessments of risks and benefits with NST, and 2) what design principles for teaching nanoscience and risk assessment that emerge as significant. We found that the risk assessment exercise stimulated student argumentation and discussion during the SSI debate. The teachers preferred to focus on the SSI activity, but found it challenging to fit NST content knowledge into the traditional teaching approach. Design principles found are discussed

The laboratory work style's influence on students' communication

More knowledge of how the actual design of the laboratory work influence students' communication, is needed to design and implement physics laboratory work lessons. The aim with this quantitative research, conducted at a Swedish upper secondary school, was to explore how the design of the laboratory work affects students' communication. Twenty students divided into five groups participated in this natural case study and were video recorded while performing four practical tasks with the theme uniformly accelerated motion, designed by their teacher. The four workstations were categorised based on three predefined descriptors: outcome, approach and procedure. Students' work at each workstation was coded according to five defined activities: planning, preparing equipment, collecting data, processing data and analysis of results. The activities were thereafter divided into shorter episodes that were coded for three different types of communication: disputational talk, cumulative talk and exploratory talk. The result shows that the amount of exploratory talk students engaged in are influenced by the style of the laboratory work and the character of the activity. Based on these research results, teachers can better accustom the laboratory work to facilitate fruitful physics discussions which endorse students' learning

A sustainable teacher training: approaching more science content and inquiry

How can teachers change the way they teach so students get access to more features of inquiry based science teaching and learning? Four teacher educators and researchers worked with five teachers from two schools, to develop tools to analyze teaching sequences. The teachers’ lessons were video-taped on two occasions at least with several weeks in between. The films were analyzed and various didactic issues discussed in seminars with the researchers and the teachers. After the first lesson feedback, the teachers were given the challenge to make a teaching sequence paying regard to his/her reflections on our seminar and our analysis of the first lesson. We report a case study in which a teacher, Roy, develops his teaching in several respects such as dialogic communicative approaches, writing, and science content. We compare and analyze two of his lessons: the first on Electricity and the other on the Water Cycle. The teacher Roy is able to create interesting lessons in which argumentation and debate are included. With the second lesson Roy showed awareness of the significance of the science content in the dialogue, and he gave a greater subject-matter depth compared to the first lesson, as well as a wider variety of scientific ways including experimental work. The science content was, however, superficial and vague in both lessons. The difficulty of meeting the students in dialogue occurs when the teacher’s own knowledge is insufficient. The teacher’s awareness of the importance of dialogue in the classroom combined with a greater depth of subject focus, lead to learning opportunities for students that are of benefit for both language and science skills

A sustainable teacher training: approaching more science content and inquiry

How can teachers change the way they teach so students get access to more features of inquiry based science teaching and learning? Four teacher educators and researchers worked with five teachers from two schools, to develop tools to analyze teaching sequences. The teachers’ lessons were video-taped on two occasions at least with several weeks in between. The films were analyzed and various didactic issues discussed in seminars with the researchers and the teachers. After the first lesson feedback, the teachers were given the challenge to make a teaching sequence paying regard to his/her reflections on our seminar and our analysis of the first lesson. We report a case study in which a teacher, Roy, develops his teaching in several respects such as dialogic communicative approaches, writing, and science content. We compare and analyze two of his lessons: the first on Electricity and the other on the Water Cycle. The teacher Roy is able to create interesting lessons in which argumentation and debate are included. With the second lesson Roy showed awareness of the significance of the science content in the dialogue, and he gave a greater subject-matter depth compared to the first lesson, as well as a wider variety of scientific ways including experimental work. The science content was, however, superficial and vague in both lessons. The difficulty of meeting the students in dialogue occurs when the teacher’s own knowledge is insufficient. The teacher’s awareness of the importance of dialogue in the classroom combined with a greater depth of subject focus, lead to learning opportunities for students that are of benefit for both language and science skills

The problem-solving process in physics as observed when engineering students at university level work in groups

The problem-solving process is investigated for five groups of students when solving context-rich problems in an introductory physics course included in an engineering programme. Through transcripts of their conversation, the paths in the problem-solving process have been traced and related to a general problem-solving model. All groups exhibit backward moves to earlier stages in the problem-solving process. These earlier stages are revisited by the groups for identifying sub-problems, setting parameter values or even restating the goal. We interpret this action as coming from the fact that the students have not yet developed a knowledge base and a problem-solving scheme. Connected to the backward moves in the process are opportunities for the group members to build such a knowledge base from contributions and experiences from all group members. Problem contents that induce such moves are identified and can thus be considered by science teachers when constructing problems for group work