Representational consistency and the learning of forces in upper secondary school physics

Students' dialogic and justifying moves during dialogic argumentation in mathematics and physics

In this study, we focus on dialogic argumentation among students in a whole class setting in mathematics and physics in lower secondary school. By drawing on previous studies on the structure of argumentation and dialogic interactions, we suggest that transparency of student reasoning and students' engagement with each other's ideas are two key aspects in dialogic argumentation. We examine what levels might exist in these key aspects and how they can exist simultaneously. We collected data by video recording mathematics and physics lessons in lower secondary school, and created a coding scheme for students' dialogic and justifying moves. By using the coding scheme, we recognized different k…

The development of secondary students’ feedback literacy: Peer assessment as an intervention

A growing body of research has recognized the importance of students’ having active roles in feedback processes. Feedback literacy refers to students’ understandings of and participation in feedback processes, and research on students’ feedback literacy has so far focused on higher education; secondary schools have not received attention. This case study investigates secondary students’ feedback literacy and its development in the context of formative peer assessment. From various data sources, three categories of students’ feedback literacy were identified, and criteria for the levels of literacy in each category were created. The criteria were used in the coding of seventh- and eighth-gra…

Guiding Student Thinking Through Teacher Questioning When Learning with Dynamic Representations

Dynamic representations (e.g., dynamic geometry software GeoGebra for mathematics learning and PhET simulations for science learning) offer excellent opportunities for students to conduct investigations and to formulate explanations for the visualized phenomena. In order for this to be effective, students need guidance, for example, for planning their investigations and reflecting on their actions. One way to support students is by prompting them by using questions that are adapted to the students’ current situation. This chapter focuses on how pre-service teachers provide guidance for students through questioning and by both structuring and problematizing student learning. Data comes from …

Differences in teacher telling according to students' age

Teacher telling can support but also hinder learning. In inquiry activities, telling that removes productive struggle may be problematic. In this study, different aged students experimented in a digital learning environment to build rules for a balance beam. We examined how the amount of teacher telling vary according to students’ age and the sophistication level of the rule. We collected video data from 21 pre-service teachers when each of them guided eight, 10, and 12 year old students. We found that the amount of teacher telling generally was not related to students’ age. However, when considering teacher guidance for more sophisticated rules, teacher telling was related to students’ age…

Analyzing science teachers’ support of dialogic argumentation using teacher roles of questioning and communicative approaches

The purpose of this study is to investigate how teachers use different types of discourse to support dialogic argumentation. Dialogic argumentation is a collaborative process in which students construct arguments together and examine arguments presented by their peers. Science teachers can use argumentation as a vehicle to help students gain a working understanding of science content and the nature of science and its practices. Whole-class closing discussions from video-recorded lessons are analyzed to study the discourse used to support argumentation by two physics teachers in lower secondary schools. Analysis of discourse includes coding of communicative approach at the episode level and …

Pathways Through Peer Assessment: Implementing Peer Assessment in a Lower Secondary Physics Classroom

AbstractPeer assessment has been shown to advance learning, for example, by improving one’s work, but the variance of learning benefits within or between studies has not been explained. The purpose of this case study was to examine what kinds of pathways students have through peer assessment and to study which factors affect them when peer assessment is implemented in the early stage of physics studies in the context of conducting and reporting inquiry. Data sources used include field notes, audio recordings of lessons, student lab reports, written peer feedback, and student interviews. We examined peer assessment from the perspective of individual students and found 3 profiles of peer asse…

Does using a visual-representation tool foster students’ ability to identify forces and construct free-body diagrams?

Earlier research has shown that after physics instruction, many students have difficulties with the force concept, and with constructing free-body diagrams (FBDs). It has been suggested that treating forces as interactions could help students to identify forces as well as to construct the correct FBDs. While there is evidence that identifying interactions helps students in quantitative problem solving, there is no previous research investigating the effect of a visual-representation tool—an interaction diagram (ID)—on students’ ability to identify forces, and to construct the correct FBDs.We present an empirical study conducted in 11 Finnish high schools on students (n ¼ 335, aged 16) takin…

Learning About Forces Using Multiple Representations

We present two research-based interventions to measure upper secondary student learning of forces using multiple representations (MRs). The first intervention is the Representational Variant of the Force Concept Inventory (R-FCI) – a multiple-choice test for evaluating students’ representational consistency in answering triplets of isomorphic items in the context of forces. The second intervention is an interaction diagram (ID) – a visual representation that helps students to identify forces resulting from interactions between two objects. Students’ representational consistency on the R-FCI pre-test correlated with their normalised learning gain on the Force Concept Inventory (FCI) suggesti…

The Structured Assessment Dialogue

The two key purposes of assessment, formative and summative, are often in a contradictory position if they are used concurrently. The summative assessment of learning will often prevent the formative assessment for learning to be realised (Butler, J Educ Psychol 79(4):474, 1987), meaning that the learning potential of the assessment will often be minimal. It is therefore a central challenge to find ways to combine the dual use of assessment. The structured assessment dialogue (SAD) is a candidate for such a combination.

Attending to and fostering argumentation in whole class discussion

Prior studies highlighted the importance of whole class discussion after student activities and have focused, for example, on teacher moves in supporting discussion. We characterize two processes in teacher-students interaction in argumentation discussions: attending to and fostering. These processes describe how student argumentation feeds teacher talk that in turn feeds student argumentation. We analysed video recordings of one whole class 7th grade lesson when students made geometric constructions and engaged in argumentation discussion. We elaborated on four themes in how the teacher talk attended to and fostered student argumentation. We argue that the concepts of attending to and fost…

Force Concept Inventory-based multiple-choice test for investigating students’ representational consistency

This study investigates students' ability to interpret multiple representations consistently (i.e., representational consistency) in the context of the force concept. For this purpose we developed the Representational Variant of the Force Concept Inventory (R-FCI), which makes use of nine items from the 1995 version of the Force Concept Inventory (FCI). These original FCI items were redesigned using various representations (such as motion map, vectorial and graphical), yielding 27 multiple-choice items concerning four central concepts underpinning the force concept: Newton's first, second, and third laws, and gravitation. We provide some evidence for the validity and reliability of the R-FC…

The intellectual demands of the intended chemistry curriculum in Czechia, Finland, and Turkey: a comparative analysis based on the revised Bloom's taxonomy

Understanding the intellectual demands of an intended curriculum is crucial as it defines the frames for teaching and learning processes and practice during lessons. In this study, upper-secondary school chemistry curricula contents in Czechia, Finland, and Turkey were analysed, and their objectives were compared using the Revised Bloom's Taxonomy (RBT). The intellectual demands were examined analysing the action verbs in the three curricula objectives based on their association with the intended cognitive process dimensions in the RBT. The Turkish upper-secondary chemistry curriculum was found to be more structured, detailed, and containing more objectives than the Czech and Finnish curric…

Enhancing Dialogic Argumentation in Mathematics and Science

This paper reports on a teacher professional development (PD) programme addressing dialogic argumentation in mathematics and science classrooms. While argumentation skills are becoming more and more important in an increasingly polarised society, the social aspect of argumentation is often neglected in secondary education. Moreover, it is agreed that genuine argumentation requires time and space in classroom dialogue. There have been calls for research delving into how teachers could be familiarised with dialogic argumentation so that they could foster such dialogue in students. The described PD programme features versatile and continuous cooperation between scholars and participating teach…

Forms and functions of on-the-fly formative assessment conversations in physics inquiry lessons

This case study examined teachers’ on-the-fly formative assessment conversations, that is, how teachers collect information from students’ thinking and use that information to support their learnin...

Assessment On-the-Fly: Promoting and Collecting Evidence of Learning Through Dialogue

International audience; Inquiry activities generate rich opportunities for STEM learning and for assessment. When teachers pay attention to assessment information collected during the course of learning, they are able to interpret and make decisions about such assessment data in a timely fashion that can drive future planning and support student learning, for example through feedback. This chapter focuses on how classroom talk can generate evidence of learning and how teachers can utilise this to enable assessment to guide inquiry learning. It looks at several vignettes from different countries of on-the-fly interactions in inquiry settings and unpacks how teachers organised, facilitated an…

Comparing Guidance via Implicit and Explicit Model Progressions in a Collaborative Inquiry-Based Learning Environment with Different-Aged Learners

There is a need for research on the effect of different types of model progressions and learner age on learning and engagement in inquiry-based science settings. This study builds on the Scientific Discovery as Dual Search model to introduce less specific implicit model progression and compares them to the traditional explicit model progression. The data come from Finnish 8-, 10-, and 12-year-olds collaboratively using two different configurations of an inquiry-based learning environment about balance. Balance scale tasks were used to assess learning. Students also rated their situation-specific engagement. Both types of model progressions were beneficial for learning but there was no diffe…

Proceedings of the 2012 Annual Conference of Finnish Mathematics and Science Education Research Association = Matematiikan ja luonnontieteiden opetuksen tutkimusseuran konferenssijulkaisu 2012

The Intellectual Demands of the Intended Chemistry Curriculum in Czechia, Finland, and Turkey : A Comparative Analysis Based on the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy

Understanding the intellectual demands of an intended curriculum is crucial as it defines the frames for actual teaching and learning processes and practice during the lessons. In this study, upper-secondary school chemistry curricula contents in Czechia, Finland, and Turkey were analysed, and their objectives were compared using the Revised Bloom’s Taxonomy (RBT). The intellectual demands were examined analysing the action verbs of the three curricula objectives based on their association with the intended cognitive process dimensions in the RBT. The Turkish upper-secondary chemistry curriculum was found to be more structured, detailed, and containing more objectives compared to the Czech …

The interplay between the guidance from the digital learning environment and the teacher in supporting folding back

AbstractPrevious studies have proposed that students’ mathematical understanding develops dynamically through the process known as folding back, in which learners revisit earlier forms of understanding and use them to build even deeper levels of mathematical understanding. Digital learning environments, where students can manipulate representations, are often used to enable students to notice properties, patterns, or rules. When working in such an environment, students usually receive support from the environment and the teacher. The interplay between these different sources of support is important according to previous studies. In this study, we examine this interplay in the case of foldin…

Pre-Service Primary Teachers' Beliefs of Teaching Science With Simulations

Although the benefits of the use of simulations in science education have been extensively documented, research on pre-service teacher education related to the use of simulations in science teaching remains limited. The aim of this study was to investigate the beliefs of pre-service primary teachers in two teacher training programs of two different universities (n = 36 and n = 18) related to teaching science with simulations. The teachers participated in an intervention where they planned and gave a science lesson where simulations were used. The effect of the two different types of interventions on the beliefs was also studied. The Interconnected Model of Professional Growth by Clarke and …

Teacher orchestration of classroom interaction in science: exploring dialogic and authoritative passages in whole-class discussions

Whereas science is fundamentally a result of a dialogic debate, the authoritative approach has been conceived of as a fundamental part of school science. Dialogic interactions encompass the mutual appreciation of different ideas manifested in teacher supportiveness toward students and, in authoritative interactions, the focus is more on the science’s or teacher’s point of view. Whereas dialogic and authoritative interactions have been viewed as oppositional in recent educational research, authoritative interactions could well be the seed for and give strength and meaning to dialogic interactions, and thus, to the overall dialogue. The focus in this study is on the interplay between authorit…

Three Dimensions of Dialogicity in Dialogic Argumentation

Three dimensions of dialogicity are emphasised in the literature: dialogic teacher talk, students' dialogic moves and organising for dialogic teaching. In this article, we examine these dimensions and the interplay between them in supporting dialogic argumentation in the context of whole-class discussions in mathematics and physics. Three seemingly different seventh-grade lessons were selected for further analysis from the database of a research project on dialogic argumentation. In this paper, we focus on whole-class discussions after a group assignment. The lessons were video recorded with multiple cameras and transcribed. We characterised dialogic features of teacher talk, more general t…

How Do Lower-Secondary Students Exercise Agency During Formative Peer Assessment?

Exercising agency is an inherent component of peer assessment. However, the research on agency in peer assessment is scarce. This case study explored how seventh grade science students exercised agency during formative peer assessment. The data comprises audio recordings of students’ classroom discussions, written peer feedback, written work, student interviews, and the researcher’s field notes. With thematic analysis, we identified nine forms of agency as associated with three positions: group member, assessor, and assessee. An examination of student interactions revealed that peer assessment challenges students unequally. While some students exercised certain forms of agency without diffi…

Differenzierung beim Inquiry-based Learning im naturwissenschaftlichen Unterricht : Ein Differenzierungstool für das Experimentieren im Sinne des Forschenden Lernens

Differenzierung ist ein wichtiges Unterrichtsprinzip. Konzepte zur Leistungsdifferenzierung existieren jedoch hauptsächlich für inhaltliche Kompetenzen, Lesen, Schreiben und mathematische Kompetenzen. Differenzierung in Bezug auf prozedurale Kompetenzen wie Hypothesen aufstellen, Experimente planen, Experimente durchführen und Schlussfolgerungen ziehen wurden bisher kaum entwickelt. Dabei kann eine Kombination von Diagnostik und Scaffolding die Differenzierung beim Vermitteln prozeduraler Kompetenzen sehr gut unterstützen. Im Buch wird für diesen Zweck ein Differenzierungstool für die Sekundarstufe zum Experimentieren im Sinne von Inquiry-based Learning (Forschendes Lernen) für die Fächer B…

Relations between representational consistency, conceptual understanding of the force concept, and scientific reasoning

Previous physics education research has raised the question of “hidden variables” behind students’ success in learning certain concepts. In the context of the force concept, it has been suggested that students’ reasoning ability is one such variable. Strong positive correlations between students’ preinstruction scores for reasoning ability (measured by Lawson’s Classroom Test of Scientific Reasoning) and their learning of forces [measured by the Force Concept Inventory (FCI)] have been reported in high school and university introductory courses. However, there is no published research concerning the relation between students’ ability to interpret multiple representations consistently (i.e.,…