| 1. |
- Airey, John, et al.
(författare)
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A Disciplinary Discourse Perspective on University Science Learning : Achieving fluency in a critical constellation of modes
- 2008
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Ingår i: Journal of Research in Science Teaching. - : Wiley. - 0022-4308 .- 1098-2736. ; 46:1, s. 27-49
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this theoretical article we use an interpretative study with physics undergraduates to exemplify a proposed characterization of student learning in university science in terms of fluency in disciplinary discourse. Drawing on ideas from a number of different sources in the literature, we characterize what we call “disciplinary discourse” as the complex of representations, tools and activities of a discipline, describing how it can be seen as being made up of various “modes”. For university science, examples of these modes are: spoken and written language, mathematics, gesture, images (including pictures, graphs and diagrams), tools (such as experimental apparatus and measurement equipment) and activities (such as ways of working—both practice and praxis, analytical routines, actions, etc.). Using physics as an illustrative example, we discuss the relationship between the ways of knowing that constitute a discipline and the modes of disciplinary discourse used to represent this knowing. The data comes from stimulated recall interviews where physics undergraduates discuss their learning experiences during lectures. These interviews are used to anecdotally illustrate our proposed characterization of learning and its associated theoretical constructs. Students describe a repetitive practice aspect to their learning, which we suggest is necessary for achieving fluency in the various modes of disciplinary discourse. Here we found instances of discourse imitation, where students are seemingly fluent in one or more modes of disciplinary discourse without having related this to a teacher-intended disciplinary way of knowing. The examples lead to the suggestion that fluency in a critical constellation of modes of disciplinary discourse may be a necessary (though not always sufficient) condition for gaining meaningful holistic access to disciplinary ways of knowing. One implication is that in order to be effective, science teachers need to know which modes are critical for an understanding of the material they wish to teach.
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| 2. |
- Caiman, Cecilia, 1972-, et al.
(författare)
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A methodology to analyze students' intertwined speech and drawings—Aesthetic experiences in science education
- 2024
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Ingår i: Journal of Research in Science Teaching. - 0022-4308 .- 1098-2736.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The purpose of this article is to introduce a methodology for analyzing the complex configurations emerging in students' speech and drawing activities, having consequences for how and what students learn and make meaning of in science. Accordingly, we launch a methodology to unfold the multidimensional communication as to deepen the analysis of the science epistemic discourse. We present an empirical account of students' explorations through different signs to demonstrate the construction of the methodology step-by-step. This methodology, a “seven-concept-assemblage,” is rooted in Dewey's pragmatism and Deleuze's experimentalism broadening teachers' and researchers' possibility to target students' science explorations and meaning-making crosscutting different domains. The methodology diminishes the risk of interpretation when grasping unspoken messages and meanings. Empirical data were collected in an elementary school exemplifying the methodology and consist of audio recordings, photographs, fieldnotes, and students' drawings. The result reveals that the methodology in use exposed what and how students explored and learned cognitively and aesthetically. Imagination fertilized the process throughout. Learning then is suggested as a transductive meaning-making process shaped through oral and pictorial relations—always from a purpose.
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| 3. |
- Gericke, Niklas, 1970-, et al.
(författare)
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Defining epigenetic literacy : How to integrate epigenetics into the biology curriculum
- 2023
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Ingår i: Journal of Research in Science Teaching. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0022-4308 .- 1098-2736. ; 60:10, s. 2216-2254
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The aim of this study is to define epigenetic literacy and describe how it can be included in school biology. Epigenetics is a new field of research in biology with abundant societal consequences and conceptual implications on how genetics is understood. Epigenetics explains how genes are regulated, thereby clarifying cell differentiation, and providing an understanding of how the environment interacts with genes. Students are bound to encounter epigenetic knowledge and applications related to issues such as health, food, and exercise in the media and their everyday lives. Consequently, there is a need to develop epigenetic literacy. Nevertheless, epigenetics is missing in biology curricula and is almost unknown among teachers and students. Research on epigenetics in science education is scarce, and we do not know what and how to teach. Therefore, we conducted a policy Delphi study with a panel of experts to define an epigenetic literacy framework for teaching in secondary education in relation to Robert's Vision I and Vision II perspectives on epigenetic literacy. Participants were 41 recognized international experts representing 11 countries and five areas of expertise. The experts suggested that epigenetics should be introduced in the lower secondary genetics course (students aged 13-15 years), but also addressed in other relevant areas of biology. The study generated six content themes: epigenetics as a metaphor; epigenetics connecting nature with nurture; epigenetics as a dynamic process; epigenetic mechanisms; epigenetics and inheritance; and epigenetics and nature of science, and five sociocultural themes for contextualization: epigenetics and lifestyle; epigenetics and diseases; epigenetics and ethics; epigenetics and policies; and epigenetics and forensics. Taken together, these themes constitute the epigenetic literacy framework. Further, we uncover divergent meanings in the expert panel & mdash;as is typical of policy Delphi studies & mdash;and connect the framework to genetic literacy and learning progressions in genetics education.
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| 4. |
- Gunnarsson, Robert, 1972-, et al.
(författare)
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Secondary school science teachers’ arguments for the particulate nature of matter
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Research in Science Teaching. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0022-4308 .- 1098-2736. ; 55:4, s. 503-525
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- How do secondary school science teachers justify the model of a particulate nature of matter, and how do the arguments they use relate to historical arguments? To find out, we individually interviewed 11 in-service secondary school science teachers (certified to teach chemistry and/or physics in secondary school, and with 2–30 years of teaching experience) regarding their arguments for the particulate nature of matter and experiments that could demonstrate the existence of particles. The collected data were qualitatively analyzed. Three qualitatively different categories of arguments could be constructed from data: philosophical arguments, indirect experimental arguments, and direct experimental arguments. The indirect experimental arguments, which is the largest category, could be further divided into qualitatively different subcategories: non-specific research and experiments, and chemical, physical and subatomic experiments. Even though several experiments and arguments were suggested by the informants in our study, the arguments regarding the validity of the experiments were quite uncertain and vague. The experiments and arguments were used to corroborate the particulate nature of matter and taken for granted in advance rather than used to justify a model with particles. The outcome was discussed in relation to scientific arguments and experiments and in view of results from previous science education research. Based on our data, teacher education and in-service teacher training, as well as teacher guides, were suggested to be more elaborate regarding contemporary knowledge, with direct experimental evidence for the particulate nature of matter being presented.
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| 5. |
- Haglund, Jesper, et al.
(författare)
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Using self-generated analogies in teaching of thermodynamics
- 2012
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Ingår i: Journal of Research in Science Teaching. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0022-4308 .- 1098-2736. ; 49:7, s. 898-921
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Using self-generated analogies has been proposed as a method in a constructivist tradition for students to learn about a new subject, by use of what they previously know. We report on a group exercise on using self-generated analogies to make sense of two thermodynamic processes, reversible adiabatic expansion and free adiabatic expansion of an ideal gas. The participants (N = 8) were physics preservice teacher students at the fourth year of the teacher education program. A main finding was that work with self-generated analogies tended to be accompanied by the students assuming ownership for their learning, manifested in terms of actions of choice and control and the use of exploratory talk. Consequently, several self-generated analogies were elaborated and developed to a high-order relational structure. However, we also found that with the use of self-generated analogies in science teaching follows the risks of developing idiosyncratic explanations of the encountered phenomena or getting stuck in overly complex comparisons.
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| 6. |
- Höft, Lars, et al.
(författare)
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Knowing more about things you care less about : cross-sectional analysis of the opposing trend and interplay between conceptual understanding and interest in secondary school chemistry
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of Research in Science Teaching. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 0022-4308 .- 1098-2736. ; 56:2, s. 184-210
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The development of students' interest in school science activities, their understanding of central chemical concepts, and the interplay between both constructs across Grades 5–11 were analyzed in a cross‐sectional paper‐and‐pencil study (N = 2,510, mean age 11–17 years). Previous empirical findings indicate that students' knowledge increases over the time of secondary school while students' interest, especially in natural science subjects, tends to decrease. Concomitantly, there is evidence for an increase in the positive coupling between interest and knowledge across time. However, previous studies mainly rely on rather global measures, for example, school grades or general subject‐related interest, and focus on science as an integrated subject instead of specific disciplines, for example, chemistry. For this article, more proximal and differentiated measures for students' understanding of three chemical concepts (Chemical Reaction, Energy, Matter) and interest in seven dimensions of school science activities according to the RIASEC + N model (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional, and Networking; cf. Dierks, Höffler, & Parchmann, 2014) were applied. The results are in line with previous research indicating a general increase in conceptual understanding and a decline in students' interest for all school science activities. However, the interplay between conceptual understanding and interest differs across the seven dimensions. Interest in activities which are likely to promote cognitive activation (investigative, networking) or involving the communication of knowledge (social, enterprising, and networking) are increasingly connected to conceptual understanding, especially in upper secondary grades. Interest in guided hands‐on activities (realistic) which are typical in secondary science teaching, however, shows only small positive correlations to students' conceptual understanding across all grades. Hence, in upper‐secondary school, investigative, social, enterprising, and networking activities seem to provide opportunities to benefit most from the interrelation between students' interests and their understanding.
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| 7. |
- Lederman, Judith, et al.
(författare)
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An international collaborative investigation of beginning seventh grade students' understandings of scientific inquiry : Establishing a baseline
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of Research in Science Teaching. - : Wiley. - 0022-4308 .- 1098-2736. ; 56:4, s. 486-515
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Although understandings of scientific inquiry (as opposed to conducting inquiry) are included in science education reform documents around the world, little is known about what students have learned about inquiry during their elementary school years. This is partially due to the lack of any assessment instrument to measure understandings about scientific inquiry. However, a valid and reliable assessment has recently been developed and published, Views About Scientific Inquiry (VASI; Lederman et al. [2014], Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 51, 65-83). The purpose of this large-scale international project was to collect the first baseline data on what beginning middle school students have learned about scientific inquiry during their elementary school years. Eighteen countries/regions spanning six continents including 2,634 students participated in the study. The participating countries/regions were: Australia, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, England, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Mainland China, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States. In many countries, science is not formally taught until middle school, which is the rationale for choosing seventh grade students for this investigation. This baseline data will simultaneously provide information on what, if anything, students learn about inquiry in elementary school, as well as their beginning knowledge as they enter secondary school. It is important to note that collecting data from all of the approximately 200 countries globally was not humanly possible, and it was also not possible to collect data from every region of each country. The results overwhelmingly show that students around the world at the beginning of grade seven have very little understandings about scientific inquiry. Some countries do show reasonable understandings in certain aspects but the overall picture of understandings of scientific inquiry is not what is hoped for after completing 6 years of elementary education in any country.
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| 8. |
- Lindahl, Mats, Professor, 1955-, et al.
(författare)
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Students' recognition of educational demands in the context of a socioscientific issues curriculum
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of Research in Science Teaching. - New Jersey, USA : John Wiley & Sons. - 0022-4308 .- 1098-2736. ; 56:9, s. 1155-1182
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Students’ difficulties in interpreting what counts as knowledge have been addressed in past research on science education. The implementation of progressivist pedagogy in terms of more student-active classroom practice and the introduction of a variety of discourses into the science classroom deepens students’ difficulties.The integration of different forms and demands of knowledge and discourses typified by Science-in-Context initiatives, such as within the Socioscientific framework, exemplifies this development in science education. Here, the diffuse boundaries between school subjects and other silos of knowledge leads to considerable difficulties for students to interpret what is expected from them. Such contexts having diffuse boundaries between, for example, subject discourses and other fonts of knowledge, have been describes as contexts with weak classification. The present study aims to explore students’ interpretation of what knowledge or meaning they are requested to produce in contexts with weak classification, here exemplified withinan SSI-task. We use Bernstein’s concepts of recognition rulesand classificationto analyse how 15-16 year-old students develop their discussions in groups of 4-6 students. This study reports how students’ recognitionof the educational demands enabled integration of different discourses in their discussion, and that the use of both universalistic and particularistic meanings can produce new understandings. Students who had not acquired recognition ruleswere found to keep discourses apart, expressed either as rejection of the relevance of the task, answering questions as in a traditional school task, or just exchange of personal opinions. Furthermore, they included discourses irrelevant to the issue.An important outcome of the study was that socioscientific thinking was hampered when students kept universalistic and particularistic meanings apart. This hampering results from the inhibition of dynamic exploration during SSI discussions. The results provide new insights with relevance for teachers’ guiding students towards a fruitful SSI-discourse.
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| 9. |
- Lindfors, Maria, et al.
(författare)
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Unpacking students' epistemic cognition in a physics problem‐solving environment
- 2020
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Ingår i: Journal of Research in Science Teaching. - : Wiley-Blackwell. - 0022-4308 .- 1098-2736. ; 57:5, s. 695-732
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- It is a widely held view that students’ epistemic beliefs influence the way they think and learn in a given context, however, in the science learning context, the relationship between sophisticated epistemic beliefs and success in scientific practice is sometimes ambiguous. Taking this inconsistency as a point of departure, we examined the relationship between students’ scientific epistemic beliefs (SEB), their epistemic practices, and their epistemic cognition in a computer simulation in classical mechanics. Tenth grade students’ manipulations of the simulation, spoken comments, and behavior were screen and video‐recorded and subsequently transcribed and coded. In addition, a stimulated recall interview was undertaken to access students’ thinking and reflections on their practice, in order to understand their practice and make inferences about their process of epistemic cognition. The paper reports on the detailed analysis of the data sets for three students of widely different SEB and performance levels. Comparing the SEB, problem solutions and epistemic practices of the three students has enabled us to examine the interplay between SEB, problem‐solving strategies (PS), conceptual understanding (CU), and metacognitive reflection (MCR), to see how these operate together to facilitate problem solutions. From the analysis, we can better understand how different students’ epistemic cognition is adaptive to the context. The findings have implications for teaching science and further research into epistemic cognition.
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| 10. |
- Ünsal, Zeynep, et al.
(författare)
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Gesticulating science : Emergent bilingual students’ use of gestures
- 2018
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Ingår i: Journal of Research in Science Teaching. - : Wiley. - 0022-4308 .- 1098-2736. ; 55:1, s. 121-144
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article examines how emergent bilingual students used gestures in science class, and the consequences of students’ gestures when their language repertoire limited their possibilities to express themselves. The study derived from observations in two science classes in Sweden. In the first class, 3rd grade students (9–10 years old) were involved in a unit concerning electricity. The second class consisted of 7th grade students (13–14 years old) working with acids and bases. Data were analyzed by using practical epistemological analysis (PEA). When students’ language proficiency limited their possibility to express themselves, using gestures resulted in the continuation of the science activities. Furthermore, both peers and teachers drew on the used gestures to talk about the science content. In some situations, the meaning of the gestures needed to be negotiated. Regardless, the gestures were always related to language. Both students and teachers participated in this process, but the teachers directed the communication towards the goal of the lessons: learning how to talk science. The study contributes to the field by showing the importance of paying attention to and valuing bilingual students’ use of gestures as a way to express scientific knowledge. In addition, it demonstrates how teachers might draw on students’ gestures to teach science and discusses the importance of creating multimodal learning environments.
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