| 1. |
- Andersson, Sebastian, 1983-, et al.
(författare)
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Meaningful Learning in Inquiry with a High Degree of Freedom – a Case Study when Year 9 Secondary School Students Explore Sound and Light
- 2018
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study explores how students in year nine make their way through an open inquiry project on sound and light extending over eight weeks. The research question concerns the role that understanding the nature of scientific inquiry may have for students’ experiences of inquiry and meaningful learning within these. The work of five student groups were followed and documented with observations, sound recordings, group interviews and students´ written reports. The students’ sense of ownership of their unique projects encouraged them to spontaneously share their different investigations with each other, even outside of class and in some cases stimulated a desire to broaden investigations beyond their original frames. Students’ interest in their work was observed to move through peaks and valleys following the idiosyncratic development of each project. The resistance that scientific inquiry with a higher degree of freedom naturally tends to lead to played an important role both to stimulate interest, and in some cases bring it to a halt. It is suggested that meaningful learning in science can be developed through meeting and overcoming the resistance and problematic nature of open inquiry. Understanding the iterative and nonlinear nature of scientific inquiry may therefore help students and teachers to orient themselves in the processes of inquiry, overcome resistance and develop more flexible and deeper learning strategies. The results also emphasise the situational and dynamic nature of interest and meaningfulness and to question more static methods to study these constructs.
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| 2. |
- Björnhammer, Sebastian, 1983-, et al.
(författare)
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The Process of Doing Science—A Study of Three Students Exploring Sound and Light
- 2021
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Doing science involves the process of formulating a researchable question, a method, collecting and analysing data, and to evaluate and communicate the findings. Learning to do science thus involves an engagement in both the process and the object of the inquiry. A conceptual tool to help teachers plan laboratory work and inquiry teaching is the educational model degree of freedom, which is based on whether the question, method and answer are open or given. We follow the work of three 14-15 year old students thorough an inquiry project with three degrees of freedom. The students conducted an inquiry about the different between sound and light. Our research question is: How can an inquiry project with three degrees of freedom contribute to students’ development in doing science? As a theoretical framework we used a pragmatic perspective on learning and meaning making and conducted a practical epistemological analysis, PEA, with the development of deliberative educational questions, DEQ and Organizing purposes. The findings show that the process of doing science cannot be learned as a linear process which starts with doing a research question and ends with the result. It also indicates the delicate balance between letting the students negotiate obstacles and helping the students with more explicit teaching during the inquiry process.
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| 3. |
- Gyllenpalm, Jakob, 1979-, et al.
(författare)
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Connecting two laboratory tasks under an umbrella of uncertainty : Hooke's law and simple harmonic motion
- 2018
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Ingår i: Physics Education. - : IOP Publishing. - 0031-9120 .- 1361-6552. ; 53:5
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Laboratory work in physics has traditionally focused on the verification of facts, theories and laws. In contrast, this article describes how laboratory tasks can be used to promote students understanding about the nature of science and scientific inquiry. In the project reported here, students learn about measurement uncertainties and a simplified graphical method for propagating errors. By using this knowledge to compare the precision of two common methods to determine the spring constant, Hooke's Law and simple harmonic motion, students learn about the nature of experimentation in physics. From this specific example, comparisons can then be made with authentic research to highlight more general aspects of the nature of science and scientific inquiry.
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| 4. |
- Gyllenpalm, Jakob, et al.
(författare)
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Experiments" and the Inquiry Emphasis Conflation in Science Teacher Education
- 2011
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Ingår i: Science Education. - : Wiley. - 0036-8326 .- 1098-237X. ; 95:5, s. 908-926
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article examines the use and role of the term experiment in science teacher education as described by teacher students. Data were collected through focus group interviews conducted at seven occasions with 32 students from six well-known Swedish universities. The theoretical framework is a sociocultural and pragmatist perspective on language and learning with the analysis based on the notion of pivot terms, introduced in an earlier article, to operationalize language use as habit and mediated action. The term experiment was found to be conflated with laboratory task and referred to as primarily a pedagogical activity in contrast to a research methodology, in line with the previously described inquiry emphasis conflation. The notion of controlled experiment was unfamiliar to most students and had not been explicitly discussed in terms of research methodology during their teacher education. The pedagogical meaning given to the term experiment is discussed in contrast to its use and function in scientific research. The possible problems of this conflation of terms are discussed in relation to the educational goal of teaching students about the nature of scientific inquiry. Recommendations for teacher education are discussed, and a heuristic model to use pivot terms to facilitate explicit reflection on unexamined customs of science education is introduced.
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| 5. |
- Gyllenpalm, Jakob
(författare)
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Inquiry and flow in science education
- 2018
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Ingår i: Cultural Studies of Science Education. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1871-1502 .- 1871-1510. ; 13:2, s. 429-435
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ellwood's and Abrams's paper, Students's social interaction in inquiry-based science education: how experiences of flow can increase motivation and achievement, describes two groups of students and their experiences in an extended inquiry unit. For one of these, the Off-Campus group, several educational aspects were enhanced compared with the group that stayed on campus for their fieldwork. In the analysis this was related to the nature and quality of students' social interactions during the project and their experiences of flow. This forum article seeks to expand and reframe some of the interpretations made by the authors concerning the role of time, place and attention for setting up conditions for experiences of flow in general, and in scientific inquiry in particular. A comparison with the result from research on wait-time is made, and the significance of place and social interactions are related to a typology of attention helpful for understanding Flow theory. It is suggested that an additional finding may be that there are certain moments in an inquiry unit where slowing down the tempo of instruction to allow for feedback and discussion is particularly important, because doing so can significantly alter the subsequent development and quality of students' social interactions, experiences of flow, and consequently learning. Implications for science teaching and teacher education are discussed.
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| 6. |
- Gyllenpalm, Jakob, 1979-, et al.
(författare)
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Secondary science teachers’ selective traditions and examples of inquiry-oriented approaches
- 2010
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Ingår i: NorDiNa. - 1504-4556 .- 1894-1257. ; 6:1, s. 44-60
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper describes aspects of the existing tradition of practical work in secondary science education in Sweden, with a focus on inquiry-oriented teaching approaches. Twelve secondary science teachers were interviewed and asked to describe examples of their own teaching practices that they believed constituted inquiry-oriented teaching. The descriptions are analysed in relation to key components of inquiry as conceptualised in the science education literature. In addition, the teachers’ way of talking about their own teaching in relation to inquiry is described and analysed. The results show a wide variety of teaching approaches that are associated with inquiry in different ways. Although inquiry is valued by many teachers, it is also problematic. We discuss the nature of the problems associated with inquiry by the teachers and the possible consequences of these for teacher education, in-service training and curriculum development.
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| 7. |
- Gyllenpalm, Jakob, 1979-
(författare)
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Teachers' Language of Inquiry : The Conflation Between Methods of Teaching and Scientific Inquiry in Science Education
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The objective of this thesis is to describe and analyse customs of science teaching in secondary schools and teacher education programmes in Sweden in relation to the notion of “inquiry” in science education. The main focus is on customs of language use and the educational goal of learning about scientific inquiry as distinct from the related goals of learning to do inquiry and learning canonical science content. There is also an exploration and description of different teaching approaches associated with “inquiry”. Previous research has noted that a key issue for reaching the goal of learning about scientific inquiry is the extent to which teachers are able to guide students to explicitly reflect upon this topic. A prerequisite is that teachers give students access to relevant categories of language for explicit reflection on the characteristics of scientific inquiry. Because of the situated nature of language use and learning, this also raises the need to address topics of context, culture and customs in science education. This thesis addresses the questions of how existing customs of teaching science are related to the goal of learning about scientific inquiry, how inquiry-related terminology is used in this context, and how relevant distinctions can be made to aid explicit reflection on these issues. Data has been collected in two studies and analysed and presented in four papers. Study 1 is based on interviews with twelve secondary school science teachers, and Study 2 is based on focus group interviews with 32 pre-service teacher students. The results include a description of the existing customs of inquiry-oriented instructional approaches in Swedish secondary schools. They show that these are often not connected with an explicit focus on teaching about the characteristics of scientific inquiry. Inquiry-related terminology is analysed with a focus on the role and use of the terms “hypothesis” and “experiment”. Based on a theoretical framework of sociocultural and pragmatist views on language and learning, it is shown how the use of these terms, both in secondary schools and teacher education, tend to conflate the two categories methods of teaching and methods of scientific inquiry. Some problematic consequences for reaching the goal of learning about scientific inquiry are discussed, as well as possible origins of the problems and how the results from this thesis can be useful in overcoming these.
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| 8. |
- Gyllenpalm, Jakob, 1979-, et al.
(författare)
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Teachers' language on scientific inquiry: Methods of teaching or methods of inquiry?
- 2010
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Ingår i: International Journal of Science Education. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0950-0693 .- 1464-5289. ; 32:9, s. 1151-1172
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- With a focus on the use of language related to scientific inquiry, this paper explores how 12 secondary school science teachers describe instances of students’ practical work in their science classes. The purpose of the study was to shed light on the culture and traditions of secondary school science teaching related to inquiry as expressed in the use of language. Data consisted of semi-structured interviews about actual inquiry units used by the teachers. These were used to situate the discussion of their teaching in a real context. The theoretical background is sociocultural and pragmatist views on the role of language in science learning. The analysis focuses on two concepts of scientific inquiry: hypothesis and experiment. It is shown that the teachers tend to use these terms with a pedagogical function thus conflating methods of teaching with methods of inquiry as part of an emphasis on teaching the children the correct explanation. The teachers did not prioritise an understanding of scientific inquiry as a knowledge goal. It discusses how learners’ possibilities to learn about the characteristics of scientific inquiry and the nature of science are affected by an unreflective use of everyday discourse.
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| 9. |
- Gyllenpalm, Jakob, 1979-, et al.
(författare)
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The Uses of the Term Hypothesis and the Inquiry Emphasis Conflation in Science Teacher Education
- 2011
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Ingår i: International Journal of Science Education. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0950-0693 .- 1464-5289. ; 33:14, s. 1993-2015
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper examines the use and role of the term 'hypothesis' in science teacher education as described by teacher students. Data were collected through focus group interviews conducted at seven occasions with 32 students from six well-known Swedish universities. The theoretical framework is a sociocultural and pragmatist perspective on language and learning, introducing the notion of pivot terms to operationalise language use as a habit and mediated action. We describe three different customs of using the term 'hypothesis' within four cultural institutions that can be said to constitute science teacher education in Sweden. Students were found to habitually use the term hypothesis as meaning a guess about an outcome. This is contrasted to the function of this term in scientific research as a tentative explanation. We also found differences in how this term was used between the pure science courses given by the science departments of universities and science education courses taken only by teacher students. Findings also included further support for school students hypothesis fear reported in an earlier study. It is discussed how these findings can obstruct learning and teaching about the nature of scientific inquiry. Constructivist theories of learning are suggested as a possible origin of these problems. The findings are also related to curricular reform and development.
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| 10. |
- 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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