| 1. |
- Anderson, Trevor, et al.
(författare)
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Identifying and Developing Students' Ability to Reason with Concepts and Representations in Biology
- 2013
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Ingår i: Multiple Representations in Biological Education. - Dordrecht : Springer Science+Business Media B.V.. - 9789400741911 ; , s. -390
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Bokkapitel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This new publication in the Models and Modeling in Science Education series synthesizes a wealth of international research on using multiple representations in biology education and aims for a coherent framework in using them to improve higher-order learning. Addressing a major gap in the literature, the volume proposes a theoretical model for advancing biology educators’ notions of how multiple external representations (MERs) such as analogies, metaphors and visualizations can best be harnessed for improving teaching and learning in biology at all pedagogical levels.The content tackles the conceptual and linguistic difficulties of learning biology at each level—macro, micro, sub-micro, and symbolic, illustrating how MERs can be used in teaching across these levels and in various combinations, as well as in differing contexts and topic areas. The strategies outlined will help students’ reasoning and problem-solving skills, enhance their ability to construct mental models and internal representations, and, ultimately, will assist in increasing public understanding of biology-related issues, a key goal in today’s world of pressing concerns over societal problems about food, environment, energy, and health. The book concludes by highlighting important aspects of research in biological education in the post-genomic, information age.
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| 2. |
- Besançon, Lonni, et al.
(författare)
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Exploring and Explaining Climate Change: Exploranation as a Visualization Pedagogy for Societal Action
- 2022
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Engaging mass audiences with crucial societal issues, such as cli-mate change, can be provided through interactive exhibits designed around the paradigm of exploranation. We present example inter-active installations in the newly founded Wadstr¨oms Exploranation Laboratory that explain various aspects of climate change while allowing public participants to explore the real scientific data. We describe how effects and causes of climate change can be communi-cated by two of the installations that allow for interactive opportuni-ties to explore the underlying data while gaining insight into climate change sources and effects. We close with implications for future work on exploranation as an emerging visualization pedagogy in public spaces.
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| 3. |
- Dolo, Gilbert, et al.
(författare)
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Infrared cameras support inquiry-based science education in a township school in South Africa
- 2016
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- There is a directive in the South African Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) that teaching should include inquiry-based approaches, where learning is guided by students’ own questions and curiosity. In practice, teachers and students at schools in disadvantaged areas in South Africa find it challenging to adapt to inquiry-based learning. The current study concerns stimulating and supporting inquiry-based learning activities in Grade 7-8 physics education in Khayelitsha township in the Western Cape. Students have been introduced to infrared cameras in learning thermal science. The intuitive nature of the technology, where warm objects appear as red against a colder blue background, makes it attractive to inquiry-based approaches to education. With a predict-observe-explain design, students have studied heat conduction as hot water is poured into cups of different materials and thickness, and as they hold wooden and metal objects. In this way, thermal phenomena that are otherwise invisible are made visible through this visualization technology. Students’ engagement with the activities and technology has been video and audio recorded, and the transcripts of the dialogues have been subjected to qualitative analysis with regards to their use and interpretation of central thermal concepts. For instance, one of the students’ utterances: “When you pour hot water in the cups, both will have a lot of heat in them”, reveals an everyday, substance-like idea of heat, which we find adequate and useful at this level of education. Similarly, “I’ve noticed that the metal takes in the heat while the wood ignores it” shows an understanding of the difference in heat conductivity between metal and wood, as expressed in everyday language. In our interpretation, infrared cameras afford seeing heat conduction as a heat flow between objects of different temperature, thereby providing multimodal experiences combining real-time dynamic images with the sense of touch in learning thermal science.
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| 4. |
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| 5. |
- Dolo, Gilbert, et al.
(författare)
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Thermal Cameras as a Semiotic Resource for Inquiry in a South African Township School Context
- 2018
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Ingår i: Designs for Learning. - : Stockholm University Press. - 1654-7608 .- 2001-7480. ; 10:1, s. 123-134
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Inquiry-based approaches to science education are central to recent South African primary and secondary school curricula, but have been found challenging to adopt in disadvantaged township contexts. It is therefore important to find ways of introducing inquiry-based approaches, where pupils are encouraged to investigate phenomena they are interested in and to engage in true dialogue, as opposed to teacher-led triadic dialogue. We typically experience thermal phenomena through the sense of touch, but infrared (IR) cameras provide an additional opportunity to experience heat-related phenomena through the visual sense. Previously, in a Swedish context, we have found that hand-held IR cameras allow for strong pedagogical affordances and inspire pupils to engage in inquiry in the area of thermal science. In the present case study, grade 7 and 8 pupils (13–14 years old) in two South African township schools were introduced to IR cameras during predict-observe-explain (POE) exercises on heat conduction. The results revealed that if pupils had a sufficient conceptual understanding of heat conduction beforehand, they were capable of engaging in true dialogue in relation to the exercises and interpreting the thermal camera visual imagery. However, if pupils did not show such understanding, it was tempting for them and the facilitator to resort to triadic dialogue.
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| 6. |
- Dolo, Gilbert, et al.
(författare)
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Thermal Cameras as a Semiotic Resource for Teaching in South African Township Schools
- 2019
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Ingår i: Book of Long Paper Abstracts, Symposia, Short Papers, Snapshots of the 27th Annual Meeting of the Southern African Association for Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Education (SAARMSTE). - Durban. ; , s. 460-463
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study investigates how thermal cameras can be used in meaning-making around thermal phenomena. Predict-observe-explain (POE) tasks were conducted with Grade 7 and 8 learners in two township schools. Results showed that learners coordinated multiple semiotic resources including dynamic thermal images, spoken language and touch in reasoning about heat and temperature. Although results support the literature in that inquiry-based approaches are challenging to implement in this context, the Grade 8 learners indicated that true dialogue was possible to achieve by demonstrating different lines of collaborative inquiry.
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| 7. |
- Euler, Elias
(författare)
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Perspectives on the role of digital tools in students' open-ended physics inquiry
- 2019
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Licentiatavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In this licentiate thesis, I present detailed case studies of students as they make use of simulated digital learning environments to engage with physics phenomena. In doing so, I reveal the moment-to-moment minutiae of physics students’ open-ended inquiry in the presence of two digital tools, namely the sandbox software Algodoo and the PhET simulation My Solar System (both running on an interactive whiteboard). As this is a topic which has yet to receive significant attention in the physics education research community, I employ an interpretivist, case-oriented methodology to illustrate, build, and refine several theoretical perspectives. Notably, I combine the notion of semi-formalisms with the notion of Newtonian modeling, I illustrate how Algodoo can be seen to function as a Papertian microworld, I meaningfully combine the theoretical perspectives of social semiotics and embodied cognition into a single analytic lens, and I reveal the need for a more nuanced taxonomy of students’ embodiment during physics learning activities. Each of the case studies presented in this thesis makes use of conversation analysis in a fine-grained examination of video-recorded, small-group student interactions. Of particular importance to this process is my attention to students’ non-verbal communication via gestures, gaze, body position, haptic-touch, and interactions with the environment. In this way, I bring into focus the multimodally-rich, often informal interactions of students as they deal with physics content. I make visible the ways in which the students (1) make the conceptual connection between the physical world and the formal/mathematical domain of disciplinary physics, (2) make informal and creative use of mathematical representations, and (3) incorporate their bodies to mechanistically reason about physical phenomena. Across each of the cases presented in this thesis, I show how, while using open-ended software on an interactive whiteboard, students can communicate and reason about physics phenomena in unexpectedly fruitful ways.
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| 8. |
- Flint, Jennifer, et al.
(författare)
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Investigating an Immersive Virtual Nanoscience Simulation for Learning: Students' Interaction, Understanding, Attitudes and System Usability
- 2014
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Ingår i: AERA Online Paper Repository, 2014.
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Rapid nanoscientific development in a myriad of applied fields compels educational structures to develop curricular nanoknowledge for a future citizenry capable of contributing skills to a nano-workforce and in acquiring a nano-literacy. This study investigated ten Swedish upper-secondary students' interactions with a virtual reality nanoworld and sought to illuminate: 1) how students link to and support their understanding of prior science knowledge, 2) students' attitudes towards the benefits and risks of nanotechnology, and 3) the usability of the system. Analyzed videotaped and written data elicited cognitive mechanisms underlying interaction with the virtual reality environment for promoting understanding, the influence of the interactive experience on students' attitudes to nanophenomena, and system features that could be applied in real science classrooms.
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| 9. |
- Flint, Jennifer, 1970-, et al.
(författare)
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Virtual nanoworlds for learning
- 2020
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Ingår i: 21st Century Nanoscience – A Handbook. - Boca Raton : CRC Press. - 9780429351631 ; , s. 7-1-7-14
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)
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| 10. |
- Frejd, Johanna, 1986-
(författare)
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Encountering Evolution : Children's Meaning-Making Processes in Collaborative Interactions
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis explores preschool class children’s meaning making processes when they encounter evolution. By adopting social semiotic and sociocultural perspectives on meaning making, three group-based tasks were designed. Video data from the activities were analysed using a multimodal approach. The analysis focuses on how the communicated science content affects the science focus of the tasks, how different materials function as semiotic resources and influence meaning making, and interactive aspects of doing science in the meaning-making processes.The findings reveal that, by using the provided materials and their previous experiences, the children argue for different reasons for animal diversity and evolution. Throughout the tasks, a child-centric view of life emerged in a salient manner. This means that, apart from the science focus, the children also emphasise other aspects that they find important. The child-centric perspective is suggested to be a strength that enables children to engage in science activities.The results show that the provided materials had three functions. Children use materials as resources providing meaning. This means that the children draw on the meaning potential of the materials, a process that is influenced by their previous experiences. Moreover, in interaction with peers, the materials also serve as communicative and argumentative tools. Thus, access to materials influences the children’s meaning making and enables them to discuss evolution and “do science”.The findings also reveal an intimate relationship between task context and interaction. More scripted tasks convey more child–adult interaction (scaffolding) while less scripted tasks, during which children build on previous experiences instead of communicated science content, stimulates child–child interaction (mutual collaboration). In scaffolding interactions, a greater emphasis is placed on the science topic of the task due to guidance from the adult. Consequently, meanings made by children in more scripted tasks are more likely to be “scientifically correct”. However, if the teacher or the adult steps back and allows the children to engage in mutual collaboration, they engage in multiple ways of doing science through evaluating, observing, describing and comparing.Overall, the research reported in this thesis suggests that task contexts and materials have a great impact on children’s meaning making and how science is done.
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