| 1. |
- 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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| 2. |
- Anderhag, Per, 1971-
(författare)
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Taste for Science : How can teaching make a difference for students’ interest in science?
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The objective of the thesis is to describe and analyse aspects of home background and teaching that may be important for students’ capability and will to participate in science. The purpose is to make explicit how teaching can support students in developing an interest in science and so counter-balance the restricted opportunities some students may have due to upbringing. In study 1 population data is used to make evident what associations there are between home background variables and the students’ choice of applying for the Swedish post-compulsory Natural Science Programme (NSP). The findings show that home background is important for Swedish students’ choice of the NSP but also that some lower secondary schools can make a difference. Students’ interest in science has usually been examined through questionnaires and rarely studied as constituted in classroom action as a result of teaching. In study 2 therefore an action-oriented methodology is developed based on the concept of taste to study what difference a teacher can make for the constitution of interest in the science classroom. The concept of taste is grounded in pragmatism and the works of Pierre Bourdieu and acknowledges the affective, normative, and cognitive dimensions of situated science learning. In study 3 this methodology is used to examine how a teacher located through Study 1 supports his students in developing an interest in science. The results of study 3 suggest how teaching can make the object of science the focus of students’ interest and so showing that science, with its aims, norms, and values, can be enjoyed in itself. Study 4 draws on the findings of studies 1-3 to discuss the possibility of an overlooked field in studying interest in science; namely whether primary, secondary, tertiary students in effect have different objects of interest. The findings of studies 1-4 are used to discuss how teaching may make a difference to a continued student interest in science.
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| 3. |
- Anker-Hansen, Jens, 1974-
(författare)
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Assessing Scientific Literacy as Participation in Civic Practices : Affordances and constraints for developing a practice for authentic classroom assessment of argumentation, source critique and decision-making
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis takes a departure from a view of scientific literacy as situated in participation in civic practices. From such a view, it becomes problematic to assess scientific literacy through decontextualised test items only dealing with single aspects of participation in contexts concerned with science. Due to the complexity of transferring knowledge, it is problematic to assume that people who can explain scientific theories will automatically apply those theories in life or that knowledge will influence those people’s behaviour. A common way to more fully include the complexity of using science in different practices is to focus participation around issues and study how students use multiple sources to reflect critically and ethically on that issue. However, participation is situated in practices and thus becomes something specific within those practices. For instance, shopping for groceries for the family goes beyond reflecting critically and ethically on health and environment since it involves considering the family economy and the personal tastes of the family members. I have consequently chosen to focus my studies on how to assess scientific literacy as participation in civic practices. The thesis describes a praxis development research study where I, in cooperation with teachers, have designed interventions of assessments in lower secondary science classrooms. In the research study I use the theory of Community of Practice and Expansive Learning to study affordances and constraints for assessing communication, source critique and decision-making in the science classroom. The affordances and constraints for students’ participation in assessments are studied through using a socio-political debate as an assessment tool. The affordances and constraints for communicating assessment are studied through peer assessments of experimental design. The affordances and constraints for teachers to expand their assessment repertoire are studied through assessment moderation meetings. Finally, the affordances and constraints for designing authentic assessments of scientific literacy are studied through a review of different research studies’ use of authenticity in science education. The studies show that tensions emerge between purposes of practices outside the classroom and practices inside the classroom that students negotiated when participating in the assessments. Discussion groups were influential on students’ decisions on how to use feedback. Feedback that was not used to amend the designs was still used to discuss what should count as quality of experiments. Teachers used the moderation meetings to refine their assessments and teaching. However, conflicting views of scientific literacy as either propositional or procedural knowledge were challenging to overcome. Different publications in science education research emphasised personal or cultural aspects of authenticity. The different uses of authenticity have implications for authentic assessments, regarding the affordances and constraints for how to reify quality from external practices and through students’ engagement in practices. The results of the studies point to gains of focussing the assessment on how students negotiate participation in different civic practices. However, this approach to assessment puts different demands on assessment design than assessments in which students’ participation is compared with predefined ideals for performance.
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| 4. |
- Karlström, Matti, 1965-
(författare)
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Didaktisk modellering av lärarstudenters reflektiva praktik vid planering av undervisning i naturvetenskap
- 2024
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The purpose of this thesis is to extract didactic models that can support science teacher educators in developing pre-service science teachers' (PST) professional reflection. Developing PSTs to become reflective practitioners has been a prevailing aim in teacher education since the 1980s. There have been many descriptions of what constitutes reflective practice and how reflection occurs. At the same time, there is no support for developing PSTs' habit of reflection; many models for reflection lack empirical support and PSTs perceive them to be lacking relevance. One activity that involves reflection is lesson planning, therefore I examined twelve pre-service science student teams' planning conversations based on the overarching research question of how PSTs' reflection can be described and modelled when planning science lessons. Didactic models were created through didactic modelling, a process in which I created descriptions of PSTs' reflections and extracted components that together form models thatsupport the reflection involved in planning teaching. The results show that the moments of reflection differed from other parts of the planning conversations. During these moments the PSTs changed their perspectives on how to plan teaching, and the quality of the PSTs' reflections also differed. In addition, the PSTs' reflections were guided not only by the purposes presented in the instructions for the planning work, but they also formulated their own questions that they needed to seek answers to before they could complete the planning task. Based on these results, I created three models that emphasize: (1) the importance of openness in a task in order for it to give rise to an opportunity for reflection, (2) the different purposes that guide the pre-service teachers' planning work, and (3) the importance of responsibility, open-mindedness and whole-heartedness for achieving a more complete reflection. These models highlight different aspects of PSTs' reflection and contribute to a deeper understanding of PST reflective practice. The models can be used individually or in combination to model PSTs’ reflective practice. The results contribute with both methods for studying reflection, descriptions of PSTs' reflection, especially in planning, an area that has not previously been studied separately in relation to reflection, and models of different aspects of PSTs’ reflection, providing support for the analysis and design of teaching that aims to develop PSTs as reflective practitioners.
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| 5. |
- Maivorsdotter, Ninitha, 1966-
(författare)
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Idrottsutövandets estetik : en narrativ studie om meningsskapande och lärande
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The overall interest of this thesis is to explore aesthetic experience in sport and its significance for learning in sport. The main purpose is to contribute to a theoretical and methodological development of studies relating to learning in sport. The exploration is undertaken within the field of pragmatism using the works of John Dewey and Ludwig Wittgenstein. The exploration consists of four case studies, consisting mainly of narrative analyses of people’s written stories of participating in different sporting activities. A practical epistemology analysis (PEA) with a focus on aesthetic experience is used in three of the studies. The theoretical contribution comprises exploring learning in sport as something that is connected to emotions and perceptions, where other elements of experience, such as the social, cultural, historical, physical and mental aspects, are also important. Examining learning in the light of aesthetic experience contributes to an examination of emotion s and perceptions as integral parts of sport, without reducing learning to only consisting of emotions and perceptions. The results of the study also contribute to the possibility of exploring values in sport-related learning and shed light on the importance of habits (feelings of familiarity) when learning sport. How people ‘bodying’ the world aesthetically as part of their participation in sport has also been shown in one of the studies. The methodological contributions of the thesis consist of the development of PEA to include the examination of written texts. Furthermore, one of the studies includes the development of aesthetic events as a tool for exploring aesthetic experience in sport. Finally, a methodological contribution is made by using PEA to examine sport, since in the past PEA has only been used in studies in science education.
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| 6. |
- Boström, Agneta, 1948-
(författare)
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Sharing lived experience : How upper secondary school chemistry teachers and students use narratives to make chemistry more meaningful
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This dissertation concerns the place of teachers’ and students’ narratives in making school chemistry more meaningful to students. The material was collected at upper secondary school courses and consists of interviews with six experienced chemistry teachers, five adult students attending evening classes and six younger students. The methodological and theoretical approach is mainly inspired by John Dewey’s (1925, 1938) notion of continuity and by narrative inquiry as formulated by Clandinin & Connelly (2000). In defining narratives as a way of knowing, Bruner’s (1996, 2002) distinction between paradigmatic and narrative cognition is used, as well as his ideas about the past, the present and the possible.The findings show how teachers use narratives from their own lived experience as well as from other people’s lives in order to make chemistry more meaningful. Moreover, they use a narrative format to make their scientific explanations meaningful. Students use narratives or stories connected to their own lived experience to make sense of chemistry. These results show how chemistry can be made part of a meaningful context through sharing lived experience by means of storytelling. Narratives are used to make everyday life and chemistry class experiences continuous in the sense suggested by Dewey (1938). In accordance with his thoughts on experience, narratives are of help in the science classroom not only in making science more relevant and interesting, but also easier to understand. In the dissertation numerous examples of such stories are given and their role in learning chemistry is discussed.The stories of the teachers and students in the study are retold and analysed according to additional analytic tools in order to further document their role in teaching chemistry. It is argued that the collected narratives constitute an ingredient in teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge, PCK, according to Shulman (1986). How they can be used in different content areas of science and chemistry is discussed. The content of the narratives is also related to the Swedish curriculum, to the findings of the ROSE project and to Roberts’s (1982) knowledge emphases. The content analyses show that narratives make chemistry in class pluralistic in allowing the lived experiences of teachers and students to interact with the scientific facts.The final discussion concerning narrative inquiry is inspired by what Clandinin & Connelly (2000) wrote about “clashes at the boundaries”. The specific boundary in this dissertation is situated between canonical science teaching methods on the one hand and the use of narratives in teaching and narrative inquiry as research method on the other hand. Reductionism alone cannot explain nature and the complexity of life (Dewey 1925, 1938 and Midgley 2004), and the results of this dissertation show that narratives are used by both students and teachers in order to make sense of chemistry. Narratives constitute a way to make the reductionist knowing of science part of a more meaningful whole in accordance with Dewey’s holistic ideas about education.The results of this study suggest that teaching narratives can – and should – be used in science as a complement to other, more scientifically oriented educational methods. Thus, it supports many of the efforts made within context-based approaches, such as Case Studies, LCP (Large Context Problems), PBL (Problem-Based Learning), the Salter’s method and the Storyline method. Further implications of the results for teaching, learning, teacher education and research are explored.
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| 7. |
- Caiman, Cecilia, 1972-
(författare)
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Naturvetenskap i tillblivelse : Barns meningsskapande kring biologisk mångfald och en hållbar framtid
- 2015
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The objective of this thesis is to analyze children’s meaning making processes in science related to environment and sustainability at the pre-school level. This thesis examines an approach to early childhood education which is conceptualized by an explorative as well as a listening approach that specifically addresses children’s questions. The purpose is to create knowledge on how the processes develop and what specific science related content that emerges. All studies are based on a Deweyan pragmatic perspective. Study 1 “logs in” to the debate on children’s possibilities to become “agents for change” and contributing to positive changes for the environment. The results reveal that the children’s positive and negative aesthetic utterances have significance for how the process develops and is being fulfilled. The contextual aspects are imperative both for the content and for the choices the children make along the course of actions. Study 2 examines children exploring animals in a pre-school project concerning biodiversity. Initially, the results reveal that the organisms’ appearances and movements received morphological and physiological explanations. Further on, knowledge was gained in a manner which has similarities to ecological and evolutionary ways of explaining biological phenomena. Study 3 takes departure from the discussion on the fact that sustainability related problems often are unstructured, multifaceted and conceptualized as “wicked”. The study examines how the process of imagination comes into play when children explore a sustainability related problem that is important to them. The results reveal that creative solutions come into existence when blending various experiences. Study 4 investigates how children raise and answer science related questions by non-verbal actions. The results expose that non-verbal actions serve as inquiry, comparative systematics, visualization, question-generators as well as a public and self-reflective communication.
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| 8. |
- Engström, Lil, 1943-
(författare)
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Möjligheter till lärande i matematik : Lärares problemformuleringar och dynamisk programvara
- 2006
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis presents the first Swedish empirical evidence on how teachers employ a dynamic mathematical software when teaching mathematics in upper secondary school. The study examines: a) How teachers formulate mathematical problems? b) How they use the experience the students have gained? and c) What use they make of the software’s potential? These questions are examined through classroom observations followed up by discussions with the teachers.The study comprises three teachers and shows that they have very different mathematical experiences and teaching skills. A questionnaire was sent to the teachers prior to the classroom visits to collect relevant background information; e.g., the teachers were asked to describe their teacher training, their view of mathematics and of how a dynamic software could contribute to their teaching.The results show that the teachers’ ability to pose thought-provoking openended problems is the most important factor as it significantly influences what the students learn. The way a mathematical problem is formulated could, in conjunction with a dynamic software, actually limit the students’ achievement.However, this study confirms that it could also provide an opportunity for students to discover new mathematical relations, draw conclusions, generalise and formulate hypotheses. This could in turn lead to an in formally proving a mathematical relation. A conclusion of the study is that to be successful, teachers need a good mathematical background with a firm knowledge base and an understanding of the software’s potential, but they also need the skill to formulate open-ended problems that will enable their students to work successfully with a dynamic mathematical software.
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| 9. |
- Hamza, Karim, 1967-
(författare)
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Contingency in high-school students’ reasoning about electrochemical cells : Opportunities for learning and teaching in school science
- 2010
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The thesis takes its departure from the extensive literature on students’ alternative ideas in science. Although describing students’ conceptual knowledge in many science areas, the literature offers little about how this knowledge enters into the science learning process. Neither has it focused on how particulars and contingencies of curricular materials enter into the learning process. In this thesis I make high-resolution analyses of students’ learning in action during school science activities about real or idealized electrochemical cells. I use a discursive mechanism of learning developed to describe how students become participants in new practices through slow changes in word use. Specifically, I examine how alternative and accepted scientific ideas, as well as curricular materials, enter into students’ reasoning. The results are then used for producing hypotheses over how a teacher can support students’ science learning. Alternative ideas in electrochemistry did not necessarily interfere negatively with, and were sometimes productive for, students’ reasoning during the activities. Students included the particulars and contingencies of curricular materials in their reasoning not only when interacting with a real electrochemical cell but also in a more theoretical concept mapping activity about an idealized cell. Through taxonomic and correlational investigations students connected the particulars and contingencies of the real electrochemical cell to the generic knowledge of electrochemistry. When actively introduced by the researcher, such investigations had consequences for how single students framed their explanations of a real electrochemical cell. The results indicate ways in which teachers may encourage the productive use of contingencies to promote learning within the science classroom. However, this may require consideration of what students say in terms of consequences for their further learning rather than in terms of correct or incorrect content.
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| 10. |
- Jakobson, Britt, 1951-
(författare)
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Learning Science Through Aesthetic Experience in Elementary School : Aesthetic Judgement, Metaphor and Art
- 2008
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- This thesis considers the role of aesthetic meaning-making in elementary school science learning. Children’s aesthetic experiences are traced through their use of aesthetic judgements, spontaneous metaphors and art activities. The thesis is based on four empirical studies: the first two examining children’s language use, i.e. the role of aesthetic judgements and the significance of spontaneous metaphors while learning science and the latter two dealing with how art activities mediate what elementary school children learn in science and what a variety of art activities with different purposes afford elementary school children to learn in science.The theoretical stance emanates from pragmatist theories and includes Dewey’s definition of an aesthetic experience, Wittgenstein’s later work on language-games, and socio-cultural perspectives. The analytic approach used is a practical epistemology analysis developed by Wickman and Östman. The empirical data consists of audio- and video recordings of elementary school children’s (aged 6–10 years) discussions in pairs or small groups during science lessons and photographs of children’s pictures, sculptures and poems from a total of 14 different elementary school classes.The main findings of the empirical studies show how aesthetic meaning-making is continuous with elementary school children’s scientific learning. The thesis shows how elementary school children’s aesthetic experiences are related to whole activities and are crucial for the direction that learning takes. Aesthetic experience is important in terms of how and what elementary school children learn aesthetically and normatively in science class, which has consequences for cognitive learning, the possibility of participating in science class and learning the genre of science. Moreover, it can be seen how children’s prior experiences are recurrently reconstructed and transformed through imaginative processes.
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