Scientific Reasoning Research Institute - physics

stephens-2011hos

lstephens — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 16:21:31 +0000

Hands on small-group vs. whole-class use of animations and simulations: Comparative case studies in projectile motion

Stephens, A. Lynn

(2011)

Proceedings of the 2011 Annual Meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST), Orlando, FL

Years one and two of a three-year study revealed that, contrary to their teachers' expectations, students working hands on with computer animations and simulations in small groups with a teacher circulating among the groups performed no better, as measured by pre-post gains, than students engaging in teacher-moderated whole class discussions while observing the animations and simulations projected onto a screen before the class. Similar results have been obtained in year three. Initial case study analyses suggested there might exist teaching strategies for promoting at least some of the active thinking and exploration that has been considered to be the strength of small group work. The present study analyzes transcripts from a Projectile Motion lesson sequence taught during years two and three. Pre-post results are presented. Comparative case study analyses of matched sets of classes look closely at features of whole class and small group discussions that accompanied use of Quicktime animations, coding for presence of several factors that appeared to be associated with active reasoning in the initial case studies. One finding was the presence in whole class discussion of many more episodes of support for interpreting the meaning of visual elements in the animations than was present in the small groups. The Whole Class case studies examined here suggest the possibility that there may be certain instructional situations where there is an advantage to spending at least part of the time with the simulation or animation in a whole class discussion mode.

Attachment	Size
Stephens_2011NARST_final.pdf	805.71 KB

stephens-2006cte

lstephens — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:23:07 +0000

Running effective classroom thought experiments: What expert protocols and imagery indicators can tell us

Stephens, A. Lynn
Clement, John, J.

(2006)

Conference paper accompanying a poster presentation at the 2006 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), San Francisco, CA.

The purpose of this study is to explore reasoning processes that students use when running thought experiments (TEs) in science classrooms. We also focus on the use of depictive hand motions, which we regard as providing some evidence for the involvement of mental imagery in these episodes of student reasoning. We discuss our analysis of several of the episodes in terms of four forms of expert reasoning that have been associated with expert use of TEs (Clement, in preparation). We coded independently for these processes and for the occurrence of depictive hand motions. This allows us a window onto the roles imagery (and TEs) appear to be playing in student thinking during these large class discussions, where students were being asked to generate and evaluate explanatory models of phenomena.

Attachment	Size
Complete conference paper (PDF)	1.09 MB

stephens-2006dim

lstephens — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:17:51 +0000

Evidence for dynamic imagery during model construction in classroom discussions

Stephens, A. Lynn
Clement, John J.

(2006)

Poster presentation at American Association of Physics Teachers 2006 Summer Meeting (AAPT), Syracuse, NY.

stephens-2009uec

lstephens — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:14:26 +0000

Use of extreme cases by experts and students as a learning strategy

Stephens, A. Lynn
Clement, John J.

(2009)

Conference paper presented at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), San Diego, CA.

We present evidence from videotape transcripts for the productive use of extreme case reasoning by both scientifically trained experts and students. Extreme cases appear to be a powerful method for making inferences about physical systems but the origin of their power is difficult to explain. Spontaneous gestures and other imagery indicators provide evidence that they can involve the use of imagery in mental simulations as a possible source of power. The study identifies a reasoning process that can contribute to theory construction in scientists, and suggests that it may involve imagery and simulation in a central way. It attempts to describe an active nonformal reasoning process that students can do with some scaffolding, and outlines some of its strengths and limitations.

Attachment	Size
Complete conference paper (PDF)	1.24 MB

stephens-2009esr

lstephens — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:09:22 +0000

Expert scientific reasoning processes and imagery: Case studies of high school science classes

Stephens, A. Lynn
Clement, John J.

(2009)

Conference paper accompanying a poster presentation at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), San Diego, CA.

Evidence is discussed for the spontaneous use of three types of scientific reasoning by high school students in whole class discussions. In two case studies, we identify multiple instances of students generating analogies, extreme cases, and Gedanken experiments and document their predominant association with spontaneous depictive gestures. Most were associated with gestures that appeared to depict motion or force, which are interpreted here as indicators of the use of animated mental imagery. We believe these issues warrant further study because it is possible that these processes, along with depictive gestures, allow students to share visual or kinesthetic meanings situated in exemplars in a way that allows the discussion to make sense to a greater number of students.

Attachment	Size
Complete conference paper (PDF)	1.87 MB

stephens-2009spt

lstephens — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 00:02:37 +0000

Spontaneous and planned thought experiments during whole class discussions: Use of teacher- and student-generated TEs in high school science

Stephens, A. Lynn

(2009)

Presentation at the International History and Philosophy of Science Teaching Group Tenth International Conference (IHPST), Notre Dame, South Bend, IN.

stephens-2008asr

lstephens — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 23:47:24 +0000

Anchoring student reasoning in prior knowledge: Characteristics of anchoring cases in a curriculum

Stephens, A. Lynn
Clement, John J.

(2008)

Proceedings of the 2008 Annual Meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST), Baltimore, MD.

We analyze strategies for selecting and honing Anchoring Cases, which are used to elicit useful—but often implicitly held—prior knowledge possessed by most students. In an innovative model-based high school mechanics curriculum, each unit presents a Target Case, designed to elicit a persistent misconception, and an Anchoring Case. These are connected by a set of Bridging Analogies that enable the students to transfer a conception from Anchor to Target in a series of gradual steps. The curriculum has produced significant gain differences over traditional instruction on measures of understanding. This suggests the usefulness of the pedagogical strategies; however, experience has shown that it is no easy matter to create successful Anchoring Cases. We analyzed these Anchoring Cases in terms of their consistency with previously identified expert design strategies and newly identified strategies. We have organized and honed the strategies into a coherent framework (part of a much larger framework presented in Clement, 2008a), designed to help with 1) predicting which Anchoring Cases are likely to be effective; 2) developing new Anchoring Cases; 3) forming an initial theory about how and why Anchors work. These findings have implications for lesson design, teaching strategies, and pedagogical theories of conceptual change.

Attachment	Size
Complete conference paper (PDF)	448.7 KB

stephens-2009ecr

lstephens — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 23:39:09 +0000

Extreme case reasoning and model based learning in experts and students

Stephens, A. Lynn
Clement, John, J.

(2009)

Proceedings of the 2009 Annual Meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST), Garden Grove, CA.

As part of a larger investigation into the kinds of reasoning processes experts and students use during model-based learning, this study investigates the use of one such process, extreme case reasoning. We asked whether evidence for the generation and use of extreme cases by experts and by students could be documented from case studies, and if so, whether this might be associated with the use of dynamic mental imagery. To do this we analyzed videotapes of (1) scientifically trained experts and (2) secondary physics classroom discussions. In the episodes presented, there is evidence that: experts can generate creative test cases for extreme case reasoning when engaged in mental modeling and can then use the process to reason about important steps in problem solving; students can generate creative test cases for extreme case reasoning when engaged in mental modeling, and can then used the process to reason about important conceptual issues. There is evidence that experts and students can make use of mental imagery when engaged in extreme case reasoning and that at least some of this imagery is dynamic in nature. We conclude that there is case study evidence that extreme case reasoning can contribute to theory construction in scientists and in students, and that this non-formal reasoning process may involve mental imagery and simulation in a central way.

Attachment	Size
Complete conference paper (PDF)	1.17 MB

stephens-2010sgw

lstephens — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 23:31:00 +0000

Small group vs. whole class use of interactive computer simulations: Comparative case studies of matched high school physics classes

Stephens, A. Lynn
Vasu, Ileana
Clement, John, J.

(2010)

Proceedings of the 2010 Annual Meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST), Philadelphia, PA.

Although it is generally felt that online simulations are better used in small groups working hands-on at computers, many teachers do not have ready access to the number of computer stations required. We ask whether teachers can engage students in effective, active learning when the students are not able to explore a simulation/animation on their own. Several teachers taught a number of high school physics topics in their classes using simulations in either of two conditions: a) small groups working hands-on at computers, and b) whole classes observing simulations projected from a single computer onto a screen before the class. We examine sets of matched classes to compare pre-post gains and teaching strategies used. The three teachers of the classes analyzed here anticipated that the small class format would work better, and students did appear at first glance to be more engaged in small groups. However, results showed that the whole class format produced similar—and in one comparison, significantly stronger—gains, as measured by pre-post tests. We use the pre-post results and videotape evidence to look at issues that may have affected student learning in the two kinds of situations.

Attachment	Size
Complete conference paper (PDF)	1.33 MB

stephens-2012rte

lstephens — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 23:24:33 +0000

The role of thought experiments in science and science learning

Stephens, A. Lynn
Clement, John, J.

(2012)

In B. Fraser, K. Tobin, & C. McRobbie (Eds.), Second International Handbook of Science Education: Springer International Handbooks of Education, Vol 24, Part 2 (pp. 157-175). Dordrecht: Springer.

This chapter will (1) briefly review selected studies examining the nature of thought experiments in science; (2) review previous studies on the role that thought experiments can play in science instruction; (3) give case study examples of thought experiments (TEs) proposed by both teachers and students and the en-suing classroom discussions. We discuss several definitions for the term thought experiment and examine methods that have the potential to illuminate issues such as the following: students can generate their own TEs as well as discuss ones pro-posed by the teacher; students give evidence of using imagery during TEs as indi-cated by certain imagery indicators; one can track how a TE spreads “conta-giously” between students in a discussion and how it is modified and improved in the process. We will conclude that student TEs can be similar to expert TEs in many ways and raise possible factors that make teacher generated TEs foster stu-dent discussion and sense making.

Permalink(s): Original publication available at www.springerlink.com

DOI(s): 10.1007/978-1-4020-9041-7_13

Attachment	Size
StephensClementTE.pdf	1.31 MB

stephens-2010due

lstephens — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 23:19:24 +0000

Documenting the use of expert scientific reasoning processes by high school physics students

Stephens, A. Lynn
Clement, John J.

(2010)

Physical Review Special Topics – Physics Education Research

We describe a methodology for identifying evidence for the use of three types of scientific reasoning. In two case studies of high school physics classes, we used this methodology to identify multiple instances of students using analogies, extreme cases, and Gedanken experiments. Previous case studies of expert scientists have indicated that these processes can be central during scientific model construction; here we code for their spontaneous use by students. We document evidence for numerous instances of these forms of reasoning in these classes. Most of these instances were associated with motion- and force-indicating depictive gestures, which we take as one kind of evidence for the use of animated mental imagery. Altogether, this methodology shows promise for use in highlighting the role of nonformal reasoning in student learning and for investigating the possible association of animated mental imagery with scientific reasoning processes.

Permalink(s): http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.6.020122

DOI(s): 10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.6.020122

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PhysRevSTPER.6.020122.pdf	287.29 KB