Using Photographs to Probe Students’ Understanding of Physical Concepts: The Case of Newton’s 3rd Law

The starting point of the present research is the following question: since we live in an age that makes increasing use of visual representations of all sorts, is not the visual representation a learner constructs a window into his/her understanding of what is or is not being learned? Following this direction of inquiry, the present preliminary study introduces and evaluates a novel technique for pinpointing learners’ misconceptions, namely, one that has learners create and interpret their own photographs (CIP). 27 high-school students and 26 pre-service teacher trainees were asked to assume the role of textbook designers and create a display—photograph plus attached verbal explanation—which, in their opinion, best depicted Newton’s 3rd law. Subsequent analysis of the participants’ photographs yielded the following six misconception categories: 3rd law not depicted; 3rd law depicts a sequence of events; tendency to introduce irrelevant entities in explanations; the word ‘reaction’ used colloquially; tendency to restrict the application of the third law to dynamic situations; and informal explanations in which the word “force” is absent. The findings indicate that, indeed, the CIP method can be effectively employed to elicit, detect, and investigate learners’ misconceptions. The CIP method joins the growing efforts to utilize the yet relatively untapped potential of visual tools for science education purposes.     

Why Do Cocks Crow? Children’s Concepts About Birds

Research into children’s ideas showed that children’s interpretations of natural phenomena often differ from those of scientists. The aim of our study was to identify children’s ideas of various age classes (7/8–14/15) about birds. A questionnaire with 31 multiple choice and open ended questions and eight photographs were administered to 495 children from 10 elementary schools in Slovakia. Children’s ideas were examined in six dimensions (bird classification, food, senses, communication, migration and breeding including parental care). We found several misconceptions, some of them with both anthropomorphical and teleological reasoning of the children about birds within each dimension. In general, misconceptions were more frequently found in younger children, but several misconceptions were similarly distributed across all age classes.     

Picture Partners: A Co-creative Journey into Visual Literacy

This article describes an integrated art and early literacy project entitled, ‘Picture Partners’. The main purpose of the project was to explore how young children create and express meaning through art. Children’s responses, both written and spoken, were included because accompanying modes of expression expand the nature and content of their drawings and inform teachers about children’s intentions and processes of thinking. A secondary purpose was to investigate how children use illustrations from familiar picture books as models for their own creations and whether children’s responses to stories might be enhanced through their collaboration with peers. Partnerships were formed and participants worked in close proximity as they drew pictures in response to a teacher directed prompt. Using qualitative, interpretative analysis, a small subset of drawings produced by kindergarten and first grade children was examined. The results revealed that the process of drawing was influenced by illustrations in picturebooks, peer interactions, and the artwork of partners in close proximity. The shift in emphasis away from the interpretations of visual realism in children’s drawings towards their own purposes allowed readers to focus on the way drawings represent meaning within children’s socio-cultural worlds.     

Differences in knowledge networks about acids and bases of year-12, undergraduate and postgraduate chemistry students

This study examines differences in conceptual knowledge representations among three groups of students with different levels of study of chemistry. Variation in the structural characteristics of participants’ concept maps on the topic of acid-base equilibrium were sought by indirect means. Year 12 secondary chemistry students, undergraduate chemistry majors and honours, masters and doctoral candidates participated in the study. Paired propositional links in the concept maps for the three groups were analysed by the scaling algorithms “Pathfinder” and multidimensional scaling. Results show differences among groups in the structural significance in the networks of abstract process-related nodes and matter-related nodes. Implications for theories of conceptual change are discussed.     

Evaluating the reflexive practices in a learning experience

Reflexivity is a primary requirement for professional work. Our aim was to describe a methodology suitable for detecting the development of reflexive practice through the analysis of 59 Master’s degree students’ journals. We explore the use and changes of reflexive practice in relation to the settings and activities of the course using analysis of the mental language: We analyse how the reflexive practice is characterized, how it evolves through time and how it can be promoted. Data analysis shows that reflexivity is not monodimensional but multidimensional. Reflexive practice increases during the course: The different dimensions vary over time according to different organizational and educational conditions. This methodology allows us to formulate new hypotheses about which elements of the setting and process are effective in supporting participants’ reflexive practice.     

Pictures are necessary but not sufficient: Using a range of visual methods to engage users about school design

It has been argued by both educationalists and social researchers that visual methods are particularly appropriate for the investigation of people’s experiences of the school environment. The current and expected building work taking place in British schools provides an opportunity for exploration of methods, as well as a need to establish ways to achieve this involvement of a range of school users, including students. This article describes a consultation that was undertaken in a UK secondary school as part of a participatory design process centred on the rebuilding of the school. A range of visual methods, based on photographs and maps, was used to investigate the views of a diverse sample of school users, including students, teachers, technical and support staff and the wider community. Reported here is the experience of using these tools, considering the success of different visually-based methods in engaging a broad cross section of the school community and revealing useful information. Using a range of visual methods allows a complex, but coherent, understanding of the particular school environment to be constructed and developed. It is further argued that such a range of visual and spatial methods is needed to develop appropriate understanding. The study, therefore, contributes to knowledge about specific visual research methods, appreciation of the relationship between tools, and a general methodological understanding of visual methods’ utility for developing understanding of the learning environment.     

An assessment model for proof comprehension in undergraduate mathematics

Although proof comprehension is fundamental in advanced undergraduate mathematics courses, there has been limited research on what it means to understand a mathematical proof at this level and how such understanding can be assessed. In this paper, we address these issues by presenting a multidimensional model for assessing proof comprehension in undergraduate mathematics. Building on Yang and Lin’s (Educational Studies in Mathematics 67:59–76, 2008) model of reading comprehension of proofs in high school geometry, we contend that in undergraduate mathematics a proof is not only understood in terms of the meaning, logical status, and logical chaining of its statements but also in terms of the proof’s high-level ideas, its main components or modules, the methods it employs, and how it relates to specific examples. We illustrate how each of these types of understanding can be assessed in the context of a proof in number theory.     

A Participatory Social A/r/tography: Bodies and Houses Metamorphosing from Schools in Tegucigalpa to a Liverpool Tate Exchange Event

Social a/r/tography combines three dimensions of a/r/tography (artistic creation, education and research) incorporating a fourth collaborative, participatory community‐based approach. This ongoing project began in two primary and secondary schools located in the slums of Tegucigalpa, Honduras, as cooperative action for curricular development in art education. As participatory action, students created a mural drawing inspired by Sol Lewitt's wall drawings, as well as photo pairs on the theme of body and nature inspired by a lithograph by Uta Barth. The drawings and photographs created by the students in Honduras were presented at an event in the Exchange space of the Tate gallery in Liverpool as visual provocation for the creation of drawings and visual metaphors. The concept of visual dialogue, which we define as ‘to teach human beings to have visual conversations with other humans through the visual content of images’, helps us to consider images as questions which are answered with new images whose meaning is subsequently transformed in function of artistic, school and social contexts.     

ROSE and NonROSE students’ perceptions of five psychosocial dimensions of their science practical activities

This study compared the Reform of Secondary Education (ROSE) students’ and nonROSE students’ perceptions of five psychosocial dimensions of their science practical tasks: Student Cohesiveness, Open-Endedness, Integration, Rule Clarity and Material Environment. The sample comprised 177 ROSE and 223 nonROSE Jamaican students, 230 and 170 of them were 8th and 9th graders respectively, 209 were boys and 191 were girls. The Actual Form of Fraser, Giddings and McRobbie’s (1995) Science Laboratory Environment Inventory (SLEI) was adapted and used as an instrument. The results indicated that the students’ perceptions were relatively favourable; ROSE students had significantly better perceptions of Open-Endedness and Material Environment than nonROSE students; the girls had significantly better perceptions of all the dimensions (except Open-Endedness) than the boys; ROSE girls’ and boys’ perceptions of Open-Endedness were significantly better than those of nonROSE students; grades 8 and 9 students’ perceptions were not statistically significantly different.     

Reflections on internationalisation of higher education in Taiwan: perspectives and prospects

This paper aims to investigate the possible framework for encouraging the presence of local dimensions in an internationalised and globally competitive system by using Taiwan’s higher education system as a case. It begins by discussing the notion of internationalisation and its implications for higher education. It then turns to look at Taiwan’s responses to these global developments. It also reviews different opinions on the position and importance of local dimensions in the world of globalised higher education. Based on these perspectives, the paper advocates promoting the concept of state-building in Taiwan’s as well as in other higher education systems for preserving or even strengthening the local dimensions of individual academic systems operating in the international knowledge network.     

Materiality as an aspect in learning

In this paper we exemplify how a social semiotic approach to pupils’ multimodal texts (texts which draw on and make available to the senses a range of resources, including the visual, material, and actional) can provide a way into understanding learning. We suggest that learning can be seen as a transformative process of sign making. Specifically, we suggest that materiality (use of frame, shape, texture, colour, and imported objects) can be seen as one expression of how pupils engage with knowledge and learning. In order to demonstrate this we focus on year seven (11 year old) pupils’ visual representations of cells in two science classrooms at a London girls school. We argue that the range of representational resources available within visual communication (spatial relations, materiality, etc.) enabled the expression of kinds of meaning which would have been difficult, or perhaps impossible, in language. We conclude that visual and linguistic modes of expression have different potentials for meaning making, and therefore different potentials for learning.     

Metacognition in joint discussions: an analysis of the patterns of interaction and the metacognitive content of the networked discussions in mathematics

The aim of this study was to examine metacognition in computer-supported collaborative problem solving. The subjects of the study were 13-year-old Finnish secondary school students (N = 16). The Knowledge Forum learning environment was used to support student pairs’ problem-solving task involving polygons in a geometry course. The data consist of the student pairs’ posted computer notes (n = 95). To examine metacognition in a social context in the networked discussions, the features and patterns of networked interaction, the metacognitive content of the computer notes and their relations were examined. To examine the features of networked interaction, the social network analysis measures were used. The patterns of networked interaction were displayed with the multidimensional scaling technique. In the analysis, metacognitive contents of the computer notes were categorized as metacognitive knowledge, metacognitive skills, and not metacognitive. Further, with the correspondence analysis, we examined how the student pairs’ metacognitive activity was distributed. The results of the study revealed that the metacognitive activity varied among participants, although some aspects of metacognition such as planning were never encountered. It was found that there is a relation between metacognitive activity and the features of interaction. The student pairs who monitored and evaluated the ongoing discussions had a strategically optimal position in the communication network.     

Children’s attitudes toward small computers: a preliminary study

While it has been established that children have positive attitudes toward the use of computers when used in computer-assisted instruction, little is known about children’s attitudes toward small“home” or“personal” computers. Results of this study indicate that children have multidimensional attitudes toward small computers, their interaction with these computers, and ease of use.     

Privileging and Artifacts: On the Use of Information Technology in Science Education

The aim of this paper is to develop an approach that can be used in addressing the issue of the use of information technology and its importance in human meaning making. By using a combination of Wittgenstein’s work method, a sociocultural perspective on learning, and a sociotechnical perspective on artifacts a specific focus for analyses was discerned: the relation between the use-of-technology in meaning-making on one hand and the circumstances for this meaning-making on the other hand. The conversations of six groups of children, who worked with an assignment, that required that they doubted information they encountered, were video recorded and analyzed. The analyses were done in three interrelated steps. (a) The students use-of-technology in meaning making, (b) the meaning patterns that the students encounter on the web, and (c) students’ intentions and habits. Our findings show that, while the mode of reinforcement of the texts used by the students may have provided little opportunity for doubt or learning how to doubt, the students’ habits and intentions with their work determined the result of the interaction, namely copying information from the web. Taking our point of departure in this empirical illustration we discuss theoretical and methodological questions concerning the understanding of the use of information technology in educational settings.     

Monet, Malaguzzi, and the Constructive Conversations of Preschoolers in a Reggio-Inspired Classroom

This study was conducted in a Reggio inspired child care classroom of 4-year olds where the fundamental principles of Reggio Emilia preschools are interpreted for a Canadian context. Qualitative case study methodology was employed to investigate how social interaction plays a role in young children’s learning processes. Drawing on social constructivist views of children’s learning and socialization, children’s discussions and interactions within a preschool learning group were examined. Examination of children’s discourse is valuable not only for understanding individual and group learning experiences but also for illuminating children’s agency and their active roles in their own learning. The study focused on the in-depth study of six children’s activities during a ‘Shades of Pink’ project. As the project, ‘Shades of Pink’ unfolded, the children faced cognitive conflict while they were talking about the details of Monet’s painting, but worked toward building common understandings. In this study, children are considered to be meaning makers and active participants in their own learning processes. In addition, the relationships between children became a context in which the co-construction of theories, interpretations and various understandings of reality took place. Small group work became a basis for creating unity, a space in which thoughts took shape as well as a way to compare interpretations; with the result that new thoughts and meanings were produced.     

Young Children’s Explanation of Pictorial Humor

This study aimed to investigate the explanations of 80 kindergarten children on pictorial humor. The children were asked to observe and describe a specific visual stimulus, and say whether they considered it as funny providing their rationale. The study was developed on the basis of humor being an incongruity thus the data were examined against McGhee’s stages of humor development and Brown’s categories of Visual Humor. Findings suggest that kindergartners are capable of recognizing the main and/or minor incongruities in a funny picture and providing reasoning for it. Moreover, there are no gender differences in reference to these variables. These findings come to broaden the specific developmental approaches provided by McGhee and Brown, and suggest a new category to frame children’s responses to pictorial humor, the Multiple Conceptual Visual Incongruities category. It is also suggested that the use of visual stimuli with multiple incongruities provides an excellent forum for investigating children’s conceptual abilities.     

Grounded blends and mathematical gesture spaces: developing mathematical understandings via gestures

This paper examines how a person’s gesture space can become endowed with mathematical meaning associated with mathematical spaces and how the resulting mathematical gesture space can be used to communicate and interpret mathematical features of gestures. We use the theory of grounded blends to analyse a case study of two teachers who used gestures to construct a graphical anti-derivative while working on a professional development task in a calculus modelling activity. Results indicate that mathematical gesture spaces can encourage mathematical experimentation, lighten the cognitive load for students and can be limited by a person’s physical constraints.     

‘Me and maths’: towards a definition of attitude grounded on students’ narratives

The attitude construct is widely used by teachers and researchers in mathematics education. Often, however, teachers’ diagnosis of ‘negative attitude’ is a causal attribution of students’ failure, perceived as global and uncontrollable, rather than an accurate interpretation of students’ behaviour, capable of steering future action. In order to make this diagnosis useful for dealing with students’ difficulties in mathematics, it is necessary to clarify the construct attitude from a theoretical viewpoint, while keeping in touch with the practice that motivates its use. With this aim, we investigated how students tell their own relationship with mathematics, proposing the essay “Me and maths” to more than 1,600 students (1st to 13th grade). A multidimensional characterisation of a student’s attitude towards mathematics emerges from this study. This characterisation and the study of the evolution of attitude have many important consequences for teachers’ practice and education. For example, the study shows how the relationship with mathematics is rarely told as stable, even by older students: this result suggests that it is never too late to change students’ attitude towards mathematics.     

Going Outside in Winter: A Qualitative Study of Preschool Dressing Routines

The exploratory study focused on describing typical routines of preparing for winter outdoor play with preschool children and their teachers. Naturalistic observations, interviews and photographs resulted in extensive examples of children’s development in cognitive understanding of winter and winter-related concepts. Observations of teachers and assistants revealed task-oriented perspectives including detailed strategies and planning. Asynchronous communication and directive language were typical of teacher/child communication. Photo analyses confirmed physical skills used by preschoolers to accomplish dressing tasks and extensive curricular changes to indoor environments.     

Using virtual microscopy to scaffold learning of pathology: a naturalistic experiment on the role of visual and conceptual cues

New representational technologies, such as virtual microscopy, create new affordances for medical education. In the article, a study on the following two issues is reported: (a) How does collaborative use of virtual microscopy shape students’ engagement with and learning from virtual slides of tissue specimen? (b) How do visual and conceptual cues scaffold students’ reasoning? Fifteen pairs of medical students participated in two sessions in which the students used a virtual microscope as a diagnostic tool in the context of learning pathology. The slides provided the students with varying levels of visual and conceptual cueing. The sessions were videotaped, and the students’ reasoning while using the microscope was analysed. The students’ written answers were analysed in terms of the findings they made and the diagnoses suggested. At a general level, the results show that students engage actively in this kind of virtually-mediated environment. The visual and/or conceptual cues improve students’ performance, and guide the students’ perception and reasoning in a manner that is productive from the point of view of learning to make clinically relevant observations. Scaffolding students’ reasoning process through cues furthermore assists the students in avoiding the most obvious pitfalls such as overlooking critical areas of a specimen. Overall, visual and conceptual cues improve students’ reasoning in perceptual and cognitive terms, while still allowing space for the making of “relevant mistakes” that may further the students’ diagnostic skills.