University physics students’ ideas of thermal radiation expressed in open laboratory activities using infrared cameras

Background: University physics students were engaged in open-ended thermodynamics laboratory activities with a focus on understanding a chosen phenomenon or the principle of laboratory apparatus, such as thermal radiation and a heat pump. Students had access to handheld infrared (IR) cameras for their investigations.

Purpose: The purpose of the research was to explore students’ interactions with reformed thermodynamics laboratory activities. It was guided by the research question: How do university physics students make use of IR cameras in open-ended investigation of thermal radiation as a phenomenon?

Sample: The study was conducted with a class of first-year university physics students in Sweden. The interaction with the activities of four of the students was selected for analysis. The four students are males.

Design and methods: We used a qualitative, interpretive approach to the study of students’ interaction. The primary means of data collection was video recording of students’ work with the laboratory activities and their subsequent presentations. The analysis focused on how IR cameras helped students notice phenomena relating to thermal radiation, with comparison to previous research on students’ conceptions of thermal radiation.

Results: When using the IR camera, students attended to the reflection of thermal radiation on shiny surfaces, such as polished metals, windows or a whiteboard and emissive properties of surfaces of different types. In this way, they went beyond using the technology as a temperature probe. Students were able to discuss merits and shortcomings of IR cameras in comparison with digital thermometers.

Conclusions: With the help of IR cameras, university physics students attend to thermal phenomena that would otherwise easily go unnoticed.     

Editorial

Ohne Zusammenfassung

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Editorial

     

Stichwort: Professionelle Kompetenz von Lehrkräften

Ohne Zusammenfassung      

International orientierte höhere Schulen in Deutschland – Zwei Varianten von Internationalität im Wechselspiel von Institution und Schülerbiografie

During the last decades, the education system has been marked by distinct processes of internationalisation. In the field of higher education, there are numerous and varied schools with different international profiles. This paper focuses on processes of internationalisation in the German sector of higher education. We contrast two higher secondary schools with international profiles: one international school in a West German metropolitan region with a long tradition and a younger internationally-profiled school located in the periphery of an East German urban centre. This institutional analysis presents school cultural similarities and differences with regard to different claims and concepts of internationality. This analysis is complemented by a reconstruction of three patterns of biographical meaning examining the internationality of pupils and their respective habitual fit to these internationally-profiled schools. We draw on qualitative data, consisting mainly of interviews with head teachers and pupils of these two schools. We argue that these differing regional forms of internationalisation indicate a stratification and hierarchisation in the field of higher education in Germany.     

Sociotechnical constituencies, game theory, and the diffusion of compact discs. An inter-disciplinary investigation into the market for recorded music

This article was motivated by the inquiry of the National Heritage Committee of the British House of Commons into the price of compact discs in 1993. Its general thrust is to foster the dialogue between sociological approaches to the study of innovation and microeconomic theory. To do this, it presents a comprehensive case study of technological innovation in the market for recorded music in Britain. The material is analysed with the aid of the ‘sociotechnical constituencies’ approach recently proposed in this journal by Alfonso Molina, followed by a game theoretical analysis of competitive alignment between the dominant constituents. Using this interdisciplinary approach, the article argues that technological innovation may induce price rigidities by allowing the establishment of focal points for tacit collusion. The innovation of compact discs enabled the major record companies to redefine the overall price level to their advantage, after the industry had undergone a period of profit-squeezing price-competition. This has the important policy implication that radical product innovation may call for regulative changes in the techno-institutional structure of the market.