1,720,973 research outputs found
Teaching physics reasoning with mathematical rearrangements: an example from Cosmology.
No full textA long-standing discussion in the physics education literature regards the blending of mathematical knowledge with physics intuition (Eichenlaub & Redish, 2019). Researchers have emphasized that the use of mathematics in physics education has traditionally tended to focus more on the computational aspect to the detriment of building conceptual understanding and physics intuition (Redish, 2017). Different approaches to this problem include teaching conceptual physics before using mathematics (Hewitt, 1983), or teaching them simultaneously, due to their inseparable nature (Van Den Eynde et al., 2020). In this presentation, we explore some components of how experts blend the use of mathematics with physics intuition, by analyzing the rearrangement of the Friedmann equation in cosmology. This rearrangement was analyzed from a conceptual understanding standpoint using the framework of symbolic forms (Sherin, 2001). Our analysis demonstrates how the number of potential symbolic forms associated with each subsequent rearrangement of the equation decreases as we move from line to line. Drawing on this result, we suggest an underlying mechanism driving how physicists perform this rearrangement, consisting of three main components: narrowing down meaning potential, moving aspects between foreground and background and a purposeful direction according to cosmological questions of interest (Kapodistrias & Airey, 2024). Finally, we discuss how being aware of this mechanism can subtly change teaching practice to make these aspects of physics reasoning explicit to students.
Higher Education Astronomy:An exploration of representations and their meaning making functions
No full textAstronomy uses a wide range of representational formats to produce and mediate disciplinary knowledge, ranging from written language and text to mathematics, images and video simulations. The use of these representations has been a subject of investigation in Astronomy Education Research (AER), with a major focus on different kinds of visual representations and how they can be used to advance Astronomy teaching and learning (i.e., Galano et al., 2018; Salimpour et al., 2021; Trump & Lawler, 2022). In this presentation, we will present findings from our study that aimed at identifying the range of representations used in Higher Education Astronomy and examine how they are used for disciplinary meaning making. Following a social semiotic approach, we catalogued a total of 712 representations from lecture notes and textbooks used in six Higher Education Astronomy courses. Using thematic analysis we categorized them into nine different categories. Subsequently, by implementing the theoretical notion of generic affordances (Kress et al., 2001), we analysed how each representational format has its own meaning making functions, that are leveraged to represent different types of meaning and mediate knowledge either individually or in coordination with other formats. We will present a few exemplar representations from each category to highlight instances were meaning making was facilitated or obstructed in this process. Finally, we discuss the implications of our work for Astronomy Education Research and ideas for further investigation.References:Galano, S., Colantonio, A., Leccia, S., Marzoli, I., Puddu, E., & Testa, I. (2018). Developing the use of visual representations to explain basic astronomy phenomena. Physical Review Physics Education Research, 14(1), 010145. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.14.010145Kress, G., Jewitt, C., Ogborn, J., & Tsatsarelis, C. (2001). Multimodal Teaching and Learning: The Rhetorics of the Science Classroom. Continuum. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781472593764Salimpour, S., Tytler, R., Eriksson, U., & Fitzgerald, M. (2021). Cosmos visualized: Development of a qualitative framework for analyzing representations in cosmology education. Physical Review Physics Education Research, 17(1), 013104. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.013104Trump, J. B., & Lawler, M. J. (2022). Planetarium Use In Introductory Astronomy Courses. Journal of Astronomy & Earth Sciences Education (JAESE), 9(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.19030/jaese.v9i1.10404</p
Higher Education Astronomy:An exploration of representations and their meaning making functions
No full textAstronomy uses a wide range of representational formats to produce and mediate disciplinary knowledge, ranging from written language and text to mathematics, images and video simulations. The use of these representations has been a subject of investigation in Astronomy Education Research (AER), with a major focus on different kinds of visual representations and how they can be used to advance Astronomy teaching and learning (i.e., Galano et al., 2018; Salimpour et al., 2021; Trump & Lawler, 2022). In this presentation, we will present findings from our study that aimed at identifying the range of representations used in Higher Education Astronomy and examine how they are used for disciplinary meaning making. Following a social semiotic approach, we catalogued a total of 712 representations from lecture notes and textbooks used in six Higher Education Astronomy courses. Using thematic analysis we categorized them into nine different categories. Subsequently, by implementing the theoretical notion of generic affordances (Kress et al., 2001), we analysed how each representational format has its own meaning making functions, that are leveraged to represent different types of meaning and mediate knowledge either individually or in coordination with other formats. We will present a few exemplar representations from each category to highlight instances were meaning making was facilitated or obstructed in this process. Finally, we discuss the implications of our work for Astronomy Education Research and ideas for further investigation.References:Galano, S., Colantonio, A., Leccia, S., Marzoli, I., Puddu, E., & Testa, I. (2018). Developing the use of visual representations to explain basic astronomy phenomena. Physical Review Physics Education Research, 14(1), 010145. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.14.010145Kress, G., Jewitt, C., Ogborn, J., & Tsatsarelis, C. (2001). Multimodal Teaching and Learning: The Rhetorics of the Science Classroom. Continuum. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781472593764Salimpour, S., Tytler, R., Eriksson, U., & Fitzgerald, M. (2021). Cosmos visualized: Development of a qualitative framework for analyzing representations in cosmology education. Physical Review Physics Education Research, 17(1), 013104. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.17.013104Trump, J. B., & Lawler, M. J. (2022). Planetarium Use In Introductory Astronomy Courses. Journal of Astronomy & Earth Sciences Education (JAESE), 9(1), Article 1. https://doi.org/10.19030/jaese.v9i1.10404</p
Higher Education Astronomy:An exploration of representations and their meaning making functions [Elektronisk resurs]
No full textAstronomy uses a wide range of representational formats to produce and mediate disciplinary knowledge, ranging from written language and text to mathematics, images and video simulations. The use of these representations has been a subject of investigation in Astronomy Education Research (AER), with a major focus on different kinds of visual representations and how they can be used to advance Astronomy teaching and learning (i.e., Galano et al., 2018; Salimpour et al., 2021; Trump & Lawler, 2022). In this presentation, we will present findings from our study that aimed at identifying the range of representations used in Higher Education Astronomy and examine how they are used for disciplinary meaning making. Following a social semiotic approach, we catalogued a total of 712 representations from lecture notes and textbooks used in six Higher Education Astronomy courses. Using thematic analysis we categorized them into nine different categories. Subsequently, by implementing the theoretical notion of generic affordances (Kress et al., 2001), we analysed how each representational format has its own meaning making functions, that are leveraged to represent different types of meaning and mediate knowledge either individually or in coordination with other formats. We will present a few exemplar representations from each category to highlight instances were meaning making was facilitated or obstructed in this process. Finally, we discuss the implications of our work for Astronomy Education Research and ideas for further investigation.</p
Multimodality and disciplinary learning: the case of purposeful transformation in the sciences
No full textIntroduction: In this paper we discuss disciplinary learning and the roles that different modalities can play in the process. We first describe the extant research in the field of social semiotics with an emphasis on the functions of affordance and transduction in university science, before presenting the comparatively sparse research on transformation. Our goal is to identify whether the process of transformation, besides its previously described procedural functions, can have important meaning making functions as well. Methods: Taking the discipline of cosmology as our point of reference, our data consist of four different forms of the mathematical rearrangement of the Friedmann equation, as observed in university lectures. We analyzed these forms for their meaning making functions using abductive reasoning and the framework of symbolic forms. Results: We identify an important, hitherto undescribed type of meaning-making —purposeful transformation. We describe its key characteristics (narrowing down meaning potential, foreground-background movement and purposeful direction) and we provide a first definition. Discussion: First, we discuss the implications of our findings on social semiotics theory, focusing on the notions of disciplinary and pedagogical affordance and the possibility of identifying purposeful transformations in other semiotic systems. Finally, we demonstrate its importance in the teaching and learning of natural sciences
Developing Professional Vision in Astronomy
No full textOne of the goals of higher education astronomy is to guide students towards becoming expert astronomers, enabling them to participate in the discourse and practices of the discipline (Gee, 2004). However, the specifics of what expert astronomers do in their professional practice are not well documented in the current astronomy education research literature. In particular, there is a lack of knowledge regarding how expert astronomers develop the competence of visual inspection, with previous research highlighting that it is mostly acquired informally (Walsh, 2024). Using data from an autoethnography of participating in astronomy research following a mentorship-apprenticeship model, we will first present how astronomers apply the skill of visual inspection in their professional practices. Following from that, we will discuss some key components in facilitating the development of this skill, that could be leveraged in a more systematic way in astronomy education at the university
Η διαλεκτική έννοια της ανάδυσης (emergence) στη Σύγχρονη Επιστήμη
Get PDFΗ παρούσα εργασία ερευνά την αλληλεπίδραση ανάμεσα στη Μαρξιστική διαλεκτική και τα ευρήματα της σύγχρονης επιστήμης. Μια ανασκόπηση της σχετικής βιβλιογραφίας των τελευταίων δεκαετιών μας δείχνει πως υπάρχει μια τάση ανάμεσα σε μαρξιστές επιστήμονες και φιλόσοφους της επιστήμης, είτε να αποδείξουν πως οι σύγχρονες επιστημονικές θεωρίες επιβεβαιώνουν τη διαλεκτική, είτε να προτείνουν εναλλακτικές, διαλεκτικές ερμηνείες τους. Η μελέτη μας εστιάζει στην αντίστροφη κατεύθυνση αυτής της σχέσης, στην ανάδειξη του τρόπου με τον οποίο η σύγχρονη επιστήμη εμπλουτίζει τη διαλεκτική. Για το σκοπό αυτό, αναφερόμαστε σε τρεις θεωρίες του 20ου αιώνα στην εξελικτική βιολογία, την ιστορία των θετικών επιστημών και τα μη γραμμικά δυναμικά συστήματα, και στη σχέση τους με την έννοια της ανάδυσης. Τελικά , εξερευνούμε τους τρόπους με τους οποίους η έννοια της ανάδυσης εμπλουτίζει το διαλεκτικό τρόπο σκέψης.The present essay researches the correlation between Marxist dialectics and the findings of contemporary science. A review of the relevant bibliography of the last decades indicates that there are trends between Marxist scientists and philosophers of science, to either prove that contemporary scientific theories provide evidence for the validity of dialectics or propose alternative, dialectical interpretations. Our study focuses on the opposite direction of this relationship, as we’re attempting to showcase how contemporary science can enrich dialectics. For this purpose, we’re reviewing three contemporary theories on evolutionary biology, history of science and non linear dynamics and their relationship with the notion of emergence. Finally, we explore the ways in which the notion of emergence enriches the dialectical way of thinking
Rearranging equations to develop physics reasoning
No full textResearchers generally agree that physics experts use mathematics in a way that blends mathematical knowledge with physics intuition. However, the use of mathematics in physics education has traditionally tended to focus more on the computational aspect (manipulating mathematical operations to get numerical solutions) to the detriment of building conceptual understanding and physics intuition. Several solutions to this problem have been suggested; some authors have suggested building conceptual understanding before mathematics is introduced, while others have argued for the inseparability of the two, claiming instead that mathematics and conceptual physics need to be taught simultaneously. Although there is a body of work looking into how students employ mathematical reasoning when working with equations, the specifics of how physics experts use mathematics blended with physics intuition remain relatively underexplored. In this paper, we describe some components of this blending, by analyzing how physicists perform the rearrangement of a specific equation in cosmology. Our data consist of five consecutive forms of rearrangement of the equation, as observed in three separate higher education cosmology courses. This rearrangement was analyzed from a conceptual reasoning perspective using Sherin's framework of symbolic forms. Our analysis clearly demonstrates how the number of potential symbolic forms associated with each subsequent rearrangement of the equation decreases as we move from line to line. Drawing on this result, we suggest an underlying mechanism for how physicists reason with equations. This mechanism seems to consist of three components: narrowing down meaning potential, moving aspects between the background and the foreground and purposefully transforming the equation according to the discipline's questions of interest. In the discussion section we highlight the potential that our work has for generalizability and how being aware of the components of this underlying mechanism can potentially affect physics teachers' practice when using mathematics in the physics classroom.</p
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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