PHYSICS LEARNING WITH EXPLORATORY TALKS DURING A MINI-PROJECT - A CASE STUDY OF FOUR GIRLS WORKING WITH ELECTRIC CIRCUITS

TitlePHYSICS LEARNING WITH EXPLORATORY TALKS DURING A MINI-PROJECT - A CASE STUDY OF FOUR GIRLS WORKING WITH ELECTRIC CIRCUITS
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2005
AuthorsEnghag, M, Niedderer, H
JournalJournal of Baltic Science Education
Volume4
Issue1
Start Page5-11
Date PublishedMarch/2005
Type of ArticleOriginal article
ISSN1648-3898
Other NumbersICID: 452537
Keywordsconceptual change, electric circuits, motivation, physics teaching, students’ ownership of learning
Abstract

During physics instruction with mini-projects, four upper secondary school girls decide to plan how to teach electric circuits to younger children. Their group discussions result in a conceptual change related to the concepts resistance and current. Their prior conception, built on current consumption, leads them into conceptual conflicts, and by exploratory talks they reach a new view based on current as movement with different speed. Students’ ownership of learning (SOL) is increased by an instructional design with mini-projects. This gives students the opportunity to choose a unique question, to determine their own learning process, to increase their motivation and to enhance development of competence and self-confidence.

Ownership of learning includes factors that connect the students' learning process to the students' learning environment. In this meaning the ownership is an aspect of student influence. With further cases the conceptual relations between ownership, motivation and learning hopefully can be further developed and clarified. In this small group work in physics the students have got possibility for ownership from the instructional design, and two individual have ownership by their possibility to relate to earlier experiences and anomalies of understanding. Their unique question gives them high motivation, and help them to enhance and develop their understanding of the concepts resistance and current by exploratory talks and reflective thinking. They find their old view of resistance to be misleading, and develop a new view where resistance is connected to the current speed (as amount of charges passing per second), a view closer to scientific thinking.

URLhttp://oaji.net/articles/2016/987-1481049284.pdf
Refereed DesignationRefereed
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