Evolution of the Students' Conceptual Understanding in the Case of a Teaching Sequence in Mechanics: Concept of Interaction

Abstract

ABSTRACT. This study aims to better understand the construction of the meaning of physics concepts in mechanics during a teaching sequence at the upper secondary school level. In the teaching sessions, students were introduced to the concepts of interaction and force. During this teaching sequence the models called "interactions" and "laws of mechanics" are successively introduced in the framework of tasks involving a variety of material situations. The hypothesis "students' initial knowledge on the verb "to act" is a founder notion, to the extent that its meaning plays a crucial role in constructing the concept of interaction" has been set. The research questions are: a) Does the verb "to act" plays a founder role in the construction of the concept of interaction? b) What are the other notions that intervene in the structured set of knowledge that students use to construct the concept of interaction in the teaching sequence?The results of the study show that, for the two students of the observed dyad, the notions of object and the concept of gravitation are simultaneously founder notions. Additionally, the two students of the same dyad who work together all along the sequence use different categories of knowledge and construct different meanings of the concepts.

Concept of Force Representations of Prospective Primary Teachers

“…The following PPT's sentences involve the different implications between force and displacement/movement: "a moving object can exert its own force"; "example where forces in a certain sense cause bodies to move"; "in physics to move or push an object a force is applied"; "to make a displacement there is a need for a force"; "through a breath it is still possible to change the position of the object by making it move", "an object that was previously stationary moves as a result of the action of a subject". These reinforce the idea of a direct connection between force and motion and the easy slide from one implication to the other, evidenced in literature [8,11,[32][33][34][35][36], as opposed to the force-acceleration connection that emerged in 2% of the cases.…”

“…The static situations are 30% (247 situations), often looking at the equilibrium as didactic approach to the concept of force [11,20,[30][31]. The non-static situation are 61% (494 representations), confirming the connection force movement well known in literature [8,11,[32][33][34][35][36], and the remaining 9% are not situation.…”

Un schéma vaut-il mieux qu’un long discours ?

“…Cette distinction nous amène à différencier : les facettes, qui sont des petits éléments du savoir ; des idées qui sont des petits éléments de connaissance exprimés par un élève dans un registre sémiotique spéciique. La notion de facette du savoir (voir l'analyse de la séquence ci-dessous) s'inspire des travaux menés par Kücüközer (2006) et Tiberghien & Malkoun (2007), alors que celle d'idée se base sur les travaux des « p-prims » de DiSessa (1998,2008) et des « facets » de Minstrell (1992) adaptée aux registres sémiotiques de Duval (1995).…”

Magnetism Teaching Sequences Based on an Inductive Approach for First-Year Thai University Science Students

“…The design and implementation of the teaching-learning activities to improve student understanding are a strong focus for science education research (Leach, Hind & Ryder, 2002;Leach & Scott, 2002;Méheut & Psillos, 2004). It is also worthwhile to realize that well-developed content-oriented sequences in areas such as optics and electricity can help students learn better (Anderson & Bach, 2005;Küçüközer, 2006;Paatz, Ryder, Schwedes & Scott, 2004;Viennot & Rainson, 1999).…”