How different variants of orbit diagrams influence student explanations of the seasons

Lee, Victor R.

doi:10.1002/sce.20403

Cited by 24 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…On the other hand, Vosniadou [65] suggested that typical textbook representations of astronomical phenomena, as, for instance, those representing the motion of Earth around the Sun, are conceptual models and, as such, can be difficult for the students to interpret because they (i) require a domain-specific knowledge; (ii) are often not consistent with the perceptually based models that students have created using their everyday experience. While the above studies have often called for more research in order to better understand the role of visual representations in education, however, only four studies, to the best of our knowledge, addressed this issue with a systematic research design [38,[66][67][68].…”

Section: B Students' Interpretation Of Astronomy Textbook Imagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing the use of visual representations to explain basic astronomy phenomena

Galano

Colantonio

Leccia³

et al. 2018

Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res.

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This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Astronomy Education Research.] Several decades of research have contributed to our understanding of students' reasoning about astronomical phenomena. Some authors have pointed out the difficulty in reading and interpreting images used in school textbooks as factors that may justify the persistence of misconceptions. However, only a few studies have investigated to what extent usual textbook images influence students' understanding of such phenomena. This study examines this issue, exploring 13-14 year old students' explanations, drawings, and conceptions about three familiar phenomena: change of seasons, Moon phases, and solar or lunar eclipses. The research questions that guided the study were (RQ1) how are students' explanations and visual representations about familiar astronomical phenomena affected by different image-support conditions? (RQ2) How are students' conceptions about familiar astronomical phenomena affected by different image-support conditions? (RQ3) Which features of the used images most affected the students' visual representations and explanations of familiar astronomical phenomena? To answer our research questions, we designed three instructional contexts under increasing support conditions: textbook images and text, teaching booklets with specially designed images and text, only text. To analyze students' drawings, we used exploratory factor analysis to deconstruct drawings into their most salient elements. To analyze students' explanations, we adopted a constant comparison method identifying different levels of increasing knowledge. To investigate students' conceptions, we used a mixed multiple-choice and true false baseline questionnaire. For RQ1, results show that the specially designed images condition was effective in helping students producing informed drawings in comparison to text-only condition for all phenomena, and more effective than textbook images condition when one considers seasonal change drawings. Concerning RQ2, the specially designed images condition was the most effective for all phenomena. Concerning RQ3, prevalent elements of astronomy images that affected students' explanations and visual representations were Earth's elliptical orbit; the position of the Sun with respect to the Moon orbit; and Sun, Moon, and Earth alignment. Our findings confirm concerns about textbook astronomy images, whose features may interfere with the identification of the relevant factors underlying the phenomena. Moreover, findings of this study suggest that affordances of the specially designed images may play an essential role in scaffolding meaningful understanding of the targeted phenomena. Implications for teaching through and learning from visual representations in astronomy education are briefly discussed.

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Section: B Students' Interpretation Of Astronomy Textbook Imagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Developing the use of visual representations to explain basic astronomy phenomena

Galano

Colantonio

Leccia³

et al. 2018

Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This might have driven students in the direction of a side‐based explanation. Indeed, Lee (2010) found that showing students orbit diagrams (which they had not themselves constructed) did seem to sometimes have the effect of pushing students toward side‐based explanations.…”

Section: Conceptual Dynamics In Interviewsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Prior conceptions in this area have been moderately well‐studied across a range of ages and contexts (e.g., Atwood & Atwood, 1996; Lee, 2010; Lelliott & Rollnick, 2010; Newman & Morrison, 1993; Sadler, 1987; Trumper, 2001). Looking across these studies, one finds significant variation in the prominence of different explanations of the seasons.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Some assembly required: How scientific explanations are constructed during clinical interviews

2011

Self Cite

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This article is concerned with commonsense science knowledge, the informally gained knowledge of the natural world that students possess prior to formal instruction in a scientific discipline. Although commonsense science has been the focus of substantial study for more than two decades, there are still profound disagreements about its nature and origin, and its role in science learning. What is the reason that it has been so difficult to reach consensus? We believe that the problems run deep; there are difficulties both with how the field has framed questions and the way that it has gone about seeking answers. In order to make progress, we believe it will be helpful to focus on one type of research instrument—the clinical interview—that is employed in the study of commonsense science. More specifically, we argue that we should seek to understand and model, on a moment‐by‐moment basis, student reasoning as it occurs in the interviews employed to study commonsense science. To illustrate and support this claim, we draw on a corpus of interviews with middle school students in which the students were asked questions pertaining to the seasons and climate phenomena. Our analysis of this corpus is based on what we call the mode‐node framework. In this framework, student reasoning is seen as drawing on a set of knowledge elements we call nodes, and this set produces temporary explanatory structures we call dynamic mental constructs. Furthermore, the analysis of our corpus seeks to highlight certain patterns of student reasoning that occur during interviews, patterns in what we call conceptual dynamics. These include patterns in which students can be seen to search through available knowledge (nodes), in which they assemble nodes into an explanation, and in which they converge on and shift among alternative explanations. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 49: 166–198, 2012

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“…They, too, are affected by individual student attributes, as well as community and school attributes. Lee (2010), for instance, conducted an experiment to determine how graphical diagrams aid in conceptualization or acquisition of science knowledge.…”

Section: Repositioning Of Basic Research Knowledgementioning

confidence: 99%

Unlearning and Relearning from Medical Education Research: Teacher Education Research in the Pursuit of Teacher Professionalism

Purinton

2012

Action in Teacher Education

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Educational researchers have increasingly paid attention to how practitioners can access and utilize research knowledge, but the field still has been unable to create a research tradition and corresponding diffusion model that directly and uniformly influences teachers' practice. One reason for this is the contested status of teaching as a profession and the competing interests, as well as clashing research assumptions, about knowledge in education. This article explores the field of medical education research to understand, from a comparative approach, how members of an established profession use research knowledge to increase expert practitioner skill. Based on a comparison that considers the fundamental differences in education and medicine, the article calls for the unification of a scholarly community that provides tangible theory and evidence that can be explicitly used by professors of education, student teacher supervisors, instructional coaches, professional development providers, and teachers to guide their daily work practices.

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How different variants of orbit diagrams influence student explanations of the seasons

Cited by 24 publications

References 49 publications

Developing the use of visual representations to explain basic astronomy phenomena

Developing the use of visual representations to explain basic astronomy phenomena

Some assembly required: How scientific explanations are constructed during clinical interviews

Unlearning and Relearning from Medical Education Research: Teacher Education Research in the Pursuit of Teacher Professionalism

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