Recovering Knowledge for Science Education Research: Exploring the “Icarus Effect” in Student Work

Abstract

Science education research has built a strong body of work on students' understandings but largely overlooked the nature of science knowledge itself. Legitimation Code Theory (LCT), a rapidly growing approach to education, offers a way of analyzing the organizing principles of knowledge practices and their effects on science education. This article focuses on one specific concept from LCT-semantic gravity-that conceptualizes differences in context dependence. The article uses this concept to qualitatively analyze tertiary student responses to a thermal physics question. One result, that legitimate answers must reside within a specific range of context dependence, illustrates how a focus on the organizing principles of knowledge offers a way forward for science education. Abstract: Science education research has built a strong body of work on students' understandings but largely overlooked the nature of science knowledge itself. Legitimation Code Theory (LCT), a rapidly growing approach to education, offers a way of analyzing the organizing principles of knowledge practices and their effects on science education. This article focuses on one specific concept from LCT-semantic gravity-that conceptualizes differences in context dependence. The article uses this concept to qualitatively analyze tertiary student responses to a thermal physics question. One result, that legitimate answers must reside within a specific range of context dependence, illustrates how a focus on the organizing principles of knowledge offers a way forward for science education.Résumé: La recherche en enseignement des sciences a produit de nombreusesétudes sur la compréhension desétudiants, mais a souvent ignoré la nature du savoir scientifique lui-même. La théorie de la légitimation du code (TLC), une approche de plus en plus importante en enseignement, propose une façon d'analyser les principes structurels des pratiques du savoir et leurs effets sur l'enseignement des sciences. Cet article est centré sur un concept en particulier tiré de la TLC-la gravité sémantique-qui conceptualise les différences commeétant dépendantes du contexte. L'article se sert de ce concept pour faire une analyse qualitative des réponses tertiaires desétudiantsà une question de physique thermique. L'un des résultats, selon lequel les réponses légitimes doivent se situer dans un certain rayon de dépendance contextuelle, illustre comment le fait de mettre l'accent sur les principes structurels du savoir ouvre une avenue prometteuse pour l'enseignement des sciences.

More than Meets the Eye – Infrared Cameras in Open-Ended University Thermodynamics Labs

“…The temperature decrease is caused primarily by the phase change from liquid to gas state in the container as gas is released, during which energy is required to break bonds in the liquid CO 2 . In our experience, however, in line with Georgiou et al, 18 students often fail to recognise the centrality of the phase change in the process. It should be noted here that the types of handheld IR cameras we used detect radiation primarily from solid and liquid surfaces, but not from gases, due to their low density.…”

Characterising Communication of Scientific Concepts in Student-Generated Digital Products

“…Making these characteristics explicit then allows better understanding of the use of technology in these classrooms. In terms of student understanding, Georgiou et al, [30] found that this was facilitated by identifying and characterising a particular element of knowledge, its abstraction. The research demonstrated that there was an underlying code in terms of abstraction when students answered typical exam-style questions: abstract, but not too abstract (e.g., the referring to the energy of phase change, rather than the employment of the ideal gas law).…”

Focus on Field in an Advanced Reading Classroom

“…An external language of description was created, using the study reported in Georgiou, Maton, and Sharma (2014) as a model, to analyze the degrees of semantic gravity in the text "Solar Storm," as shown in Figure 2.…”