Scientific thinking employed in tasks of introductory physics
In Science Education, notably in Physics Teaching, there are research based instructional strategies that are renown by their potential to promote conceptual development. It is likely that many of these strategies lead to more elaborate learning; promoting, for instance, scientific thinking developm...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
2017-04-01
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| Series: | Investigações em Ensino de Ciências |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.if.ufrgs.br/cref/ojs/index.php/ienci/article/view/548 |
| _version_ | 1819034265549012992 |
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| author | Alexandre Fagundes Faria Arnaldo de Moura Vaz |
| author_facet | Alexandre Fagundes Faria Arnaldo de Moura Vaz |
| author_sort | Alexandre Fagundes Faria |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In Science Education, notably in Physics Teaching, there are research based instructional strategies that are renown by their potential to promote conceptual development. It is likely that many of these strategies lead to more elaborate learning; promoting, for instance, scientific thinking development. Scientific thinking might be construed as the sum of domain-specific knowledge and domain-general strategies. Here is reported an investigation of domain-general strategies used by students on tasks proposed in a Newtonian Dynamics activity inspired by “Tutorials in Introductory Physics”. Nineteen volunteers, aged 15-17, participated; all were students in electronics or computer science from a Brazilian vocational high school. The school activities proposed to the students have been regularly used in the Physics course for seven years. Therefore, there was no special interventions prepared with research purposes. Data collection involved audio and video recordings of students’ teamwork; field notes; and photographs of student’s notebooks and of posters teams presented in classes. Data analysis was based on categorization of domain-general strategies used by students. We found that students used four domain-general strategies on the proposed tasks: evidence-based reasoning, assessment of the reasoning line, reason based on operational definition and hypothetic-deductive reasoning. These findings suggest that activities inspired by the “Tutorials in Introductory Physics” favor the learning of scientific concepts plus further – and yet more elaborate – learning. These results place a demand on the field of Science Education to refine the strategies of data collection and data analysis as a way to identify the use of other domain-general strategies by students in similar contexts, as well as the expansion of research to other schools contexts. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-21T07:30:59Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-92611638f99a4f22823574e1e931429f |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1518-8795 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-21T07:30:59Z |
| publishDate | 2017-04-01 |
| publisher | Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Investigações em Ensino de Ciências |
| spelling | doaj.art-92611638f99a4f22823574e1e931429f2022-12-21T19:11:34ZengUniversidade Federal do Rio Grande do SulInvestigações em Ensino de Ciências1518-87952017-04-0122116218810.22600/1518-8795.ienci2017v22n1p162450Scientific thinking employed in tasks of introductory physicsAlexandre Fagundes Faria0Arnaldo de Moura Vaz1Colégio Técnico da Escola de Educação Básica e Profissional (COLTEC) Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais Av. Antônio Carlos, 6627. Pampulha. Belo Horizonte (MG)Col. Téc. da Escola de Ed. Básica e Profissional (COLTEC) e Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais Av. Antônio Carlos, 6627. Pampulha. Belo Horizonte (MG)In Science Education, notably in Physics Teaching, there are research based instructional strategies that are renown by their potential to promote conceptual development. It is likely that many of these strategies lead to more elaborate learning; promoting, for instance, scientific thinking development. Scientific thinking might be construed as the sum of domain-specific knowledge and domain-general strategies. Here is reported an investigation of domain-general strategies used by students on tasks proposed in a Newtonian Dynamics activity inspired by “Tutorials in Introductory Physics”. Nineteen volunteers, aged 15-17, participated; all were students in electronics or computer science from a Brazilian vocational high school. The school activities proposed to the students have been regularly used in the Physics course for seven years. Therefore, there was no special interventions prepared with research purposes. Data collection involved audio and video recordings of students’ teamwork; field notes; and photographs of student’s notebooks and of posters teams presented in classes. Data analysis was based on categorization of domain-general strategies used by students. We found that students used four domain-general strategies on the proposed tasks: evidence-based reasoning, assessment of the reasoning line, reason based on operational definition and hypothetic-deductive reasoning. These findings suggest that activities inspired by the “Tutorials in Introductory Physics” favor the learning of scientific concepts plus further – and yet more elaborate – learning. These results place a demand on the field of Science Education to refine the strategies of data collection and data analysis as a way to identify the use of other domain-general strategies by students in similar contexts, as well as the expansion of research to other schools contexts.https://www.if.ufrgs.br/cref/ojs/index.php/ienci/article/view/548pensamento científicoestratégias de raciocíniogrupos de aprendizagemTutoriais de Física Introdutória. |
| spellingShingle | Alexandre Fagundes Faria Arnaldo de Moura Vaz Scientific thinking employed in tasks of introductory physics Investigações em Ensino de Ciências pensamento científico estratégias de raciocínio grupos de aprendizagem Tutoriais de Física Introdutória. |
| title | Scientific thinking employed in tasks of introductory physics |
| title_full | Scientific thinking employed in tasks of introductory physics |
| title_fullStr | Scientific thinking employed in tasks of introductory physics |
| title_full_unstemmed | Scientific thinking employed in tasks of introductory physics |
| title_short | Scientific thinking employed in tasks of introductory physics |
| title_sort | scientific thinking employed in tasks of introductory physics |
| topic | pensamento científico estratégias de raciocínio grupos de aprendizagem Tutoriais de Física Introdutória. |
| url | https://www.if.ufrgs.br/cref/ojs/index.php/ienci/article/view/548 |
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