Student's interaction with computer representations: Analysis of discourse in laboratory groups
✍ Scribed by Gregory J. Kelly; Teresa Crawford
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1996
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 1007 KB
- Volume
- 33
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0022-4308
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Language use in student laboratory groups makes apparent students' conceptions in science, their interpretation of the activity or task, and the negotiation of the roles of the members. This article reports on a methodological approach to analyze student discourse systematically. Four Grade I2 lab groups working on microcomputer-based laboratories (MBL) are the focus of the study. The MBL experiences were used to help students link oscillatory motion to graphical representations. Study of student discourse reveals the role the computer plays in the group context and the ways that this context is shaped by the computer. Developing a better understanding of the role of the computer in student conversations suggests ways to fruitfully construct contexts for learning physics.
Computer Representations in Students' Conversations
Analysis of Discourse in Small Laboratory Groups
Educators have typically sought to foster students' conceptual understandings of science. We argue that focusing on language provides us with an interpretative lens to understand both what gets accomplished in small laboratory groups and how it is accomplished. New methodological perspectives are needed to better understand the social and discursive processes of learning science. Learning science includes constructing understandings that are consistent with empirical evidence and the theoretical backdrop of a discipline. Microcomputer-based laboratory experiments allow students the possibility of interacting with the physical world and simultaneously reacting to representations of these events. This provides a unique setting for studying students' conversations.
Languuge, Intersubjectivity, and Science
Learning science requires novices to be initiated into the conceptual frameworks, epistemic dispositions, and social practices of the scientific community. Kuhn (1970) provided historical evidence of the processes of acculturation undertaken by new members to a community. The central conceptual frameworks in science are not just conclusions from experiments. Rather,