Co-development of conceptual understanding and critical stance

An essential condition for science learning

Laurence Viennot PRES Sorbonne Paris Cité, University Paris-Diderot LDAR

laurence.viennot@univ-paris-diderot.fr

Multiple objectives …

• Engage students with physics

• Simplify

• Help students construct a first idea of NOS: inquiry, reasoning

• Consistency as a goal (NOS), as a need (reasoning)

• Highlight links between phenomena, between theories and phenomena

• Develop critical stance in students

• Beyond « Whaouh effects »

Multiple optimisms

- … a pedagogy using an inquiry-based approach that succeeds in developing excitement about science EC-Rocard’s 07

- “(…) through science education that is based on inquiry, an approach that reproduces in the classroom the learning process of scientists: formulating questions, doing experiments, collecting and comparing data, reaching conclusions, and extrapolating these findings to more general situations. Allende 08

- (“Rocard “ et al.) argued that a ‘reversal of school science-teaching pedagogy from mainly deductive to inquiry-based methods’ was more likely to increase ‘children’s and students’ interest and attainment levels while at the same time stimulating teacher motivation’ – a view with which we concur. Osborne & Dillon « Nuffield » 08

Oversimplification: Some intrinsic risks

-Wish to show + belief that seeing is understanding

-« Echo-explanation » : mirroring students’ common ways of reasoning

- Ignoring some variables, phenomena : conceptual reduction

- Uncontrolled generalisation

- « All-or-nothing » approach

- …As a result: serious inconsistencies

Web site EPS-MUSE; Viennot 2014

« Seeing is understanding »(NOT necessarily)

Wanda Kaminski

A ray box to ‘show’ rectilinear propagation?

As if rays could be seen : a common idea Something went wrong?

A student: Emergency blanket… aluminium (all agree)

Some experiments

Conclusion: With aluminium, you cannot protect against cold

(no comment)

*DVD Acad. of sciences (FR), of Technologies, DGESCO, 2010

Uncontrolled generalisation

Radiative process ignored Explicit inconsistency

A model sequence*: how to protect against cold?

Hot water

Ice cube

Oversimplification: intrinsic risks

Teachers’ and students’ critical faculty: an essential condition to good quality learning

Perhaps the most difficult, and yet the most important kind of event to create in the classroom is critical dialogue, which recognises that inquiry proceeds by being critical of proposed ideas. It cannot help that essentially no examination questions ever require the student to offer a criticism, even the simplest. Such a focus on being critical is surely one of the greatest deficiencies that the movement for inquiry based learning needs urgently to face. Ogborn 2012

Moreover, a common view:

• Students’ « competences », in particular critical

faculty, is what matters

• It should be our primary goal

• Concepts will come after , as a secondary goal

Competences first, concepts later

Can we help students develop their critical faculty without a conceptual basis?

Without an access to a conceptual structure, can students understand that science aims at a unified (as

much as possible) description of the material word?- There is a real danger that Inquiry-based learning presents scientific knowledge as “knowledge in pieces”. Ogborn 2012-These students ...(France, end upper second. 2013) see physics as disordered and anarchical. Zabulon 2013-In our search for a possible explanation for the strikingly parallel decline in physics achievements for the «specialist» at upper secondary school, we have established a set of possible factors.(…) Several reports have pointed out that many students do not see the connection between the mathematics in the math class and the mathematics they actually use in physics (…). Lie et al. 2012 Nordic Studies in Ed

Two investigations about a hot air balloon

Viennot & Décamp 2013Décamp & Viennot 2014

An investigation about radiocarbon dating

Viennot 2004Mathé & Viennot 2009

Reacting to a teaching ritual

Analysing texts from the internet

Co-development of critical stance and conceptual understanding:

a few research investigations

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• A hot air balloon …a total mass of…

• Whatever the temperature of the air in the balloon, its pressure will be the same as the surrounding air. (……….)

• …Show that to achieve the lift off…must be heated to about ….° C.

A typical exercise:

A hot air balloon

For instance: Since the balloon is open to the atmosphere, the pressure in the balloon is the same as the pressure outside the balloon. D.C. Giancoli, Physics (6th ed): Instructor Resource Center CD-ROM, Prentice Hall, 2005

Viennot 2004

Archimedes’ upthrust : a matter of weights

Mair-inside = rair-inside VMair-outside-sameV = rair-outside V

Wbasket+… + gM air-inside = gM air-outside-sameV

Tin

pin = pout = p 0

Tout

W

r = Mmol p0/RT

Serious consequences

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g

Archimedes, where are you?

But…

pin = pout

pin > pout

Dpin= -ringDhDpout= -routgDh

rin< rout

pin> pout

W

Global and local reconciled

Dh

GlobalArchimedes OK

LocalOK

Aperture

Viennot 04

Top Dh

p

…, you got me thinking, me, even if it’s difficult, it’s fine to think…We learn much more…I have learnt a lot.

- Why is it the first time someone tells me this?- You made me think: thank you- Provided we are taught how to do it

Investigation 1 , about preceding exercise

University students1st year, individual interviews* N=15

Students were not critical at first (idem for teachers N>100)

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* « Same » results in groups

Then, after an exigent discussion Important? Worth it? YES 15/15

Students journalists' reactions …

Mathé-Viennot 2009

“ ...The density of a gas depends on the pressure and

the temperature. As for the pressure, it is the same

inside and outside, because of the opening at the

bottom of the envelope, through which the air can

spread. As for the temperature, warming the air

makes it less dense, therefore less heavy ...”

…to a simulated popularisation paper including the elements below:

Investigation 2

14 trainee science journalists interviewed.

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Mathé-Viennot 2009

Name and “scientific origin”

From the start

First oral question about the

hypothesis

Argument of symmetryStep 1b

Local explanation

Step 1b

Origin of Archimedes’

upthrust and link with the pressure

gradientStep 1c

Plotting of the graph

Steps 1d and 1e

When asked if they felt

able to explainStep 2

Nuno () C0 A / C A A A

Ludovic () C0 A A A C

Laurence () C0 A A A / C A

Adeline () A A / C

Céline () A / C

Côme () A C

Damien () A C

Dima () A A / C

Anna () A A / C

() C0 A A C

Emmanuelle () C0 A A / C

Laura () A A C

Thomas () A C

‘A’ indicates when the students clearly showed their awareness of the incoherence.‘C0’ indicates some signs of a critical attitude from the start, not yet focused on the hypothesis (cf. Table 1, col. 4).‘C’ indicates when the students first used their awareness of the incoherence to criticize the article or to retrospectively criticize their own attitude during the interview

. Steps in students’ intellectual paths: Awareness of the incoherence and critical attitude

Students journalists' reactions: to sum up

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Mathé-Viennot 2009

Name and “scientific origin”

From the start

First oral question about the

hypothesis

Argument of symmetryStep 1b

Local explanation

Step 1b

Origin of Archimedes’

upthrust and link with the pressure

gradientStep 1c

Plotting of the graph

Steps 1d and 1e

When asked if they felt

able to explainStep 2

Nuno () C0 A / C A A A

Ludovic () C0 A A A C

Laurence () C0 A A A / C A

Carine () A A / C

Adeline () A A / C

Céline () A / C

Côme () A C

Damien () A C

Dima () A A / C

Anna () A A / C

() C0 A A C

Emmanuelle () C0 A A / C

Laura () A A C

Thomas () A C

Increased conceptual masteryIncreased conceptual mastery

Awareness theeeen Critical stance

Investigation 3

Question

To which extentthe way students’ critically analyse a very incomplete explanation

is linked to , and/or develops along withtheir comprehension of the topic ?

Two investigations about a hot air balloon

Viennot & Décamp 2013Décamp & Viennot 2014

An investigation about radiocarbon dating

Viennot 2004Mathé & Viennot 2009

Reacting to a teaching ritual

Analysing texts from the internet

Co-development of critical stance and conceptual understanding

Analysing some internet texts about radiocarbon dating

Investigation 3

N0 ???No decay in the atmosphere?

N=N0 exp (-t/ t ) t=5730 years

Radio carbon dating : some crucial conceptual items …

[14C ]living organisms+ atmosphere uniform

[14C]living organisms+atmosphere constant in time

?????

Radioactive decay 14C 14N + electron+ antineutrino

Creation « Cosmic » neutrons +14N 14C + proton

Time rate decay 14C = time rate creation 14C « same t-rate »

?????

Time rates V/s existing numbers, 14C dNC/dt= - NC (1/ t ) exp (-t/ t )

Total number [14C] + [14N] NT constant in time

Transitory phase adaptation through factor NC

beyond N=N0 exp (-t/ t ) t=5730 years

Adaptation through factor N : an analogy

In a countryNumber of people living in towns UNumber of people living in countryside C

U+C= constant in timeMove from town to countryside 10% per year

Move from countryside to town 40% per year

Steady state: 0,1 Uss = 0,4 Css Uss = 4Css

Transitory states:

U > Uss dU/dtexit > 0,4 Uss and dC/dtexit 0,1 Css U↓ and C U Uss dU/dtexit 0,4 Uss and dC/dtexit > 0,1 Css U and C↓

Radiocarbon dating, beyond N=N0 exp (-t/ t ) … ?????

A series of texts (T1, …, T6) from popularisation literature + web,

providing more and more elements of information to the reader.

Investigation 3

Some texts about radiocarbon dating: more and more complete

T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T614C decay after death; known law. XCreation process: « cosmic » neutron on nitrogen X

Need: N0 death known x14C/12C ratio is uniform in living beings x X

Exponential decay law X14C/12C in living beings is constant in time X X

Rate of creation (d14C/dt) is constant in time X14C produces nitrogen *

Decay vs creation: Same rate X

Same rate -> Steady state X

Transit. regime, adjustment x X

N and 14C : sum is constant in time X

Multiplicative 14C decay rate. Adaptation through factor N0 X

Prospective teachers, 4th year at university

Goal: observing their successive reactions after reading each of these texts

Ten interviews

Phase What students are asked for source Aspects of the discussion

Step 1 Did you hear about Radiocarbon dating … Read T1 … What do you think? Need more?

T1 The interviewer is attentive to students arguments, « mca » reactions, questions. Low input from interviewer

Step 2 Read T2 … What do you think? Need more?

T2 Idem

Step 3 Read T3 …Idem T3 Idem

Step 4 Read T4 …Idem T4 Idem + (if not previously raised) a question : « same rate »: coincidence?

Step 5 Read T5 …Idem T5 Idem

Step 6 Read T6 …Idem T6 The interviewer is attentive to students arguments, « mca » reactions, questions. Strong input from interviewer.

Step 7 Global evaluation of the design Expressing feelings

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The interviews: overall structure

Coding the interviews (thematic analysis)• Conceptual level

Extended list of conceptual statements« cci »+ « emergent» ones , e.g. 14C 12C + …

• Critical and meta cognitive-affective level (« mca »)Agreement in the end of a step Half-hearted agreement in the end of a step ≈Question posed about a detail dlQuestion posed about a « crucial » point cqSatisfaction after additional information m+

It is what I needed. I had forgotten. It’s more precise.Frustration because of insufficient explanation m-I wanted an answer, it doesn’t tell us anything more. It doesn’t explain why … It

leaves more questions unanswered than before.

Some results

Presentation restricted to results about:

Critical attitude and meta cognitive affective aspects :

« mca »

S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 S7

Prel m+- cq m- cq3 m+- cq1 m- cq3 m+ 4

Bela ≈ dl

dl cq m- cq3 m- cq2 m- cq1 m+ 3

Lamb ≈ dl ≈ dl3 m- m- cq

m- cq2

m+ 3

Olli m+ Q dl2 m- cq m- cq2 m+ 3

Mack m+ m+ m- dl cq m- cq m+ 3

Iago ≈ m- dl ≈ m- dl cq

≈ m- m+ 2

Boul ≈ m+ m+ m- cq m- cq m+ 2,5

Vivi m- cq m+ ≈ m- m- cq2 3

Tann ≈ dl m+ dl m+ m+ 4

Thib m- cq m+ () m+ 4

notations Q OK≈ OKend of step

dl ask « details » crucial questioncq unansweredcq answered

m+ happy with a newpiece of information

m- frustration Likert scale 1>4

S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 S7

Prel cq cq3 cq1 cq3 4

Bela ≈ dl

dl cq cq3 cq2 cq1 3

Lamb ≈ dl ≈ dl3 cq

cq2

3

Olli Q dl2 cq cq2 3

Mack dl cq cq 3

Iago ≈ dl ≈ dl cq

≈ 2

Boul ≈ cq cq 2,5

Vivi cq ≈ cq2 3

Tann ≈ dl dl 4

Thib cq () m+

4

notations Q OK≈ OKend of step

dl ask « details » crucial questioncq unansweredcq answered

m+ happy with a newpiece of information

m- frustration Likert scale 1>4

Questions asked by students

S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 S7

Prel m+ m- m- m+ m- m- m+ 4

Bela ≈

m- m- m- m+ 3

Lamb ≈ ≈ m- m-

m-

m+ 3

Olli m+ Q m- m- m+ 3

Mack m+ m+ m- m- m+ 3

Iago ≈ m- ≈ m-

≈ m- m+ 2

Boul ≈ m+ m+ m- m- m+ 2,5

Vivi m- m+ ≈ m- m- 3

Tann ≈ m+ m+ m+ 4

Thib m- m+ () m+ 4

notations Q OK≈ OKend of step

dl ask « details » crucial questioncq unansweredcq answered

m+ happy with a newpiece of information

m- frustration Likert scale 1>4

« mca » aspects

At first, agreement expressed (strong or half-hearted agreement, questions about « details », new pieces of information welcome, (« I had forgotten », « it’s what I was missing »)

After the first crucial question, only crucial questions, no agreement , frustration expressed (I wanted an answer, it doesn’t tell us anything more. It doesn’t explain why … It leaves more questions unanswered than before.)

In the end, strong satisfaction expressed, anecdotal questions explicitly left aside.

Typical progression

Co-development of critical attitude and conceptual understanding

Critical attitude

Conceptual progress

First crucial question

Questions about « details »

Only crucial questionsTime

QuestionTo which extent the way students’ critically analyse a very incomplete explanation is linked to , and/or develops along with their comprehension of the topic ?

Research results suggest:

To a large extent: these two processes are strongly interdependent

Interest of promoting a Co-development of conceptual understanding(including a math component) and critical stance

The value of

« concept-driven interactive pathways »

In teaching practice

Stressing coherence and

links

(in particular)

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Concept-driven interactive pathway

• Centered on conceptual development and critical attitude,

coherence

• Interactive: intellectual interaction with teacher and/or other

students

• Progressive: each step may serve to construct the next step

Examples in next talk

From subtractive to multiplicative

– Extreme conceptual reduction: There is a price to pay,

risks of inconsistency, of consistency not being valued.

– Keep simplification under control , need to be very careful in case of extreme

conceptual reduction, mind rituals

– Students’ reactions: They appreciate consistency, need to reach a threshold of

comprehension before daring to express their frustration in this respect ,need:

co-development of critical thinking and conceptual comprehension .

Provided we are taught how to do it

– Goal: reconciling various reasons for liking science,

– Showing that science aims at a unified « description » of the world: value of

stressing conceptual coherence and links, role of math.

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Concluding remarks

– Nourish a more balanced discussion about the objectives (content/ competences)

and modalities of physics teaching (with MOOCs, critical dialogue to be preserved)

– In particular, see « active learning » as compatible with several types of learning

activities, including critical dialogue. You made me think

– Relativise the merits of any « method », choices to be content-related, thorough

discussions needed, banish rigidity

– Need to propose various approaches and means to be used in class practice, thus

enlarging the range of teachers’ choices.

ex: “More Understanding with Simple Experiments”

Concluding remarks …

www.EPS.org Education, MUSE

Springer 2014

Thank you for your attention

41

Thus in the UK, the issue became how to develop science courses genuinely designed for the whole school population. This became something of a national obsession, not shared by other countries. One slogan devised for this was “Relevance”.

Complex issues need complex solutions, but they generally get simple slogans to encapsulate and make memorable these solutions: “Relevance”, “Ask Nature”,“Science for All”, “Hands On”, “Science Workshop”, “Learning by Doing”. MaoZedong had a genius for inventing them, in a very different context. Be wary of these slogans. They are needed, even essential, to help people remember the point and perhaps to focus energy and enthusiasm. But they rarely speak plainly. I remember being asked near the start of my second development project Advancing Physics, what its slogan would be. I was at first embarrassed to find that I had no good answer. Maybe “Variety”, I said – if you want to appeal to more people you have to offer more ways of being attractive. The answer suggests its own limits. It cannot be right to focus a whole course on being attractive, at any cost. So there must be a basic truthfulness to the nature of the subject – in this case physics. But now this is not a slogan, but the statement of a complex problem. I cannot say that I am sorry, even if

it makes it hard to tell people what is the ‘essential new idea’ behind Advancing Physics. In fact, I am suspicious of any educational development that passionately believes in its own slogans. I do not much believe in one-shot solutions – ‘magic bullets’.I conclude that a theory that provides guidance on producing teaching materials will suffer the same difficulty: that simple slogans encapsulating its ideas are needed, but are also dangerous.

Ogborn, J. 2010. Curriculum development as practical activity In K. Kortland (ed.): Designing Theory-Based Teaching-Learning Sequences for Science Education. Utrecht: Cdβ press,69-90.

Un grand acteur de développements curriculaires (UK)

MUSE - more understanding with simple experiments

The main goals• to go beyond excitement by helping students to get more

understanding from simple experiments;• to propose teachers various approaches and means to be

used in class practice thus enlarging the range of their choices.

The target audience includes: • In-service teachers • Pre-service teachers • Physics education and physics education research

communities

Alarming reports

Still worth, most of the students think that there is no link between mathematics and physics, a domain in which all the results are easily obtained (without any work or reflection!) and “with the hands”. An example: students who had to choose freely a topic for scientific investigation in a scientific module where surprised and disappointed to discover than the notion of worm’s hole necessitated to call on physical concepts and mathematical tools presently out of their reach, that they would see at best in Master 1 or 2.

In practice, it would seem that the “intuitive” approach, that was thought motivating because modern, turned into a disaster on several respects. It leads the less brilliant students to believe that physics can be understood without any effort, just with words. This induce students into building by themselves intuitive models (most of the time erroneous) to apprehend various physical phenomena, without giving them a view of physical concepts as organized in a hierarchy. These students don’t have even the bases that their predecessors previously acquired, and they see physics as disordered and anarchical.

61e National Conference of Union of Physics and Chemistry Teachers (UdPPC) Reports on round tables BUP, Dec. 2013, pp-2011-2016

On the linking between secondary teaching and higher education in physics and chemistry

Thomas Zabulon

Interpreting the Norwegian and Swedish trend data for physics in the TIMSS Advanced Study

In our search for a possible explanation for the strikingly parallel decline in physics achievements for the «specialist» at upper secondary school, we have established a set of possible factors. Through various methods of analyses we can to some extent find possible explanations. In Norway, it is difficult to single out any one pronounced factor within the advanced physics courses themselves, with regards to enrolment and to the selection of students taking the courses, or the way in which physics is taught. However, the somewhat larger decline in Sweden can be partly explained by curriculum factors, since the most advanced mathematics course is no longer obligatory for those students who are studying advanced physics. Consequently, the interdependence between mathematics and physics is weakened in the present curriculum in Sweden compared to 1995 (Skolverket, 2009). And, as pointed out in the introduction, the scientific literacy and «science for all» movement might have weakened the use of mathematics in physics. The need for good mathematical competence for being able to master the actual physics courses has been addressed in this paper. Several reports have pointed out that many students do not see the connection between the mathematics in the math class and the mathematics they actually use in physics (e.g.Taber, 2006).

S.LIE, C. ANGELL & A. ROHATGI 2012 Nordic Studies in Education, Vol. 32, pp. 177–195 Oslo

• Viennot L. 2006. Teaching rituals and students' intellectual satisfaction, Phys. Educ. 41, 400-408. http://stacks.iop.org/0031-9120/41/400.

• Mathé, S., & Viennot, L. 2009. Stressing the coherence of physics: Students journalists' and science mediators' reactions, Problems of education in the 21st century. 11 (11), 104-128.

• Viennot, L. 2009. Physics by inquiry: beyond rituals and echo-explanations, In New Trends in Science and Technology Education, G. Santoro (Ed.): “New Trends in Science and Technology Education” Conference, Modena, CLUEB, Bologna

• Viennot, L. 2010. Physics education research and inquiry-based teaching : a question of didactical consistency, In K. Kortland (ed.): Designing Theory-Based Teaching-Learning Sequences for Science Education. Utrecht: Cdβ press, 37-54.

• Viennot, L. & de Hosson 2012. Beyond a dichotomic approach, the case of colour phenomena. International Journal of Science Education, 34:9, 1315-1336.

• Viennot, L. 2014. Thinking in Physics, The pleasure of reasoning and understanding in physics. Springer/Grenoble Science.

• Viennot, L. & Décamp, N. 2013. Analysing texts about radiocarbon dating: co-development of conceptual understanding and critical attitude, ESERA 2013. (+ Viennot FFPER 2013)

• More Understanding with Simple Experiments, Koupilova, Müller, Planinsic, Viennot : http://www.eps.org/ education, MUSE

• See also in French https://grenoble-sciences.ujf-grenoble.fr/pap-ebook/viennot/

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Ogborn, J. 2012. WCPE Istanbul, keynote address, Curriculum Development in Physics: Not quite so fast!

Zabulon, T. 2013 On the linking between secondary teaching and higher education in physics and chemistry 61e National Conference of Union of Physics and Chemistry Teachers (UdPPC) Reports on round tables BUP, Dec. 2013, pp-2011-2016 Lie, S., Angell, C. & Rohatgi, A. 2012 Interpreting the Norwegian and Swedish trend data for physics in the TIMSS Advanced Study , Nordic Studies in Education, Vol. 32, pp. 177–195 Oslo

Editorials, reportsLéna, P. 2009b. Europe rethinks education, Science, 326, 23-11-2000Rocard, Y. 2007, Science Education Now, Report EU22-845, European Commission, Brussels, http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/document_library/pdf_06/report-rocard-on-science-education_en.pdfOsborne, J.. Dillon, J. 2008. Science Education in Europe : Critical Reflexions. Nuffield Foundation, ,. www.nuffieldfoundation.org/fileLibrary/pdf/Sci_Ed_in_Europe_Report_Final.pdfAllende, J.E. 2008. Academies Active in Education, Science, 321, 29-8-2008. Editorial.“(…) through science education that is based on inquiry, an approach that reproduces in the classroom the learning process of scientists: formulating questions, doing experiments, collecting and comparing data, reaching conclusions, and extrapolating these findings to more general situations