This chapter includes: a survey of features and approaches of recent science education research on the design and experimentation of teaching learning sequences; a discussion on the role and status of models in science education; a reflection on the didactical meaning and value of analogical physical models and of structural models; a presentation of some examples of such models proposed in physics education research and a description of didactic experimentations involving the use of analogical and structural models; some conclusions. Research on students’ conceptions has shown the strong presence in common reasoning of causal explanations, conceived as a “mechanism” capable of accounting for physical transformations. Usual physics teaching too often privileges situations treated with rules and formulas, aiming the calculations and algorithmic procedures rather the comprehension. The common reasoning, on the contrary, demands to explain how a situation is constituted. Students are not satisfied with applying formal laws and functional relationships; they require explanations which can account for the dynamics of facts and effects that has led to a given situation. These trends of reasoning should be taken into account in teaching and considered as resources at the learner’s disposal that the teaching should activate and restructure in order to promote more coherent and richer physical reasoning. The use of appropriate visual structural models can favor reasoning, interpretations and predictions. The incompleteness of the model should be immediately discussed, together with the degree to which it fits physical reality. These models have an explanatory function and are cognitively fertile, because they stimulate research on the entities and processes which are presumed to exist within the material system. In some cases the didactical use of models provided in the past by the history of science can be effective for a better understanding and can add a cultural value to science learning. Some examples of such models and teaching experimentations in which these ideas are applied will be presented and discussed, concerning mechanics, optics, electrical circuits, thermal phenomena, fluid statics, and friction. The results of the experimentations showed that a significant change was produced in the reasoning of many students by use of these models, activating new reasoning and articulate explanations, which, although incomplete, raise a much more refined level than the simple repetition of abstract rules based on idealized objects. Moreover, the representation of mechanisms and structural details at a smaller scale can help developing new schemes of physical intuition on specific subjects and situations. Without these physical references, the manipulation of laws and formulas runs the risk of becoming for students only a syntactic game.

Teaching strategies to improve physics understanding: the role of analogical and structural models.

BESSON, UGO
2011-01-01

Abstract

This chapter includes: a survey of features and approaches of recent science education research on the design and experimentation of teaching learning sequences; a discussion on the role and status of models in science education; a reflection on the didactical meaning and value of analogical physical models and of structural models; a presentation of some examples of such models proposed in physics education research and a description of didactic experimentations involving the use of analogical and structural models; some conclusions. Research on students’ conceptions has shown the strong presence in common reasoning of causal explanations, conceived as a “mechanism” capable of accounting for physical transformations. Usual physics teaching too often privileges situations treated with rules and formulas, aiming the calculations and algorithmic procedures rather the comprehension. The common reasoning, on the contrary, demands to explain how a situation is constituted. Students are not satisfied with applying formal laws and functional relationships; they require explanations which can account for the dynamics of facts and effects that has led to a given situation. These trends of reasoning should be taken into account in teaching and considered as resources at the learner’s disposal that the teaching should activate and restructure in order to promote more coherent and richer physical reasoning. The use of appropriate visual structural models can favor reasoning, interpretations and predictions. The incompleteness of the model should be immediately discussed, together with the degree to which it fits physical reality. These models have an explanatory function and are cognitively fertile, because they stimulate research on the entities and processes which are presumed to exist within the material system. In some cases the didactical use of models provided in the past by the history of science can be effective for a better understanding and can add a cultural value to science learning. Some examples of such models and teaching experimentations in which these ideas are applied will be presented and discussed, concerning mechanics, optics, electrical circuits, thermal phenomena, fluid statics, and friction. The results of the experimentations showed that a significant change was produced in the reasoning of many students by use of these models, activating new reasoning and articulate explanations, which, although incomplete, raise a much more refined level than the simple repetition of abstract rules based on idealized objects. Moreover, the representation of mechanisms and structural details at a smaller scale can help developing new schemes of physical intuition on specific subjects and situations. Without these physical references, the manipulation of laws and formulas runs the risk of becoming for students only a syntactic game.
2011
9781612096872
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11571/370935
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