Use this URL to cite or link to this record in EThOS: | https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.725570 |
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Title: | Making sense of making sense : a microgenetic multiple case study of five students' developing conceptual compounds related to physics | ||||||
Author: | Brock, Richard Andrew |
ORCID:
0000-0003-2497-8030
ISNI:
0000 0004 6424 416X
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Awarding Body: | University of Cambridge | ||||||
Current Institution: | University of Cambridge | ||||||
Date of Award: | 2017 | ||||||
Availability of Full Text: |
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Abstract: | |||||||
The research reported in this thesis arose from a comment made by a student who had achieved highly in examinations yet felt that science: ‘doesn’t make sense’. Different conceptualisations of learning are analysed leading to the development of the concept of making sense as the formation or modification of a conceptual compound in which concepts are related in a coherent causal system that may be transferred to novel situations. This definition is situated within a constructivist epistemology. The research question asks how students make sense of physics concepts in dynamics and electricity. Five 17-18 year-old students, conceptualised as a multiple case study, were selected from an English secondary school using purposeful sampling. The students were interviewed once a week for 22 weeks in sessions using a range of probes such as interviews about instances, concept maps and concept inventory questions. It is assumed that data collection occurred at a frequency that was high relative to the rate of conceptual change, hence, the work is conceptulaised as microgenetic. The analysis focuses on the development of the students’: a) ontologies of concepts from concrete instances towards abstractions; b) conceptual structures from temporary organisations to more stable structures; c) understanding of causality from focused on macroscopic objects to abstract concepts; d) judgments of coherence; f) conceptual change modeled as an alteration in the ‘oftenness’ of application of a concept in a given context; and e) ability to apply concepts to novel contexts. The implications of these findings for teaching and future research are discussed.
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Supervisor: | Taber, Keith Stephen | Sponsor: | Not available | ||||
Qualification Name: | Thesis (Ph.D.) | Qualification Level: | Doctoral | ||||
EThOS ID: | uk.bl.ethos.725570 | DOI: | |||||
Keywords: | Conceptual change ; Science education ; Microgenetic ; Case study ; Constructivism ; Causality ; Ontology | ||||||
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