Students reinventing the general law of energy conservation - Thesis

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Students reinventing the general law of energy conservation

Logman, P.S.W.M.

Publication date

2014

Document Version

Final published version

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Citation for published version (APA):

Logman, P. S. W. M. (2014). Students reinventing the general law of energy conservation.

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Students Reinventing the

General Law of

University of Amsterdam (UvA) and supported by funding from

Platform Bèta Techniek, DUDOC program.

Cover design: Martijn Dorresteijn (a first visualization of

Heisenberg’s principle: ”Had I had more time I would have known

more precisely about teaching the concept of energy.”)

Printed by MarcelisDékavé, Alkmaar, Nederland

ISBN: 978-90-9028152-0

Students Reinventing the

General Law of

Energy Conservation

A

CADEMISCH

P

ROEFSCHRIFT

ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor

aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam

op gezag van de Rector Magnificus

prof. dr. D.C. van den Boom

ten overstaan van een door het college voor promoties

ingestelde commissie,

in het openbaar te verdedigen in de Aula der Universiteit

op vrijdag 11 april 2014, te 11:00 uur

door

Paulus Simon Wilhelmus Maria Logman

Promotor:

Prof. dr. A.L. Ellermeijer

Co-promotor:

Dr. W.H. Kaper

Overige Leden:

Prof. dr. C.G. van Weert

Dr. M. Vreeswijk

Prof. dr. M.J. Goedhart

Prof. dr. M.G. Michelini

Prof. dr. M.J. de Vries

Chapter 1

Introduction ... 1

1.1 Problem definition ... 1

1.2 Theoretical framework ... 2

1.2.1 Contexts ... 2

1.2.2 The concept of energy ... 3

1.2.3 Versatility ... 6

1.2.4 Connecting contexts and concepts ... 11

1.2.5 Summary ... 13 1.3 Research questions ... 13 1.4 Research method ... 14 1.5 Thesis outline ... 15 References ... 17

Chapter 2

2.1 Introduction ... 23

2.2 Theory and design principles ... 24

2.2.1 Development of a conception of energy ... 24

2.2.2 On the use of contexts ... 25

2.3 Design implementation ... 26 2.4 Research method ... 30 2.5 Results ... 30 2.6 Conclusion... 33 2.7 Discussion ... 33 References ... 34

Chapter 3

3.1 Introduction ... 37

3.2 Method ... 39

3.2.1 Research approach ... 39

3.2.2 Designing the educational materials ... 39

3.2.3 Data collection ... 40

3.3 Results ... 40

3.4 Discussion and conclusion ... 43

An innovative educational approach aiming at a versatile concept of energy

combining context-based education with guided reinvention ... 45

4.1 Educational design problem ... 46

4.2 Educational design rationale ... 49

4.2.1 Design of conceptual development ... 49

4.2.2 Design of contexts ... 53

4.3 Summary of empirical design results from the first two try-outs ... 58

4.4 Educational design ... 61

4.5 Conclusions including summary of evaluation of the learning process and summative evaluation ... 71

4.6 Discussion ... 75

References ... 75

Chapter 5

5.1 Introduction ... 79

5.2 Educational design ... 80

5.2.1 Conceptual development ... 81

5.2.2 Embedding in authentic practices ... 82

5.3 Research setup ... 86

5.3.1 Research question ... 86

5.3.2 Experimental groups ... 86

5.3.3 Instruments ... 87

5.4 Method & Results ... 87

5.4.1 Technological design assignments ... 87

5.4.2 Scientific assignments ... 95

5.5 Conclusions & Recommendations ...111

5.6 Discussion ...115

References ...116

Chapter 6

6.1 Introduction ...122 6.2 Educational design ...123 6.3 Research setup ...127 6.3.1 Research questions ...127 6.3.2 Experimental groups ...127 6.3.3 Instruments ...128

6.4 Analysis criteria per research question ...129

6.4.1 Research question I on conceptual learning step I ...130

6.4.4 Research question IV on concept applicability ...134

6.5 Results ...135

6.5.1 Conceptual learning step I ...135

6.5.2 Conceptual learning step II ...136

6.5.3 Conceptual learning step III ...137

6.5.4 Concept applicability ...139 6.6 Conclusions ...140 6.7 Discussion ...142 References ...142

Chapter 7

7.1 Research question 1 - Developing a versatile concept of energy conservation ...145

7.2 Research question 2 - Characteristics of authentic practices ...149

7.3 Research question 3 - Resulting versatility of students’ conceptions ...151

7.4 Research question 4 - Achieved competencies as a physicist ...152

7.5 Reflection ...153

References ...155

Appendices

Appendix A: Upcoming Dutch exam program ...157

Appendix B: Exam-like question concerning near transfer ...158

Appendix C: Exam-like question concerning far transfer ...160

Summary

Samenvatting

Acknowledgements

Curriculum vitae

1

Introduction

In Section 1.1 of this chapter we define the research problem which culminates in stating the main research question. In Section 1.2 we elaborate on theories related to the research problem leading to a subdivision of the main research question into four sub-questions, which we discuss in Section 1.3. In Section 1.4 we describe the research method and the setting of the research. In Section 1.5 we present a reading guide to the complete thesis in which we show how we will arrive at our answers and where these can be found.

1.1 Problem definition

In a context-based approach concepts gain meaning for students by involving them in scientific or socially relevant practices (Gilbert, 2006; Bulte et al., 2006). In the Netherlands the curriculum innovation committees for the exact sciences have all advised a context-based approach to motivate students and show them the relevance of the exact sciences (Boersma et al., 2007; Commissie Vernieuwing Natuurkunde onderwijs havo/vwo, 2006; Driessen & Meinema, 2003). To support the curriculum innovation the ministry of education has created a research program (DUDOC) for which twenty secondary school teachers were selected to do research on fundamental questions concerning context-based education. The presented research is part of this program. Two important problems within context-based education are the difficulty to achieve transfer from one context to another (Parchmann et al., 2006; Schwartz, 2006; Goedhart et al., 2001) and the difficulty to develop abstract concepts in contexts (Parchmann et al., 2006; Pilot & Bulte, 2006; Schwartz, 2006). To investigate these problems further, it is desirable to choose a clearly abstract concept as a learning outcome, for instance a concept that because of its abstract nature presents difficulties in traditional teaching as well.

The concept of energy is such a concept. An analysis of exam results at the end of secondary education in the Netherlands shows that students have trouble applying their conception of energy correctly in exam questions (Borsboom et al., 2008). It has been observed that university engineering students have a similar problem (Liu et al., 2002). Kaper has identified another aspect of this versatility problem regarding university students following chemistry courses in thermodynamics: when they need to adjust their conception of energy to new situations they stick to their earlier conception of energy instead (Kaper, 1997). Borsboom (2008) states that a teaching-learning strategy needs to be designed which aims at a cohesive and versatile conception of energy. We state that a conception is versatile when one knows how to apply it in many diverse situations and when one also knows how to adjust it if necessary (cf. Dekker,

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1993; Van Parreren, 1974). The problems described above show a lack of versatility in applying the concept of energy in many diverse situations (a lack of applicability) as well as a lack of revisability.

Therefore the energy concept presents a good challenge to investigate the problems that have been noted for context-based teaching, particularly the problems of achieving transfer and of achieving abstraction. Here we investigate the interaction of concept and context in a teaching-learning sequence that aims at a versatile conception of energy, leading to the main research question:

How do context and concept interact in context-based education that is suitable to develop a versatile concept of energy?

1.2 Theoretical framework

In this section we describe the theoretical framework on which our research is based. First we describe current theories on the use of contexts. Next we discuss the scientific and students’ view on energy together with current ideas on teaching this subject. We then present our views on versatility, applied to the concept of energy and based on literature which results in our choice for guided reinvention to resolve the observed lack of versatility. Next we describe how we model the interaction between context and concept during the learning process leading to our choice for the problem posing approach to implement this interaction. At the end of this section we summarize the theoretical choices we made for our teaching-learning sequence. Chapter 4 describes the final implementation of our teaching-learning sequence (Logman et al., submitted-a).

1.2.1 Contexts

The idea of implementing contexts in education for the exact sciences has a longstanding history in the Netherlands. PLON, which started in 1972, may be seen as a predecessor of recent developments in this field (Dekker, 1993; Van der Valk, 1992). Also abroad, experience has been gained from context-based education in chemistry and physics in projects like Chemie im Kontext (Parchmann et al., 2006), the Salters Approach (Bennett & Lubben, 2006), and Advancing Physics (Ogborn, 2003).

Research on these approaches shows that the motivation of students increases but it does not result in a higher outflow of students to related onward education (Gilbert, 2006; Parchmann et al., 2006; Ogborn, 2003). Conceptual results appear to be similar to the conceptual results in more traditional approaches (Gilbert, 2006) even though in less recent research it was observed that contexts reduce the visibility of the intended concepts for students (Goedhart, 2004).

According to Gilbert (2006), using contexts in education may help to solve the following inter-related problems which we summarize here:

1. Overload. Over-loaded curricula due to ever-accelerating accumulation of scientific knowledge cause curricula to be aggregations of isolated facts

3 detached from their scientific origin. To solve this, the focus of education should be on the most widely used concepts in science.

2. Isolated facts. These overloaded curricula are taught without students knowing how to connect the isolated facts. This makes it hard for students to give meaning to what they have learned which leads to low engagement in classes and not remembering those isolated facts afterwards. To solve this, the collection of contexts used must be enough for students to develop a coherent mental scheme.

3. Lack of transfer. Students significantly fail to solve problems using the same concepts when presented in different ways. Transfer may be enhanced when students see similarities between the learning demands of the used contexts.

4. Lack of relevance. The great majority of students does not choose to study science and even those that do experience a lack of relevance in it. Relevance of the subject may be enhanced by choosing contexts that interest students. To solve this, the collection of contexts used must make the exact sciences more relevant and enable the development of a sense of ownership of that which is to be learnt. The structure of the curriculum must be such that it resonates with students’ present and anticipated interests.

5. Inadequate emphasis. The traditional emphasis of the science curriculum is to be the basis for a more advanced study of science. However this emphasis is increasingly seen as an inadequate basis for such study and for the development of scientific literacy in those that do not continue studying science. By using contexts different aspects of science can be emphasized, like “everyday coping”, “self as explainer”, “science, technology, and decisions”, and “structure of science”. All contexts combined should still be flexible enough to address students with various background knowledge and to follow changes in science as well.

Many different ideas exist on the implementation of contexts (Goedhart et al., 2001). Gilbert has categorized these into four models from which he has selected ‘context as the social circumstances’ as the most promising model (Gilbert, 2006). In a course based on such contexts teachers and students see themselves as participants of a “community of practice”. Boersma (2007) has specified this choice in the innovation committee for biology in the Netherlands more precisely by choosing authentic practices as contexts. Bulte (2006) states that such practices are a means to learn concepts that are relevant to our society, and to learn how this knowledge functions in society.

Therefore we adhere to this more precise interpretation of contexts as authentic practices.

1.2.2 The concept of energy

Students enter education with their own life-world conception of energy. Watts (1983) has established 7 different frameworks for students talking about energy.

4

Various researchers used his results and adjusted these frameworks to a greater or lesser extent (e.g. Swackhamer & Hestenes, 2005; Kruger et al., 1992; Finegold & Trumper, 1989; Gilbert & Pope, 1986). Some of these researchers

added an 8th and even 9th framework in which energy is confused with another

quantity or phenomenon (e.g. force or light). These preconceptions of energy sometimes deviate strongly from the scientific concept of energy (Trumper, 1997; Kruger et al., 1992; Van der Valk, 1992; Solomon, 1983). During exploratory research it has been shown that most preconceptions may be seen as partial aspects of the scientific concept of energy and are therefore not inconsistent with it. Some of the preconceptions however do contradict the scientific concept of energy (Logman et al., 2010a).

After a number of years of education students’ conception of energy should develop towards the scientific concept of energy. Within the scientific community a broad consensus exists on the scientific concept of energy even though within certain areas of science there are some variations (Duit, 1986). Van der Valk (1992) describes the concept as determined by the idea that it is a state variable, designated to systems, that are completely determined by physical/mathematical relationships, in particular the laws of thermodynamics. According to Duit (1986) a scientific conception of energy should at least include the following four aspects:

 Conservation of energy: the energy of a system does not change when no

transfer of energy takes place between the system and its surroundings.  Transformation of energy: different types of energy may be transformed

into one another within a system.

 Transfer of energy: the energy of a system may change by transfer of energy

to or from its surroundings. Process variables play a role in transfer of energy.

 Degradation of energy: the entropy of an isolated system may only increase.

Because it is a frequently applied aspect of the concept we have decided to focus our context-based teaching-learning sequence on the general law of conservation of energy (energy transformation and energy transfer are implicitly addressed as well but energy degradation is not). Feynman (1963) focuses his introduction of energy on energy conservation: “There is a fact, or if you wish a

law, governing all natural phenomena that are known to date. There is no

known exception to this law – it is exact as far as we know. The law is called the

conservation of energy. It states that there is a certain quantity, which we call

energy, that does not change in the manifold changes which nature undergoes. That is a most abstract idea, because it is a mathematical principle; it says that there is a numerical quantity which does not change when something happens. It is not a description of a mechanism, or anything concrete; it is just a strange fact that we can calculate a number and when we finish watching nature go through her tricks and calculate the number again, it is the same.” We choose to base our teaching-learning strategy on these ideas of Feynman.

5 There is consensus among researchers that the teaching of the concept of energy should not contradict the scientific view of energy in the learning process. However the conclusions regarding the organization of the learning process vary widely.

Where Feynman introduces energy as an abstract concept, a quantity that remains constant whatever happens, the traditional way of introducing the concept of energy is by stating that “energy is the capability of a system to

perform work” (e.g. Warren, 1982). Other introductions of energy use the highly

abstract ideas of energy fields (Swackhamer, 2005; Peters, 1981), or energy density (Falk et al., 1983). We have chosen to adhere to Feynman’s ideas on introducing energy which appear to fit best with our focus on energy conservation and seem possible to grasp for students in secondary education. Immediately after his introduction Feynman makes the abstract concept of energy more concrete by using Dennis the Menace’s blocks and states that “energy has a large number of different forms”. He continues by naming several forms of energy storage and energy transfer (Feynman et al., 1963). The abstract concept of energy is often taught combined with a materialist view like this. Traditionally forms of energy are used to make the concept more concrete (Warren, 1982). Swackhamer (2005) accompanies his introduction with the use of energy stores to differentiate between forms of energy storage and forms of energy transfer, an approach also adopted by Lawrence (2007). While focusing his introduction to energy transfer, Falk uses energy carriers to make the concept more concrete (Falk et al., 1983). In our introduction to energy conservation we have chosen to use forms of energy to make the concept of energy more concrete but to limit them to forms of energy storage.

The use of forms of energy has been criticized by several researchers because it contradicts the scientific view of energy, e.g. “energy is always and everywhere

only energy” (Swackhamer, 2005). Kaper and Goedhart however have shown

that the use of forms of energy is valid and consistent within a limited domain (Kaper & Goedhart, 2002). To contradict the scientific view of energy as little as possible we have chosen to clarify the domain for each form of energy storage in the learning process and make sure the students see energy as just a number that remains constant whatever happens.

Another point of discussion is whether students’ life-world conceptions of energy should be expanded to the scientific concept (Duit, 2002) or that the scientific concept should be developed as a separate concept clearly demarcated from students’ life-world conceptions of energy (Genseberger & Lijnse, 2007; Warren, 1982) because connecting to students’ life-world experiences may be only disadvantageous for developing the scientific concept (Goedhart et al., 2001). As some preconceptions of energy do contradict the scientific view of energy we have chosen not to build upon students’ life-world conceptions of energy but instead create a separate conception by not using the term ‘energy’ until it is clear to students that it is a conserved quantity.

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1.2.3 Versatility

When teaching concepts in a context-based approach two important problems to address are achieving transfer and developing abstract concepts (Parchmann et al., 2006; Pilot & Bulte, 2006; Schwartz, 2006; Goedhart et al., 2001). A literature study with respect to the terms transfer, generalization, abstraction,

versatility (Dekker, 1993), conceptual change (Duit & Treagust, 2003), and recontextualization (Van Oers, 1998) has led us to discuss these terms in relation

to one another.

By generalization or abstraction we mean that students make a statement and that from the context of that statement it is clear that it does not address a single situation but a demarcated set or domain of situations (Kaper, 1997). Van Parreren (1974) states that a student’s repertoire of skills is versatile when the student knows how to act in many diverse situations. Dekker (1993) describes versatility as the extent to which a student is consciously capable of using a consistent repertoire of skills, built around accepted rules and concepts, in slightly modified ways. These descriptions are in line with the definition of transfer that is used in traditional transfer research: “the ability to extend what has been learned in one context to new contexts” (Bransford et al., 2000). Bransford & Schwartz (1999) note that traditional transfer research as introduced by Thorndike in the early 20th century involves “a theory that characterizes transfer as the ability to directly apply one’s previous learning to a new setting or problem”. They also describe an alternative that broadens the conception of transfer as “preparation for future learning” in which approach “the focus shifts to assessments of people’s abilities to learn”.

The lack of versatility mentioned in Section 1.1 may now be seen in terms of transfer. The lack of applicability observed by Borsboom (2008) and Liu (2002) is most closely related to the traditional conception of transfer. The lack of revisability observed by Kaper (1997) may be most closely related to the conception of transfer as preparation for future learning.

Enhancing versatility is used as an argument for the use of contexts in education (Gilbert, 2006). However, to do so, it is necessary that concepts return in multiple contexts (Parchmann et al., 2006; Whitelegg & Parry, 1999) where the contexts need to be framed to have certain similarities between them (Engle, 2006). In choosing contexts to enhance versatility not only similarities but also differences between them need to be considered (Marton, 2006).

Based on the above literature review we picture the relation between transfer and generalization as shown in Figure 1.1.

7 Figure 1.1 Transfer within a domain and generalization over a domain. By comparing situations students may find that skills that were meaningful in situation A1, slightly altered may also be meaningful in situation A2 (transfer). Their reasons to think so may then be formulated transcending these situations (generalization). A concept that has been tested in such a way in many diverse situations, will have become versatile and may also be applied in previously unknown situations. The class of situations for which the generalization can be made is the concept’s domain.

Based on the work of Piaget, Duit (2002) writes that learning is an alternation of assimilation and accommodation. During assimilation a student tries to incorporate new experiences into his already existing cognitive structure. If assimilation does not work, existing schemes have to be adapted or replaced: accommodation needs to occur. This points towards two different levels of revisability. Following Dekker (1993) we name student’s life-world conception the starting level (versatility level 0). A student that knows how to revise his conception through means of assimilation has reached versatility level 1 and if he succeeds in accommodation versatility level 2 is reached.

Dekker identified these versatility levels 1 and 2 for mechanics but they can also be identified for the concept of energy. To reach level 1 a student needs to realize that in diverse situations a similar conception [which we call energy] may be applied. For example, the same conception should be used in crash tests as well as in heating systems. To reach level 2 a student needs to be able to move from an earlier conception to a new conception when a new situation calls for such a change (Posner et al., 1982). For example in the case of a ball in a gravitational field, potential energy is often only attributed to the ball. In such a case students may find a generalization to two, more or less equal weighing, objects (e.g. two stars) difficult. To make this happen students first need to realize that their earlier conception had a limited applicability domain.

Versatility level 1

As a hypothesis we subdivide versatility level 1 into three sublevels: 1.1, 1.2, and 1.3 in which level 1.3 is specific to the concept of energy.

Versatility level 1.1: within a class of similar experiments (a domain), for example

8

conceptual learning step and finds a general rule (see Figure 1.2). In the case of energy we will call such a rule a partial law of energy conservation. In general such a partial law contains one or two characteristic variables (e.g. temperature, height, velocity, etc.). Level 1.1 is reached when the student knows how to apply the general rule in new situations (with different quantities of liquids having different temperatures). Such a generalization may be made within many domains (e.g. ∑ , , , etc.).

Figure 1.2 Generalizing a concept from various experiments to reach versatility level 1.1.

Versatility level 1.2: between the rules formulated in investigated domains (all

performed in 1.1 processes) similarities are noted: in all domains something remains constant (e.g. ∑ , ∑ , ∑ ∑ , etc.). The similarity is now between domains of situations. That is why it is only possible to combine

complete domains with one another (e.g. ∑ ∑ 1_{) in}

expanding the conservation law (see the middle column in Figure 1.3). For every expansion a moment of insight is necessary for the student to see that this may be done. Level 1.2 is reached when the student is able to try out combining a new variable into the earlier established law (without being certain whether this is possible). This versatility level may also be established for other scientific concepts like for example the ideal gas law which is a combination of several partial laws as well like Boyle’s law, Charles’ law and Avogadro’s law.

Versatility level 1.3: During the attainment of level 1.2 the student’s attention

has been gradually focusing on the combination process. Now a new question becomes possible: will it always be possible to repair apparent violations of the conservation principle, by finding a new variable and adding it to the law? To form an opinion about this it is necessary to assess each step in the procedure of combining partial laws to see how the combination procedure actually takes place and whether the steps in that procedure are always possible. It is the

1 _{The constants in these partial laws of energy conservation are only constant under}

specific preconditions and may thus depend on other variables and vary over different experiments.

9 combination procedure that becomes generalized in this process (see Figure 1.3). When successful, a potentially infinite number of domains are added in one go: the conservation principle has become universal. This level 1.3 appears to be specific to the concept of energy2.

Figure 1.3 Generalizing the combination process to a metaconcept to reach versatility levels 1.2 and 1.33.

If students have become convinced that it is always possible to repair the conservation principle they can be introduced to the term energy because at this point one of its main characteristics, namely that it is conserved, has become clear. The student has achieved level 1.3 when he can apply the concept of energy conservation to any situation even one in which the conservation principle appears to be violated. In such a case we expect students to actively look for forms of energy that are as yet unknown to them.

Versatility level 2

After having established the general law of energy conservation the concept of energy is not yet complete. To develop a correct scientific concept of energy students may need to dismiss their earlier conception of energy and develop a new one. Suitable cases may be:

2 _{In the case of the ideal gas law after a combination of 3 partial laws combining the}

characteristic variables , , , and the law is finished ( ). This is not true in the case of the general law of energy conservation. Therefore in the case of the general law of energy conservation there is more room for reflection on a meta-level.

3 _{The implementation of these versatility levels is reported in more detail elsewhere}

10

 The transition from attributing potential energy to one object (e.g. a ball at

a certain height), to attributing it to a system (e.g. the system earth-ball).  The transition from a macroscopic description of energy transfer to a

submicroscopic one.

 The necessary merging of two forms of energy because in certain

experiments the forms of energy are indistinguishable from one another (e.g. a chemical reaction at different temperatures, a non Hookean spring, non-ideal gases (Kaper & Goedhart, 2002)).

Here we will focus on all three subtypes of versatility level 1 (1.1, 1.2, and 1.3). Versatility level 2 will not be investigated.

An approach that is in line with the way we view the various levels of versatility and in which we can investigate how these levels are attained by students is the guided reinvention approach (Freudenthal, 1991). Freudenthal recommends this approach to resolve problems that stem from the fact that mathematics is taught as a collection of indisputable facts. In traditional education the general law of energy conservation is also taught as an indisputable fact. As such it has lost the connection with its practical scientific origin. Like many researchers we think this is why students do not see the general applicability of the law nor believe it to be valid because the concept contradicts their life-world experiences (Borsboom et al., 2008; Doménech et al., 2007; De Vos et al., 2002; Liu et al., 2002; Kaper, 1997; Driver & Warrington, 1985).

Arguments for recommending guided reinvention to resolve these problems are (Freudenthal, 1991):

 Knowledge and ability, when acquired by one’s own activity, stick better and are more readily available than when imposed by others.

 Discovery can be enjoyable and so learning by reinvention may be

motivating.

 Guided reinvention fosters the attitude of experiencing mathematics as a human activity.

Guided reinvention of the general law of energy conservation will substantiate it with proof and we think that by having students reinvent it themselves this will make their conception more revisable as well. Therefore we adhere to the guided reinvention approach.

Ogborn (2014) says that students will not discover any of the big ideas themselves. Students need to be guided during the learning process to achieve this. Freudenthal says about this guidance that “to guide students means striking

a delicate balance between the force of teaching and the freedom of learning, between allowing the learner to please himself and asking him to please the teacher” (Freudenthal, 1991). We will take these considerations into account in

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1.2.4 Connecting contexts and concepts

To answer the main research question we need to describe the interaction between context and concept. After exploring the term context, the concept of energy, and the versatility of that concept, we may now ask how a concept and its domain relate to the situation at hand and its context.

As scientists we may look at a certain situation, for example a crash test for a new type of car, in two ways. We can view the situation as an activity that is appreciated by society i.e. the context of traffic safety engineers, but we may also look at it as an illustration of the domain of the physical law (see Figure 1.4).

Figure 1.4 The relation between a context, the domain of a concept, and a concrete situation (a car crash test).

We can do the same for the concept of energy instead of force. For example, to enhance the sustainable employability of workers in demanding professions an ergonomist may want to design an apparatus that makes it easier to lift heavy objects, an activity that is socially appreciated. A concrete situation in this context is using a lever to make lifting easier. The law ∑ can describe this experiment but the law’s domain encompasses more than just describing experiments involving levers. In this example the concrete situation (an experiment using a lever) belongs to both the context and the domain of the scientific law (see Figure 1.5) but this is not necessarily true for any combination of a situation, a context, and a concept. To sustain the employability of people many other situations matter in which the before-mentioned partial law of energy conservation does not apply. Vice versa: the partial law mentioned above may be recognized in many other situations that do not belong to the context of ergonomists.

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Figure 1.5 The relation between a context, the domain of a concept, and a concrete situation (lifting objects using a lever).

In delimiting contexts as authentic practices we classify situations per practitioner. In delimiting domains we classify situations by the validity of a scientific law.

Both classifications are important for the learning process for different reasons. The practitioner is needed to experience the relevance of the situation to society. The validity of the concept is needed to experience the relevance of science to the situation. Together they show the relevance of science to society. Placing the activities within authentic practices gives meaning to the learning process.

The two classifications do not overlap. On the one hand, more situations are important for the context to which the specific concept is not relevant. On the other hand, the concept may be applied in many more situations than only the ones that are relevant to the context at hand.

The interaction between context and concept may now be described as follows:

 The authentic practice is needed for students to experience the relevance of

the situation to society.

 The validity of the concept is needed for students to experience the relevance of science to the situation.

 Transfer of applicability of a concept from one context to another is needed

for students to experience the extended validity of the concept.

When students start seeing conceptual knowledge as a goal in itself, separate from social or personal use, the need for transfer to find the complete validity of the concept will be clear to them as well. Then students have developed a scientific attitude and may be motivated by scientific contexts. It is interesting to determine where in a learning process this shift may occur.

A good way to show the relevance of what is learned is the problem posing approach. Lijnse & Klaassen (2004) state that if one wants to prevent a learning process that results in a forced concept development full of misconceptions but instead wants teaching to result in real understanding, it is necessary to allow students ample freedom to use their reinventions and make them explicit. In

13 their approach learning should be driven by problems that students can identify with, problems that are their problems. In the eyes of the students every step in the learning process should be useful in solving such a problem and thus give them a reason to perform it (Lijnse & Klaassen, 2004).

To motivate students through the learning process and to clarify the characteristic procedure within an authentic practice to students, several researchers combine the use of authentic practices with the problem posing approach (Dierdorp et al., 2011; Westra, 2008; Bulte et al., 2006; Westbroek, 2005). We adhere to this combination as well.

Therefore we require that there must be a need for a person involved in a certain practice to perform every step we planned in the learning process so students can be motivated to take these steps as well and see the relevance of taking these steps. Of course, creating such a need adds to the authenticity of such practices which in turn shows the relevance of the solution to society.

1.2.5 Summary

Based on our theoretical framework we have made the following choices:

 We focus our teaching-learning sequence on the development of the

general law of energy conservation (§1.2.2).

 We use forms of energy to make the concept of energy more concrete but

limit them to forms of energy storage (§1.2.2).

 We use a guided reinvention approach to help students to develop their conception of energy (§1.2.3).

 We develop the concept of energy conservation by introducing one or two

forms of energy storage at a time instead of introducing all forms of energy at once. To keep the student’s conception as scientifically correct as possible, during the learning process we clarify the limited domain for each form of energy (§1.2.3).

 We introduce energy conservation to students separately from their life-world conceptions. To achieve this the term ‘energy’ will not be used in the learning process until its characteristic property of conservation has become clear to the students (§1.2.2).

 To make the concept of energy conservation less abstract and to show its relevance to society we base the development of student’s conceptions on concrete situations set in authentic practices (§1.2.1).

 These authentic practices are combined with the problem posing approach

by requiring a need for a person involved in a certain practice to perform every step we have planned in the learning process (§1.2.4).

1.3 Research questions

In this section we will subdivide our main research question, as formulated in Section 1.1, into researchable sub-questions.

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To be able to answer our main research question first we need to design a teaching-learning sequence in which a versatile conception of energy conservation can be developed. To do so we need to find a conceptual learning path, set in authentic practices, that is possible for students to take. In our first sub-question the emphasis lies on that conceptual learning path. To be able to design a successful teaching-learning sequence we need to select authentic practices that are suitable for helping students to develop their conception of energy as intended. In our second sub-question the emphasis lies on the authentic practices to deploy. Thus, we have formulated the following sub-questions:

1. How can we organize the development of a versatile concept of energy conservation by students while making use of a teaching-learning sequence set in authentic practices?

2. Which characteristics does an authentic practice have that is suitable for developing a versatile concept of energy conservation?

To understand the circumstances in which the learning process takes place we not only need to investigate to which extent the students develop a correct conception of energy but we also need to investigate to which extent the students take their role in the authentic practices seriously and develop competencies that are useful in the authentic practices that we deploy in our teaching-learning sequence. This results in the following two sub-questions.

3. To which extent can students develop a versatile conception of energy conservation in context-based education making use of authentic practices? 4. Can a teaching-learning sequence that is aiming at the general law of energy conservation also enhance the competencies of a student as a physicist?

1.4 Research method

Our research approach follows the method of design research. The choice for design research follows directly from the research question. To be able to investigate a successful development of students’ conceptions of energy this development first has to be achieved. To design the required educational material it is necessary to test it cyclically in schools, which makes the participation of students and teachers of great importance. Our design was tested in three try-outs, which is common to design research (Van den Akker et al., 2006).

In developing an educational design three stages may be distinguished: a first try-out to see whether it is possible for students to achieve the learning goal, a second try-out to analyze how the educational material functions in obtaining that learning goal and how it may be optimized, and a final try-out to analyze the conceptual results of the educational design (Plomp, 2007; Gravemeijer & Cobb, 2006; Nieveen, 1999).

Achieving higher versatility levels depends on successfully attaining the previous level. If interdependent steps are involved, as is the case here, it is common to

15 try-out these steps one step at a time (Nieveen, 1999, 2007). In the first try-out versatility level 1.1 was tested, in the second try-out versatility level 1.2 was added to the try-out, and in the third and final try-out all three sublevels of versatility level 1 were included.

Every try-out can be seen as a separate case study. After every try-out the main issues for the students were analyzed in order to improve the educational material. The redesigned material was then used in the subsequent try-out. This research was part of the AMSTEL Institute research program at the University of Amsterdam. It was also part of the DUDOC research program, started in 2009, in which teachers conduct educational research to support the curriculum innovation. The researcher in this case has taught physics and has designed educational material since 1994 and was both educational designer and teacher during the try-outs. Because we are aware of the problems this may cause concerning the objectivity of the research, the material was also tested by other teachers who were encouraged to suggest alterations to the design. In all three try-outs the new design was first tested by the researcher in order to remove any unforeseen mistakes in the material. The first try-out was performed by the researcher at his own school in a class of sixteen-year-olds. In the second try-out five more teachers were involved teaching similar classes of sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds. In the third and final try-out three other teachers were involved. All other teachers were first trained by the researcher by discussing the material in detail. The researcher observed as many lessons of other teachers as possible, which was about two-thirds of all lessons. The number of students in a class ranged from six to thirty. The educational material was used to replace the traditional quantitative introduction to energy in physics. All schools are located in the vicinity of Amsterdam.

1.5 Thesis outline

This thesis consists of seven chapters of which Chapters 2 through 6 are either published or submitted articles. The thesis has the following structure. Chapter 2 describes an example of design results from the first try-out. Chapter 3 does the same for the second try-out. Chapter 4 describes our final educational design and its rationale based on literature and the results from the first two try-outs. Chapter 5 assesses the learning process within that final teaching-learning design and Chapter 6 assesses the learning outcome of that design. In Chapter 7 these results are discussed and an answer is given to our four researchable sub-questions. In the following we describe this structure in more detail.

Chapter 2: Energy: an experiment-based route from context to concept

This paper (Logman et al., 2010b) describes a study of our first try-out and is limited to versatility level 1.1. In this paper we propose the use of problems set in technological design practices to reach this level. During our try-outs we met two major issues related to such an approach. Students did not see the need for

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experimenting nor did they see the need for a physical law to help them find a satisfactory solution to the given problem. Our responses to these issues helped us in identifying characteristics of technological design practices suitable for developing a versatile conception of energy conservation of level 1.1. One of the characteristics identified was that an extrapolation needs to be present between students’ experiments and the situation described in the authentic practice. In practices in which such an extrapolation was present students saw the need for reinventing a physical law. In this chapter a preliminary description of our instrument to measure the conceptual development is also given.

Chapter 3: Motivating students to perform an experiment in technological design contexts

This paper (Logman et al., 2011) describes a study of our second try-out and is limited to versatility levels 1.1 and 1.2. In this second try-out to reach versatility level 1.1 we solved the issue of not seeing the need for performing an experiment found in the first try-out, by making sure that a ready-made solution was not available for the given problem. This try-out was the first in which we tried to have students reach versatility level 1.2. From this try-out we concluded that to reach this versatility level and versatility level 1.3 both would best be set in scientific practices.

Chapter 4: An innovative educational approach aiming at a versatile concept of energy combining context-based education with guided reinvention

This article (Logman et al., submitted-a) contains the rationale behind our final educational design based on both literature and the results of our first two outs. Where in Chapters 2 and 3 the issues and responses found in these try-outs were illustrated by examples here a more elaborate summary of the results from those two try-outs is given. This is followed by a detailed description of our final educational design including specific expectations of what students are intended to do in each step of the learning process.

Chapter 5: Evaluation of the learning process of students reinventing the general law of energy conservation

This article (Logman et al., submitted-b) shows the evaluation of the learning process in our third and final try-out. It analyzes both the students’ conceptual development and their development of contextual skills. Instruments are described for a detailed analysis of the learning process as proposed in Chapter 4 to answer how this process functions. This analysis is performed by comparing our expectations of what students are intended to do with what they actually did.

Chapter 6: Summative evaluation of a context-based approach making use of guided reinvention while aiming at a versatile concept of energy

This article (Logman et al., submitted-c) contains the summative evaluation of student’s versatility levels from our third and final try-out. It describes our

17 instruments and method of analysis for measuring both types of versatility: revisability and applicability. For each versatility level it describes to which extent students managed to achieve them. For revisability the three versatility sublevels 1 are used to assess student’s achievements. For applicability near and far transfer are defined and used. These levels are also compared with the new Dutch exam requirements and the internationally used Energy Concept Inventory.

Chapter 7: Conclusions and discussion

Chapter 7 reflects on and discusses all results presented in the previous chapters and in doing so answers the research questions as posed in Section 1.3.

Our final educational design in Chapter 4 can be seen as a hypothesis for our answer to sub-question 1. This hypothesis is tested in Chapter 5 which analyzes the learning process of that educational design in our final try-out. Chapter 6 then analyzes how many students successfully increased their versatility in our final try-out of this design.

Sub-question 2 is answered by the design research results from all three try-outs discussed in Chapters 2, 3, and 5 together with the rationale behind our final educational design given in Chapter 4.

Sub-question 3 is answered by the summative evaluation of our final educational design in Chapter 6 and is discussed using the recommendations formulated in Chapter 5.

Sub-question 4 is seen as a part of the evaluation of the learning process given in Chapter 5 and is also discussed together with the given recommendations. Finally, all answers and recommendations are discussed in the light of future teaching and research on the subject of energy.

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Energy: an experiment-based route from

context to concept

Abstract

In order for students to develop a quantitative conception of energy we propose an experiment-based context to concept learning trajectory.

Design engineering contexts provide opportunities to have students discover quantitative physical laws using laboratory-scale experiments. In our teaching experiment we have met two major problems to such an approach. Initially students don’t see a contextual need for doing experiments nor for extracting a law from these experiments. The design engineering context offers the opportunity to ask students context-based questions to clarify these needs. To help teachers do so we have created a list of context-based responses to such problems. We have also set up a classification scheme to keep track of students’ progress along our proposed learning trajectory as they overcome the major problems. Using this classification scheme we analyzed the learning process and tested three different design engineering contexts.

In this paper we only focus on partial laws of energy conservation. This teaching experiment is part of a larger project in which we plan to propose a fully context-based trajectory aiming at the general law of conservation of energy.

2.1 Introduction

Curriculum innovation committees for the exact sciences in the Netherlands have advised a context-based approach to education. A number of criteria for

1 _{This chapter has been presented in 2010 as a paper at the GIREP-ICPE & MPTL}

Conference and has been published after peer-review as Logman, P. S. W. M., Kaper, W. H., & Ellermeijer, A. L. (2010b). Energy: an experiment-based route from context to concept. In GIREP-ICPE-MPTL 2010 International Conference, Teaching and

24

the use of contexts have been described by Gilbert (Gilbert, 2006) which we will be using as precisely as possible.

Goedhart (Goedhart, 2004) says contexts could obscure the concept yet Gilbert (Gilbert, 2006) says concepts seem to be taught as effectively as in more traditional approaches. Choosing energy as our subject, being a difficult and abstract concept, should provide us with a proper test case for these findings. Besides that, students’ ideas in current secondary education on energy are diagnosed as inflexible in formal examination tasks (Borsboom et al., 2008). The same problem has earlier been observed with students attending university chemistry courses on thermodynamics (Kaper, 1997).

As the scientific method has historically proven to produce flexible concepts we try to stay as close to the practice of science as possible. For these reasons we chose an experiment- and context-based approach from which students should grasp the concept of energy.

With this in mind we posed the following main research question for our project:

Which characteristics and what educational approach does a successful experiment- and context-based teaching-learning sequence have which develops a versatile conception of the general law of energy conservation in secondary school students?

In this paper we focus on reaching partial laws of energy conservation only.

2.2 Theory and design principles

2.2.1 Development of a conception of energy

Students enter secondary education with a preconception of energy that connects to the world in which they live (Watts, 1983). In a couple of years students’ understanding of energy should develop towards the scientific view. Opinions on the way in which this development should be organized vary widely. Several representatives say we should stay true to the scientific view of energy from the very introduction of the concept (Peters, 1981; Warren, 1983; Swackhamer, 2005) which makes it necessary to introduce highly abstract concepts like energy densities or fields at an early stage. Swackhamer adds that the traditional educational concept of energy forms contradicts this scientific view and should therefore not be used. Staying close to the scientific view Falk (Falk et al., 1983) introduces energy carriers to describe energy transport and Lawrence (Lawrence, 2007) introduces energy stores for energy storage. In Lawrence’s approach it becomes clear that energy transport is very different to energy storage as it needs to be described by transfer of energy from one store to another.

We, like Warren, think the scientific view of energy may be too abstract a concept for secondary school students to attain in one go. So instead of staying perfectly true to the modern scientific view of energy we suggest to stay as close