Jacques Vince

Design-based research: case of a teaching sequence on mechanics

Design‐based research, and particularly its theoretical status, is a subject of debate in the science education community. In the first part of this paper, a theoretical framework drawn up to develop design‐based research will be presented. This framework is mainly based on epistemological analysis of physics modelling, learning and teaching hypotheses. It includes grand theories, a specific theory that following Cobb, Confrey, diSessa, Lehrer, and Schauble is a “humble theory” in the sense that it does “real work”, and tools for design. In the second part, we will show how this specific theory and its tools led designers to develop teaching resources in the case of a teaching sequence on mechanics (Grade 10). We will explain how the components of the specific theory and tools guide the design at different levels; the conceptual structure of the teaching sequence, the chronology of the activities, the various choices of the type of activity and their wording. This presentation makes the bases of designing teaching resources explicit and therefore allows for scientific debate.

Research about the Use of Information Technology in Science Education

In this paper, we investigate some aspects of effectiveness in two different kinds of learning environments with use of information technology. The first part shows research results related to a web-based integrated science environment (WISE) and its effects on changing the role of the teacher, the curriculum, and the student. In the second part, three different approaches for scaffolding conceptual development in physics by using interactive computer models are analysed. Research results about different aspects of their effectiveness are presented. Both parts together show empirical results in relation to different promising approaches of using information technology in science education.