Karine Bécu-Robinault

Integrating experiments into the teaching of energy

The evolution of French physics curricula and experiments from the beginning of the century to the present has been analysed. This study is based on a corpus consisting of standard curricula and textbooks. It shows the strong coherence between the aspects of energy presented through teaching content and experiments. Both present the same pattern of evolution over this century in successive curricula: a smooth evolution from 1902 to 1988 and an abrupt change in 1994. Two simultaneous phenomena characterize this evolution: a search for simplicity in the knowledge to be taught, both in respect of the conceptual content and experiments; and an increasing distance between the knowledge to be taught and established scientific knowledge. We assume that teachers have played an important role in this evolution.

Conceptual Change and Sustainable Coherency of Concepts Across Modes of Interaction

Our analyses illustrate nine instances of what we call multimodal and multimedial reformulations of content beginning either with drawings of physics experiments and going to the manipulation of the physics experiments themselves or beginning with the experiments and going to the drawings. We postulated that each time one of these reformulations occurred, it was a potential (yet rare) pivotal moment for conceptual change because content was being transformed across modes and media. Within the nine instances of reformulation, we found two types of pivotal moments (three instances in all). The first type was changing one’s conception from an intuitive everyday view on physics to a canonical view of physics. The second was maintaining a canonical view of physics but while also integrating more complexity in terms of experiments constructed, drawings made, or concepts talked about. In addition, the notion of the semantic bundle enabled us to show how the ongoing interaction supplied building blocks that illustrated either sustained conceptual change coherent with canonical physics or difficulties that students faced.

Modelling Activities of Students During a Traditional Labwork

This case study is integrated in a research program on students’ modelling activity in relation to teaching situations. This research is also a part of a research development project involving secondary school teachers and concerning energy. This case study deals with a quantitative approach of modelling energy phenomena. The data were collected by audio and video, and whole dialogues were transcribed. The transcriptions were analysed by categorising students’ interventions on the basis of their modelling activities. The results obtained concern the role of the different proposed tasks in learning the targeted concepts.