Louis Trudel

The Impact of Cognitive Tools on the Development of the Inquiry Skills of High School Students in Physics

the purpose of the study was to compare the effectiveness of two teaching strategies that utilize two different cognitive tools on the development of students’ inquiry skills in mechanics. The strategies were used to help students formulate Newton’s 2nd law of motion. Two cognitive tools had been used: a computer simulation and manipulations of concrete objects in physics laboratory. A quasi-experimental method that employed the 2 Cognitive Tools ? 2 Time of learning split-plot factorial design was applied in the study. The sample consisted of 54 Grade 11 students from two physics classes of the university preparation section in a high school of the province of Ontario (Canada). One class was assigned to interactive computer simulations (treatment) and the other to concrete objects in physics laboratory (control). Both tools were embedded in the general framework of the guided-inquiry cycle approach. The results showed that the interaction effect of the Cognitive Tools ? Time of learning was not statistically significant. However, the results also showed a significant effect on the development of students’ inquiry skills regardless of the type of cognitive tool they had used. Although the findings suggested that these two strategies are effective in developing students’ inquiry skills in mechanics, students in the computer simulation group had shown larger gain in their inquiry skills test than their counterparts in the laboratory group.

Effect of a Video-Based Laboratory on the High School Pupils' Understanding of Constant Speed Motion

Among the physical phenomena studied in high school, the kinematical concepts are important because they constitute a precondition for the study of subsequent concepts of mechanics. Our research aims at studying the effect of a computer-assisted scientific investigation on high school pupils’ understanding of the constant speed motion. Experimentation took place in a high school physics classroom. A repeated measures analysis of variance shows that, during the implementation of this strategy, the pupils’ understanding of kinematical concepts increased in a significant way. In conclusion, we specify advantages and limits of the study and give future research directions concerning the design of a computer-assisted laboratory in high school physics.

Sources of Anxiety and the Meaning of Participation in/for Science Fairs: A Canadian Case

Although anxiety is a significant emotional element of formal school science, little is known about how anxiety is originated and managed in the context of science fairs. The purpose of the present study was to investigate how a group of students in Grades 7 to 12 discursively (re)produce anxiety and its management from the perspective of their participation in a national science fair competition in Canada. Based on the analysis of participant’s talk during a focus group interview, our findings suggest that performance anxiety is an emotion inherent to participation in all stages of the event: from choosing a project to the administration of time, performing in front of an audience, and gaining public recognition. In this context, recurring participation emerges as an effective strategy for coping with this feeling. In exploring the ways that academically successful science students talk about how anxiety is generated and regulated, we advance knowledge about science fair participation and contribute to current discussions on how to create more captivating school science learning environments for all.RésuméLa présente étude analyse les façons dont des étudiants de la 7e à la 12e année (re)produisent discursivement l’anxiété et la gestion de l’anxiété liée à leur participation à un concours de type Expo-sciences au Canada. Fondé sur l’analyse des communications des participants au cours d’une entrevue dans le cadre d’un groupe de discussion, nos résultats suggèrent que l’anxiété liée au rendement est une émotion inhérente à cette participation, quelle que ce soit l’étape de l’événement en question, qu’il s’agisse du choix du sujet, de la gestion du temps, de la performance en public ou de la notoriété acquise au cours de l’événement. Dans ce contexte, la participation répétée s’avère une stratégie efficace pour affronter cette émotion.

INCIDENCE DES CARACTÉRISTIQUES DES ÉLÈVES SUR LEUR DEGRÉ DE MOTIVATION À PARTICIPER À UNE EXPO-SCIENCES

As feiras de ciencias sao cada vez mais populares entre os jovens alunos. O presente estudo visa identificar aquelas fatores que influenciam os alunos para participar em tais eventos. Para este fim, criamos um questionario para medir o grau de motivacao dos participantes de uma feira nacional de ciencias no Canada . Nossos resultados indicam que os participantes se sentem bastante motivados. No entanto, e contrariamente a pesquisas anteriores, descobrimos tambem que o grau de motivacao dos participantes e influenciado pela idade e serie. Concluimos nosso artigo apresentando algumas das limitacoes do nosso estudo e sugerindo areas para pesquisas subsequentes.

Contribution of the Computer Technologies in the Teaching of Physics: Critical Review and Conception of an Interactive Simulation Software

In the present research, we will synthesize the main research results about the development of interactive computer environments for physics teaching and learning. We will see that few types of software propose environments that take into account the users erroneous representations in order to make him become aware of his mistakes. The majority of these softwares present modelling activities that are restricted to the automatic collection of experimental data and their analysis under graphical form. As a consequence, we will present the design of computer environments for the learning of the phenomenona of absorption and diffusion of light which will take into account the users initial representations. The design of these environments is divided in five steps: (1) diagnostic of the user’s initial representations; (2) confrontation of the user’s initial representations by the simulation; (3) reconstruction by the user of his representations following the completion by the user of the simulation; (4) reconstruction of the user’s representations following the presentation by the software of scientific information related to the case studied and (5) assessment of the current state of understanding of the user by the software.

INCIDÊNCIA DE CARACTERÍSTICAS DOS ESTUDANTES SOBRE SEU GRAU DE MOTIVAÇÃO PARA PARTICIPAR DE UMA EXPOSIÇÃO DE CIÊNCIAS

As feiras de ciencias sao cada vez mais populares entre os jovens alunos. O presente estudo visa identificar aquelas fatores que influenciam os alunos para participar em tais eventos. Para este fim, criamos um questionario para medir o grau de motivacao dos participantes de uma feira nacional de ciencias no Canada . Nossos resultados indicam que os participantes se sentem bastante motivados. No entanto, e contrariamente a pesquisas anteriores, descobrimos tambem que o grau de motivacao dos participantes e influenciado pela idade e serie. Concluimos nosso artigo apresentando algumas das limitacoes do nosso estudo e sugerindo areas para pesquisas subsequentes.

INCIDENCE OF STUDENTS' CHARACTERISTICS ON THEIR LEVEL OF MOTIVATION TO PARTICIPATE IN A SCIENCE FAIR

As feiras de ciencias sao cada vez mais populares entre os jovens alunos. O presente estudo visa identificar aquelas fatores que influenciam os alunos para participar em tais eventos. Para este fim, criamos um questionario para medir o grau de motivacao dos participantes de uma feira nacional de ciencias no Canada . Nossos resultados indicam que os participantes se sentem bastante motivados. No entanto, e contrariamente a pesquisas anteriores, descobrimos tambem que o grau de motivacao dos participantes e influenciado pela idade e serie. Concluimos nosso artigo apresentando algumas das limitacoes do nosso estudo e sugerindo areas para pesquisas subsequentes.