Peter Hubber

Constructing representations to learn in science

Current research into student learning in science has shifted attention from the traditional cognitivist perspectives of conceptual change to socio-cultural and semiotic perspectives that characterize learning in terms of induction into disciplinary literacy practices. This book builds on recent interest in the role of representations in learning to argue for a pedagogical practice based on students actively generating and exploring representations. The book describes a sustained inquiry in which the authors worked with primary and secondary teachers of science, on key topics identified as problematic in the research literature. Data from classroom video, teacher interviews and student artifacts were used to develop and validate a set of pedagogical principles and explore student learning and teacher change issues. The authors argue the theoretical and practical case for a representational focus. The pedagogical approach is illustrated and explored in terms of the role of representation to support quality student learning in science. Separate chapters address the implications of this perspective and practice for structuring sequences around different concepts, reasoning and inquiry in science, models and model based reasoning, the nature of concepts and learning, teacher change, and assessment. The authors argue that this representational focus leads to significantly enhanced student learning, and has the effect of offering new and productive perspectives and approaches for a number of contemporary strands of thinking in science education including conceptual change, inquiry, scientific literacy, and a focus on the epistemic nature of science.

The Usefulness of a Science Degree: The “lost voices” of science trained professionals

This paper reports a study of science graduates who are employed in positions outside their discipline specialisation. The research was designed to uncover the reasons for them choosing to study science at university, the competencies they utilise in their work and their lives, and how these relate to their undergraduate education in science. The study is seen as important in that already about one‐half of science graduates are in such positions and it is argued that there is a need in scientific and technologically based societies to have a greater representation of such people in decision‐making positions in government and industry. The directions for the science degree that can be drawn from the data gathered are congruent with those arising from other relevant studies. That is, attention should be paid to widely used skills, such as communication and problem‐solving, and to developing an understanding of science within its social and ethical context. An argument is mounted for considering the way the science degree is presented to potential students and to the general public.

Reasoning in Science through Representation

In this chapter we argue that our analysis of student reasoning through constructing representations points to a range of informal and formal reasoning processes. This suggests the need for researchers and teachers to shift from an exclusive focus on formal syllogistic reasoning as the main or only reasoning resource for science learning.

A Representation Construction Approach

In this chapter we lay out the principles of an approach to teaching and learning science based on student generation, negotiation and refinement of representations in a guided inquiry process. We first tell the story of how we developed this perspective, building on Chapters 1 and 2, and the research approach that led to these principles.

Teacher Perspectives of a Representation Construction Approach to Teaching Science

The representation construction approach detailed in Chapter 3 evolved from an ongoing collaboration between researchers and participating teachers. This chapter explores the teachers’ perspectives of the approach as it developed over the life of the Role of Representations in Learning Science (RILS) project.

Models and Learning Science

Interest in models as a key characteristic of the knowledge construction processes of science, and as a critical feature of quality learning in science, has grown over the last two decades (Gilbert, 2005; Clement & Rea-Ramirez, 2008).

Constructing Representations to Learn Science

While there has been considerable research attention paid to ways of supporting students to interpret and apply the multi modal representations that constitute scientific understanding, less has been paid to the active construction of representations as part of a science inquiry process. This chapter describes the development, over a decade, of major Australian research projects involving researchers from five universities exploring a guided inquiry approach to school science involving the construction and negotiation of representations. This program of research is based in pragmatist understandings of the relationship between representations, phenomena and meaning making. It links the pedagogy to the knowledge production processes of science itself, drawing on science study scholars such as Latour and Gooding. The approach has formed the basis of major government sponsored professional learning programs. This chapter describes the development of this ‘representation construction’ approach and provides examples of sequences of representational challenges, with associated student work, to demonstrate the key features of the pedagogy and the quality of learning that ensues. We describe current research working with schools to establish the approach more widely and the professional learning challenges this poses for teachers.

Representation Construction: A Guided Inquiry Approach for Science Education

This chapter outlines a guided inquiry approach, called representation construction, which was successfully developed within an Australian Research Council (ARC) project that links student learning and engagement with the knowledge production practices of science. This approach involves challenging students to generate and negotiate the representations (text, graphs, models, diagrams) that constitute the discursive practices of science, rather than focusing on the text-based, definitional versions of concepts. The representation construction approach is based on sequences of representational challenges which involve students constructing representations to actively explore and make claims about phenomena. It thus represents a more active view of knowledge than traditional structural approaches and encourages visual as well as the traditional text-based literacies. The approach has been successful in demonstrating enhanced outcomes for students, in terms of sustained engagement with ideas, and quality learning, and for teachers enhanced pedagogical knowledge and understanding of how knowledge in science is developed and communicated. This chapter draws on specific examples of how the approach was implemented in a variety of topics, such as energy, forces, astronomy and ideas about matter within junior secondary science classrooms. It will also draw on the issues associated with the adoption of the approach in laptop/tablet classrooms where part of the curriculum is delivered in the cloud.

Physical Learning Environments for Science Education: An Ethnographic Field Study of Primary Classrooms in Australia, Germany and Taiwan

In any discussion on quality teaching and learning, physical classroom environments are often given surprisingly little attention. This is all the more surprising, given the fact that in the field of pre-school education sound theoretical conceptions have been developed decades ago through which environmental aspects of learning can be analysed. One could think, for example, of the ‘prepared environment’ of Maria Montessori, as well as Loris Malaguzzi’s concept of the environment as ‘third educator’. These conceptions can also be applied to learning in the primary school.

Representation Construction as a Core Science Disciplinary Literacy

There is growing interest in and understanding of the material basis of epistemic practices in science, and consequently of the role of multimodal representation construction in reasoning and learning in science classrooms. From this perspective learning in science crucially involves induction into the interplay between experimental exploration and construction and coordination of representations as a core element of scientific disciplinary literacy. In this chapter we argue that learning to explain and problem-solve effectively in science involves students actively generating and coordinating multiple, multimodal representations and material artifacts in exploring material phenomena, in a guided inquiry process. We describe the development of a ‘representation construction’ approach to inquiry in science classrooms that is grounded in pragmatist perspectives on learning and knowing, which engages students in active experimental exploration and generation and refinement of core representations underpinning science concepts. We provide evidence of the success of the approach in supporting quality learning and reasoning. We propose that the construction of representations such as drawings, animations, role-plays or mathematical/symbolic systems works to support learning and knowing through the affordances of different modes to productively constrain exploration and explanation of the material world. We conclude that induction into multimodal representation construction processes in response to grappling with real world problems is central to the development of scientific disciplinary literacy, and that this approach represents a significant innovation in its use of authentic inquiry to serve a serious conceptual learning agenda in science.