Teaching and Learning About Hypothese. Designing and evaluating a sequence of physics labs in upper secondary school
Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Program
Publicerad
2014
Författare
Falk, Felix
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
The objective for this thesis is to contribute to the understanding of how to teach
explicitly about hypotheses in upper secondary school physics. This is a part of
the discussion on how to teach explicitly about scienti c inquiry, and deals with the
problem of how to come to terms with common misconceptions about hypotheses. A
sequence of laboratory sessions is developed and implemented in a rst-year upper
secondary school class. The sequence aims to give the students opportunities to
develop their conceptions of the hypothesis concept. This is achieved by drawing
on the notion of constructive alignment and through a combination of interrelated
teaching and learning activities: direct instruction, activities of scienti c inquiry
and re
ection assignments. Using data from students' de nitions of the hypothesis
concept, work sheets, laboratory reports and interviews, the sequence is evaluated
through analysis of the students' conceptual development, changes in their general
approaches to scienti c inquiry, and causes for their learning. Five important aspects
of the hypothesis concept are identi ed, and conceptual development concerning
each of these are assessed. The degree of conceptual development is found to be
dependent on the students' abilities to discern an aspect in di erent types of teaching
and learning activities. Changes towards more re
ective approaches to scienti c
inquiry are noted among many students. These changes are strongly connected to a
guided re
ection assignment that relate to students' practical performance and that
are built on extensive feedback. The results of this study suggest that the developed
sequence can provide examples of design for e ective teaching about hypotheses and
scienti c inquiry.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
physics , hypothesis , scientic inquiry , refection , laboratory , constructive alignment