Exploring the Coherence of Student Reasoning when Responding to Questionnaires on Thermally Activated Phenomena

Onofrio Rosario Battaglia,Claudio Fazio,Benedetto Di Paola

doi:10.29333/ejmste/10937

Onofrio Rosario Battaglia, Claudio Fazio + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/10937

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Abstract

Many research results show that students often highlight “mixed-type” reasoning when tackling problematic situations and problems. This reasoning is based on the simultaneous use of common-sense and mere descriptions of facts, perceived as sufficient to build an “explanation” of observed or proposed situations and problems. This fact can be interpreted as a lack of coherence. In this paper, we study the coherence of responses that a sample of undergraduate chemical engineering student give when they are asked to face real-life situations, to create explanations, and to use models in different contexts. We administered open-ended questionnaires before and after a twenty-hour Inquiry-Based workshop related to phenomena activated by a thermal overcoming of a potential barrier. Based on the Physics Education Research literature on student understanding of relevant physics contents, the student responses are analysed by using researcher-generated categories of reasoning and their coherence is studied. Finally, we discuss some implications of the results to improve the development of students’ explicative skills.

Highlights

A relevant aim of university science programs is the development of student explanatory skills
We study the coherence of responses that a sample of undergraduate chemical engineering student give when they are asked to face real-life situations, to create explanations, and to use models in different contexts
Based on the Physics Education Research literature on student understanding of relevant physics contents, the student responses are analysed by using researcher-generated categories of reasoning and their coherence is studied

Summary

Introduction

A relevant aim of university science programs is the development of student explanatory skills. Research has shown the relevance of characterizing the reasoning students in their first year of academic studies (freshmen) deploy when asked to create or use representations and explanations (Leach et al, 2000), their coherence (Bao et al, 2006; Engel-Clough & Driver, 1986; Maloney et al, 1993), and context-dependence (Redfors, 2003; Redfors et al, 2001), showing that freshmen are often inconsistent in their reasoning, even in situations that an expert would consider equivalent This and the awareness of the increasing role that research assigns to the processes of developing and using explanatory models in science education at all schooling levels led us to analyse, in a previous piece of research (Fazio et al, 2013), the reasoning deployed by engineering freshmen when asked to create representations and explanations for everyday life situations and phenomena. They clearly showed to have more than one view about nature and use of explications in science, often implementing reasoning strategies that are Battaglia et al / Exploring the Coherence of Student Reasoning

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