The laquo;Howraquo; and laquo;Whatraquo; of Learning Physics
原文作者 Michael Prosser and Rosemary Millar
University of Sydney, Australia
摘要:最近对正在接受高等教育的学生的学习的研究中,学者们越来越关注学生学习的方法 和他们在学习中得到的一些经验。 在本文中,我们将描述和使用phenomenographic技术来研究那些在大学第一年学习物理课程的学生。这项研究数据来自于采访此课程中的十六个志愿者学生。
关键词:Learning ; Physics ; how
理论背景和先前的研究
如果学生的学习,包括其主题内容被认为是一个有关于关系现象性质的任务,那么这个任务在学生的学习中扮演着一个非常重要的角色。事实上,最先开发这个理论和方法论的该研究小组的领导人Marton 认为描述学生学习了哪些知识和描述学生如何学习一样重要。他进一步指出,如何学习和学到了什么应该被递归定义为有引用(学到了什么)和结构(如何学习)两方面(Marton, 1986)。
在论文《学习到了什么》的研究结果中,哥德堡大学的研究小组已经开发出一种被称为phenomenography的研究方法。在发展这项研究方法的时候,他们采用了一种定性的角度来看待这一方法。随着相关材料的研究和对学生解释一些现象的深入访谈中,他们已经描述了不同于概念的的定性描述的结果。从对学生访谈记录的确切分析,这个概念可以通过一组描述类别去形容。这个概念同时具有引用和结构两个方面的功能。在结构方面,举个例子,可能涉及到如何通过引用和结构得出解释,并且引用和结构在这个解释中起到了哪些作用。正如本节内容开始的时候所提到的一样,识别和描述这些概念被认为是此次研究的一个组成部分和重要的研究结果 。
哥德堡大学研究小组也用phenomenography的研究方法来研究学生学习的《如何》。他们再次运用此方法来研究特定情况下学生学习任务的方式,并分析了采访记录的结果去定性识别不同方法的使用情况。Marton通过学生学习中深层次和表面的学习方法去描述引用的作用(Marton amp; Saljo, 1976a)。学生为了理解材料会采用深层次的学习方式,从手头的学习任务中提取个人意义。当采用表面的学习方法时,学生会尝试重现正在研究的材料,但不会使之内化为自己的知识。Svenson已经形容了学生的结构方面的学习方法接近于在整体和原子的学习方法。学生为了接受一个整体的方法去寻求和整合他们正在研究的材料。从另一个方面来说,当采用一种原子论的方法时,学生尝试记住没有强加任何相干结构的材料的这些断开的联系(Svensson, 1977).。他还认为,原子论的学习方式导致了学生学习一些毫无联系的信息,而整体的学习方法可以学到保存信息结构的组织原则。
这些《如何学习》和《学到了什么》描述的递归性质总结概略地如图1所示。
这项研究可以以论文的形式呈现出来得益于几位以前在哥德堡大学工作的成员。作为课程的一部分,审查过程中,他们对瑞典科技大学学生第一年学习力学课程非常感兴趣(Johansson, Marton amp; Svensson, 1985)。他们开发了一些用来引出学生不同概念的定性分析的面试问题。
在本次研究中,我们确实对一下问题很感兴趣(1)在澳大利亚和瑞典学习类似课程的学生是否有类似概念相同的现象(2)Johansson, Marton and Svensson (1985)设置的这一概念是否需要进一步完善或修改(3)研究方法和观念的变化的关系的性质是什么,如果有的话。
如图1所示,递归描述《如何学习》和《学到了什么》
学习
如何学习 学到了什么
(方法) ( 概念)
如何 内容 如何 内容
(整体 (表面/ (结构化或 (注重
/原子论) 深层次) 给出解释) 解释)
研究背景
本研究的前身是关注在澳大利亚大型都市大学学习第一年的物理专业课程的力学部分的学生。该课程是专为合格等级的学生所设计(一个荣誉级课程并行运行)。所有学生在高中的最后两年都学过物理。负责和参与了课程的教学工作人员意识到并试图考虑一些最近关于学生对科学教育观念替代的研究。
具体来说,有一个明确的强调关于发展学生对目标的概念上,而不是得到解决问题的正确方法。Buzz group和类似技术被用来帮助学生确定目标的观念,帮助他们将自己的观念与课程进行比较。该实验室的计划进行了重新设计,以期更专注于解决问题和概念的发展上,减少像laquo;菜谱raquo;那样的方法。最后做了一些重新设计期末考试的尝试,使其更加注重于测试概念的理解。
因此参与这一过程的工作人员感受到所关注的问题在许多方面类似于那些在瑞典的研究,所以瑞典研究开发的任务被认为是适合本次研究学生学习的相同方面的。
研究报告来自于深入分析一个大约有八十个学生的班中的十六名学生志愿者访谈的结果。学生们在两种情况下被采访,第一种是在他们开始主题研究之前,第二种是在他们完成对主题的讨论和评价之后。采访大约间隔12周。在第一种情况下受采访的学生被提供了四个任务,并要求解释它们所描述的动作。在第二种情况下受采访的学生被提供了一组平行的四个任务,再次叫他们解释这些动作,也被问到一些关于他们的研究方法的问题。在这个论文中我们只报告关于这个现象的三个问题。
当学习的学生从关系的角度去学习,运用phenomenographic 技术,第一个活动就是确定和描述被学生接受的观念和他们研究课程材料的方法。开展这项活动的重点是把一系列成绩单作为一个整体。在确定和定性描述了不同概念和被学生接受和使用的方法,下一个活动是回到个人访谈成绩单然后根据概念分类和他们中有代表性的方法。最后,就可以研究在概念的变化和学生个人方法之间的关系。概念和方法以及它们之间的关系可以认为是研究结果的组成部分。
学生概念
Johansson, Marton 和Svensson用的两套平行的任务被用于本次研究。一个之前,和其他学生学习的后续。三个任务(第一个涉及降低速度,第二个将速度减小到零,第三个保持速度不变)来自于一个组的学生提出的如下描述(第四的分析不包括在本研究):
任务一:Task 1. A puck leaves an ice hockey club and glides straight ahead on smooth ice what happens to the puck and why?
任务2:一个高尔夫球手击球之后球落在完全水平的绿色-什么样的 路径可以遵循,为什么?
任务3:一辆车以一个较高的恒定速度沿一高速公路行驶,是什么样的作用力驱动汽车让它这样运动?
任务涉及降低速度-----ice-puck和高尔夫球
在第一个任务里冰球速度减慢,牛顿定理对这一现象的解释是,作为冰球是减速的,那么必须有一个合力作用于跟它运动方向相反的方向。这个力是由于冰球与冰面接触而产生的摩擦力。第二个任务中学生被要求描述和解释运动的两个点,一个点在高尔夫球运动到它的最高点时。在这两种情况下学生集中于分析速度的垂直分量。在上升的过程中,是减少的。对此牛顿的解释是,作为高尔夫球为对象它是减慢的,作用在球上的合力与它的运动方向相反。这个力是引力。根据牛顿的运动理论,不论在哪种情况下,都有朝着运动方向的力。
在处理类似的减速问题时,学生们把关注点放在两个力中的一个。第一,学生关注外力的作用(一个作用在物体上的力是来自于与另一个物体之间的摩擦或引力作用)。第二他们关注外外部作用力和内部作用力的作用(一个内力与一个外部物体相互作用产生的力作为一个非牛顿力保持在这个物体上 the stick or club, has ceased)。
按照他们的解释,列出以下学生使用的一些概念
该对象有一个递减的速度是由于
概念a:外部摩擦力与运动方向相反
概念b:沿着运动方向的内力小于与运动方向相反的外部摩擦力的大小
概念c:沿着运动方向的内力比与运动方向相反的外部摩擦力更好分析
这三个概念之间的主要差异可以在它们的引用和结构方面有更加深远的理解。从它们的引用方面来说,概念a的涉及重点只是一个外力(牛顿力),但是概念b和概念c同时涉及到了外力和内力(非牛顿力)。因为概念a从引用的角度上来看的话是区别于概念b和概念c的。
而概念b和概念c 的不同之处在于它们之间从结构上来说是不同的,也就是说在解释现象的时候如何用外力或内力去解释的时候是不同的。概念b和概念c 在用内力解释问题的时候都是基于一个论点,那就是当在运动方向上没有力的作用,那么物体就不会运动。也就是说,在更一般的条件下,如果一对平衡力作用于物体上,那么就没有其他的非牛顿力存在。这两个概念之间的区别是对内力和外力的相对大小的差异的解释。在概念b中内力小于外力的理由是基于一个论点,那就是如果一个物体不是以恒定的速度在运动,那么它必定受到一个不为零的合外力。这就涉及到牛顿认为一对平衡力必然会导致物体以一恒定的速度运动。从另外一个方面来说,在概念c中,内力比外力更好分析的原因是在于没有一个非牛顿平衡力。因此,当概念b和概念c在引用方面非常相似的时候,它们的不同之处就在于结构。
外文文献出处: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF STUDENT LEARNING: HIGHER EDUCATION (DECEMBER 1989), pp. 513-528
附外文文献原文
Theoretical background and previous research
If student learning is to be viewed as a relational phenomenon the nature of the task, including its subject matter content, takes on a very important role. Indeed Marton, the leader of the research group who originally developed this theoretical and methodological perspective, argues that descriptions of the laquo;whatraquo; students learn are as important as descriptions of the laquo;howraquo; they learn. He further argues that the laquo;howraquo; and the laquo;whatraquo; should be defined recursively in that both have structural (how) and referential (what) aspects (Marton, 1986).
In studying outcomes (the laquo;whatraquo;) the research group at the University of Gothenburg has developed a research approach which has been termed phenomenography. In developing this approach they have adopted a qualitative perspective. Using in-depth interviews in which students explain phenomena associated with the material being studied, they have described outcomes in terms of qualitatively different conceptions. The conceptions are described in terms of a set of categories of description which are identified from an analysis of transcripts of student interviews. These conceptions have both structural and referential aspects. The structural aspect, for example, may relate to how an explanation is given or structured and the referential to what is focussed on or referred to in the explanation. As mentioned at the beginning of this section, the identification and descrip
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Theoretical background and previous research
If student learning is to be viewed as a relational phenomenon the nature of the task, including its subject matter content, takes on a very important role. Indeed Marton, the leader of the research group who originally developed this theoretical and methodological perspective, argues that descriptions of the laquo;whatraquo; students learn are as important as descriptions of the laquo;howraquo; they learn. He further argues that the laquo;howraquo; and the laquo;whatraquo; should be defined recursively in that both have structural (how) and referential (what) aspects (Marton, 1986).
In studying outcomes (the laquo;whatraquo;) the research group at the University of Gothenburg has developed a research approach which has been termed phenomenography. In developing this approach they have adopted a qualitative perspective. Using in-depth interviews in which students explain phenomena associated with the material being studied, they have described outcomes in terms of qualitatively different conceptions. The conceptions are described in terms of a set of categories of description which are identified from an analysis of transcripts of student interviews. These conceptions have both structural and referential aspects. The structural aspect, for example, may relate to how an explanation is given or structured and the referential to what is focussed on or referred to in the explanation. As mentioned at the beginning of this section, the identification and description of these conceptions is considered to be an integral part and important result of the study.
The Gothenburg group has also used a phenomenographic technique to study the laquo;howraquo; of student learning. They have again used in-depth interviews of the way students approach their learning tasks in particular contexts, and have analysed the resulting interview transcripts to identify the qualitatively different approaches used. Marton has described the referential aspect of the way students approach learning tasks in terms of deep and surface approaches (Marton amp; Saljo, 1976a). In using a deep approach the students intention is to understand the material being studied in terms of extracting personal meaning from the learning task at hand. When adopting a surface approach the students intention is to reproduce the material being studied with no intention of making that material their own. Svenson has described the structural aspects of student approaches in terms of holistic and atomistic approaches. In adopting a holistic approach students seek to integrate and relate the material they are studying. On the other hand, when adopting an atomistic approach, students attempt to memorise disconnected pieces of information without imposing any coherent structure on the material (Svensson, 1977). He also argues that an atomistic approach results in students learning isolated bits of information, whereas an holistic approach results in the learning of the organising principles which preserve the structure of the information.
The recursive nature of these descriptions of the laquo;howraquo; and the laquo;whatraquo; are summarised diagrammatically in Figure 1.
The study being described in this paper grew out of some previous work by members of the Gothenburg group. As part of a course review process they had become interested in what students were learning in a first year mechanics course in a Swedish technological university (Johansson, Marton amp; Svensson, 1985). They developed a set of interview questions designed to elicit the qualitatively different conceptions of certain phenomena being studied by students.
In the present study we were interested in determining (1) whether students in a similar course in Australia had a similar set of conceptions of the same phenomena as the Swedish students, (2) whether the set of conceptions described by Johansson, Marton and Svensson (1985) needed to be refined or amended, and (3) what was the nature of the relationship, if any, between approaches to study and changes to conceptions.
Figure 1. The recursive nature of the descriptions of the laquo;howraquo; and the laquo;whatraquo;
Learning
How (Approach) What (Conception)
How What How What
(Holistic/Atomistic) (Deep/ Surface) (Explanation (Explanation
Structured or given) refers to or
focusses on)
Figure I. Nature recursive des descriptions du laquo;commentraquo; et du laquo;quoiraquo;
Context of present study
The present study grew out of a concern for student learning in the mechanics section of a first year physics course for physics majors in a large metropolitan university in Australia. The course was designed for pass level students (an honours level course runs in parallel). All the students had studied physics in their final two years at high school. The staff responsible for and involved in the teaching of the course were aware of and tried to take some account of the recent research on students alternative conceptions in science education.
Specifically, there was an explicit emphasis on developing students conceptions of the subject matter and less on getting the right solution to selected problems. Buzz groups and similar techniques were used to help students identify their conceptions of the subject matter and to help them compare their conceptions with those of the course. The laboratory program was redesigned to focus more on problem solving and conceptual development and less on laquo;cookbookraquo; approaches. Finally
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