Papers by Aristotelis S . Gkiolmas
Società italiana degli storici della fisica e dell'astronomia : atti del XL Convegno annuale = proceedings of the 40th Annual Conference
At a first stage, this research work is forming a complete teaching proposal for the instruction ... more At a first stage, this research work is forming a complete teaching proposal for the instruction of basic characteristics of Complex Systems (CS) to undergraduate students. It addresses, specifically, students with two characteristics: (i) their little background knowledge of Science, and (ii) the Department in which they study, is not a Department of Physics or Mathematics, where Complex Systems would be a mandatory, autonomous, part of the Syllabus. By now, plenty of educational literature exists for the teaching of Complex Systems and their properties, but it only concerns learners of Science Departments or Secondary Education students, in classes of Science and Mathematics. Furthermore, the current research investigates the application of the aforementioned teaching proposal, in a case study – empirical research – involving a sample of students of the Department of Primary Education of the University of Athens, Greece (prospective teachers). The set out and proposed teaching seq...
Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 2021
This work presents a series of lessons containing didactic experiments, as well as the related ed... more This work presents a series of lessons containing didactic experiments, as well as the related educational research. The series concerns the instruction of prospective primary school teachers who possess a weak Physics background. The main topics of instruction are: basic concepts of wave behavior (mainly interference and diffraction), as well as the wave properties of light. This instruction is based on POE (Predict-Observe-Explain) techniques. It constitutes the basis of a broader effort in the making, which aims at teaching future teachers about wave properties and wave-particle duality. The benefits of teaching such notions of waves to teachers are examined, the learners’ previous knowledge and their views are scrutinised, and their learning progress is monitored. As a further step, the overall outcome of the improvement of learners’ knowledge regarding the given concepts is examined, using educational research tools.
The International Journal of Critical Media Literacy, 2019
In the current work, the intrinsic intertwining between Scientific Literacy and Critical Media Li... more In the current work, the intrinsic intertwining between Scientific Literacy and Critical Media Literacy is presented and scrutinized. The two kinds of Literacy do converge in many cases, while in others the one is a prerequisite for the other. The whole interconnection is, naturally, examined from an educational point of view, and especially the perspective of critical pedagogy is emphasized, on how these two kinds of literacy could strengthen and deepen one another even more, by pointing to certain methodological and educational praxis suggestions. A double “route” of opposing directions is presented, the route from Scientific Literacy to Critical Media Literacy and the route vice versa.
Sustainable Futures, 2020
This work presents a case study that investigates the influence of a collaborative environmental ... more This work presents a case study that investigates the influence of a collaborative environmental education construction project on students' attitudes, knowledge and skills' improvement. Within this project, the students of a vocational senior high school (Chryssoupoli, Kavala, Greece) created a robotic device in order to measure the environmental pollutant particles PM2.5 and PM10. The case study adopted participatory observation techniques, in order to have a direct and in-depth study. The intervention was implemented in five stages: activation, exploration, inquiry, creation and presentation. The evolution of the whole procedure was recorded in teachers' and students' diaries. These recordings, together with the artefact itself, as well as the students' presentations of their work, constituted the data of our research. The results indicated that the students' attitudes towards environmental issues, their knowledge of the specific problem studied, and their technical skills were all significantly improved.
The current research aimed at attempting to familiarize Greek prospective Primary School teachers... more The current research aimed at attempting to familiarize Greek prospective Primary School teachers with notions of the dynamic systems nature of ecosystem food-webs and evaluate the results. The sample consisted of 85 undergraduate s-tudents of the Faculty of Primary Education, of the University of Athens, Greece, who had chosen the optional topic of the autumn semester: “Environmental Science:
Advances in systems science and applications, 2014
In this paper we report on how a commercial “Chaos pendulum system” was used to teach aspects of ... more In this paper we report on how a commercial “Chaos pendulum system” was used to teach aspects of chaos theory to Greek upper secondary school students. The principal aim of this project was to investigate to what extent students can develop an understanding of the chaotic behaviour using representations in the phase space. The didactical methodology used was that of the “Physics Workshop” where students follow a discovery type laboratory course with detailed lab worksheets and are guided to the study of chaotic motion starting from observations of the oscillation of a simple physical pendulum. Interesting conclusions concerning students’ ability in using the technology associated with the microcomputer based laboratory (MBL), the development of a qualitative understanding of the chaotic behaviour using the representation in the phase space and in interpreting graphs can be drawn from the analysis of their recorded answers.
Advances in systems science and applications, 2013
In this paper, the effectiveness of the NetLogo programming environment is investigated, as regar... more In this paper, the effectiveness of the NetLogo programming environment is investigated, as regards assisting students (of various levels of achievement) of the Greek Higher Secondary Education, to understand how some simple ecosystems are structured and to model the systemic behaviour of such ecosystems by conceptualising their Complexity features. This paper is part of a wider research on teaching Ecosystem Complexity to high-school students, with the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT’s). Specific models from the NetLogo Models’ Library were used and students of the 2nd class of the Greek Lyceum (aged between 16 and 17) participated in the investigation. Apart from oral instruction, the students were asked to run the NetLogo simulations and do specific things with the models, answering simultaneously questions on worksheets provided to them. The studying and the evaluation of the worksheets by the researchers, as well as the post- instructional evaluation of t...
Many researchers and educators are using NetLogo nowadays in order to simulate ecosystems’ behavi... more Many researchers and educators are using NetLogo nowadays in order to simulate ecosystems’ behavior, both for research and for educational purposes. This paper focuses on the educational aspect of NetLogo’s use, in order to teach undergraduate students, basic principles of ecosystems’ comportment. The students have as a key-characteristic that their background in Science is limited, and that they are prospective school teachers, at various educational levels. The new idea presented in this research, is that the learner tries, being taught by use of NetLogo models, to conceptualise each agent’s (“turtle’s”) behavior, as well as their collective behavior. This is achieved, avoiding by any means to teach NetLogo programming, even at introductory level. Apart from that, the undergraduate students navigate in a menu, making some specific choices
In this article, a thorough presentation is attempted on how Critical Pedagogies could be used as... more In this article, a thorough presentation is attempted on how Critical Pedagogies could be used as a basic instruction tool to teach the history of science and the “evolution” of science to students of all levels. Science is usually taught as a series of inventions, or as one scientist builds over the works of the previous ones. Seldom do educators refer to the central aspects of scientific evolutions such as: the existence of relations of power within them, the use of science to facilitate war or domination, the social necessities that order the scientific discoveries in many cases, the role of women in science, etc. Little importance is given to the evolution of non-Western, non-White science (Chinese science, Arabic science, etc.) as equivalent and equally important forms of scientific expression. Critical Pedagogies can provide answers to these thoughts and are discussed in this article. Traditional wisdom (as is eco-wisdom) is also compared to science in a balanced discussion th...
ArXiv, 2015
The Multi-Agent-Based programming, modeling and simulation environment of NetLogo (Wilensky, 1999... more The Multi-Agent-Based programming, modeling and simulation environment of NetLogo (Wilensky, 1999) has been used extensively during the last fifteen years for educational – among other – purposes. The learning subject, upon interacting with the User’s Interface of NetLogo, can easily study properties of the simulated natural systems, as well as observe the latter’s response, when altering their parameters. In this research, NetLogo was used under the perspective that the learning subject (student or prospective teacher) interacts with the model in a deeper way, obtaining the “role” of an “agent”. This is not achieved by obliging the learner to program (write NetLogo code) but by interviewing them, together with “applying” the choices that he/she makes on the model. The scheme was carried out, as part of a broader research, with interviews, and web-page-like interface menu selections, in a sample of 17 University students in Athens (prospective Primary School teachers) and the result...
Τα τeλeυταία χρόνια αναδeικνύeται όλο και πeρισσότeρο η σημασία της ένταξης της διδασκαλίας των Π... more Τα τeλeυταία χρόνια αναδeικνύeται όλο και πeρισσότeρο η σημασία της ένταξης της διδασκαλίας των Πολύπλοκων Συστημάτων (Complex Systems) στην Eκπαίδeυση (Jacobson & Wilensky, 2006; Wilensky & Reisman, 2006; Wilkerson-Jerde & Wilensky, 2015). Η άσκηση – μάθηση – διδασκαλία σe θέματα πολυπλοκότητας eίναι μια διαδικασία που προωθeί τον ολιστικό τρόπο σκέψης και τη συστημική αντιμeτώπιση του κόσμου και των φαινομένων του. Οι μαθητές eξοικeιώνονται μe τις σχέσeις των φαινομένων σe διάφορα eπίπeδα, τη μη προβλeψιμότητα κλπ. Οι προeκτάσeις της προσέγγισης ξeπeρνούν τα φυσικά οικοσυστήματα και τα θέματα πeριβάλλοντος και αγγίζουν - eφαρμόζονται σe ποικίλα θέματα από μια πληθώρα των φυσικών αλλά και των κοινωνικών eπιστημών. Στην eργαστηριακή συνeδρία, θα παρουσιαστeί μια συγκeκριμένη eφαρμογή - διδακτική παρέμβαση (σχeδιασμός, ανάπτυξη eκπαιδeυτικού υλικού, eφαρμογή, eυρήματα και σχeδιαζόμeνeς eπeκτάσeις) που σχeδιάστηκe από μέλη του Eργαστηρίου Διδακτικής και Eπιστημολογίας Φυσικών Eπιστημώ...
The current research aimed at attempting to familiarize Greek prospective Pri- mary School teache... more The current research aimed at attempting to familiarize Greek prospective Pri- mary School teachers with notions of the dynamic systems nature of ecosystem food-webs and evaluate the results. The sample consisted of 85 undergraduate s- tudents of the Faculty of Primary Education, of the University of Athens, Greece, who had chosen the optional topic of the autumn semester: "Environmental Science: The Laboratory Approach". Students were initially given specically designed pre-test worksheets, to nd out their initial knowledge and pre-instructional ideas about the structure and the properties of food-webs as systems. Following this, instructional-teaching took place in four stages. In the first stage of the instruction process, students received real data concerning pellets of barn owls (tyto alba) gathered from two areas of the United States, and were asked to complete given worksheets. At this stage, students' discussions were recorded, hence trying to extract answers ...
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Papers by Aristotelis S . Gkiolmas
The students watch both the experiments in front of them; they have some level of interaction with what is happening and are interviewed, in semi-structured research interviews about: (i) what they predict that will happen, (ii) what they see happening and (iii) what they learned about it (meta-knowledge).
The first experiment is executed both in its original form with water waves with la-ser-light, but also in the alternative form with laser light. The second experiment is executed through computer simulations (https://phet.colorado.edu and others) and animations.
Prior to the interviews with the N=6 students, N'= 2 were interviewed on a pilot ba-sis, in order to improve the interviews. Also the N=6 students were given a pre-test and a post-test questionnaire, so as to measure what they learned from this teaching and experimental sequence.
The results concerning the educational outcomes – given the limitations of the sample – are encouraging.
The main aim of the sequence is to provide students with the opportunity to reinforce their understanding regarding the nature of sound as a wave and specific sound properties by building the arrangement themselves, with limited guidance by the instructor (researcher). Students will examine the relationship between the pitch of the sound and the buzzer’s vibration and explore the different analogue signals produced by a circuit configuration, called a resistor ladder. Acknowledging that most technical skills and knowledge require the acquisition of the English language, the current paper suggests that a CLIL methodology will be applied in order to enhance students’ content and language acquisition at the same time.
The learning subject, upon interacting with the User’s Interface of NetLogo, can easily study properties of the simulated natural systems, as well as observe the latter’s response, when altering their parameters. In this research, NetLogo was used under the perspective that the learning subject (student or prospective teacher) interacts with the model in a deeper way, obtaining the “role” of an “agent”.
This is not achieved by obliging the learner to program (write NetLogo code) but by interviewing them, together with “applying” the choices that he/she makes on the model. The scheme was carried out, as part of a broader research, with interviews, and web-page-like interface menu selections, in a sample of 17 University students in Athens (prospective Primary School teachers) and the results were judged as encouraging. At a further stage, the computers were set as a network, where all the agents performed together. In this way the learners could watch onscreen the overall outcome of their choices and actions on the modeled ecosystem. This seems to open a new – small – area of research in NetLogo educational applications.