Investigating the use of modern technology in physics education. Particularly interested in learning environments that bring together social and embodied aspects of learning.
Physical Review Physics Education Research, Aug 2, 2017
In this paper, we investigate some of the ways in which students, when given the opportunity and ... more In this paper, we investigate some of the ways in which students, when given the opportunity and an appropriate learning environment, spontaneously engage in collaborative inquiry. We studied small groups of high school students interacting around and with an interactive whiteboard equipped with Algodoo software, as they investigated orbital motion. Using multimodal discourse analysis, we found that in their discussions the students relied heavily on nonverbal meaning-making resources, most notably hand gestures and resources in the surrounding environment (items displayed on the interactive whiteboard). They juxtaposed talk with gestures and resources in the environment to communicate ideas that they initially were not able to express using words alone. By spontaneously recruiting and combining a diverse set of meaning-making resources, the students were able to express relatively fluently complex ideas on a novel physics topic, and to engage in practices that resemble a scientific approach to exploration of new phenomena.
In recent decades, the interactive whiteboard (IWB) has become a relatively common educational to... more In recent decades, the interactive whiteboard (IWB) has become a relatively common educational tool in Western schools. The IWB is essentially a large touch screen, that enables the user to interact with digital content in ways that are not possible with an ordinary computer-projector-canvas setup. However, the unique possibilities of IWBs are rarely lever-aged to enhance teaching and learning beyond the primary school level. This is particularly noticeable in high school physics. We describe how a high school physics teacher learned to use an IWB in a new way, how she planned and implemented a lesson on the topic of orbital motion of planets, and what tensions arose in the process. We used an ethnographic approach to account for the teacher's and involved students' perspectives throughout the process of teacher preparation, lesson planning, and the implementation of the lesson. To interpret the data, we used the conceptual framework of activity theory. We found that an entrenched culture of traditional white/blackboard use in physics instruction interferes with more technologically innovative and more student-centered instructional approaches that leverage the IWB's unique instructional potential. Furthermore, we found that the teacher's confidence in the mastery of the IWB plays a crucial role in the teacher's willingness to transfer agency within the lesson to the students.
Extant literature on teacher preparation suggests that preservice teachers learn best when they a... more Extant literature on teacher preparation suggests that preservice teachers learn best when they are immersed in a community that allows them to develop dispositions, knowledge, and practical skills and share with the community a strong vision of what good teaching entails. However, even if the requisite dispositions, knowledge, and skills in pursuing the shared vision of good teaching are developed, the professional demands on a teacher's time are so great out of, and so complex during class time that if every decision requires multiple considerations and deliberations with oneself, the productive decisions might not materialize. We argue that the link between intentional decision making and actual teaching practice are teacher's habits (spontaneous responses to situational cues). Teachers unavoidably develop habits with practical experience and under the influence of knowledge and belief structures that in many ways condition the responses of teachers in their practical work. To steer new teachers away from developing unproductive habits directed towards " survival " instead of student learning, we propose that teacher preparation programs (e.g., in physics) strive to develop in preservice teachers strong habits of mind and practice that will serve as an underlying support structure for beginning teachers. We provide examples of physics teacher habits that are to be developed during the program, propose mechanisms for the development of such habits, and outline possible future research agendas around habits.
Algodoo (http://www.algodoo.com) is a digital sandbox for physics 2D simulations. It allows stude... more Algodoo (http://www.algodoo.com) is a digital sandbox for physics 2D simulations. It allows students and teachers to easily create simulated “scenes” and explore physics through a user-friendly and visually attractive interface. In this paper, we present different ways in which students and teachers can use Algodoo to visualize and solve physics problems, investigate phenomena and processes, and engage in out-of-school activities and projects. Algodoo, with its approachable interface, inhabits a middle ground between computer games and “serious” computer modeling. It is suitable as an entry-level modeling tool for students of all ages and can facilitate discussions about the role of computer modeling in physics.
Interactive whiteboards (IWBs) have become commonplace in classrooms in the western world. Howeve... more Interactive whiteboards (IWBs) have become commonplace in classrooms in the western world. However, using IWBs productively in ways that leverage their unique possibilities for student engagement is more challenging. I propose a theoretical perspective that recognizes the IWB-based learning environment as a case of a mixed-reality (a combination of real and virtual worlds). I show how the ideas of embodied cognition and distributed cognition were used to guide the design of a learning sequence on the topic of the orbital motion of planets and I analyse its implementation. I also analyse a short video excerpt that illustrates the way in which embodiment enters high-school student discourse in the context of small-group collaborative inquiry, supported by the IWB. Students’ gestures that draw on their physical experience within the IWB-based environment can help students fluently communicate ideas that would be much more difficult to express verbally.
10 ORAL CONTRIBUTIONS Formation of a rainbow–an experiment in optics Jurij Bajc, Barbara Rovšek P... more 10 ORAL CONTRIBUTIONS Formation of a rainbow–an experiment in optics Jurij Bajc, Barbara Rovšek Physics in primary and kindergartens!? It is already there… Ana Gostinčar Blagotinšek School as a 3D lecture book of natural sciences M. Božić, D. Cucić, Lj. Ivančević, Т. Маrković-Topalović, J. Slisko, G. Stojićević and J. Volarov The last ring before matura exam in physics and astronomy Daniel Dziob, Urszula Górska The International Young Physicists' Tournament–a way to develop research skills in high school Sergej Faletič, Gorazd ...
The DHAC framework (Development of Habits through Apprenticeship in a Community) builds on the co... more The DHAC framework (Development of Habits through Apprenticeship in a Community) builds on the contemporary understanding of teacher preparation and strives to provide a better understanding of the process of learning to teach physics. Extant literature on teacher preparation suggests that pre-service teachers learn best when they are immersed in a community that allows them to develop dispositions, knowledge and practical skills and share with the community a strong vision of what good teaching means. However, despite having developed the requisite dispositions, knowledge and skills in pursuing the shared vision of good teaching, the professional demands on a teacher’s time are so great out of and so complex during class time that if every decision requires multiple considerations and deliberations with oneself, the productive decisions might not materialize. We therefore argue that the missing link between intentional decision-making and actual teaching practice are the teacher’s habits (spontaneous responses to situational cues). Teachers unavoidably develop habits with practical experience and under the influence of knowledge and belief structures that in many ways condition the responses of teachers in their practical work. To avoid new teachers developing unproductive habits, directed towards teacher “survival” instead of student learning, or reverting to the “old ways” of teaching learned through the apprenticeship of observation, we argue that a physics teacher preparation program should strive to develop in pre-service teachers strong habits of mind and practice that will serve as an underlying support structure for beginning teachers. In the paper we provide examples of the habits, which physics teachers need to develop before starting teaching, and connect them to the knowledge, skills and dispositions required for their development. Using the DHAC framework, we explain the features of successful physics teacher preparation programs and predict the outcomes of different approaches to teacher education.
Combining an interactive whiteboard with the right software, and with an appropriate instructiona... more Combining an interactive whiteboard with the right software, and with an appropriate instructional approach, is crucial for its productive use in physics classrooms. We describe how the interactive whiteboard can be used in combination with a physics-based sandbox software program (Algodoo) to address the topic of Kepler's laws. The proposed activity engages students in collaborative inquiry and draws on students' experience in using touch-screen technology. Students engage in the manipulation of virtual objects on the interactive whiteboard and investigate Kepler's laws by actively participating in the creation of planets, sending them into orbit, and representing their motion using a wide variety of virtual tools.
Researchers on the topic of Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) use in education stress that while impor... more Researchers on the topic of Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) use in education stress that while important, teachers’ mastering of the technological and interactive aspects of the IWB is not enough for its productive use. In order to get the most out of the relatively expensive investment in IWBs, much of the attention has to be given to the student active engagement during the lessons. In a qualitative study, we investigated how students interacted with an IWB during a lesson that was designed based on the principles of guided-inquiry and kinesthetic engagement of learners. Our study used activity theory as a descriptive framework for analysis. The topic of the lessons was Kepler's laws. We have found that students are well adapted to a shift from classical board-like use of the IWB that is predominant in a high school setting to touchscreen-like use, where kinesthetic engagement and creative graphical input play a central role. Students engaged in collaborative sense-making, discovering patterns, setting and testing hypotheses with little intervention by the researcher who was present in class during small group activities. However, we found that appropriate scaffolding by the researcher was very important as it allowed the students to avoid pitfalls of technology use. Such scaffolding requires that the person guiding student work with the IWBs possesses technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge.
This paper introduces the readers to simple inquiry-based activities (experiments with supporting... more This paper introduces the readers to simple inquiry-based activities (experiments with supporting questions) that one can do with a computer scanner to help students learn and apply the concepts of relative motion in 1 and 2D, vibrational motion and the Doppler effect. We also show how to use these activities to help students think like scientists. They will conduct simple experiments, construct different explanations for their observations, test their explanations in new experiments and represent their ideas in multiple ways.
As interactive whiteboards become more and more common in high school classrooms, there is great ... more As interactive whiteboards become more and more common in high school classrooms, there is great need for studies that address their use for instruction in specific subject, including physics. However, research in this field remains scarce. We describe the patterns documented in an observational study in a Slovene high school, fully equipped with IWBs. We observed, that the board is mainly used as a regular board with some enhancements. These include saving board content, enhancing the content with images and the use of colour. Many of the enhancements help to save time in the classroom and help teacher preparation. Teachers generally perceive the adoption of IWB as beneficial. However, advanced use of the touch sensitive surface that would also engage students in the interaction with the IWB was very limited. Our future work will include designing instructional materials that will take advantage of the interactive surface of the IWB. The materials will engage students in kinaesthetic and creative activities
This paper deals with effects that appear on photographs of rotating objects when taken by a phot... more This paper deals with effects that appear on photographs of rotating objects when taken by a photo finish camera, a rolling shutter camera or a computer scanner. These effects are very similar to Roget's palisade illusion. A simple quantitative analysis of the images is also provided. The effects are explored using a computer scanner in a way that is also suitable for a student project activity.
Physical Review Physics Education Research, Aug 2, 2017
In this paper, we investigate some of the ways in which students, when given the opportunity and ... more In this paper, we investigate some of the ways in which students, when given the opportunity and an appropriate learning environment, spontaneously engage in collaborative inquiry. We studied small groups of high school students interacting around and with an interactive whiteboard equipped with Algodoo software, as they investigated orbital motion. Using multimodal discourse analysis, we found that in their discussions the students relied heavily on nonverbal meaning-making resources, most notably hand gestures and resources in the surrounding environment (items displayed on the interactive whiteboard). They juxtaposed talk with gestures and resources in the environment to communicate ideas that they initially were not able to express using words alone. By spontaneously recruiting and combining a diverse set of meaning-making resources, the students were able to express relatively fluently complex ideas on a novel physics topic, and to engage in practices that resemble a scientific approach to exploration of new phenomena.
In recent decades, the interactive whiteboard (IWB) has become a relatively common educational to... more In recent decades, the interactive whiteboard (IWB) has become a relatively common educational tool in Western schools. The IWB is essentially a large touch screen, that enables the user to interact with digital content in ways that are not possible with an ordinary computer-projector-canvas setup. However, the unique possibilities of IWBs are rarely lever-aged to enhance teaching and learning beyond the primary school level. This is particularly noticeable in high school physics. We describe how a high school physics teacher learned to use an IWB in a new way, how she planned and implemented a lesson on the topic of orbital motion of planets, and what tensions arose in the process. We used an ethnographic approach to account for the teacher's and involved students' perspectives throughout the process of teacher preparation, lesson planning, and the implementation of the lesson. To interpret the data, we used the conceptual framework of activity theory. We found that an entrenched culture of traditional white/blackboard use in physics instruction interferes with more technologically innovative and more student-centered instructional approaches that leverage the IWB's unique instructional potential. Furthermore, we found that the teacher's confidence in the mastery of the IWB plays a crucial role in the teacher's willingness to transfer agency within the lesson to the students.
Extant literature on teacher preparation suggests that preservice teachers learn best when they a... more Extant literature on teacher preparation suggests that preservice teachers learn best when they are immersed in a community that allows them to develop dispositions, knowledge, and practical skills and share with the community a strong vision of what good teaching entails. However, even if the requisite dispositions, knowledge, and skills in pursuing the shared vision of good teaching are developed, the professional demands on a teacher's time are so great out of, and so complex during class time that if every decision requires multiple considerations and deliberations with oneself, the productive decisions might not materialize. We argue that the link between intentional decision making and actual teaching practice are teacher's habits (spontaneous responses to situational cues). Teachers unavoidably develop habits with practical experience and under the influence of knowledge and belief structures that in many ways condition the responses of teachers in their practical work. To steer new teachers away from developing unproductive habits directed towards " survival " instead of student learning, we propose that teacher preparation programs (e.g., in physics) strive to develop in preservice teachers strong habits of mind and practice that will serve as an underlying support structure for beginning teachers. We provide examples of physics teacher habits that are to be developed during the program, propose mechanisms for the development of such habits, and outline possible future research agendas around habits.
Algodoo (http://www.algodoo.com) is a digital sandbox for physics 2D simulations. It allows stude... more Algodoo (http://www.algodoo.com) is a digital sandbox for physics 2D simulations. It allows students and teachers to easily create simulated “scenes” and explore physics through a user-friendly and visually attractive interface. In this paper, we present different ways in which students and teachers can use Algodoo to visualize and solve physics problems, investigate phenomena and processes, and engage in out-of-school activities and projects. Algodoo, with its approachable interface, inhabits a middle ground between computer games and “serious” computer modeling. It is suitable as an entry-level modeling tool for students of all ages and can facilitate discussions about the role of computer modeling in physics.
Interactive whiteboards (IWBs) have become commonplace in classrooms in the western world. Howeve... more Interactive whiteboards (IWBs) have become commonplace in classrooms in the western world. However, using IWBs productively in ways that leverage their unique possibilities for student engagement is more challenging. I propose a theoretical perspective that recognizes the IWB-based learning environment as a case of a mixed-reality (a combination of real and virtual worlds). I show how the ideas of embodied cognition and distributed cognition were used to guide the design of a learning sequence on the topic of the orbital motion of planets and I analyse its implementation. I also analyse a short video excerpt that illustrates the way in which embodiment enters high-school student discourse in the context of small-group collaborative inquiry, supported by the IWB. Students’ gestures that draw on their physical experience within the IWB-based environment can help students fluently communicate ideas that would be much more difficult to express verbally.
10 ORAL CONTRIBUTIONS Formation of a rainbow–an experiment in optics Jurij Bajc, Barbara Rovšek P... more 10 ORAL CONTRIBUTIONS Formation of a rainbow–an experiment in optics Jurij Bajc, Barbara Rovšek Physics in primary and kindergartens!? It is already there… Ana Gostinčar Blagotinšek School as a 3D lecture book of natural sciences M. Božić, D. Cucić, Lj. Ivančević, Т. Маrković-Topalović, J. Slisko, G. Stojićević and J. Volarov The last ring before matura exam in physics and astronomy Daniel Dziob, Urszula Górska The International Young Physicists' Tournament–a way to develop research skills in high school Sergej Faletič, Gorazd ...
The DHAC framework (Development of Habits through Apprenticeship in a Community) builds on the co... more The DHAC framework (Development of Habits through Apprenticeship in a Community) builds on the contemporary understanding of teacher preparation and strives to provide a better understanding of the process of learning to teach physics. Extant literature on teacher preparation suggests that pre-service teachers learn best when they are immersed in a community that allows them to develop dispositions, knowledge and practical skills and share with the community a strong vision of what good teaching means. However, despite having developed the requisite dispositions, knowledge and skills in pursuing the shared vision of good teaching, the professional demands on a teacher’s time are so great out of and so complex during class time that if every decision requires multiple considerations and deliberations with oneself, the productive decisions might not materialize. We therefore argue that the missing link between intentional decision-making and actual teaching practice are the teacher’s habits (spontaneous responses to situational cues). Teachers unavoidably develop habits with practical experience and under the influence of knowledge and belief structures that in many ways condition the responses of teachers in their practical work. To avoid new teachers developing unproductive habits, directed towards teacher “survival” instead of student learning, or reverting to the “old ways” of teaching learned through the apprenticeship of observation, we argue that a physics teacher preparation program should strive to develop in pre-service teachers strong habits of mind and practice that will serve as an underlying support structure for beginning teachers. In the paper we provide examples of the habits, which physics teachers need to develop before starting teaching, and connect them to the knowledge, skills and dispositions required for their development. Using the DHAC framework, we explain the features of successful physics teacher preparation programs and predict the outcomes of different approaches to teacher education.
Combining an interactive whiteboard with the right software, and with an appropriate instructiona... more Combining an interactive whiteboard with the right software, and with an appropriate instructional approach, is crucial for its productive use in physics classrooms. We describe how the interactive whiteboard can be used in combination with a physics-based sandbox software program (Algodoo) to address the topic of Kepler's laws. The proposed activity engages students in collaborative inquiry and draws on students' experience in using touch-screen technology. Students engage in the manipulation of virtual objects on the interactive whiteboard and investigate Kepler's laws by actively participating in the creation of planets, sending them into orbit, and representing their motion using a wide variety of virtual tools.
Researchers on the topic of Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) use in education stress that while impor... more Researchers on the topic of Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) use in education stress that while important, teachers’ mastering of the technological and interactive aspects of the IWB is not enough for its productive use. In order to get the most out of the relatively expensive investment in IWBs, much of the attention has to be given to the student active engagement during the lessons. In a qualitative study, we investigated how students interacted with an IWB during a lesson that was designed based on the principles of guided-inquiry and kinesthetic engagement of learners. Our study used activity theory as a descriptive framework for analysis. The topic of the lessons was Kepler's laws. We have found that students are well adapted to a shift from classical board-like use of the IWB that is predominant in a high school setting to touchscreen-like use, where kinesthetic engagement and creative graphical input play a central role. Students engaged in collaborative sense-making, discovering patterns, setting and testing hypotheses with little intervention by the researcher who was present in class during small group activities. However, we found that appropriate scaffolding by the researcher was very important as it allowed the students to avoid pitfalls of technology use. Such scaffolding requires that the person guiding student work with the IWBs possesses technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge.
This paper introduces the readers to simple inquiry-based activities (experiments with supporting... more This paper introduces the readers to simple inquiry-based activities (experiments with supporting questions) that one can do with a computer scanner to help students learn and apply the concepts of relative motion in 1 and 2D, vibrational motion and the Doppler effect. We also show how to use these activities to help students think like scientists. They will conduct simple experiments, construct different explanations for their observations, test their explanations in new experiments and represent their ideas in multiple ways.
As interactive whiteboards become more and more common in high school classrooms, there is great ... more As interactive whiteboards become more and more common in high school classrooms, there is great need for studies that address their use for instruction in specific subject, including physics. However, research in this field remains scarce. We describe the patterns documented in an observational study in a Slovene high school, fully equipped with IWBs. We observed, that the board is mainly used as a regular board with some enhancements. These include saving board content, enhancing the content with images and the use of colour. Many of the enhancements help to save time in the classroom and help teacher preparation. Teachers generally perceive the adoption of IWB as beneficial. However, advanced use of the touch sensitive surface that would also engage students in the interaction with the IWB was very limited. Our future work will include designing instructional materials that will take advantage of the interactive surface of the IWB. The materials will engage students in kinaesthetic and creative activities
This paper deals with effects that appear on photographs of rotating objects when taken by a phot... more This paper deals with effects that appear on photographs of rotating objects when taken by a photo finish camera, a rolling shutter camera or a computer scanner. These effects are very similar to Roget's palisade illusion. A simple quantitative analysis of the images is also provided. The effects are explored using a computer scanner in a way that is also suitable for a student project activity.
Uploads
Papers by Bor Gregorčič