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In diesem Ubersichts- und Grundlagenkapitel wird dargelegt, wie wichtig Schulervorstellungen fur die Unterrichtsgestaltung sind und wie sie das Lernen von Physik beeinflussen. Der fachdidaktische Hintergrund und die Interpretation des Begriffs „Schulervorstellung“ werden diskutiert. Ein weiteres Thema ist die Frage, woher Schulervorstellungen stammen. Abschliesend wird die Entwicklung des Forschungsprogramms „Schulervorstellungen“ und dessen Untersuchungsmethoden vorgestellt: Wie gelangt man zu Erkenntnissen uber das physikalische Denken von Schulern?

Schulerinnen und Schuler stellen sich Energie haufig als eine Art Treibstoff vor, der beim Antrieb von Vorgangen verbraucht wird. Physikalisch ist Energie eine abstrakte Erhaltungsgrose. Es ist schwierig, zwischen diesen beiden Aspekten zu vermitteln: Wie anschaulich kann der Energiebegriff im Unterricht behandelt werden, wenn er gleichzeitig fachlich vertretbar bleiben soll? Das Kapitel behandelt Schulervorstellungen zu Energieverbrauch, Energietransfer, Energieformen und Arbeit. Ein weiterer Abschnitt erlautert Vorstellungen zu den Hauptsatzen der Thermodynamik und zu Wirkungsgraden von Warmekraftmaschinen. Fachliche Erlauterungen nehmen einen groseren Umfang ein. Ubungen sowie Hinweise auf Unterrichtskonzeptionen, Testinstrumente und vertiefende Literatur runden das Kapitel ab.

We are delighted to be invited for this task as our own work on conceptual change (Duit & Treagust, 2003) so far has not explicitly included ideas from the conceptual metaphor field. In other words...

Chapter 1 Multiple Representations in Physics And Science Education – Why Should we Use Them? Maria Opfermann, Annett Schmeck and Hans E. Fischer -- Section A. Multiple Representations: Focus on Models and Analogies, Reinders Duit -- Chapter 2 Teaching and Learning Representations in Upper Secondary Physics, Per Morten Kind, Carl Angell, Oystein Guttersrud -- Chapter 3 Integrating Computational Artifacts into the Multi-Representational Toolkit of Physics Education, Brian E. Gravel, Michelle H. Wilkerson -- Chapter 4 Evaluating Multiple Analogical Representations from Students' Perceptions, Jing-Wen Lin, Mei-Hung Chiu -- Section B Multiple Representations: Focus on Multiple Modes, Hans Fischer -- Chapter 5 Social Semiotics in University Physics Education, John Airey, Cedric Linder -- Chapter 6 Learning Optics with Multiple Representations: Not as Simple as Expected, Yen-Ruey Kuo, Mihye Won, Marjan Zadnik, Salim Siddiqui, David Treagust -- Chapter 7 Enacting a Representation Construction Approach to Teaching And Learning Astronomy, Peter Hubber, Russell Tytler -- Chapter 8 Learning about Forces using Representations, Pasi Nieminen, Antti Savinainen, Jouni Viiri -- Chapter 9 The Conceptual elements of Multiple Representations: A Study of Textbooks’ Representations of Electric Current, Chee Leong Wong, Hye-Eun Chu -- Section 3: Multiple Representations: Focus on Reasoning and Representational Competence, David Treagust -- Chapter 10 Representational Competence, Understanding of Experiments, Phenomena and Basic Concepts in Geometrical Optics: A Representational Approach, Andreas Muller, Rosa Hettmannsperger, Jochen Scheid, Wolfgang Schnotz -- Chapter 11 Understanding and Promoting Effective Use of Representations in Physics Learning, Pat Kohl, Noah Finkelstein -- Chapter 12 The Role of Representations in Students’ Explanations of Four Phenomena in Physics : Dynamics, thermal physics and electromagnetic induction and superposition, Jennifer Yeo, John K. Gilbert -- Chapter 13 Cross Referencing to Co-Construct Knowledge about Global Heat Transfer in an Online Learning Environment: Learning with Multiple Visualizations, Florence R. Sullivan, W. Richards Adrion, Dave Hart, Christopher N. Hill, K.C. Nat Turner, Jeff Xavier, Youngkwan Cha, Sangchil Lee, Bradford Wheeler -- Index.

That the interplay of random and deterministic processes may result in both the limited predictability of nonlinear systems and the formation of structures seems to be a most valuable general insight into the nature of science. This study investigates the possibility of teaching and learning the interplay of chance and determinism in nonlinear systems in school science instruction. An analysis of the relevant scientific literature and an explorative learning process study with 30 11th-grade students are included. Three experiments displaying the behaviour of nonlinear systems (deterministic chaos, self-organization and fractals) and one experiment demonstrating the behaviour of linear systems were discussed using a teaching experiment design. The findings show that although the majority of students initially considered chance and determinism as contradictory conceptions, they finally developed sound explanations concerning the interplay of chance and determinism in the investigated nonlinear systems.

Developing teachers' ways of thinking about "good" instruction as well as their views of the teaching and learning process is generally seen as essential for improving teaching behaviour and implementation of more efficient teaching and learning settings. Major deficiencies of German physics instruction as revealed by a nationwide video-study on the practice of physics instruction are addressed. Teachers participating in the project are made familiar with recent views of efficient instruction on the one hand and develop context-based instructional settings on the other. The evaluation resulted in partly encouraging findings. However, it also turned out that a number of teachers' ways of thinking about good instruction did only develop to a somewhat limited degree. The most impressive changes occurred for teachers who enjoyed the most intensive coaching.

Processes of globalization have played a major role in economic and cultural change worldwide. More recently, there is a growing literature on rethinking science education research and development from the perspective of globalization. This paper provides a critical overview of the state and future development of science education research from the perspective of globalization. Two facets are given major attention. First, the further development of science education as an international research domain is critically analyzed. It seems that there is a predominance of researchers stemming from countries in which English is the native language or at least a major working language. Second, the significance of rethinking the currently dominant variants of science instruction from the perspectives of economic and cultural globalization is given major attention. On the one hand, it is argued that processes concerning globalization of science education as a research domain need to take into account the richness of the different cultures of science education around the world. At the same time, it is essential to develop ways of science instruction that make students aware of the various advantages, challenges and problems of international economic and cultural globalization.

Chemistry is a difficult subject to teach and to learn at both secondary and tertiary levels. Major learning difficulties are due to the particular views of chemistry phenomena that in many ways contradict intuitive and everyday views of the learners. As a result, major misunderstandings occur when students try to comprehend chemical explanations within the framework of their pre-instructional conceptions. This paper describes research findings on students pre-instructional conceptions in the domain of chemistry and on attempts to guide students from their conceptions to the core ideas of chemistry.

This article presents an example of teacher professional development based on a perspective of situated learning and implemented on a large scale. We consider teacher professional development from three perspectives. First, teacher professional development is a key factor in improving classroom instruction. Second, teacher professional development is a vehicle for conveying knowledge from research into classrooms. Third, teacher professional development is an object of research itself. A German project to improve science and mathematics teaching (SINUS) – comprising 180 schools in a pilot-phase and more than 1,700 schools in a second phase of scaling-up – serves as an example of this framework for teacher professional development. Using these three views we describe the foundations of the programme and provide a brief account of the programme’s background and its conception. We show how the central elements of the programme (11 modules) are based on an in-depth analysis of science and mathematics education, as well as how those modules structure the professional development of the teachers. Finally, we provide an overview of the evaluation of the programme. A large-scale comparison between SINUS schools and a representative sample of German schools tested in PISA 2003 showed positive effects of the programme with regard to students' interest and motivation as well as competencies in science and mathematics. In the light of these findings, we argue that teachers’ learning related to daily pedagogical challenges in the classroom should be central to professional development initiatives.

A teaching and learning sequence aimed at introducing upper secondary school students to the interplay between chance and determinism in nonlinear systems is presented. Three experiments concerning nonlinear systems (deterministic chaos, self-organization and fractals) and one experiment concerning linear systems are introduced. Thirty upper secondary students' capabilities and difficulties in understanding the scientific point of view were investigated, using a teaching experiment design. The results show that most students were capable of sound explanations concerning the interplay of chance and determinism in nonlinear systems.

Conceptual change views of teaching and learning processes in science, and also in various other content domains, have played a significant role in research on teaching and learning as well as in instructional design since the late 1970s. An important issue is whether conceptual change can provide a powerful framework for improving instructional practice in such a way that students’ levels of scientific literacy are significantly increased. In this article, the first section provides an overview on the development of conceptual change perspectives. In sections two to six, we examine the different ways that researchers have facilitated the collection of data and empirically evaluated learning as conceptual change based on these different theoretical perspectives. In section seven, we identify key issues of conceptual change with a deliberate emphasis on their contribution to improve instructional practice and conclude the article by posing challenges at theoretical, methodological and practical levels. We contend that conceptual change perspectives still have the potential to significantly improve instructional practice. However, it becomes also evident that actual practice is far from what conceptual change perspectives propose and that change of this practice will be a rather difficult and long-lasting process.

The international community of science education research has developed tremendously during the past 30–40 years, especially since the early 1990s. In the 1990s, the annual conferences of the US organization National Association of Research in Science Teaching (NARST), for instance, were attended by some 400 colleagues, but recent meetings have seen more than 1300 participants. Similar developments have occurred around the world.

The educational potential of non‐linear systems is given surprisingly little attention in science education research – at least in research that links content matter and educational issues. The project on educational reconstruction of non‐linear systems at the IPN has investigated the educational significance of threferring phenomena and the effects of teaching and learning processes. In a nutshell, it has been investigated whether it is worthwhile to teach non‐linear systems and whether students understand the basic ideas of these phenomena. In addition, a number of instructional modules addressing various characteristics of these systems have been developed. The work has been based on a model of educational reconstruction that, besides other issues, closely links analytical and empirical educational research with development of teaching and learning sequences. In the present paper a brief overview of the sketched project will be provided. Main emphasis, however, will be given to the teaching experiment,...

Learning physics is a complex phenomenon. In this article, we use concepts from the theory of nonlinear systems to study the development of language in classroom science in an experimental unit on chaos theory in a German 10th-grade physics classroom. In ongoing activity, the explanations students developed for phenomena emerged through interactive stabilization and material constraints on the interpretive flexibility of material (artifacts) and discursive representations (talk). Interpretive flexibility both enables novel understandings and differences between private and common public use of these representations. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 40: 869–897, 2003

In this review, we discuss (1) how the notion of conceptual change has developed over the past three decades, (2) giving rise to alternative approaches for analysing conceptual change, (3) leading towards a multiperspective view of science learning and instruction that (4) can be used to examine scientific literacy and (5) lead to a powerful framework for improving science teaching and learning.

This chapter provides a review of major fields of research on teaching and learning the physics energy concept. First, four basic ideas of this concept – transformation, transfer, conservation and degradation – are introduced. These ideas are closely interrelated. A single idea (such as degradation) may be understood only if all other ideas are also understood. This causes particular challenges to teaching and learning the concept. Second, the major approaches in teaching the energy concept discussed in the literature are analyzed. Interestingly, the “traditional” approach via force and work still plays a certain role – despite the many problems it includes. Third, an overview is provided of the state of research on students’ pre-instructional conceptions and (conceptual change) approaches designed to allow more advanced understanding of the energy concept. Finally, current attempts to teaching and learning of the energy concept within the learning progression approach are analyzed. It seems that a sequence with energy transformations (energy forms) and transfer first, followed by energy degradation, finally including energy conservation prevails. In much the same way as the historical development of key science ideas may be seen as a process of unfolding so far undifferentiated ideas, learning energy is viewed as a process of unfolding and differentiating students’ idiosyncratic conceptions.

A growing body of research shows that analogies may be powerful tools for guiding students from their pre-instructional conceptions towards science concepts. But it has also become apparent that analogies may deeply mislead students' learning processes. Conceptual change, to put it into other words, may be both supported and hampered by the same analogy. The study presented here was designed to investigate the processes of analogy generation and development and to reveal the microstructure of analogical reasoning. Analogical reasoning was investigated during a grade 10 physics unit on the limited predictability of chaotic systems. Analogies played a key role in the instructional module to make explicit function and structure of certain chaotic systems. Analogies were also used to introduce the notion of “chaotic systems” embracing prototypical examples of chaotic systems studied. The theoretical orientation of the study merges key features of conceptual change approaches and social-constructivist studies on communities of learners. Hence, students were provided with substantial periods of time to generate their own analogies or employ analogies provided by the teacher to understand chaotic systems. There are many cases in our study that illustrate the affordances and pitfalls of analogies in promoting conceptual change. Hence the use of analogies as teaching and learning aids may always be a delicate course between Scylla and Charybdis.

Boys and girls differ significantly in physics instruction: boys achieve higher grades in tests and are more interested in learning physics than girls [1, 2]. With regard to social and linguistic behaviour, we claim that boys and girls hold different notions of what it means to understand physics. Briefly, girls seem to think that they understand a concept only if they can put it into a broader world view. Boys appear to view physics as valuable in itself and are pleased if there is internal coherence within the physics concepts learned.

This study was designed to describe and understand students’ learning in chaos theory as it emerges within a highly interactive learning environment. A methodological approach fusing conceptual change and discourse perspective is proposed which allows description of students’ learning trajectories both in terms of conceptual change and in terms of minute shifts of students’ language games. The trajectory of activities in one student group is used to illustrate how a well‐designed curriculum can lead students to construct an unwanted conception. It is concluded that the conceptual change cum discourse perspective has the potential to integrate the affordances of both methodological approaches and past empirical accomplishments.

The studies presented here comprise a project on the educational significance of chaos theory. Or to put it in a nutshell, we attempt to analyse critically whether the core ideas of chaos theory (as, for instance, limited predictability of chaotic systems despite deterministic laws governing them) are worth teaching and learning and furthermore we follow up the question of accessibility of these ideas for students. Subject matter structure clarification (i.e., construction of the mentioned key ideas) analyses of educational significance on the basis of widely accepted aims of teaching science, empirical studies on students' learning processes, and finally, development and evaluation of pilot instructional modules are closely interrelated. To put it into our terminology, the studies are embedded in a Model of Educational Reconstruction which may be seen as an approach to curriculum development that, on the one hand, takes into account the major insights provided by the constructivist view of the past two decades resting, on the other hand, on the tradition of German pedagogical theories on framing educational issues.

Videostudien haben sich als fruchtbare Forschungsmethode erwiesen, die Praxis von Unterricht zu erkunden. In diesen Studien stehen Analysen des unterrichtsmethodischen Ablaufs im Mittelpunkt. Es wird u. a. untersucht, welche Unterrichtsmethoden zum Einsatz kommen und wie Lernen unterstutzt wird. Es geht darum, typische „Skripte“ des Unterrichts zu identifizieren. Wir erlautern im Folgenden zunachst, was zu beachten ist, wenn solche videobasierten Studien durchgefuhrt werden. Wir wenden uns dann einem Aspekt zu, dem in den bisher durchgefuhrten Videostudien weniger Aufmerksamkeit geschenkt worden ist, namlich wie der fachliche Inhalt in den verschiedenen Klassen, die an der Videostudie teilnehmen, strukturiert wird. Es geht um eine Methode, die fachliche Sachstruktur aus Videoaufzeichnungen zu rekonstruieren.

This chapter contains two parts. In the first part, we discuss a range of theoretical perspectives giving rise to different notions of conceptual change and illustrate how researchers have conceptualized teaching and learning science from these different perspectives. In the second part, we report on studies about the awareness and implementation of these perspectives in regular science classes and document that there is still a large gap between what is known about effective teaching and learning science from conceptual change perspectives and the reality of instructional practice. Finally, we argue that more research is necessary on how teachers in regular practice can become more familiar with the key ideas of conceptual change.

This volume is concerned with the innovative research that is reforming how science is learned in schools. The chapters provide overviews of research and illustrate how the findings of this research are being applied in schools.

Contemporary constructivism is not a totally new idea. On the contrary, there is a long-standing tradition of constructivist ideas in philosophy, in the philosophy and practice of education, and also in empirical research on students' preinstructional conceptions in science. Steffe (1990b) briefly outlined some aspects of the history of constructivism. For instance, he pointed out that Kant (1724-1804) held major constructivist ideas. Jung (1985) interpreted Bacon's (1561-1626) ideas in Novum Organum within such a framework.

To improve instructional practices – in schools, universities and in out of school settings has been a major concern of science education research and development. The intensive international debate on scientific literacy in the 1990s and the series of international monitoring studies like TIMSS and PISA in the 1990s and in the 2000s have fuelled this debate substantially. Various strands of science education research contribute to the stock of knowledge on more efficient means of teaching and learning science. The Model of Educational Reconstruction (MER) presented in this chapter provides a conception of science education research that is relevant for improving instructional practice and teacher professional development programs. The model is based on European Didaktik and Bildung (formation) traditions – with a particular emphasis on the German tradition. A key concern of the model is that science subject matter issues as well as student learning needs and capabilities have to be given equal attention in attempts to improve the quality of teaching and learning

Conceptual change perspectives of teaching and learning processes in science, and also in various other content domains, have played a significant role in research on teaching and learning as well as in instructional design since the late 1970s. Research findings indicate that conceptual change-oriented instructional design may in fact be suited to improve the development of student cognitive and affective outcomes. However, such improvements are only to be expected if conceptual change perspectives are further developed – far beyond the ‘classical’ perspective introduced in the 1980s. It is argued that there are the following challenges for future research and development: Research on conceptual change needs to take into account multiple epistemological perspectives of teaching and learning, to give equal attention to cognitive and affective student variables, to embed conceptual change approaches into inclusive models of instructional planning, to determine the necessary and sufficient evidence for identifying conceptual change and to bring successful conceptual change teaching approaches to normal classes.

In this chapter, we review the literature about teaching science for conceptual change. First, we discuss a range of theoretical perspectives giving rise to different notions of conceptual change and illustrate how researchers have conceptualised teaching and learning science from these different perspectives. Second, we report studies of conceptual change teaching and learning approaches and examine the degree of success of these interventions. Third, we suggest ways that conceptual change research involving science domains can be improved.

For almost a half century David F. Treagust has been an exemplary science educator who has contributed through his dedication and commitments to students, curriculum development and collaboration with teachers, and cutting edge research in science education that has impacted the field globally, nationally and locally. A hallmark of his outstanding career is his collaborative style that inspires others to produce their best work.

Thirty-four clinical interviews were conducted with Grade 10 students (15- 16 years old) who had received four years of physics instruction. The interview’s focus was to understand students’ responses from their point of view and not solely from the physicist’s angle. The results of the study confirm and deepen, on the one hand, findings from other studies concerning students’ severe difficulties in leaming the energy concept, the particle model, and the distinction between heat and temperature. On the other hand, students’ qualitative conceptions in a new area-the second law of thermodynamics-are revealed. For instance, in the case of irreversibility (i.e., the idea that all processes take place by themselves only in one direction), most students came to conclusions similar to those of modem physicists. But their explanations of irreversibility are based on significantly different conceptual frameworks. The results of the study suggest that a mere enlargement of the traditional physics curriculum by the addition of ideas of the second law is not sufficient to familiarize students with these ideas. A totally new teaching approach to heat, temperature, and energy is necessary. In this approach, basic qualitative ideas of the second law should be a central and integral part from the beginning of instruction.

The study was designed to examine how science teachers used analogies during their regular teaching routines to enable students to comprehend scientific concepts. A total of 40 lessons taught by seven different teachers were observed and analysed using an interpretive research methodology to develop four generalized observations. In this study the science teachers used few analogies, though both simple and enriched types were observed in their teaching. Interviews following classroom observations revealed that the teachers were knowledgeable about some of the beneficial and detrimental aspects of analogy use, and they considered that they used both analogies and examples as a regular part of their teaching, though it was observed that often they did not differentiate between examples and analogies. The research suggests that effective use of analogies in regular classroom science teaching needs to be based on a well‐prepared teaching repertoire of analogies, using specific content in specific contexts and...

The theoretical framework and preliminary results of various evaluation measures of a German program to improve the quality of physics instruction are presented. The major emphasis of the program is to develop teachers’ thinking about good instruction as an indispensable prerequisite for improved teaching behaviour. It turns out that students’ development of affective variables (such as their self-assessed competence) appears to be more pleasing for the “Physics in Context” group than for the control group. Instruction within the program seems to include a significantly higher amount of inquiry activities than for the control group. The teachers rate their participation in the project rather positively

Video technology has played a substantial role in research on teaching and learning in actual practice and in teacher professional development since the 1970s. However, the more recent advances of digital video technology and video analysis facilitate much deeper insight into the interplay of teaching and learning processes than the analog video technology available so far. It turned out that the new technology not only allows much more fine-grained coding than has been possible until now, it also enables investigating patterns of instructional scripts in rather large samples of classes and numbers of lessons Three projects on investigating key patterns of lower secondary physics instruction in two countries (Germany and the German speaking part of Switzerland) closely cooperate. Major emphases are video-based analyses of dominating instructional patterns by employing common coding schemes and drawing consequences for improving actual instructional practices e.g. by teacher professional development. The following issues are the focus of the studies presented: (1) Standard basic coding of surface structures of instruction; (2) a coding scheme for investigating the practice of using experiments in science classes; (3) methods to investigate linkages of teaching and learning processes in instruction

Disappointing results of international monitoring studies such as TIMSS (Third International Mathematics and Science Study) and PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) have fuelled another general debate on the need for a sufficient level of scientific literacy and the necessity to improve the quality of science instruction in school. Science education research has played essential roles not only in analyzing the actual state of scientific literacy and the actual practice in schools but also in improving instructional practice and teacher education. A conception of science education research that is relevant for improving school practice and teacher education programs will be presented here. This conception is based on a Model of Educational Reconstruction which holds that science subject matter issues and students’ learning needs and capabilities have to be given equal attention in quality development attempts. Further, research and development activities have to be intimately linked. It is argued that science education research drawing on this framework is an indispensable prerequisite for improving instructional practice and hence for the further advancement of scientific literacy.

Wenn Schulerinnen und Sch#x00FC;ler in den Sachunterricht oder in den Physikunterricht hinein kommen, so haben sie in der Regel bereits in vielfaltigen Alltagserfahrungen tief verankerte Vorstellungen zu Begriffen und Phanomenen und Prinzipien entwickelt, um die es im Unterricht gehen soll. Die meisten dieser Vorstellungen stimmen mit den zu lernenden wissenschaftlichen Vorstellungen nicht uberein. Hier liegt eine Ursache vieler Lernschwierigkeiten. Die Schuler verstehen haufig gar nicht, was sie im Unterricht horen oder sehen und was sie im Lehrbuch lesen. Lernen bedeutet, Wissen auf der Basis der vorhandenen Vorstellungen aktiv aufzubauen. Der Unterricht muss also an den Vorstellungen der Schulerinnen und Schuler anknupfen und ihre Eigenaktivitaten fordern und fordern. Er muss daruber hinaus fur die wissenschaftliche Sicht werben, d.h. die Schuler davon uberzeugen, dass diese Sicht fruchtbare neue und interessante Einsichten bietet.

Our studies on understanding core ideas of fractals are part of a broader project on educational reconstruction of non-linear systems (Duit, Komorek & Wilbers, 1997). They focus on investigations into whether core ideas of chaos theory and fractals are worth teaching relating to the general aims of science instruction and whether they can be understood by students at the age of 15–17. The notion of fractals has already played a certain role in mathematics instruction in recent years. There are also ideas on how to employ this concept in explaining well known and new phenomena to students in science lessons. Studies on how students may learn and understand the new teaching materials (like experiments) are almost non-existent. The two studies address different core ideas of fractals. The first study lays its focal point on the concept of self-similarity (or self-affinity) and on the insight that very complex structures may evolve from simple rules. The second study focuses on employing the concept of fractals to explain certain phenomena. We investigate how students spontaneously understand the occurrence of dendrite structures in two quite different experiments and how they may be guided towards the science explanation. Both studies are designed as learning process studies. Nine groups of two students each are interviewed by an interviewer using the method of ≫teaching experiment≪ (Steffe & D’Ambrosio, 1996). The interviews last about one hour. In study, one the students were aged 16 and in study two they were aged 18. Data analyses follow category-based qualitative interpretation (Mayring, 1995; Bortz & Doring, 1995).

Video based research has become a powerful tool to investigate teaching and learning processes in science education. These studies have been employed to reveal the microstructure of teaching and learning processes and to investigate the interplay of instructional scripts and various variables of the particular learning environments. In the following synopsis of a poster symposium at the ESERA Conference in Thessaloniki we present four studies that employ video-analysis of science instruction in various ways. All studies were initiated by the rather disappointing results German students achieved in TIMSS. It is the aim of these studies to investigate means of improving science teaching and learning.