Quantum physics challenges our views of the physical world and describes phenomena that cannot be directly observed. The use of language is hence essential in the teaching of quantum physics. With a sociocultural view of learning, we investigate characteristics of preuniversity students' small-group discussions and their potential for enhancing…

Modeling is considered an important scientific practice, and modeling instruction has the potential to support conceptual change in students in physics. However, when students are not taught how to think about modeling, and how to develop and use models, the learning potential of modeling may be limited. This paper argues that the use and explicit…

Research has indicated the importance of representational competence for learning science. Issues related to the nature of students' representational competence, such as how they demonstrate representational competence across different domains of science, require investigation. In the present study, four aspects of representational competence…

The purpose of this project was to investigate the effects of virtual versus physical manipulation using a simulation-based laboratory activity (SBL) and a microcomputer-based laboratory activity (MBL). Both the SBL and the MBL used computers to collect, graph, and analyze data. A major difference was that the MBL allowed the students to…

This quasi-experimental and pre/posttest study was designed to examine whether fourth-grade students who engaged in collaboratively writing letters to 11th-grade students performed better on tests of conceptual understanding of a unit on force and motion than students who did not. The participants included 835 fourth-grade students and 416…

Studies of learning in school settings indicate that many students frame activities in science classes as the production of answers for the teacher or test, rather than as making new sense of the natural world. A case study of an episode from a class taught by the first author demonstrates what productive and unproductive student framing can look…

Physics as a subject for school students requires an understanding and ability to move between different modes of representation for the concepts under review. However, the inability of students to have a multimodal understanding of the concepts is seen as restricting their understandings of the concepts. The aim of this study was to explore the…

There is widespread concern for the situation of school physics regarding recruitment, contents, teaching methods, etc. In this study based on questionnaire and focus group data, we explore how upper secondary pupils and teachers perceive physics as a subject, how they experience physics instruction, and how physics compares to other subjects. Our…

This interpretive case study describes a collaborative project involving a physics professor and a science educator. We report what was learned about factors that influenced the professor's development of teaching strategies, alternative to lecture, that were intended to promote prospective teachers' meaningful learning and their use of canonical…