Author:
Abstract
What students learn about science and science practice can be inferred by examining student work about science other than their class work. There are two components to this study. The first is a broad examination of projects participating in a national science fair over several years to ascertain what types of inscriptions (from which orders of variables can be inferred) are used in their projects. This data is compared to patterns of inscriptional use at professional science conferences. The second component is a detailed examination of six specific randomly-selected projects to gain insights about use of inscriptions by students in their presentations. Results suggest that there are broad-based (considering the data source) issue with how data representation/graphing is taught in schools, and that teacher education programs need to specifically focus on this issue so that student teachers are better prepared to deal with these issues.
Keywords
Abstract
What students learn about science and science practice can be inferred by examining student work about science other than their class work. There are two components to this study. The first is a broad examination of projects participating in a national science fair over several years to ascertain what types of inscriptions (from which orders of variables can be inferred) are used in their projects. This data is compared to patterns of inscriptional use at professional science conferences. The second component is a detailed examination of six specific randomly-selected projects to gain insights about use of inscriptions by students in their presentations. Results suggest that there are broad-based (considering the data source) issue with how data representation/graphing is taught in schools, and that teacher education programs need to specifically focus on this issue so that student teachers are better prepared to deal with these issues.