39 results on '"Elby, Andrew"'
Search Results
2. Arguing about argument and evidence: Disagreements and ambiguities in science education research and practice.
- Author
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Tang, Xiaowei, Levin, Daniel M., Chumbley, Alexander K., and Elby, Andrew
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SCIENCE education ,AMBIGUITY ,EDUCATION research ,MASTER teachers ,SCIENCE classrooms ,TEACHERS - Abstract
Science education researchers agree about the importance of evidence in science practices such as argumentation. Yet, disagreements and ambiguities about what counts as "evidence" in science classrooms pervade the literature. We argue that these ambiguities and disagreements can be viewed as falling along three fault lines: (i) the source of evidence, specifically, whether it must be first‐hand; (ii) whether "evidence" must always be empirical; and (iii) the extent to which evidence is inferred, and what degree of inference transforms "evidence" into something else. In this paper, after showing how these three fault lines manifest in the literature, we argue that these three dimensions of disagreements and ambiguities are not confined to research and research‐based curricula; they are also salient in teachers' classroom practice, as illustrated by a dramatic, multiday debate between a mentor teacher and her teacher intern. After establishing the salience of the three fault lines in both research and practice, we explore whether Next Generation Science Standard (NGSS) can provide a resolution to the teachers' debate and to the disagreements/ambiguities in the literature. Our analysis reveals that NGSS reproduces rather than resolves those three fault lines—but in doing so, it invites a resolution of a different type. Instead of providing a single, precise, context‐independent definition of "evidence," NGSS implicitly reflects a defensible view that what counts as "evidence" depends on the epistemic aims of the practices in which the students are engaged. This implied context‐dependency of what counts as good evidence use, we argue, could be made explicit in an addendum document clarifying aspects of NGSS. Doing so would provide valuable guidance to teachers, teacher educators, and researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2022
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
3. The tension between pattern‐seeking and mechanistic reasoning in explanation construction: A case from Chinese elementary science classroom.
- Author
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Tang, Xiaowei, Elby, Andrew, and Hammer, David
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SCIENCE classrooms ,EDUCATIONAL standards ,ELECTRIC circuits ,ELECTRIC lighting ,AMBIGUITY ,NATIONAL curriculum - Abstract
Through analysis of a classroom lesson led by a decorated teacher, we illustrate how instructional practices favor students seeking empirical patterns at the expense of using mechanistic reasoning. In the lesson, when students spontaneously come up with hypothetical mechanisms to explain why a light bulb in an electric circuit does or does not light, the teacher, following the guidance of standardized curricula, redirects them toward pattern‐seeking. We argue that this bias toward pattern‐seeking in Chinese national standards and curricula, along with ambiguity in those documents on what an "explanation" is, sits in tension with students' productive abilities and propensities for engaging in mechanistic explanation. In discussion, we extend the argument to show a less severe but similar bias toward pattern‐seeking in the United States' Next Generation Science Standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2020
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- View/download PDF
4. Video tagging as a window into teacher noticing.
- Author
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Walkoe, Janet, Sherin, Miriam, and Elby, Andrew
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VIDEOS ,TEACHER researchers ,PSYCHOLOGY of teachers ,MATHEMATICS teachers ,TEACHERS ,TEACHER educators - Abstract
Among mathematics teacher educators, a consensus has emerged that exemplary teaching involves attention to students' thinking. This consensus stems, in part, from theoretical and empirical work highlighting the importance of teachers' being able to make thoughtful in-the-moment decisions, building on students' ideas to adjust the ongoing lesson. Since this in-the-moment flexibility draws in large part on teachers' noticing capabilities, mathematics education researchers have paid increasing attention over the past decade to key characteristics of teacher noticing and to ways to help teachers develop these skills and inclinations. In this paper, we explore how engaging teachers in annotating videos of mathematics classrooms can provide important insights into teacher noticing of students' mathematical thinking. We argue that, when used in particular ways, video tagging affords researchers and teacher educators the ability to examine the relationship between what grabs a teacher's attention and how teachers interpret the thinking displayed in those moments, and instructionally actionable feedback about how teachers are progressing in their attending to and interpreting of students' thinking, two related skills that may or may not develop in sync. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2020
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5. Reframing the Responsiveness Challenge: A Framing-Anchored Explanatory Framework to Account for Irregularity in Novice Teachers' Attention and Responsiveness to Student Thinking.
- Author
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Richards, Jennifer, Elby, Andrew, Luna, Melissa J., Robertson, Amy D., Levin, Daniel M., and Nyeggen, Colleen G.
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BEGINNING teachers ,CLASSROOM activities ,TEACHER researchers ,TEACHER educators ,MATHEMATICS education ,MEDICAL science education - Abstract
Mathematics and science education researchers focused on teacher education emphasize attention and responsiveness to student thinking as central to effective classroom practice. Being responsive to student thinking involves attending to the substance of students' ideas—the meaning students are making—and pursuing that thinking, adjusting the flow of instruction as needed. Yet, attention and responsiveness to student thinking is irregular and generally rare among novice teachers. In this theoretical paper, we argue that the irregularity of attention and responsiveness to student thinking, including variability within individual teachers' practice, can be explained by a framework grounded in teachers' localized framings of their classroom activity—their sense of "what is it that's going on here." Using analyses of classroom episodes across contexts and timescales to illustrate our claims, we demonstrate how a framing-anchored framework can coordinate and improve upon three common explanations for the irregularity of novice teachers' attention and responsiveness to student thinking: underdeveloped skills and/or knowledge for attending and responding, "transmissionist" beliefs about learning, and institutional constraints (and teachers' perceptions thereof). Building on this argument, we suggest that teacher educators can work with novice teachers' framings of their classroom activities as a generative anchor for supporting attention and responsiveness to student thinking in classroom settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2020
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6. Examining How Engineering Educators Produce, Reproduce, or Challenge Meritocracy and Technocracy in Pedagogical Reasoning.
- Author
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Turpen, Chandra Anne, Radoff, Jennifer, Gupta, Ayush, Sabo, Hannah, and Elby, Andrew
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Sociologists and historians of science/engineering have documented the salience of meritocracy and technocracy in engineering and engineering education (Cech, 2014; Slaton, 2015; Riley, 2008). Some engineering education scholars have begun to document how technocracy and meritocracy have been mechanisms of marginalization within engineering education (Slaton, 2015; Foor, Walden, & Trytten, 2007; Secules, Gupta, Elby, & Turpen, 2018). Our team has been engaged in the iterative redesign of a pedagogy seminar for engineering peer educators working within a college-level introduction to engineering design course. Using tools of discourse analysis, we analyze how technocratic stances are reproduced or challenged in engineering peer educators' talk during pedagogy seminar discussions. We study peer educators, in particular, because they are in a unique position to do harm if the ideologies of meritocracy and technocracy aren't challenged. Likewise, they are in a unique position to do good if they actively disrupt these ideologies in the introductory engineering design course. We present empirical examples of engineering peer educators both reproducing and contesting technocratic (and, at times, meritocratic) stances in reasoning about engineering education. We believe that such empirical examples can help engineering educators hone their attention to student thinking in the classroom and help us understand what it might look like to see evidence of growth in students' reasoning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2019
7. Squaring the quantum computing circle.
- Author
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Elby, Andrew
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QUANTUM computing ,CIRCLE - Abstract
Quantum Computing: From Alice to Bob, Alice Flarend and Bob Hilborn, Oxford U. Press, 2022, $80.00 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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- 2023
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8. Beyond Empirical Adequacy: Learning Progressions as Models and Their Value for Teachers.
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Alonzo, Alicia C. and Elby, Andrew
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PHYSICS teachers ,TEACHERS ,CULTURAL transmission ,SCIENTIFIC models ,DYNAMIC models - Abstract
As scientific models of student thinking, learning progressions (LPs) have been evaluated in terms of one important, but limited, criterion: fit to empirical data. We argue that LPs are not empirically adequate, largely because they rely on problematic assumptions of theory-like coherence in students' thinking. Through an empirical investigation of physics teachers' interactions with an LP-based score report, we investigate 2 other criteria of good models: utility and generativity. When interacting with LP-based materials, teachers often adopted finer-grained perspectives (in contrast to the levels-based perspective of the LP itself) and used these finer-grained perspectives to formulate more specific, actionable instructional ideas than when they reasoned in terms of LP levels. However, although teachers did not use the LP-based materials in ways envisioned by LP researchers, the teachers' interactions with the score reports embodied how philosophers envision the fruitful use of good models of dynamic, complex systems. In particular, teachers took a skeptical, inquiring stance toward the LP, using it as an oversimplified starting place for generating and testing hypotheses about student thinking and using concepts from the model in ways that moved beyond the knowledge available in the LP. Thus, despite—and perhaps even because of—their empirical inadequacy, LPs have the potential to serve teachers as productive models in ways not envisioned by LP researchers: as tools for knowledge generation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2019
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9. Traditional versus Hardware-driven Introductory Programming Courses: a Comparison of Student Identity, Efficacy and Success.
- Author
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Lawson, Wesley G., Secules, Stephen, Bhattacharyya, Shuvra, Elby, Andrew, Hawkins, William, Dumitras, Tudor, and Ramirez, Neruh
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C++ ,SELF-efficacy ,HARDWARE ,ELECTRICAL engineering ,TECHNOLOGY - Abstract
This paper compares an innovative approach to teaching an introductory C programming course to a traditional C programming course for electrical engineering students. Students who pass either course must subsequently take a traditional intermediate C programming course. The novel course utilizes hardware-based projects to motivate students to master language syntax and implement key programming concepts and best practices. In addition to comparing the attitudes and selfperceptions of the students in each of the introductory courses, we also look at success rates for each cohort in the intermediate programming class as well as their progress toward their degrees. The electrical engineering students who took either introductory class on average had identical GPAs. However, students who took the novel introductory C course did somewhat better than the other cohort in the intermediate traditional class. Furthermore, after students took the novel course, they were more likely to feel that they fit in as electrical engineers and less likely to believe that programming was "not real engineering." This increase spanned a number of subgroups within the course, including students from underserved populations. Additional results, a synopsis of the two introductory courses, and a description of a technology-driven intermediate programming course are presented and discussed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2017
10. Taking an escape hatch: Managing tension in group discourse.
- Author
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Sohr, Erin Ronayne, Gupta, Ayush, and Elby, Andrew
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PROBLEM solving ,THEORY of knowledge ,INTERACTION analysis in education ,COLLEGE teachers ,UNDERGRADUATES - Abstract
Abstract: Problem solving in groups can be rich with tension for students. This tension may arise from conflicting approaches (conceptual and/or epistemological) and/or from conflict emerging in the social relations among group members. Drawing on video records of undergraduate students working collaboratively, we use three cases to illustrate the multifaceted ways in which conflict arises—combining conceptual, epistemological, and socioemotional dynamics—and a specific way of managing the tension that can emerge from the multifaceted conflict, “taking an escape hatch.” An escape hatch is a set of discourse moves through which participants close the conversational topic, thereby relieving tension, but before a conceptual resolution is achieved. We describe how epistemological twists and turns can be recruited as a means of managing the strong emotions experienced by the students, showing the coupling of emotion and epistemology in students’ conceptual sense making during group work. We help to provide the groundwork necessary for instructors to notice, understand, and respond to one way in which conceptual–epistemological–social–emotional aspects of interaction are coupled in the emergence of tension, rather than narrowly targeting instructional moves based on only conceptual or epistemological considerations. Instead, instructors should often respond to—and help students become aware of—the emotional component of peer interactions and its entanglement with the “cold cognitive” conceptual and epistemological components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2018
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11. Supporting the Narrative Agency of a Marginalized Engineering Student.
- Author
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Secules, Stephen, Gupta, Ayush, Elby, Andrew, and Tanu, Emilia
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ENGINEERING students ,SCHOLARLY method ,METHODOLOGY ,ENGINEERING education ,CRITICAL theory - Abstract
Abstract: Background: Quantitative researchers have noted the impact of mentoring and support programming for students from underrepresented groups in engineering. Qualitative researchers have also noted the importance of student agency in persistence through marginalization. Nevertheless, challenges and questions remain in identifying practices which are effective in supporting underrepresented students. Purpose: The study applies scholarship from critical theory and narrative as a new resource for approaching and understanding the process of supporting marginalized student agency. Method: A longitudinal interview study with a female undergraduate engineering student, Emilia, developed into a way for her to process marginalizing educational experiences and to develop new narratives that expanded her agency. After an in‐depth member check, Emilia became a co‐author contributing a post hoc account of the impact of these discussions. Results: Our analysis indicates that naming one's own oppression and creating narratives that repurpose and resituate stereotypical stories of oppression was a liberatory act for Emilia. We trace three marginalizing themes of the participant's experience that are subverted and resisted through the student co‐constructed narrative. Conclusions: The paper builds theory for diversity support, suggesting critical theorizing may present a new form of agency not yet represented in the literature. It also points to possible value for student participants from qualitative methodologies exploring student experiences. Finally, it suggests supporting critical theorizing as a potential new orientation for diversity practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2018
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12. Why Ideology Matters for Learning: A Case of Ideological Convergence in an Engineering Ethics Classroom Discussion on Drone Warfare.
- Author
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Philip, Thomas M., Gupta, Ayush, Elby, Andrew, and Turpen, Chandra
- Subjects
DRONE warfare ,ENGINEERING ethics ,IDEOLOGY ,EDUCATION - Abstract
The relationship between ideology and learning remains insufficiently theorized and sparsely investigated in the learning sciences. Drawing on Stuart Hall’s theorization of ideology, Judith Butler’s notion of the (un)grievability of lives, and Sara Ahmed’s construct of stickiness, we illustrate how insights from critical social theory are indispensable to understanding processes of learning and how perspectives from the learning sciences can enrich critical social theory. Through the analysis of a classroom discussion on the use of militarized drones in an undergraduate engineering ethics course, we show how ideological convergence among participants constructed locally significant categories of “civilian,” “terrorist,” and (un)grievability, which narrowed the possible trajectories for students’ disciplinary learning in engineering and engineering ethics. Our analysis also shows that fleeting moments of ideological expansion offered opportunities for new learning; however, most of these instances of possibility were not sustained through the classroom discussion. We explicate how ideological convergences and expansions, as interactional achievements, profoundly matter for disciplinary learning and students’ identities. In conclusion, we explore the implications of our findings for broader contexts of learning and for the field of the learning sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2018
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13. Zooming Out from the Struggling Individual Student: An Account of the Cultural Construction of Engineering Ability in an Undergraduate Programming Class.
- Author
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Secules, Stephen, Gupta, Ayush, Elby, Andrew, and Turpen, Chandra
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ENGINEERING education ,ENGINEERING students ,UNDERGRADUATES ,INCLUSIVE education ,MULTICULTURAL education - Abstract
Abstract: Background: To explain educational problems such as student attrition, engineering education literature often focuses on the characteristics of individuals. In 2006, Ray McDermott and Hervé Varenne called for examining the “cultural construction” of educational problems, uncovering how multiple actors create and inscribe meaning to the educational problem. Purpose: We apply the cultural construction framework to examine how the educational problem of a student being “not cut out for engineering” is constructed within the context of a specific electrical engineering course. We focus on culturally taken‐for‐granted course structures, practices, and interactions, all of which produce the local enactment of this common educational problem. Method: We used ethnographic methods, including field‐noted participant observations, one‐on‐one participant interviews, and video‐recorded student work on lab assignments. Coordinating multiple data streams enabled us to question explanations couched in terms of individual ability and background, and to illustrate how ability hierarchies were constructed in the educational context. Results: Our findings illustrate how several mundane and seemingly innocuous aspects of engineering classrooms add up to construct the educational problem of our focal student as “not cut out” for engineering. Contributions to this construction included lecture seating positions, interactional norms in lecture and lab, and labels made meaningful through institutional and interactional processes. Conclusions: The forces at play in constructing educational problems for students are deeply embedded in institutions, disciplines, and society, making it difficult to generate a simple list of instructional interventions. We highlight cultural construction analysis as a potentially fruitful orientation for researchers and practitioners to find the particular sites and tools for local intervention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2018
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14. Did the Framework for K‐12 Science Education trample itself? A reply to "Addressing the epistemic elephant in the room: Epistemic agency and the next generation science standards".
- Author
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Elby, Andrew
- Subjects
SCIENCE education ,SCIENCE students ,CURRICULUM - Published
- 2019
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15. Theorizing can contribute to marginalized students' agency in engineering persistence.
- Author
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Secules, Stephen Douglas, Gupta, Ayush, and Elby, Andrew
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STEM education ,STUDENTS ,UNDERGRADUATES ,ENGINEERING students ,ENGINEERING education - Abstract
Within research on retention and persistence in STEM, the concept of student agency is typically treated as a personal characteristic or as an element of coping and navigational strategies. The act of theorizing about one's own experiences and persistence is under-explored as a source of taking agency. Through interviews with a woman in the first year of an undergraduate engineering major, we examine the role that theorizing about engineering culture and her own experiences plays in her constructing a narrative of persistence that counters the prominent perceived narratives marginalizing her position in engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2015
16. Tensions and trade-offs in instructional goals for physics courses aimed at engineers.
- Author
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Elby, Andrew, Kuo, Eric, Gupta, Ayush, and Hull, Michael M.
- Subjects
ENGINEERS ,PHYSICS ,TEACHING ,MATHEMATICS ,QUANTITATIVE research - Abstract
In planning and teaching courses for engineering majors, physics instructors grapple with multiple instructional goals: extensive content coverage, quantitative problem solving, conceptual understanding, motivation, and more. The temptation is to treat these goals as mutually reinforcing or at least as not in conflict. We argue, however, that at least for novice instructors, these goals can be in tension. In our study, one instructor was experienced and emphasized traditional quantitative problem solving. A second instructor teaching another lecture section of the same course was a novice who chose to emphasize a goal suggested by physics education research and studies of practicing engineers, namely mathematical sensemaking-- translating and seeking coherence between mathematical formalism and physical reasoning. A common final exam, containing standard traditional problems and also opportunities for mathematical sense-making, enabled us to document the following trade-off: the novice instructor outperformed the experienced traditional instructor at fostering mathematical sense-making but underperformed at fostering traditional problem solving. In other words, the novice instructor's success at teaching mathematical sense-making came at a cost. A third instructor, expert in emphasizing mathematical sense-making, showed that it is possible to succeed at teaching mathematical sense-making without a significant trade-off in teaching traditional problem-solving. However, for instructors considering the adoption of physics/engineering education research-based instructional strategies, trade-offs must be acknowledged and tough choices must be made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2015
17. Problematizing Best Practices for Pairing in K-12 Student Design Teams.
- Author
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Quan, Gina M., Gupta, Ayush, and Elby, Andrew
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BEST practices ,STUDENTS ,DECISION making ,INSTRUCTIONAL systems design ,INSTRUCTIONAL systems - Abstract
The article focuses on problematizing best practices for pairing in K-12 student design teams. Group composition with respect to varying skill levels among students is an important instructional decision for team-based class projects since that, in combination with other factors, can influence group dynamics on a team.
- Published
- 2015
18. How engineering students think about the roles and responsibilities of engineers with respect to broader social and global impact of engineering and technology.
- Author
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Gupta, Ayush, Elby, Andrew, and Philip, Thomas M.
- Subjects
ENGINEERS ,SOCIAL impact ,PROFESSIONAL employees ,SOCIOLOGY ,TEACHERS - Abstract
Understanding the social, environmental, economic, and political impact of engineering is an important aspect of being a professional engineer. Responding to this need, engineering programs increasingly offer engineering ethics education. However, courses in engineering ethics as well as research on students' developing sense of engineering ethics often emphasize the micro-ethics of research, mentoring, and publications. In comparison, research is limited on how future engineers understand the social, ethical, environmental, economic, and political impact of their scientific and technological contributions. In this manuscript, we present 2 case-study accounts of how future engineers think about an engineer's responsibility towards the social and global impact of their contribution. The case studies draw from video-taped semi-structured interviews with engineering undergraduates. Our case-study analysis suggests that how some engineering students construe an engineer's responsibility depends on the particular issue at hand (weaponized drones versus malfunctioning bridges, for example), on their sense of self as a future engineer, views about what is engineering, sense of nationality, emotions, empathy, and ideologies/narratives available to them through participation in the world at large. We argue that students' views towards macro-ethics of engineering are sensitive to context, and that there's need for further research on how identity, epistemology, and emotions are entangled with an engineers' ethical view. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2015
19. A conceptual physics class where students found meaning in calculations.
- Author
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Hull, Michael M. and Elby, Andrew
- Subjects
PHYSICS education ,CURRICULUM ,NUMERICAL solutions to equations ,PROBLEM solving ,THEORY of knowledge ,QUANTITATIVE research - Abstract
Prior to taking a translated version of the Maryland Open Source Tutorials (OSTs) as a stand-alone course, most students at Tokyo Gakugei University in Japan had experienced physics as memorizing laws and equations to use as computational tools. We might expect this reformed physics class, which emphasizes common sense and conceptual reasoning and rarely invokes equations, to produce students who see a disconnect between equation use and intuitive/conceptual reasoning. Many students at Gakugei, however, somehow learned to integrate mathematics into their 'constructivist' epistemologies of physics, even though OSTs do not emphasize this integration. Tadao, for example, came to see that although a common-sense solution to a problem is preferable for explaining to someone who doesn't know physics, solving the problem with a quantitative calculation (that connects to physical meaning) can bring clarity and concreteness to communication between experts. How this integration occurred remains an open question for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2013
- Full Text
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20. Coupling epistemology and identity in explaining student interest in science.
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Richards, Jennifer, Conlin, Luke, Gupta, Ayush, and Elby, Andrew
- Subjects
STUDENT interests ,THEORY of knowledge ,SCIENCE ,EIGHTH grade (Education) ,CLASSROOMS ,INTERVIEWING ,SENSEMAKING theory (Communication) - Abstract
In this paper, we present the case of Estevan, an eighth-grader from Honduras whose interest in science lies primarily at the intersection of personal epistemology and identity. Drawing on video data from classroom interactions as well as interviews with Estevan and his teacher, Ms. K, we show how Estevan's passionate engagement in sensemaking about the seasons arose from an alignment between his epistemological stance that science involves figuring things out for yourself and his enacted identity as someone who faces challenges head-on. We use Estevan's case to highlight the importance of remaining open to the multiplicity of connections that might exist between interest in science and students' identities and to motivate looking deeper into such issues before prescribing how to engage students in science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2013
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21. Evidence of epistemological framing in survey question misinterpretation.
- Author
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Hutchison, Paul and Elby, Andrew
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THEORY of knowledge ,PHYSICS students ,LEARNING ,KINEMATICS ,DATA analysis ,SURVEYS - Abstract
Physics students' views about what kinds of learning and knowledge-generating activities are expected in class, their epistemological framing, influences their reasoning and what they learn. [1,2] In previous work, we observed that students' likelihood of correctly answering a kinematics question easily solved through common sense depended on whether preceding questions on the survey were designed to prime 'sense-making' or schoolish 'answer-making'. [3] To get insight into students' reasoning we collected 24 think-alouds. [4] The think-aloud data indicate that some participants who incorrectly answered the question misinterpreted the physical situation it describes. On its face this observation might be seen as evidence that inferring answer-making from an incorrect answer lacks validity. However, analysis indicates that students misinterpret the question because of how they frame their approach to answering it. So, misinterpretation of the kinematics question is a signal of epistemological framing, not an impediment to seeing it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2013
- Full Text
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22. Indicators of Understanding: What TAs Listen for in Student Responses.
- Author
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Goertzen, Renee Michelle, Scherr, Rachel E., and Elby, Andrew
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EDUCATION research ,PHYSICS education ,CLASSROOM activities ,ACTIVITY programs in education ,TUTORS & tutoring - Abstract
Before we can develop effective, research-based professional development programs for graduate student physics TAs, we must first identify their current classroom practices and why they engage in these practices. Framing, a theoretical framework developed in sociology and linguistics, provides an analytical toolbox for examining the expectations that guide the actions and attention of individuals while teaching. We use framing to develop fine-grained analyses of two episodes of TAs teaching tutorials. Despite the differences in their behaviors, the two TAs are in a sense both doing the same thing; they organize their interactions with students around “searching for indicators” that the students understand the targeted ideas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2008
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23. Enabling Informed Adaptation of Reformed Instructional Materials.
- Author
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Scherr, Rachel E. and Elby, Andrew
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TEACHING aids ,PROFESSIONAL education ,CURRICULUM ,TUTORS & tutoring ,EXPERIMENTAL methods in education ,PHYSICS education - Abstract
Instructors inevitably need to adapt even the best reform materials to suit their local circumstances. We offer a package of research-based, open-source, epistemologically-focused mechanics tutorials, along with the detailed information instructors need to make effective modifications and offer professional development to teaching assistants. In particular, our tutorials are hyperlinked to instructor’s guides that include the rationale behind the various questions, advice from experienced instructors, and video clips of students working on the materials. Our materials thus facilitate their own implementation and develop instructor expertise with PER-based instructional materials. © 2007 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2007
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24. Probing Students’ Epistemologies Using Split Tasks.
- Author
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McCaskey, Timothy L. and Elby, Andrew
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LEARNING ,THEORY of knowledge ,COLLEGE students ,PHYSICS education ,PHYSICAL sciences education - Abstract
Do students really believe the physical principles they learn in class? To explore this question, we gave an FCI “split” task in which students indicated the answers they think a scientist would give and also indicated the answers they really believe. To interpret the splits that students indicated between what they believe and what they were taught, we interviewed students about why they split. It turns out that a split does not indicate that the student disbelieves the scientist’s answer. The splits actually arose for other reasons, one of which was students indicating a discrepancy between what they were taught and what makes sense to them. For this and other reasons, we devised a new split task focused on these discrepancies between “what makes sense” and what a scientist would say. The results of this new experiment, including validation interviews, will be discussed briefly. Evidence suggests that students are more willing to reconcile physics concepts with their everyday experience if epistemological development is an explicit goal of instruction. © 2005 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2005
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25. Effects on assessment caused by splits between belief and understanding.
- Author
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McCaskey, Timothy L., Dancy, Melissa H., and Elby, Andrew
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SPLITTING extrapolation method ,NUMERICAL analysis ,EDUCATION ,STUDENTS - Abstract
We performed a new kind of FCI study to get at the differences between what students believe and what they think scientists believe. Students took the FCI in the standard way, and then made a second pass indicating ‘the answer they really believe’ and ‘the answer they think a scientist would give.’ Students split on a large number of the questions, with women splitting more often than men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2004
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26. Marginalized Identities of Sense-Makers: Reframing Engineering Student Retention.
- Author
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Danielak, Brian A., Gupta, Ayush, and Elby, Andrew
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ENGINEERING education ,ENGINEERING student research ,IDENTITY & society ,INTELLECTUAL life ,RESEARCH ,COLLEGE students - Abstract
Background Students' identities and sense of belonging in a program affect whether they stay in engineering. Research suggests that students' ways of knowing and beliefs about what counts as knowing and learning - their personal epistemologies - can be aspects of their identities, or sense of self as knowers and learners. Purpose/Hypothesis Combining personal epistemology and identity theories suggests epistemological aspects of students' identities can influence whether they feel they belong in their engineering program. We have two research questions: Can a high-achieving engineering student be in danger of leaving a program because of a mismatch between epistemological aspects of his identity and his perceptions of the intellectual climate of their program? How does such a mismatch affect the student's day-to-day academic experiences? Design/Method For three years, we followed Michael, an electrical engineering student, through interviews and in-class observations. From more than 12 hours of semistructured clinical interviews, more than 10 hours of videotaped discussion sections, and two in-class observations in lectures, we produced a case study to characterize epistemological aspects of Michael's identity and how they influenced his perception of his program. Results Michael expressed and enacted a sense-making epistemology that is a fundamental aspect of his identity as a learner. Due to this sense-making aspect of Michael's identity, he often felt alienated from the intellectual climate of his program, and he considered leaving engineering. Conclusion Researchers focused on student retention should attend to epistemological aspects of student identities. Instructors and administrators focused on retention should attend to the epistemological messages students hear from their programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2014
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27. How students blend conceptual and formal mathematical reasoning in solving physics problems.
- Author
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KUO, ERIC, HULL, MICHAEL M., GUPTA, AYUSH, and ELBY, ANDREW
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PROBLEM solving ,PHYSICS education ,REASONING ,INTERVIEWING ,CONCEPT learning ,MATHEMATICS education - Abstract
ABSTRACT Current conceptions of quantitative problem-solving expertise in physics incorporate conceptual reasoning in two ways: for selecting relevant equations (before manipulating them) and for checking whether a given quantitative solution is reasonable (after manipulating the equations). We make the case that problem-solving expertise should include opportunistically blending of conceptual and formal mathematical reasoning even while manipulating equations. We present analysis of interviews with two students, Alex and Pat. Interviewed students were asked to explain a particular equation and solve a problem using that equation. Alex used and described the equation as a computational tool. By contrast, Pat found a shortcut to solve the problem. His shortcut blended mathematical operations with conceptual reasoning about physical processes, reflecting a view-expressed earlier in his explanation of the equation-that equations can express an overarching conceptual meaning. Using case studies of Alex and Pat, we argue that this opportunistic blending of conceptual and formal mathematical reasoning (i) is a part of problem-solving expertise, (ii) can be described in terms of cognitive elements called symbolic forms (Sherin, 2001), and (iii) is a feasible instructional target. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2013
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28. Beyond Epistemological Deficits: Dynamic explanations of engineering students’ difficulties with mathematical sense-making.
- Author
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Gupta, Ayush and Elby, Andrew
- Subjects
SCIENCE education (Higher) ,THEORY of knowledge ,MATHEMATICAL ability ,ENGINEERING students ,COMMON sense ,QUALITATIVE research - Abstract
Researchers have argued against deficit-based explanations of students’ difficulties with mathematical sense-making, pointing instead to factors such as epistemology. Students’ beliefs about knowledge and learning can hinder the activation and integration of productive knowledge they have. Such explanations, however, risk falling into a ‘deficit trap’—substituting a concepts/skills deficit with an epistemological one. Our interview-based case study of a freshman engineering major, ‘Jim,’ explains his difficulty solving a physics problem (on hydrostatic pressure) in terms of his epistemology, but avoids a deficit trap by modeling the dynamics of his epistemological stabilities and shifts in terms of fine-grained cognitive elements that include the seeds of epistemological expertise. Specifically, during a problem-solving episode in the interview, Jim reaches and sticks with an incorrect answer that violates common sense. We show that Jim has all the mathematical skills and physics knowledge he would need to resolve the contradiction. We argue that his difficulty doing so stems in part from his epistemological views that (i) physics equations are much more trustworthy than everyday reasoning, and (ii) physics equations do not express meaning that tractably connects to common sense. For these reasons, he does not view reconciling between common sense and formalism as either necessary or plausible to accomplish. But Jim’s in-the-moment shift to a more sophisticated epistemological stance highlights the seeds of epistemological expertise that were present all along: he does see common sense as connected to formalism (though not always tractably so), and in some circumstances, this connection is both salient and valued. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 2011
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
29. Coherence vs. Fragmentation in student epistemologies: A reply to Smith & Wenk.
- Author
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Elby, Andrew
- Subjects
REASONING ,COHERENCE (Philosophy) ,CONTEXT effects (Psychology) ,INTUITION ,THOUGHT & thinking - Abstract
The article discusses a long-running paradigm debate on coherence perspective (CP) against the fragmentation perspective (FP). It mentions that CP is a stable context-independent concepts or intuitive theories to students, while the FP describes students' reasoning in terms of the context-dependent activation of finer-grained knowledge elements. It cites the first large-N study design of C. L. Smith and L. Wenk which distinguishes the CP and FP.
- Published
- 2010
30. Defining Personal Epistemology: A Response to Hofer & Pintrich (1997) and Sandoval (2005).
- Author
-
Elby, Andrew
- Subjects
THEORY of knowledge ,SOCIAL epistemology ,EPISTEMICS ,LEARNING ability ,PSYCHOLOGY of learning - Abstract
Some researchers, including B. K. Hofer and P. R. Pintrich (1997) and W. A. Sandoval (2005), argue for defining personal epistemology as views about the nature of knowledge and knowing but not views about the nature of learning. Others continue using a more expansive definition of personal epistemology that includes views about learning. I argue that the scope of personal epistemology should not be decided entirely a priori. If people's views about the nature of knowing and knowledge turn out to be separable from (despite being intertwined with) their views about the nature of learning, then it makes sense to define 2 separate areas of study corresponding to those 2 separable sets of psychological constructs. From some theoretical perspectives, however, empirical results may support the interpretation that views about knowledge are inseparably entangled with views about learning. In that case, excluding views about learning from personal epistemology obscures rather than elucidates the content and cognitive structure of students' views. To be clear, I do not think the community should decide, now, to etch “views about the nature of learning” into the definition of personal epistemology. I argue instead that it is more productive not to converge on a definition until further empirical and theoretical progress points us toward the best way to “cut up [nature] ... along its natural joints” (Plato, 1995, p. 64). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2009
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
31. The impact of epistemology on learning: A case study from introductory physics.
- Author
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Lising, Laura and Elby, Andrew
- Subjects
THEORY of knowledge ,LEARNING ,SCIENCE students ,PHYSICS education ,CURRICULUM planning ,INSTRUCTIONAL systems - Abstract
We discuss a case study of the influence of epistemology on learning for a student in an introductory college physics course. An analysis of videotaped class work, written work, and interviews indicates that many of the student's difficulties were epistemological in nature. Our primary goals are. to show instructors and curriculum developers that a student's personal epistemological stance-her ideas about knowledge and learning can have a direct, causal influence on her learning of physics, and to describe a mechanism for this interaction. This influence exists even when research-based curriculum materials provide implicit epistemological support. For this reason, curriculum materials and teaching techniques could become more effective by explicitly attending to students' epistemologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2005
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
32. Epistemological Resources: Applying a New Epistemological Framework to Science Instruction.
- Author
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Louca, Luocas, Elby, Andrew, Hammer, David, and Kagey, Trisha
- Subjects
THEORY of knowledge ,SCIENCE education ,BELIEF & doubt ,EPISTEMICS ,GENERAL semantics ,EDUCATION ,PSYCHOLOGY ,PHILOSOPHY - Abstract
Most research on personal epistemologies has conceived them as made up of relatively large, coherent, and stable cognitive structures, either developmental stages or beliefs (perhaps organized into theories). Recent work has challenged these views, arguing that personal epistemologies are better understood as made up finer grained cognitive resources whose activation depends sensitively on context. In this article, we compare these different frameworks, focusing on their instructional implications by using them to analyze a third-grade teacher's epistemologically motivated intervention and its effect on her students. We argue that the resources framework has more predictive and explanatory power than stage- and beliefs-based frameworks do. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2004
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
33. Tapping Epistemological Resources for Learning Physics.
- Author
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Hammer, David and Elby, Andrew
- Subjects
PHYSICS education ,THEORY of knowledge - Abstract
Research on personal epistemologies has begun to consider ontology: Do naive epistemologies take the form of stable, unitary beliefs or of fine-grained, context-sensitive resources? Debates such as this regarding subtleties of cognitive theory, however, may be difficult to connect to everyday instructional practice. Our purpose in this article is to make that connection. We first review reasons for supporting the latter account, of naive epistemologies as made up of fine-grained, context-sensitive resources; as part of this argument we note that familiar strategies and curricula tacitly ascribe epistemological resources to students. We then present several strategies designed more explicitly to help students tap those resources for learning introductory physics. Finally, we reflect on this work as an example of interplay between 2 modes of inquiry into student thinking, that of instruction and that of formal research on learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2003
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
34. On the Substance of a Sophisticated Epistemology.
- Author
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Elby, Andrew and Hammer, David
- Subjects
THEORY of knowledge ,STUDENTS - Abstract
Questions the community consensus about epistemological sophistication. Distinction between the correctness and productivity of an epistemological belief; Conception of elementary school students on science; Generalizations on the nature of knowledge and learning.
- Published
- 2001
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
35. Helping physics students learn how to learn.
- Author
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Elby, Andrew
- Subjects
EFFECTIVE teaching ,STUDENTS ,LEARNING - Abstract
Examines the instructional practices for developing knowledge and learning of physics students. Nature of knowledge and learning in understanding physics; Comparison of students beliefs on physics; Effect of epistemological beliefs of students on physics course.
- Published
- 2001
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
36. Contentious contents: For inductive probability.
- Author
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Elby, Andrew
- Subjects
INDUCTION (Logic) ,PROBABILITY theory - Abstract
Refutes the argument that probabilistic support cannot be inductive. Technical conditions; Consequential disjointness versus logical independence; Michael Redhead's rejoinder; Inductive support for incompatible hypothesis.
- Published
- 1994
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
37. Why Local Realistic Theories Violate, Nontrivially, the Quantum Mechanical EPR Perfect Correlations.
- Author
-
ELBY, ANDREW
- Abstract
Using the Kochen–Specker contradiction, I prove that ‘local realistic’ theories predict nontrivial violations of the quantum mechanical EPR-type perfect anticorrelations. The proof invokes the same stochastic local realism conditions used in Bell arguments. For a class of theories called ‘orthodox spin theories’, the perfect anticorrelations used in the proof emerge from rotational symmetry. Therefore, an orthodox spin theorist must abandon either the spirit of relativity, as encoded by local realism, or the letter of relativity, which demands rotational invariance. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]
- Published
- 1993
38. Splits in students' beliefs about learning classical and quantum physics.
- Author
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Dreyfus, Benjamin W., Hoehn, Jessica R., Elby, Andrew, Finkelstein, Noah D., and Gupta, Ayush
- Subjects
QUANTUM theory ,MECHANICS (Physics) ,QUANTUM mechanics ,PHYSICS students ,APPLIED mechanics - Abstract
Background: While there has been increasing recognition of the importance of attending to students' views about what counts as knowing and learning a STEM field, surveys that measure these "epistemological" beliefs are often used in ways that implicitly assume the fields, e.g., "physics," to be a single domain about which students might have sophisticated or naïve beliefs. We demonstrate this is not necessarily the case and argue for attending to possible differences in students' epistemological beliefs across different sub-domains of physics. In modern physics and quantum mechanics courses for engineering and physics students, we administered a set of modified Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey (CLASS) items. Each selected item was turned into two items, with the word "physics" changed to "classical physics" in one and "quantum physics" in the other. Results: We found significant splits between students' survey responses about classical vs. quantum physics on some items, both pre- and post-instruction. In classical physics, as compared to quantum physics, students were more likely to report the salience of real-world connections and the possibility of combining mathematical and conceptual reasoning during problem solving. Conclusions: These findings suggest that attending to sub-domain specificity of students' beliefs about physics can be fruitful and ought to influence our instructional choices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2019
- Full Text
- View/download PDF
39. Alienating Deep Learners.
- Author
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DANIELA, BRIAN, GUPTA, AYUSH, and ELBY, ANDREW
- Subjects
ENGINEERING education ,ENGINEERING students ,ENGINEERING school faculty ,ACTIVE learning ,EDUCATIONAL psychology ,PSYCHOLOGY - Abstract
The article focuses on the aspects of learning and sense-making approach in engineering students. Topics discussed include decision making approach to understand the conceptual meaning of equations instead of just following rote procedures, dominant culture of engineering instruction and need to expand the focus of retention efforts to include retaining and rewarding engineering sense-making practices.
- Published
- 2014
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