INTEGRATING PHYSICS AND MATH THROUGH MICROCOMPUTER-BASED LABORATORIES (MBL): EFFECTS ON DISCOURSE TYPE, QUALITY, AND MATHEMATIZATION

The purposes of this study were to understand the nature of discourse in terms of knowledge types and cognitive process, source of utterances (student or teacher), and time use in microcomputer-based labs (MBL) and verification type labs (VTL) and to gain an understanding of the role of MBL in promoting mathematization. The study was conducted in 2 grade 11 classes in which students studied Hooke’s law and Newton’s second law of motion using MBL during 1 year while a different group of students studied the same topics with the same physics teacher using a VTL approach. All sessions were videotaped, transcribed and coded using a taxonomy developed by DeVito & Grotzer (2005). In addition, evidence to support each of the 5 steps of mathematization was sought from the actions of the teachers and their discourse with the students. Results showed that conceptual knowledge type utterances were significantly more frequent in MBL sessions, cognitive processes of remembering and understanding were significantly more frequent in the MBL sessions, students spent most of their time analyzing the graphs in the MBL sessions, and MBL has a potential to promote mathematization in favorable instructional environments in physics laboratory classes.

[1]  H. Freudenthal,et al.  Revisiting mathematics education , 1992, The Mathematical Gazette.

[2]  D. Krathwohl.  A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy: An Overview , 2002 .

[3]  Hans Niedderer,et al.  Teaching and learning in the science laboratory , 2003 .

[4]  Andrée Tiberghien,et al.  Talking Physics in Labwork Contexts - A Category Based Analysis of Videotapes , 2002 .

[5]  Robert Kozma,et al.  Innovations in Science and Mathematics Education: Advanced Designs for Technologies of Learning. , 2000 .

[6]  Gregory P. Thomas.  Toward Effective Computer Use in High School Science Education: Where to from Here? , 2004, Education and Information Technologies.

[7]  Dimitris Psillos,et al.  Enhancing the Linking of theoretical Knowledge to Physical Phenomena by Real-time Graphing , 2002 .

[8]  Vincent N. Lunetta,et al.  The Laboratory in Science Education: Foundations for the Twenty-First Century , 2004 .

[9]  Fernando Espinoza,et al.  The Use of Graphical Analysis with Microcomputer-Based Laboratories to Implement Inquiry as the Primary Mode of Learning Science , 2007 .

[10]  Norman G. Lederman,et al.  Handbook of Research on Science Education , 2023 .

[11]  Benjamin S. Bloom,et al.  A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives , 2000 .

[12]  Jeremy Roschelle,et al.  SIMCALC : Accelerating Students’ Engagement With the Mathematics of Change , 2000 .

[13]  Hans Freudenthal,et al.  Revisiting mathematics education : China lectures , 1991 .

[14]  Campbell J. McRobbie,et al.  Role of the Microcomputer-Based Laboratory Display in Supporting the Construction of New Understandings in Thermal Physics , 2004 .

[15]  Campbell J. McRobbie,et al.  Epistemological and contextual issues in the use of microcomputer-based laboratories in a year 11 chemistry classroom , 2000 .

[16]  Horst P. Schecker,et al.  Integration of Experimenting and Modelling by Advanced Educational Technology: Examples from Nuclear Physics , 1998 .

[17]  Kenneth Tobin,et al.  International handbook of science education , 1998 .

[18]  Nurit Hadas,et al.  Computer Mediated Learning: An Example of an Approach , 2000, Int. J. Comput. Math. Learn..

[19]  J. A. Mesa González,et al.  ADVANCES IN TECHNOLOGY-BASED EDUCATION: TOWARDS A KNOWLEDGE BASED SOCIETY , 2003 .

[20]  Mogens Allan Niss,et al.  Aspects of the Nature and State of Research in Mathematics Education , 1999 .

[21]  Claus Michelsen,et al.  EXPANDING THE DOMAIN - VARIABLES AND FUNCTIONS IN AN INTERDISCIPLINARY CONTEXT BETWEEN MATHEMATICS AND PHYSICS , 2005 .

[22]  S. J. Swithenby,et al.  NEW APPROACHES: Feeling physics: computer packages for building concepts and understanding , 1996 .

[23]  Zosia A. C. Krusberg.  Emerging Technologies in Physics Education , 2007 .

[24]  Charles Funkhouser,et al.  The Effects of Computer-Augmented Geometry Instruction on Student Performance and Attitudes , 2002 .