Developing an Understanding of Chemistry: A case study of one Swedish student's rich conceptualisation for making sense of upper secondary school chemistry

2013 ◽  
Vol 36 (7) ◽  
pp. 1107-1136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karina Adbo ◽  
Keith S. Taber
Author(s):  
Pauliina Peltonen

Second language (L2) speech fluency has usually been studied from an individual’s perspective with monologue speech samples, whereas fluency studies examining dialogue data, especially with focus on collaborative practices, have been rare. In the present study, the aim was to examine how participants maintain fluency collaboratively. Four Finnish upper secondary school students of English completed a problem-solving task in pairs, and their spoken interactions were analyzed qualitatively with focus on collaborative completions and other-repetions. The findings demonstrated that collaborative completions and other-repetitions contribute to interactional fluency by creating cohesion to the interaction. Collaborative completions were also used to help the interlocutor to overcome temporary (individual) disfluent phases. Overall, the findings suggest that individual and interactional fluency are intertwined in spoken interaction, which should be acknowledged in theoretical approaches to L2 fluency and in empirical studies examining L2 fluency in interactional contexts.


2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Birgitte Bjønness ◽  
Stein Dankert Kolstø

The present case study examines a teacher’s scaffolding strategies supporting his students during a twelve-week open inquiry project at an upper secondary school. We use interaction analysis to identify how he provides structure and space in the different phases of open inquiry as well as how it constitutes the students’ inquiry process. The study reveals that the teacher scaffolded this open inquiry in two opposing ways; he created space for the students to make their own experiences and ideas, which eventually set up the need for more directed scaffolding to discuss the challenges students experienced, and directing students’ ideas in certain directions in phases with structure. We suggest that the interplay between structure and space creates what can be seen as a driving force providing both exploration and direction for open inquiry. Moreover, we propose that the dual concept of ‘structure and space’ can work as a thinking tool to promote teachers’ competence on how to scaffold more authentic versions of scientific inquiry in schools.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liisa Ilomäki ◽  
Minna Lakkala ◽  
Auli Toom ◽  
Hanni Muukkonen

In this case study, we investigated teachers’ professional learning within a multinational project in an upper secondary school. The aim of the study was to investigate how the participating teachers adopted and applied the trialogical approach (TLA) in their pedagogical practices and their challenges in doing that. The mixed method approach was used for data collection and analysis. About one-fourth of the teachers participated in the activities, ten females and three males. Three groups were identified, based on their activity in the project: pilot teachers, active adopters, and adopters. Altogether 79 students (38 males and 41 females) answered a questionnaire concerning the pedagogical practices. The pedagogical revisions were well in line with TLA; the revised courses as well as new iterations and new ideas were indicators of the teachers’ creative implementation processes. However, some of the TLA ideas were more difficult to apply in an upper secondary school context; for example, the implementation of ideas involving cross-fertilization with other organizations and cultures was rare. In order to learn new pedagogical practices, teachers need organized time for collaborative planning, for reflecting, and for sharing.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 132-150
Author(s):  
Tine Grieg Viig

This article examines the development of reflection-in-musicking in a Write an Opera project at a Norwegian upper secondary school. As part of a PhD project, this case study focuses on a group of seven participants collaborating to create music for an opera with a professional composer facilitating the process. Interviews, observations and video-recordings make up the body of the empirical material. Theories of musicking (Small 1998) and reflection-in-action (Schön, 1983, 1987), and a sociocultural perspective, have been central to understanding the creative practices examined in this study. Learning features found build on socially and culturally co-constructed repertoires of experience, knowledge and skills. Three modes of reflection-in-musicking are identified from the empirical data: aesthetic, artistic and structural.


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