Browsing by Author "Linder, Cedric"

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    Investigating the effectiveness of concept mapping in improving science language writing for English second language grade 12 learners at Lagunya finishing school in Langa
    (University of the Western Cape, 2000) Dinie, Shafiek; Linder, Cedric
    This research deals with a particular type of learner - a learner having English as a second language as medium of instruction at a finishing school, repeating a subject which he/she has failed in the final matriculation exams; a learner who has been through the educational system and has failed at the exit point (for various reasons) and who is now finally attempting to exit the system through passing the outstanding subject/subjects needed for higher Senior Matriculation Certificate. An outcome of the study was that concept mapping had a positive effect on their writings, in that students wrote clearer descriptions, included more relevant information in essays, showed an ability to see inter-relations, and, to a fair degree, showed improved language usage. Their post concept mapping writings exhibit structure, form, and clarity in presentation of their ideas. Concept Mapping shows great potential for use by English second language learners, especially, in our country's examination context, where 'black' learners, especially in senior grades, are required to write examinations in a language which is not their mother tongue and, in a language, which many have not yet mastered.
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    Qualitatively different ways of unpacking visual representations when teaching intermolecular forces in upper secondary school
    (Wiley, 2021) Patron, Emelie; Linder, Cedric; Wikman, Susanne
    Since visual representations play a particularly important role in the teaching and learning of chemistry, the ex-ploration described in this article focuses on them. This is an explorative study of the qualitatively different ways that visual representations can be unpacked by Swedish upper secondary school chemistry teachers dealing with intermolecular forces. Unpacking is characterized as the ways that visual representations get used to open up the possibility of having the critical aspects and features of an intended object of learning being brought into focal awareness, initially on their own and then simultaneously.
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    Students' ontological security and agency in science education - an example from reasoning about the use of gene technology
    (Taylor & Francis, 2013) Lindahl, Mats Gunnar; Linder, Cedric
    This paper reports on a study of how students' reasoning about socioscientific issues is framed by three dynamics: societal structures, agency and how trust and security issues are handled. Examples from gene technology were used as the forum for interviews with 13 Swedish highschool students (year 11, age 17–18). A grid based on modalities from the societal structures described by Giddens was used to structure the analysis. The results illustrate how the participating students used both modalities for 'Legitimation' and 'Domination' to justify positions that accept or reject new technology. The analysis also showed how norms and knowledge can be used to justify opposing positions in relation to building trust in science and technology, or in democratic decisions expected to favour personal norms. Here, students accepted or rejected the authority of experts based on perceptions of the knowledge base that the authority was seen to be anchored in. Difficulty in discerning between material risks (reduced safety) and immaterial risks (loss of norms) was also found. These outcomes are used to draw attention to the educational challenges associated with students' using knowledge claims (Domination) to support norms (Legitimation) and how this is related to the development of a sense of agency in terms of sharing norms with experts or with laymen.
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    Unpacking physics representations: Towards an appreciation of disciplinary affordance
    (American Physical Society, 2014) Tobias Fredlund, Tobias; Linder, Cedric; Airey, John; Linder, Anne
    This theoretical article problematizes the access to disciplinary knowledge that different physics representations have the possibility to provide; that is, their disciplinary affordances. It is argued that historically such access has become increasingly constrained for students as physics representations have been rationalized over time. Thus, the case is made that such rationalized representations, while powerful for communication from a disciplinary point of view, manifest as learning challenges for students. The proposal is illustrated using a vignette from a student discussion in the physics laboratory about circuit connections for an experimental investigation of the charging and discharging of a capacitor. It is concluded that in order for students to come to appreciate the disciplinary affordances of representations, more attention needs to be paid to their “unpacking.” Building on this conclusion, two questions are proposed that teachers can ask themselves in order to begin to unpack the representations that they use in their teaching. The paper ends by proposing directions for future research in this area
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    Using a disciplinary discourse lens to explore how representations afford meaning making in a typical wave physics course
    (Springer Verlag, 2013) Enghag, Margareta; Forsman, Jonas; Linder, Cedric; MacKinnon, Allan; Moons, Ellen
    We carried out a case study in a wave physics course at a Swedish university in order to investigate the relations between the representations used in the lessons and the experience of meaning making in interview–discussions. The grounding of these interview–discussions also included obtaining a rich description of the lesson environment in terms of the communicative approaches used and the students’ preferences for modes of representations that best enable meaning making. The background for this grounding was the first two lessons of a 5-week course on wave physics (70 students). The data collection for both the grounding and the principal research questions consisted of video recordings from the first two lessons: a student questionnaire of student preferences for representations (given before and after the course) and video-recorded interview–discussions with students (seven pairs and one on their own). The results characterize the use of communicative approaches, what modes of representation were used in the lectures, and the trend in what representations students’ preferred for meaning making, all in order to illustrate how students engage with these representations with respect to their experienced meaning making. Interesting aspects that emerged from the study are discussed in terms of how representations do not, in themselves, necessarily enable a range of meaning making; that meaning making from representations is critically related to how the representations get situated in the learning environment; and how constellations of modes of disciplinary discourse may be necessary but not always sufficient. Finally, pedagogical comments and further research possibilities are presented.