Hammer, Enrico Fermi Summer School Proceedings (2004)

The variability of student reasoning, lectures 1-3

D. Hammer, in Proceedings of the Enrico Fermi Summer School, Course CLVI, E. Redish & M. Vicentini (Eds.), Bologna: Italian Physical Society (2004).

Lecture 1: Case studies of children's inquiries, p 279-299.

Abstract: Classroom observations show variability in student reasoning, from young children through adults, even moment-to-moment for the same students in the same class. This varied phenomenology conflicts with views of naïve theories, entrenched conceptions and stages of development as stable attributes. Student knowledge and reasoning is better understood in terms of a manifold ontology of more fine-grained, context sensitive resources. Expectations of variability in student knowledge and reasoning suggest different approaches and objectives in instruction, especially in early science education.
This is the first lecture in a series of three. It introduces the overall agenda and then begins with a series of examples of children’s inquiries to reflect on the beginnings of scientific expertise.

Lecture 2: Transitions, p 301-319.

Abstract:This lecture continues the phenomenology of student reasoning from the first, beginning with brief examples of introductory physics students failing to apply basic logic and common sense. These contrast with the examples from the first lecture of children’s reasoning, but it would be a mistake to interpret the university students’ behavior as evidence that they are not capable of what we saw in elementary students. Rather, students at all ages are capable of reasoning in a variety of ways, and the bulk of this lecture focuses on examples of students shifting in their approaches and ideas over short time scales. Often these shifts follow epistemological prompts from an instructor, suggestions for how students should think about knowledge and learning.

Lecture 3: Manifold cognitive resources, p 321-340.

Abstract: The previous lectures focused on phenomenology: What sorts of occurrences do we see in students’ reasoning? This third and final lecture focuses on ontology: What sorts of things do we attribute to students’ minds? It has become conventional to speak and think in terms of conceptions, naïve theories, and stages of development. These are all attributions of stable properties, and they account well for patterns that can occur in student reasoning. They do not account well, however, for the variability and multiple patterns illustrated in the previous lectures. Research in cognitive science provides an alternative ontology of multiple, fine-grained cognitive resources that are contextsensitive in their activation. This lecture reviews some of that work and draws implications for elementary science education.