Representation construction: a guided inquiry approach for science education

This chapter outlines a guided inquiry approach, called representation construction, which was successfully developed within an Australian Research Council (ARC) project that links student learning and engagement with the knowledge production practices of science. This approach involves challenging students to generate and negotiate the representations (text, graphs, models, diagrams) that constitute the discursive practices of science, rather than focusing on the text-based, definitional versions of concepts. The representation construction approach is based on sequences of representational challenges which involve students constructing representations to actively explore and make claims about phenomena. It thus represents a more active view of knowledge than traditional structural approaches and encourages visual as well as the traditional text-based literacies. The approach has been successful in demonstrating enhanced outcomes for students, in terms of sustained engagement with ideas, and quality learning, and for teachers enhanced pedagogical knowledge and understanding of how knowledge in science is developed and communicated. This chapter draws on specific examples of how the approach was implemented in a variety of topics, such as energy, forces, astronomy and ideas about matter within junior secondary science classrooms. It will also draw on the issues associated with the adoption of the approach in laptop/tablet classrooms where part of the curriculum is delivered in the cloud.