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Learning through constructing representations in science : a framework of representational construction affordances

journal contribution
posted on 2012-11-01, 00:00 authored by Vaughan PrainVaughan Prain, Russell TytlerRussell Tytler
Compared with research on the role of student engagement with expert representations in learning science, investigation of the use and theoretical justification of student-generated representations to learn science is less common. In this paper, we present a framework that aims to integrate three perspectives to explain how and why representational construction supports learning in science. The first or semiotic perspective focuses on student use of particular features of symbolic and material tools to make meanings in science. The second or epistemic perspective focuses on how this representational construction relates to the broader picture of knowledge-building practices of inquiry in this disciplinary field, and the third or epistemological perspective focuses on how and what students can know through engaging in the challenge of representing causal accounts through these semiotic tools. We argue that each perspective entails productive constraints on students’ meaning-making as they construct and interpret their own representations. Our framework seeks to take into account the interplay of diverse cultural and cognitive resources students use in these meaning-making processes. We outline the basis for this framework before illustrating its explanatory value through a sequence of lessons on the topic of evaporation.

History

Journal

International journal of science education

Volume

34

Pagination

2751-2773

Location

Oxon, England

ISSN

0950-0693

eISSN

1464-5289

Language

eng

Notes

Article first available online 1st Feb 2012

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2012, Taylor & Francis

Issue

17

Publisher

Routledge