Learning Physics Through Transduction
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Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Science and Technology 1977 Learning Physics through Transduction A Social Semiotic Approach TREVOR STANTON VOLKWYN ACTA UNIVERSITATIS UPSALIENSIS ISSN 1651-6214 ISBN 978-91-513-1034-3 UPPSALA urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-421825 2020 Dissertation presented at Uppsala University to be publicly examined in Haggsalen, Ångströmlaboratoriet, Lägerhyddsvägen 1, Uppsala, Monday, 30 November 2020 at 14:00 for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. The examination will be conducted in English. Faculty examiner: Associate Professor David Brookes (Department of Physics, California State University). Abstract Volkwyn, T. S. 2020. Learning Physics through Transduction. A Social Semiotic Approach. Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Science and Technology 1977. 294 pp. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. ISBN 978-91-513-1034-3. This doctoral thesis details the introduction of the theoretical distinction between transformation and transduction to Physics Education Research. Transformation refers to the movement of meaning between semiotic resources within the same semiotic system (e.g. between one graph and another), whilst the term transduction refers to the movement of meaning between different semiotic systems (e.g. diagram to graph). A starting point for the thesis was that transductions are potentially more powerful in learning situations than transformations, and because of this transduction became the focus of this thesis. The thesis adopts a social semiotic approach. In its most basic form, social semiotics is the study of how different social groups create and maintain their own specialized forms of meaning making. In physics education then, social semiotics is interested in the range of different representations used in physics, their disciplinary meaning, and how these meanings may be learned. Students need to gain representational competence in interpreting and using the different representations they meet in their physics education and this thesis examines how this might be achieved. Empirically, the thesis investigated interactive engagement through the use of probeware. Such approaches have been shown to promote learning, although the reasons why this occurs are less well understood. The above matters are given consideration in three case studies that investigate the collaborative learning of introductory physics students’ when using a particular probeware tool, the Interactive Online Laboratory System or iOLab. The thesis presents two central findings. First, probeware tools are found to be particularly effective in teaching and learning of disciplinary content when they combine high pedagogical affordance with high disciplinary affordance with respect to the intended learning goals. Second, transduction is shown to be central to teaching and learning physics in the case study setting of student laboratory work. This is because the movement between semiotic systems helps create the variation necessary for students to notice disciplinary relevant aspects. Moreover, the results suggest that physics lecturers should pay particular attention to students’ personal transductions as these provide insights into what, and how learning is taking place. The thesis suggests that introductory level physics students will initially view coordinate systems as fixed in a standard up-down orientation. The analysis demonstrates how students can come to appreciate the movability of coordinate systems without the need for mathematical calculations. It also suggests that part of the reason that interactive engagement is effective is because it requires communication about physics conceptualisations with peers. Finally, the thesis proposes a refined definition of representational competence and suggests how such representational competence can be effectively developed. The implications of the research findings for the teaching and learning of physics are discussed and suggestions for future work are presented. Keywords: Introductory physics, transduction, interactive engagement, social semiotics, representational competence, probeware, mathematical tools, 1-D kinematics, coordinate systems, magnetic field, pedagogical affordance, disciplinary affordance Trevor Stanton Volkwyn, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Physics Didactics, 516, Uppsala University, SE-751 20 Uppsala, Sweden. © Trevor Stanton Volkwyn 2020 ISSN 1651-6214 ISBN 978-91-513-1034-3 urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-421825 (http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-421825) To my parents and family in the Lord Je- sus Christ List of Papers and supporting work Papers This doctoral thesis is based on the following peer reviewed papers, which are referred to in the text by Roman numerals. I. Volkwyn, T. S., Airey, J., Gregorcic, B., Heijkensköld, F., & Linder, C. (2018). Physics students learning about abstract mathematical tools when engaging with “invisible” phenomena. In L. Ding, A. Traxler, & Y. Cao (Eds.), 2017 Physics Education Research Conference Pro- ceedings (pp. 408–411). American Association of Physics Teachers. https://doi.org/10.1119/perc.2017.pr.097 II. Volkwyn, T. S., Gregorcic, B., Airey, J., & Linder, C. (2020). Learn- ing to use Cartesian coordinate systems to solve physics problems: the case of ‘movability.’ European Journal of Physics, 41(4), 045701. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6404/ab8b54 III. Volkwyn, T. S., Airey, J., Gregorcic, B., & Heijkenskjöld, F. (2019). Transduction and Science Learning: Multimodality in the Physics La- boratory. Designs for Learning, 11(1), 16–29. https://doi.org/10.16993/dfl.118 IV. Volkwyn, T. S., Airey, J., Gregorcic, B., Linder, C. (manuscript in preparation, 2020). Can students’ mathematical expectations present a barrier to conceptual understanding? Implementing an interactive learning activity in South African undergraduate physics. African Journal of Research in Mathematics, Science and Technology Educa- tion. V. Volkwyn, T. S., Airey, J., Gregorcic, B., & Linder, C. (2020). Devel- oping representational competence: linking real-world motion to physics concepts through graphs. Learning: Research and Practice, 6(1), 88–107. https://doi.org/10.1080/23735082.2020.1750670 All of the above publications were (or will be) published under full open-ac- cess licenses (CC-BY 4.0). Supporting work The following oral, poster and workshop presentations were delivered at aca- demic conferences during the course of the PhD project, listed in chronologi- cal order: i. Volkwyn, T. (2016). The Role of Mathematics in Learning Physics. Presented at the First meeting of Graduate School in subject educa- tion research, Friiberghs Herrgård, Örsundsbro, Sept 5-6, 2016. Abstract and presentation available for download from http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-302646 ii. Volkwyn, T. (2016). Role of Mathematics in Learning Physics. Pre- sented at the Introduction to Subject Education PhD Course Confer- ence, Blåsenhus Entrance Hall, Uppsala University, Uppsala, 8 No- vember 2016. Poster and abstract available from http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-318513 iii. Volkwyn, T.S., Airey, J., Gregorcic, B., & Heijkenskjöld, F. (2016). Multimodal transduction in secondary school physics. Presented at the 8th International Conference on Multimodality, 7th-9th December 2016. Cape Town, South Africa. Presentation and abstract available from http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-316982 iv. Volkwyn, T.S., Airey, J., Gregorcic, B., Heijkenskjöld, F., & Linder, C. (2017). Teaching the movability of coordinate systems: Discover- ing disciplinary affordances. Presented at the American Association of Physics Teachers 2017 Summer Meeting, 22-26 July, Cincinnati, OH, USA. Abstract available from http://urn.kb.se/re- solve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-339408 v. Volkwyn, T.S., Airey, J., Gregorcic, B., Heijkenskjöld, F., & Linder, C. (2017). The IOLab and magnetic field – magnetic north versus ac- tual direction. Presented at the American Association of Physics Teachers 2017 Summer Meeting, 22-26 July, Cincinnati, OH, USA. Abstract available from http://urn.kb.se/re- solve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-339410 vi. Volkwyn, T.S., Airey, J., Gregorcic, B., Heijkenskjöld, F., & Linder, C. (2017). Coordinating multiple resources to learn physics. Presented at the American Association of Physics Teachers 2017 Summer Meet- ing, 22-26 July, Cincinnati, OH, USA. Abstract available from http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-339117 vii. Volkwyn, T.S., Airey, J., Gregorcic, B., Heijkenskjöld, F., & Linder, C. (2017). Physics students learning about abstract mathematical tools while engaging with “invisible" phenomena. Presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2017, July 26-27, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, College Park, Maryland, USA: American Association of Physics Teachers. Abstract and poster available from http://urn.kb.se/re- solve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-344041 viii. Volkwyn, T.S., Airey, J., Gregorcic, B., Heijkenskjöld, F., & Linder, C. (2017). Working with magnetic field to learn about coordinate sys- tems: a social semiotic approach. Presented at the European Science Education Research Association 2017 Conference, 21-25 August, Dublin, Ireland. Abstract and published extended abstract available from http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-339549 ix. Volkwyn, T.S., Airey, J., Wikman, S., & Linder, C. (2017). Towards modelling formal learning in terms of the multimodal emergence of transduction. Presented at the 6th New Zealand Discourse