Department of Physics and Technical Education

One of the aims of science teaching is to enable pupils to justify statements relating to scientific content on the basis of evidence, for example through reasoning (Schiepe-Tiska et al. 2012, KMK 2004). In the classroom, the scientific experiment can produce two essential components of an argument – namely data and hypotheses – ‘in situ’ and is therefore particularly well-suited as a starting point for a process of argumentation based on experimental data and observations. By orienting the functional role of the experiment in the classroom in this way – moving away from a purely (positivist) learning opportunity for methodological skillsand skills and subject-specific content, and towards an opportunity for argumentation, conceptual understanding of the subject as well as an appropriate picture of, for example, the provisional, discursive and uncertain nature of scientific knowledge can be conveyed (Driver, Newton & Osborne 2000). To date, there have been only a few studies that have examined the experiment as an opportunity for argumentation. Consequently, two studies involving over 1,500 pupils investigated the relationships between personal factors, the use of specific arguments following the conduct of an experiment, and learning success. It was shown, for example, that prior subject knowledge facilitates the use of data as evidence (rather than, for instance, intuitive heuristics and cue-based reasoning), whilst, in turn, arguing on the basis of data promotes learning success through the experiment. The studies also made it clear that a lack of understanding of how to deal with uncertainty in data impairs learning success. Pupils who were, for example, ‘surprised’ by statistical fluctuations in the experimental data tended to cling to a physically incorrect hypothesis because they no longer trusted their own data – which was of good quality.

Building on these studies from basic research in physics education, modular teaching sequences are now to be developed and evaluated for use in schools, in which the scientific experiment serves as the starting point for a discursive and critical engagement with scientific information. Key thematic areas include the handling of measurement data and its uncertainties, as well as evidence-based argumentation in the context of scientific knowledge acquisition. The scientific monitoring, based on design-based research, will examine whether the intervention can (sustainably) improve students’ ability to argue, their use of specific types of argumentation (e.g. the use of data as evidence in an argument) and their subject-specific learning outcomes. No curriculum is to be developed, as past experience has shown that ‘radical innovations’ in the field of education are difficult to achieve (Reinmann 2005). Instead, the aim is to develop modular units that are easy to implement, thereby bringing about a change in the use of the experiment in a more incremental manner. The materials are being developed and evaluated in collaboration with physics education specialists, experienced teachers from our partner schools, subject seminar leaders, and students on physics teacher training programmes. This project thus further advances the integration of basic research, school practice and teacher training. In this multi-cycle project, findings obtained during practical phases through accompanying studies are fed back into research and training. Teachers and students thus gain a deeper insight into basic research in physics education and act as multipliers for disseminating the findings. A dissemination phase is integrated at the end of the planned project duration, during which the findings and materials are to be integrated into school practice throughout Germany in a sustainable and effective manner.

Funded by the Deutsche Telekom Foundation, 08/2019–07/2022

Project team

• Engin Kardas
• Tobias Ludwig

[Abstract to follow]

Staff

• Ralph Hansmann

As part of MINT²KA, a collaborative project between KIT and the Karlsruhe University of Education (PH Karlsruhe) that focuses on the establishment and expansion of teaching and learning laboratories to integrate teaching, research and practice in teacher training, this PhD project is dedicated to designing modules for the teaching and learning laboratory physiK²A. The subject-specific focus is on physical processes within the human body. Using the method of didactic reconstruction, teaching concepts are developed that enable lower secondary school pupils to identify physical relationships, particularly in learning contexts involving physics experiments, whilst also providing opportunities to address methodological and didactic aspects of teacher training. This didactic structuring is implemented in modules on the eye, colour and colour mixing, and thermal regulation in the body, which are prepared with students as part of a teaching and learning laboratory seminar and carried out with lower secondary school classes. The project includes an initial empirical study of the effectiveness of the teaching concept on colour and colour mixing. It would be appropriate to continue the empirical studies in follow-up projects. 

Project team member:

• Tina Schulze
• Roman Dengler

Since the introduction of modern digital technologies, it has become possible to automatically collect large amounts of measurement data during experiments in science lessons, either very quickly over a short period of time or over a very long period of time. On the one hand, these new possibilities mean that working with large amounts of data can be encouraged in line with the call for 21st-century skills (Pratama et al., 2020). In this context, however, various issues relating to physics education remain unresolved: for example, it is currently unclear what influence the volume of experimentally recorded measurement data has on the learning of physics, for instance in the area of reasoning. Reasoning is a central scientific practice (Driver, Newton & Osborne, 2000) in which hypotheses are linked to data, and it also plays a significant role in physics teaching. Against this background, this project aims to investigate whether the volume of self-collected measurement data influences the quality of arguments. The aim is to examine whether the volume of measurement data leads to a higher quality of arguments (Sampson & Clark, 2008). Cognitive load, amongst other factors, will be included as a control variable. Furthermore, preliminary studies will evaluate the effect of the analysis method, as well as any potential relationship between the perceived level of evidence and the degree of conviction on the quality of the arguments.

The research project is being carried out as part of the physics sub-project ‘Promoting the use of digital data acquisition systems’ within the university-wide ‘InDiKo’ project on digitalisation in teacher training.

Research team

•  Gregor Benz
• Tobias Ludwig