Cosmos visualized: Development of a qualitative framework for analyzing representations in cosmology education

Int J of Sci and Math Educ

Tytler

Doig

et al. 2022

Self Cite

Cosmology concepts encompass complex spatial and temporal relations that are counterintuitive. Cosmology findings, because of their intrinsic interest, are often reported in the public domain with enthusiasm, and students come to cosmology with a range of conceptions some aligned and some at variance with the current science. This makes cosmology concepts challenging to teach, and also challenging to evaluate students’ conceptual understanding. This study builds on previous research of the authors investigating the methodological challenges for characterising students’ cosmology conceptions and the reasoning underlying these. Insights from student responses in two iterations of an open-ended instrument were used to develop a concept inventory that combined cosmological conceptions with reasoning levels based on the SOLO taxonomy. This paper reports on the development and validation of the Cosmology Concept Inventory (CosmoCI) for high school. CosmoCI is a 28-item multiple-choice instrument that was implemented with grade 10 and 11 school students (n = 234) in Australia and Sweden. Using Rasch analysis in the form of a partial credit model (PCM), the paper describes a validated progression in student reasoning in cosmology across four conceptual dimensions, supporting the utility of CosmoCI as an assessment tool which can also instigate rich discussions in the science classroom.

Section: Results and Analysismentioning

confidence: 83%

Conceptualising the Cosmos: Development and Validation of the Cosmology Concept Inventory for High School

Int J of Sci and Math Educ

Tytler

Doig

et al. 2022

Self Cite

“…Fredlund et al, 2012;Gibson, 1979;Kress, 2010), aesthetics (e.g. Salimpour, 2021;Salimpour et al, 2021;Ferguson et al, 2021;Girod, 2007;Wickman, 2006) and representations (e.g. Salimpour et al, 2021;Tytler et al, 2013).…”

Section: Meaning-makingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Salimpour, 2021;Salimpour et al, 2021;Ferguson et al, 2021;Girod, 2007;Wickman, 2006) and representations (e.g. Salimpour et al, 2021;Tytler et al, 2013). In the following sections, each of these theoretical perspectives is briefly unpacked.…”

Section: Meaning-makingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The practice of creating and interrogating representations is part and parcel of the epistemic practices of science (Gooding, 2005;Latour, 2012;Tytler et al, 2013), and in astronomy this has been vital. Astronomical representations range from not only the disciplinary graphs and equations, but also extends to imagery, computer simulations and data-driven visualisations (Salimpour et al, 2021).…”

Section: Representationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…From a pedagogical perspective, the use of representations in the teaching and learning of science has developed a vast body of research over the years and has provided a conduit for engaging students with the epistemic practices of sciences (Salimpour et al, 2021;Prain & Tytler, 2012;Tytler et al, 2013). The pedagogical approach that allows representations as epistemic practices to manifest in the classroom is encompassed by representation construction (RC), which is a guided inquiry approach to teaching science (e.g.…”

Section: Representationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Astronomy and Culture

Fitzgerald

2022

Sci & Educ

Self Cite

Modern astronomy as a field of inquiry may be shaped by what we consider the “scientific” ways of knowing. However, the history of astronomy as a human endeavour dates back millennia before the “modern” notions of “science”. This long history means that astronomy is, at its core, built on a rich cultural diversity and history. This offers a rich potential that, while having been examined in various studies, has yet to be explored from a contextual pedagogical perspective. This paper offers an initial exploratory theoretical perspective on how social semiotics can be used to inform a conceptual framework. This approach not only brings notions of culture into the teaching and learning of astronomy but uses culture as the starting point in a way that does justice to the cultural diversity of the discipline and the world. In doing so, this paper develops two frameworks: (i) the Conceptual Framework for Culture in Astronomy Education and (ii) the Pedagogical Framework for Culture in Astronomy Education, both of these offer a novel approach to astronomy education.

Is the Universe Infinite? Characterising a Hierarchy of Reasoning in Student Conceptions of Cosmology Concepts Using Open-Ended Surveys

Journal for STEM Educ Res

Tytler

Fitzgerald

et al. 2023

Cosmology presents students with ideas that stimulate their curiosity and brings together various concepts from STEM that call on a variety of reasoning types across multiple representational modes, involving subtleties of spacetime relations, a variety of models and evidence requiring multiple lines of high precision observations. This study investigated high school students’ levels and types of reasoning that frame their conceptions in different cosmology topics. An open-ended knowledge survey, the Cosmology Knowledge Survey (CosmoKS), was developed and implemented online to 286 high school students (aged 16–18 years) from Australia and Sweden. A modified version of the Structure of the Observed Learning Outcome (SOLO) taxonomy with four levels (pre-structural, uni-structural, multi-structural and relational) was used as a guide to analyse students’ open-ended and structured responses. This provided insights into the level and complexity of reasoning underpinning a variety of conceptions across the four dimensions of cosmology education: size and scale, spacetime location, composition of the universe and evolution of the universe. The study identified underlying patterns in student reasoning and conceptions in cosmology, summarised as (i) navigating spatial and temporal relations, (ii) counterintuitive concepts and (iii) language and everyday experience, especially intuition. The analysis led to the characterisation of a hierarchy of reasoning that helps identify sources of alternative conceptions and provided the basis for the development of a concept inventory and progression with broad implications.