Design and development of a learning progression about stellar structure and evolution

Abstract

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Astronomy Education Research.] In this paper we discuss the design and development of a learning progression (LP) to describe and interpret students' understanding about stellar structure and evolution (SSE). The LP is built upon three content dimensions: hydrostatic equilibrium; composition and aggregation state; functioning and evolution. The data to build up the levels of the hypothetical LP (LP1) came from a 45-minute, seven-question interview, with 33 high school students previously taught about the topic. The questions were adapted from an existing multiple-choice instrument. Data were analyzed using Minstrell's "facets" approach. To assess the validity of LP1, we designed a twelve-hour teaching module featuring paper-and-pencil tasks and practical activities to estimate the stellar structure and evolution parameters. Twenty high school students were interviewed before and after the activities using the same interview protocol. Results informed a revision of LP1 (LP2) and, in parallel, of the module. The revised module included supplementary activities corresponding to changes made to LP1. We then assessed LP2 with 30 high school students through the same interview, submitted before and after the teaching intervention. A final version of the LP (LP3) was then developed drawing on students' emerging reasoning strategies. This paper contributes to research in science education by providing an example of the iterative development of the instruction required to support the student thinking that LPs' levels describe. Concerning astronomy education research, our findings can inform suitable instructional activities more responsive to students' reasoning strategies about stellar structure and evolution.

Levantamento de recursos e uma avaliação atual do Ensino de Astrofísica Estelar

“…Para alcançar uma aprendizagem significativa é preciso reflexão ao construir uma SD que deve ocorrer de forma bastante minuciosa, para que as possíveis abordagens ocorram através de uma perspectiva desenvolvida em que seja possível descrever o uso da fala/discurso durante a sequência de ensino. A SD deve ser interpretada de maneira ampla, planejando quais abordagens comunicativas serão usadas, incluindo conversas professor-aluno, gestos e discussões entre colegas (vide por exemplo [20]). Muitas vezes estas observações parecem irrealizáveis na escola pública, sujeita a urgências temporais e com um contexto desfavorável à experimentação.…”

Capturing the Cosmos: Teaching Astronomy (and more) through Astrophotography in Middle School

“…Learning Progressions (LPs) have become prevalent in science education (Alonzo and Gotwals, 2012) and have gained popularity in astronomy education research (AER) (Colantonio et al, 2018;Plummer and Maynard, 2014;Testa et al, 2015). Despite their potential for being valuable to science education, there are some cautions, such as the premature imposition of constraints on instruction (Shavelson and Kurpius, 2012), if LPs are under-researched they lead to reinforcing naïve conceptions (Shavelson and Kurpius, 2012), the need for professional development for teachers (Shavelson and Kurpius, 2012), LPs should be tested in a variety of classrooms to determine that they are working as intended (Krajcik, 2012) and most importantly researchers must be critical of their work by avoiding "force fitting data" to the LPs (Krajcik, 2012).…”

Editorial: Focused Collection: Astronomy Education Research

“…Other authors highlighted methodological challenges that need to be addressed to make progress on pressing questions in astronomy education research. Two papers in this focused collection call for the increased use of longitudinal research methods [9,12]. Mixed-methods research-combinations of in-depth qualitative and quantitative analyses-is important for any study of innovative methods of instruction in Astronomy 101 [6].…”