Open-inquiry driven overcoming of epistemological difficulties in engineering undergraduates: A case study in the context of thermal science

Abstract

This paper addresses the efficacy of an open-inquiry approach that allows students to build on\ud traditionally received knowledge. A sample of thirty engineering undergraduates, having already attended\ud traditional university physics instruction, was selected for this study. The students were involved in a six-\ud week long learning experience of open-inquiry research activities within the highly motivating context of\ud developing a thermodynamically efficient space base on Mars. They designed and carried out their own\ud scientific investigations, which involved gathering information, collecting and analyzing data, providing\ud explanations, and sharing results. A questionnaire containing fifteen open-ended real-world problems in\ud thermal science was administered to the students both prior to and after all activities, with the aim of\ud investigating the nature of their difficulties in problem solving. Students’ answers were classified into three\ud epistemological profiles and a prepost instruction comparison was carried out, using methods of statistical\ud implicative analysis. The students obtained significant benefits from their open-inquiry experiences, in\ud terms of the strengthening of their practical and reasoning abilities, by proficiently applying the learned\ud concepts to face and solve real-world problem situations

K-means Clustering to Study How Student Reasoning Lines Can Be Modified by a Learning Activity Based on Feynman’s Unifying Approach

“…), 2000). It has been proven to be very useful to promote authentic learning and to help students to develop high-level cognitive skills (Karelina & Etkina, 2007;Etkina, 2014;Pizzolato et al, 2014).…”

Resolução de problemas abertos no ensino de física: uma revisão da literatura

“…Enfase em habilidades de resolução de problemas: Fortus [3] busca investigar se os participantes capazes de resolver problemas fechados de Física também são capazes de resolver problemas abertos que envolvem a necessidade de fazer suposições; Pizzolato et al [8] analisam as habilidades epistemológicas e eficácia de uma abordagem de investigação científica para a resolução de problemas abertos em termodinâmica; Bravo e Pesa [34] buscam caracterizar as ideias que alunos de Ensino Fundamental explicitam sobre a natureza e percepção da cor, bem como inferir sobre os princípios ontológicos, epistemológicos e conceituais implícitos; Ogilvie [35] investiga possíveis mudanças nas crenças dos alunos em resolução de problemas ; Chittasirinuwat, Kruatong e Paosawatyanyong [36] investigam a importância do conhecimento intuitivo e Diakidoy e Constantinou [13], a criatividade em resolução de problemas abertos.…”

“…Já Abdullah [7] considera que esse tipo de atividade fornece uma oportunidade para aquisição, solidificação e aplicação de conhecimento científico a partir de uma perspectiva pedagógica. Pizzolato et al [8] afirmam que as dificuldades tanto conceituais quanto epistemológicas em resolver problemas poderiam ser superadas introduzindo os alunos em um ambiente de raciocínio científico, promovido por processos de investigação via resolução de problemas abertos. Nessa mesma linha de raciocínio, Barkovich e Carreño [9] e Laburú [10] consideram muito instrutivo trabalhar problemas abertos com os estudantes, pois são requeridos procedimentos que se aproximam do trabalho científico, como análise qualitativa de uma situação, delimitação do problema a partir de hipóteses adequadas, seleção das variáveis etc.…”

Long term stability of learning outcomes in undergraduates after an open-inquiry instruction on thermal science

“…In the framework provided by domain-specific expertise and by following a phenomenographic approach [24][25][26][27] to the analysis of students' answers to the questionnaire, it was possible to categorize typical answering strategies (see Table I in Ref. [23] and here summarized in Table I), identifying three ideal student profiles: (i) the practical or everyday (pe)-type, characterizing the student who remains embedded in the everyday common sense explanation without achieving a scientific comprehension of the observed phenomena; (ii) the descriptive (de)-type, associated with the learner who studies physics laws and theories in a purely mnemonic formulation; and (iii) the explicative (ex)-type, referring to the ability of finding explicative models and effective reasoning for the resolution of common life scientific problems.…”

“…In a previous study we addressed the problem of developing an effective strategy of instruction for science or engineering students by involving a group of engineering undergraduates, who had already attended regular physics lectures, to experience an open-inquiry (OI) based learning environment on thermal phenomena [23]. A questionnaire, specifically developed to investigate the presence of problem-solving related epistemological difficulties affecting the deep understanding of common life phenomena in thermal science, was administered to the students both prior to and after the OI experience.…”