Productive resources in students’ ideas about energy: An alternative analysis of Watts’ original interview transcripts

Abstract

For over 30 years, researchers have investigated students' ideas about energy with the intent of reforming instructional practice. In this pursuit, Watts contributed an influential study with his 1983 paper ''Some alternative views of energy'' [Phys. Educ. 18, 213 (1983)]. Watts' ''alternative frameworks'' continue to be used for categorizing students' non-normative ideas about energy. Using a resources framework, we propose an alternate analysis of student responses from Watts' interviews. In our analysis, we show how students' activated resources about energy are disciplinarily productive. We suggest that fostering seeds of scientific understandings in students' ideas about energy may play an important role in their development of scientific literacy.

Using the resources framework to design, assess, and refine interventions on pressure in fluids

“…We have seen in our own data that students have the resources to reason about pressure in fluids. In addition, student conceptual resources have been identified in several challenging topics within physics and mathematics: entropy [70], sound waves [12], energy [8,46,71], electric fields [72], gravity [73], differentials [74], and connecting meaning and mathematics [11].…”

“…This could include "recognizing a confusion, making a new connection among ideas, or designing something to satisfy a goal." Two recent studies [46,51] have made strong claims about the productivity of resources about energy that are judged non-normative. Because their studies observe the same students over several days, they can judge productivity based on students making "significant progress" toward normative understanding.…”

“…Researchers have access to activated resources through students' use of language [40,46] or gestures [47]. For example, in the use of symbolic forms, the phrases "balance" and "equilibrium" are clues that the balancing symbolic form is activated [41] (p. 533).…”

Composition-Effects of Context-based Learning Opportunities on Students’ Understanding of Energy

“…He also pointed out that students in his study often made use of different frameworks across situations, indicating that students' understanding cannot be matched to a single conceptual framework. Although Watts' results had a major influence on subsequent studies, Harrer et al (2013) reanalysis of his interview data challenges the unambiguity of interpreting students' verbal reports with regard to students' underlying conceptual framework.…”

University student conceptual resources for understanding energy

“…Many report that students commonly think of energy as a material or quasimaterial substance [33,101,107,[113][114][115][116][117][118]120]. There is debate over whether this particular idea is productive: some argue that this idea is a misconception because energy is not a material substance [121,122], while others argue that this is a productive metaphor used not only by learners but also by experts [2,114,115,123].…”