Use of repertory grids in facilitating knowledge construction and reconstruction in geology

Abstract

This article describes a case study of the social construction of knowledge when undergraduate students are engaged in collaborative analysis of repertory grids produced by themselves and their instructor. The research is based on the elicitation of students' private understanding and instructors' public knowledge with the use of the repertory grid. This technique is derived from Kelly's personal construct psychology (Kelly, 1955), a constructivist theory that emphasizes the idiosyncratic nature of meaning. The teaching experience that follows was conducted adopting the educational paradigm of self-organized learning, in which the principles of constructivism, conceptual change, personal construct psychology, public knowledge and private understanding, and social learning are integrated to some extent. Results indicate that the repertory grid technique is (a) an approach that motivates students to be responsible for their own learning; (b) one means to get students to communicate their understanding and make this understanding open for inspection and scrutiny; (c) a way to negotiate the meanings of the concepts under study; (d) a tool to match students' understanding with their instructor's knowledge; and (e) a way for students to structure their knowledge.

The Change of Science Teachers’ Personal Knowledge about Teaching Models and Modelling in the Context of Science Education Reform

“…As he was a psychotherapist, the application of his method has for a long time been restricted to clinical psychology. However, since the 1980s, there has been an increasing number of publications in educational research that mention the use of the repertory grid to inquire into the process of learning and teaching, primarily from the perspective of the students and teachers directly involved (for example, Bezzi, 1996;Castejon & Martinez, 2001, Corporaal, 1991Pope & Denicolo, 2004;Solas 1992;Verloop 1989). Teachers' personal knowledge can originate from a range of experiences including both practical experiences, such as everyday activities, as well as past formal schooling, which includes initial teacher education or continued professional training (Calderhead, 1996).…”

“…The major criterion for forming groups or clusters is that the linear reordering of the rows of constructs and the columns of elements, respectively, will result in a final grid that displays a minimum total difference between all adjacent pairs of rows and columns (Shaw, 1980). The patterns resulting from the similarities that one attributes to both constructs and elements reflect coherent domains of meanings that are used to explain certain issues (Bezzi, 1996) at a particular point in time. Repeated rep grid administration and analysis may indicate the changes over time in these personal meanings.…”

A Five-Stage Prediction-Observation-Explanation Inquiry-Based Learning Model to Improve Students’ Learning Performance in Science Courses

“…The RGTL approach was originally used to explore the construct relationships of personal cognitive structures and it expanded to more fields with the development of computer tools (John, 2013). RGTL is (a) an approach that motivates students to be responsible for their own learning; (b) a means to get students to communicate their understanding and make this understanding open for inspection and scrutiny; (c) a way to negotiate the meanings of the concepts under study; (d) a tool to match students' understanding with their instructor's knowledge; and (e) a way for students to structure their knowledge (Bezzi, 1996).…”

Exposing biology teachers’ tacit views about the knowledge that is required for teaching using the repertory grid technique

“…These constructs serve as mental models that enable individuals to formulate testable hypotheses about future events, and then test them against their experience and revise them (Ben-Zvi Assaraf & Damri, 2009;Duit & Glynn, 1996;Duit & Treagust, 2003). Kelly drew explicit parallels between the processes that guide scientific research and those involved in everyday activities (Bezzi, 1996;Bradshaw, Ford, Adams-Webber, & Boose, 1993). Like scientists, people tend to predict and control the course of events in their environment by controlling mental models of the world.…”