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Physical Review Special Topics - Physics Education Research
written by Olivia Levrini and Andrea A. diSessa
This article provides an empirical analysis of a single classroom episode in which students reveal difficulties with the concept of proper time in special relativity but slowly make progress in improving their understanding. The theoretical framework used is "coordination class theory," which is an evolving model of concepts and conceptual change. The paper will focus on showing to what extent and in what sense most of the conditions and events in the data corpus seem understandable from the point of view of coordination class theory. In addition, however, some extensions of the theory are implicated, although we argue that they are "natural" extensions, improvements that extend, but do not threaten, the core theory. In particular, we observe students articulately aligning different ways of determining proper time, and we conjecture, more generally, that such a process is strongly consistent with coordination class theory and likely to be productive in other cases of conceptual change. The empirical analysis is explicitly connected to the general issue of theories and theory development in studies of conceptual change.
Subjects Levels Resource Types
Education - Applied Research
- Pedagogy
Education - Basic Research
- Cognition
General Physics
- Physics Education Research
Relativity
- Special Relativity
- Lower Undergraduate
- Graduate/Professional
- Reference Material
= Research study
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© 2008 The American Physical Society
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.4.010107
ISSN Number:
1554-9178
Keywords:
conceptual change, coordination class, humble theory, proper time, special relativity
Record Creator:
Metadata instance created July 4, 2008 by Lyle Barbato
Record Updated:
August 22, 2009 by Gregory Comer
Last Update
when Cataloged:
April 23, 2008
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Record Link
AIP Format
O. Levrini and A. diSessa, , Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 4 (1), 010107 (2008), WWW Document, (https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.4.010107).
AJP/PRST-PER
O. Levrini and A. diSessa, How students learn from multiple contexts and definitions: Proper time as a coordination class, Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 4 (1), 010107 (2008), <https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.4.010107>.
APA Format
Levrini, O., & diSessa, A. (2008, April 23). How students learn from multiple contexts and definitions: Proper time as a coordination class. Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res., 4(1), 010107. Retrieved December 10, 2024, from https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.4.010107
Chicago Format
Levrini, Olivia, and Andrea diSessa. "How students learn from multiple contexts and definitions: Proper time as a coordination class." Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 4, no. 1, (April 23, 2008): 010107, https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.4.010107 (accessed 10 December 2024).
MLA Format
Levrini, Olivia, and Andrea diSessa. "How students learn from multiple contexts and definitions: Proper time as a coordination class." Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 4.1 (2008): 010107. 10 Dec. 2024 <https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.4.010107>.
BibTeX Export Format
@article{ Author = "Olivia Levrini and Andrea diSessa", Title = {How students learn from multiple contexts and definitions: Proper time as a coordination class}, Journal = {Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res.}, Volume = {4}, Number = {1}, Pages = {010107}, Month = {April}, Year = {2008} }
Refer Export Format

%A Olivia Levrini %A Andrea diSessa %T How students learn from multiple contexts and definitions: Proper time as a coordination class %J Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. %V 4 %N 1 %D April 23, 2008 %P 010107 %U https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.4.010107 %O application/pdf

EndNote Export Format

%0 Journal Article %A Levrini, Olivia %A diSessa, Andrea %D April 23, 2008 %T How students learn from multiple contexts and definitions: Proper time as a coordination class %J Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. %V 4 %N 1 %P 010107 %8 April 23, 2008 %@ 1554-9178 %U https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevSTPER.4.010107


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