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Abstract Title: Promoting Conceptual Change and Development of Collective Responsibility
Abstract: Socio-cultural approaches view learning as a social phenomenon, situated in the course of human activities. Thus, student learning and conceptual change is enhanced by instruction that creates opportunities for students to interact socially with others while engaged in appropriate learning activities. Models of instruction that promote social-interactions include Peer Instruction and community of learners (Brown&Campione,1994). This poster presents results from a case study of an introductory physics course using Peer Instruction. Audio recordings were made of small group conversations where students explained and justified their choices to peers. Discourse analyses of recordings show that students expend greater effort over time, build more rigorous arguments and regulate their discourse using both individual and collective processes of monitoring (eg. in time, peers use as well as demand more precise definitions and justifications before accepting arguments). Our results show changes in individual student's attitudes toward their personal and collective responsibility to classmates.
Abstract Type: Targeted Poster
Targeted Session: Broadening Our Lens: Socio-Cultural Perspectives in PER (Part II: communities & social interaction)

Author/Organizer Information

Primary Contact: Elizabeth S. Charles
Dawson College, Montreal
Co-Author(s)
and Co-Presenter(s)
Nathaniel Lasry, John Abbott College, Montreal
Chris Whittaker, Dawson College, Montreal