Browsing by Author "Olander, Clas"

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    Grundskolans naturvetenskap – utvärderingar 1992 och 2003 samt en framtidsanalys
    (2004) Andersson, Björn; Bach, Frank; Olander, Clas; Zetterqvist, Ann; Andersson, Björn
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    Grundskolans naturvetenskap. Utvärderingar 1992 och 2003 samt en framtidsanalys
    (Institutionen för pedagogik och didaktik, 2004) Andersson, Björn; Bach, Frank; Olander, Clas; Zetterqvist, Ann; Göteborgs universitet; University of Gothenburg
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    Research-based teaching about biological evolution
    (Ecole National de Formation Agronomique (ENFA), 2003) Hagman, Mats; Olander, Clas; Wallin, Anita
    This paper reports an attempt to design a teaching-learning sequence in which the students are stimulated to construct a scientific model of evolution, and to use this model in various contexts. Theoretical reflection, instructional design and classroom research have been linked in a cyclic process of development. Basic principles in the sequence were to make the students aware of different ideas about evolution, both scientific and “alternative” ones, to encourage them to reflect on their own thinking, and to use group discussions as a tool for effective learning. A group of 18 students, all at the age of 17, were followed during a 16- hour unit on evolution. The sequence was evaluated both in terms of the students’ learning and in terms of their experience of the teaching. The results from a delayed post-test, about one year after instruction, show that most students had abandoned pre-instructional “alternative” conceptions, in favour for more scientific ones. As judged from logbook entries, a vast majority of the students also appreciated the teaching approach during the unit, and some students spontaneously expressed their satisfaction with being able to use the theory of evolution as a scientific tool.
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    Teaching and learning about the biological evolution: Conceptual understanding before, during and after teaching.
    (Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, 2001) Wallin, Anita; Hagman, Mats; Olander, Clas
    This study is part of a project with the main purpose of developing a teaching-learning sequence that enables the students to construct a scientific model of the biological evolution. Another purpose is to document the students’ conceptual development. Our theoretical background is the model of conceptual change initially proposed by Posner et al (1982). Here we focused on two key concepts in evolution – “variation” and “natural selection”. The development and the long-term retention of these concepts among Swedish students (16 – 19 years old) were studied. The students’ prior knowledge was investigated by a pre-test before teaching. During the teaching period some students were interviewed about these concepts, and small group discussions about the same concepts were videotaped. Approximately a year after teaching the students was given a delayed post-test. The majority of the students abandoned their prior ideas of strive and need, and adopted a more scientific view of these concepts. This was evident both in the interviews and in the post-test. The conceptual development of the interviewed students is discussed in the paper.
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    Towards an interlanguage of biological evolution: Exploring students´ talk and writing as an arena for sense-making
    (2010-01-22T09:45:10Z) Olander, Clas
    The aim of this thesis is to explore what is involved when learning science, by focusing on students’ appropriation of the school science language. The aspiration is to explore relations between, on the one hand, content-oriented aspects of making sense of a specific area in school biology, and on the other hand, more generic patterns that are linked to learning in general: the influence of different social languages, and also the conceptual, epistemological, and ontological constituents of learning something. The strategy for empirically exploring what is involved when students make sense of biological evolution from a language perspective includes examination of instances in the classroom where meaning and sense of terms as well as semantic patterns are articulated in writing and talking. The analytic attention is on, on the one hand, students’ individual writing, and on the other, students’ talk in peer group discussions. The latter has guided the main part of the work, and one conclusion is that the students frequently shift between different social languages, mainly a colloquial and a scientific language. Both languages are a productive resource in students’ appropriation of the school science language. This is understood to rely on the establishment of an arena, an interlanguage discourse, where scientific terms and theories may be introduced, negotiated, and made sense of, in particular in relation to colloquial language and everyday experiences. In that way, this interlanguage discourse is an arena for sense-making. The students most frequently start their talk as a negotiation concerning conceptual notions that is linked to a discussion about epistemological pattern and sometimes the talk also is linked to ontological framing. The students negotiate the meaning of conceptual notions, which has both colloquial and scientific origins, for example variation, randomness, need, and development. Irrespective of the origin of the notions they are an asset in the students’ sense-making process. Epistemologically the students make their argumentation plausible by referring to resources, for example names or theories. Furthermore, they structure their explanations both with internal logic, for example causality or teleological reasoning, and external linking between specific examples and general ideas. In each of these dimensions, the argumentation can have different quality. Links between the general and specific can be systematic rather than sporadic, explanations can be causal rather than teleological, and resources can be theories rather than names. Ontological framing is mainly done as negotiations about what is allowed to talk about or whether agency matters in a school science discourse.