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Eriksson, U. (2019). Disciplinary discernment: reading the sky in astronomy education. Physical Review Physics Education Research, 15(1), Article ID 010133.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Disciplinary discernment: reading the sky in astronomy education
2019 (English)In: Physical Review Physics Education Research, E-ISSN 2469-9896, Vol. 15, no 1, article id 010133Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

This theoretical paper introduces a new way to view and characterize learning astronomy. It describes a framework, based on results from empirical data, analyzed through standard qualitative research method- ology, in which a theoretical model for a vital competency of learning astronomy is proposed: reading the sky, a broad description under with various skills and competencies are included. This model takes into account not only disciplinary knowledge but also disciplinary discernment and extrapolating three dimensionality. Together, these constitute the foundation for the competency referred to as reading the sky. In this paper, these competencies are described and discussed and merged to form a new framework vital for learning astronomy to better match the challenges students face when entering the discipline of astronomy.

Keywords
Astronomy education research, Disciplinary discernment
National Category
Didactics Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:hkr:diva-19583 (URN)10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.15.010133 (DOI)
Available from: 2019-06-29 Created: 2019-06-29 Last updated: 2023-09-29Bibliographically approved
Holmström, S., Pendrill, A.-M., Eriksson, U. & Reistad, N. (2019). Gymnasiets laborationsundervisning i fysik: vad påverkar lärares val av laborationer?. LUMAT: International Journal on Math, Science and Technology Education, 7(1), 27-58
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Gymnasiets laborationsundervisning i fysik: vad påverkar lärares val av laborationer?
2019 (Swedish)In: LUMAT: International Journal on Math, Science and Technology Education, E-ISSN 2323-7112, Vol. 7, no 1, p. 27-58Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [sv]

Vilka faktorer påverkar svenska gymnasielärares laborationsundervisning i fysik? Frågan aktualiseras av den svenska läroplansrevisionen från 2011. I denna studie fick 17 lärare på fyra gymnasieskolor diskutera sin laborationsundervisning i fokusgruppsintervjuer. Baserat på en analys av dessa intervjuer genomfördes en kompletterande enkätundersökning med 66 lärare. Händelselogik användes som analysverktyg för att förstå hur lärarnas laborationsundervisning påverkas av olika faktorer. Resultaten från fokusgrupperna tyder på att lärare uppskattar laborationer som 1) bygger på enkel utrustning, 2) ger ett bra resultat avseende värdet på konstanter, samt 3) laborationer som eleverna tycker om. I enkätundersökningen framstod styrdokumenten som en starkare påverkansfaktor än i fokusgrupperna – men resultaten från båda delarna av undersökningen tyder på att styrdokumenten inte är den viktigaste faktorn i lärares val och upplägg av laborationer.

Abstract [en]

What factors influence Swedish upper secondary teachers' laboratory teaching in physics? This is an issue raised by the curriculum reform of 2011 in Sweden. In this study, 17 teachers at four different upper secondary schools discussed their laboratory teaching in focus group interviews. Based on an analysis of these interviews, a supplementary survey of 66 teachers was conducted. Logic of events was used as an analytical tool to understand how different factors influence teachers' teaching. The results from the focus groups indicate that teachers appreciate laboratory work that 1) are based on simple equipment, 2) provide good values of constants, 3) laboratory exercises that the students like. In the survey, the syllabus emerged as a stronger factor of influence than in the focus groups – but, the results from both parts indicate that other factors than the syllabus play a larger role for teachers' choice and layout of laboratory work.

Keywords
physics, laboratory work, upper secondary school, logic of events, syllabus, fysiklaborationer, gymnasiet, händelselogik, styrdokument
National Category
Didactics Other Physics Topics
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:hkr:diva-19587 (URN)10.31129/LUMAT.7.1.364 (DOI)
Available from: 2019-06-29 Created: 2019-06-29 Last updated: 2022-09-02Bibliographically approved
Holmström, S., Pendrill, A.-M., Reistad, N. & Eriksson, U. (2018). Gymnasiets laborationsundervisning i fysik: mellan tradition och ändrade styrdokument. LUMAT: International Journal on Math, Science and Technology Education, 6(1), 1-19
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Gymnasiets laborationsundervisning i fysik: mellan tradition och ändrade styrdokument
2018 (Swedish)In: LUMAT: International Journal on Math, Science and Technology Education, E-ISSN 2323-7112, Vol. 6, no 1, p. 1-19Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [sv]

Laborationer har lång tradition i fysikundervisningen och det finns många klassiska skolexperiment. Samtidigt påverkas laborationsundervisningen av reformer och teknikutveckling. I denna studie fick lärare på tre gymnasieskolor diskutera sin laborationsundervisning. Analysen baseras på händelselogik, där handling ses som intentionell och styrs av determinanterna: målsättning, förmåga, plikt och möjligheter. Studien ger insikt i hur olika faktorer påverkar lärares laborationsundervisning, och hur klassiska laborationer i fysikundervisningen både kan ha en given plats och utmanas av nya förutsättningar. Resultaten antyder att praxis och tradition är starkare påverkansfaktorer än styrdokument i lärares utformning av laborationsundervisningen, vilket delvis kan relateras till en avsaknad av fortbildning.

Abstract [en]

Experiments have a long tradition in physics teaching and there are many examples of classical school experiments. At the same time laboratory teaching is affected by curriculum changes and technological development. In this study experienced teachers at three different upper secondary schools discuss their laboratory teaching. The analysis is based on the logic of events. The study provides insight into factors affecting teachers’ teaching and how classical experiments are adapted and challenged by new conditions. The results indicate that tradition is a stronger factor of influence than policy documents, in particular when very limited time is allowed for professional development.

Keywords
Physics laboratory, logic of events, policy documents, upper secondary school, Fysiklaborationer, gymnasiet, händelselogik, styrdokument
National Category
Didactics Other Physics Topics
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:hkr:diva-17868 (URN)
Available from: 2018-02-09 Created: 2018-02-09 Last updated: 2022-09-02Bibliographically approved
Eriksson, U., Rosberg, M. & Redfors, A. (2017). Disciplinary discernment from Hertzsprung-Russell-diagrams. In: : . Paper presented at NFSUN 2017, Trondheim, 7-9 June.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Disciplinary discernment from Hertzsprung-Russell-diagrams
2017 (English)Conference paper, Oral presentation only (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

This paper aim at investigating what astronomy students and experts discern from the multitude of different disciplinary affordances available in Hertzsprung-Russell (HR) diagrams. HR-diagrams are central to all of astronomy and astrophysics and used extensively in teaching. However, knowledge about what students and experts discern from these disciplinary representations are not well known at present. HR-diagrams include many disciplinary affordances that may be hidden to the novice student, hence we aim at investigating and describing what astronomy students at different university levels (introductory, undergraduate, graduate), and astronomy educators/professors, discern from such representation – referred to as disciplinary discernment (Eriksson, Linder, Airey, & Redfors, 2014). Data from a web based questionnaire were analysed using the Anatomy of Disciplinary Discernment (ADD) framework by Eriksson et al. (2014). Preliminary results show (1) the developmental nature of disciplinary discernment from the HR-diagram by the participants and (2) the large discrepancy between disciplinary discernment by the astronomy educators and their students. We describe and discuss the qualitative nature of these differences and how this can have implications for teaching and learning astronomy.

National Category
Didactics Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:hkr:diva-17071 (URN)
Conference
NFSUN 2017, Trondheim, 7-9 June
Available from: 2017-08-09 Created: 2017-08-09 Last updated: 2017-08-09Bibliographically approved
Persson, J. & Eriksson, U. (2016). Planetarium software in the classroom. Physics Education, 51(2)
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Planetarium software in the classroom
2016 (English)In: Physics Education, ISSN 0031-9120, E-ISSN 1361-6552, Vol. 51, no 2Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Students often find astronomy and astrophysics to be most interesting and exciting, but the Universe is difficult to access using only one's eyes or simple equipment available at different educational settings. To open up the Universe and enhance learning astronomy and astrophysics different planetarium software can be used. In this article we discuss the usefulness of such simulation software and give four examples of how such software can be used for teaching and learning astronomy and astrophysics.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Institute of Physics (IOP), 2016
Keywords
Astronomy education research, simulations, astronomy education, virtual learning environments
National Category
Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology Didactics
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:hkr:diva-15249 (URN)10.1088/0031-9120/51/2/025004 (DOI)
Available from: 2016-02-02 Created: 2016-02-02 Last updated: 2017-11-30Bibliographically approved
Eriksson, U. (2016). The Spiral of Teaching and Learning in Physics and Astronomy. In: : . Paper presented at Från forskning till fysikundervisning. Malmö: NRCF, NATDID
Open this publication in new window or tab >>The Spiral of Teaching and Learning in Physics and Astronomy
2016 (English)Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

When students start to learn physics and astronomy, they immediately are confronted with a multitude of representations packed with disciplinary information. This information is embedded in these representations and the students need to learn to discern the relevant information. This is not straightforward, and requires a lot of teaching and practice before being mastered. It carries many similarities to learning a new language – the language of physics, astronomy, or other sciences. 

However, it all starts with disciplinary discernment from those representations, something that has been shown to be challenging for students. Often the teacher who knows the representations and their appresented meaning—their disciplinary affordances—assumes that the students discern the same things in those representations as the teacher does. Research has shown that this is not the case and such assumptions leads to educational problems for the students and make learning physics or astronomy unnecessary difficult, or even inaccessible to the students. The students need be given the opportunity to develop their competency in discerning disciplinary-specific relevant aspects from representations; a competency referred to as Reading the Sky in an astronomy context, and described by the Anatomy of Disciplinary Discernment (Eriksson, 2014a; Eriksson et al., 2014b).

Furthermore, physics and astronomy are subjects aiming to describe the real multidimensional world, hence involve a substantial amount of spatial thinking. The students need to learn to extrapolate three-dimensionality in their minds from two-dimensional representations, which have been shown to be challenging to students. Unfortunately, this competency is often taken for granted and rarely addressed in teaching (Eriksson et al., 2014c).

In this talk we present a model in which we identify and describe the critical competencies needed to “read” disciplinary-specific representations; it concerns not only disciplinary discernment but also spatial thinking and disciplinary knowledge. These are combined into the Spiral of Teaching and Learning (STL), a new and powerful model for optimizing teaching and learning science (Eriksson, 2014a; Eriksson, 2015). We discuss consequences and possibilities when applying the STL model and give an example of how this model can be used in teaching and learning astronomy.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Malmö: NRCF, NATDID, 2016
National Category
Didactics Other Physics Topics Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:hkr:diva-15752 (URN)
Conference
Från forskning till fysikundervisning
Available from: 2016-08-18 Created: 2016-08-18 Last updated: 2016-10-19Bibliographically approved
Eriksson, U. (2016). Undervisning på distans – framtiden för universitet och högskolor?: ett exempel från astronomiundervisning på Högskolan Kristianstad. Högskolepedagogisk debatt (1), 46-73
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Undervisning på distans – framtiden för universitet och högskolor?: ett exempel från astronomiundervisning på Högskolan Kristianstad
2016 (Swedish)In: Högskolepedagogisk debatt, ISSN 2000-9216, no 1, p. 46-73Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [sv]

Dagens studenter är mycket mer flexibla i sina studier än tidigare. Idag läser många studenter kurser på olika universitet och högskolor samtidigt. Detta är möjligt genom att många kurser och program ges på distans via internet. I denna artikel diskuteras de möjligheter och begränsningar som jag anser finns med den undervisningsform som allt mer präglar undervisning vid universitet och högskolor, nationellt och internationellt; distansundervisning.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Kristianstad University Press, 2016
Keywords
Distansundervisning, astronomi, lärande
National Category
Educational Sciences Pedagogy Didactics
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:hkr:diva-15348 (URN)
Available from: 2016-03-24 Created: 2016-03-24 Last updated: 2016-09-29Bibliographically approved
Eriksson, U. (2015). Reading the sky and the spiral of teaching and learning in astronomy. In: : . Paper presented at ESERA 2015.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Reading the sky and the spiral of teaching and learning in astronomy
2015 (English)Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Teaching and learning astronomy is known to be both exciting and challenging. To learn astronomy demands not only disciplinary knowledge, but also ability to discern affordances from disciplinary specific representations used within the discourse, which we call disciplinary discernment, and ability to think spatially, which we refer to as extrapolating three-dimensionality from a two dimensional input. Disciplinary knowledge involves all the knowledge that constitutes the discipline, disciplinary discernment involves discernment of the affordances of disciplinaryspecific representations, and extrapolating three-dimensionality involves the ability to visualize in ones mind how a three-dimensional astronomical object may look from a two-dimensional input (image or simulation). In this paper we argue that these abilities are intertwined and to learn astronomy at any level demands becoming fluent in all three. A framework is presented for how these abilities can be described and combined as a new and innovative way to frame teaching and learning in astronomy for optimizing the learning outcome of students - what we refer to as developing the ability to Read the Sky. We conclude that this is a vital competency needed for learning astronomy and suggest strategies for how to implement this to improve astronomy education.

Keywords
Reading the Sky, Astronomy Education Research, Higher education
National Category
Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology Didactics
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:hkr:diva-15083 (URN)
Conference
ESERA 2015
Available from: 2015-12-01 Created: 2015-12-01 Last updated: 2015-12-15Bibliographically approved
Eriksson, U. (2015). Teaching and learning in astronomy education – a spiral approach to reading the sky. In: : . Paper presented at Astronomdagarna 2015.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Teaching and learning in astronomy education – a spiral approach to reading the sky
2015 (English)Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Teaching and learning astronomy is known to be both exciting and challenging. However, learning astronomy at university level is a demanding task for many students. The learning pro-cess involves not only disciplinary knowledge, but also the ability to discern affordances from disciplinary specific representations used within the astronomy discourse, which we call discipli-nary discernment (Eriksson, Linder, Airey, & Redfors, 2014a) and ability to think spatially, which we refer to as extrapolating three-dimensionality from a two dimensional input (Eriksson, Linder, Airey, & Redfors, 2014b). Disciplinary knowledge involves all the knowledge that con-stitutes the discipline, disciplinary discernment involves discernment of the affordances of disci-plinary-specific representations, and extrapolating three-dimensionality involves the ability to visualize in ones mind how a three-dimensional astronomical object may look from a two-dimensional input (image or simulation). In this paper we argue that these abilities are inter-twined and to learn astronomy at any level demands becoming fluent in all three abilities. A framework is presented for how these abilities can be described and combined as a new and in-novative way to frame teaching and learning in astronomy at university level for optimizing the learning outcome of students - what we refer to as developing the ability of Reading the Sky (Eriksson, 2014). We conclude that this is a vital competency needed for learning astronomy and suggest strategies for how to implement this to improve astronomy education.

References

Eriksson, Urban. (2014). Reading the Sky - From Starspots to Spotting Stars. (Doctor of Philosophy), Uppsala University, Uppsala. Retrieved from http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-234636  

Eriksson, Urban, Linder, Cedric, Airey, John, & Redfors, Andreas. (2014a). Introducing the Anatomy of Disciplinary Discernment - An example for Astronomy. European Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 2(3), 167-182. 

Eriksson, Urban, Linder, Cedric, Airey, John, & Redfors, Andreas. (2014b). Who needs 3D when the Universe is flat? Science Education, 98(3), 31. 

National Category
Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology Didactics
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:hkr:diva-15085 (URN)
Conference
Astronomdagarna 2015
Available from: 2015-12-02 Created: 2015-12-02 Last updated: 2015-12-08Bibliographically approved
Eriksson, U. (2015). The spiral of teaching and learning in astronomy education. In: : . Paper presented at Lärarlärdom 2015, Linneus Univeristy, Växjö, Sweden.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>The spiral of teaching and learning in astronomy education
2015 (English)Conference paper, Oral presentation with published abstract (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Teaching and learning astronomy is known to be both exciting and challenging. To learn astronomy demands not only disciplinary knowledge, but also ability to discern affordances from disciplinary specific representations used within the discourse, which we call disciplinary dis- cernment (Eriksson, Linder, Airey, & Redfors, 2014a) and ability to think spatially, which we refer to as extrapolating three-dimensionality from a two dimensional input (Eriksson, Linder, Airey, & Redfors, 2014b). Disciplinary knowledge involves all the knowledge that constitutes the discipline, disciplinary discernment involves discernment of the affordances of disciplinary- specific representations, and extrapolating three-dimensionality involves the ability to visualize in ones mind how a three-dimensional astronomical object may look from a two-dimensional input (image or simulation). In this paper we argue that these abilities are intertwined and to learn as- tronomy at any level demands becoming fluent in all three abilities. A framework is presented for how these abilities can be described and combined as a new and innovative way to frame teach- ing and learning in astronomy at university level for optimizing the learning outcome of students - what we refer to as developing the ability of Reading the Sky (Eriksson, 2014). We conclude that this is a vital competency needed for learning astronomy and suggest strategies for how to implement this to improve astronomy education.

National Category
Astronomy, Astrophysics and Cosmology Didactics
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:hkr:diva-15084 (URN)
Conference
Lärarlärdom 2015, Linneus Univeristy, Växjö, Sweden
Available from: 2015-12-01 Created: 2015-12-01 Last updated: 2015-12-15Bibliographically approved
Organisations
Identifiers
ORCID iD: ORCID iD iconorcid.org/0000-0001-6638-1246

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