Saalih Allie
University of Cape Town, Physics, Faculty Member
Contexts, footholds and sense-making in DC circuits Physics Education Research Conference, Philadelphia, PA, 1-2 August 2012
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This is part of a broader investigation, describes the sense-making episodes of student’s engagement with a task in DC circuits. We investigated the variation of student responses using an open DC circuit. The instrument, ACQ, consisted... more
This is part of a broader investigation, describes the sense-making episodes of student’s engagement with a task in DC circuits. We investigated the variation of student responses using an open DC circuit. The instrument, ACQ, consisted of 8 questions, each comprised of forced choice responses and free written responses. The forced choice responses showed that the student responses are context dependent and the free written responses identified the reasons and foothold ideas behind these variations at a fine-grained level. The results of personal interviews suggest that, student’s sense-making attempt is the driving force behind the contextual variations in their responses. We present such an episode from one of the eight interviews.
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Having an appreciation for astronomical scale is essential for understanding the foundations of astronomy. However, a key obstacle in developing this understanding is the lack of direct ways to acquire this knowledge. Personal experience... more
Having an appreciation for astronomical scale is essential for understanding the foundations of astronomy. However, a key obstacle in developing this understanding is the lack of direct ways to acquire this knowledge. Personal experience may even be detrimental, given that our direct experience is of the Earth as something extremely large, whereas stars, for example, appear as tiny pinpricks of light. As a first step to address this issue, it is necessary to assess people’s knowledge of astronomical scale to identify common misconceptions and evaluate the effectiveness of educational interventions. Previous instruments have generally only included a few questions about scale—mostly through multiple choice—limiting the number of objects simultaneously probed to three and often not probing all possible rankings. To measure people’s knowledge of astronomical scale, we developed an instrument that allows for easy collection, analysis and presentation of data ranking multiple astronomica...
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Page 1. 1 Paper presented at the 4th International Conference of the European Science Education Research Association (ESERA), Noordwijkerhout, The Netherlands, 19-23 August 2003 Evaluation of a research-based curriculum for teaching ...
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We report on research carried out to improve teaching and student engagement in the introductory astronomy course at the University of Cape Town. This course is taken by a diverse range of students, including many from educationally... more
We report on research carried out to improve teaching and student engagement in the introductory astronomy course at the University of Cape Town. This course is taken by a diverse range of students, including many from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds. We describe the development of an instrument, the Introductory Astronomy Questionnaire (IAQ), which we administered as pre- and post-tests to students enrolled in the course. The instrument comprised a small number of questions which probed three areas of interest: student motivation and expectations, astronomy content, and worldview. Amongst our findings were that learning gains were made in several conceptual areas, and that students appeared to develop a more nuanced view of the nature of astronomy. There was some evidence that the course had a positive impact on students' worldviews, particularly their attitudes towards science. We also identified a promising predictor of course success that could in future be used to i...
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This paper reports the development of an instrument for assessing writing-intensive laboratory reports in undergraduate physics. Writing-intensive reports combine the aspects of laboratory experimentation and written communication and... more
This paper reports the development of an instrument for assessing writing-intensive laboratory reports in undergraduate physics. Writing-intensive reports combine the aspects of laboratory experimentation and written communication and involve a number of distinct facets which have to be taken into account during assessment. At one level, there are features that pertain to the technicalities and conventions of the science involved as well as the technical features of language use, while at another level, there are features that pertain to the report as an exercise in meaningful communication. In an attempt to take cognisance of all these aspects, the coherence of the report was used as an important concept in developing the instrument. The instrument was also designed so that it could be used by physics tutors, both staff and post-graduate students, who are generally more familiar with assessing reports on the basis of the technical aspects of scientific procedure only, but might jud...
Abstract. The majority of “special access ” students at the University of Cape Town are second language English speakers for whom reading the physics textbook is daunting. As a strategy to encourage meaningful engagement with the text,... more
Abstract. The majority of “special access ” students at the University of Cape Town are second language English speakers for whom reading the physics textbook is daunting. As a strategy to encourage meaningful engagement with the text, students wrote textbook summaries due the day material was covered in class. The summaries were returned, and they could bring them or re-write them for use during their examinations. A framework was developed to analyze the summaries based on Waywood, defining three cognitive levels seen in mathematics journaling: recounting, summarizing, and dialoging. This framework was refined, expanded, and tested. Interviews with students were conducted for their views on summary writing and survey questions were included on their final exams. The study was carried out in the 2007 spring semester of the “Foundation Physics Course, ” a component of the special access program.
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Abstract. Experimentation appears to be an ideal context in which several key aspects of scientific thinking can be addressed. However, the traditional freshman laboratory does not appear to be successful in doing so. This paper argues... more
Abstract. Experimentation appears to be an ideal context in which several key aspects of scientific thinking can be addressed. However, the traditional freshman laboratory does not appear to be successful in doing so. This paper argues that this has much to do with the way in which tasks are formulated. We propose a simple descriptive model based on the notion of the “idea space ” that can be used to analyze task formulation that can promote meaningful critical thinking. A number of factors that affect the size of the idea space are discussed, such as conceptual metaphor and the perceived nature of questioning from a socio-cultural perspective, described in terms of knowledge and information flow.
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23 Traditionally physics laboratory courses at the freshman level have aimed to demonstrate various principles of physics introduced in lectures. Experiments tend to be quantitative in nature with experimental and data analysis techniques... more
23 Traditionally physics laboratory courses at the freshman level have aimed to demonstrate various principles of physics introduced in lectures. Experiments tend to be quantitative in nature with experimental and data analysis techniques interwoven as distinct strands of the laboratory course.1 It is often assumed that, in this way, students will end up with an understanding of the nature of measurement and experimentation. Recent research studies have, however, questioned this assumption.2,3 They have pointed to the fact that freshmen who have completed physics laboratory courses are often able to demonstrate mastery of the mechanistic techniques (e.g., calculating means and standard deviations, fitting straight lines, etc.) but lack an appreciation of the nature of scientific evidence, in particular the central role of uncertainty in experimental measurement. We believe that the probabilistic approach to data analysis, as advocated by the International Organization for Standardiz...
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We report on a study with 60 first year physics students in which we made contextual changes to an “open circuit” in order to measure the effect of such changes to student’s responses. The 8 question instrument that we designed included... more
We report on a study with 60 first year physics students in which we made contextual changes to an “open circuit” in order to measure the effect of such changes to student’s responses. The 8 question instrument that we designed included representational, linguistic and (circuit) elemental variations. Our findings indicate that while the changes might appear trivial to an expert they significantly affect the way in which students respond.
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ABSTRACT This paper offers a perspective on the relationship between communities that conduct research on teaching and learning in higher education, focusing on Higher Education Studies (HES) and science Discipline-Based Education... more
ABSTRACT This paper offers a perspective on the relationship between communities that conduct research on teaching and learning in higher education, focusing on Higher Education Studies (HES) and science Discipline-Based Education Research (DBER). The paper responds to HES debates about the strength of its epistemological base and who belongs to that community, and to a perception that DBER is marginalized in the higher education research context. To explicate our perspective, we describe the origins and trajectories of Physics Education Research and Engineering Education Research, as exemplars of DBER. Using Turnbull, we conceptualize HES and these two exemplars as distinct knowledge spaces, with different histories, orthopraxes and participants, and hence different unifying principles, research foci and trust mechanisms. We conclude that HES, DBER and other higher education research communities stand to benefit from multidisciplinary engagement with each other, because of their different perspectives on the problems of higher education.
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This is the first part of a broader study, exploring the contextual variations of the responses of 149 first year (non-physics major) university students at two South African universities in Cape Town. The data analysis was done in terms... more
This is the first part of a broader study, exploring the contextual variations of the responses of 149 first year (non-physics major) university students at two South African universities in Cape Town. The data analysis was done in terms of the (i) forced choice responses (FCR), (ii) free written responses and (iii) personal interviews. This paper presents the development of the instrument (aspects of circuits questionnaire, or ACQ) used in the exploratory study and the results obtained from the FCR analysis of 60 students. The results showed that the student responses are triggered by the context framed by the questions and the results obtained from investigations using light bulbs cannot be generalised and may be reinterpreted.
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We report on the attitudes and ideas developed by students from three distinct school groups to a science show about sound. We addressed two research questions: (1) How do the students compare with respect to their (a) attitudes to the... more
We report on the attitudes and ideas developed by students from three distinct school groups to a science show about sound. We addressed two research questions: (1) How do the students compare with respect to their (a) attitudes to the sound show and to science in general and (b) changes in conceptual understanding as a result of the show and (2) what changes could be made to the show, and to science shows in general, that would be sensitive to the cultural and language differences of the groups? These were addressed by multiple-choice, pre- and post-tests comprising both attitudinal and conceptual questions. Our results pointed to a common enjoyment of the show but a different understanding of concepts and consequent learning, which suggest that science shows (and science teaching) need to be adjusted to accommodate different cultural groups for maximum impact.
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This is the second part of a broader investigation which explores the reasons behind the contextual variations in student responses at a fine-grained level. In the previous article (John 2017 Eur. J. Phys. 38 015701) it was established... more
This is the second part of a broader investigation which explores the reasons behind the contextual variations in student responses at a fine-grained level. In the previous article (John 2017 Eur. J. Phys. 38 015701) it was established that the students' responses are highly context dependent at a fine-grained level. This article presents the reason for the contextual variations of student responses from their free written responses. The result indicates that students who are being triggered by the productive resources during the engagement with the task will arrive at the correct (canonical) conclusion and those triggered by the unproductive resources will arrive at an incorrect conclusion. We identified the productive foothold ideas in a simple DC circuit with a single resistive element.
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Astronomy and Astrophysics have been designated the flagship areas of research in South Africa. To this end, a national postgraduate structure, the National Astrophysics and Space Science Programme was established at the University of... more
Astronomy and Astrophysics have been designated the flagship areas of research in South Africa. To this end, a national postgraduate structure, the National Astrophysics and Space Science Programme was established at the University of Cape Town. Despite overall success the programme has failed to recruit and retain Black South African students. In order to address this postgraduate bridging program, the Extended Honours Programme, was established to address the issue. An important part of the EHP includes a research component investigating the reasons for ...
Abstract: This paper explores the reasons underlying access students' decisions on their study programmes as they progress through their extended science degree, including the role of career aspirations in these decisions.... more
Abstract: This paper explores the reasons underlying access students' decisions on their study programmes as they progress through their extended science degree, including the role of career aspirations in these decisions. Data from semi-structured interviews with 20 ...
We believe that first year physics laboratories should be aimed at introducing the basic elements of experimentation such as engaging with unfamiliar apparatus, taking and recording measurements in a systematic way, processing data and... more
We believe that first year physics laboratories should be aimed at introducing the basic elements of experimentation such as engaging with unfamiliar apparatus, taking and recording measurements in a systematic way, processing data and interpreting findings. ...
Experimentation appears to be an ideal context in which several key aspects of scientific thinking can be addressed. However, the traditional freshman laboratory does not appear to be successful in doing so. This paper argues that this... more
Experimentation appears to be an ideal context in which several key aspects of scientific thinking can be addressed. However, the traditional freshman laboratory does not appear to be successful in doing so. This paper argues that this has much to do with the way in which tasks are formulated. We propose a simple descriptive model based on the notion of the “idea space” that can be used to analyze task formulation that can promote meaningful critical thinking. A number of factors that affect the size of the idea space are discussed, ...
Research Interests:
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The majority of “special access” students at the University of Cape Town are second language English speakers for whom reading the physics textbook is daunting. As a strategy to encourage meaningful engagement with the text, students... more
The majority of “special access” students at the University of Cape Town are second language English speakers for whom reading the physics textbook is daunting. As a strategy to encourage meaningful engagement with the text, students wrote textbook summaries due the day material was covered in class. The summaries were returned, and they could bring them or re‐write them for use during their examinations. A framework was developed to analyze the summaries based on Waywood, defining three cognitive levels seen in ...
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Abstract: This study followed a quasi-experimental design to determine the effect of a course in research methods on undergraduate students' ability to reason scientifically. Two classes of students in their first and second... more
Abstract: This study followed a quasi-experimental design to determine the effect of a course in research methods on undergraduate students' ability to reason scientifically. Two classes of students in their first and second year of study were asked to participate in the study. The ...
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Students who enroll for the special access course in physics at the University of Cape Town generally do not speak English as first language and have experienced poor science teaching. As a consequence students experience a large range of... more
Students who enroll for the special access course in physics at the University of Cape Town generally do not speak English as first language and have experienced poor science teaching. As a consequence students experience a large range of difficulties in trying to learn physics. We discuss research carried out in two such areas (a) understanding of measurement and (b) engagement with the textbook. With regard to (a) an overview of the methodology, analysis framework and findings of previous work will be presented together ...
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EJ573744 - An Investigation of Students.
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Online Journal Abstract Information - Sabinet Online.