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Recovering Knowledge for Science Education Research: Exploring the “Icarus Effect” in Student Work

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Abstract

Science education research has built a strong body of work on students’ understandings but largely overlooked the nature of science knowledge itself. Legitimation Code Theory (LCT), a rapidly growing approach to education, offers a way of analyzing the organizing principles of knowledge practices and their effects on science education. This article focuses on one specific concept from LCT—semantic gravity—that conceptualizes differences in context dependence. The article uses this concept to qualitatively analyze tertiary student responses to a thermal physics question. One result, that legitimate answers must reside within a specific range of context dependence, illustrates how a focus on the organizing principles of knowledge offers a way forward for science education.

Résumé

La recherche en enseignement des sciences a produit de nombreuses études sur la compréhension des étudiants, mais a souvent ignoré la nature du savoir scientifique lui-même. La théorie de la légitimation du code (TLC), une approche de plus en plus importante en enseignement, propose une façon d’analyser les principes structurels des pratiques du savoir et leurs effets sur l’enseignement des sciences. Cet article est centré sur un concept en particulier tiré de la TLC—la gravité sémantique—qui conceptualise les différences comme étant dépendantes du contexte. L’article se sert de ce concept pour faire une analyse qualitative des réponses tertiaires des étudiants à une question de physique thermique. L’un des résultats, selon lequel les réponses légitimes doivent se situer dans un certain rayon de dépendance contextuelle, illustre comment le fait de mettre l’accent sur les principes structurels du savoir ouvre une avenue prometteuse pour l’enseignement des sciences.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The University of Sydney, Physics Building, A28, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia

    Helen Georgiou, Karl Maton & Manjula Sharma

Authors
  1. Helen Georgiou
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  2. Karl Maton
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  3. Manjula Sharma
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Correspondence to Helen Georgiou.

Additional information

This article was originally submitted to the Special Issue “Graduate Student Innovations in Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education Research.” It was reviewed and accepted for publication by the guest editors of the special issue.

Cet article a éetée soumis pour publication dans notre numéero spéecial sur les innovations des éetudiants de maîtrise et de doctorat en enseignement des sciences, des mathéematiques et des technologies. Il a éetée éevaluée et acceptée par les réedacteurs invitées de ce numéero spéecial.

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Georgiou, H., Maton, K. & Sharma, M. Recovering Knowledge for Science Education Research: Exploring the “Icarus Effect” in Student Work. Can J Sci Math Techn 14, 252–268 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1080/14926156.2014.935526

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