arXiv subjects

Shirley Booth

Publications and source records attributed to Shirley Booth.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2004

Making sense of studying physics

With an investigation into how students in a physics Master of science program make sense of their whole first year study experience in one of the years following a programme reform, we try to offer insights and advice to consider when involved in similar changes. We conclude and argue that by trying to support the students' in making sense of their studying in terms of physics and empowering them in their understanding of the nature of physics and their study situation, both the potential for productive, meaningful and positive learning of physics as something which is relevant in the students life, and the way in which the students analyse and make sense of things they encounter, both physically and academically, are advanced.

physics.ed-ph↗

arXiv2002

Expounding on physics -- A phenomenographic study of physicists talking of their physics

Physicists and physics students have been studied with respect to the variation in ways they expound on their topic of research and a physics problem, respectively. A phenomenographic approach has been employed; six fourth-year physics students and ten teacher/researcher physicists at various stages of their careers have been interviewed. Four qualitatively distinct ways of expounding on physics have been identified, constituting an outcome space where there is a successive shift towards coherent structure and multiple referent domains. The interviewed person is characterised as expressing an 'object of knowledge' and the interviewer is characterised as a willing and active listener who is trying to make sense of it, constituting a 'knowledge object' out of the ideas, data and personal experience. Pedagogical situations of analogous character to the interviewer-interviewee discussions are considered in the light of the analysis, focusing on the affordances for learning offered by the different forms of exposition.

physics.ed-ph↗

arXiv1999

Making sense of Physics in the first year of study

We address the question "How do students make sense of Physics from the point of view of constituting physics knowledge?". A phenomenographic study is described as a result of which we present six qualitatively different ways in which students experience the first year of Physics. The variation is analysed in terms of the structure of experience, the nature of knowlege and an ethical aspect related to the identification of authority. Three of these ways of experiencing the first year are considered to be unproductive in terms of making sense of physics, while the other three support, to an increasing degree, the formation of a well-grounded physics knowledge object. Implications for practice are considered.

physics.ed-ph↗