How students learn from multiple contexts and definitions: Proper time as a coordination class

dc.creator	Olivia Levrini
dc.creator	Andrea A. diSessa
dc.date	2008-04-01T00:00:00Z
dc.date.accessioned	2015-08-12T11:21:36Z
dc.date.available	2015-08-12T11:21:36Z
dc.identifier	1554-9178
dc.identifier	https://doaj.org/article/8e7722d236cf486ca7d4ba64912b3363
dc.identifier.uri	http://evidence.thinkportal.org/handle/123456789/29064
dc.description	This article provides an empirical analysis of a single classroom episode in which students reveal difficulties with the concept of proper time in special relativity but slowly make progress in improving their understanding. The theoretical framework used is “coordination class theory,” which is an evolving model of concepts and conceptual change. The paper will focus on showing to what extent and in what sense most of the conditions and events in the data corpus seem understandable from the point of view of coordination class theory. In addition, however, some extensions of the theory are implicated, although we argue that they are “natural” extensions, improvements that extend, but do not threaten, the core theory. In particular, we observe students articulately aligning different ways of determining proper time, and we conjecture, more generally, that such a process is strongly consistent with coordination class theory and likely to be productive in other cases of conceptual change. The empirical analysis is explicitly connected to the general issue of theories and theory development in studies of conceptual change.
dc.language	English
dc.publisher	American Physical Society
dc.relation	http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRSTPER/v4/e010107
dc.relation	https://doaj.org/toc/1554-9178
dc.source	Physical Review Special Topics. Physics Education Research, Vol 4, Iss 1 (2008)
dc.subject	Education (General)
dc.subject	L7-991
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	DOAJ:Education
dc.subject	DOAJ:Social Sciences
dc.subject	Education (General)
dc.subject	L7-991
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	DOAJ:Education
dc.subject	DOAJ:Social Sciences
dc.subject	Education (General)
dc.subject	L7-991
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	Education (General)
dc.subject	L7-991
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.subject	Education (General)
dc.subject	L7-991
dc.subject	Education
dc.subject	L
dc.title	How students learn from multiple contexts and definitions: Proper time as a coordination class
dc.type	article