Forstå, ikke bare gjøre. – Hva skjer i gruppesamtaler blant elever i videregående skole under eksperimenter i fysikk?

Abstract

Practical work has a significant place in physics teaching, but is often performed according to a recipe and with little reflection among the students (Abrahams & Millar, 2008). In this study, we wanted to enhance the learning potential by letting students work with experiments in heterogeneous groups. We have listened to the group dialogues when the students plan the experiment and when they work with the results. We find five prominent themes in the student dialogues: Students encourage each other, challenge each other academically, substantiate their claims, connect theory to the practical work they do, and interpret the meaning of formulas and units. These are qualities that have been shown to promote learning (Abrahams & Millar, 2008; Bagno, Berger & Eylon, 2008; Mercer, 1995) and illustrates how the students are able to use physics during their dialogues.