Multiple local coherences: stability of student thinking as sustained by real-time activity¶

Theory · All theories
Evidence · 4 claims (4 for) · 2 studies (2 qualitative), q2 · 0 of 2 report an effect size · 3 claims rest on one study

Description¶

This framework characterizes student understanding and behavior as multiple local coherences that are variable yet exhibit local stabilities. The authors take the position that "The stability of student thinking need not be due to the existence of a robust belief or mental category, but rather may be due to how real-time activity sustains patterns of thought." Real-time activity may be understood in knowledge-based terms (interactions among fine-grained knowledge elements, e.g., connectionism, phenomenological primitives with cuing and reliability priorities) or participation-based terms (persons-in-settings, artifacts, behavioral clusters). The paper uses the framework to explain how a group's initial incorrect understanding persisted for minutes during a physics tutorial.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Video documentation of interactional processes in complex learning environments to observe local patterns of thinking stabilize, destabilize, and resolve into new patterns

Constraints¶

• Whether knowledge-based and participation-based mechanisms act together to jointly influence student reasoning, or are alternative theoretical accounts, is not answered by this analysis

Target Learners¶

• university students in introductory physics

Target Learning Objectives¶

• interpreting representations of motion (velocity and acceleration)

Claims¶

• Student Understanding Alternates Between Local Coherences Tickertape [+M]
• Worksheet Wording Sustains Less Distance Less Time [+M]
• Knowledge Element Network Mutual Stability [+M]
• Behavioral Clusters Stabilize Thinking [+M]
• Material Artifact Stability Stabilizes Thinking [+M]

Related Theories¶

• Multiple local conceptual coherences: student understanding as locally stable patterns requiring stability explanations

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Frank, B. W., and Scherr, R. E. (2012). Interactional processes for stabilizing conceptual coherences in physics. Submitted to PRST-PER. https://journals.aps.org/prper/. doi:10.1103/physrevstper.8.020101