By Damien Givry & Wolff-Michael Roth Research group: Studying students’ learning in physics classroom with a new approach based on speech, gestures and context. By Damien Givry & Wolff-Michael Roth Research group: Hello, My name is Damien Givry, I come from France and I’m actually doing a post-doc with Michael Roth about the roles of gestures in students’ conceptualization about science . In this presentation, I propose a new approach to study students‘ learning … chat96@uvic.ca

Different approaches to study learning Students’ ideas are in the mind (Duit’s bibliography 2004) Students’ ideas are in the language (Edwards 1993): Communication is composed by speech and gestures (McNeill 1992, Roth 1999) Communication is distributed across the elements of the setting (Hutchins 1995, Goodwin 2000, Roth 2002) Different approaches are used to study students’ learning As Duit’s Bibliography about conception shows, An important part of studies considered that students’ conceptions are in the mind and language are only used to express them. Other works consider that we can have access to what is in the mind of students and propose that students’ ideas are in the language and the discursive practice. For these studies, language are situated in the situation in which it is performed. Few of these works agree with this approach but consider that language is composed by speech and gestures. Finally, more recently this approach is completed by the idea that language is distributed through the elements of context. chat96@uvic.ca Connection2004

How to study students’ learning? Research questions How to study students’ learning? 1. What is the contribution of gestures? Iconic, metaphoric, deictic gestures (McNeill 1992) What is the contribution of context? Relevant context: as the elements of the setting that are the focus of the participants during the communication (Goodwin 2000) Our principal question is how can we study students’ learning? And more specifically, this presentation proposes: First to show what is the contribution of gestures, especially iconic gestures, metaphoric gestures and deictic gestures. Iconic gestures refer to concrete objects or events, for example a balloon. Metaphoric gestures are like iconic gestures but its refer to abstract idea, for example the time. Deictic gestures are made for example when a person is pointing to objects or events. In a second time I propose to show what is the contribution of context in the analysis of students’ learning. Especially the relevant context, defined by Goodwin as the elements of the context that are focus by the participants during the discussion. When two people are discussing in the room, the context is all the elements material and social which constitute the room and the relevant context is only the elements which the participants are talking about. chat96@uvic.ca Connection2004

Data collected in France We designed a one month physics teaching about gas for 15 years old students We videotaped 14 students: Interviews before and after the teaching Regular classroom during the teaching To tackle these questions, we use data collected in France during my Phd. During this work, a team composed by physics teachers and researchers designed a one month Physics teaching session about gas (particularly about the variables: pressure, volume, temperature, quantity of matter and its interpretation in microscopic scale). This teaching was designed for students at the upper secondary school, especially grade ten, when they are fifteen years old. In two years of data collection, we videotaped 14 students during interviews before and after the teaching session and we also videotaped the same students in regular classroom during the teaching about gas chat96@uvic.ca Connection2004

Analysis based on speech only Transcription of 2 students in classroom: 01 Student E: ok try to do it 02 (11sec) 03 Student A: you agree look 04 Student E: yep but here there is no air To show you the contribution of gestures, we propose to give first an example in which there is the speech without gestures and relevant context. This example comes from a video collected in regular classroom during the second lessons. In this extract students have to say if it is possible to add air in a bottle full of air and to add water in a bottle full of water. During this extract students are working together in small group of two people and they have a syringe, a bottle empty and water. During this works the students are not agree: Student I , think that is not possible to add air in the bottle, and the student EI thinks that is possible. This transcription is an English translation, the original transcription was in French. chat96@uvic.ca Connection2004

Video extract chat96@uvic.ca Connection2004 Now, let us look at the Video extract to see the roles of the gestures and the context. chat96@uvic.ca Connection2004

Analysis based on speech, gestures and relevant context Transcription of 2 students in classroom: Idea Student A: you agree look We give now the transcription included speech, gestures, and relevant context. Relevant context are different for both students: express by speech and the other by deictic gestures. [Student A connects the syringe on the bottle] [Student A pushes on the piston of the syringe] [Student A lets go of the piston, and it goes up] We need speech, gestures and relevant context to understand the students idea. In our database we have lots of examples in which speech can’t be understood without gestures and relevant context. chat96@uvic.ca Connection2004

Analysis based on speech, gestures and relevant context Transcription of 2 students in classroom: Idea We give now the transcription included speech, gestures, and relevant context. [Gesture of E]: she points to the open bottle Relevant context are different for both students: express by speech and the other by deictic gestures. We need speech, gestures and relevant context to understand the students idea. In our database we have lots of examples in which speech can’t be understood without gestures and relevant context. Student E: yep but [here] there is no air chat96@uvic.ca Connection2004

Conclusion Speech only is not sufficient to analyze students Unit of analysis composed by speech, gestures and relevant context Study students’ learning through the relationship of these three elements Our data showed that Speech… That is why, we propose to use an unit of analysis… And now we propose to study student’s… chat96@uvic.ca Connection2004

Bibliography Duit R. (2004). Bibliography: Students‘ and Teachers‘ Conceptions and Science Education. Kiel: IPN – Leibniz Institute for Science Education at the University of Kiel. Edwards D. (1993). But What Do Children Really Think?: Discourse Analysis and Conceptual Content. In Children's Talk. Cognition and Instruction, 11 (3-4), 207-225. Goodwin C. (2000). Action and embodiment within situated human interaction. Journal of Pragmatics, 32, 1489-1522. Hutchins E. (1995). Cognition in the wild. Cambridge: MIT Press.McNeil D. (1992). Hand and Mind: what gestures reveal about thought. Chicago: University of Chicago. Roth M. W. (1999). From gesture to scientific language. Paper presented at the the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction, Göteberg Sweden. Roth M. & Lawless D. (2002). Signs, deixis and the emergence of scientific explanation. Semiotica, 138 (1/4), 95-130. chat96@uvic.ca Connection2004

Analysis based on speech, gestures and relevant context Transcription of 2 students in classroom: 01 Student E: ok try to do it 02 (11sec): [Student A connects the syringe on the bottle] [Student A pushes on the piston of the syringe] [Student A lets go of the piston, and it goes up] 05 Student A: you agree look 06 Student E: yep but [here] there is no air [Gesture of E]: she points to the open bottle We give now the transcription included speech, gestures, and relevant context. Relevant context are different for both students: express by speech and the other by deictic gestures. We need speech, gestures and relevant context to understand the students idea. In our database we have lots of examples in which speech can’t be understood without gestures and relevant context. chat96@uvic.ca Connection2004