The Social Negotiation of Confusion for Physics Learning
Research Mentor(s)
Thanh Lê
Description
Elicit-Confront-Resolve (ECR) is common strategy in instruction in physics instruction that explicitly triggers or elicits confusion. Confusion is an epistemic emotion with both cognitive and affective components. It is triggered when students encounter impasses, anomalies, contradictions, or disruptions of goals and can lead to productive learning discussions but also frustration. Emotions can influence how students engage in their classroom physics learning and frustration can lead to disengagement. In this research project, we investigate the following three questions: 1) What metacognitive patterns emerge when students work together on explicitly confusing tasks? 2) To what extent do emotions impact student engagement in explicitly confusing collaborative learning tasks? 3) How do students enact and negotiate power dynamics in a collaborative learning environment that elicits confusion? The goal is to Identify common key aspects of successful student collaborative learning negotiating confusion and develop recommendations for instruction that will help students to resolve their confusion and maintain engagement in their learning. The study examines students in the physics education courses at Western Washington University and California State University Chico. My personal work focuses on examining patterns that form between the students’ written reflections they complete as homework after each lesson.
Document Type
Event
Start Date
May 2022
End Date
May 2022
Location
Carver Gym (Bellingham, Wash.)
Department
WCE - Education
Genre/Form
student projects; posters
Type
Image
Rights
Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission.
Language
English
Format
application/pdf
The Social Negotiation of Confusion for Physics Learning
Carver Gym (Bellingham, Wash.)
Elicit-Confront-Resolve (ECR) is common strategy in instruction in physics instruction that explicitly triggers or elicits confusion. Confusion is an epistemic emotion with both cognitive and affective components. It is triggered when students encounter impasses, anomalies, contradictions, or disruptions of goals and can lead to productive learning discussions but also frustration. Emotions can influence how students engage in their classroom physics learning and frustration can lead to disengagement. In this research project, we investigate the following three questions: 1) What metacognitive patterns emerge when students work together on explicitly confusing tasks? 2) To what extent do emotions impact student engagement in explicitly confusing collaborative learning tasks? 3) How do students enact and negotiate power dynamics in a collaborative learning environment that elicits confusion? The goal is to Identify common key aspects of successful student collaborative learning negotiating confusion and develop recommendations for instruction that will help students to resolve their confusion and maintain engagement in their learning. The study examines students in the physics education courses at Western Washington University and California State University Chico. My personal work focuses on examining patterns that form between the students’ written reflections they complete as homework after each lesson.