About the project
The aim of the EU-project Science Created by You (SCY) is to develop and study the computer-based inquiry environment called SCY-Lab. SCY-Lab focus on central issues within science such as energy and Co2 emission, gene technology and nutrition. The computer environment is to be tried out by upper secondary school students. The main focus of this post doc project is to study students’ learning during their use of the SCY-environment.
Objectives
Relevant research focus:
1) Students’ engagement with cognitive, regulative and social tools and scaffolds
2) Students’ engagement with knowledge representations, such as simulations, models and depictions
3) Students’ development of conceptual understanding
4) Teacher intervention in technology rich environments
Theory and methods
The work conducted in this Post Doc project utilize a sociocultural approach. This means that the focus is primarily on understanding the very process of learning in settings where students engage with Web-based inquiry environments. Seen from a sociocultural perspective, learning is perceived as a social meaning making process taking place among interacting participants. Hence, students’ meaning making processes can be explored by scrutinizing their interactions in settings where they engage with these types of tools. This means that the primary focus is on how the web-based inquiry environment is integrated as a structuring resource (Lave, 1988) in the participants’ meaning making processes. Another emphasis is that meanings and functions of scientific concepts and computer tools are constituted in social practices (Linell, 1998; 2009; Säljö, 2000; Wertsch, 1998). This implies seeing computer-supported inquiry as a particular practice embedded within an institutional setting with certain traditions of organising teaching and learning.
Funding and time frame
The Post doc project is funded by Faculty of Education, University of Oslo
Timeframe: May 2010 - May 2014