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The “How” and “What” of learning physics

Enseignement de la physique: apprendre quoi et comment?

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Abstract

Recent research on student learning in higher education has increasingly focussed on experiential aspects of how students approach their studies and what they learn from their studies. In this paper we describe the results of a study using phenomenographic research techniques, which focusses on student learning in a first year university physics course. The study, using interviews with sixteen volunteer students from the course, shows that only those students who actively sought to change their conceptions of the subject matter did so, while those who sought only to reproduce that subject matter did not.

Résumé

Les recherches les plus récentes dans l’Enseignement supérieur ont mis l’accent sur la façon dont les étudiants conçoivent leur activité d’étude et les apprentissages qui en découlent. Dans cet article nous décrivons les résultats d’une recherche phénoménographique concernant les activités d’apprentissage de la physique par des étudiants de première année d’Université. L’analyse d’entretiens conduits auprès de 16 étudiants révèle que ceux qui ont recherché à modifier leurs préconceptions dans le domaine ont tiré un plus grand bénéfice que ceux qui ont simplement reproduit les contenus enseignés.

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Prosser, M., Millar, R. The “How” and “What” of learning physics. Eur J Psychol Educ 4, 513 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03172714

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03172714

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