Coordinating epistemic frames in informal physics: Agency, support, and technology
Brett L. Fiedler, Michael B. Bennett, Nicole E. Johnson, Emily B. Moore · 2020
Informal physics environments present opportunities for youth to voluntarily engage with physics in a collaborative space.However, individual children's educational backgrounds, expectations, and motivations impact their engagement with the group learning activities and educational tools in informal physics learning.We initiate an investigation into the variables of agency, support, and technology that contribute to children's dynamic epistemic framing of a virtually simulated learning environment within an afterschool physics environment.Specifically, we consider the use of PhET interactive simulations in the PISEC afterschool physics program by middle-school students and their college-aged mentors.We analyzed video of a group of three learners and their mentor as they use a simulation and transition into a physical experiment based on the simulation.We analyzed each individual's actions and vocalizations to identify their framing using a two-dimensional framing axis.Further, we determined when these frames appeared to be aligned or misaligned between group members during the activity, transitions between alignment and misalignment, and investigated what malleable factors (e.g.technology use, mentor pedagogy, program structures) are contributing to these shifts in alignment.Initial analysis shows malleable factors such as UE pedagogy and environment affordances (e.g.technology, spatial orientation), as well as their intersection with non-malleable factors (e.g.youth social motivations) for future investigation.