Artifactual Knowing in Collaborative Modeling Practices
Ayça K. Fackler, Laura Zangori, Mollie Botkin, Jamie N. Elsner, Troy D. Sadler · Proceedings. · 2025
We use artifactual knowing and positioning theory as a lens to examine the development of a small group model.In this exploratory case study, we analyzed how a group of middle school students positioned themselves, their peers, and the emerging modeling artifact during a collaborative modeling task.We find that as the model emerged, it created a space where youth challenged assumptions, negotiated content, and redefined their positions through the artifact.Study implications suggest that how modeling artifacts emerge significantly shapes how modeling practices support student learning. Major issue addressedIn science education research, significant strides have occurred in understanding how models serve as generative tools for science learning, such as in cognitive (e.g., Fuhrmann et al., 2024;Nersessian, 2002), disciplinary (e.g., Li et al., 2024), interdisciplinary (e.g., Cole et al., 2024), embodied (e.g., Wilensky & Reisman, 2006), and linguistically responsive ways of knowing (Fackler & Harman, 2025).Little attention has been paid to how the modeling artifact symbolizes intellectual, cultural, and social processes and carries meaning.An "artifactual knowing" perspective (Dijksterhuis, 2022, p. 385) offers an approach to explore how students engage with models and modeling to shape their science learning.Artifactual knowing views models as learner-made artifacts that embody learners' experiences, which includes how individuals positioning themselves and the artifact during modeling experiences.Positioning occurs as learners negotiate social authority about the artifact, themselves, and others as they co-develop the artifact (McVee et al., 2021).Yet, there has been little exploration of how the artifact's emergence has shaped the moral order (i.e., rights and obligations of speaking and acting) of those involved in artifact creation.This, in turn, shapes student learning.The potential significance of this work is that this insight can address issues of expansive and equitable modeling practices for how collaborative models and modeling mediate and shape youth's social roles and positions during science learning.Focusing solely on traditional aspects of models may overlook how models and modeling practices done collaboratively shape, and perhaps alter, science learning (Rost & Knuuttila, 2022).This study investigates knowing through exploring how positioning interacts with modeling artifacts to influence youth participation in collaborative modeling experiences.We asked:1. How did youth position themselves, their peers, and modeling artifacts?2. What role(s) did modeling artifacts play in facilitating or constraining youth participation in modeling practices?