Representational practices in the activity of student-generated representations (SGR) for promoting conceptual understanding

• Authors: Orit Parnafes
• Venue: ICLS '10 Proceedings of the 9th International Conference of the Learning Sciences - Volume 1
• Year: 2010

This research aims to investigate student-generation and elaboration of visual representations as a tool for promoting understanding of difficult conceptual domains. The paper focuses on students' naturally occurring representational practices as identified in an activity of student-generated representations (SGR). The research is based on observations of pairs of students, ages 10--14, generating representations while trying to understand the phenomenon of the moon phases. The activity involves a few stages. First, each student generates a representation to promote his or her own understanding of the phenomenon. Then, the students negotiate and co-construct representations with their peers. Finally, they design representations for explaining the phenomenon to an external audience. The analysis identifies various representational practices utilized by students for making sense of the phenomenon, developing explanations, and communicating their ideas to their peers. The analysis examines how these practices support students in achieving some cognitive and communicative goals.