Abstract
In their critical review of available studies related to contextualization of physics, Taasoobshirazi, & Carr (2008) showed the lack of quality empirical studies and called for more rigorous research on the topic. Thus, considering the work of Haussler et al. (1998) who observed that certain types of contexts (technical or humanistic) do indeed promote girls’ or boys’ engagement, the overall goal of the project is to assess the extent to which contextualizing mechanical physics teaching can influence girls’ and boys’ engagement and performance. The study was conducted on 65 university students (32 females; 33 males) who were given a task consisting of 18 mechanical physics problems (6 technical and 6 humanistic contextualized and 6 decontextualized) on a computer. The problems were presented in a quasi-random order. Drawing on methods from neuroscience, cognitive (electroencephalography, pupillometry) affective (electrodermal activity and automatic facial recognition of emotions) and behavioral (traces, questionnaire responses) engagement data were collected live during the task. These results are likely to provide empirical support for the relevance, or otherwise, of contextualizing physics teaching.
Presenters
Patrick CharlandFull Professor, UNESCO Chair in Curriculum Development, Université du Québec à Montréal, Quebec, Canada
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Science, Mathematics and Technology Learning
KEYWORDS
Context, Physics, Teaching, Learning, Educational neuroscience, Engagement
