Swoosing: Why and When does it Occur in a Physics Class?

Details Swoosing: Why and When does it Occur in a Physics Class? Swoosing: Why and When does it Occur in a Physics Class?

Dec 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006aas...20920921o&link_type=abstract

2007 AAS/AAPT Joint Meeting, American Astronomical Society Meeting 209, #209.21; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society,

Computer Science

Learning

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Our research shows that students in physics courses often string together scientific terms in ways that make little sense to the expert. An example of this is, “It’s an energy-force. Motion, was there motion in the (magnetized) nail? Force. There was a force to the energy in the nail.” We have identified several cases in which the intensive use of scientific terms appears to be a form of sense-making where students are attempting to express their ideas through familiar scientific terms that they do not fully understand. We refer to this process as swoosing* (rhymes with choosing). In such cases, the scientific term serves as a place-holder for an idea that remains vague in the students’ minds. As such, it serves to facilitate discourse that may or may not be productive. In this presentation, we will describe some of the basic productive and non-productive features of swoosing in the context of a highly interactive Physics for Elementary Teachers course, and discuss how swoosing differs from other forms of sense-making. We will discuss what elements of the learning environment seem to promote or discourage swoosing and how swoosing can be a form of language appropriation. Data will be presented to support our claims.
*The term originated in early investigations where the intensive use of scientific terms was seen by the researchers as the process of trying out terms to See Which Ones Stick (SWOS). Later investigations have led to refinement of this definition, but we continue to use the term.

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