The modelling cycle through oral interaction in experimental workshops on force and motion

Abstract

The modeling cycle is an instrument that allows both structuring the design of teaching and learning sequences and the guidance of the dialogic interaction in the classroom focused on the progression of students' scientific ideas. This cycle proposes 6 instructional phases associated with 6 expected students’ performance, the main ones being the use and expression of the student's initial model, the evaluation of these models and their revision based on the emergence of new points of view. However, the order of the modelling practices in real contexts often differs from the canonical ideal. This research analysed modelling practices associated with high school student-teacher interactions in 4 experimental Newtonian physics workshops. For this purpose, 9.5 hours of dialogue were recorded and transcribed, and more than 1,600 utterances grouped into 229 discursive sequences were analysed. By analysing the modelling practices associated with each sequence, we identified four main patterns of chaining of such practices that allow us to understand how modelling practices are discursively promoted in science classrooms, and the progress of students' scientific ideas through their participation in these practices.