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There are beginnings of research studying how college students manage the experience of not-knowing in instructional laboratories. Previous work in introductory physics focused on student problematizing has had mixed results in activities designed to guide students to recognize and address an apparent discrepancy. Here, we study an instance of a student’s successful problematizing, starting from her initial puzzlement during her group’s exploration of a Newton’s Cradle. We highlight the idiosyncrasy of the instance and suggest it raises questions for curriculum design.

Complex Dynamics of Epistemic Agency in a College Physics Lab Course

Ian Descamps; Sophia Jeon; Rachel Scherr; Natasha Holmes; David Hammer (June 2023, Computersupported collaborative learning)

Blikstein, P; Van Aalst, J; Kizito, R; Brennan, K (Ed.)

We study students in a college physics lab course encountering a designed-for discrepancy between their data and the relevant physical model. We examine the moment-by- moment dynamics of the groups’ efforts at problematizing and sensemaking, with a specific focus on epistemic agency. Drawing from prior studies of agency – as it relates to learning (Damşa et al., 2010), inquiry (Keifert et al., 2018), and scientific practice (Pickering 1995) – we study the complex ways in which epistemic agency manifests (and doesn’t) in the students’ work. Our analysis suggests several influences on the students’ agency, including features of the social and material context as well as how the students frame what it is they are doing (Hammer et al., 2005), in the lab as a whole and in moments within it. The findings suggest implications and questions with respect to designing labs to support disciplinary practices.

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