Animated reasoning: Supporting Students’ Mechanistic Reasoning in Physics by Constructing Stop-Motion Animations

Abstract

Mechanistic reasoning (MR), which is a form of causal reasoning, is an essential aspect of science education. To support students in developing MR, students in this series of studies were tasked with constructing and using a model in the form of a stop-motion animation (SMA). In SMA students create a sequence of frames (images) representing a natural phenomenon. After creating the SMA, they were asked to explain the phenomenon on the basis of their own model. This dissertation describes four separate studies that were conducted to address the main research question: How can student-constructed SMAs be used as a pedagogical approach to support students in developing MR? Our studies show, both theoretically and empirically, that the specific nature of SMA construction, i.e., breaking up a natural phenomenon in chunks and then sequencing these chunks in order to create the SMA, played a crucial role as a cognitive support for students in developing key elements of MR. Based on the findings, our studies suggest practical implications regarding for implementing SMA construction activities in a science classroom to support students’ MR. The results contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the implementation of SMA-based modeling in science classrooms that supports students in developing MR, in particular, and in science learning, in general.