Examining Expansive Framing in a Design Research Study to Promote Interdisciplinary Reasoning

• In Event: Poster Session 10
  In Poster Session: Learning Sciences SIG Poster Session

Abstract

In order to engage with modern scientific problems, university students need opportunities to make meaningful connections across sub-disciplines of science. Our study context was a design-research project in an introductory physics course for life science majors. We used conjecture mapping to present a comparative analysis of two episodes of student reasoning. Our high level conjecture was that interdisciplinary reasoning required the emergence and maintenance of a disciplinary expansive framing. We found that while an interdisciplinary task could encourage students to bring in knowledge from other sub-disciplines, the way that knowledge was positioned in discourse by the TA and students was critical to the maintenance of expansive framing and either contributed to or shut down interdisciplinary reasoning.

Authors

• Julia Svoboda Gouvea, Tufts University

• Abhilash Nair, Michigan State University

• Vashti Sawtelle, Michigan State University

• Chandra Anne Turpen, University of Maryland - College Park