Characterizing the Types of Representations Subject to Research Studies and Interventions Centered Around the Representational Competence Framework within Chemistry Education
Abstract
Since its introduction, the Representational Competence Framework by Kozma and Russell has captured the attention of many researchers and practitioners in science education. According to this framework, representational competence is a set of skills and practices that allow a person to reflectively use representations, singly or together, to think about, communicate and act on chemical phenomena. Furthermore, developing representations has been suggested to be essential for developing expertise in subjects like Chemistry. Thus, as part of a large collaborative project among three universities, we have been working on reviewing the literature on the use and incorporation of the Representational Competence Framework within undergraduate chemistry education research and practices. As part of this large project, our institution has been focused on characterizing the types of representations used as part of our literature sample of 242 peer-reviewed articles, including research and practice-focused articles. Our analysis includes identifying the number of representations used as part of the scholarly work, the type of representations (i.e. Lewis structure, Potential energy diagram, etc.) and the classification of representation as symbolic, sub-microscopic, or macroscopic guided by Chemistry’s Triplet (i.e., Johnstone’s Triplet). Our review of the literature holds implications for chemistry instruction, which could give insight into how the framework has been used with the chemistry education community and potential areas where more work is warranted. During the presentation, preliminary results from this project will be presented.
Faculty Sponsors
Dr. Zahilyn Roche Allred
Project Type
Event
Location
Alvin Sherman Library
Start Date
4-5-2023 12:00 PM
End Date
4-6-2023 4:00 PM
Characterizing the Types of Representations Subject to Research Studies and Interventions Centered Around the Representational Competence Framework within Chemistry Education
Alvin Sherman Library
Since its introduction, the Representational Competence Framework by Kozma and Russell has captured the attention of many researchers and practitioners in science education. According to this framework, representational competence is a set of skills and practices that allow a person to reflectively use representations, singly or together, to think about, communicate and act on chemical phenomena. Furthermore, developing representations has been suggested to be essential for developing expertise in subjects like Chemistry. Thus, as part of a large collaborative project among three universities, we have been working on reviewing the literature on the use and incorporation of the Representational Competence Framework within undergraduate chemistry education research and practices. As part of this large project, our institution has been focused on characterizing the types of representations used as part of our literature sample of 242 peer-reviewed articles, including research and practice-focused articles. Our analysis includes identifying the number of representations used as part of the scholarly work, the type of representations (i.e. Lewis structure, Potential energy diagram, etc.) and the classification of representation as symbolic, sub-microscopic, or macroscopic guided by Chemistry’s Triplet (i.e., Johnstone’s Triplet). Our review of the literature holds implications for chemistry instruction, which could give insight into how the framework has been used with the chemistry education community and potential areas where more work is warranted. During the presentation, preliminary results from this project will be presented.
