Abstracts - Earli

later step, be used for teacher formation and further education and for developing instructionaldesigns for children aged 4-8.K 2131 August 2007 08:30 - 10:30Room: 1.58SymposiumUnderstanding classrooms: Alternative theoretical perspectivesChair: Ruhama Even, Weizmann Institute of Science, IsraelOrganiser: David Clarke, University of Melbourne, AustraliaDiscussant: Ruhama Even, Weizmann Institute of Science, IsraelContemporary research methods provide access to classroom data of a level of complexity andsophistication greater than any previously available. The use of video technology and sophisticatedanalytical software provide tools to support increasingly sophisticated analyses of classroomphenomena – both learning and instructional activities and their conjunction in classroom practice.Empowered by these tools, researchers are able to apply (and refine) theoretical frameworks ofincreasing subtlety and complexity to the task of understanding the processes and products ofclassroom settings. In this symposium, educational researchers from four very specific theoreticalpersuasions report their attempts to relate particular theories to the phenomena of classrooms. Eachtheory affords particular analytical strategies and each produces distinctive findings: the productsof the particular analytical stance adopted. What are the contemporary theoretical lenses throughwhich we might now consider classroom practice and the products of that practice? Each paperpresents a different, highly-contemporary, theoretical approach to classroom research and theanalysis of classroom data. It is hoped that the combination of perspectives will provide anopportunity for consideration of the extent to which the various theories are complementary,mutually informing, or, perhaps, incommensurable.The optimisation of learning in science classrooms from the perspective of distributed cognitionLi Hua Xu, University of Melbourne, AustraliaDavid Clarke, University of Melbourne, AustraliaThis paper reports multi-layered analyses of student learning in a science classroom using thetheoretical lens of distributed cognition. Building on the insights generated from previous researchemploying distributed cognition, the particular focus of this study has been placed on the publicspace of interaction that includes both participants’ interactions with each other and theirinteractions with artefacts in their environment. Focusing on the event of student experimentaldesign, two science lessons were videotaped, in which a class of grade-seven participants wereinvestigating the scientific theme of gravity by designing parachutes and pendulums. The videostimulatedpost-lesson interviews with both the teacher and the student groups offeredcomplementary accounts which assisted the interpretation of the classroom data. The findings ofthis study provide supporting evidence to demonstrate the capacity of distributed cognition inadvancing our understanding of the nature of learning in science classrooms.– 634 –