Open-ended investigations and
V diagrams in chemistry education
Berit Kurtén-Finnäs, FD
Liselott Forsman, FD
Background
Doctoral thesis, 2008:
It was interesting you had
to think so much.
Open-ended investigations and
V diagrams in chemistry education
Some of the theoretical background
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Meaningful learning, V heuristic (Ausubel,
Novak, Gowin)
Open investigations (Hegarty-Hazel)
Authentic school science (Roth)
Objectives for my doctoral study
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contribute to the development of the
laboratory work within education in
chemistry
contribute to research by careful study of
the implementation of open-ended
investigations and a modified version of
Gowin’s V diagram
focus on affective variables of students’
learning; self-concept, beliefs, attitudes
and interest
Methodology and research methods
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design-based research
questionnaires, interviews, selfassessment, audio recording in the
class
Implementation
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4 open-ended investigations together with V
diagrams in grade-7 in a comprehensive
school in Finland (21 students, 13-14 years
old); their first chemistry course
the problems were chosen by the researcher
together with the teacher; context-based
laboratory groups of 2-5 students
Some results and conclusions
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The work with open-ended investigations and
with V diagrams had a favourable effect on the
students self-concept, and on their interest in
chemistry
The group interactions seemed to be important
in the students’ development of their
understanding
A majority of the students felt the V diagrams
had helped them in their understanding of the
lab
The S-team project – our part
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cooperation with two chemistry teachers in a secondary
school and one teacher at the teacher education
students in a chemistry class in the secondary school
(16 years old), in a pre-IB class and primary teacher
students have worked with open-ended investigation in
combination with V diagrams
 video-recordings in the classrooms; focus on
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teachers introductions
students discussions during their planning and practical work
a presentation of open-ended investigations and of V
diagrams
discussions of different aspects of the work with openended investigations and with V diagrams
The structure of the web resource
Part 1
1. What is an open-ended investigation?
2. Introducing an open-ended investigation in
class.
3. Students planning their investigation.
4. Teacher students working with an openended investigation.
5. Concluding discussions about open-ended
investigations.
Part 2
6. What is a V diagram? Theoretical background.
7. Introducing V diagrams in class.
8. Students working with V diagrams.
9. Concluding discussions about V diagrams.
Part 3
10. Guidelines for language support in chemistry
education.