Examining science tools as mediators of students' learning about circuits

This report invokes a Vygotskian framework to examine students' use of science tools in a ninth-grade physical science classroom. The study took place in the context of a unit on electric circuits. Data were collected by means of videotapes of class activities, transcripts of audiotaped interactions, daily work of students, and field notes. Analyses of the data through a framework of social cognition led the researchers to make four assertions concerning students' tools usage: (a) Students who were able to verbally relate the tools to everyday experiences perceived themselves—and were often perceived by their group—as tool experts. (b) Physically using the tools was a necessary prerequisite for using the tools as mediators of learning. (c) Boys initially dominated the use of tools. Girls who demanded use of the tools indicated an awareness of the importance of tool usage for mediating understanding. (d) If the tools were outside their zone of proximal development, students could not use the tools to develop an understanding of circuits. Implications of the findings suggest that students can be taught to collect data using the tools provided, but lack of familiarity with the tools renders those data meaningless. Conceptual progress may be hindered by the students' need first to understand the tools in terms of everyday applications. The progressive use of tools across school grade levels could provide opportunities for students to build everyday repertoires with respect to those tools. If students are expected to develop conceptual understandings through the interaction of laboratory and discussion (as is the case with the learning cycle model), then it is essential that the tools and activities implemented in laboratory investigations be selected on the basis of their match with both the students' zones of proximal development and their everyday experiences. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 36: 89–105, 1999.