Koschmann2009a

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Koschmann2009a
BibType ARTICLE
Key Koschmann2009a
Author(s) Timothy Koschmann, Alan Zemel
Title Optical pulsars and black arrows: discoveries as occasioned productions
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Learning, Discovery
Publisher
Year 2009
Language
City
Month
Journal Journal of the Learning Sciences
Volume 18
Number 2
Pages 200–246
URL Link
DOI 10.1080/10508400902797966
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

The current article represents a methodological proposal. It seeks to address the question of how one might recognize a discovery as a discovery without knowing in advance what is available to be discovered. We propose a solution and demonstrate it using data from a study previously reported by J. Roschelle (1992). Roschelle investigated 2 students' developing understandings of certain abstract features of Newtonian mechanics while working within a computer-based microworld, the Envisioning Machine. We employ an approach we term discovery as occasioned production to reexamine his data. Such an approach proceeds stepwise from the identification of some matter discovered, working backward to see just where that matter entered the conversation and then, finally, tracing from that point forward to illuminate how the proposal for a possible discovery was ultimately transformed into a discovery achieved. The notion of “evident vagueness,” borrowed from H. Garfinkel, M. Lynch, and D. Livingston's (1981) account of the discovery of an optical pulsar, emerges as an important feature of our analysis. Following H. Garfinkel (2002), we present our findings as a “tutorial problem” and offer a suggestion for how a program of practice studies in the learning sciences might be pursued.

Notes