The storylines of learning physics in groups – perspectives on becoming a physicist

Paper in proceeding, 2008

In this paper we present a case study exploring students’ participation in a group session in physics, beyond the traditional focus on the students’ conceptual understanding. Theoretically we work from a situated learning perspective. Analytically we employ positioning theory in order to analyse how practice and identity are negotiated by the students in their moment-to-moment interactions. Our primary data was video-recordings of a group of physics students working with relatively context-rich mechanics problems. In our analysis of the group session we constituted three main storylines; ‘Reaching a solution to the physics problem’, ‘Creating physics experts’ and ‘Socializing like a physicist’. Together these three storylines illustrate how the students learning of physics content knowledge is integrated with their learning of how to become physics students in the context of this group session.