Scientific Publications
2025
- Exploring the role of generative AI in science teacher education programs: a qualitative study
International Journal of Educational Research Open. (9)
de Putter-Smits, L.G.A., Pols, C.F.J., Dekkers, P.J.J.M., Runhaar, P.R., Timmer, M., van der Veen, J.T.
The introduction of transformative generative open AI (GenAI) has impacted science education, presenting opportunities for students and teachers to enhance teaching and learning efficiency. Equally GenAI poses challenges, including risks such as plagiarism and superficial engagement with content. Science teacher education programs play a key role in the way these opportunities are realized and how challenges are dealt with through educating the future generation of science teachers. Science teacher educators face the challenge to remodel their teaching program to showcase how GenAI is used appropriately. Their student teachers face the challenge of working with GenAI in their own learning, but also in their classroom teaching where their students in secondary education might be using GenAI. This interview study explored how science teacher educators and student-science teachers in the teacher training programs of the four technical universities in The Netherlands envisage the potential impact of GenAI on university science teacher education. Few of the teacher educators had actually used GenAI, compared to the number of student teachers that had used GenAI. Potential uses for GenAI in science teacher education and for science teaching in general were identified, as well as desired new learning goals. A strong need for a policy on the use of GenAI was expressed, including a need for clear guidelines and rules. The conclusion presents possible design characteristics for science teacher education to benefit from the advent of GenAI and circumvent associated risks.
- Redesigning a first year physics lab course on the basis of the procedural and conceptual knowledge in science model
Physical Review: Physics Education Research 20 (1)
Pols, C.F.J., Dekkers, P.J.J.M.
[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Instructional labs: Improving traditions and new directions.] Acknowledgement of the limited learning outcomes in our first-year physics lab course, strikingly similar to the observed and reported issues in literature, incited renewal of the course with a focus on developing students’ ability to engage in experimental physics research. The procedural and conceptual knowledge (PACKS) model—addressing different types of knowledge required for scientific investigation—was used as a “guide” in the transformation of the course. This educational design research study—distinguishing three stages—describes our approach in transforming the course and provides theoretical insights and practical solutions through the combined study of both the process of learning and the means that support that process. The merits and trade-offs of our approach and the effectiveness of the course transformation are evaluated through surveys, interviews, and assessment of students’ inquiry skills. The findings provide insights into the application of the PACKS model and its effectiveness in facilitating students’ development of physics inquiry abilities. The results reveal an alignment between perceived, attained and intended learning goals. The self-conceived experiment at the end of the course showcases students’ successful integration of the targeted knowledge types, previously addressed in isolated “preparatory” activities. We argue that the PACKS-model and the design principles are useful attributes when transforming a traditional lab activity, but also specify the limitations. - Integrating argumentation in physics inquiry: a design and evaluation study
Physical Review: Physics Education Research 19 (2)
Pols, C.F.J., Dekkers, P.J.J.M., de Vries, M.J.
This small scale, qualitative study uses educational design research to explore how focusing on argumentation may contribute to students learning to engage in inquiry independently. Understanding of inquiry as the construction of a scientifically cogent argument in support of a claim may encourage students to develop personal reasons for adhering to scientific criteria and to use these with understanding rather than by rote. An understanding of the characteristics of scientific evidence may clarify why doing inquiry in specific ways is important, in addition to the how. On the basis of five design principles – derived from literature – that integrate argumentation in inquiry and enhance learning through practical activities, we developed a teaching-learning sequence of five activities aimed at developing inquiry knowledge in lower secondary school students. By means of observations of a grade 9 physics class (N=23, aged 14-15), students’ answers to worksheets and self-reflection questions, we explored whether the design principles resulted in intended students’ actions and attitudes. We studied whether the activities stimulated students to engage in argumentation and to develop the targeted inquiry knowledge. The focus on argumentation, specifically through critical evaluation of the quality of evidence, persuaded students to evaluate whether what they thought, said or claimed was ‘scientifically’ justifiable and convincing. They gradually uncovered key characteristics of scientific evidence, understandings of what counts as convincing in science, and why. Rather than adopting and practicing the traditional inquiry skills, students in these activities developed a cognitive need and readiness for learning such skills. Of their own accord, they used their gained insights to make deliberate decisions about collecting reliable and valid data and substantiating the reliability of their claims. This study contributes to our understanding of how to enable students to successfully engage in inquiry by extending the theoretical framework for argumentation towards teaching inquiry and by developing a tested educational approach derived from it.
- Development of a teaching-learning sequence for scientific inquiry through argumentation in secondary physics education
Dissertation
Pols, C.F.J.
Enabling students to engage in independent scientific inquiry is a highly valued but seemingly elusive goal of (secondary school) science education. Therefore, this study aims to determine and understand how to effectively develop inquiry knowledge in students. The chosen approach to enable students to plan, carry out and evaluate a physics inquiry, is to regard an inquiry as the construction of a scientifically cogent argument for a specific claim. In an authentic scientific inquiry, the researcher invests - from the very start of the inquiry - time and effort in making the inquiry’s claim as indisputable as possible. The researcher strives for optimal cogency of the argument in support of that claim. Throughout the various studies in this thesis it is argued that this idea can be translated to classroom situations: fostering the insight that students’ inquiry should result in a complete, correct and substantiated answer to the research question. It is shown that this is a meaningful strategy in enabling them to engage in independent scientific inquiry: it results in a cognitive need in students to develop the knowledge that allows them to produce such an answer. As such, this thesis shows that argumentation is an indispensable part of teaching scientific inquiry. Explicit attention for argumentation promotes development of students’ inquiry knowledge. - Education in the Applied Physics Bachelor Programme at Delft University of Technology
Book. M.J. de Vries (ed).
Pols, C.F.J., Hut, R. W.
Two mandatory courses that use maker education as learning activity are included in the applied physics bachelor programme at Delft University of Technology. In this chapter we provide the rationale for its inclusion, the associated learning goals, and the need for a makerspace with readily available makertools. We highlight the design of the makerspace and describe how it affected education. Finally, we illustrate how this all accumulates in a final project.
- "Would you dare to jump?” Fostering a scientific approach to secondary physics inquiry
International Journal of Science Education, 44(9): 1481-1505
Pols, C.F.J., Dekkers, P.J.J.M., de Vries, M.J.
Secondary school students often only use the rules for doing scientific inquiry when prompted, as if they fail to see the point of doing so. This qualitative design study explores conditions to address this problem in school science inquiry. Dutch students (N= 22, aged 14–15) repeatedly consider the quality of their work: in a conventional, guided inquiry approach; by evaluating their conclusion in terms of the contextual purpose of the investigation; as consumers of knowledge facing the (hypothetical) risk of applying the findings in the real world. By gauging students’ confidence in the inquiry’s trustworthiness, we established that, while each confrontation instigated some students to (re)consider the quality of their inquiry, the final stage had the greatest impact. Students came to see that finding trustworthy results is essential, requiring scientific standards. The scientific quality of their inquiries was described, weaknesses identified and compared with the improvements students themselves proposed for their inquiries. While the improvemens were expressed in non-specific terms these align with a scientific perspective. Students now wanted to find trustworthy answers by exploiting scientific standards. In enabling students to engage successfully in basic scientific inquiry, finding ways to establish students’ mental readiness for attending to the quality of their scientific claims, and of personalised scientific criteria for their assessment, is indispensable. - Defining and Assessing Understandings of Evidence with the Assessment Rubric for Physics Inquiry - Towards Integration of Argumentation and Inquiry
Physical Review Physics Education Review
Pols, C.F.J., Dekkers, P.J.J.M., de Vries, M.J.
Physics inquiry can be interpreted as the construction of a cogent argument in which students apply inquiry knowledge and knowledge of physics to the systematic collection of relevant, valid, and reliable data, creating optimal scientific support for a conclusion that answers the research question. In learning how to devise, conduct and evaluate a rigorous physics inquiry, students should learn to choose and apply suitable techniques and adhere to scientific conventions that guarantee the collection of such data. However, they also need to acquire and apply an understanding of how to justify their choices and present an optimally convincing argument in support of their conclusion. In this modified and augmented Delphi study we present a view of inquiry knowledge and a way to assess it that acknowledges both of these components. Using our own expertise with teaching physics inquiry and using curriculum documents on physics inquiry, “inquiry knowledge” is deconstructed as a set of “understandings of evidence” (UOE) — insights and views that an experimental researcher relies on in constructing and evaluating scientific evidence. While insights cannot be observed directly, we argue that their presence can be inferred from a student’s actions and decisions in inquiry, inferred with more definitude as a more explicit and adequate justification is provided. This set of UOE is presented and validated as an adequate, coherent, partially overlapping set of learning goals for introductory inquiry learning. We specify conceivable types of actions and decisions expected in inquiry as descriptors of five attainment levels, providing an approach to assessing the presence and application of inquiry knowledge. The resulting construct, the assessment rubric for physics inquiry, is validated in this study. It distinguishes nineteen UOE divided over six phases of inquiry. Preliminary results suggesting a high degree of ecological validity are presented and evaluated. Several directions for future research are proposed.
- What do they know? Investigating students' ability to analyse experimental data in secondary physics education
International Journal of Science Education, 43(2): 1-24.
Pols, C.F.J., Dekkers, P.J.J.M., de Vries, M.J.
This paper explores students’ ability to analyse and interpret empirical data as inadequate data analysis skills and understandings may contribute to the renowned disappointing outcomes of practical work in secondary school physics. Selected competences, derived from a collection of leading curricula, are explored through interviews and practical tasks, each consisting of three probes. The 51 students, aged 15 and commencing post-compulsory science education in the Netherlands, were able to carry out basic skills such as collecting data and representing these. In interpreting the data in terms of the investigated phenomenon or situation however, performance was weak. Students often appeared to be unable to identify the crucial features of a given graph. Conclusions based on the data were often tautological or superficial, lacking salient features. Students failed to infer implications from the data, to interpret data at a higher level of abstraction, or to specify limitations to the validity of the analysis or conclusions. The findings imply that the students’ understanding of data-analysis should be developed further before they can engage successfully in more ‘open’ practical work. The study offers a collection of activities that may help to address the situation, suggesting a baseline for guided development of data analysis abilities.
- Introducing argumentation in inquiry—a combination of five exemplary activities
Physics Education 54 (5), 055014.
Pols, C.F.J., Dekkers, P.J.J.M., de Vries, M.J.
Successfully carrying out a secondary school physics inquiry requires a considerable amount of procedural and content knowledge. It further requires knowledge of how and why maintaining scientific standards produces the best available answer to the given research question. To this purpose, a series of five inquiry activities was developed and tested in a single case study with students aged 14. The test shows that students indeed come to use a more scientific approach to inquiry tasks and understand why they should do so. We believe that this series of activities can serve as a starting point for more complex physics inquiries.