Thesis (MSc)--University of Stellenbosch, 2008. / Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

Den här undersökningen inom fysikdidaktik utförs enligt ramverket The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). Det didaktiska verktyget som ska utvärderas benämns Pictionary Physics. Studien börjar med en litteraturöversikt av multipla representationer och interaktivt engagemang. Översikten syftar till att utforska hur lärandet kan möjliggöras vid användningen av det didaktiska verktyget. Pictionary Physics användes sedan för att främja en interaktiv användning av multipla representationer i en grupp bestående av fyra studenter. Studenternas agerande studerades och analyserades kvalitativt, följt av en utvärdering av studenternas upplevelser när de använde det didaktiska verktyget. Utvärderingen visar att Pictionary Physics kan gynna konceptuell förståelse för begrepp inom fysik. Utvärderingen visar även att det didaktiska verktyget skulle kunna bidra till förbättrat studieresultat då studenter uppmuntras att använda multipla representationer på ett interaktivt sätt. Fortsatt förädling av Pictionary Physics föreslås. Detta är stommen för SoTL, där tanken är att konsekvent utöka var kunskap om lärandet av fysik. / This physics education research project is carried out following the framework of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). The didactic instrument investigated is termed Pictionary Physics. The study begins with a literature review of research on multiple representation, and interactive engagement. This review is used to evaluate the learning potential of the intended didactic instrument. Pictionary Physics was then used to facilitate the multi-representational interaction of a group of four physics students. The students’ behavior was studied and analyzed qualitatively, followed by an evaluation of the students’ experiences when using this didactic instrument. The investigation shows that Pictionary Physics may promote conceptual understanding of physics phenomena. The investigation also implies that this didactic instrument can contribute to improved learning outcomes when students are encouraged to interact by using multiple representations. Continued refinement of the Pictionary Physics concept is suggested. Such refinement is the essence of SoTL, incrementally expanding our knowledge of the teaching and learning of physics.

This is a thesis which contributes to research in two different fields: theoretical physics and physics education research. The common link between these two research areas is that both involve explorations of abstract physics and mathematical representations, but from different perspectives. The first part of this thesis is situated in theoretical physics. Here a cosmological scenario is explored where a de Sitter phase is replaced with a phase described with a scale factor a(t) ~ tq, where 1/3<1. This scenario could be viewed as an inflationary toy model, and is shown to open up the possibility of an information paradox. This potential paradox is resolved even in the worst case scenario by showing that the time scales involved for such a paradox to occur is of the order of magnitude of the recurrence time for the de Sitter space. The second part of this thesis is situated in physics education research. A number of learning situations that are experienced as abstract by students are explored: probability in one dimensional quantum tunnelling; the mindsets that students adopt towards understanding physics equations used in typical teaching scenarios; and what students focus on when presented with physics equations. The results for the quantum scattering study are four phenomenographic categories of description, for the mind sets study, six epistemological components of mindsets and for the focus on physics equations study, three foci creating five levels of increasing complexity of ways of experiencing physics equations.  Pedagogical implications of these results are discussed.