Understanding Middle School Students’ Difficulties in Explaining Density Differences from a Language Perspective

Abstract

This study examines how a class of Grade 7 students employed linguistic resources to explain density differences. Drawing from the same data-set as a previous study by, we take a language perspective to investigate the challenges students face in learning the concept of density. Our study thus complements previous research on learning about density which has mostly focussed on the conceptual challenges. The data consist of transcripts of lessons on density and students’ written assignments. Using selected analytical categories from the Systemic Functional Linguistics framework, we first examined students’ use of linguistic resources in their written reports of a practical activity. We then compared the language employed by the students with the instructional language, identifying possible links. Our analysis identified specific aspects of language that the students need to appropriate in order to express an understanding of density that aligns with a scientific perspective. The findings from this study illuminate ways by which teachers could assist students in overcoming the linguistic challenges in explaining density differences, which complement those made by existing studies that focus on conceptual challenges.

Keywords:

• Students’ writings
• Instructional language
• Lexicogrammatical resources
• Systemic Functional Linguistics
• Density

Acknowledgements

The data for this study came from the project entitled ‘Causal Connections in Science Classrooms’, which was supported by a research grant provided by the Australian Research Council [DP1093529]. Data collection, storage, and analysis for the project was undertaken with the facilities and support of the International Centre for Classroom Research, at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, University of Melbourne, Australia.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. As in the study by Smith et al. (1997), the concepts of weight and mass are not differentiated for the purpose of this study as it was not an instructional goal of the teacher in our case study.