Umeå University's logo

umu.sePublications
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Identifying epistemic games in pre-service teachers' engagement with spatial scales
Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-3070-567x
Umeå University, Faculty of Science and Technology, Department of Science and Mathematics Education.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-9409-3559
Uppsala universitet, Uppsala, Sverige.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-6638-1246
2025 (English)Conference paper, Oral presentation only (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

This study investigates how pre-service teachers engage with spatial scale reasoning through epistemic games - structured approaches to scientific inquiry and problem-solving. Three primary school pre-service teachers in their third year participated in an activity requiring them to arrange and explain the relative sizes of objects ranging from subatomic particles to astronomical bodies. Through qualitative analysis, we identified three major themes of epistemic games: Cognitive anchoring (using objects, numbers, or experiences as reference points), Object relatedness (understanding relationships through analogy, nestedness, and interaction), and Perspectives (considering contextual and representational viewpoints). While the pre-service teachers employed similar epistemic games as science experts from our previous research, they demonstrated unique engagement through their pedagogical expertise, particularly in considering contextual perspectives. However, the pre-service teachers made more errors than experts, especially when dealing with microscopic objects, despite using similar reasoning strategies. This suggests that the effectiveness of epistemic games depends on underlying conceptual knowledge. The findings have implications for how we prepare teachers to support spatial thinking development in students and highlight the importance of both strategic reasoning and accurate conceptual frameworks in spatial scale understanding.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2025.
Keywords [en]
Spatial cognition, astronomy education, biology education, chemistry education, spatial scales, pre-service teacher education
National Category
Other Physics Topics Didactics
Research subject
Physics with specialization in Physics Education
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-244616OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-244616DiVA, id: diva2:2007419
Conference
The 16th Conference of The European Science Education Research Association (ESERA 2025), Copenhagen, Denmark, August 25-29, 2025
Available from: 2025-10-20 Created: 2025-10-20 Last updated: 2025-10-20Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

No full text in DiVA

Other links

Conference information

Authority records

Samuelsson, Christopher RobinHellgren, JennyEriksson, Urban

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Samuelsson, Christopher RobinHellgren, JennyEriksson, Urban
By organisation
Department of Science and Mathematics Education
Other Physics TopicsDidactics

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar

urn-nbn

Altmetric score

urn-nbn
Total: 59 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf