Research
Understanding how people learn abstract scientific concepts and make meaning of the world around them requires a multidisciplinary approach. Thus, my research lies at the nexus of disciplines: I bring together perspectives from science education, the learning sciences, cognitive science, linguistics, philosophy, and physics education research to model the complex processes involved in learning.
Research Interests
Teaching and Learning of Einsteinian Physics
Despite its far-reaching scientific, philosophical, and cultural importance, there are few attempts of bringing topics of relativity and quantum physics to classrooms. I investigate the educational relevance of learning domains in modern physics that have not entered mainstream education in schools yet.
Conceptual Under-standing in Science
Topics of modern physics challenge students' understanding of space, time, and gravity. My research aims to study learning processes in which students have to make meaning of abstract - and often counterintuitive - scientific concepts they can never see or touch such as four-dimensional curved spacetime.
Embodied Cognition & Embodied Interaction
Embodied cognition extends the boundaries of the mind from being inside the brain to including the body’s physical interactions with the world. For example, gestures support conceptualisations of scientific ideas, yet embodied understanding might run into conflict with disembodied scientific concepts.
Language and Science Learning
Students master science by "talking science" which plays a central role in their conceptual development. I am interested in the role of language when students learn science. This approach is particularly important in modern physics where high school students are not able to use a sophisticated mathematical language.
Philosophy of Science & Philosophy of Education
I want to move beyond traditional content-focused instruction to teach concepts of Einsteinian physics. I am particularly interested in employing philosophy of science and philosophy of education in the service of science education.
Emerging technologies in science education
Research has shown that young learners are often engaged by digital and virtual experiences. It is only through a better understanding of how students interact with each other and across digital and virtual modes of representations that educators can fully capitalize on the potential of new technologies.
Research Projects
ReleQuant
I conduct my PhD-research within the Norwegian educational project ReleQuant. ReleQuant was established to investigate novel ways of teaching Einsteinian Physics and to study students’ learning processes. Within ReleQuant, I have developed a digital learning environment about general relativity because digital resources provide new possibilities to teach topics that have been difficult to access in science classrooms before.
OzGrav Education & Public Outreach
Through its education and public outreach program, the OzGrav EPO team at Swinburne University of Technology embraces the challenge to educate and engage students by using cutting-edge technology such as virtual and augmented reality. I have joined the team to study engagement and learning processes in virtual reality environments that are tailored to the needs of science education.
Teaching Einsteinian Physics in Schools
To enable the introduction of Einsteinian physics within the school curriculum, David Blair & I are editing a book that brings together a coherent set of chapters written by leading experts in physics and physics education. The book provides a set of foundational concepts that give school students the language with which to discuss frontiers of knowledge.
Einstein-First
The Einstein-First project teaches the fundamental concepts of modern physics to school students in Western Australia and works to improve STEM involvement in the classroom. I have joined the project as a visiting research fellow at the University of Western Australia to develop new school programs in which we integrate digital learning resources with hands-on activities.
EPER-Collaboration
I am one of the founding members of the Einsteinian Physics Education Research (EPER) Collaboration that aims to develop new learning approaches in Einsteinian Physics and to disseminate learning resources and research results across a range of countries. EPER is a developing project that pools the efforts of educational researchers, physicists, and teachers from eight countries around the world.
Gravity Discovery Centre
The Gravity Discovery Centre is a spectacular outreach facility co-located at the Australian International Gravitational Research Centre in Gin Gin, Western Australia. I have developed new museum exhibits that introduce visitors to some of Albert Einstein's most mind-boggling ideas: Time can be warped and what pulls our feet down to the ground is a distortion in the very fabric of spacetime.
Space Science Program
It is very rewarding to excite the inner scientist in young learners. I got the opportunity to do this at Perth College, one of the oldest independent girls’ schools in Western Australia. I was invited to run a space science program with two year 9 classes. I introduced 40 girls to modern ideas of space, time, and gravity using the digital learning environment I have developed.
