Investigating and developing undergraduate students' representational competence in physics in the context of epistemic practices of science

This study aimed to understand the varied ways in which undergraduate students demonstrate representational competence in physics in the context of epistemic practices, how these variations relate to students’ outcomes during epistemic practices, how they respond to different prompts, and their rationale behind their demonstration. Representational competence refers to abilities associated with constructing, interpreting, and using representations effectively and purposefully. In the context of epistemic practices, which refer to the patterned sets of actions involved in the proposition, communication, evaluation, and legitimisation of scientific claims, the appropriate forms and uses of representations become highly specialised. Despite extensive research, assessing and developing representational competence at the undergraduate level remains challenging, especially in epistemic contexts. Supporting the development of representational competence is critical due to its significance in both cognitive and sociocultural perspectives. The cognitive perspective treats representations as learning tools that take advantage of how our brain processes information, making representational competence important for teaching and learning complex scientific concepts. The sociocultural perspective views representations as having constraints and affordances that shape how science is conducted, which makes representational competence significant for supporting students’ engagement in epistemic practices. This study argued that the current conception of representational competence can be advanced to better support teachers in assessing and developing students’ representational competence. To that end, this study took a social semiotic perspective, which views representations as a product of social practices that provide access to disciplinary meanings. The potential of these disciplinary meanings was then considered in relation to their role in helping students achieve epistemic goals. A case study method was implemented that involved fourteen undergraduate students with a background in Physics. They were instructed to complete a series of tasks that epistemically guided students through the process of producing a scientific explanation. The findings revealed variations in students’ demonstrations of representational competence, understood as patterns in affording, foregrounding, and utilising potential disciplinary meanings. Certain variations were found to be more desirable for targeting specific conceptual learning outcomes. The findings also revealed that students’ representation-related choices were guided by their epistemic criteria, understanding of epistemic functions and their evaluation of potential disciplinary meanings. This study offered a new perspective on representational competence, explicitly focusing on the functions and purposes of representations. This approach emphasises the use of clear goals to guide students’ use of representations in epistemic practices. The identified patterns in students’ demonstrations can serve as a guiding framework for assessment and help define targets when facilitating their demonstration. Additionally, these patterns can reveal underlying conceptual difficulties that need addressing. The findings suggested a necessary shift in our understanding of representational competence to enhance its educational meaningfulness. Representational competence must consider the epistemic aspects of representations without sacrificing the conceptual component, especially as university students are likely to engage in scientific practices as part of their coursework. This study provided insights into understanding which representations are most appropriate to use, why they are appropriate, when to use them, and how to use them appropriately – all of which are critical aspects for students to learn to participate effectively in epistemic practices.