Cognitive challenges in physics laboratory experiments: A workshop whose goal and approach is cognitive acceleration

Abstract

Cognitive acceleration is a cognitive intervention strategy that aims to enable the learner to carry out higher order mental processes and specifically to advance from concrete operational to formal operational thinking. In short, it is primarily designed to help students to think more effectively. The main focus is not so much in developing content knowledge but on the intervention in the thinking processes of students.
At the end of this workshop, the physics teacher-participant should be able to:

• describe the various stages of the cognitive acceleration strategy as he/she experiences them,
• differentiate the traditional approach from the cognitive acceleration strategy in doing laboratory experiments,
• experience for themselves the thinking processes through which a student learns and the possible learning difficulties they may encounter, and
• find cognitive acceleration a worthwhile strategy for cognitive intervention and so apply it to some extent in their teaching practices.