Constructing Definitions as a Goal of Inquiry
written by
Leslie Atkins Elliott and Irene Y. Salter
In a class on perception, students, over the course of 3 weeks, constructed an account of "blurriness" with respect to vision, describing blurriness as occurring when "more than one ray from two separate points out in space are hitting the retina at one point." This account of blurriness, however, was just one of many introduced early on in our investigations of the eye. As students worked to model the eye and developed a consensus description of how lenses and pinholes create images, the "the separate points in space to one point on the retina" idea was refined, gained prominence in discussions and became a stable, useful, and precise concept. This paper explores one student's progressive understanding of blurriness, and the activities and interactions that supported the development of this definition.
Physics Education Research Conference 2010
Part of the PER Conference series Portland, Oregon: July 21-22, 2010 Volume 1289, Pages 65-68
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![]() <a href="https://www.compadre.org/portal/items/detail.cfm?ID=10343">Atkins Elliott, Leslie, and Irene Salter. "Constructing Definitions as a Goal of Inquiry." Paper presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2010, Portland, Oregon, July 21-22, 2010.</a>
![]() L. Atkins Elliott and I. Salter, , presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2010, Portland, Oregon, 2010, WWW Document, (https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10343&DocID=1819).
![]() L. Atkins Elliott and I. Salter, Constructing Definitions as a Goal of Inquiry, presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2010, Portland, Oregon, 2010, <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10343&DocID=1819>.
![]() Atkins Elliott, L., & Salter, I. (2010, July 21-22). Constructing Definitions as a Goal of Inquiry. Paper presented at Physics Education Research Conference 2010, Portland, Oregon. Retrieved February 16, 2025, from https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10343&DocID=1819
![]() Atkins Elliott, Leslie, and Irene Salter. "Constructing Definitions as a Goal of Inquiry." Paper presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2010, Portland, Oregon, July 21-22, 2010. https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10343&DocID=1819 (accessed 16 February 2025).
![]() Atkins Elliott, Leslie, and Irene Salter. "Constructing Definitions as a Goal of Inquiry." Physics Education Research Conference 2010. Portland, Oregon: 2010. 65-68 Vol. 1289 of PER Conference. 16 Feb. 2025 <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10343&DocID=1819>.
![]() @inproceedings{
Author = "Leslie Atkins Elliott and Irene Salter",
Title = {Constructing Definitions as a Goal of Inquiry},
BookTitle = {Physics Education Research Conference 2010},
Pages = {65-68},
Address = {Portland, Oregon},
Series = {PER Conference},
Volume = {1289},
Month = {July 21-22},
Year = {2010}
}
![]() %A Leslie Atkins Elliott %A Irene Salter %T Constructing Definitions as a Goal of Inquiry %S PER Conference %V 1289 %D July 21-22 2010 %P 65-68 %C Portland, Oregon %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10343&DocID=1819 %O Physics Education Research Conference 2010 %O July 21-22 %O application/pdf ![]() %0 Conference Proceedings %A Atkins Elliott, Leslie %A Salter, Irene %D July 21-22 2010 %T Constructing Definitions as a Goal of Inquiry %B Physics Education Research Conference 2010 %C Portland, Oregon %V 1289 %P 65-68 %S PER Conference %8 July 21-22 %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=10343&DocID=1819 Disclaimer: ComPADRE offers citation styles as a guide only. We cannot offer interpretations about citations as this is an automated procedure. Please refer to the style manuals in the Citation Source Information area for clarifications.
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