Project: Negotiated Representational Mediators (NRMs) and Meta-Representational Competence (MRC)

In a study of 5-7 year old students’ ideas about what makes for a good science representation, we synthesized the notion of Meta-Representational Competence (MRC)–the ideas and resources which enable and constrain students as they create, modify, select, critique, learn, and understand representations–with that of representation as a form of practice. Analysis of pre and post interviews as well as video analysis of students’ representational activities reveal that when creating or evaluating a representation, these students negotiate between their personal preferences, the constraints and affordances of the activity in which they are engaged, and their understanding of the content being studied. In addition, the rules that students come to follow, their understanding of the content, and the way in which they choose to represent their understanding of the content are all influenced by their ongoing participation within the classroom activities.

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