​“My students have finally grasped the concept!” What exactly has happened in the minds of your students? The first part of this talk will explore different cognitive models of “understanding” and how these align with different approaches to teaching, learning and assessment. In particular, I will examine the notions of “concept” and “context”, “answer making” and “sensemaking”, as well as the notion of “embodiment”. The second part of the talk will consider the cognitive science of affective issues such as fear and uncertainty and how these might manifest in a classroom environment. For example, when asking a question of a single student in a large class, one might threaten their sense of status amongst their peers, leading to a fear response and depleted cognitive capacity to attend to the question. Given these two broad cognitive frameworks of “understanding” and “emotion”, I hope to facilitate a discussion regarding how these models might relate to colleagues’ experiences of best teaching practices.​

The Speaker

Dr Philip Southey ​​lecturers in physics at the University of Stellenbosch. He obtained his PhD in Tertiary Physics Education from the University of Cape Town (UCT) after completing a BSc Astrophysics (UCT) and a BA PPE (Oxford). He regards teaching as one of the greatest and most exciting intellectual and personal challenges. His research interest lies at the intersection of science, education and philosophy; particularly the metaphors underlying shifts of paradigm in these disciplines. He has taught English in a rural village in the Himalayas and played bagpipes for the queen.

Recommended Reading:

For cognitive models of "understanding"​​ and "conceptual change" see:​