Conceptual Dynamics of Student Reasoning during Interviews Involving Discrepant Embodied Experiences

Clinical interviews are a research instrument for STEM education that elicit a variety of conceptual dynamics. While some efforts have been made to document what conceptual dynamics take place in such interviews, more remains to be done. This article describes conceptual dynamics observed in two cases where high school students were interviewed and responded to discrepant embodied experiences where what they predicted would take place physically differed from what actually took place. One case involves discussing and enacting projectile motion. The other case involves discussing and trying different configurations of bicycle gearing. The cases illustrate a short-term conceptual change in response to the discrepant experiences in which the same explanatory elements remained in their explanations over time, but how various ideas and perceived attributes of the situation were organized changed. Together, these cases illustrate an additional trigger for conceptual dynamics that have been as yet undocumented in literature about interviews.