A variation theory approach to develop learning progressions for engineering concepts

Learning progressions are a useful tool for describing the development of student understanding and for informing instructional practice. In this paper, we describe how we have applied Variation Theory to develop a learning progression for “size and scale” that is grounded in empirical data on student's conceptual understanding. We argue that this approach not only offers a systematic way of describing levels of understanding from students’ exhibited conceptions, but also generates learning progressions with unique features that may offer advantages over traditional learning progressions.