[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"doc-seo-601576-105":3,"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":81,"doc-detail-601576-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"ok",{"site_id":7,"language":8,"slug":9,"title":10,"keywords":11,"description":12,"schema_data":13,"social_meta":74,"head_meta":76,"extra_data":78,"updated_unix":80},105,"en","a-study-exploring-the-strategies-utilised-by-indian-middle-school-students-in-identifying-unfamiliar-artefacts","A Study Exploring the Strategies Utilised by Indian Middle-School Students in Identifying Unfamiliar Artefacts","","The paper examines how Indian middle-school students, working in groups, identify the intended functions of three unfamiliar artefacts. The activity targeted students’ awareness of links between form and function while introducing uncertainty before design-related work. Twenty-two students in six groups were video-recorded; transcripts and observed actions were analysed. Results show groups shared strategies but differed in frequency, and success depended on interaction, critical evaluation, and reduced defensiveness.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/a-study-exploring-the-strategies-utilised-by-indian-middle-school-students-in-identifying-unfamiliar-artefacts/601576/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/a-study-exploring-the-strategies-utilised-by-indian-middle-school-students-in-identifying-unfamiliar-artefacts/601576.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"anakgang17","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-30","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",5,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"What is the main aim of the study on unfamiliar artefacts?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"The study describes strategies middle-school students use to identify the intended functions of three unfamiliar artefacts and the problems they encounter during that process.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"How was student group activity captured and analysed?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"Twenty-two class 7 students worked in six groups of three or four members, and the exchanges were video-recorded. Verbatim transcripts, along with students’ actions and gestures, were categorised to analyse strategies.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"What factors were linked to successful identification of intended functions?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"Groups that were more interactive, more critical of others’ ideas, and less defensive about their own ideas were more successful in identifying the intended functions of all artefacts.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},601576,1792602788,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,100,105,110,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":101,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":55,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":111,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145},962090883568,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_a8503ba1806abce46bf441b54a3ca4cd","A Study Exploring the Strategies Utilised by Indian Middle-School Students in Identifying Unfamiliar Artefacts  \nFarhat Ara, Chitra Natarajan, Sugra Chunawala  \nHomi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research  \nAbstract  \nThis paper presents the strategies employed by Indian middle-school students working in groups to identify three unfamiliar artefacts. The activity described in this paper was aimed at sensitising students to the close link between form and function and to bring a certain amount of uncertainty in the tasks before the actual design task. It was part ofa larger study (Ara et al 2009) that explored students’ ideas about design and designers before and after they engaged in design related activities. Twenty two students of class 7 worked in six groups of three or four members and the entire exchange was video-recorded. The verbatim transcription of the conversation within the groups and the actions and gestures executed by students were categorised. Groups came up with various accidental functions for the three artefacts and only three groups were successful in identifying the intended functions of all three artefacts. All groups utilised similar strategies while trying to identify the artefacts however they differed in the frequency of use of these strategies. Cognitive strategies included active discussions within the group and handling strategies involved manipulation of the artefacts by the group members. Groups which were less interactive, less critical of others ideas and less defensive of their own ideas were unsuccessful in identifying the intended functions of the artefacts.  \nKey words  \naccidental functions, affordances, cognitive strategies, handling strategies, Indian middle-school students, unfamiliar artefacts  \nIntroduction  \nImagine a hunter-food-gatherer landing in a modern home in a metropolis. How would this individual respond to the vast array of artefacts around? If she got hold of a seemingly simple artefact such as a pencil, she would perhaps appreciate its long and slender body and think of the different ways in which she would make use of the pencil, back in the jungle as in the 1980 English movie“The Gods must be crazy”. The purpose of this paper is to describe the strategies employed and the problems encountered by middle school students in identifying the intended functions of three unfamiliar artefacts.  \nAn artefact is an immediate and obvious manifestation of technology (Mitcham 1994) . We interact with innumerable artefacts everyday. Ranging widely from  \nstone-age axes to global communication networks, from domesticated plants and animals species to space stations, from cuneiform tablets to universities, and more (Ferré 1995), artefacts have been transformed and have transformed our lives too in the course of time. The transformation of artefacts has been brought about by the conscious and intentional activities of humans, which distinguishes artefacts from ‘natural objects’ (Vermaas and Houkes 2006) .  \nA philosophical account of artefacts  \nArtefacts are designed for some purpose and the purpose that it serves is called the artefact’s function. Artefacts have a dual nature – physical nature, having properties such assize, colour, shape, weight, smell etc. and functional nature (Kroes 2002, De Vries 2006, Kroes and Meijers 2006) . According to De Vries (2006), the physical nature of artefacts exists independent of our intentions but the functional nature is not intrinsic to the artefacts since designers and users ascribe functions to artefacts. So intentions are involved in not only creating the artefacts but also in using them to achieve users’ goals.  \nThe designer intends to cause the existence of an artefact which would serve the purpose in hand. In order to do that she might design the artefact with appropriate structure that would allow the realisation of the intended function. The function that was intended by the designer is called the “p","cbCainnorKe7384e","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCainnorKe7384e","pdf",88190,11,"English","# Abstract\n# Key words\n# Introduction\n# A philosophical account of artefacts\n# Perception of artefacts","[{\"question\":\"What is the main aim of the study on unfamiliar artefacts?\",\"answer\":\"The study describes strategies middle-school students use to identify the intended functions of three unfamiliar artefacts and the problems they encounter during that process.\"},{\"question\":\"How was student group activity captured and analysed?\",\"answer\":\"Twenty-two class 7 students worked in six groups of three or four members, and the exchanges were video-recorded. Verbatim transcripts, along with students’ actions and gestures, were categorised to analyse strategies.\"},{\"question\":\"What factors were linked to successful identification of intended functions?\",\"answer\":\"Groups that were more interactive, more critical of others’ ideas, and less defensive about their own ideas were more successful in identifying the intended functions of all artefacts.\"}]","A Study Exploring the Strategies Utilised by Indian Middle-School Students in Identifying Unfamiliar Artefacts | PDF",1792092892,28]