Book: The Art of Teaching Primary School Science

Edited By Vaille Dawson, Jennifer Donovan ISBN 9781760878122 ; 226 Pages 12 B/W Illustrations Published August 3, 2021 by Routledge

Chapter 1: Engaging Learners in the Wonder of Science

• Catherine Milne

pg 5

…observing is an important practice for school science and should be given more time. …the practice of observing is not explored in any great depth and the ability to observe seems to be taken for graded. … as a practice, observing forms the basis of all forms of systematic, knowledge, including Eurocentric science and Indigenous knowledge.

Historically, it is from observing the facts emerge. As far back as 2400 years ago Greek philosopher, Aristotle (384 – 322 BCE), argued in his book, On the Generation of Animals, that observing provided the facts needed for the development and support of theory (Milne, 2020).

Pg 7

Everyday observing and engagement

Martin Wagenschein, a German science educator from the 1950s, argued that learning concepts alone is the wrong way to go about learning science. According to Wagenschein (1983/2008), understanding only comes from engaging with the material and living world.

Pg 8

Activities, such as that captured in Snapshot 1.3, are designed to start supporting learnings to value their abilities to make observations of the everyday world and to start to be more mindful of the world around them.

Observing also provides an experience for asking questions and making claims.

pg 10

The idea that by making a change to something, something else will happen is one of the most powerful ideas underpinning the practice of science. Imagine how powerful this idea could be. You ask yourself, if I change something, can I force something else to happen?

Pg 13

Cause and effect and causal explanation

As philosopher, Judea Pearl (1996) notes, we have engineering to thank for introducing the idea that objects could e used to provide causal explanations. For example, when a structure stopped working, a broker lever, or a frayed rope, or a rusted arm could be considered the cause and the effect of stopping could be explained. The engineer would say that the waterwheel stopped working (affected) because a lever had broken (cause). In science, very often we ask why that effect was observed.

Pg 14

While experiments are important, most of science depends on observing the natural everyday world in which we all live. Observations initiate questions and further observations, also called data, are used to answer the questions. For example, Charles Darwin did not develop his theory of evolution by doing experiments but by observing, recording and collecting materials.

Pg 20

Chapter 2: Understanding How Children Learn Science

• Christine Howitt

Children’s understanding of science is acquired long before they enter the classroom. From their earliest interactions with the world, children are actively trying to understand what is happening. Through their play and their everyday experiences, children are developing their own ideas about how the world works.

Pg 23

Constructivism

Constructivism is a dominant theory of learning that is relevant to the teaching and learning of science. A constructivist view of learning relates to learners constructing knowledge through their interactions with the environment (Duchesne & McMaugh, 2016). Learning is perceived as a process in which learners change their ideas by building new concepts or exchanging existing concepts based on previous learning. Thus, from a constructivist point of view, taking into consideration learner’s proper knowledge is critical for enabling learning, because new understandings are built on previous conceptions or constructs.

Pg 24

Personal constructivisim

Children developmental psychologist Jean Piaget (1896 – 1980) viewed learning as an evolving process that was a consequence of children interacting with the environment.

The main principles of personal constructivism (Campbell, 2018) relate to:

• learning involves the learner actively constructing meaning
• children construct meanings from their experiences and their prior knowledge, with prior knowledge assisting or hindering new learning
• children continually seek to construct meaning about their world
• children have the ultimate responsibility for their own learning
• children develop their own understandings that may be different from or alternative to accepted scientific understandings

pg 25

The focus on individual child in personal constructivism at the expense of the role of the teacher and the learning context, along with a lack of acknowledgment of affective elements of learning, has led to critique with the application of personal constructivism in the classroom. Also criticised has been the emphasis on children’s ideas as opposed to scientific understanding, and the time teachers spent exploring and negotiating understandings with children as opposed to representing science (Tytler, Ferguson & White, 2019).

Pg 26

Social constructivism

Psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1896 – 1934) expanded Piaget’s theories to include the consideration of the social settings in which learning occurred and subsequently defined the term social constructivism.

Vygotsky introduced the term Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD): ‘the region between what a child is able to achieve alone and what he or she can achieve when interacting with more learned others’ (Campbell, 2018, p 60). This emphasizes the importance of a more knowledgeable other in enhancing children’s learning, whether that be through an active teacher, parent, or even a more accomplished peer.

Social constructivism is characterised by collaborative or cooperative learning, discussion and listening to others’ ideas.

For any object to be classified as living, it must satisfy all seven characteristics of life:

• movement
• respiration
• sensitivity
• growth
• reproduction
• excretion
• nutrition

Sociocultural constructivism

Vygotsky’s ideas were further extended into what is known as sociocultural constructivism, where a wide range of social and cultural aspects are considered to influence learning.

Pg 28

Learning from a sociocultural perspective includes (Campbell, 2018; Nolan & Raban, 2015):

• viewing learning as a social activity which is reflected in the classroom
• appreciating the role of social interactions in learning
• embracing the use of language, belief systems, specialised discourse and practices to communicate with others
• leveraging the impact of artifacts and materials on learning
• creating a community of learners where individuals and groups, both inside and outside of the classroom, contribute varied knowledge and expertise
• showing an awareness of the relationship between child, family, community and culture in learning.

Pg 29

Regarding science, the sociocultural perspective considers that ‘knowledge and learning should be seen in terms of increasing access to, and competence with, the wider community of science.

Teachers should provide children with activities that will engage and challenge their ideas through inquiry learning or problem-based learning. Cooperative learning processes should be developed to provide opportunities for children to work together to encourage questioning and discussion, to enable and encourage children to express their own ideas and to appreciate the views of others.

Pg 31

Science motivation

Highly motivate people ‘believe that an activity process or its outcome (or both!) is worthwhile, important, interesting, or enjoyable, and that they are good at the activity or will become skilled with practice’ (Patrick & Mantzicopoulos, 2015, p.8). Highly motivated people take on challenges, put in effort, persist with a problem even after making errors and use a range of considered strategies to solve a problem (Patrick & Mantzicopoulos, 2015).

Science motivation refers to a child’s level of engagement and willingness to persist in a given science activity.

Pg 32

Science goal orientation and engagement

Children’s goals will determine how effectively they engage with and complete a science activity. Different goals will lead to different learning: children who have a commitment to learning goal will have a deeper level of understanding than those who focus on a competitive goal of obtaining the best result and outperforming others.

Science balues and interests

Children’s values and interest in science can influence their learning. Children engage with tasks they find interesting, challenging and important to them. Children who place a high value and interest in a topic can learn more about that topic than those who place low value and interest in the topic. Children’s personal interest can influence their selective attention, effort levels, willingness to persist with an activity and their final understanding. Interested children seek additional information on the topic and are more likely to engage in critical thinking.

pg 33

Science identity

Science identity refers to “how children perceive whether they can do science and be successful at science, and how others perceive them at being able to do science” (Blake & Howitt, 2018, p.125).

Pg 36

Chapter 3: Addressing Alternative Conception in Science

• Jennifer Donovan (posthumous) and Carole Haeusler

Much of the research in science education has focused on helping students to learn scientific concepts, or conceptual learning.

pg 37

What’s a conception?

The word conception is used frequently in education, particularly in science education, so it is important for you as a teacher to understand what it means. A conception can roughly be defined as an individual’s understanding of a particular scientific concept. For example, we often talk about a student’s conception associated with scientific words such as plant, atom, oxygen, or the Moon. The research literature indicates there are twin threads that contribute to the mental structures that make up a conception; one thread is about knowledge, that is, the cognitive aspects, and the second thread relates to beliefs which include feelings and attitudes.

What’s an alternative conception?

In science education, scientific concepts are considered to portray information aligned with currently accepted scientific explanations about a particular topic. Scientific concepts are evidence-based and hence rely on supporting data. When there is evidence that disproves a concept, it is no longer accepted as scientific.

An alternative conception is a conception held by a person that is not aligned with current scientific thinking. An alternative conception may have a variety of sources.

Pg 38

Why are alternative conceptions important?

…alternative conceptions are very common; most people have them. .. they spread easily, especially if they seem outwardly plausible. Some alternative conceptions result from people holding old ideas they may have learnt at school.

Secondly, people are called upon to make decisions about matters that depend upon scientific ideas. Politicians holding alternative conceptions about science concepts are of particular concern as their decisions can impact millions of people.

What can we do about alternative conceptions?

…the educational research shows that conceptual change:

• is very difficult to do
• is unlikely to be accomplished fully at one time
• requires that students become dissatisfied with their current explanations/conceptions
• relies upon the new explanations being intelligible and plausible.

Pg 42

How should primary science be taught to address alternative conceptions?

At its simplest, it is a three-stage process:

1. Set learning goals (the destination);
2. Decide what evidence is needed to demonstrate the learning goals have been achieved (assessment),
3. Plan the route to the destination, that is, select resources and activities that are relevant to moving the children toward the learning goals.

Pg 46

A caution: alternative conceptions are very persistent

Do not think that “I taught that, therefore they won’t think the alternative conception anymore”, no matter how well you taught it. www.learner.org/series/a-private-universe or www.youtube/iMEfYLvxioc

Diagnostic activities are critically important

…get the children talking and see if their responses, whether they are oral, written, drawn, or acted out, disclose any alternative conceptions. This information forms the build of your information about where the children are starting from, which is needed early in your backward design plan.

Chapter 5: Planning Engaging and Safe Science Lessons

• Reece Mills and Senka Henderson

Pg 68

1. Planning based on social constructivism. …learning activities in primary school science out to be learner-centered, include hands-on activities, build upon student’s existing ideas and incorporate collaborative group work.
2. Planning integrates the three strands of the Australian Curriculum: Science so they are taught together: Learning outcomes from all three strands should be considered when planning in primary school science, such that students’ learning is built around scientific inquiry and reflects the nature of science as a unique way of knowing and doing.
3. Planning uses backward design. .. ensures alignment between learning outcomes, teaching and learning activities and assessment
4. Planning is a collaborative public endeavor. …planning documents… are public documents and ought to be well-planned, complete and accurate.
5. Planning documents are “living documents’ that respond to students’ changing interests and needs.
6. Planning must be specific to a school and classroom context. Teachers often draw upon existing teaching and learning resources to create planning documents in primary school science. … carefully consider the situation and needs within their school community…

Pg 75

Assessment

Summative assessment is usually completed by the end of a unit of work and provides students an opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge, understanding and skills.

There should be a variety and balance of summative assessment types and conditions from unit to unit over one school year. Common summative assessment types in primary school science include investigations, model building, portfolios (journals) of learning, reports, response to stimulus (pictures/data), and tests. Common summative assessment conditions may include written, spoken and demonstration/performance.

The [Australian] curriculum’s Achievement Standards are rewritten as statements of performance in a marking rubric and used to make consistent, comparable and defensible judgements about how well students have demonstrated what they know and what they can do.

Pg 76

Sequence of Learning

Sequencing science learning is one of the major purposes of planning a unit of work. When planning a sequence of teaching and learning experiences, there are different pedagogical approaches that can be used. These include play- and discovery-based learning, inquiry-based learning, problem- or project-based learning and explicit teaching.

Teaching strategies

It is important to match the target science concept to an appropriate teaching strategy. (see chapter 6)

Micro level: lesson planning

Your lesson is much more likely to be successful if your lesson plan clearly articulates what students will learn, how you will know that learning has taken place and how you intend students to learn it.

Chapter 6: Teaching Strategies for Primary School Science

• Pauline Roberts

Pg 88

The focus of school science

A scientific literacy perspective is more aligned with teaching approaches that engage students in science explorations and inquiries that are focused on the student’s interests and questions and provide more authentic learning opportunities. When students are engaged in inquiry, they are better able to learn content knowledge, develop inquiry skills and an understanding of why we do science – to answer life’s questions.

Pg 89

Inquiry-based approaches

Duncan (2018) identified essential elements of inquiry including authenticity and relevance of the science topics being learned and a responsiveness of the curriculum to the students’ interests.

The 5E Model

This model was developed by a team led by Roger Bybee as part of the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study in 1987.

pg 90

The 5E model is designed to provide students opportunities to learn through active, constructivist principles. the students are encouraged to:

• draw on their prior knowledge, pose questions, participate in hands-on experiences, and conduct exploratory and form an investigations, to develop their own explanations about scientific phenomena. Students are given opportunities to represent and re-represent their developing understanding using literacy skills. They are actively engaged in the learning process.
• (Australian Academy of Science [AAS], 2020, para 1)

www.primaryconnections.org.au

The 3-Stage Approach

Stage 1 is an orientation phase where students are introduced to the topic. There is a brainstorm of ideas or questions, and initial planning is conducted to identify how to complete the inquiry. Sometimes called the exploration phase, the focus is on identifying what students are interested in, what they already know and what they want to know more about – the students should pose the questions.

In Stage 2, the investigation is where the hands-on work is completed through experiments, explorations or gathering lots of data.

The timeframe for this phase might be a week, a term or a whole year depending on the interest levels of the group and the term or a whole year depending on the interest levels of the group and the complexity of the inquiry. Once the interest begins to wane, the inquiry will move to the final phase or stage.

Stage 3 represents the brining together of the learning and a more formalised presentation for assessment purposes.

Teaching strategies

Discussion

Discussion as an inquiry process is an effective teaching tool that is used as a specific strategy to facilitate critical thinking and the development of understanding. Effective discussion relies on the successful use of questions. It requires students to listen attentively, accept other people’s opinions and engage in reasoning (Killen, 2016), Discussion highlights the importance of language in shaping understanding and the importance of students being able to represent their ideas clearly to others.

Discussion, when used as a teaching strategy, requires careful planning to ensure there is an academic focus on the outcomes of the lesson.

Group discussions often require rules to be developed, so participants remain on topic and are respectful of opinions presented.

Scaffolding

Scaffolding refers to the process of providing temporary support for students that is slowly reduced as they become more competent in completing tasks for themselves (MacNaughton & Williams, 2009).

In an inquiry approach, scaffolding assists in developing the skills of an inquiry until students have experience in completing projects for themselves.

pg 95

Explicit instruction

The role of explicit instruction within a science inquiry is to provide students with teacher-led input regarding the correct scientific understanding of concepts. Explicit instruction is a teacher-centered approach that usually takes place as part of a whole group session where content is delivered by the teacher in a formal way (Killen, 2016).

…can be an efficient way to introduce new content. …. reduces cognitive overload on students by not requiring them to use their working memory because the information is provided for them (Kirschner, Sweller & Clark, 2006).

One main concern is a reduced opportunity for differentiation for individual students within lessons because prior knowledge is unlikely to be the same for all.

Multimodal representation

documentation of learning ‘provides a written or pictorial account of what has occurred’ (MacNaughton & Williams, 2009. p 296) allowing students to reflect on their learning experience and revisit and consolidate their understanding of the content.

Writing is an important strategy in science because engagement in writing encourages students to think and problem-solve as they record their thinking process.

The type of writing will be determined by the purpose of the task, the skill level of the students and what you want students to achieve.

pg 97

Questions and questioning

high-quality questions promote thinking and can invoke curiosity which young students seem to have in abundance but has been shown to decrease as student’s progress through primary school (Duncan, 2018).

…research [developed by] Chin (2007) identified questioning approaches including Socratic questioning, verbal jigsaw, semantic tapestry and framing to stimulate productive thinking in students and develop discursive skills in teachers.

Group work and cooperative learning

Working as part of a team is important in all occupations, and in science, workplaces employ teams of researchers working together to solve problems. The skills required to engage in teamwork are fostered in schools when students complete group work and team projects in many discipline areas, including science.

According to Killen (2016), group work can shift the focus for students to more active learning and encourage less reliance on the teacher.

Pg 101

Chapter 7: Assessment, learning and Teaching

• Debra Panizzon

Pg 102

…assessment is about gathering and interpreting information about students’ learning (Resnick & Schantz, 2017). In science, student learning, includes scientific understandings, processes, skills, attitudes and values, which is quite different to other discipline areas. Ultimately, assessment in science is about finding out what students know, understand and can actually do across all of these areas (Panizzon & Pegg, 2008).

Cross (1998, p.6) explains…

• Classroom assessment informs teachers how effectively they are teaching and students how effectively they are learning. Through classroom assessment, teachers get continual feedback on whether and how well students are learning and what teachers hope they are teaching. And students are required, through a variety of classroom assessment exercises, to monitor their learning, to reflect on it, and to take corrective action while there is still time left.
  

Thinking of assessment in this manner moves it from being merely a task that occurs at the end of a teaching sequence … to an ongoing process that continually monitors students learning and progress in science.

pg 103

Using assessment for different purposes

Assessment is often categorised as diagnostic, formative, summative or evaluative depending upon it’s intended purposes. In the late 1990s, alternative categories known as assessment for learning, assessment of learning and assessment as learning emerged from the work of Black and Wiliam (1998)