Effective%20science%20teaching%20and%20learning%20-%20Implications%20for%20teaching%20Physics

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Effective science teaching and learning -
Implications for teaching Physics

• Russell Tytler
• Deakin University

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A Research into student conceptions

• Findings concerning student conceptions,
  especially for Physics
• The link with constructivist perspectives
• Conceptual change teaching approaches and some
  examples
• Social constructivist perspectives

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B Wider perspectives on teaching and learning
science

• Longitudinal research on student attitudes to
  science, over the secondary school years.
• Research into effective teaching and learning in
  science The SIS Components

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Research into student conceptions

• Students come into our classes with a range of
  prior ideas or conceptions of the physical world.
  They are not empty vessels
• Many of these conceptions differ in important
  ways from the view of the world scientists have
  constructed. Many are similar to views scientists
  held in previous eras
• Students from different countries and cultures
  have been found to have very similar prior ideas.
  Everyday language often supports these views of
  the world and
• These conceptions in many cases form useful prior
  knowledge that a teacher can build on. In many
  cases, however, students alternative conceptions
  have proved surprisingly difficult to shift, and
  can offer a serious barrier to effective teaching.

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Some examples

• Students hold theories of motion similar to
  earlier impetus theories, where force is a
  property of an object associated with motion,
  rather than something that acts on them
  externally
• Students think of the eye as active in seeing
  rather than as a receptor of light, they think of
  light as an effect rather than as an entity
  that travels, and they think of color as the
  property of objects rather than dependent on the
  light environment. They have a range of mental
  models of light.
• Students have a historical view of substances
  in chemical change, thinking for instance that
  the ash left over from burning paper, is simply
  the paper but in a changed form, or is something
  that was trapped in the paper and is now the
  residue

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• Students have a variety of models of current
  electricity, confusing current with energy in
  terms of what is used up in devices, or
  thinking of current as coming out both ends of a
  battery and clashing to cause light in a globe.
• Students believe that heat is a substance, rather
  than a form of energy, and run the concepts of
  temperature and heat together, thinking for
  instance that if a hot cup of coffee is divided,
  the temperature is halved. These views also echo
  historical theories
• Students have a range of mental models of the
  earth in space, ranging from flatness, to hybrid
  models which combine a spherical earth with an
  absolute sense of up-down. They will continue
  to believe that summer and winter are caused by
  varying distance of the earth from the sun.

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A personal constructivist view of learning

• Learning involves the construction of meaning.
  Meanings constructed by students from what they
  see or hear may be different to those intended,
  and are influenced by prior knowledge.
• The construction of meaning is a continuous and
  active process. Children, from when they are
  born, struggle to construct meaning about their
  world.
• There are identifiable patterns in the types of
  understandings students construct, due to shared
  experiences with the world, and due to cultural
  influences through language.
• Knowledge promoted in the science classroom is
  evaluated, and may be accepted, accepted in a
  limited context only, or rejected.
• Learners have the final responsibility for their
  own learning.

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Social constructivist perspectives

• Learning is a social or cultural phenomenon,
• Attention is shifted to the social processes
  operating in the classroom by which a teacher
  promotes a discourse community.
• The aim of science or mathematics education
  becomes the establishment within the class of
  shared meanings
• The teacher represents the very powerful
  discourses of the scientific culture, and
  scientific ways of viewing and dealing with the
  world.

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Constructivist / Conceptual Change teaching
approaches

• Lawsons learning cycle
• The Generative model
• The interactive approach
• The 5 Es model
• Japanese lesson plans
• Most of these models involve exploring and
  challenging students prior ideas

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C/CC approaches
Phase Description Example (Peter Hubber)
1. Preparation and planning The teacher clarifies for him or herself the focus of the sequence. Materials are gathered and activities planned. Assessment is planned. Clarify light concepts eg. Each point on a luminous object emits light in all directions. All the light from each point on an object that passes through a lens, or reflects off a mirror, contributes to the formation of a corresponding image point.
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Phase 2. Exploration and clarification
What are the students views? The teacher introduces activities to probe student conceptions. Questioning is an important tool. Examples of exploratory activities ?Cartoons that pose problem situations, such as asking which of a light or a loaded skateboard will roll faster down a slope. ?Scenarios in which students express different views. ?A round robin of activities relating to the same idea, such as a set of animal skeletons or skulls that elicit student ideas about adaptation. The teacher clarifies just what the range of student views are, and what the differences entail. Post box sample questions Draw arrows to show how light from the sun helps the student to see the tree. Can a cat or owl see a mouse in a room where there was no light? Why do you think this? How far does light travels from a glowbug (a) During the night? (b) During the day?
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Phase 3. Challenge
Students engage with activities designed to challenge their intuitive views. Examples ?Predict observe explain sequences. ?Open exploration of intriguing items such as a bird feeder, a pendulum, a candle burning under a glass jar, balance toys. ?Challenge tasks such as asking students to light a globe using one wire and a battery In interpretive discussion the teacher ensures all views are considered. It is important not to force premature closure and to allow students room to express and explore ideas. The teacher presents the evidence from the scientists' view. Experiments Can you feel a stare? controlled experiment. Using a darkroom to explore can you see in total dark ?
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Phase 4. Investigation and exploration
The class tests the validity of different answers, including the science view, by seeking evidence, or students carry out investigations to explore their questions. A series of structured explorations and discussions the eyes as receptors, ideas about dim objects, lasers shone onto white paper .
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Phase 5. Application and extension
The science ideas are established and extended. There may be discussion and debate concerning the merits of the science view. Further activities
Phase 6. Reflection and revisiting
Students are encouraged to evaluate their learning by comparing their ideas with their earlier view and to reflect on the strategies they used to learn supporting metacognition. Discussion of what changes had occurred in student views of vision and light.
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General Principles

• Provide opportunities for students to make their
  own ideas explicit Use students' own language,
  give them opportunities to share ideas, and
  encourage clarification of ideas
• Provide experiences which relate to students'
  prior ideas ('start from where students are at')
  Encourage students to extend their knowledge of
  phenomena, provide opportunities for them to make
  links between phenomena, and provide experiences
  which challenge their ideas.
• Give opportunities for students to think about
  experiences Provide opportunities for
  imaginative thinking, encourage reflection on
  alternative models and theories

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• Give opportunities for students to try out new
  ideas Allow students to gain confidence in
  trying out new ideas in a variety of contexts,
  both familiar and new. Use a variety of
  teaching/learning strategies.
• Encourage students to reflect on changes to their
  ideas Encourage students to be aware of advances
  in their thinking and provide opportunities for
  them to identify changes in their ideas
• Provide a supportive learning environment
  Encourage students to put forward their own ideas
  and to listen to each other. Avoid always
  creating the impression that there is only one
  'right answer'.

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The nature of classroom discourse

• Rusting nail task - students had put nails in
  different places.
• Teacher.. So - what 1 want to do - put on the
  board, is perhaps put down your ideas of what it
  was about the places that made your nail go
  rusty. What do you think it was - thinking about
  the places - that made your nail go rusty?...
• Fiona Condensation might.
• Teacher Condensation - right writes it on the
  chalk board. Dawn? Dawn.. Could it be like -
  climate like - if it's hot or cold?
• Teacher Hot or cold. Do some other people think
  that hot or cold might be something significant,
  in making something go rusty? Hot or cold - is
  that an idea - yeah? Hot. Which? Both of them or
  just one? Dawn.. Both
• Teacher Haley's saying perhaps cold.

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Dialogic discourse

• Is multi-voiced in that it involves a number of
  different speakers and includes references to
  other students' ideas.
• The teacher invites ideas through open questions
  and attempts to clarify meanings through asking
  follow-up questions.
• The students make spontaneous contributions to
  the discourse and often articulate their ideas in
  a tentative, provisional way rather than present
  them as 'finished thoughts'.
• Overlap of contributions, abbreviated utterances
  and interanimation of ideas between teacher and
  students.
• Ideas are offered and received as 'thinking
  devices' rather than as 'fixed truths'.

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Gathering ideas together

• Teacher Right we've got a lot of things at the
  top here. Now - what I'd like you to do first of
  all is to look at these suggestions - because -
  is there anything that some of them actually have
  in common - have we actually repeated ourselves
  with any of the things that we've got on the
  board at the moment? ... Kevin, first of all then
  - what d'you think we've repeated ourselves with?
  Kevin Erm -rain, damp ... then cold. Teacher
  Rain, damp.
• When Kevin suggests 'rain, damp ... then cold'
  Lynne ignores 'cold' and selects rain and damp'
  a number of students call out 'and cold, and
  condensation' and Lynne selects from these
  responses 'condensation'. At this point moisture,
  condensation, rain, damp, and wet are all
  underlined on the board and Lynne asks what they
  have in common. She is searching for the term
  'water'.

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• Teacher ... what have we got in common perhaps
  with all the things we've underlined. What is it
  Kevin? Kevin They're all wet.
• Teacher Well - they're all wet - so what do we
  mean by wet then? Is there something else about
  wet?
• Students No - wet other mutters Teacher What
  is wet perhaps?
• Student chorus Water!! laughter
• Teacher Water? So is that the key thing? Ketan
  what do you think? Is water the key thing here
  that's linking all of these... Ketan Yes.
• Teacher You've said rain, damp, moisture, wet,
  oh ... condensation and what I'm asking you is
  'what do you mean by that?' So what is the common
  link perhaps? Ketan S'all different forms of
  water.
• Teacher Water. Yeah? Anyone disagree with that?
  That sound reasonable? OK, so we've all of those
  things we can link up and say that water is
  important.

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Authoritative discourse

• In this brief sequence the teacher has the clear
  aim of reformulating condensation', moisture'
  and the other terms as 'water'. In a bid to
  achieve this aim, the teacher selects from
  student responses poses a series of
  instructional questions initiates a confirmatory
  exchange with a student. Each of these
  interventions draws heavily upon the teacher's
  authority and it is the teacher who dominates the
  discourse the students' responses tend to be in
  single words.

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Turning students on to PhysicsHow do we do this?
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A recent Swedish study

• Britt Lindahl in 2003 completed a longitudinal 4
  year study of student responses to their
  secondary school subjects, from the time they
  finished primary school to when they chose their
  senior subjects.
• She followed 80 students using yearly interviews,
  and questionnaires, and test results.
• What follows are quotes and paraphrases of her
  findings.

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• They are very disappointed the first year at
  lower secondary when they meet science teaching
  where they are supposed to sit still and listen,
  copy the blackboard and fill in stencils.
• As they have little experiences of physics and
  chemistry from lower grades they say they
  perceive it is so new, so strange, so difficult
  and so serious all at once. They compare with
  other subjects such as English and geography
  which started like a game and the difficulties
  have come gradually.
• As they experience science as difficult, they
  also think they are not good in the subject, and
  then it becomes much more difficult and so on.
  This can be the beginning of a negative spiral
  between attitudes and behaviour which can be
  difficult to break.

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Student sense of control

• They perceive both physics and chemistry as
  authoritarian subjects with the message it is
  like this, learn it because it is right, here is
  nothing to discuss.
• They also perceive all lessons are so
  predictable first the teacher talks, then the
  pupils work. When analysing all the interviews it
  is so obvious to me that science teaching has to
  be more varied. Some pupils like one way of
  working, others like other ways, but all dislike
  doing it the same way all the time.
• Sometimes they all want to discuss, work together
  in groups, and to pose and work with questions
  from their own area of interest. In other words,
  they want to have more influence on their
  learning like they have in other subjects.

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Sense of where physics can be used professionally

• Before the interviews in Grade 9, I read all
  transcriptions and the pupils were also allowed
  listen to this part of earlier interviews. Both I
  and also the pupils were very astonished that
  their dreams from Grade 5 or 6 have been more or
  less repeated every year. If so many decide their
  future so early and science is so unfamiliar to
  them, perhaps it is not strange that they do not
  choose science. Another problem is that they do
  not know very much about different professions
  within science. When talking about chemistry most
  of pupils can only give me two reasons for
  learning it. The first is to get good marks and
  the second is to become a chemistry teacher.

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Two cases

• Anja .. is always discussing ideas. Her parents
  are scientists and brother and sister too. She
  has from the beginning told me that her dream is
  to be a doctor, and therefore she will choose
  science for upper secondary school. But when I
  met her in Grade 8, she told me she had changed
  her mind. Her dream was still to be a doctor but
  she could not think of taking science so it would
  be impossible. She hates science and the way it
  is taught. She said she likes to discuss and she
  wants to learn more about human beings, not about
  dead things.
• Erik is a calm and confident boy. First time I
  met his class in Grade 5, his teacher told me
  that this boy was one of the most brilliant
  pupils in mathematics he ever had met. His next
  teacher in mathematics told me the same. But
  Eriks favorite subjects are history, English and
  sports. He thinks science in school is boring but
  he likes to watch scientific programs on TV.

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Findings

• It is not the content that is the major problem
  it is more the way it is presented in school.
• Even the safe bets fail. For a long time we
  have known that the girls are critical of science
  teaching but what is clear in this study is that
  the boys are as critical as the girls. The same
  thing is true of the well educated parents
  children.
• The final finding is about the importance of
  understanding. The pupils complain about not
  understanding but they are referring to another
  type of understanding than the one of formal
  concepts.

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Some questions

• How do we enlist students to physics?
• How do we provide an environment that is
  responsive to students interests and needs?
• What can we offer students, through Physics, that
  will be of ongoing benefit?

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The SIS components

• 1. The learning environment encourages active
  engagement with ideas and evidence
• 2. Students are challenged to develop meaningful
  understandings
• 3. Science is linked with students lives and
  interests
• 4. Students individual learning needs are
  catered for
• 5. Assessment is embedded within the science
  learning strategy
• 6. The nature of science is represented in its
  various aspects
• 7. The classroom is linked with the broader
  community
• 8. Learning technologies are exploited for their
  learning potentialities

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Some critical elements

• 1. Encouraging students to actively engage with
  ideas and evidence
• 1.1 Students are encouraged and supported to
  express their ideas, and question evidence
• 1.2 Student input (questions, ideas and
  expressions of interest) influences the course of
  lessons
• 1.3 Students are encouraged and supported to take
  some responsibility for the design, conduct and
  analysis of science investigations
• 2. Challenging students to develop meaningful
  understandings
• 2.3 Students are challenged to develop
  divergent/lateral thinking to respond to
  science-based problems

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• 3. Linking science with students lives and
  interests
• Students interests and concerns (eg. Sport and
  recreation, youth media) provide the context for
  learning science ideas
• 4. Catering for individual students learning
  needs
• Teachers monitor and respond strategically to
  students range of abilities and learning needs
  and preferences
• 5. Embedding assessment within the science
  learning strategy
• 5.2 A range of styles of assessment tasks is used
  to reflect different aspects of science and types
  of understanding
• 5.2.1 A range of assessment types is used
• 5.2.2 Different levels of science knowledge are
  assessed (information, comprehension,
  application)
• 5.2.3 Different aspects of the nature of science
  are assessed (knowledge, process, technology,
  social links)

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• 6. Representing the nature of science in its
  different aspects
• 6.1 Science knowledge and investigative processes
  are richly represented
• 6.2 Links are made between science, and social
  and personal issues
• 6.3 Science ideas and processes are linked to
  technologies and professions
• 7. Linking science with the broader community
• Science activities link beyond the classroom

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To sum up

• There are many elements of research that call for
  a richer view of science teaching and learning
• The findings from this disparate research point
  in quite compatible directions
• If we want to attract students into Physics, and
  support them to learn effectively, teachers of
  Physics need to implement these principles from
  7-12