A constructivist approach to science teaching

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A constructivist approach to science teaching

• Elicitation - starts from the naive conceptions
  of learners.
• Intervention.
• Reformulation.
• Evaluation.

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Ross, K., Lakin, E. and Callaghan, P. 2004
Teaching Secondary Science (second edition)
London David Fulton chapter 7. Fig 7.1
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• Ross, K., Lakin, E. and Callaghan, P. 2004
  Teaching Secondary Science (second edition)
  London David Fulton chapter 7. Fig 7.2

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• Ross, K., Lakin, E. and Callaghan, P. 2004
  Teaching Secondary Science (second edition)
  London David Fulton chapter 7. Fig 7.3

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Impact and Elicitation

• Come into the class carrying two ice hands

If you put a glove on one ice hand, will that
make the ice melt slower, faster or make no
difference?
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Elicitation - Tell each Other

• Tell each other
• Compared with the unwrapped ice hand,
• will the wrapped ice
• melt faster?
• melt at the same rate?
• melt more slowly?
• Explain why you think this way.

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Tell each other why it is better than Hands up
(and why it sometimes isnt)

• all think it out for themselves
• rehearse a verbal response without making a fool
  or exhibition of themselves.
• Those without an answer hear one from their
  neighbour (instead of silence)
• pupils who were not asked say to themselves yes
  - thats what I said, or I didnt think that.
• Chaos?

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Insulation means making you warm
Ross, K., Brenda Grapples with the Properties of
a mern p. 80 in Littledyke, M., and Huxford, L.
(1998) Teaching the Primary Curriculum for
Constructive Learning London David Fulton

• A true story The water in the tank of the toilet
  had frozen. Later that day someone had put a
  blanket round the ice-filled tank. Will that make
  it easier or harder for the ice to melt.?

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Ice Cream Elicitation

• How do you keep things warm when youve got a
  ......?

You wrap them in towels and things like that /
....?.... / newspapers
Now how does the newspaper keep things warm?
Whats the things it keeps warm?

• Fish and chips

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• So if you wrap fish chips up in newspaper and
  you bring it home its warm when you get home is
  it?

• yes / yes

• What about ice cream?

• ... ? ... / it melts

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• If you wrapped it up in some newspaper how would
  that help it to melt?

.... .... / It would insulate it / it would make
it warm
Where would the warmth come from
from the air trapped inside ..
but the air might get cold?
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Insulate means

• To the children - to make hot

To the scientist - prevent flow of heat energy.
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Intervention

• Aim is to challenge (or support) their views
• Get each group of pupils to set up some ice -
  wrapped and unwrapped.

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Re-construction and Application

• the blanket material prevents heat from flowing
• oven gloves, gloves for making snowballs
• Your bed, covered in a blanket all day is not
  warm when you get in at night
• cool boxes used to keep things hot
• fridges and ovens are lagged.

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The Candle
To hold what is
What is the
burning
function of

the wick?
To slow the
rate of burning

What is the
To burn - it's
function of
the actual fuel
the wax?
Ross, K., Lakin, E. and Callaghan, P. 2004
Teaching Secondary Science (second edition)
London David Fulton chapter 5. Fig 5.3
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Wax is Fireproof

• What is burning?

The wick /
What did you say, Sarah?

• The wax and the wick / both are burning

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yes and when they both burn up it creates a fume

• Both are burning?

You said just now that the wax did not burn
It doesnt burn fastit melts it / melts it /
otherwise if it burns itd be.. / yes, but if it
did it would all flame up the wax stops it from
burning up...
the only way it can get past is by melting it /
is by melting it / it doesnt burn fast then it
just melts it wont catch alight its fireproof
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• So wax is fireproof is it?

well it melts / it melts / doesnt flame up /
cos the flame goes up not down so thats why if
you held a bit of candle there to side of
candle the flame would go up the side of the wax
and melt it
So what is the purpose of the wax?
to stop it burning
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Conception

• Concepts are products of existing ideas stored in
  our brains and the raw data we receive through
  our senses
• When we experience blankets keeping us warm, we
  imagine the warmth coming from the blanket
• ... so we assume that wrapped ice will also melt.

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From Ross, K., Brenda Grapples with the
Properties of a mern p. 71 fig 6.2 in
Littledyke, M., and Huxford, L. (1998) Teaching
the Primary Curriculum for Constructive Learning
London David Fulton
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Temperature
i. when water at 600C in a jar is shared between
two cups
       
ii. when the water from the two cups are mixed
from Figure 4.2 of Stavey, R. and Berkovitz, B.
(1980) Cognitive conflict as the basis for
teaching cognitive aspects of the concept of
temperature. Science Education 64 (5) 679-92 )
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View graph
CDrom
Original figure by Keith Ross
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Figure 4.7 Graph showing the percentage of survey
pupils who conserved mass/weight of sugar when it
dissolved (from Holding, B. Unpublished PhD
thesis University of Leeds School of Education
1987)
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CDrom

• Mass of gas (CD and demo)
• Exhaust gas question (CD)
• CD available from
• www.glos.ac.uk/science-issues

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Constructivism and Planet care

• Our use of resources is leading to
• depletion of supplies of raw material
• consequent pollution of land sea and air
• resources could come from anywhere
• and could be burnt away or left to decay into
  thin air
• It is not a sound approach to environmental
  issues to have to tell people what to do to be
  green.

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Try making the bulb light using only one wire and
the cell
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Electricity - Progression in children's ideas

• Children begin with a source-sink model for the
  flow of electricity

From Littledyke et al (2004) Teaching Primary
Science. Cheltenham University of Gloucestershire
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Two meanings of electricity

• Electrical energy that is transferred
• Electric current that flows round a complete
  circuit
• The CD and workbook tackle this conceptual
  problem
• lets see

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Smartie Model

• Keith Ross original drawing

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Which are animals?

• Cow
• Boy
• Whale
• Spider
• Worm

To you? To a 6 year old? To a Y7?
Tell each other
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• Osborne, R. and Freyburg, P. Learning in Science.
  Aukland Heinemann chapter 3. Fig 3.2

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Figure 4.4 How does the light and our eyes help
us see? (From Guesne, E. 1985 Light in Driver,
R et al (eds) (1985) Childrens Ideas in
Science, Milton Keynes Open University Press. )
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The eyes as receptors of light
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Using light to see with
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The children are standing on the Earth. They are
all holding stones. They let go of them. Draw
lines to show where they all go.
Nussbaum, J. (1985) The Earth as a Cosmic Body
in Driver, R et al (eds) (1985)Childrens Ideas
in Science, Milton Keynes Open University Press.
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Nussbaum, J. (1985) The Earth as a Cosmic Body
in Driver, R et al (eds) (1985)Childrens Ideas
in Science, Milton Keynes Open University Press.
Fig 9.10 page 182

• The Earth is round

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• Childrens notion of up and down

Nussbaum, J. (1985) The Earth as a Cosmic Body
in Driver, R et al (eds) (1985)Childrens Ideas
in Science, Milton Keynes Open University Press.
Fig 9.9 p 180
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What are the forces acting on a ball thrown
upwards?  
At the top
Push from hand
Push from hand
Half-way up
Half-way down
Gravity
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Finding out childrens ideas

• TPS page P14
• Interview, not teach
• Ask for reasons
• Be interested but supply no right answers

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The misty mountain of science

• and the valley where we live with our everyday
  ideas
• Ref Ross, K., Brenda Grapples with the
  Properties of a mern p. 80 in Littledyke, M.,
  and Huxford, L. (1998) Teaching the Primary
  Curriculum for Constructive Learning London
  David Fulton

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Telling children scientific ideas.

• This is like landing them on a mountain top in
  the mist, with no idea where they are
• It will be isolated knowledge, and likely to be
  forgotten in a few years.

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Progressive, child-centred or discovery methods

• letting them play in the valleys. They never see
  the mountain tops which are covered in mist.

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Constructivist approaches to learning

• take childrens existing ideas into account -
  their view of their valley of understanding
• children can then be led up the mountain, in
  sight of the valley below, and now are able to
  see how the whole landscape links up and how
  limited their existing view was

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Science

• Not learnt by heart
• A set of ideas and models which attempt to
  explain natural phenomena.

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The real world helps us make sense of the way it
works

• Would we avoid entering a butchers shop, despite
  the notice No animals allowed?
• Would we refrain from saying I need some warmer
  clothes for Christmas?