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What comes to mind when I say, " Teachers ought to teach Science constructively?". What does the term "constructive" conjure up?
Primary students enjoy science when it is student-centered, their 'voices' are heard, and there is a focus on investigation (Goodrum, Hackling and Rennie 2001; Logan and Skamp 2008). This interest in science starts at a very young age. Even preschool children's play can be focused on conceptual connections and kindergarten children can hold sophisticated scientific understandings (Fleer 2009; Fleer and Robbins 2003a). If this were the case, then the implication to teachers is to retain that interest by teaching in ways that assist in that learning process.
When teaching science, we should do so in ways that is consistent with what we know about how students learn science. Not doing so, is a disservice to say the least. There isn't a single complete consensus on how students learn science but there is a growing body of evidence that indicates they learn by constructing ideas and developing competencies.
When we talk about students learning science by constructing ideas and competencies we are referring to the broad term to the learning theory called 'constructivism' . It refers to how students make sense or meaning of their world and how it works. Put simply, constructivism is an 'approach to learning that holds that people actively construct or make their own knowledge and that reality is determined by the experiences of the learner (Elliot et al., 2000, p.256). Arends (1998) states that this 'meaning' is influenced by the interaction of prior knowledge and new events. Numerous studies have investigated the effectiveness of teaching science based on constructivist premises. This dynamic blog draws on the many research studies to support this approach to learning science.
A deliberate decision has been made to cite these research studies in order to emphasise that the way in which students learn science is informed by an expanding international research base. This is especially crucial in view that many teachers are not aware of the prevailing literatures on effective teaching and learning of science (Duit, Treatgust and Widodo 2008).
Although effective primary science needs to incorporate hands-on experience as well as students using science processes, numerous research studies have led to the conclusion that conceptual understanding must the bedrock in the learning of science. Basic science concepts and understandings of the nature of science concepts such as evidence, helps to make sense of the world we live in better and is applicable to children of all ages. Developing such competencies allows for better understanding of objects, events and phenomena in their daily lives which in turn leads students appreciating the world in which they live in. Equipping students with these wherewithal is a responsibility that each and every teacher needs to take in helping students develop scientific literacy which is a key goal of science education (Murcia 2009). We want each and every pupil to become scientifically literate. Scientific literacy is an important consideration why we want to teach children science (Rennie 2005). A scientifically literate person (as found in Wikipedia) is defined as someone who has the capacity to :
Understand, experiment, and reason as well as interpret scientific facts and their meaning.
Ask, find, or determine answers to questions derived from curiosity about everyday experiences.
Describe, explain, and predict natural phenomena.
Read articles with understanding of science in the popular press and engage in social conversation about the validity of the conclusions.
Identify scientific issues underlying national and local decisions and express positions that are scientifically and technologically informed.
Evaluate the quality of scientific information on the basis of its source and the methods used to generate it.
Pose and evaluate arguments based on evidence and to apply conclusions from such arguments appropriately.
This is simplified diagrammatically in the chart below.
Figure 1
Scientific literacy as depicted in Figure 1, also refers to socioscientific issues about the environment, health and well-being which are increasingly finding their place in the primary curriculum (Dolan, Nichols and Zeidler 2009; Tytler 2007; Zeidler and Nichols 2009) as responsible citizenship requires participation in resolving such issues.
Implicit in the scientific literary are features such as science processes, skills and attitudes (such as respect for empirical evidence etc). The 'acquisition of scientific concepts' and 'processes' leading to that acquisition are interdependent and the teaching of science needs to integrate them in order to effectively engender a scientifically literate person (Pratt 2009; Traianou 2006; Tytler and Peterson 2003, 2005).
Focusing purely of traditional classroom pedagogy in the teaching of science as a subject matter just so that you are able to complete the syllabus on time constitutes in itself the very antithesis of the pursuit of this endeavor of scientific literacy. Schools need to make this significant shift away from the traditional teacher-centered route learning to one that is student-centered and in particular helping students to develop 'a sense of personal agency in engaging with science' (adapted from Tytler 2007, p.12,20).
THE NATURE OF SCIENCE
So what is the meaning of the 'nature of science (NOS)?'. To explicitly teach NOS, you will need to have some understanding of it yourself. We need to stop and consider it carefully and well because your views on NOS will influence your day-to-day activities even in the way you teach your students such as the words you use when talking with your students (Park and Lee, 2009). The role of the teacher is to impact on making them want to study, in sparking that interest in science, in engendering that attitude towards a scientific literacy and in evoking that sense of personal agency in them.
