Learning with meaning

1. Learning with meaning Download P4.2_2.0c Learning with MeaningThis document can be freely copied and amended if used for educational purposes. It must not be used for commercial gain. The author and web source must be acknowledged whether used as it stands or whether adapted in any way. Authored by Keith Ross, University of Gloucestershire accessed from www.scitutors.org.uk date created September 2008

2. Brenda Grapples with the Properties of a Mern Ross, K. A. (1998) Brenda Grapples with the Properties of a Mern. Chapter 6 in Littledyke, M. and Huxford L., Teaching the Primary Curriculum for Constructive Learning London: David Fulton

3. Minimum entitlement Brenda and Friends (West 1984) was published several years before the first science National Curriculum, as part of the secondary science curriculum review. It took a refreshing look at what a child was entitled to after they had followed a course of science in school……

4. Here is an extract from ‘Brenda and Friends’ from the section on Energy:

5. ... Rebecca appreciates that the sun is the ultimate source of nearly all the Earth’s energy and when she visited relatives in Israel she saw that by means of solar cells .... the sun’s radiant energy can be converted into electrical energy for domestic needs. By experimenting with different conditions in primary school when growing bean shoots in jam jars, Rebecca knows that sunlight is needed to make plants grow .... (and) that animals cannot make their own food but have to eat other animals or plants for this purpose.

6. ... Rebecca found it very interesting when, in her history studies, the class considered how the energy requirements of the average family home in the Western World in the 1980s compared with 100 years ago, but she was disturbed at the thought that not only has the energy consumption per person in the home increased but that the world population has increased too ... From Geography lessons Rebecca is aware that not only does energy consumption vary very considerably between nations but that non-renewable energy sources are very varied in their distribution ... she appreciates that, as a citizen of the world, she must exercise responsibility ... (pp. 60-2)

7. ‘Pupils should be taught ...’? Present national entitlement is a recipe for SATs success but does it lead to understanding? Children must build the scientific ideas they meet in school into a meaningful, growing and evolving framework. Try to read the passage and then answer the question that follows:

8. Markobine gando ‘When an orbal of quant undual to the markobine bosal passes through a dovern mern it is deranted so as to cosat to a bart on the bosal called the markobine gando’ ‘What happens to the deranted orbal when it passes through a dovern mern?’ (Note – tutors please read the attached notes which can be accessed in ‘Normal’ view)

9. Markobine gando ‘it cosats to a bart on the bosal called the markobine gando’ ‘When an orbal of quant undual to the markobine bosal passes through a dovern mern it is deranted so as to cosat to a bart on the bosal called the markobine gando’

10. The misty mountains of science • and the valley where we live with our everyday ideas I live down there

11. 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.

12. Progressive, child-centred or discovery methods • letting them play in the valleys. They never see the mountain tops which are covered in mist.

13. Constructivist approaches to learning • take children’s 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

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

15. A Constructivist Approach A constructivist approach to science teaching • Elicitation - start from the naive conceptions or experiences of learners. • Intervention • Reformulation • Evaluation.

16. Constructivist approaches to learning take children’s existing ideas into account - their view of their valley of understanding (Brenda) 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 (Grappling with a mern)