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Inquiry good…traditional bad?. Approaches to teaching scientific conceptual knowledge

Inquiry good…traditional bad?. Approaches to teaching scientific conceptual knowledge. Phil Scott CSSME, School of Education University of Leeds p.h.scott@education.leeds.ac.uk The Technion Israel, June 2009. Leeds. Leeds University Campus.

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Inquiry good…traditional bad?. Approaches to teaching scientific conceptual knowledge

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  1. Inquiry good…traditional bad?. Approaches to teaching scientific conceptual knowledge Phil Scott CSSME, School of Education University of Leeds p.h.scott@education.leeds.ac.uk The Technion Israel, June 2009

  2. Leeds

  3. Leeds University Campus

  4. Centre for Studies in Science and Mathematics Education (CSSME) Jaume Ametller Hilary Asoko Indira Banner Jim Donnelly Andy Edwards Edgar Jenkins John Leach Jenny Lewis Jim Ryder Phil Scott

  5. Science Education NOW! A renewed pedagogy for the future of Europe Deductive pedagogical approach Inductive pedagogical approach

  6. Science Education NOW! A renewed pedagogy for the future of Europe The deductive pedagogical approach: …teacher presents the concepts, their logical-deductive implications and gives examples of applications. … ‘top-down transmission’ …children must be able to handle abstract notions, which make it difficult to start teaching science before secondary education. ‘Traditional’ teaching

  7. Science Education NOW! A renewed pedagogy for the future of Europe The inductive pedagogical approach …gives more space to observation, experimentation and the teacher-guided construction by the child of his/her own knowledge. …a ‘bottom-up’ approach eg: working on an hourglass. …inquirybased science education

  8. Science Education NOW! A renewed pedagogy for the future of Europe Call for: ‘A reversal of school-science teaching pedagogy from mainly deductive to inquiry-based methods…provides the means to increase interest in science’

  9. Concerns…and thoughts… • The polarisation of deductive (traditional) and inquiry approaches: creating a dichotomy • Suggested reversal of school science teaching pedagogy • Need to match teaching approaches to teaching purposes • Deductive teaching: boring, teacher- centred, top-down. How can we teach science concepts better?

  10. ESRC Research Project: Dialogic Teaching in Science Classrooms (2005-2007) Professor Neil Mercer: Cambridge University Professor Phil Scott: University of Leeds Jaume Ametller, Leeds Judith Staarman, Cambridge Lyn Dawes, De Montford How does ‘dialogic teaching’ appear in primary and secondary science classrooms?

  11. Teacher and students… Experienced teacher: ‘advanced skills’ 24 students: mixed ability Aged 11-12 years Grade 7 Topic: Forces, GRAVITY

  12. Gravity bashing Teacher: Now! We’re about to have a go at bashing gravity! We’re going to just see who in this room actually is capable of beating the pull of gravity towards the Earth even though they are not connected to it.

  13. Beam hanging: Zoe Teacher: can you feel some tension Zoe? Can you? Nod! You don’t have to speak. Impressive stuff! What’s the gravity doing here Shari? What are her arms doing Jason? 30 seconds! 30 seconds! Outstanding. What’s it feel like Zoe? What’s gravity like? Which way do you slip? Towards? Yeah towards the Earth.

  14. Who’s that Paige? Teacher:who’s that Paige? We’ll try to put some arrows onto there to show what was going on with Paige in terms of forces.

  15. Levi and Ged Teacher: Are you going to put an arrow head on there…?

  16. Teacher: Are you going to put an arrow head on there or?… Levi and Ged Teacher: Are you going to put an arrow head on there…?

  17. Teacher: Are you going to put an arrow head on there or?… Levi and Ged Teacher: Are you going to put an arrow head on there or?… They’re using good words aren’t they? Tension, gravity. Any comments that you’ve got? Alex. Teacher: Any comments? Alex. Alex: They felt tension down their sides as well Teacher: so it’s interesting Alex is talking about where she knows Paige and Zoe felt the tension and they felt it in their arms and you’re saying they also felt it in their sides.

  18. Holly Teacher: Holly what have you got to say? Holly: Gravity pulls down so the arrow pulls down Teacher: so you’ve looked at the direction that the gravity is going. Now you would make a change there and move it. What, the other way? Holly: yeah.

  19. Holly Teacher:And why do you say that? Holly: cos gravity is pulling her down Teacher: to where? Where’s it pulling her? Holly: to the Earth Teacher: ok. So you’d make a change there

  20. Josie Teacher: Come on then Josie, let’s see what’s she’s got to say. Remember to face your audience Josie and tell them as you’re doing it. Nathan! Have you got ants in your pants?

  21. Josie Josie: Well, gravity is pulling down Teacher: yeah. She’s saying gravity is pulling it down.

  22. Josie Josie: Em, you’ve got tension like…she’s got tension like all there → Teacher: in the arms…ok… Josie: And she’s sort of got, I’m not sure what the word for this is, but she’s got like a force in her arms keeping her up.

  23. Josie Teacher:Well we used a word…it was hanging down from that beam over there on top of George’s head and it was in the rope. What word was that Josie: Haaa!! Tension? Teacher: It was tension, wasn’t it? So where will you put that then? Josie: In her hand…

  24. Josie Teacher: Go on then….is that the direction it goes? Is that what you’re trying to show or..? Josie: NO it’s showing where it is. Teacher: This is interesting ….you’ve talked Josie about a tension in her arms keeping her up there. Is there anything else you want to add? Go on then Jason, you show us..

  25. Non-interactive Interactive Focus on science view (Authoritative) Open to different points of view (Dialogic) Communicative approach Presentation ‘Q&A’ Presentation ‘lecture’ Probing Prompting Encouraging Review

  26. Arrows: and the visual grammar of science… 1. Arrows: pointing to a location: ‘labelling function’ ‘EVERYDAY FUNCTION’ 2. Arrows: signifying action: the size and direction of a force ‘SCIENTIFIC FUNCTION’ Kress and Van Leeuwen, 1998

  27. 3 groups so far…. Teacher:Now, I’ve listened to 3 groups so far and I think I’m making sense of what you’re getting and what you’re not getting….

  28. 3 groups so far…. None of these diagrams explain to me why Paige wasn’t falling off the beam…I know she did eventually and gravity beat her. But for 31 seconds she beat gravity.

  29. 3 groups so far…. And at the moment there’s nothing on this diagram that tells me that that force down is being matched by something going somewhere else…

  30. Which way it is and how big it is… Teacher: Now the way everybody’s drawn their arrows so far, they’re using an arrow as a way of showing where the force is here [with tension arrows] and here [with gravity arrow], they’re doing it right they’re showing which way the force goes and how big it is…

  31. Non-interactive dialogic approach ‘Meaning making is like an electric spark that occurs only when two different terminals are hooked together’ (Voloshinov) Here the teacher: …holds up the ‘two terminals’ for scrutiny by the students….drawing attention to the emerging dialogic space…

  32. Wegerif (2007) Dialogic education and technology: Expanding the space of learning Dialogic Space ‘Dialogic space opens up when two or more perspectives are held together in tension’ ‘Meaning arises out of, and depends upon, an original ‘creative difference’ or ‘opening’ that could be thought of as the opening of a dialogue’. ‘Creating a dialogic space is therefore central to a pedagogy ‘for thinking, creativity and learning to learn…’

  33. A ‘turning point’ dialogicexploration of everyday and scientific views Requires resolution through… authoritativeguidance/statements by the teacher

  34. The relationship between dialogic and authoritative approaches dialogicexploration of everyday and scientific views Requires resolution through… demand… authoritativeguidance/statements by the teacher …each approach contains the ‘seed’ of the other Scott, Aguiar, Mortimer, 2006

  35. …put a tension arrow on here… Teacher:Now we should be able to put a tension arrow on here…in the right place. What do you think Holly?→Now then, this is very interesting. Tell us what you’ve done.

  36. Tension…moving up her arms Holly: Because she’s pulling the tension in her arms is moving up her arms…

  37. Tension…moving up her arms Teacher: Yeah, you can feel it can’t you. → Still a bit of work to do on this. I reckon we’ve got the right direction. We haven’t quite got the right place. And we haven’t quite got that that matches that…..

  38. Why this activity? • Strengthens the idea of the Earth pulling…by getting the pupils ‘away’ from the surface. • Offers a system of balancing forces acting on the ‘body’: pull of Earth down equal to tension in arms up. • Physical engagement of pupils • Emotional engagement…via competition • A memorable event…a point of reference …a sense of theatre • Better than working on an hour glass?

  39. Promoting meaningful learning of conceptual networks: • Making links between ideas and phenomena: the hanging ‘mass’ • Differentiatingbetween ideas: force ‘vector’ convention and labelling arrows • Introducingnew ideas: action at a distance • Developing ideas in novel contexts: ‘gravity bashing’

  40. Moving between communicative approaches The DIALOGIC tendency: allowing time and space for pupil thinking • Working in pairs/groups • Pupils making explicit and elaborating upon their ideas; commenting on others’ ideas… The AUTHORITATIVE tendency: controlling and shaping the flow of ideas • Introducing key terms; repeating key ideas; synthesising and summarising… Negotiating TURNING POINTS: • Opening up and closing down the discourse…

  41. Pedagogical skills • Sustaining a line of talking and thinking as ideas are introduced, reviewed, consolidated in a cumulative process involving temporal links • Monitoring and keeping track of student understandings • Progressing from phenomenon to description to explanation • Selecting activities carefully to develop the science story

  42. Pedagogical skills: affective sensitivity • Systematicallyencouraging participation of all members of class • Offering praise • Modelling enthusiasm • Remembering individual pupil’s ideas and arguments…and linking to their name • Creating appropriate working environments: own space…sat round front • Being consistent, warm and in control

  43. Planning teaching to support meaningful learning of science Working on knowledge Other concepts Science concept Everyday view Pattern of discourse Teaching activity Extending contexts Communicative approach Learning demand Auth. Dial. Teaching purposes Pedagogical interventions

  44. How to characterise this teaching…? Top-down transmission? Non-motivational: boring? Passive engagement of pupils ? Abstract ideas?

  45. A renewed pedagogy for the future of Europe Dialogic pedagogical approach Traditional science teaching pedagogical purposes Inquiry pedagogical approach Inquiry pedagogical approach Extended repertoire pedagogy

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