AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Michele M. Crowl for the degree of Master of Science in Science Education presented on April 23, 2010. Title: Friends and Family Assignments: One Strategy for Connecting the Classroom with the Real World Abstract approved: Emily H. van Zee This study addressed the following question: “How does facilitating informal explorations with friends and family outside of a science course help students who are enrolled in the course?” The context was a physics course for prospective elementary and middle school teachers. This was a qualitative study that analyzed student responses to homework assignments and interview questions. Three general assertions emerged from analysis of what happened when students shared their science learning with friends and family members. Friends and family assignments: helped students become less afraid of science and more confident in their abilities to learn and teach it, enhanced science learning, and provided experiences that students felt would benefit them in their teaching careers. The six strands put forth by the 2009 National Research Council report, Learning Science in Informal Environments, also provided a framework for analyzing the responses. The responses demonstrated aspects of all six strands. These results suggest that infusing such friends and family assignments into any science course can provide learners with new ways to understand, remember, and use concepts, explanations, and facts related to science. ©Copyright by Michele M. Crowl April 23, 2010 All Rights Reserved
Friends and Family Assignments: One Strategy for Connecting the Classroom with the Real World by Michele M. Crowl A THESIS submitted to Oregon State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science Presented April 23, 2010 Commencement June 2010 Master of Science thesis of Michele M. Crowl presented on April 23, 2010. APPROVED: Major Professor, representing Science Education Chair of the Department of Science and Math Education Dean of the Graduate School I understand that my thesis will become part of the permanent collection of Oregon State University libraries. My signature below authorizes release of my thesis to any reader upon request. Michele M. Crowl, Author ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my sincere appreciation to everyone who helped me throughout my graduate career. I would like to acknowledge my thesis committee for their guidance, support, and insight throughout the analysis and writing process. I would especially like to thank my advisor, Dr. Emily van Zee, for always being supportive and having an enormous amount of confidence in my abilities as a graduate student and a future professional; and, Dr. Larry Enochs for supplying my endless questions with endless resources and new ways of thinking about them. I also would like to thank Dr. Marilyn Read and Dr. David Roundy for their encouragement. I deeply appreciate the support that Dr. Lynn Dierking has provided during my graduate studies. I would like to extend my gratitude and respect for the graduate students and faculty of the Department of Science and Mathematics Education. Many have helped me think through ideas and offered great advice. I look forward to working with you again in the future. Finally, I would like to thank my friends and family who are scattered across this great planet. I could not have done this without your support and kind words. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Introduction...................................................................................................... 1 Manuscript 1: Outside of the Box: Motivation for Engaging Friends and Family in College Science Assignments ........................... 5 Abstract ................................................................................................ 6 Context ................................................................................................. 7 Friends and Family Assignments........................................................... 8 An Example of Exploring with Friends and Family ................................ 12 Interpretation of Responses to Friends and Family Assignments .................................................................. 14 Issues to Consider When Implementing Friends and Family Assignments ...................................................... 18 Conclusion ............................................................................................ 19 References ............................................................................................ 21 Manuscript 2: Encouraging Prospective Teachers to Engage Friends and Family in Exploring Physical Phenomena .............. 23 Abstract ................................................................................................ 24 Background........................................................................................... 25 Research Questions .............................................................................. 31 Methodology ........................................................................................ 31 Description of Physics Course............................................................... 33 Description of Friends and Family Assignments ................................... 34 Interpretation ....................................................................................... 37 Discussion ............................................................................................. 51 TABLE OF CONTENTS (Continued) Page Limitations ............................................................................................ 55 Implications .......................................................................................... 55 References ............................................................................................ 56 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 61 Bibliography...................................................................................................... 62 Appendices Appendix A: Consent Form ................................................................... 64 Appendix B: Friends and Family Assignments ...................................... 71 Appendix C: Additional Analysis ........................................................... 81 Table LIST OF TABLES Manuscript 1: Outside of the Box: Motivation for Engaging Friends and Family in College Science Assignments Page 1. Example Friends and Family Assignments .................................................... 8 Manuscript 2: Encouraging Prospective Teachers to Engage Friends and Family in Exploring Physical Phenomena 1. Strands of Science Learning.......................................................................... 27 2. Interpretation of One Student Response ..................................................... 40 Friends and Family Assignments: One Strategy for Connecting the Classroom with the Real World INTRODUCTION The purpose of most traditional college physics courses is to prepare and inform future scientists and engineers. Additionally, physics faculty typically do not design these courses with elementary and middle school teachers in mind. However, there is a need for physics courses specially designed for teachers, both for undergraduate students planning to enter the teaching profession and for practicing teachers already in the field (McDermott, 1990). A large body of research supports the idea of apprenticeships as effective ways of learning how to play an active role in a community of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Wenger, 1999). Unfortunately, many prospective teachers spend little time during their college years as apprentices of active learning; the majority of their time is spent passively learning in lecture courses. This thesis, however, examines a model of physics instruction that engages prospective teachers in learning by ‘doing science’ and then quickly encourages them to use these experiences to progress naturally into facilitating such learning themselves. In this study, I developed, implemented, and documented a strategy in a college physics course for prospective teachers that has had positive influences on the ways the participants think about learning and teaching. The strategy comes in the form of homework assignments that ask the prospective teachers to talk with people outside of class about their learning. We call them “friends and family assignments” because the prospective teachers are encouraged to choose people they know and are comfortable talking with, to engage in content that they may or may not be confident understanding. The friends and family assignments included engaging prior knowledge, interviewing, exploring physical 2 phenomena, and analyzing websites. The study was conducted in the context of an investigation of ways to integrate physics and literacy learning in a physics course for prospective elementary and middle school teachers (Jansen, van Zee & Winograd, 2006). The friends and family assignments were a form of ‘free writing’ in which students decided how and what to write in a familiar context. This study addressed the following question: “How does facilitating informal explorations with friends and family outside of a science course help the prospective teachers enrolled in the course?” When conducting interviews or explorations with friends or family, there are opportunities for questions to naturally occur. These experiences are necessary because they force the prospective teachers to assess the learning of others by listening and interpreting what is said and to reason out the answer in a way that may not have been experienced in class. Over time, such experiences can create adaptive learners, who are able to perform effectively in many situations (Resnick, 1987). Opportunity to respond in “real time” is important so one can respond in the same context that produced the situation (Brown, Collins & Duguid, 1989). Because these experiences outside of class are facilitated with friends and family, learning to teach science is not as intimidating as being in front of a class full of students. Prospective teachers can be more comfortable testing out this new role of facilitator in this more informal setting. The objective of this study was to interpret data from a college physics course created specially for prospective elementary and middle school teachers. The results are presented in two manuscripts that draw from the same data sources collected over four quarters (Winter, Spring and Fall 2009, Winter 2010). Examples from student responses were purposefully chosen to highlight the power of the friends and family assignments. These telling cases (Rogers & Abell, 2008) demonstrate a feasible method to enhance college science courses. Both 3 manuscripts were written to encourage college faculty to make more connections between coursework and the real world in which their students live and will work. The manuscripts were written with two different audiences in mind, with the overarching goal of documenting innovative ways to enhance science learning at the college level. The first manscript is entitled “Outside of the Box: Motivation for Engaging Friends and Family in College Science Assignments.” To be submitted to the Journal of College Science Teaching, this manuscript communicates findings primarily to college faculty across all disciplines of science. The manuscript focuses on the question: “What happened when learners shared their science learning experiences with friends and family?” Three themes emerged in student interviews and electronic posts as a result of analyzing these assignments: Friends and family assignments helped students become less afraid of science and more confident in their abilities to learn and teach it; friends and family assignments enhanced science learning; and friends and family assignments provided experiences that students felt would benefit them in their teaching careers. This manuscript details the practical side of facilitating these assignments with students. The second manuscript is entitled “Encouraging Prospective Teachers to Engage Friends and Family in Exploring Physical Phenomena.” To be submitted to the Journal of Science Teacher Education, this manuscript communicates findings primarily to instructors of courses on methods of science teaching. This manuscript focuses on the question: How did involving people outside of a science course foster learning for the prospective teachers enrolled in the course? The six strands put forth by the 2009 National Research Council report, Learning Science in Informal Environments, provided a framework for analyzing the responses. The responses demonstrated aspects of all six strands. These 4 results suggest that infusing such friends and family assignments into any science course can provide learners with new ways to understand, remember, and use concepts, explanations, and facts related to science. Appendix A presents the consent form with which participants gave permission to quote their writings and interview comments. Appendix B contains all of the assignment posts grouped by type. Appendix C includes as analysis of frequency counts of interviewees of different ages. 5 OUTSIDE OF THE BOX: MOTIVATION FOR ENGAGING FRIENDS AND FAMILY IN COLLEGE SCIENCE ASSIGNMENTS Michele M. Crowl To be submitted to: Journal of College Science Teaching http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com:80/nsta-­‐jcst 6 Abstract A new type of homework assignment resulted in creating positive experiences for students enrolled in a college physics course for prospective elementary and middle school teachers. As part of the weekly homework assignment, students talked about physics with friends and family members. Findings in this report are drawn from student electronic postings and interviews. Three general assertions emerged from analysis of what happened when students shared their science learning with friends and family members. Friends and family assignments: helped student become less afraid of science and more confident in their abilities to learn and teach it, enhanced science learning, and provided experiences that students felt would benefit them in their teaching careers. These findings suggest that friends and family assignments can provide a way for instructors to create opportunities for students to use and build upon the knowledge learned in class. A helpful skill in life is the ability to use information across contexts; yet the strategies with which to do this are not often explicitly taught to learners. Assignments that involve friends and family members represent one solution that instructors in any science discipline may find useful. These assignments give learners motivation and guidance for speaking with people about topics covered in class. This article examines “What happens when learners share their science learning experiences with friends and family members?” The context is a college physics course for prospective teachers. 7 Context The context of this report is a physics course in which the instructor rarely lectured or expounded upon complex equations. Instead, the students, who were prospective elementary and middle school teachers, spent roughly five hours a week inquiring into physical phenomena in small groups, similar to the ways that they might facilitate science learning one day in their own classrooms. The goal was not to learn how to manipulate equations or memorize special vocabulary but to internalize scientific concepts and processes through questioning, predicting, exploring, and discussing what one thinks and why. The goals of the course were to foster the proficiencies articulated in Taking Science to School: Learning and Teaching Science in Grades K-­‐8 (National Research Council, 2007), to “know, use, and interpret scientific explanations of the natural world; generate and evaluate scientific evidence and explanations; understand the nature and development of scientific knowledge; and participate productively in scientific practices and discourse” (p. 2). The instructor did not use a textbook but instead drew on reform-­‐based curricular materials such as Powerful Ideas in Physical Science (American Association of Physics Teachers, 2001), Physics and Everyday Thinking (Goldberg, Robinson, & Otero, 2008), and Physics by Inquiry (McDermott, 1996). Topics included light, thermal phenomena, naked-­‐eye astronomy, and motion (first quarter) and electricity, magnetism, sound, and renewable energy (second quarter). The physics course was the site for an investigation of ways to integrate physics and literacy learning (Jansen, van Zee & Winograd, 2006). The friends and family assignments were a form of ‘free writing’ in which students decided how and what to write in familiar contexts. These assignments were designed and implemented by the author, a museum educator who initiated the assignments while serving as a graduate assistant for the course. 8 Friends and Family Assignments Homework assignments were assigned once per week. The assignments involved expanding conceptual understanding, rather than working numerical problems. A portion of each homework consisted of a friends and family assignment. The students posted their reflections about their experiences on an electric bulletin board where they shared their insights with one another and the staff. This report is based upon those postings as well as upon students’ comments during class and during interviews with the author. Although the friends and family aspect was present during all topics, a few examples from a unit on sound are provided below. The sound lessons extended over eight weeks in order to model an on-­‐going science experience that can be readily enjoyed with others in a variety of settings. The friends and family assignments encouraged students to take what they learned in class each week and extend their experiences with the topic outside of the classroom. Table 1 presents the four types of friends and family assignments: engaging prior knowledge, interviewing, exploring physical phenomena, and analyzing websites. Table 1: Example Friends and Family Assignments Type of Friends and Family Example Assignment in the Context of Sound Assignment Engaging Prior Knowledge Write a ‘story’ about your experiences in learning about sound and the aspects of these experiences that fostered your learning. Interviewing Interview a child of the age you want to teach and an adult about their understandings about 9 sound. a. Please record the questions that you ask. b. Note the gender, approximate age and job/grade level of each person. c. Record responses for each individual as accurately as you can. d. Summarize your findings. Exploring physical phenomena Design an exploration that demonstrates something you learned about sound. Try your exploration with a friend or family member. Summarize how you came up with the idea, the aspect of sound that it will help someone understand, and how the exploration went with your friend or family member. Analyzing websites Find a website related to the physics of sound that has fun and factual information on it. Invite a friend or family member to explore the website with you. How well does this website work as a source of information about the physics of sound? What aspects of the website help your friend/family member to understand the physics of sound? What aspects of the website hinder learning? What did you learn about learning and teaching from this experience? Please include the URL 10 for the website in your reflection. Engaging prior knowledge. When beginning new science topics in class, we asked students to think about a learning experience they had had involving relevant phenomena and to identify what aspects of that experience had fostered their learning. They could choose to write about any experience, big or small, inside or outside of school, where they had encountered the phenomena. The goal of this assignment was to get students thinking about what they already knew and how they had learned this. The role of prior knowledge in new learning is well established (NRC, 2000; Falk & Dierking, 2000). These assignments served two purposes. First, students would realize that they did in fact know something about the topic, even if not technical facts. Second, this type of assignment encouraged students to analyze their own and others’ positive learning experiences. We hoped that the students would choose to teach in these same effective ways. Interviewing friends and family. At some point during the exploration of a topic, students conducted content-­‐specific interviews with two people in their lives. Students were to choose at least one person of the age they might be teaching. Those who did not have access to young students substituted with friends and family members of any age, even making phone calls home to talk with parents and younger siblings. The key part of these assignments was not only the interviewing process but also asking the students to summarize how they conducted their interviews and what they learned during the process. It became apparent as the course progressed that there was often surprise at what the people around them knew on the course topics covered. When something the students heard did not make sense, they often sought understanding of how the interviewee came to these ideas. The interviewing assignment helped the 11 students begin to develop good listening skills. They typically received a variety of answers over the course of their interviews. In addition to the objectives already discussed, these interviews also led to interest in responsive teaching methods. This was reflected in extension of questions, answers and experiments that the students generated from these conversations. Facilitating simple explorations of physical phenomena with friends and family. Near the end of learning about a topic, students designed explorations highlighting some aspect of the phenomena. This exploration was then facilitated with a friend or family member. The students wrote descriptions of their explorations and reflected on their experiences as facilitators with friends and family members. This not only helped students think about what concepts were important for a given topic but also what materials around the home they could use in their explorations of these concepts. By playing the role of a teacher, the students began to learn how to engage others in exploring physics topics in a way that made sense to and was engaging for their audience. It was not enough to have students learn the language; they needed to learn to build their own explanations and be able to use the language with flexibility and confidence. Analyzing websites. During each course topic, students chose an interesting website that contained accurate science content pertinent to the topic and aided a friend or family member in exploring this resource. The website exploration required students to discuss the content with their friend or family member. In choosing the website, students evaluated the content for accuracy, then wrote a brief description of why they chose the website, how they guided the exploration and what the conversation included. They also posted the link for other students to explore if interested. The goal of this assignment was not only to help students see what resources are available (both good and bad) but also to 12 get them talking with others outside of the class about a topic that they now had the skills to discuss. An Example of Exploring with Friends and Family Of all of the friends and family assignments, the exploring assignment seemed to lead to the richest experiences for students. Some students enjoyed the challenge of designing their own while others used the same one in which they had participated during class. Some students did not have access to children so they conducted their homework explorations with roommates. An example response to the assignment shown in Table 1 follows. I experimented with my roommate. I asked her to put her ear on our table, while I had my cell phone vibrate on it. I asked her what she heard, felt, and thought about what was going on. I asked her, also, how she thought the sound from the phone got to her ear. I let her hear it a few times, and experience it before she gave me her thoughts. She said she could hear it loudly, feel it vibrate in her ear, said it sounds louder with her ear to the table than the one that was still in the air. She also said it was a little muffled and echoed. She said when it vibrates she can hear it getting closer to her ear, and the vibration starts out small (starting from the phone) then gets larger as it moves away from the phone and spreads throughout the table. The sound was going in through the table and into her ear. I then explained what I had done to figure out what sound was. I told her we had dropped a pencil on the table and tried to figure out what was going on and how the sound from the pencil got to our ear. I talked about sound waves, and how vibrations make sound waves, and need matter to travel to your ear. She seemed to have a better understanding of what was going on then after that. I explained why I had her put her ear to the table rather than just listening to it. I did it because it helped her understand that there were vibrations and that they travel through matter, and that the sound waves spread out every where and don't just have one sound wave only going to our ear. So it helped her understand it a little better than if I had just told her to listen to it. [Student, Exploring summary, Winter 2010] 13 This student designed her own exploration but, while explaining it to her roommate, she also described how it related to something she had done in class. She played the role of facilitator and simultaneously related back to her own experiences in the role of learner. Drawing on in-­‐class experiences while facilitating learning outside of the classroom enabled her to view herself as both a learner and teacher of science. She engaged many of her roommate’s senses as she guided her through listening and feeling a cell phone ring normally versus when her roommate’s ear was on the table. She helped her roommate form conceptual understandings about how the sound of the vibrating cell phone traveled differently through different media. During this exploration, the student demonstrated many appropriate teacher qualities: she utilized wait time (Rowe, 1986), she put the learning in context with a story about how she explored the same topic in class, and she was able to explain her intentions and assess the roommate’s understanding of the information. In her summary of the exploration, the student recognized that it was more beneficial to conduct the exploration with her roommate than just to tell her about it. This example also shows an important characteristic of these assignments: the explanations given by the student were not always scientifically accurate. The assignments were not graded for science accuracy; however, the science content discrepancies revealed in student posts were addressed in general ways in the following class sessions. Interpretation of Responses to Friends and Family Assignments Student responses to fourteen friends and family assignments were examined for common themes. Three of the most salient themes are reported below in the form of assertions (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Each assertion is illustrated by two examples of relevant student responses in their electronic posts or interviews with the author. 14 Assertion #1: Friends and Family assignments helped students become less afraid of science and more confident in their abilities to learn and teach it. Students’ responses indicated they often had been reluctant to talk with friends and family members about their science understandings. The following quote came from a student who was initially nervous to talk to her brother about physics because he had taken more physics classes than she had. I like love science now; I never liked it ever. I was never confident about how I was going to put it in a classroom because I was always thinking, “Oh my gosh, my curriculum and my future classroom… what am I going to do with science?” Look up on the internet and just throw out an experiment or something? But now I feel like I’m a lot more confident in it and I actually can talk to my brother who’s an engineering major and he does a lot of physics classes and so I’m like this is what I’m learning about poles and circuits and he’ll be like, “Oh I’m not learning that until next term,” but I can tell you about it because I know some stuff so I feel more confident in that way. [Student, interview, Winter 2009] After talking with her brother about a homework assignment, she seemed to have a new sense of pride about her physics understanding. Another student, while reflecting on the friends and family assignments, acknowledged that the assignments were difficult but worth the effort. I feel that the family and friend assignments have enhanced my learning greatly! I feel that during class we are introduced to so many concepts and ideas that we don't always get a chance to fully understand it. It’s also hard to allot enough time to explore everything we'd like to explore. This is where the family and friend assignments come in. In order to do these assignments we are forced to plan and execute some experiment or activity. This really gives me a chance to reinforce my learning by teaching others the same concept. My roommates always have tons of questions that I can rarely answer, forcing me to use my resources to find the answers. A lot of time my roommates look at things different than I do. So they may suggest something that I may not have even thought of! This experience also gives me experience teaching 15 others and dealing with unexpected errors. After all they say, the best way to remember concepts are to teach them to someone else. [Student, Electronic Post, Winter 2010] This student could have responded to her roommates’ questions with merely an expression of ignorance but instead chose to follow up on them. This example highlights her confidence in being able to find answers to unanticipated questions that she might be asked if she chooses to teach in an open-­‐inquiry manner. Assertion #2: Friends and family assignments enhance science learning. Questioning, predicting and observing are elements of Strand 3. Student #19, for example, described how she led a friend through an experiment that explored reflection in a mirror. The idea of the experiment was to figure out how far behind the mirror the image appeared to be. By lining up the image of a marker in the mirror with a second marker behind the mirror, the students explored the relationship of distances between object, image, and the mirror, that the image is the same distance behind, as the object is in front, of the mirror. I did the experiment that you put the marker behind a little mirror to see that the image is coming from behind the mirror. I did this with one of my good friends who has had no real experience with understanding mirrors. I asked her before we started where the image comes from when you look into a mirror and she answered like most other people that it comes from the mirror. I did not tell her that she was wrong I just said we were going to do an experiment to see if that is correct. I gave her the first marker and had her place it in front of the mirror. Then I gave her the second marker and told her to place it behind the mirror where you could see it in the mirror. It took her a little while to realize that the marker had to be the same distance away from the mirror as the front marker for them to line up. She knew they have to be in a straight line but didn’t know about the distance. Once she had them lined up, I asked her the same question about where the image looks like it is coming from. She thought about it for a few seconds and then said from behind the mirror and that it looks like there is no mirror at all and that she was just looking at 16 the second marker. I explained to her that this is how mirrors work and how the image is never right on the mirror it always seems to be coming from behind the mirror. After doing this with my friend I realized that it is very difficult to try and teach something to someone else without giving it away, and how you have to think of different ways of saying things until that person understands. It was frustrating at times because I knew exactly what to do and what the outcome was but it was hard to walk her through and explain them to her. But after doing it, it really helped me better understand what we did and once I was able to explain it to her and have her understand what I was saying was pretty cool. [Student #19, Exploring Mirrors with Friends and Family] The student was practicing inquiry techniques by using her knowledge to facilitate the learning of a friend. The friends and family assignments gave students a reason to observe and question their environment in new ways. This student reports on her experience of facilitating a pinhole camera exploration with her mom. For this experiment, I had my Mom make a pinhole camera. I gave her the instructions on having a tiny hole on the tin foil side and looking at a light bulb through the wax paper end. At first, my Mom put her eye straight up to the tiny hole, which was exactly what I did when I first did this experiment. She then realized she had to hold the camera farther away to see any sort of image. When she first saw the upside down image of light bulb, she thought it was extremely fascinating. One of the first things my Mom said afterwards was that she wanted to do this same experiment with her first graders. I then asked my Mom why she thought the image was a light bulb and better yet, upside down. First thing she said was that it was a mirror image, and that the light was shining through to create exactly what the camera was looking at. After asking my Mom why she thought this was, I explained my findings. I told her that the light rays travel in a straight line. Since the bottom ray shines through the hole and reflects upward, the top ray shines through and reflects downward while the middle shines straight forward, which explains the upside down image. 17 I find it a lot of fun to be able to teach others what I find out through experiments in this class. I never knew such simple things like lights and shadows could be so complex. I also like how I am able to teach older adults. It really shows how much goes on around us that none of us truly even think about on a daily basis. Since starting Physics 111, I find myself noticing things about lights and shadows a lot more, and I also end up telling my friends what I learned that day right when I get back from classes. I love being able to figure things out on my own through my own trial and error. I like that I can ask any question at all, and find the solution to it. {Student, Electronic Post] This student recognizes her newfound pleasure in thinking about the science of everyday things. She also seems to have a deeper interest in asking questions and trying to find the solutions. Students seemed more likely to share their information with others when they felt like they completely understood it. The following student quote shows that students perceived the friends and family assignments to facilitate science learning. When I have my own classroom, I plan on incorporating friends and family into classroom experiences often. When students learn something in class and then later interview their parents about what they know, I think a lot of learning can happen. If the students' parents do not know something about the topic, the students are then able to share with them their knowledge. When students share their own knowledge and what they've learned in class, it solidifies their own knowledge. Also, when the people in the students' lives are interested and excited about what the student is learning, it gets the student more excited about learning as well. All around, I think facilitating learning experiences with friends and family is a great way to encourage student growth and learning, both academically and intellectually. [Student, Electronic Post] 18 This student believes that these assignments provide rich opportunities for learning for both the student and the friend or family member. Assertion #3: Friends and Family assignments provided experiences that students felt would benefit them in their teaching career. The students seemed to recognize that they would benefit from knowing the material from an educator’s perspective and understanding the learning experience from a learner’s perspective. The benefits that I see about taking a course like this would be, for one bettering knowledge of concepts that we deal with, but even more so than that is the ability to take those concept we learn and implement them into your own teaching experiences and also being able to realize how to view these concepts as a student learning them like we are and then taking them and observing them how Emily treats the situation so you kind of see it from both sides. If there’s anything beneficial towards this course it’s the fact that as a future educator you learn so many ways of how to teach, how to listen, how to question and how to prompt questions. [Student, Interview, Winter 2009] The friends and family assignments afforded students the opportunity to view their experiences from both the roles of learner and educator. These assignments seemed to illuminate and provide ways to practice aspects of learning that students had not thought about before. I think my favorite part is learning ways to teach. Obviously learning the concepts are great but I don’t know if I’m going to be a science teaching so just the idea of how to listen to students and hear what they’re saying and try to interpret what they’re saying and assist them and guide them in different ways and provide different ways for them to learn… ideas like that are really nice to have. [Student, interview, Winter 2009] 19 This student acknowledged the importance of listening and interpreting what others say. She seemed to realize that these skills would effectively help her when she is guiding her own students through explorations of new topics. Why Friends and Family Assignments? Teachers often strive to encourage students to use their science knowledge and understanding outside of the science class, but students do not always know how to do this. Our lives have become increasingly demanding and as a whole, families are spending less time in activities together such as talking about their day over dinner. It is more important than ever to help students understand how to use, outside in the world, what they learn inside the classroom (National Research Council, 2009). The strategy of using these types of assignments in a classroom with prospective teachers allows for a blend of content and methods. These assignments seemed to help students communicate science with a relatively high comfort level. Students reported that the explorations did not feel like homework. Such assignments are not limited to prospective teachers. The findings of this study suggest that infusing friends and family assignments into any science course can provide learners with new ways to understand, remember, and use concepts, explanations, and facts related to science. Issues to Consider When Implementing Friends and Family Assignments Friends and family assignments could be used in almost any course but there are some issues to consider. The following four issues reflect lessons learned during implementation in the physics course referred to in this paper. Content. The friends and family assignments should be created with two things in mind: content covered in class and real world application of this content. Of the four types of assignment discussed in this paper, facilitating an exploration may be the most difficult. The assignments should be created so that students 20 have easy access to all necessary resources. If possible, hand out materials in class or create assignments that can be completed using household materials. Time. The majority of the time involved in planning and completing these assignments is done outside of the regular class meeting time. It takes time to plan an appropriate assignment and time to read through student responses. In class, introducing the first of these assignments may take time only because students would not be familiar with this type of homework. Then, after students complete an assignment, it may take time to address any content issues that are evident in their responses. Grading. Students may feel reluctant to facilitate these assignments if they are not confident in their abilities and knowledge. Giving a completion grade rather than a content grade enables students to focus on the act of talking with others about the content rather than being anxious about what they think they know or do not know. A completion grade requires the professor to read through responses, however, and address any content issues in a general way during class. Explicit request for reflection. Students do not reflect equally on their experiences. For this reason, it was important to word the assignment posts in ways that encouraged students to think and report more deeply than simply stating what happened during the facilitation. The amount of reflection by students increased when reflection was explicitly asked for in the assignment, making it a necessary part of each assignment’s description. Conclusion Research shows that learning is enhanced when students have opportunities to collaborate with each other on tasks (National Research Council, 2003). The friends and family assignments extend this idea to peers outside of the class. These assignments help learners build a larger network of people with 21 whom to talk about and think about science. The same body of literature recommends finding ways to help learners use their knowledge across contexts. Not only does an activity shape learners’ understanding of content, but the environment in which they conduct the activity does as well. The ability to see how content is applied in various contexts will promote a learner’s use in everyday life. Friends and family assignments are just one way to help learners use their knowledge across contexts. There are others, including the use of blogs as an electronic journal where students can keep thoughts and reflective comments on their learning (Brownstein & Klein, 2006). Many examples in the literature discuss the use of a particular technology such as specific software or creating websites. The main point is that it is possible to help learners transfer their understandings across context if the activities are intentional and meaningful (Salomon & Perkins, 1989). 22 References American Association of Physics Teachers. (2001). Powerful ideas in physical science. College Park, MD: AAPT. Brownstein, E. & Klein, R. (2006). Blogs: Applications in science education. Journal of College Science Teaching, 35(6), 18-­‐22. Falk, J.H. & Dierking, L.D. (2000). Learning from museums: Visitor experiences and the making of meaning. Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press (Rowman-­‐Littlefield). Goldberg, F., Robinson, S., and Otero, V. (2008). Physics and everyday thinking. Armonk, NY: It’s About Time, Heff Jones Education Division. Jansen, H., van Zee, E., & Winograd, K. (2006). Integrating physics and literacy learning in a physics course for prospective elementary and middle school teachers. National Science Foundation grant # 06-­‐33752-­‐DUE. Lincoln, Y.S., and Guba, E.G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. McDermott, L. C. and Physics Education Group. (1996). Physics by inquiry. New York: Wiley. National Research Council (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. (Committee Chairs: J. D. Bransford, A. Brown, and R.R Cocking). Washington, DC: National Academies Press. National Research Council. (2003). Evaluating and improving undergraduate teaching in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. Washington, DC: National Academies Press. National Research Council. (2007). Taking science to school: Learning and teaching science in grades K-­‐8. (Committee chairs: R. A. Duschl, H. A. Schweingruber, and A. W. Shouse). Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. National Research Council (2009). Learning in informal environments: People, places and pursuits. (Committee Chairs: P. Bell, B. Lewenstein, A. W. Shouse, and M.A. Feder), Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. 23 Rowe, M. B. (1986). Wait time: Slowing down may be a way of speeding up! Journal of Teacher Education, 37(1), 43-­‐50. Salomon, G. & Perkins, D. N. (1989). Rocky roads to transfer: Rethinking mechanisms of a neglected phenomenon. Educational Psychologist 24 (2): 113-­‐
142. 24 ENCOURAGING PROSPECTIVE TEACHERS TO ENGAGE FRIENDS AND FAMILY IN EXPLORING PHYSICAL PHENOMENA Michele M. Crowl To be submitted to: Journal of Science Teacher Education http://www.editorialmanager.com/jste/ 25 Abstract This study reports on ways that involving people outside of a science course fostered learning for the prospective teachers enrolled in the course. Assignments involving friends and family were built into a physics course for prospective teachers. The six strands put forth by the 2009 National Research Council report, Learning Science in Informal Environments, provided a framework for analyzing the responses. The responses demonstrated aspects of all six strands. Such friends and family assignments can provide a way for the instructor to create opportunities for students to use and build upon the knowledge learned in class. “I love science now… I never liked it ever and I was never confident about how I was going to put it in a classroom… but now I feel like I’m a lot more confident in it and I actually can talk about it.” (Prospective elementary school teacher, Winter 2009) The negative affect toward science that this prospective teacher initially experienced is typical for many elementary school teachers. Tosun (2000) reported, for example, that preservice elementary teachers used primarily negative terms when describing their past experiences with science during elementary, middle, high school and college. During a series of interviews, Tosun heard words such as stressful, dull, frustrating, meaningless, boring and repetitive. Developing a positive attitude toward science is important, as teachers who dislike science often transmit this attitude to their students (McDermott, 1990). 26 Beginning elementary and middle school teachers also often lack the confidence and appropriate set of skills and knowledge to be effective teachers of science. Weiss (1994) reported, for example, that more than 70% of the teachers surveyed did not feel very well qualified to teach science in the classroom. After reviewing the minimal science requirements for elementary and middle school teacher certification in most states, a recent national report declared, “Clearly the scientific knowledge of K-­‐8 teachers is often quite thin” (National Research Council, 2007, p. 300). The purpose of this study is to document and interpret an effort to improve the ways that prospective elementary teachers view and understand science. This study also addresses the need to connect the learning that is happening inside the science classroom to practical applications and situations outside of it. The intent is to incorporate aspects of everyday life as a regular part of the learning processes in school. The context for this study is a four-­‐credit undergraduate physics course in which the emphasis is on questioning, predicting, exploring and discussing what one thinks and why. Some of the assignments involve friends and family members. The assignments represent one way to begin helping science learners use their knowledge across contexts in appropriate ways. This study documents and communicates to science faculty, education faculty, and informal science educators the influence that these kinds of “friends and family” assignments can have on student learning. The hope is that similar experiences will be integrated into a variety of learning environments. Background As discussed below, this study is based upon research from both formal and informal science education perspectives. The physics course drew on curricula that emphasize reform approaches to instruction. Student responses were 27 analyzed in terms of strands of science learning articulated in a National Research Council publication, Learning Science in Informal Environments: People, Places, and Pursuits (2009). Reform-­‐based physics course. The physics course emphasized small group work, primarily using conversations rather than lecture, similar to what is called for in reform-­‐based efforts (National Research Council, 2003). Physics departments that have initiated courses for prospective elementary and middle school teachers typically use inquiry-­‐based materials developed with support from the National Science Foundation. Examples include Powerful Ideas in Physical Science (American Association of Physics Teachers, 2001; Ukens, Hein, Johnson, & Layman; 2004), Physics and Everyday Thinking (Goldberg, Robinson & Otero, 2008), modeling instruction in physics (Hestenes, 1997), Workshop Physics (Laws, 1991), and Physics by Inquiry (McDermott, 1996; McDermott, Heron, Shaffer, & Stetzer, 2006). All of these involve students in “interactive engagement” (Hake, 1998) in which participants learn by articulating their ideas and discussing these with others. This study provides a detailed account of ways in which the prospective teachers described their interactions with friends and family in the context of explorations based on their experiences in class. Assignments involving friends and family are not typical in college science. There is, however, literature about strategies for creating positive attitudes and fostering discourse about science. One of these strategies is blogging. Blogs have the potential to get students communicating about what they were doing in class with people outside of the class (Duda & Garrett, 2008). Research focused on the effects of using blogs in a physics class has shown that these virtual environments give shy students a less threatening way of communicating and also give students a new perspective on the material (Brownstein & Klein, 2006). 28 Strands of science learning. Formal schooling is only one small part of a person’s activity across the lifespan; much more of a person’s time is spent outside of a classroom. Even though the time spent outside of class is not always educational, it is important to understand how people learn when they are not in a school setting. In Learning Science in Informal Environments: People, Places, and Pursuits, a committee formed by the National Research Council (2009) synthesized findings from many domains in order to describe and provide evidence for out-­‐of-­‐school free-­‐choice learning. The report described six strands of science learning as shown in Table 1 and stated, “The six strands illustrate how schools and informal environments can pursue complimentary goals and serve as a conceptual tool for organizing and assessing science learning“ (NRC, 2009, p. 4). Table 1: Strands of Science Learning Learners in informal environments: Strand 1 Experience excitement, interest, and motivation to learn about phenomena in the natural and physical world. Strand 2 Come to generate, understand, remember, and use concepts, explanations, arguments, models, and facts related to science. Strand 3 Manipulate, test, explore, predict, question, observe, and make sense of the natural and physical world. Strand 4 Reflect on science as a way of knowing; on processes, concepts, and institutions of science; and on their own process of learning about phenomena. Strand 5 Participate in scientific activities and learning practices with others, using scientific language and tools. Strand 6 Think about themselves as science learners and develop an identity as someone who knows about, uses, and sometimes 29 contributes to science. A wide variety of literature, from both formal and informal science education communities, addresses aspects of these six strands of science learning: Strand 1 refers to learning experiences that foster excitement, interest and motivation. In order to sustain long-­‐term engagement, it is necessary to foster learners’ interest in science by making connections to their everyday cultural practices (Nasir, Rosebery, Warren and Lee, 2006). Interest is a filter that learners can use when deciding what, how, where, when and with whom to learn (Falk & Dierking, 2000). Rigid expectations and strict performance guidelines, such as those imposed by school, can diminish interest, making it imperative to create experiences free from these as often as possible (Jolly, Campbell and Perlman, 2004). Strand 2 recognizes the need for learners to have opportunities to remember and use concepts, explanations, models and facts that they learn both in class and during their experiences outside of class. Learners build upon prior experiences as well as upon views that they have formed in a wide variety of contexts (Scott, Asoko & Leach, 2007). Such prior experiences and conceptions can serve as resources for cognitive growth toward expertise (Smith, diSessa & Roschelle, 1993). A National Research Council report on how people learn (2000) suggests that the difference between a novice and an expert is the difference between having knowledge and having the ability to apply the knowledge to different situations. Strand 3 focuses on the skills needed for the practice of science, such as the ability to manipulate, test, explore and question the world in order to make sense of it. Research has shown that learners’ approaches to natural phenomena 30 in their surroundings have many commonalities with the inquiry-­‐based techniques outlined in Strand 3. Gelman and Brenneman (2004), for example, describe a curriculum for young children that introduces ways to explore phenomena -­‐ observing, testing, recording -­‐ and encourages students to apply those to all appropriate situations, whether these be math, science or reading. Making sense of the natural world involves developing explanations based on evidence (Sandoval, 2003), modeling salient aspects of the phenomena (Lehrer & Schauble, 2010), and articulating one’s reasoning in arguments with others (Osborne, 2010). Strand 4 emphasizes reflection. Dewey (1938) suggested that reflection is the heart of the disciplined mind; that it is a way for a learner to decide on the most important pieces of information and internalize them for later use. Anderson and Nashon (2007) showed that the amount of metacognition practiced by a learner was directly proportional to his or her conceptual understanding of physics. Ektina (2000) demonstrated a way to increase the amount of reflection by physics learners: ask them to keep a journal. Over time, student journal writers reportedly asked more questions and predicted what types of questions the teacher might ask in the future. The role of reflection in learning has been documented outside of the classroom as well. Research has shown that visitors use science centers to examine their prior knowledge and change their understandings if they find sufficient contrasting evidence (Anderson, Lucas, Ginns, & Dierking, 2000). Strand 5 highlights the role of social participation in using the language and tools of science. In all environments, it is important for learners to feel like they have the skills necessary to be successful at participating in, and hence learning, science. Learning is a social event and creating spaces where doing science can occur with family (Zimmerman, Reeve & Bell, 2010), friends and 31 strangers, in large and small groups, may enhance the experience (Astor-­‐Jack, Whaley, Dierking, Perry, & Garibay, 2007; Palincsar, Anderson, & David, 1993). Fostering discourse that enables learners to develop arguments in support of their claims is key (Duschl, 2008; Kelly, 2006). Outside of the classroom, in such spaces as museums and galleries, vom Lehn, Heath, & Hindmarsh (2001) suggest designing exhibits that promote communication among visitors and then developing effective methods for studying their interactions. Within the college classroom, restructuring courses to encourage more questioning and to allow for group work can lead to students reporting shifts in how they think about and talk about physics (Manogue & Krane, 2003). Strand 6 considers learners’ view of themselves, as people who know, use and can contribute to the learning, and for this study’s purposes, to the teaching of science. For instance, Brickhouse, Lowery and Schultz (2000) found that the way girls viewed themselves relative to science affected the way they engaged in science activities. Olitsky (2007) reported that learners must develop a positive science identity in order to be effective users of science. Hull and Greeno (2006) noted the importance of providing opportunities for participants to act competently, such as mentoring or serving as guides for others. Another powerful example of Strand 6 is the public’s contribution to citizen science projects. Participants have the opportunity to authentically partake in research with scientists. They often report an increase in knowledge (Brossard, Lewenstein, & Bonney, 2005) and a positive feeling of contribution (Thompson & Bonney, 2007) just from their participation. Experiences such as these are important in helping learners view themselves as science learners. These strands represent an effort to bring the worlds of formal and informal learning together. The middle four of the six strands were adapted from the proficiencies in a previous report entitled, Taking Science to School: Learning 32 and Teaching Science in Grades K-­‐8 (National Research Council, 2007). The first and last strands emerged from the synthesis of reports highlighted in Learning Science in Informal Environments (NRC, 2009, pp. 3-­‐4). This study demonstrates ways in which these six strands are evident in responses to homework assignments involving friends and family in the physics course for prospective teachers. Research Question This interpretative study examines science learning experiences within a formal course structure that reaches out to informal learning environments. The specific research question explored was: How did involving people outside of a physics course foster learning for the prospective teachers enrolled in the course? Methodology This qualitative study (Erickson, 1986) interpreted learning by undergraduate students participating in physics courses for prospective teachers. The setting, participants, data sources, and approach to interpretation are discussed below. Setting. The physics department formally initiated the physics course for prospective elementary and middle school teachers in Winter 2008. The design of the course continued to develop each term as the instructors interpreted what was happening and generated new approaches. Details are discussed in a later section. Participants. Participants included prospective teachers who enrolled in the physics course when it included friends and family assignments (Winter 2009, n = 10; Spring 2009, n = 9; Fall 2009, n=7). The participants were mostly white females of typical college age. The instructors included an associate professor, two graduate assistants, and sometimes an undergraduate peer instructor. The 33 assistants designed and facilitated activities as part of their graduate coursework. The author was a graduate assistant with prior experience as a science museum educator and a deep commitment to integrating formal and informal educational experiences. Data sources. Data sources included copies of student work, archives from electronic postings on the course bulletin board (BlackBoard Discussion Forum), and taped interviews. Each class session also was video recorded but those data have not been included in this study. Data interpretation. I used the framework of the six strands of science learning articulated in the NRC 2009 report to interpret the prospective teachers’ responses to friends and family assignments. I modified the strands slightly from the original listed in the report to fit this specific context. It is important when working with prospective teachers that they consider the roles that they will take on when they are teachers. The original strands were written from a prospective of looking only at learners, so I inserted into three strands terms to fit the ideas of teaching and helping others to learn. This did not, however, change the main point of the strand. In Strand 1, for example, I inserted “teach and” into “Experience excitement, interest, and motivation to teach and learn about phenomena in the natural and physical world.” In Strand 4, I inserted “and others” into “Reflect on science as a way of knowing; on processes, concepts, and institutions of science; and on their own and others’ process of learning about phenomena.” In Strand 6, I inserted “and teachers” and “and to the learning of science” into “Think about themselves as science learners and teachers and develop an identity as someone who knows about, uses, and sometimes contributes to science and to the learning of science.” 34 Table 2 presents an example interpretation of a student’s response in terms of these six strands of science learning. The column on the left is the response from the student with a new row for each sentence. The next three columns identify the setting in which the activity occurred, the person who was involved in the activity with the student, and the activity in which the participants were involved. The column on the right includes the strands that match the statement, as I interpret them. The table was designed this way to allow for identifying multiple strands that match each statement. Relevant aspects of the strand are bolded. I also developed assertions (Lincoln & Guba, 1985) to describe aspects of the course that seemed to foster the prospective teachers’ learning through their interactions with friends and family. The assertions are based on the six strands of science learning (NRC, 2009) and are supported by evidence drawn from the prospective teachers’ responses to the friends and family assignments.. Description of the Physics Course The physics course met twice each week for ten weeks. Each class was two and a half hours. The courses covered many topics, including light, naked eye astronomy, thermal phenomena, and force and motion (first quarter) and electricity, magnetism, sound, and renewable energy (second quarter). No specific materials were used. Instead we drew from materials that encouraged students to generate their own powerful ideas of physics as they explored physical phenomena (AAPT, 2001), specific lessons guiding explorations (McDermott, 1996), and approaches emphasizing development of scientific explanations (Goldberg, Robinson & Otero, 2008). The physics course was the site for an investigation of physics and literacy learning (Jansen, van Zee, & Winograd, 2006). Often a homework assignment related to the science topic the students were currently learning was to be completed outside of the classroom with 35 friends or family members. The students posted summaries and reflections on an electronic discussion board. At the end of the course, they wrote a paper that discussed what they had learned about a topic that they had explored, interpreted how they learned this, and tried to pinpoint when and how their understandings changed. They also were asked to reflect on specifics that fostered their learning. A prospective teacher described her learning experiences in this course as follows: I think the main things that have fostered my learning in this class is the fact that everything is done through self exploration. The fact that the class isn't lecture based and is just about completely hands on makes it so much easier for me to grasp ideas and concepts. Then being able to go home and act more as the teacher and show/teach others what I have learned is the next step that fosters my own learning. (Prospective Teacher, Blackboard Assignment, Fall 2009) This study documented and interpreted the responses from experiences during the friends and family assignments. Description of Friends and Family Assignments There were four types of “friends and family” assignments created for this course, all with considerable choice given to students. Each assignment had general guidelines but the where, when, who, how and sometimes what was left up to the student. The assignments also gave students a platform for thinking about how they might apply their in-­‐class learning outside of the classroom. Below is a description of the four types of assignments and some commentary about the way we used these in the course. Engaging prior knowledge. This type of assignment asked students to think about previous learning experiences and to describe what fostered their learning or to tell a story about a time when they had learned a particular piece 36 of information. These acted as jumping off points to which students could incorporate new information. For example: Look up and tell us a story! Challenge yourself to look up in the sky many times over the course of a day/night. Look for the moon and draw what you observe. Also, post a story about an experience that you've had involving the moon. This can be about a time you've observed the moon or a cultural story that you've heard or even artwork that you've seen about the moon. Interviewing friends and family members. Students interviewed people about the topic they were studying in class. The guidelines suggested interviewing one person of the age they wished to teach and one of a different age. The goal was to enable the student to experience two different approaches to understanding. The students designed the protocol, recorded the responses and summarized their findings in their posts. In some cases, students were explicitly asked to reflect on their experience. For example: Listening to Ideas about Light Interview two people about their understandings about light. If possible, one should be a student of the age you would like to teach and the other should be an adult. Report: a. brief description of your interviewees (gender, estimate of age) b. your “protocol” (questions you asked) c. example responses for each individual as accurately as you can d. summary of your findings Post your report of the interview here. Read what your classmates have posted to get a sense of what people know about light. Exploring physical phenomena. As a way to help students use their knowledge and their teaching skills outside of the classroom, the students facilitated explorations of physical phenomena with friends and family. Often they were able to choose to use an exploration they had conducted in class or to create their own. They posted a description of what they did, a summary of how 37 it went and a reflection on what they thought about the experience. For example: Exploring Mirrors with Friends and Family With at least one friend or family member, explore and explain a property of mirrors. It can be something that we have already explored in class or something new. You choose how and what to explore. Please summarize your experiments and comment on what you learned about teaching and learning. Analyzing websites. After students had explored phenomena in class and had had a chance to become somewhat comfortable with the topic, they explored the Internet for possible sites that accurately depicted the topic at hand. Then they engaged a friend or family member in an exploration of the site and helped their friend or family member learn something new about the topic. Students provided the website address, a summary of what they explored and a reflection about what it was like to engage the friend or family member using technology. For example: Exploring Moon Websites with Friends and Family Put "moon phases explanation" into Google search and browse among websites that purport to explain the phases of the moon. Choose the one that you like best. Invite a friend or family member to explore the website with you. How well does this website work as a source of information about the phases of the moon: What aspects of the website help your friend/family member to understand the causes of the phases of the moon? What aspects of the website hinder learning? What did you learn about learning and teaching from this experience? Please include the URL for the website in your reflection. Use of the Friends and Family Assignments Full credit was given for completion, not content. This is a key component of the assignments. In order for students to feel comfortable conducting assignments that are very different from traditional homework assignments, it 38 was important to focus on the act of doing them rather than on accurate science content. Before the start of each class, the instructors read through the student posts and made it a priority to address any content issues in very general ways during class. The amount of reflection by students increased when it was explicitly asked for but this was not apparent at first. Due to a heightened awareness on the part of the instructors, we worded the assignment posts in ways that encouraged students to think and report more deeply. Assignments where the reflection component was not required or explicitly requested tended to yield shallower posts. The examples used here also were chosen because they were “telling cases” of the power of friends and family assignments (Rogers & Abell, 2008). Not all student posts fit this exact model and not all related to all six strands. Interpretation The data from student work and interviews contained rich information about the influence that these types of assignments can have on science learners. The interpretation portion of this paper begins with a specific example response from one student and its interpretation using the framework formed by the six strands of science learning (NRC, 2009). Then I present six assertions, based on the six strands, and evidence of ways in which these friends and family assignments fostered the prospective teachers’ learning. The evidence is drawn from responses to all of the friends and family assignments during Winter, Spring and Fall 2009. Example interpretation of one student response. In this section, I present an example of a friends and family assignment, a student response, interpretation in terms of the six strands outlined in Learning Science in Informal Environments (National Research Council, 2009), and a reflection about the 39 power of this assignment in this instance. Example assignment. One assignment involved exploring sound by making musical instruments. In class, students had their choice of materials to use to make some form of musical instrument. The instrument could be one that they had seen before or a completely new idea. Then, as their homework, they were to go home and try a similar experiment with a friend or family member: Reflecting about Sound Think about your learning of sound and how the instrument you used in class increased your understanding of the phenomenon…Encourage (a friend or family member) to make a creative instrument and then help them understand how the sound is made and how we hear it. Summarize your experiment… Example student response. One student described making an instrument with her boyfriend: I thought that making the instruments with different items was really interesting, I liked seeing how some people took items and made literal representations of what we think of as "official instruments", but others seemed to focus more on the actual sound that they could make. I asked my boyfriend to help me with this experiment. He had talked with me about sound before for our reflection, and he definitely knows a lot more about it than I do! He was apprehensive about just making an instrument with different objects because it was so open ended, but eventually he tossed some chopped nuts into a Tupperware, closed the lid, and shook it up! We had fun shaking it around, and then we talked about how the sound would change depending upon what type of elements you put in the container, which led us to talking about how sound is created by vibrations, and different elements will create different vibrations so we could have an incredibly wide range of sounds! [Student, Reflecting about sound, Winter 2009] Example interpretation and reflection. Table 2 presents an interpretation of this student’s response in terms of the six strands of science learning 40 articulated in the NRC 2009 report. I analyzed a set of responses with respect to the six strands. To test for inter-­‐rater reliability, my major advisor analyzed them also resulting in an 81% reliability rate. After discussing the differences, and reanalyzing the set, the rate increased to 90%. Table 2. Interpretation of One Student Response Statement Posted Setting Person Activity Relevant Strand I thought that making the instruments with different items was really interesting, I liked seeing how some people took items and made literal representations of what we think of as "official instruments", but others seemed to focus more on the actual sound that they could make. Class Self and class-­‐
mates Making an instrument I asked my boyfriend to help me with this experiment. Boy-­‐
friend He had talked with me about sound before for our reflection, and he definitely knows a lot more about it than I do! He was apprehensive Kitchen about just making an instrument with different objects because it was so open ended, but eventually he tossed some chopped nuts into a Tupperware, closed the lid, and shook it up! We had fun shaking it around, and then we Self and boy-­‐
friend Strand 1: Experience excitement, interest, and motivation to teach and learn about phenomena in the natural and physical world. Strand 3: Manipulate, test, explore, predict, question, observe, and make sense of the natural and physical world. Strand 4: Reflect on science as a way of knowing; on processes, concepts, and institutions of science; and on their own and others’ process of learning about phenomena. Strand 5: Participate in scientific activities and learning practices with others, using scientific language and tools. Strand 5: Participate in scientific activities and learning practices with others, using scientific language and tools. Boy-­‐
friend Making an instrument Strand 3: Manipulate, test, explore, predict, question, observe, and make sense of the natural and physical world. Self and boy-­‐
Strand 1: Experience excitement, interest, and 41 talked about how the sound would change depending upon what type of elements you put in the container, which led us to talking about how sound is created by vibrations, and different elements will create different vibrations so we could have an incredibly wide range of sounds! friend motivation to teach and learn about phenomena in the natural and physical world. Strand 2: Come to generate, understand, remember, and use concepts, explanations, arguments, models, and facts related to science. Strand 3: Manipulate, test, explore, predict, question, observe, and make sense of the natural and physical world. Strand 4: Reflect on science as a way of knowing; on processes, concepts, and institutions of science; and on their own and others’ process of learning about phenomena. Strand 5: Participate in scientific activities and learning practices with others, using scientific language and tools. Strand 6: Think about themselves as science learners and teachers and develop an identity as someone who knows about, uses, and sometimes contributes to science and to the learning of science. As shown in the table, all six strands appear in this example. The student initially talked about her experience in class as one that she found to be interesting (Strand 1). The different instruments that she and others were making excited her (Strands 1 and 3). She noted that there were two different schools of action: the traditional instrument idea and slightly more creative ones (Strands 3 and 4). In order to complete her assignment, she asked her boyfriend to participate (Strand 5). She commented that he had helped her before because she perceived him to know more than she did about science and about sound in particular (Strand 5). At first he did not seem to be interested in the experiment but she 42 was able to convince him to test something out (Strand 3). Creating the instrument seemed to engage him and they immediately began playing with it and discussing how it works; together they talked about the science of sound (Strands 1-­‐6). This post is interesting in several ways. The student not only had to overcome some negative affect of her view of herself as someone who knows little about and rarely uses science, but also the negative affect on the part of the boyfriend for creating the instrument. Once he made the instrument, the whole mood seemed to make a positive shift. By the end, not only were they both interested in the topic and both participating in the manipulation and testing of the instrument, but they seemed to be talking on a more even ground about science content and their science learning. In this example, Student #3 began to take on the facilitator role, seemed to waiver slightly due to lack of interest from the boyfriend, but eventually won over his apathy and successfully facilitated the experiment and learning for both. That this student was not only able to change her boyfriend’s mind about doing an experiment but also envisioned a wide range of possibilities for future explorations is evidence of the power of these assignments. Interpretation of Responses to Friends and Family Assignments Responses to the friend and family assignments demonstrate aspects of learning across the six strands articulated by the National Research Council (2009). Each of the assertions below is an interpretation in terms of one of those strands. The number of each assertion corresponds to the strand number from the report. Assertion 1: Friends and family assignments were a way for students to experience positive affect toward science as described in Strand 1, such as interest and excitement for learning and teaching science. 43 In the prior example, Student #3 reported that she “thought making the instruments with different items was really interesting.” This interest helped motivate her to talk with her boyfriend about sound and to ask him to help with the assignment of making an instrument at home. She stated that at the end of her exploration, they “had fun shaking it around,” showing that after succeeding in helping him make an instrument, they enjoyed using it. These data also document a shift in interest for the person who is participating with the student as well as for the student. Student #28, for example, described a change in her roommate’s response to an experiment in which a dot drawn on the side of a cup appears to rise into view when water is poured into the cup and covers the dot. I performed this experiment with my roommate who HATES science and is majoring in business. She thought it would be extremely lame, and me just making a fool out of myself. Lo and behold, she was amazed! She had no idea how it worked. I think it was important for me to not give a lead into this, but instead to just have her observe. If I had said, now you know light refracts as it changes mediums, here let me show you… She would not have been so excited. Instead, I was practically a magician. So, she called in the rest of the dorm, and we played around for a while! It was fun to watch them learn, and be eager to learn. I am going to take this to my 4th grade classroom that I am volunteering in. I hope they have fun with it! (Student #28, Reflecting on Refraction Phenomena) The roommate did not seem to be interested initially but the student persisted and eventually won her roommate’s (and dorm’s!) attention and excitement in exploring the phenomenon. Assertion 2: Friends and family assignments created experiences for students that were relevant to Strand 2 such as the opportunity to remember and use, outside of class, concepts, explanations, models and facts learned in class. 44 For some topics, students found a website of their choice and facilitated the learning of a friend or family member by using the website information. Student #19, for example, found that, even though she understood most of the information included on the website, it was still beneficial to talk with her friend about it. This website (http://moonphases.info/moon_phases.html ) shows a really cool diagram that shows the phases of the moon as seen from earth and then as seen from the solar system and breaks it down nicely. This helped my friend see all the different phases and be able to understand that just because of what we are see on earth does not mean that is actually how the moon looks. She found it interesting seeing the view from the solar system and seeing how there is always half of the moon lit up no matter what. The diagram also shows all the different angles of the moon and explains very well how the angle works with the Earth being the angle vertex. It also talks about the diameter of the sun and the distance compared to the drawing. This website talks about the months without full moons and blue moons and moon rise times corresponding to the phase at which the moon is in. I think it possibly could explain all the phases of the moon a little better but its still really good. I found out that although I already knew a bunch of this stuff going through it and talking about it with my friend helped reinforce this information into my head. And I also got really excited about looking at this website and explain stuff to my friend even though it was mostly what I already knew. [Student #19, Exploring Moon Websites] This student recognized her friend’s interest in the subject matter but emphasizes her own excitement for teaching it also. This student felt confident enough to critique the website’s content while she was engaging her friend in the explanations of the phases of the moon. Often in conducting their interviews with friends or family members, students were exposed to a variety of ways of thinking and talking about science. 45 Student #15, for example, used her understanding of heat and temperature to interpret what one of her interviewees was actually saying. I found that my interviewee #1 has a pretty good grasp at how temperature and conductivity of objects work because he used words such as “absorb” and “insulate”. In class we found heat is not “lost” it is “transferred” and I think that this is what he is referring to. My interviewee #2 on the other hand, answered the way I expected him to, but he obviously doesn’t have a clear concise grasp at (how) it works. [Student #15, Interview about Heat and Temperature] The opportunity for this student to listen and interpret what another science learner was saying contributed toward her learning to become an effective educator. Assertion 3: Friends and family assignments created opportunities for students to apply a variety of methods, as stated in Strand 3, that aid in the exploration and sense-­‐making of the natural and physical world. Engaging prior experiences was one strategy that the friends and family assignments used as an introduction to a new topic. Student #10, for example, recalled how she had learned about sound through the exploration of making her own instruments at home and how this experience applied to her in-­‐class learning. Each small group of prospective teachers had used markers on chart paper to represent with words and drawings their initial knowledge about sound My early experiences with sound came from the music classes that I went to in elementary school. We played different instruments, sang, and learned what notes were. This allowed me to experiment with different instruments and see what made the sound in them. The way that we learned about sound in the last class was an interesting approach. I was able to not only put down the ideas and impressions that I had about sound, but I was able to see other peoples’ thought processes as well. It was interesting to see all of the different aspects that people included in their knowledge posters about sound. I did not think about a 46 lot of the topics and objects that people wrote down. This enabled me to grasp a larger understanding of what sound meant to all the different people in the class. After all, I am only one person and have only one perspective. [Student #10, ‘Story’ about Science Learning] She perceived that having the freedom to choose how to manipulate instruments to explore her own ideas was an effective way for her to learn. The latter portion of this student’s response illuminates what knowledge she and others brought to the class and how that influenced the ways she thought about sound. Many students duplicated explorations done in class with their friend or family member as a way of practicing their science learning and teaching. This student, for example, facilitates an exploration of mirrors with her aunt. My aunt is in town this week. She was asking all about school, life, friends, etc. When I told her about this class, she became pretty interested. I asked her to do this assignment with me, so that I could show her what we are doing. I started by taking her to the bathroom and asking her what she could see. She could see herself and things behind her. I had her take a step to her left. Her view had changed. She could still see herself, but she could now see the cabinet, shower and scale. Then I gave her a blank sheet of paper and asked her draw a diagram of the bathroom situation, using arrows to explain what she saw in the mirror. She drew herself and a blue print of the bathroom. She drew arrows from herself to the mirror and back to all of the objects. I took her outside, thankfully it was nice out. I showed her what happens when we bounce a ball off of a wall. It bounces off at the same angle it comes in at. I related this back to her diagram and showed her that her view of the bathroom changed every time she moved because her angle to the mirror and objects changes. She had never thought about it before. It was really cool to watch someone I have always imagined to know all the answers to still be learning. But weirdest is that I was the one teaching her! WOW! She really liked what I showed her, and said that she would always think of me now when she looks in the mirror! [Student, Exploring Mirrors] 47 This student recognizes her newfound pleasure in thinking about the science of everyday things. She also seems to have a deeper interest in asking questions and trying to help others find the solutions. Assertion 4: Friends and family assignments helped students reflect on their own process of learning science as well as the processes of others, just as suggested by Strand 4. Students were asked to think back to times in their life when they remembered learning science and to figure out what had fostered their learning. Student #14, for example, remembered playing with magnets as a child. When I was about seven years old, my dad brought home a bundle of powerful magnets. At first I wasn't all that impressed with them because we had several magnets on our refrigerator. When he showed me that some ends stuck together and others didn't, I became intrigued. My brother and I would play for hours trying to force two ends that repelled each other together, and trying to pull apart two ends that stuck together. It was a blast! The aspects of this experience that fostered my learning were that it was a hands-­‐on activity and it was fun and interesting to me. If my dad had not allowed me to play with the magnets myself, I would've never realized and understood how they worked. Allowing individuals to experience physics on their own terms gets them engaged and excited about what they are learning! [Student #14, Aspects of Fostering Student Learning] The idea of free exploration is something that this student recognized as a process that seemed to work for herself. While guiding a friend through an exploration of heat and temperature, Student #3 recognized a difference between her prior and current understandings. We experience thermal phenomena everyday in our lives. I talked with my friend about how water boils. He thought that after the water starts to boil, the temperature rises. I probably would have thought that as well a few days ago, but I knew the real answer. We tested it out by putting a thermometer in the water 48 and watched to see that the temperature did not move. After that, I showed him the graph that we made in class. He then had an “Aha” moment and it all connected together. [Student #3, Friends, Family and Thermal Phenomena] By recognizing her own change in understanding, she was able to help her friend come to scientifically correct conclusions. Assertion 5: Friends and family assignments created experiences relevant to Strand 5, for students to collaboratively participate in learning science using language and tools. This course modeled responsiveness to students’ questions by following up on experiences they have had with physical phenomena but have not necessarily understood. During the sound unit, for example, students explored string telephones in class. As part of their homework, they designed an exploration to facilitate with a friend or family member. This student chose to use the string telephone in her exploration. I like how they’re (simple equipment used in class) fun things, like the string telephone. I played with them when I was little but I was always skeptical about how they really work when there’s no actual telephone in it. Now I can understand how the vibrations move through it (the string) and how that plays a part… and even when I’m doing the part of our homework that is to do experiments with someone else, they get interested because it’s something that no one ever talks about and even if it’s just laying on my desk, other friends will ask about it later. [Student #25, Interview] Her comment reveals that she wanted to use the string telephone because she felt others may have had the same experience of playing with one without understanding the physics. In doing so, she notices the excitement of the friend during the exploration. Even more impressive is that she kept her string telephone on her desk and explained it to others who inquired. 49 Students often chose to facilitate their assignment with a parent or older peer. For example, Student #27 facilitated an exploration of the pinhole phenomena with her mother. For this experiment, I had my Mom make a “pinhole camera.” I gave her the instructions on having a tiny hole on the tin foil side and looking at a light bulb through the wax paper end. At first, my Mom put her eye straight up to the tiny hole, which was exactly what I did when I first did this experiment. She then realized she had to hold the camera farther away to see any sort of image. When she first saw the upside down image of light bulb, she thought it was extremely fascinating. One of the first things my Mom said afterwards was that she wanted to do this same experiment with her first graders. I then asked my Mom why she thought the image was a light bulb and better yet, upside down. First thing she said was that it was a mirror image, and that the light was shining through to create exactly what the camera was looking at. After asking my Mom why she thought this was, I explained my findings. I told her that the light rays travel in a straight line. Since the bottom ray shines through the hole and reflects upward, the top ray shines through and reflects downward while the middle shines straight forward, which explains the upside down image. I find it a lot of fun to be able to teach others what I find out through experiments in this class. I never knew such simple things like lights and shadows could be so complex. I also like how I am able to teach older adults. It really shows how much goes on around us that none of us truly even think about on a daily basis. Since starting Physics 111, I find myself noticing things about lights and shadows a lot more, and I also end up telling my friends what I learned that day right when I get back from classes. I love being able to figure things out on my own through my own trial and error. I like that I can ask any question at all, and find the solution to it. [Student #27, Exploring Pinhole Cameras] This student reports enjoyment in sharing with her mother the explanatory model for the pinhole phenomena developed in class and even extends the idea of talking to others about everyday phenomena that she observes. 50 Assertion 6: Friends and family assignments helped students view themselves as learners and teachers of science and as people who know, use and can contribute to science and the learning of science, which directly pertains to Strand 6. During the friends and family assignments, students often acknowledged that while they still felt like they were learning the information, they enjoyed taking on the role of facilitator. Student #15, for example, noted: I looked at quite a few of the sites and I really liked this one [http://www.moonconnection.com/moon_phases.phtml] because the realistic diagram and the thorough explanations. I actually was aware of this site earlier on in the term when we began the moon paper. I was quite frustrated at the time because I could not fully grasp why there were phases. My boyfriend helped me find a site that made sense and this was an actual "Oh, I get it!" moment for me. He explained to me what he thought was right, which was actually only part of the way correct, which is where things got even more confusing. Once we found this site, we were both able to make sense of the whole thing. Being able to visually see the moon going around the earth, and what each phases looks like and the position of the moon, in relation to the earth and the sun. It then has a second moon underneath what we see on earth, this second moon shows what the moon actually looks like in reality...or from outer space I should say. While originally this was a learning moment for myself, I also acted as the teacher because I was explaining very in depth to him my understanding of how the system works, in order to make sense of my moon paper. Having to teach something to someone else actually gives yourself a deeper understanding of the topic, which is very neat. Being able to explain to him was able to clear up any false information and ideas that he had before. He was always told/under the impression that the earth blocks the light causing a shadow on the moon. Me learning from the site, was able to tell him why that wasn't true. [Student #15, Exploring Moon Websites] 51 The feeling of being able to use their understanding in a new situation seems to have helped the students view themselves as teachers as well as learners of science. During some friends and family assignment experiences, students were caught off guard with the realization that they were engaged in science both as a learner and a facilitator. Student #26, for example, began exploring mirrors with her cousin but ended up learning some ideas about physics unexpectedly. Since my cousin is here for the week, I decided to teach her that mirrors reflect light at the same angle the light ray hits the mirror at. First I asked her to explain how mirrors reflect light. She had it pretty much right. I explained it to her in more detail, then we grabbed a flashlight and headed over to the mirror to experiment with it, and see it in action. She played with it for a few minutes, trying to find an angle where the reflection didn't match. She didn't find one, and thought it was really cool that things happen that way. After we were done with that, my cousin, started asking questions. We discussed that light bounces off of objects, light travels in all directions, and basically all the powerful ideas about light we have learned so far. After a while, my cousin asked a question I didn't know the answer to, and, somehow, this got my roommate talking about quantum physics. There was a half hour conversation about how to prove light is a wave, and the Schrodinger equation. I loved explaining everything to my cousin, and I love that she was so curious I ended up telling her everything we learned in class so far. I learned that every chance to teach is a chance to learn. When my roommate was explaining things about light, both me and my cousin were asking questions. She was asking questions about things I have never even thought of (hence the conversation about the Schrodinger equation). [Student #26, Exploring Mirrors] Through this guided inquiry, the student was able to recognize that she was learning and teaching simultaneously and comments on the positive affect she felt. Discussion 52 The research question guiding this study was: How does facilitating informal explorations with friends and family outside of a science course foster learning for the prospective teachers enrolled in the course? Using the six strands of science learning articulated by the 2009 National Research Council report, Learning Science in Informal Environments, I analyzed students’ responses to a particular type of assignment, friends and family assignments. Aspects of all six strands were evident in the responses, showing that students experienced increased interest and motivation, remembered and used scientific concepts and explanations, generated questions and designed explorations to make sense of their world, reflected on the process of learning for themselves and others, actively participated in science activities and reasoning with others and began to view themselves as teachers and learners of science. Involving friends and family outside of the class created ways for learners to think about and use their science knowledge across contexts. The friends and family assignments gave students the opportunity to try out their new knowledge in a safe way, creating an environment that seemed to promote success and the positive affect to which Strand 1 refers. Many students who enrolled in the physics course admitted that initially they were not comfortable with science, especially physics. This is not uncommon. In a study by Weiss (1994), for example, more than half of the teachers surveyed did not feel prepared to teach science in a classroom. The negative affect that some students reported that their roommates had expressed at the beginning of the activities is similar to the negative words that emerged in interviews with preservice teachers (Tosun, 2000). However, positive affect and an appropriate skill set are important for teachers to have, because they are role models in the classroom. If they feel negatively toward science, they can transfer that feeling to their students (McDermott, 1990). The friends and family assignments enhanced students’ 53 interest in learning and teaching science by giving them a great deal of choice in how, where, when and with whom they facilitated their assignments, a condition important in fostering learning (Falk & Dierking, 2000). However in being required to complete the assignments, the students were given limited choice, which has been shown to be more effective, at times, than no choice or totally free-­‐choice (Bamberger & Tal, 2007). The assignments also enhanced interest by helping students make connections to their respective cultural practices, a need articulated by Nasir, Rosebery, Warren and Lee (2006). Often students’ electronic posts revealed that the assignments were enjoyable to complete. These types of experiences are advocated by Jolly, Campbell and Perlman (2004). Every week the students used new science concepts, explanations and models in new settings outside of the classroom in ways similar to those described in Strand 2. Students reported using knowledge long after it was emphasized in their homework. For example, a tool that they created to explore a phenomenon sparked questions from others as many as eight weeks later, requiring the students to recall the related physics. Such experiences enabled the students to draw on resources in a variety of contexts (Smith, diSessa, & Roschelle, 1993) through an on-­‐going process of building and refining their knowledge and understandings (Scott, Asoko, & Leach, 2007). The application of their knowledge at different times and in different settings helped them move from a novice science learner, closer to an expert (NRC, 2000). The friends and family assignments created opportunities for students to make sense of their world through observation and exploration as described in Strand 3. Restructuring a class to incorporate more questioning in collaborative settings, as in this physics course, has been shown to shift the way students think about and talk about physics (Manogue & Krane, 2003). The students then used similar discourse processes in helping friends and family members develop 54 explanatory models for phenomena such as inverted images and the changing phases of the moon. There was no one right way to conduct an assignment; students had to resolve issues that emerged during the facilitation of their friends and family assignment as these happened. Thus the assignments created opportunities outside of class for additional experiences of the kind advocated in the literature (Sandoval, 2003; Lehrer & Schauble, 2010) The process of reflection emphasized in Strand 4 is a key component of the friends and family assignments because, while students facilitated their activity, they were forced to decide what the most important pieces of information were and internalize them (Dewey, 1938). Just as Anderson & Nashon (2007) suggest, their conceptual understanding also solidified due to this metacognitive practice. The online response posts were one way to promote reflection and were found to be useful in ways similar to the weekly reports described by Etkina (2000). These posts gave Etkina the ability to gain a better idea of how students were interpreting the information in class. This physics course used friends and family assignments in a similar way by asking students to reflect on their own learning processes. The friends and family assignments became one way to promote communication among students and other people in their lives through social interactions in which they used scientific language and tools as described in Strand 5. Both inside and outside of the course, students talked about and explained their ideas about science, as is recommended for fostering learning (Duschl, 2008; Kelly, 2007; Osborne, 2010). The friends and family assignments afforded participants with opportunities to participate in learning as a social event with others (Zimmerman, Reeve & Bell, 2010), using scientific explanations, and following social norms (Palincsar, Anderson, & David, 1993). By asking students to report on these experiences, we had a lens with which we could 55 study their learning during a socially mediated process (Astor-­‐Jack, Whaley, Dierking, Perry, & Garibay, 2007). The friends and family assignments provided opportunities for the prospective teachers to create positive views of themselves as people who know about and use science as described in Strand 6. Occasionally, they were apprehensive about conducting the friends and family assignments with people outside of class but after completing the activity they often reported that it was fun or interesting. Through these experiences outside, as well as inside class, they seemed to begin developing identities as both science learners (Brickhouse, Lowery, & Schultz, 2000; Olitsky, 2007) and teachers. Much like citizen science projects (Brossard, Lewenstein, & Bonney, 2005; Thompson & Bonney, 2007), the friends and family assignments seemed to allow students to authentically participate in science. These assignments also provided opportunities for a form of mentoring, producing a sense of competency as described by Hull and Greeno (2006). Simply by engaging in the assignment activities the prospective teachers seemed to feel as though they were contributing to the teaching and learning of others Limitations The findings of this study are limited to the physics courses in which the participants were enrolled. The data represent thoughts of the students during the time they were enrolled; long-­‐term impacts have not been assessed. Over the three quarter period that data were collected, the structure of the course changed in response to the participants’ interests and experiences. The friends and family assignments evolved, for example, from occasional to regular weekly requirements because the experiences seemed so meaningful for the students. These data are limited in that the responses are self-­‐reports about these 56 experiences. There are no audio or video records of the students’ interactions with friends and family. Implications Friends and family assignments have the potential to be built into any curriculum, no matter subject or grade. This study has shown that these types of assignments can create positive experiences for learners and blur the line between in-­‐class and out-­‐of-­‐class learning. Such assignments also can create a platform for discussion, engaging important people in the students’ lives directly in their learning. Using friends and family assignments with prospective teachers can empower them to view themselves as authentic teachers and begin to learn to listen and assess what others are saying. Such assignments foster their awareness of the science understanding of people close to them and enable them to put their own knowledge in perspective. 57 References American Association of Physics Teachers. (2001). Powerful ideas in physical science. College Park, MD: AAPT. 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Vom Lehn, D., Heath, C., & Hindmarsh, J. (2001). Exhibiting interaction: Conduct and collaboration in museums and galleries. Symbolic Interaction, 24(2), 189– 216. Zimmerman, H. T., Reeve, S. & Bell, P. (2010). Family sense-­‐making practices in science center conversations. Science Education, 94(3), 478-­‐505. 62 CONCLUSION Assignments involving friends and family are not typical in college science courses so there is very little literature written about their impacts; however, the teaching methods used in this course can be accessible to every instructor. When students can directly apply what they are learning in class to a situation outside of the classroom, the positive reinforcement can be empowering. The assignments allow prospective teachers to try on the role of facilitator in a safe environment. When they are the facilitators, all aspects of communication become heightened. Not only must they learn to listen and assess the understanding of their friends and family but they must learn to talk through conceptions by others that may not be accurate. This act of playing a role in a comfortable way, with their friends and families, helps the prospective teachers overcome the stigma of physics. It no longer is just a hard subject they hear about; it is something in which they can learn to become curious explorers, effective facilitators, and confident teachers of science. This study is an example of research into practice as it focuses upon aspects of student learning in a physics course for prospective teachers. The author was a graduate student assisting in instruction with responsibility for designing and assessing assignments involving friends and family. This study also is an example of practice informing research as it focuses upon a practice that is unusual in college science courses: assignments that involve students’ friends and family, and raises new questions about the intersection of formal and informal learning processes. 63 BIBLIOGRAPHY The following sources are referenced in the introduction. All other references are noted at the conclusion of each individual manuscript. Brown, J. S., Collins, A., & Duguid, P. (1989). Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational researcher, 18(1), 32-­‐42. Jansen, H., van Zee, E., & Winograd, K. (2006). Integrating physics and literacy learning in a physics course for prospective elementary and middle school teachers. National Science Foundation grant # 06-­‐33752-­‐DUE. Lave, J. & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated learning. Legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press. Lehrer, R. & Schauble, L. (2010). What kind of explanation is a model? In M. K. Stein & L. Kucan (Eds.) Instructional explanations in the disciplines (pp. 9-­‐22). New York: Springer. McDermott, L.C. (1990). A perspective on teacher preparation in physics and other sciences: The need for special science courses for teachers. American Journal of Physics, 58, 734-­‐342. Resnick, L. B. (1997). Getting to work: thoughts on the function and form of the school-­‐to-­‐work transition. In A. M. Lesgold, M. J. Feuer, & A. M. Black, Transitions in work and learning: implications for assessment: papers and proceedings (pp. 249-­‐264). Washington, DC: National Academies Press. Rogers, M. A., & Abell, S. K. (2008). The design, enactment, and experience of inquiry-­‐based instruction in undergraduate science education: A case study. Science Education, 92(4), 591-­‐607. Wenger, E. (1999). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 64 APPENDICES 65 APPENDIX A: CONSENT FORM INFORMED CONSENT DOCUMENT Project Title: Integrating Physics and Literacy Learning in Physics Courses for Prospective Elementary and Middle School Teachers Principal Investigator: Dr. Henri Jansen, Professor, Department of Physics, College of Science Co-­‐Investigator(s): Dr. Emily van Zee, Associate Professor, Department of Science and Mathematics Education, College of Science Dr. Kenneth Winograd, Associate Professor, Department of Teacher and Counselor Education, College of Education Michele Crowl, Adam Devitt, Dept. of Science & Math Education WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY? You are being invited to take part in a research study designed to document physics instruction in laboratory-­‐based courses for prospective teachers. The emphasis is on questioning, predicting, exploring, and discussing what you think and why. Also important will be learning how to integrate literacy experiences when you are teaching science in your own classroom. This study involves documenting learning in detail by videotaping instruction, copying some written work and Blackboard postings, and interviewing the instructor and students about their experiences. The results will be published in journals and posted on a documentary website. We are studying this because we believe that detailed examples of learning in these courses will help interested faculty to implement similar courses at other institutions. 67 WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS FORM? This consent form gives you the information you will need to help you decide whether to be in the study or not. Please read the form carefully. You may ask any questions about the research, the possible risks and benefits, your rights as a volunteer, and anything else that is not clear. When all of your questions have been answered, you can decide if you want to be in this study or not. WHY AM I BEING INVITED TO TAKE PART IN THIS STUDY? You are being invited to take part in this study because you are enrolled in a physics course for prospective teachers, are a graduate of one of these courses, are assisting in one of these courses, are a faculty visitor, or are the course instructor. WHAT WILL HAPPEN DURING THIS STUDY AND HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE? Participating in this study does not require doing anything different from what you normally would do in these courses. Class sessions will be photographed, video-­‐ and audio-­‐taped. Some written work will be copied. If you agree to participate in the study, your responses on written work, Blackboard, or in class may be posted as examples of student thinking on a website documenting the course or may be included anonymously in articles about the course. If you decide not to take part in the study, your responses on written work will not be included in reports about the course, your image will be blurred, and your comments dubbed in a different voice in any photos or videos shown at a conference or posted on the web. If you volunteer for an interview or focus group, the interview or focus group will be conducted in the classroom or in the interviewer’s office. The interview or focus group may last only a few minutes 68 after class or as much as an hour if you have time and interest in expressing your thinking in detail. WHAT ARE THE RISKS OF THIS STUDY? The risks in this study are minimal. You may experience a mild feeling of anxiety from being in a class that is being videotaped. You also may feel intimidated or embarrassed knowing that what you write and say may be seen and reviewed by others. These risks will be minimized by placing the camera as unobtrusively as possible. WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF THIS STUDY? You may benefit from this study if you volunteer for an interview and find reflecting upon your learning processes helpful. You also may feel pleased that others may learn from your experiences in this course. We hope that, in the future, other people might benefit from this study because the findings may help faculty improve instruction. WILL I BE PAID FOR PARTICIPATING? You will not be paid for being in this research study. WHO WILL SEE THE INFORMATION I GIVE? The information you provide during this research study will be kept confidential to the extent permitted by law. To help protect your confidentiality, we will use a pseudonym in quoting what you write. We will use a pseudonym, code name or number to identify your comments in a transcript or copies of written responses or Blackboard postings. The tapes, papers, and any identification of codes will be held in a locked storage area. Electronic files will be kept only on a password-­‐
69 protected computer. If we write a report or article about this study or share the study data set with others, we will do so in such a way that your name will not be identified without your permission. One aspect of this study involves making audio recordings, video recordings, and photographs of the class. We are making these recordings because they can convey instructional practices more vividly than written descriptions. Video clips of instruction may be posted on the documentary website as exemplars of reform-­‐based instruction. Individuals will be identified, if at all, by first names only. The tapes and photographs will be stored in a locked office to which the researchers have access. The tapes and photographs will be archived indefinitely as a resource for faculty interested in becoming course instructors. It is possible that we may want to include video clips from class, or interviews, copies of written work obtained during your participation in this study for similar studies of physics learning in the future. Because it is not possible for us to know what studies may be a part of our future work, we ask that you give permission now for us to use these without being contacted about each future study. If you agree now to future use but decide in the future that you would like to have these removed from the research database, you should contact Dr. Henri Jansen, (541)737-­‐.1668. DO I HAVE A CHOICE TO BE IN THE STUDY? If you decide to take part in the study, it should be because you really want to volunteer. You will not lose any benefits or rights you would normally have if you choose not to volunteer. You can stop at any time during the study and still keep the benefits and rights you had before volunteering. Your decision to participate 70 or not to participate in the study will have no effect on your access to assistance in the course or course grade. You will not be treated differently in class if you decide to participate or not to participate or to stop participating in the study. If you volunteer for an interview, you are free to skip any questions you prefer not to answer. If you choose to withdraw from this project before it ends, the researchers may keep your information and include it in study reports. WHAT IF I HAVE QUESTIONS? If you have any questions about this research project, please contact: Dr. Henri Jansen, 737-­‐1668. If you have questions about your rights as a participant, please contact the Oregon State University Institutional Review Board (IRB) Human Protections Administrator, at (541) 737-­‐4933 or by email at IRB@oregonstate.edu. Your signature indicates that this research study has been explained to you and that your questions have been answered. Please be sure to check yes or no below. You will receive a copy of this form. Participant’s Name (printed): ______________________________________________________ __________________________________________
_______________________________ (Signature) (Date) Please check ___ yes I agree to participate in this study Or ___ no, I do not agree to participate in this study 71 Also: Please check ___ yes, I agree that data including my image, utterances, or writing may be included in similar studies of learning physics in the future. Or ___ no, I do not agree that data including my image, utterances, or writing may be included in future studies. 72 APPENDIX B: FRIENDS AND FAMILY ASSIGNMENTS This section contains all of the friends and family assignment posts from Winter, Spring and Fall 2009, and Winter 2010 for the four types of assignments: engaging prior knowledge, interviewing, exploring physical phenomena and analyzing websites. These assignments were often part of a larger homework assignment so the titles vary. Some of the assignments are near or exact duplicates; this implies they were assigned in different terms. The number of each type of assignment is not the same for each term. Often the assignments attempted to mirror the interests of the students in the course that term. Engaging prior knowledge ‘Story’ about science learning Write a ‘story’ about your experiences in learning about sound and the aspects of these experiences that fostered your learning Post drawing(s) of your moon observations and a story about any experience that you've had involving the moon. Aspects for fostering science learning Describe an experience inside or outside of school in which you learned some physics and enjoyed the process. Then identify aspects of this experience that fostered your learning. Look up and tell us a story! Challenge yourself to look up in the sky many times over the course of a 73 day/night. Look for the moon and draw what you observe. Be sure to label which direction you see it in the sky and feel free to include other details in your picture. For example, if you are looking out your bedroom window and a moon is just above a street light, draw the moon in detail and include the street lamp to show that it appears to be low in the sky from your point of view. Also try to label if the moon is in the northern, southern, eastern or western (or some combination) part of the sky. Scan your picture(s) or take a digital photo(s) and upload them to blackboard. If you do not have access to a camera/computer, cameras will be available before class. Please arrive a few minutes early and bring your drawing(s) to upload. Also, post a story about an experience that you've had involving the moon. This can be about a time you've observed the moon or a cultural story that you've heard or even artwork that you've seen about the moon. Exploring science learning Describe experiences inside or outside of school in which you learned some physics and enjoyed the process. Then identify aspects that fostered your learning. How do these compare with the list of aspects that foster science learning that we generated in class? Learning about sound Write a story about your experiences in learning about sound at any time in your life, inside or outside of school. What aspects of these experiences fostered your learning? How do these aspects compare with those generated by your colleagues today in class? 74 Interviewing Listening: a. Ask 2 people of different ages or professions: What is the first thing you think of when you think about the word ‘sound’? How is a sound made? How do we hear sound? If a tree falls in a forest but no one is around, will it make a sound? Why or why not? (Add additional questions that you are curious about people’s thinking about sound.) b. Please note the gender, approximate age and job/grade level of each person. c. Record responses for each individual as accurately as you can d. Summarize your findings e. Post your file on BlackBoard and read your colleagues’ posts as well to get a sense for what people know and think about sound. Listening: Interview a child of the age you want to teach and an adult about their experiences with sinking and floating. Make up about five questions that you think will help you document what their experiences have been and how they think about sinking and floating. Report: a. Information about your interviewees (age, gender, occupation (adult) b. Protocol (questions you ask) c. Responses for each (as close to verbatim as possible) d. Summary of responses for each e. Reflection 75 Seasons interview Interview at least 2 people, one of the age that you'd like to teach and one of a different age, about their understanding of why we have seasons. Summarize your interview findings and post the summaries on Blackboard. Interviews about moon phases Interview at least 3 people about their understanding of why the moon changes shape. If you find that their answer is not quite correct, share your understanding with them. (You can just tell them or you can act it out like we did in class.) Summarize each interview. Interviews about moon Find two people to interview about the moon. Try to choose one person about the age that you would like to teach and one of a much different age. Develop a set of questions that you will use and the test them out! Be sure to include information about the person you are interviewing (age, gender, profession, etc) as well as questions about the moon’s appearance (shape, size color), when it can be seen, how it appears to move in our sky and a few interesting questions of your own. Write a summary of each interview and post the summaries on Blackboard. Read through your classmates’ interviews for ideas that you might use next time and to see what others know and think about the moon. Interview about heat and temperature Interview two people about their understandings about heat and temperature. If possible, one should be a student of the age you would like to teach and the 76 other should be an adult. Report: a. brief description of your interviewees (gender, estimate of age) b. your “protocol” (questions you asked) c. example responses for each individual as accurately as you can d. summary of your findings Listening to ideas about light Interview two people about their understandings about light. If possible, one should be a student of the age you would like to teach and the other should be an adult. Report: a. brief description of your interviewees (gender, estimate of age) b. your “protocol” (questions you asked) c. example responses for each individual as accurately as you can d. summary of your findings Post your report of the interview here. Read what your classmates have posted to get a sense of what people know about light. Listening during interviews about sound a. Interview a child of the age you want to teach and an adult about their understandings about sound. Please record the questions that you ask. b. Note the gender, approximate age and job/grade level of each person. c. Record responses for each individual as accurately as you can d. Summarize your findings Exploring physical phenomena Experiment design 77 Design an experiment that demonstrates something you learned about sound. Try your experiment with a friend or family member. Summarize how you came up with the idea for your experiment, the aspect of sound that it will help someone understand, and how the experiment went with your friend or family member. Using the same directions from the website you used in class, make a string telephone with a friend or family member. Help your friend or family member understand how the telephone works and allow them to explore their own questions, just as you did in class. If you would like to alter the materials, you may, but please explain what you used and whether it worked better than the original or not. Summarize how you made your string telephone, how you explained it to your friend or family member and what experiments you tried. Include a photo if you’d like! http://pbskids.org/zoom/activities/sci/stringtelephone.html Think about your learning of sound and how the instrument you used in class increased your understanding of the phenomenon. Explain these ideas. Using the information you just recorded, find some household materials and guide a friend or family member through the same activity we did in class. Encourage them to make a creative instrument and then help them understand how the sound is made and how we hear it. Summarize your experiment. Shadow explorations Use your cardboard to cut out a shape with which to explore shadows with a friend or family member. Post the questions you explore and your findings on the discussion board by beginning of class Thursday. 78 Friends, family and thermal phenomena How often do you experience thermal phenomena in your life outside the classroom? While you are with a friend and/or family member, have a discussion about the thermal phenomena during one of your daily experiences. This could happen while cooking a meal, walking barefoot on a cold tile floor, filling a bathtub, etc. Describe what happened, what questions were asked, and what interesting ideas or learning came out of the conversation! Design your own experiment Design your own experiment about thermal phenomena and try it with at least one other friend or family member. Post a summary of your experience on Blackboard. Include a description of your experiment and reflect on the process you went through. Questions to think about: What did you plan? What did you say? How did your friend/family respond? Did it go exactly as you planned? Moon Dancin’ with friends and family Do the moon dance with friends and family and describe what happens. Engage at least two people in your production. In your post, please describe what you did and reflect on how it went. Exploring mirrors with friends and family 79 With at least one friend or family member, explore and explain a property of mirrors. It can be something that we have already explored in class or something new. You choose how and what to explore. Please summarize your experiments and comment on what you learned about teaching and learning. Exploring shadows Use your cardboard to cut out a shape with which to explore shadows with a friend or family member. Post the questions you explore and your findings on the discussion board. Sounds around the house Listen around your home and work environments. What sounds do you hear? In what ways, if any, have the in-­‐class experiments influenced the way you think about them? Use one or more of these examples to discuss your new understanding of sound with a friend or family member. Summarize your discussion. Sticky Tape Experiments Try some sticky tape experiments with a friend or family member. Describe what happened, what questions were asked, and what interesting ideas or learning came out of the conversation! Representing sound Design an experiment to do with a friend or family member! Try out a similar experiment to what we did in class, with a friend or family member. First, find a ringtone or sound clip from the internet or a song that you think would be easy enough for someone to represent. Play the clip and ask your friend or family 80 member to describe it in words. Then play the clip again and ask them to represent the sound in some other way. If you have crayons/markers/colored pencils, you might invite your friend or family member to use them. A pen or pencil will work just fine too, or use a completely different material. Ask them to describe their drawing, and if they’ll allow you, bring it to class next Tuesday. Note: It might be interesting to try the same experiment with two people and compare their representations! Design a sound experiment Design an experiment for a friend or family member that will allow you to facilitate their learning about sound. You can use something that we've done in class or come up with your own. Please post a description of your experiment, a summary of how it went with your friend or family member and a reflection about the experience. Facilitating learning about sound Try out with a friend or family member the activity you plan to do with the small group of 3rd graders in Sage Robertson's classroom. Post on BlackBoard a description of what happens and how you are thinking about learning and teaching in this context. Analyzing websites Exploring sound websites Find a website related to sound that has fun and factual information on it. Invite a friend or family member to explore the website with you. How well does this website work as a source of information about the physics of sound? What 81 aspects of the website help your friend/family member to understand the physics of sound? What aspects of the website hinder learning? What did you learn about learning and teaching from this experience? Please include the URL for the website in your reflection. Exploring moon websites with Friends and Family Put "moon phases explanation" into Google search and browse among websites that purport to explain the phases of the moon. Choose the one that you like best. Invite a friend or family member to explore the website with you. How well does this website work as a source of information about the phases of the moon: What aspects of the website help your friend/family member to understand the causes of the phases of the moon? What aspects of the website hinder learning? What did you learn about learning and teaching from this experience? Please include the URL for the website in your reflection. Reflecting on these experiences as a whole Reflecting on friends and family assignments Look back over the discussion board, through all of the friends and family assignments and experiences that you've facilitated and described. Post a reflection about your experiences, how/if these types of assignments are useful or a hindrance, and more. Please be thoughtful and thorough. You're ideas and opinions are important to the work that we do! 82 APPENDIX C: ADDITIONAL ANALYSES Interviewees The interviews were the only assignment that asked students to choose friends and family of different age groups and then specify their age; however, two of the assignments did not explicitly ask for the age of the friend or family member. In one case, students chose not to ask or insert the age of the interviewee and those posts were not included in the tabulations below. Table 1 shows the breakdown of age groups the students interviewed. The categories are estimates of age. PreK-­‐5 corresponds to 3-­‐10 year olds. Middle school is comprised of interviewees that are between the ages of 11 and 14 years and high school, 15 to 18 years. The term “typical roommate” represents the large number of interviews conducted by someone the same age as the interviewer, 19 to 21 years of age. The term “friend” refers to someone older than the typical roommate, between the age of 21 and 40. Parent and grandparent correspond to 41 to 60 years old and 61 to 69 year old categories respectfully. Table 1 Tally of Interviewees Age Group Number of Occurrences as a Participant PreK-­‐5 27 Middle School 3 High School 5 Roommate 39 Friend 10 Parent 11 Grandparent 2 83 It is not surprising that the highest age category is roommates. This is due to sheer convenience. Many of the students in this course live on or near campus. Unless they are student teaching or from the town where the university resides, it was not always possible for the students to speak with children in time to complete the assignment.