Inquiry good…traditional bad?.
Approaches to teaching scientific
conceptual knowledge
Phil Scott
CSSME, School of Education
University of Leeds
p.h.scott@education.leeds.ac.uk
The Technion Israel, June 2009
Leeds
Leeds University Campus
Centre for Studies in Science and Mathematics
Education (CSSME)
Jaume Ametller
Hilary Asoko
Indira Banner
Jim Donnelly
Andy Edwards
Edgar Jenkins
John Leach
Jenny Lewis
Jim Ryder
Phil Scott
Science Education NOW! A renewed
pedagogy for the future of Europe
Deductive
pedagogical
approach
Inductive
pedagogical
approach
Science Education NOW! A renewed
pedagogy for the future of Europe
The deductive pedagogical approach:
…teacher presents the concepts, their logicaldeductive implications and gives examples of
applications.
… ‘top-down transmission’ …children must be
able to handle abstract notions, which make it
difficult to start teaching science before
secondary education.
‘Traditional’
teaching
Science Education NOW! A renewed
pedagogy for the future of Europe
The inductive pedagogical approach
…gives more space to observation,
experimentation and the teacher-guided
construction by the child of his/her own
knowledge.
…a ‘bottom-up’ approach
eg: working on an hourglass.
…inquiry based
science education
Science Education NOW! A renewed
pedagogy for the future of Europe
Call for:
‘A reversal of school-science teaching pedagogy
from mainly deductive to inquiry-based
methods…provides the means to increase
interest in science’
Concerns…and thoughts…
1. The polarisation of deductive (traditional) and
inquiry approaches: creating a dichotomy
2. Suggested reversal of school science
teaching pedagogy
•
•
Need to match teaching approaches to
teaching purposes
Deductive teaching: boring, teacher- centred,
top-down. How can we teach science
concepts better?
ESRC Research Project: Dialogic
Teaching in Science Classrooms (20052007)
Professor Neil Mercer: Cambridge University
Professor Phil Scott: University of Leeds
Jaume Ametller, Leeds
Judith Staarman, Cambridge
Lyn Dawes, De Montford
How does ‘dialogic teaching’ appear in primary
and secondary science classrooms?
Teacher and students…
Experienced teacher: ‘advanced skills’
24 students: mixed ability
Aged 11-12 years
Grade 7
Topic: Forces,
GRAVITY
Gravity bashing
Teacher: Now! We’re about to have a go at bashing
gravity! We’re going to just see who in this room actually is
capable of beating the pull of gravity towards the Earth even
though they are not connected to it.
Beam hanging: Zoe
Teacher: can you feel some tension Zoe? Can you? Nod!
You don’t have to speak. Impressive stuff! What’s the
gravity doing here Shari? What are her arms doing
Jason? 30 seconds! 30 seconds! Outstanding. What’s
it feel like Zoe? What’s gravity like? Which way do you
slip? Towards? Yeah towards the Earth.
Who’s that Paige?
Teacher: who’s that Paige?
We’ll try to put some arrows
onto there to show what was
going on with Paige in terms
of forces.
Levi and Ged
Teacher: Are you going
to put an arrow head
on there…?
Levi and Ged
Teacher: Are you going
to put an arrow head on
there or?…
Teacher: Are you going
to put an arrow head
on there…?
Levi and Ged
Teacher:
Any comments? Alex.
Teacher:
Are you going
to put anAlex:
arrow head
on felt tension down their
They
there
or?…
sides
as well
Teacher: so it’s interesting Alex is
talking
where
shehead
knows
Teacher: Are you going
to about
put an
arrow
on
Zoe words
felt the tension
there or?… They’rePaige
usingand
good
aren’t and
they felt it in their arms and you’re
they? Tension, gravity.
sayingAny
theycomments
also felt it in that
their
you’ve got? Alex. sides.
Holly
Teacher: Holly what have you got to say?
Holly: Gravity pulls down so the arrow pulls down
Teacher: so you’ve looked at the direction that the
gravity is going. Now you would make a change
there and move it. What, the other way?
Holly: yeah.
Holly
Teacher: And why do you say that?
Holly: cos gravity is pulling her down
Teacher: to where? Where’s it pulling her?
Holly: to the Earth
Teacher: ok. So you’d make a change there
Josie
Teacher: Come on then Josie, let’s see what’s she’s got to
say. Remember to face your audience Josie and tell
them as you’re doing it. Nathan! Have you got ants in
your pants?
Josie
Josie: Well, gravity is
pulling down
Teacher: yeah. She’s
saying gravity is pulling
it down.
Josie
Josie: Em, you’ve got
tension like…she’s got
tension like all there →
Teacher: in the arms…ok…
Josie: And she’s sort of got,
I’m not sure what the word
for this is, but she’s got like
a force in her arms keeping
her up.
Josie
Teacher: Well we used a
word…it was hanging down
from that beam over there on
top of George’s head and it
was in the rope. What word
was that
Josie: Haaa!! Tension?
Teacher: It was tension, wasn’t
it? So where will you put that
then?
Josie: In her hand…
Josie
Teacher: Go on then….is
that the direction it goes?
Is that what you’re trying to
show or..?
Josie: NO it’s showing
where it is.
Teacher: This is interesting
….you’ve talked Josie
about a tension in her arms
keeping her up there. Is
there anything else you
want to add? Go on then
Jason, you show us..
Communicative approach
Focus on
science view
(Authoritative)
Open to
different points
of view
(Dialogic)
Interactive
Noninteractive
Presentation
Presentation
‘Q&A’
‘lecture’
Probing
Prompting
Review
Encouraging
Arrows: and the visual grammar of
science…
1. Arrows: pointing to a location:
‘labelling function’
‘EVERYDAY FUNCTION’
2. Arrows: signifying action: the size and
direction of a force
‘SCIENTIFIC FUNCTION’
Kress and Van Leeuwen, 1998
3 groups so far….
Teacher: Now, I’ve listened to
3 groups so far and I think
I’m making sense of what
you’re getting and what
you’re not getting….
3 groups so far….
None of these diagrams
explain to me why Paige
wasn’t falling off the
beam…I know she did
eventually and gravity beat
her. But for 31 seconds
she beat gravity.
3 groups so far….
And at the moment there’s
nothing on this diagram that
tells me that that force down
is being matched by
something going somewhere
else…
Which way it is and how big it is…
Teacher: Now the way everybody’s drawn their arrows
so far, they’re using an arrow as a way of showing
where the force is here [with tension arrows] and here
[with gravity arrow], they’re doing it right they’re
showing which way the force goes and how big it is…
Non-interactive dialogic approach
‘Meaning making is like an electric spark that
occurs only when two different terminals are
hooked together’
(Voloshinov)
Here the teacher:
…holds up the ‘two terminals’ for scrutiny by the
students….drawing attention to the emerging
dialogic space…
Wegerif (2007) Dialogic education and technology:
Expanding the space of learning
Dialogic Space
‘Dialogic space opens up when two or more perspectives
are held together in tension’
‘Meaning arises out of, and depends upon, an original
‘creative difference’ or ‘opening’ that could be thought of
as the opening of a dialogue’.
‘Creating a dialogic space is therefore central to a
pedagogy ‘for thinking, creativity and learning to learn…’
A ‘turning point’
dialogic exploration
of everyday and
scientific views
Requires
resolution
through…
authoritative
guidance/statements
by the teacher
The relationship between dialogic
and authoritative approaches
dialogic exploration
of everyday and
scientific views
Requires
resolution
through…
demand…
authoritative
guidance/statements
by the teacher
…each approach contains the ‘seed’ of the other
Scott, Aguiar, Mortimer, 2006
…put a tension arrow on here…
Teacher: Now we should be
able to put a tension arrow on
here…in the right place. What
do you think Holly? → Now
then, this is very interesting.
Tell us what you’ve done.
Tension…moving up her arms
Holly: Because she’s pulling
the tension in her arms is
moving up her arms…
Tension…moving up her arms
Teacher: Yeah, you can feel it can’t you. → Still a bit of
work to do on this. I reckon we’ve got the right direction.
We haven’t quite got the right place. And we haven’t
quite got that that matches that…..
Why this activity?
• Strengthens the idea of the Earth pulling…by
getting the pupils ‘away’ from the surface.
• Offers a system of balancing forces acting on
the ‘body’: pull of Earth down equal to tension in
arms up.
• Physical engagement of pupils
• Emotional engagement…via competition
• A memorable event…a point of reference …a
sense of theatre
• Better than working on an hour glass?
Promoting meaningful learning of
conceptual networks:
-Making links between ideas and phenomena: the
hanging ‘mass’
-Differentiating between ideas: force ‘vector’ convention
and labelling arrows
-Introducing new ideas: action at a distance
-Developing ideas in novel contexts: ‘gravity bashing’
Moving between communicative
approaches
The DIALOGIC tendency: allowing time and
space for pupil thinking
• Working in pairs/groups
• Pupils making explicit and elaborating upon their ideas;
commenting on others’ ideas…
The AUTHORITATIVE tendency: controlling and
shaping the flow of ideas
• Introducing key terms; repeating key ideas; synthesising
and summarising…
Negotiating TURNING POINTS:
• Opening up and closing down the discourse…
Pedagogical skills
• Sustaining a line of talking and thinking
as ideas are introduced, reviewed,
consolidated in a cumulative process
involving temporal links
• Monitoring and keeping track of student
understandings
• Progressing from phenomenon to
description to explanation
• Selecting activities carefully to develop
the science story
Pedagogical skills: affective sensitivity
• Systematically encouraging participation of all
members of class
• Offering praise
• Modelling enthusiasm
• Remembering individual pupil’s ideas and
arguments…and linking to their name
• Creating appropriate working environments:
own space…sat round front
• Being consistent, warm and in control
Planning teaching to support
meaningful learning of science
Working on knowledge
Other
concepts
Science
concept
Extending contexts
Learning
demand
Everyday
view
Pattern of
discourse
Auth.
Teaching
activity
Communicative
approach
Dial.
Teaching purposes
Pedagogical interventions
How to characterise this teaching…?
Top-down transmission?
Non-motivational: boring?
Passive engagement of pupils ?
Abstract ideas?
A renewed pedagogy for the future of
Europe
Traditional
science
teaching
Dialogic
pedagogical
approach
pedagogical
Inquiry
pedagogical
approach
Inquiry
pedagogical
approach
purposes
Extended repertoire pedagogy