Supporting Scientific Experimentation and Reasoning in Young Elementary School Students (original) (raw)
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We describe the implementation of a specially designed teaching innovation, embedded in the context of energy, for the promotion of specific aspects of the nature of science (NOS). We present empirical results from the implementation of the teaching and learning materials in three intact sixth-grade classes that involved a total of 64 students. We report on students' learning gains and we discuss the ensuing implications for teaching and learning with an emphasis on epistemic ideas. The integration of activities promoting understandings of energy and specific aspects of the NOS seems to work well in impacting on students' epistemic awareness. The findings reveal interesting aspects about the interplay between understandings of energy and the NOS. The article also illustrates that it is possible to teach productively specific aspects of a consensus view of the NOS from a fairly young age without having to rely on advanced science knowledge or explore the intricacies and differentiations across science disciplines.
Heat and temperature experiment designs to support students’ conception on nature of science
Journal of Technology and Science Education, 2018
Constructing student’s scientific literacy is still a challenge for the developing country. PISA 2015 report on scientific literacy showed that Indonesia was positioned at 62th out of 70 countries. According to this result, the students are only able to explain the simple science phenomenon because some learning activities have not followed good scientific inquiry as a fundamental aspect of the nature of science. To overcome the problem, PISA 2015 stated that teachers are suggested to design well-structured laboratory activities that make actual scientific concepts and ideas, and help students make the connection among the hands-on activities, scientific ideas and real-life problems. Moreover, the student’s conception of the nature of scientific knowledge is required to help a student become a scientifically literate person. This work aims to construct science knowledge and contextual problems to support students’ conception of the nature of science. In the case of the physics subje...
Uncovering the Potential: The Role of Technologies on Science Learning of Middle School Students
International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, 2008
There is, no doubt, untapped potential in using technological tools to enhance the understanding of science concepts. This study examines the potential by observing 7th and 8th grade middle school students_ (n=23) use of portable data collection devices in a nine-week elective class, Exploring Technologies. Students_ use of the data collection devices and subsequent interactions were traced through audiocassette and videocassette recordings, field notes, and student artifacts. The culminating activity for the course was a scientific investigation that required students to use the technologies to answer student-selected research questions. To illustrate the use of technology as a mediatory tool, an inquiry investigation of three student groups is described. In examining the three groups of middle school students the researchers encountered specific evidence of technology maximizing students_ science learning. The students were able to use the portable data collection devices in their investigations as they discussed scientific ideas related to temperature and heat. The study_s findings indicated that the three student groups were able to use the tools to conduct scientific inquiry and engage in scientific discourse. Further research on instructional approaches that allow students to develop expertise by using technology as tools to construct knowledge about complex phenomena is encouraged.
Psychological Science, 2004
In a study with 112 third and fourth grade children, we measured the relative effectiveness of discovery learning and direct instruction at two points in the learning process (a) during the initial acquisition of the basic cognitive objective: a procedure for designing and interpreting simple, unconfounded experiments, and (b) during the subsequent transfer and application of this basic skill to more diffuse and authentic reasoning associated with the evaluation of science fair posters. We found not only that many more children learned from direct instruction than from discovery learning, but also that when asked to make broader, richer scientific judgments the (many) children who learned about experimental design from direct instruction performed as well as those (few) children who discovered the method on their own. These results challenge predictions derived from the presumed superiority of discovery approaches to teaching young children basic procedures for early scientific investigations.
EURASIA Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education
National efforts have described the need for students to develop scientific proficiency and have identified informal learning environments, interactive technologies, and an understanding of inquiry as ways to support this development. The Habitat Tracker project was developed in response to this need by developing a digitally-supported, inquiryoriented curriculum focused on engaging elementary students in science practices in formal and informal settings. This study employed a mixed methods approach to explore how engagement in the project affected 125 fourth and fifth grade elementary students' views of scientific inquiry and if certain aspects of scientific inquiry were shaped by student participation. The Views of Scientific Inquiry-Elementary School Version (VOSI-E), was administered before and after students had engaged with a three week Habitat Tracker curriculum and assessed aspects including the role of questions, diversity of methods, experiments and investigations, developing scientific explanations, supporting scientific explanations, predictions and hypotheses, role of subjectivity, role of creativity, and goal of science. VOSI-E responses were analyzed using a mixed methods approach. Chi-squared test results suggest that classroom learning coupled with visits to a wildlife center can help improve student understanding of scientific inquiry when integrated with technologyenhanced, field-based inquiries that emphasize the practices of science.
2007
This free executive summary is provided by the National Academies as part of our mission to educate the world on issues of science, engineering, and health. If you are interested in reading the full book, please visit us online at http://www.nap.edu/catalog/11625.html. You may browse and search the full, authoritative version for free; you may also purchase a print or electronic version of the book. If you have questions or just want more information about the books published by the National Academies Press, please contact our customer service department toll-free at 888-624-8373. What is science for a child? How do children learn about science and how to do science? Drawing on a vast array of work from neuroscience to classroom observation, Taking Science to School provides a comprehensive picture of what we know about teaching and learning science from kindergarten through eighth grade. By looking at a broad range of questions, this book provides a basic foundation for guiding science teaching and supporting students in their learning. Taking Science to School answers such questions as: • When do children begin to learn about science? Are there critical stages in a child's development of such scientific concepts as mass or animate objects? • What role does nonschool learning play in children's knowledge of science? • How can science education capitalize on children's natural curiosity? • What are the best tasks for books, lectures, and hands-on learning? • How can teachers be taught to teach science? The book also provides a detailed examination of how we know what we know about children's learning of science-about the role of research and evidence. This book will be an essential resource for everyone involved in K-8 science education-teachers, principals, boards of education, teacher education providers and accreditors, education researchers, federal education agencies, and state and federal policy makers. It will also be a useful guide for parents and others interested in how children learn.
Journal of Baltic Science Education, 2022
There is a severe shortcoming in science programs in kindergartens in Saudi Arabia. Therefore, this paper presents a conceptual framework for teaching physics concepts to kindergartens to contribute to the consolidation of scientific knowledge by stimulating the skills of inquiry, problem-solving and scientific thinking among children. The research aimed to study the effect of a program based on simplifying some physics concepts on kindergarten children's knowledge. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, observation, video recordings of simple lab instruments for physics concepts, and children's in-app interactions and children's photographs. The sample consisted of (8) children of the age groups (5: 6 years) at the third level in kindergarten. The results indicated that children can be taught some scientific thinking skills. Children who practiced the planned activities developed their knowledge more orderly. Accordingly, it is concluded that the program can indicate the success of introducing natural sciences to the kindergarten stage. The current research recommends studies that show the quality and specifications of programs that suit the child's characteristics at this stage and the nature of education.
Journal of Science Education and Technology, 2019
The Next Generation Science Standards support understanding of the nature of science as it is practiced and experienced in the real world through interconnected concepts to be imbedded within scientific practices and crosscutting concepts. This study explored how fourth and fifth grade elementary students' views of nature of science change when they engage in a technology-enhanced, scientific inquiry-oriented curriculum that takes place across formal and informal settings. Results suggest that student engagement in technology-enhanced inquiry activities that occur in informal and formal settings when supported through explicit instruction focused on metacognitive and social knowledge construction can improve elementary students' understanding of nature of science.