Untangling what teachers mean by the motivational value of practical work (original) (raw)

Listening to Learners’ Views About the Value of Practical Work in Natural Sciences

PONTE International Scientific Researchs Journal, 2017

Teaching and learning by engaging learners in practical work in science is regarded as useful in linking theory to practice. Practical work is linked to inquiry based learning, and is seen as a route to learning how to apply the scientific method. Within the South African context, where learner performance in Science and Mathematics has been dismal based on international and national evaluative tests, the importance of practical work has received greater attention. A large amount of the work that has been done about practical work in science classrooms focusses on practicing or pre-service teachers. Little attention has been directed to what learners say about practical work. We address this paucity by exploring learners' views about practical work, through the following question: "What are learners' views about the effectiveness of practical work in Natural Sciences classrooms? Why do learners hold these views?" In order to respond to these questions we designed a qualitative study within an interpretivist paradigm. We purposively selected grade nine Natural Sciences learners who participated in individual and focus group interviews. Our findings reveal that all the participants valued practical work for four reasons. First, practical work enabled learning of science process skills; second, it deepened conceptual understanding; third, it made science fun and enjoyable and finally, it enabled them to relate classroom science to activities in daily life. These findings are significant to science teachers and policy makers who determine the scope of practical work.

The Effectiveness of Practical Work on Students’ Interest towards Learning Physics

2018

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the use of practical work in secondary school can enhance students’ interest towards learning physics. This study was conducted in a secondary school at Semporna district in Sabah. A total of sixty-six (66) Form Four students (e.g., 16 years old) participated in this research; thirty-two (32) students were assigned to experimental group and thirty-four (34) students to control group. The experimental group was taught by using practical work meanwhile the control group was taught by using traditional teaching method. Overall, mixed methods were used in this study. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected through questionnaire and interviews. Pre-survey and post-survey on interest towards learning physics were administered before and after the treatment for both groups. Besides, a semi-structured interview was conducted as well after the treatment in both groups to observe about their feedback. Quantitative data were gathered...

Science practical work and its impact on students' science achievement

Journal of Technology and Science Education, 2020

The purpose of this quasi-experimental study is to evaluate the overall effect of practical work on students’ academic attainment in science. Participants were selected from tenth grade students (chemistry and biology) and eleventh grade students (chemistry), then divided into groups. The control groups were taught using traditional method of teaching science, while the same content was given to the experimental groups using intensive practical work. Pre and post-tests were given to all groups. The mean score comparison revealed a significant difference in the attainment scores of the experimental and control groups. It is thus recommended that students be given ample opportunity to be engaged in practical lessons in secondary schools. This entails that the administration of schools supplies their labs with all equipment needed for practical work to be effectively implemented.SCIENCE PRACTICAL WORK AND ITS IMPACT ON STUDENTS’ SCIENCE ACHIEVEMENT

Secondary Science Teachers’ Views about Purposes of Practical Works in School Science

The purpose of this paper was to examine views of secondary school science teachers about purposes to use practical works in school science. The instrument to survey consisted eighteen items, which were categorized into four components as follows: 'Scientific inquiry', 'Scientific knowledge', 'Science-related attitude', and 'STS (science-technology-society)'. Subjects were 152 secondary school science teachers (male 70 and female 82; middle school 50 and high school 102), who are teaching in 42 schools of 8 provinces. On the survey, science teachers were asked to answer on 5-point Lickert scale (from 1 to 5) how they thought of using practical works on purposes with domains of science objectives in school. They had positive views about using practical works for improving scientific inquiry process skills, science-related attitudes, and perceptions about STS literacy, and acquiring scientific knowledge. They would have the most willingness of using pra...

Conceptual Demand of Practical Work in Science Curricula

Research in Science Education, 2014

The article addresses the issue of the level of complexity of practical work in science curricula and is focused on the discipline of Biology and Geology for high school. The level of complexity is seen in terms of the emphasis and types of practical work and, most important, in terms of its level of conceptual demand as given by the complexity of scientific knowledge, the degree of interrelation between knowledges and the complexity of cognitive skills. The study also analyzes recontextualizing processes that may occur within the official recontextualizing field. The study is psychologically and sociologically grounded, particularly on Bernstein's theory of pedagogic discourse. It uses a mixed methodology. The results show that practical work is poorly represented in the curriculum, particularly in the case of laboratory work. The level of conceptual demand of practical work varies according to the text under analysis, between the two subjects Biology and Geology and, within each one of them, between general and specific guidelines. Aspects studied are not clearly explicated to curriculum receivers (teachers and textbooks authors). The meaning of these findings is discussed in the article. In methodological terms, the study explores assumptions used in the analysis of the level of conceptual demand and presents innovative instruments constructed for developing this analysis.