|
Thursday, 05 August 2010 00:00 |
Developing Scientific Practices: Understanding how and when children consider their everyday activities to be related to science - Heather Zimmerman and Philip Bell - NARST 2008 Conference Paper, April 2008 Abstract: In this paper, our goal is to examine learner meanings for what counts as scientific practices and when learners’ own activities count as science-related in order to better understand science learning. We then seek to leverage children’s meanings for scientific practice to develop design principles to be used in building educational interventions in science domains to reach youth in ways that make sense to them. To accomplish these objectives, we analyze how and when a group of 10- to 12-year-old children from the same multiethnic, multilingual elementary school participate in various activities across settings. We create grounded accounts for the individual, social, and cultural meanings attached to children’s understandings of scientific practices to understand the influences on children’s decisions to continue or to discontinue their affiliations with science-related activities. We first share findings in the form of an inventory of what activities the children in our study participated in and when these activities counted as science. Second, we show through one case study of a child interested in animals how participation in multiple activities included a range of epistemic, materials and social influences. Finally, we discuss how a study of changing make up activities can show indicators that may influence future participation in science-related contexts to create a possible trajectory into academic science.
Full Text: PDF |
|
|
Saturday, 20 February 2010 19:04 |
Understanding Children’s Everyday Science Learning Through Analysis of Home Science Kit Activity - Philip Bell, Suzanne Reeve, Heather Toomey Zimmerman - Cognitive Studies in Education, LIFE Center Abstract: As part of a larger ethnographic research project on children’s everyday learning of science and technology, twelve upper elementary and early middle school children were videotaped working on commercial science kits at home. The informal home setting, combined with the formal, designed nature of the kits, gives unique insight into how children learn scientific content and processes, both in and out of school. This paper focuses on two of the children, an 11-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl. The cases were selected from the broader set as examples of how the science kit activity highlighted aspects of learners’ identities as well as the diverse learning arrangements in which the child participated. We found interesting connections between the scientific practices the children adopted while using the science kits at home and their practices in other contexts. We also found that the involvement level of peers and family members differed in ways that reflect broader interactions in the home, and seem to affect children’s ideas about learning and hands-on science. This work has implications for how children engage with science activities in a variety of formal and informal contexts. Full Text: PDF |
|
Saturday, 20 February 2010 18:56 |
Problem based learning in science - Coral Pepper - Issues in Educational Research, 19(2), 2009 Abstract: Problem based learning (PBL) is a recognised teaching and learning strategy used to engage students in deep rather than surface learning. It is also viewed as a successful strategy to align university courses with the real life professional work students are expected to undertake on graduation (Biggs, 2003). Problem based learning is practised internationally, for example, in Europe, Australia and the United States (Dolmans et al., 2005; Savin-Baden, 2000; Schwartz et al, 2001). In this paper I report on implementing PBL tasks to replace conventional tutorial and laboratory sessions in three first year units during 2007 and 2008. I also describe participant unit coordinators' understanding of the changes required to shift their focus from 'what the teacher is teaching' to 'what the students are learning' and include student perceptions of PBL in these units. Generally unit coordinators perceive the implementation as successful and valuable to enhance the student learning experience. Student feedback on PBL is varied and ranges from enjoyment to resentment. Full text: PDF (180 KB) |
|
Saturday, 20 February 2010 18:54 |
|
The Scientific Mind: An integral Concern in the Development of Human Learning for the 21st Century - Jan Visser (President, Learning Development Institute) - Lecture hosted by the IDSC, 26 November 2008
Summary: The traditional schooling practice, with itsemphasis on the acquisition of factual knowledge and lack of encouragement to explore and comprehend deeply, is possibly a major cause of the disappearance of curiosity.
If so, it may be the single most inhibitor of the development of the scientific mind. The opportunities we take in early childhood, and subsequently throughout life, ultimately determine whether the child that was alive in us at birth will still live inside us as we fulfill our lives. Keeping the scientific mind alive and fostering its growth throughout life requires creating multiple conditions in diverse learning spaces.
Table of Contents: (1) Learning and schooling for the century, (2) Thoughtfulness as essential condition for survival of our species (and the biosphere), (3) Our home in the universe and what we made of it, (4) Reflections on the meaning of learning, (5) The (scientific) mind.
Full text presentation: PDF (2.5 MB) |
|
|
|
|
|
