Assignment (Bencze, 2000/2001)
IntroductionEspecially because science & technology are about the objects and events that surround us on a daily basis, children's experiences cause them to develop certain ideas, attitudes and skills that, often, differ markedly from those of scientists and engineers. Some people refer to these as "misconceptions," but that is inappropriate for at least two reasons: i) this is disempowering for children, to be told their ideas are less worthy, and ii) scientific knowledge is not certain; e.g., it has changed, and likely will continue to do so, over time. The more appropriate term is "alternative conceptions (ideas)." A small sampling of conceptions of laws and theories is given in figure 1. Students also have alternative conceptions about "the nature of science & technology": i.e., how they are practised.
Many believe, for instance, that all scientists look like the gentleman at right. Moreover, especially if they have been in school for a few years, that scientific methods are nearly foolproof - having only had to follow recipes of experiments that have long ago been tested and refined.
- weeds are not plants because plants have to be nurtured;
- trees are not 'plants'; they are too big;
- steam turns into 'air' once it disappears into the air;
- light beams travel farther at night than during the day;
- electric current is used up by light bulbs;
- objects can only move if there is a force on them;
- cold water freezes faster than hot water;
- the sun revolves around the Earth, thus explaining sunrise and sunset.
- Ref: Claxton, G. (1991). Educating the Inquiring Mind: The Challenge for School Science. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf.
The Assignment
Determine what pre-instructional conceptions children hold about a topic of interest to you. The main idea is for you to get a sense of what "alternative conceptions" children bring to school. Understanding that children have such conceptions - and learning which ones they have - is important because studies suggest these are difficult to change. Indeed, studies suggest that, unless teachers give children opportunities to express and reflect on their own conceptions, they never confront them and, consequently, they do not change. Our jobs as teachers entail providing opportunities for children to develop conceptions that may be of use to them.
Some suggestions/requirements for this assignment are, as follows:
- You may want to pick the topic about which you plan to teach on either of the two micro-teaching sessions planned for this year. However, that is completely optional. The conceptions you pursue must, however, deal with at least one Specific Expectation from the Ontario S&T, Grades 1-8 (OMET, 1998) curriculum;
- During your STEP day on October 5, 2000, get information from students about your topic. You could, if you like, delay this research until practice teaching, depending on how busy you are, etc;
- You can glean this information in different ways; e.g., i) survey the whole class using a written questionnaire, perhaps with diagrams depicting possible explanations for phenomena (refer to attached sheets), ii) conduct short interviews with at least five children (together or individually). Some open-ended questions you might ask students are: 'What do you know about ____(e.g., magnets)____?' and 'What kind of person chooses to be a scientist?' Some more closed-ended questions are: 'What should happen when two magnets come close to each other?' 'How do magnetic compasses work?';
- Once you have results from your study of students' ideas, skills, etc., review them and decide whether they are, generally, 'very unlike', 'similar to' or 'very close to' those of Western scientists and engineers;
- Write a short report of your work, including: i) Introduction: describe the topic to be explored, ii) Methods: outline the procedures you used to determine the kids' ideas, iii) Results & Discussion: discuss how close these kids' ideas are to those of Western science and technology and provide evidence to back this up. Your report should be about 500 words;
- Hand this report in with one of your lesson plans (Oct 16, 2000 or Feb 12, 2001);
- This assignment will carry the value of 10% of your course mark, determined according to the criteria in figure 2, at right.
Criteria for Assessment
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