Preprimary student teachers’ view about the skill of observation Suomela, L., Ahtee, M., Juuti,...

Preprimary student teachers’ view about the skill of observation

Suomela, L., Ahtee, M., Juuti, K., Lampiselkä,

J. & Lavonen, J.

University of Helsinki

Presentation at EECERA conference, 29.8. – 1.9. 2007, Prague

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Backgroud

Science process skills became into the focus by the

introduction of the SAPA (Science – A Process Approach)

program.

Skills, like observing, classifying and inferring, are related

to cognitive processes.

Skills have central role in concept development.

However, there appears to be little knowledge how to

support the development of these skills.

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Aims of the research

Our aim is to understand what our students think about teaching science process skills,

in the first phase “to observe” is in focus

We want also to improve the student teachers’ knowledge and skills in teaching science process skills in preprimary and primary school

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A sample of fieldwork at school

Task: Children (8 -9 years old, working in small groups)

were given a task ” make observations of the marks of

winter and write on a white paper what you find”

Teacher: student (the basic courses of biology,

geography, etc. must be done before practising teaching)

Place: Helsinki, southern Finland, a park near the school

Time: January, some years ago

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There´s always snow in Finland in the winter?

(Middle Finland, Alavus, in the end of December 2006)

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and ice… (Middle Finland, Alavus, in the end of December 2006)

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or is there ? (Helsinki, Baltic sea in the end of December 2006)

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Christmas, Helsinki 2005, city centre, high noon

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What did the children found out?

”there´s snow”

real world: it was a time of winter in Helsinki when snow had smelted away and the groud was black, grey, hard and moistly, but there was not snow anywhere

so, the children didn´t make any observations!

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THE OBSERVATIONS CAN BE THE BASIS OF KNOWLEDGE

individual observations are crucial

one needs to identify details and similarities

drawing conclusions and classifying is essential

(according to Taba 1966, 1967)

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Learning to observe

”gains a place in an interconnected complex of inquiry processes”

”is more than just seeing and looking”

” is a starting point of scientific processes”

(Howes, E. 2007: Educative experiences and early

childhood science education: A Deweyan perpective on

learning to observe. Teaching and Teacher Education.)

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About observation

The Observer

• senses

• curiosity

• motivation

• ability to concentrate

• knowledge

The Object

• details

• entirety

• change

The Environment

• physical

• social

• tools and materials

• classroom display

The use

• classify

• make concepts

• connect

• infer, etc.

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Observation

Observation

pre-existing knowledge

experiencesis influenced by

gather information

“learned and transferred”

cannot be

identify patternsallow us to

should be

understand orders

check ideas

detailed

relevant

dialogue

guided

theory- independent

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Data Collection

This research – a questionary - was conducted in autumn

2006 in the department of Applied sciences of education,

University of Helsinki

Preprimary teacher students (N = 71, mainly females)

participated in the study

Students have the course “didactics of science”

usually in the third year of their curriculum

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Research questions

What do you think is “to observe?”

What do you understand with the skill of making observations?

What do you think is crucial when you are

teaching children the skill of making observations?

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Some results concerning the observer

The great majority keep interest and attention essential

Ability to concentrate is also important

Observations are made with senses - more than half

(58 %) mentioned senses

Earlier knowledge effects on what is really observed

- more than half ~ 54% thinks so, but

An observer must forget all existing conceptions

- 10 % writes like this!

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Results concerning the object

Half mentioned the object:

details –entirety, essential features

One student wrote that

”there is never false observations”

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Results concerning the environment

Only less than third of the respondends mention

environmental factors (more social, few physical) and

time

Tools or instruments “are not needed?”

´ As few as 9 (~ 13 %) students considered also

equipments, but none arrangements in classroom.

Nobody mentioned equipments such as lenses,

microscopes or telescopes.

Third of the respondents think that you need to make

notes from the observed things, phenomenons

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Results concerning the use of acquired information

What to do with the information obtained from the

observations is not considered

“You need to compare and classify what you have

observed” –only fifth of the respondents think like this

Only some write about “connecting the acquired

information to existing knowledge”

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Implications

Focus on general principles how to make observations

in science

Focus on giving plenty of opportunities to get experience

and routine in making observations and notes.

The teacher needs to become consciousness of pupils’

existing knowledge and observations of the same

observable phenomenon