Approaches to Inquiry-Based Science

Teaching

Reading Assignment

Chapter 4 Teaching Science to Every Child: Using Culture

as a Starting Point

Discovery Approach to Teaching Science

• Teacher provides materials and time to explore those materials.

• Oldest of three approaches that began just after the Russians launched Sputnik.

• Bruner’s The Process of Education summarized the Woods Hole Conference and “captured the appeal of discovery learning” and the structure of the discipline approach to teaching science.

• Discovery learning was viewed as a way to make students excited and curious about science.

Problems with this Approach – unrealistic expectation that students would learn science just by “messing about with materials.”

Inquiry Approach to Teaching Science

Inquiry can be thought of as guided discovery.

Schwab, an educational theorist, was key in developing inquiry curriculum in the 1960s and 1970s.

Schwab proposed that the teacher should use activities and discussions to emphasize

• posing questions• gathering data, and • interpreting results.

Inquiry was translated into different levels depending on the level of teacher guidance.

Two Categories of Inquiry

1) Inquiry as performed by scientists• Scientific inquiry – diverse ways in which scientists study

the natural world and propose explanations based on the evidence derived from their work (NRC, 1996, p. 23).

2) Inquiry students perform as they learn science• Inquiry – activities of students in which they develop

knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas, as well as an understanding of how scientists study the natural world.

(NRC, 1996, p. 23).

Levels of Inquiry (Colburn, 2000)

Structured Inquiry (Level 0) - students investigate a teacher-presented question through a prescribed procedure.

Guided Inquiry (Level 1 & 2) - students investigate a teacher-presented question using student designed/selected procedures.

Open Inquiry (Level 3) - students investigate topic-related questions that are student formulated through student designed/selected procedures

Information Given to the Students

Level of Inquiry

Source ofQuestion

Ways to Gather Data

InterpretingResults

0 Given Given Given

1 Given Given Open

2 Given Open Open

3 Open Open Open

The Five Essential Features of Inquiry Instruction

• Learners are engaged by scientific questions.

• Learners give priority to evidence as they plan and conduct investigations.

• Learners develop descriptions, explanations, and predictions using evidence.

• Learners connect evidence and explanations to developing scientific knowledge.

• Learners engage in critical discourse with others about procedures, evidence, and explanations

See Table 4.3 for a summary of how the levels of

student self-direction and teacher-guidance vary

for each of the essential features of inquiry.

Conceptual Change Approach to Teaching Science

Goal is to have “students discard or reshape their nonscientific explanations of natural phenomena in favor of explanations accepted within the scientific community.”

Steps -

Students first become clear about their own ideas on a scientific topic.

Students then participate in an activity in which their current ideas are not adequate to explain

Students explore the strength of the new idea

Student compare the new idea with their original idea.

Basic Framework for Conceptual Change

Children's Children's Ideas

• are personal, diverse, and constructed from direct experiences with objects and through social interaction

• may seem contradictory, inconsistent, and incoherent to an adult

• are persistent, resistant to change and durable

What Ideas Influence Children’s Learning?

• Preconceptions• Misconceptions• Conceptions

Preconceptions are ...

• ideas that children bring with them from prior experiences• often incomplete preliminary understandings of

fundamental science concepts• children’s attempts to explain their natural world• influenced by hands-on, minds-on experiences, including

the physical, emotional, social• thoughtful efforts to make (construct) sense• influenced by bias and culture

Misconceptions

• Are common and represent explanations of phenomena constructed by a student as a response to a prior experience

• Are linked to incorrect learning, myths, and imprecise uses of

language arising from the child’s trusted informal everyday structure of play and social interaction

• Are alternative understandings that are scientifically incorrect and may be based on simple inaccurate comprehension of an event, reason, or explanation (see Table 2.1)

• May take a long time to correct, but can be avoided when concepts are constructed carefully from experiences

• Can be revealed through specific science experiences that are accompanied by spoken and written interaction

Categories of Misconceptions

• Conceptual misunderstandings: when learners are not encouraged to examine differences between their own beliefs and “real science.” EX: The sun rises and sets.

• Vernacular misconceptions: word choices confuse learners. EX: glaciers “retreat”

• Factual misconceptions: building understanding on false statements. EX: “lightning never strikes place twice in the same place.”

4 Basic Science Questions

 Answer the following on a piece of paper.• A little seed weighs next to nothing, but a tree weighs a lot.

From where does the tree get the stuff that makes up a wooden desk?

 • Can you light a flashlight bulb with a battery, bulb, and a

wire?

 • Why is it hotter in summer than in winter?

 • Draw a diagram showing the solar system and the

planets’orbits.

Science Misconceptions Website

Common Misconceptions

http://homepage.mac.com/vtalsma/syllabi/2943/handouts/misconcept.html

A Video on Common Misconceptions:

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/jonathan_drori_on_what_we_think_we_know.html

Discrepant Events

Occur when there is a discrepancy in what is observed and what the observer thinks should happen.

Discrepant events can be used to• engage students in learning about a concept or issue. • create an opportunity to correct a misconception.

Invitations to Science Inquiry (Tik Liem) is an excellent resource and there are many video clips of discrepant events online. See your related assignment.

Discrepant Events: An Example

Watch this video on

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpC5zlmtm-g

A Twist to the Classic Egg in the Bottle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BofIBaYk5e0&NR=1

Steve Spangler’s Website is an excellent source of video clips of experiments.

http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiments/