U N D E R G R A D U A T E R E S E A R C H E X P E R I E N C E FOR F U T U R E S C I E N C E T E A C H E R S : A F I R S T E F F O R T

D.M. Hill and A.J.D. Blake

I ntroduction

In a recent paper, White (1976) expresses concern about the lack of liaison between teachers and educational researchers. He indicates that one solution to the problem may be to involve teachers more in the research process. Such a suggestion is in line with the rationale that has caused Riverina College of Advanced Education to include within the B.Ed. course for secondary science teachers a subject that introduces the prospective teacher to the nature and purposes of educational research. The first eight students were enrolled in this subject

in 1975. The subject focussed on the relationship between the classroom teacher and research.

Emphasis was placed on action research as a basis for informed curriculum decision-making and it involved the students very substantially in the type of project which might reasonably be expected of a teacher. This paper describes the effectiveness of the experience as a means of influencing the new teacher's predisposition towards conducting action research in his class- room and in addition, it describes the outcomes of the actual research project.

Nature of the research project

The science education staff at Riverina college of Advanced Education have been concerned with the lack of trials of newer science curriculum projects in the area and con- sidered the idea of carrying out such an investigation. It was decided to attempt to measure some of the possible outcomes of introducing a structured enquiry-based science programme in a local primary school. The Science Curriculum Improvement Study (SCIS) project was chosen and the Regional Education Director made funds available for the purchase of the SCIS materials. A local School Principal agreed to cooperate in the venture. He suggested that two year three classes which had been formed in a "more or less random fashion" from the pupils who had been in an open classroom in the previous year might be used. The Principal dissected the available data in an attempt to show that the two classes were compar- able.

This situation provided a ready-made basis for the students' research. Furthermore, it had the additional advantage of causing future secondary science teachers to investigate the workings of a primary school and interact with primary school children. As a prelude to pro- ceeding with the design and implementation of the project, the students were required to become familiar with the aims and rationale of the SCIS project and the context of the unit "Interactions and Systems". This unit concentrates on development of the concepts of object, interaction, system and variable and such skills as observing, classifying and identifying variables.

Consideration of the nature of this SCIS unit and a review of the literature relating to field trials of SCIS materials led the students to identify the sorts of outcomes which may be expected from the use of this unit in a classroom. A range of cognitive, attitudinal and person-

ality variables were identified as legitimate dependent variables. Given that it was possible only to use the unit over a period of ten weeks, amounting to about 20 hours of classroom time, many of the proposed variables were quite unrealistic. However, it was decided to allow the students to proceed with measuring all the variables identified. This decision was taken because it gave the students useful experience in administration of a range of tests (and also in test construction) and it also provided some interesting data on a small sample of primary school children.

The students agreed upon the use of a conventional pre test-post test-control group design. The experimental group was the class which used the SCIS unit, the control group was the class which proceeded with the normal programme in science. Both classes were visited by the students during the conduct of the project and a set of tests was administered as a pre and post battery.

The tests administered were as follows:

1. a set of individually administered tasks based on Weber (1971) designed to test for skills and attitudes consistent with the rationale of the SCIS project, including observing, measuring, using space-time relationships, classifying and the use of rational explanation;

2. a set of tasks designed to measure the stage of cognitive development in a manner consistent with the Piagetian framework adopted by the SCIS project - (a) conservation of continuous quantity, (b) conservation of weight (Piaget and Inhelder 1941), (c ) s e r i a t i o n - based on observation of three blocks of unequal weights using an

equal-arm balance designed by the students, (d) combination thinking - a task involving students in determining what com-

bination of switches caused a light to go on or off, developed as an analogue of Piaget's colourless chemicals test,

(e) moral judgement - questions involving the separation of outcome and intent - a factor which is related to the child's stage of intellectual develop- ment (Tomlinson-Keasey & Keasey (1974));

3. a group-administered measure of self-concept based on a test developed by D. Felker and communicated personally to the authors, included in the battery by the students because of the suggestion by Koocher (1974) that intellectual devel- opment is of central importance in self-concept development and anecdotal evidence from the School Principal which suggested that some of the pupils had poor self-concepts;

4. a multiple choice test designed to evaluate understanding of the basic concepts extant in the SCIS unit viz., object, interaction, system and variable, a test design- ed by the students and administered by the classroom teacher.

In addition to this battery of tests, on a non-science day at the end of the sixth week of teaching, pupils in both classes were asked by the classroom teacher to rate the eleven sub- ject areas which they studied in order of preference. In a sense, this was a part-test only situat- ion and the students were aware that it embodied the assumption that their two groups were identical with respect to their relative preference for science at the beginning of the experiment.

Experimental results

The mean gain-scores for experimental and control groups on the battery of tests is presented in the Table. Inspection of the table shows that both groups appeared to gain differ- entially on particular tests. However, the experimental group showed significant gains on the skill of observing (F],46 = 7.47; p < .01) and on knowledge of concepts (F],46 = 4.80; p < .01).

On the subiect preference test given in the sixth week, the mean rank order for science on the 1-11 scale was 8.5 for the control group and 6.0 for the experimental group.

TABLE OF RESULTS

Average differences between pre- and post-test scores for experimental and control groups

Test Average Gain-Scores Experimental Control (n = 21) (n = 26)

Skills and Attitudes

observing (5) space-time relationships (5) measuring (5) classifying A (3) classifying 8 (3) rational explanation A (3) rational explanation B (2)

Cognitive Development

continuous quantity (3) conservation of weight (3) seriation (2) combinatorial thinking (6) moral A (3) moral B (4)

Selfhood

selfconcept

Knowledge

concepts(4)

-0.237 +0.713 +0.762 +0.381 +0.190 -0.095 +0.048

+0.048 -0.048 -0.190 +0.429 -0.048 +0.190

+1.802

+0.190

+0.433 +0.310 +0.310

0.000 +0.423 -0.115 +0.039

-0.192 +0.154 +0.192 +0.963 -0.039 +0.270

+1.523

+0.423

Maximum score in ( )

4

Discussion

The project highlighted for the students many of the diff iculties and limitations of experimental classroom research. They had no option but to use existing classes with their teachers, hence the teacher variable was not controlled.

The project ran for only ten weeks and thus any long-term outcomes might have been missed. It is possible that the relatively higher preference for science in the experimental class could be due entirely to the enthusiasm of the teacher given an expensive set of resources and the novelty of the situation with the pupils. However the pattern of improvement suggests that this was not the case. While most differences are not statistically significant, the improve- ments in the experimental group over the control are consistent with the outcomes expected from the type of experiences generated by the SCIS materials. Thus improvements were to be expected in observing, classifying, seriation, combinatorial thinking and in understanding of the particular concepts. Such changes might well produce changes on measures of level of intellectual development. In other aspects which are not so directly related there is no such pattern of improvement in favour of the experimental group.

Discussion of the results cannot be limited to consideration of the statistical data. The students became aware that they had more information about the groups, particularly the experimental group, than was evident in the figures. The figures did not expose the enthusiasm for enquiry-based investigations shown by pupils who were non-achievers in more conventional classroom settings. Consequently, they were led to consider the possibility of more naturalistic forms of research activity as a more meaningful alternative for many situat- ions requiring classroom-based research.

Conclusion

As a means of providing some insights into the research activity for future science teachers, the project was a qualified success. Throughout its inception and implementation there remained an uneasy compromise between conducting a piece of worthwhile research and providing the maximum possible range of experiences for the students undertaking the subject. The experience undoubtedly was valuable for the students, it provided them with insights which served as the bases for developing individual research proposals for the evaluation of a curriculum change in a secondary school. In general, though, the scope of the project was too ambitious for the time that was available and this led to a feeling of frustration, if not in the students, certainly in the authors.

The investigation itself suffered from obvious limitations which have been discussed above. However, the gains observed in favour of the class using SCIS materials are congruent with those identified by a four-year longitudinal study conducted by Renner et ah (1973) and suggest that a more rigorous investigation is warranted. It may be possible to engage our under- graduate students in a longitudinal study of the effectiveness of SCIS by involving different groups at different stages of the project. We believe that the first attempt hasshown that it is a worthwhile component of pre-service teacher education.

References

KOOCHER, C.P. "Emerging selfhood and cognitive development." Journal of Genetic Psychol- ogy, 125: 79-87, 1974.

PIAGET, J. and INHELDER, B. Le Developement des Quantities Physique chez I'Enfant. Delachaux et niestle, Neuchatel, 1941.

RENNER, J.W., STAFFORD, D.G., COFFIA, W.J., KELLOGG, D.H. and WEBER, M.C. "An evaluation of the Science Curriculum Improvement Study." School Science and Mathematics 73(4): 291-318, 1973.

TOMLINSON KEASEY, C. and KEASEY, C.B. "The mediating role of cognitive development in moral judgement." Child Development, 45: 291-298, 1974.

WEBER, M.C. "The influence of the Science Curriculum Improvement Study on the learner's operational utilization of science processes." Unpublished doctoral dissertation. University of Oklahoma, 1971,64-76 quoted in J.W. Renner, D.G. Stafford & W.B. Ragan, Teaching Science in the Elementary School, second edition. Harper & Row, 1973.

WHITE, R.T. "Ivory tower and mud hut: Researcher and teacher." Australian Science Teachers" Journal, 22( 1 ), 55-60, 1976.

Acknowledgements

Appreciation is expressed for the assistance give n to the students and to the authors by Mr. F. Brett, Regional Director of Education for the Riverina and by Mr. L. Irvine, Principal of Ashmont Public School. Thanks are extended to the students for the tolerance and enthusiasm which they displayed for the first attempt.