Driver et al, 1994

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Contents 1 Making Sense of Secondary Science: Research into Children’s Ideas 1.1 Introduction 2 Chapters 2.1 Part I Children's Ideas about Life and Living Processes 2.2 Part II Children's Ideas about Materials and their Properties 2.3 Part III Children's Ideas about Life and Living Processes

Making Sense of Secondary Science: Research into Children’s Ideas

Rosalind Driver, Anne Squires, Peter Rushworth, Valerie Wood-Robinson

Introduction

Children’s conceptions as personal constructions

Children’s early conceptions stem from the schemas they form and their personal and sensory experiences. Later in their development they will be able to develop more formal schemas about their conceptions. Children’s conceptions, however, may continue to exist in their schemas even after formal training and into adulthood.

Common features in children’s conceptions

There are commonalities in children’s early conceptions about natural phenomena. Their notions will progress as they get exposed to more experiences in their development. For example, there are developmental stages to children’s notions of light and sound. In the beginning phases, children between the age of 5 and 6-years old will be able to say that light is something that comes from a light bulb, while later they will be able to identify light as what allows us to see when the light switch is turned on and moreover, light can travel. At these early stages, however, they are unable to explain the connection between our eyes and objects. A key statement by Driver in this sections is that, “Children’s science conceptions are not idiosyncratic, not are they in many cases heavily culturally dependent. They are shaped by personal experience with phenomena”.

The social construction of knowledge

Children’s construction of knowledge is a social process in that each of their ideas are expressed, verified, questioned, exchanged, and shared by their classmates. The example included in this section on pupil’s notion on the properties of ice, water, and steam, was evidence that children can join together their ideas and prior experiences to advance in their thinking process and explain phenomena. Furthermore, their implicit ideas became more explicit. Social interactions can create a forum that allows students to clarify and provide explanations for their notions, however Driver failed to mention that this could also be dangerous for any lingering misconceptions that can be confirmed without the guidance or presence of a teacher.

The nature of science and implications for teaching and learning

Learning science is also a social process. To learn science you must absorb into a culture of science. Students must learn how scientific ideas are formed and evaluated to better understand the nature of science. It is important as teacher to be able to effectively teach our students how to develop their common-sense reasoning skills into a scientific one not only through laboratory experiments but through investigations of their own developing ideas. Students need to be able to explain their observations and not just be able to conduct experiments. In other words, students need to be able to make sense of their experiences in science.

Teaching science with children's thinking in mind

Driver provided an example of a teacher who used a card-sort activity to draw out her students’ thinking of the concepts melting and dissolving, since her students seemed to have been using those words interchangeably in a recent activity. Using a wide range of activities, like the card-sorting activity, teachers can draw out their student’s thinking of science concepts. Other techniques include: written statements, posters, thought experiments, design and make activities, checklists and questionnaires, predict and explain activities, and practical experiments.

Once ideas and thoughts are drawn out, a teacher’s responsibility is then to effectively introduce the accurate science viewpoint by developing existing ideas, differentiating existing ideas, integrating existing ideas, changing existing ideas, or introducing new ideas. Differences in students’ original conceptions and the science viewpoint will be a challenging task for a teacher to tackle. This will require proper and extensive planning and implementation by the teacher.

Chapters

Part I Children's Ideas about Life and Living Processes

1. Secondary Science - Living Things Joy Burton
2. Secondary Science - Growth Rena Benor
3. Secondary Science - Responding to the Environment Marissa Staller
4. Secondary Science- Nutrition Jenny Green

1. Secondary Science - Reproduction Pranjali Upadhyay
2. Secondary Science - Microbes Melissa Savage
3. Secondary Science - Ecosystems Sabiha Dalal

Part II Children's Ideas about Materials and their Properties

1. Secondary Science- Materials Fatemeh Babakhanlo
2. Secondary Science - Solids Liquids Gasses Carol Cao and Kimberly Tafoya
3. Secondary Science - Chemical Change
4. Secondary Science - Particles
5. Secondary Science - Water Alejandra Caino
6. Secondary Science - Air Nadia Chocron
7. Secondary Science - Rocks Rachel Stull

Part III Children's Ideas about Life and Living Processes

1. Secondary Science- Electricity
2. Secondary Science- Magnetism Sabrina Loesh
3. Secondary Science- Light Sara Wilson
4. Secondary Science - Gravity
5. Secondary Science- Sound Katie Flanagan
6. Secondary Science- HeatingElizabeth Davis
7. Secondary Science- Energy Laura Silverman
8. Secondary Science- Forces Jen Hinerman
9. Secondary Science- Horizontal Motion
10. Secondary Science- Gravity Pam Collins
11. Secondary Science- Earth in Space Christine Hirst