29.- SOLICITUD DE LICENCIA DE VARIOS SEÑORES EDILES

The tension between student interest and focusing on a

central idea

Some teachers, while not critiquing the sequence, referred to student interests that arose and were sometimes followed by the teacher but not followed at other times. This must be a tension that arises regularly for primary teachers, that is, deciding on focusing on a central idea or on following student interest. Ideally, student interest can still be fostered while ensuring that key ideas are encountered within a 5E framework.

One teacher (T18 SS), referring to a TWLH task, indicated an interest that could not be fully followed, and this was partially the case for another (T17 EP):

My children desperately wanted to learn about planets (T18G SS S2).

Some wanted to build a model of all planets, space objects, satellites, etc. (T7 EP S3 Exp)28_.

Another, detailed how the Earth’s place in space unit expanded in several directions: Students have been bringing in books from home, research from the internet, a cutting of the night sky Star Map from the newspaper. Our library Research-Based Learning task has been _‘Should we send humans to Mars?_’ They have investigated what Mars is like, what the difficulties would be, some problems that need to be overcome, why should humans go there, what would benefits be to us, how would it affect Mars? Our design and technology large project has been to build a space station model. We watched the space shuttle Discovery’s last voyage to the ISS on the IWB (T8 EP Explore L3).

It was clear from several other comments by this teacher (T8 EP) that their class did still focus on the main ideas in the unit.

28

This teacher (T7 EP S3) added later: ‘More time needed to explore constellations and a link to mythology. One of the students wrote out the Greek alphabet as we digressed to stars and their degrees of heat. Also, eclipses came up with the question’.

37

Implementation of

the 5E model

In Electric circuits S3, following student interest was obvious in the teacher_’s comment below, but this teacher later indicated that in the Explain lesson, concepts developed have been well retained and employed by the students’ (T19: EC Exp):

Some students had heard the term superconductors and wanted to find out more about their characteristics. A small group explored this field of physics briefly via Internet. They developed a role-play depicting cooling of atoms. This spread the ‘word’ about resistance when their findings were presented to the class. We investigated plugs and cords as well as the dangers of 240v,’power stations’ and transmission lines. An Energex linesman came to talk to the class. (T19: EC Eng)

The views expressed here (mainly by T11 SS) represent a more traditional (descriptive) approach taken by primary teachers, when ‘Space’ is the topic and developing student interest is aided by, as another teacher said, ‘integrated topics’ (T11G SS). The way that some teachers (and students) think about the ‘purpose’ of science lessons, will for some, be a stumbling block, when the 5E sequence is focusing on a major science idea over several lessons. It is not surprising, therefore, that these teachers (and students) might initially perceive the 5E sequence to lack student interest or constrain what content is covered. It signals a change in approach to science content that may require some teachers to adjust their view to science content from one of having their students encounter a wide range of science information (here information about many Space ideas) to a focus on meaningful understanding29 _{of one key}

idea. Interestingly, the above teacher (T15 SS) who appreciated the merits of the narrower focus also thought the unit had ‘flexibility to follow children’s interests’, which indicates that a focus on one key idea need not mean that teachers cannot follow the learners’ interests.

4.52

Time as an issue for implementation

In many units time was an issue (e.g., CD S3 Ts 7, 8, 9, 10; also see Appendices 4.1 and 4.2), and this raises questions. To fully engage students in the various phases and listen and react to their ideas can be a time-consuming process—as one teacher expressed it, there must be time for students to reflect on what they are doing:‘Giving students enough time to complete tasks; think about responses but not waste time was always on my mind.’ (CD S3 T9G). Science learning does need to be seen as a heads-on as well as hearts-on and hands-on task (Skamp, 2007) for it to be effective across a range of learning outcomes.

For five units, several teachers provided details of the time it took them to complete particular lessons. These are summarised in Appendix 4.4. These data suggest that Primary Connections units take on average between seven to ten hours to complete. This would appear a reasonable time for a typical school term if one unit is

implemented each term and especially if teachers can take advantage of the science literacy connections.

29

Meaningful learning is ‘where the learner chooses conscientiously to integrate new knowledge to knowledge that the learner possesses (p.159 emphasis in original); it is characterised by being able to apply new knowledge to different situations to that in which it was leant’(Ausubel in Skamp, 2008, p. 49).

4.6 Implications for the implementation

of Primary Connections and the 5E

model

A summary of the findings and insights from this chapter are in Chapter 12, together with consequent recommendations.

Introduction

In this chapter the focus is on teachers’ comments as they relate to the specific phases of the 5E model. Each phase of the learning cycle has particular purposes. These have been outlined by Primary Connections (2008) and are in Appendix 2.1. Evidence as to whether these purposes have been addressed has been inferred from the feedback provided by teachers about the ‘strengths’ and ‘weaknesses’ of the lessons in each of the five phases in the 5E model. Teachers sometimes made comments about particular phases in other sections of the feedback pro forma (e.g., about resource sheets [RS]) and these were also a source of teachers’ ideas. It is assumed that the teachers’ feedback provides insights into what they thought were the most important aspects on which to comment.

The analyses for each phase will provide an overview of whether the teachers’ comments suggest that the purposes of each phase have been addressed or not, and what appeared to facilitate the effective implementation of the phase, as well as whether there were difficulties in addressing the purposes. As outlined in section 3.3, responses needed to make direct reference to the purpose or expressed views that could reasonably imply whether the purpose was or was not met. Exemplar extracts are provided.

These analyses overview the responses across sixteen Primary Connections units. There are also brief comments on whether there appear to be any differences noted in teachers’ comments across (a) units within different content strands, and (b) stages across content strands.

In the following, the reference to frequency findings reported about each phase is drawn from tables in appendices 5.1 and 5.2 (examples of these tables are tables 5.1 and 5.2). As stated above, responses needed to make direct or clearly implied reference to the purpose to be included in these tables. Views expressed about lessons that referred to other matters, such as difficulty with ICT and equipment issues, are not included in the tables. Overall, 206 teachers made comments across 16 units, although some teachers would have provided feedback on more than one unit30_.

Implementation

of the 5E phases:

teacher-feedback

analysis and findings

30

The number of teachers who provided feedback on more than one unit is not known.

ON THE MOVE ES1 (N=10)

Phase Purpose Addressed

Addressed with difficulty or not addressed

Engage Create interest and stimulate curiosity 5 2 (n=9) Set learning within a meaningful context 2 -

Raise questions for inquiry 1 -

Reveal students’ ideas and beliefs,

compare students’ ideas 4+a 1 or 2a Explore Provide experience of the phenomenon

or concept 9 -

(N=9 max) Explore and inquire into students’

questions and test their ideas >3b 1b Investigate and solve problems 5b ₁b

Explain (n=7)

Introduce conceptual tools that can be used to interpret the evidence and construct explanations of the phenomenon

4 -

Construct multi-modal explanations and justify claims in terms of the evidence gathered

1 (+1) -

Compare explanations generated by

different students/groups 3 -

Consider current scientific explanations 2c

Elaborate Use and apply concepts and explanations in new contexts to test their general applicability

6 (+2) -

(n=8) Reconstruct and extend explanations and understanding using and integrating different modes, such as written

language, diagrammatic and graphic modes, and mathematics

>2 3

Evaluate (n=6)

Provide an opportunity for students to review and reflect on their own learning and new understanding and skills

6d _-

Provide evidence for changes to students’ understanding, beliefs and skills

2 -

INTERPRETATION OF THE TABLE

1. The frequencies are ‘best estimates’ from a reiterated interpretation of the responses, but inferences are sometimes drawn from limited expressions of teacher feedback. Where frequencies are in parentheses, evidence for the ‘purpose’ is more implied than direct, although the parentheses may also indicate that feedback on whether the purpose has been addressed is problematic. Frequencies are still included as it is more probable that the purpose was addressed, and sometimes footnotes are inserted to clarify their meaning. Where ‘>’ is inserted it indicates the number cited could be higher. The frequencies are still indicative of the major impressions that the responses provide.

2. The ‘N=’ value associated with each phase is the maximum number of teacher responses that were made for any one, (or combination of), lesson(s) in that phase.

3. The frequencies cited for a ‘purpose’ within a phase refer to the number of different teachers who addressed the stated purpose in at least one of the lessons associated with a phase.

Table 5.1: Frequency of teacher responses suggesting if the purposes of the 5E phases were addressed

a

It is probable that students’ ideas were revealed in more responses. However, in one or two instances it is unclear as to whether the teacher provided definitions or examples of things that move, rather than simply eliciting students’ conceptions. b

Testing students’ ideas was more likely than enquiring into students’ questions. ‘Greater than’ (>) is shown because testing students’ ideas, and investigating problems probably occurred in other teachers’ classes. Students clearly investigated what happened with various ‘movement’ phenomena, but only in a couple of cases was it clear students were investigating whether specific ideas and ‘solving problems’.

c

It was rare for teachers to actually refer to the conceptual area (in this case, 'movement').

d

Comments were mainly reviewed, not reflected upon.

41

Implementation of

the 5E phases

ENERGY AND CHANGE UNITS

Phase Purpose On the

move ES1 N= 9/10 Push- pull S1 N= 8/17 Smooth moves S2 N= 9/11 Electric circuits S3 N= 16/19 Year trialled October 05 Term 1, 2005 Term 1, 2008 Term 3, 2006

Engage Create interest and stimulate curiosity

5 2 8 13

Set learning within a meaningful context

2 1 0 >2

Raise questions for inquiry

1 0 1 3

Reveal students’ ideas and beliefs, compare students’ ideas

>4 1 >4 (+1) >5

Explore Provide experience of the phenomenon or concept

9 7 7 14

Explore and inquire into students’ questions and test their ideas

>3 4 >2 >7

Investigate and solve problems

5 4 >5 >7

Explain Introduce conceptual tools that can be used to interpret the evidence and construct explanations of the phenomenon

4 5 6 10

Construct multi-modal explanations and justify claims in terms of the evidence gathered 1 (+1) 0 6 5 (+2) Compare explanations generated by different students/groups 3 0 >1 0 Consider current scientific explanations 2 4 (+2) >4 >8

Elaborate Use and apply concepts and explanations in new contexts to test their general applicability 6 (+2) 1 (+5) 1 (+1) 5 Table 5.2: Frequency of teacher responses suggesting if the ‘purposes’ of the 5E phases were addressed across four units in a strand

Reconstruct and extend explanations and understanding using and integrating different modes, such as written language, diagrammatic and graphic modes, and mathematics

>2 >1 >1 (+4) 8

Evaluate Provide an opportunity for students to review and reflect on their own learning and new understanding and skills

6 3 >3 >8

Provide evidence for changes to students’ understanding, beliefs and skills

2 1 1 (+1) >4

INTERPRETATION OF THE TABLE

1. These summary tables have been derived from the more detailed tables for each unit: see Appendix 5.1. 2. The frequencies are ‘best estimates’ from a reiterated interpretation of the responses, but inferences are

sometimes drawn from limited expressions within a teacher’s feedback. Where frequencies are in parentheses, evidence for the ‘purpose’ is more implied than direct. Occasionally, there was a strong impression that several more statements implied the purpose was addressed, and a range is provided in parentheses to indicate this interpretation. Where ‘>’ is used it indicates the number cited could be higher as interpretations were more problematic. The frequencies are indicative of the major impressions that the responses provided relating to the various ‘purposes’.

3. The ‘N’ value is shown as X/Y. The ‘Y’ value is the number of teachers who returned annotated units for the stated unit. Usually this is the actual number, but sometimes it is an approximate number. It needs to be appreciated that not all teachers who provided annotated units included feedback that could be aligned with the content of these tables. The maximum number who provided relevant feedback in any one category on the supplied ‘Trial Teachers’ Curriculum Resource Feedback’ questionnaire (e.g., strengths and weaknesses for lessons in the Explore phase) is shown as the ‘X’ value. Finer detail is available in the tables for each unit: see Appendix 5.1.

In document SESIÓN DE FECHA: _7 DE JUNIO DE 2013_ (página 162-189)