Texto meta

As discussed in the previous sections, motivation to learn science can promote scientific attitudes, literacy and skills, it also can make science learning a meaningful experience for students (O. Lee & Brophy, 1996). According to Good and Brophy (1990), meaningful learning is a type of learning that develops specific skills, promotes critical thinking, develops problem solving skills, makes learning individual and enables students to transfer knowledge and skills between different learning contexts. Darling- Hammond (2008b) labels this kind of learning as powerful learning. Darling-Hammond argues that powerful learning can help in mastery of the fast expanding knowledge and development of requisite skills in order to meet the needs of increasingly complex and constantly changing work and learning environments. Darling-Hammond (2008b) stresses the development of learning with understanding, paraphrasing the genuine right to learn for all students in relation to No Child Left Behind Act (US Department of Education, 2004). Darling-Hammond (2008b) therefore, suggests transforming learning goals, teaching and learning, and assessment strategies according to the changing demands. Teaching and learning for understanding enables learners to develop the desired knowledge and skills, use and transfer knowledge in novel ways, critically defend and evaluate their ideas using reasoning and evidence, use innovative strategies to solve problems, showcase meaningful learning and understand the criteria that evaluates their learning (Darling-Hammond, 2008a). Darling-Hammond (2008a) suggests some strategies to engage students in meaningful learning: active, in-depth learning; authentic, formative assessment; collaboration opportunities; attention to prior knowledge and development; organising knowledge around core concepts and connections; and the development of meta-cognitive skills. Aligned with the How People Learn (HPL) framework (National Research Council, 2000b), Darling- Hammond (2008a) therefore recommends making learning environments student- centered, knowledge-centered, assessment-centered and community-centered for schools to promote meaningful learning.

According to Ausubel (2000), meaningful learning takes place when a learner is able to relate new information, concepts and propositions to existing ideas in his/her cognitive structure. Meaningful learning is different from rote memorisation of information, where little or no interaction/association is found between the new and existing knowledge stored in the mind. Ausubel (2000) states that one of the goals of education is to promote the transfer of knowledge and skills across learning situations. Mintzes et al. (2000) also affirm the fundamental goal of education as to facilitate learning through shared meaning between teacher and student. This shared meaning lies at the heart of the interaction between teacher and learner regardless of the subject matter, context or teaching methods (Mintzes et al., 2000). It is assumed that teachers and learners must work together to construct knowledge and negotiate meaning. In this way, students play an active role in knowledge construction and meaning generation, leading to meaningful learning. Therefore, meaningful learning is very important to construct new knowledge and to evaluate and restructure prevailing knowledge, and to make overall learning effective (R E Mayer, 2002).

Brophy (2010b) describes the nature of learning with understanding from a motivational perspective such that:

The notion of learning with understanding, appreciation, and attention to life applications implies much more than mere interest in a topic and it includes cognitive strategies and metacognitive control components along with affective components. It requires activating a network of related schemas— clusters of insights, skills, values, and dispositions- that enable students to understand what it means to engage in school activities with the intention of accomplishing their learning goals and with the awareness of strategies they use in attempting to do so. (p. 220)

From this perspective, a motivated learner is one who seeks to understand something, sets learning goals, develops positive attitudes and dispositions, develops cognitive and meta-cognitive strategies to monitor their learning, and evaluates the process to ensure the achievement of their intended goals. Therefore, due to the inclusion of these cognitive and affective aspects, the concept of learning with understanding is, although similar to motivation to learn, more important than either intrinsic interest or extrinsic motivation (Brophy, 2010b). Shumow and Schmidt (2014) also comment that teachers’

understanding of students’ motivational states can help them to design a “classroom environment and create a learning community in which students and teachers are highly motivated to engage in activity that shapes meaningful learning” (p. 9). Given the relevant and personal nature of meaningful learning, it seems obvious that students will be motivated to learn for understanding.

In relation to science learning, the ultimate goal of science education is to organise teaching and learning in a way that produces complete understanding of scientific concepts (Konicek-Moran & Keeley, 2015; Mintzes et al., 2005). Zimmerman and Stage (2008) describe the nature of science learning from a layman’s perspective as memorisation of facts, theories and laws, mechanical ways of hypothesis testing using scientific methods, drawing conclusions, making generalisations and making models to explain scientific phenomena. Conversely, Zimmerman and Stage (2008) argue that “understanding science is more complex (and interesting!) than the way science is portrayed or experienced in many science classrooms” (p. 157). In line with the National Research Council (2007), Zimmerman and Stage (2008) suggest that deep understanding of science concepts requires acknowledging students’ diverse prior knowledge, examining learning trajectories or progressions (development of learning and thinking over time), managing challenges (misconceptions and conceptual change), developing meta-cognitive skills, and promoting science investigation and discourse skills (productive discussions, dialogues, talk and argumentations). Some science education researchers (for example, Kang, 2007; Konicek-Moran & Keeley, 2015; Novak, 2002) label this special type of meaningful learning as conceptual learning or conceptual understanding. Conceptual learning is basically the process of developing scientifically valid knowledge which results from understanding science concepts and their relationships. In this thesis, the two terms: meaningful learning and conceptual learning are used interchangeably, however because of one of the objectives of the study, the term conceptual learning is used more frequently.