07 teaching science to children

Module 1: KPLI SR Science Major Unit 1: Teaching Science To Children

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UNIT 1 TEACHING SCIENCE TO CHILDREN

SYNOPSIS:

This unit contains four topics. The first topic is about understanding of science inwhich you will explore the meaning of science and its elements. The second topicdescribes about current Primary School Science Curriculum in detail. Here you willlearn about the aims, objectives and the focus of primary school science curriculum.Primary School Science Curriculum focuses on scientific skills, thinking skills,scientific attitudes, teaching and learning strategies. The third topic explains thelearning theories for Primary School Science and the fourth topic is about teachingand learning methods using Inquiry and Discovery approach.

Learning Outcomes:

Upon completion of this unit, you will be able to:

1. explain the meaning of science and its role in daily life;2. describes the main components of Primary School Science Curriculum;3. identify and apply appropriate learning strategies of Primary Science in the

classroom and4. explain the use of various questioning techniques used to promote inquiry5. explain the use of the inquiry methods in the teaching and learning of primary

science

TOPIC 1: Understanding Science

(Fleer.M, 1996. pg 7 )

A class of second year undergraduates gives this interesting collection of ideas. Aresome of your ideas included here?

The list certainly suggests that science has a complex nature and is likely to beviewed differently by different individuals.

What is science?

SCIENCE IS….

everywhere, using it all the time, scary, can be lethal,discovery, exploration, learning more, theories, hypothesis,interesting, exciting, expensive, profitable, intelligent, status


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Science is defined differently depending on the individuals who view it.

the layperson might define science as a body of scientific information; the scientist might view it as procedures by which hypotheses are tested; a philosopher might regard science as a way of questioning the truthfulness

of what we know.

All of these views are valid, but each presents only a partial definition of science. Inyour opinion what does science mean?

Meaning of science

Science is perceived as an inquiry process, observation, and reasoning aboutthe natural world. [K.T.Compton]

Systematic knowledge which can be tested and proven for its truth.[translatedfrom Kamus Dewan]

Science is a set of attitudes and a way of thinking on facts. [B.F Skinner] Science is the system of knowing about the universe through data collected

by observation and controlled experimentation. As data are collected, theoriesare advanced to explain and account for what has been observed.

( Carin and Sund (1989) pg. 4 )

If you reread these definitions of science, you will see three major elements:processes (or methods), products, and human attitudes.

Elements of science can be visualised in this way:

Science as a Process

Learning science information is more important than to memorizing thecontent of science

Scientific skill is a basic tool in understanding science. Process is emphasis on how the knowledge is gained. Using empirical procedures and analyses to describe the natural world It involves hands-on, mind-on and hearts-on experience It involves the formation of hypothesis, planning, experimenting, collecting

data, and analyses before making a conclusion.


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Science as a ProductScientists have been collecting data for centuries. From these data, scientists haveformulated concepts, principles and theories. The factual data, concepts, principlesand theories are the products of science.

Figure 1 shows the hierarchical order of the science products.

Figure 1: Science Products

A scientific fact is the specific statement about existing objects or actual incidents.We can use our senses to get facts.

Two criteria are used to identify a scientific fact:

1. it is directly observable2. it can be demonstrated at any time.

A concept is an abstraction of events, objects, or phenomena that seem to havecertain properties or attributes in common. Fish, for example, possess certaincharacteristics that set them apart from reptiles and mammals.

According to Bruner, (1956), a concept has five important elements:

1. name2. definition3. attributes4. values5. examples

Theory

Laws andPrinciples

Concepts

Facts


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Principles and Laws also fall into the general category of a concept but in a broadmanner. These higher order ideas are used to describe what exists through empiricalbasis. For example gas laws and the laws of motion.

Theory: Science goes beyond the classification and description of phenomena to thelevel of explanation. Scientists use theories to explain patterns and forces that arehidden from direct observation. The theory of atom, which states that all matter ismade up of tiny particles called atoms. There are millions of atoms, which would berequired to cover the period (.) at the end of this sentence. This is the example ofhidden observation.

Science as an Attitude

Do you see science as merely lists of facts, concepts, and principles? If yes, then youare overlooking an important aspect of science – attitudes and values. Scientists arepersons trained in some field of science who study phenomena through observation,experimentation and other rational, analytical activities. They use attitudes, such asbeing honest and accurate in recording and validating data, systematic and beingdiligent in their work. Therefore, when planning teaching and learning activities,teachers need to inculcate scientific attitudes and values to the students. Forexample, during science practical work, the teacher should remind pupils and ensurethat they carry out experiments in a careful, cooperative and honest manner.

Teachers need to plan well for effective inculcation of scientific attitudes and noblevalues during science lessons. They should examine all related learning outcomesand suggested teaching-learning activities that provide opportunities for theinculcation of scientific attitudes and noble values.

Is the statement “the earth rotates on its axis” a scientific concept,principle or theory?

Reflect on your earlier days in primary school. What can you stillremember about studying science? Can you recall your scienceteacher teaching you science process skills and scientific values?

With the help of concept map, define science in your own words.


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Understanding science and technology and their applications towards thewelfare of mankind

Is there any relationship between science and technology?

In general, science can be regarded as the enterprise that seeks to understandnatural phenomena and to arrange these ideas into ordered knowledge whereastechnology involves the design of products and systems that affect the quality of life,using the knowledge of science where necessary.

Science is intimately related to technology and society. For instance, scienceproduces knowledge that results in useful applications through devices and systems.We have evidence of this all around us, from microwave ovens to compact discplayers to computers.

Select two scientific discoveries that have been used to improve theearth’s environment. Also list some possible negative effects of usingthese scientific discoveries.

Well done, take a break now!Time for a cup of coffee beforeyou go to the next topic


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TOPIC 2: Primary School Science Curriculum

Historical Development of the Primary School Science Curriculum

Do you remember how you learn science while you were in primary school?Are the children learning science the same way today?

After reading this topic you will able to note the changes the Primary School ScienceCurriculum has undergone since 1968. The “Projek Khas” science curriculum wasimplemented in schools from 1968 to 1984. Teachers were given guidebooks to helpthem teach science for all primary levels using the scientific method. Later in 1985,“Projek Khas” science curriculum was replaced by “Alam dan Manusia” which wastaught to standard four pupils onwards. This subject integrates knowledge fromvarious fields such as geography, history, science and health science. The mainfocus of this subject is to relate knowledge to issues concerning society andenvironment. The present primary school science curriculum, better known asKurikulum Sains Sekolah Rendah was introduced since 1994. This is in line with thenational educational philosophy to produce a progressive society competent inscience and technology. Teachers are trained to teach using the constructivismapproach, which employs student-based methods. Table 1 outlines the historicaldevelopment of the primary school science curriculum.

Table 1: Historical Development of the Primary School Science Curriculum

Projek Khas Alam dan Manusia Kurikulum SainsSekolah Rendah

Year 1968-1984 1985-1993 1994-now

Teacher’sGuide

Panduan MengajarSains

Buku Panduan Khas PuLSaR

Teaching-learningstrategies

Scientific Method Inquiry-discovery Constructivism

In 2003, English is used as the medium of instruction in standard one. The sciencecurriculum has been designed to provide opportunities for students to acquirescience knowledge and skills, develop thinking skills and thinking strategies, and toapply this knowledge and skills in everyday life. It also aims to inculcate noble valuesand the spirit of patriotism in the students.


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By now, you would realize that the Primary School Science Curriculum is dynamicand changes are made to meet the demands of the society and the nation. Can youidentify the main elements of the present Primary School Science Curriculum?After reading this topic, you will be able to understand the key features of the primaryschool science curriculum.

Basically, the Primary School Science Curriculum has two levels

Level One is from Year 1 – 3 Level Two is from Year 4 – 6

Level One

The aim of the Primary School Science Curriculum for level one is to developstudents’ interest in science and to nurture their creativity and their curiosity.

The objectives of the Primary School Science Curriculum for level one are to:

1. stimulate pupils’ curiosity and develop their interest about the world aroundthem.

2. provide pupils with opportunities to develop science process skills andthinking skills.

3. develop pupils’ creativity.4. provide pupils with basic science knowledge and concepts.5. inculcate scientific attitudes and positive values.6. create awareness on the need to love and care for the environment.

Level Two

The aims of the Primary School Science Curriculum for level two are to producehuman beings who are experienced, skilful and morally sound in order to form asociety with a culture of science and technology and which is compassionate,dynamic, and progressive so that people are more responsible towards theenvironment and are more appreciative of nature’s creation.

The objectives of the Primary School Science Curriculum for level two are to:

1. develop thinking skill so as to enhance the intellectual ability2. develop scientific skills and attitude through inquiry3. enhance natural interest in their surroundings4. gain knowledge and understanding of scientific facts and concepts to assist in

understanding themselves and the environment5. solve problems and make responsible decisions6. handle the latest contributions and innovations in science and technology7. practice scientific attitudes and noble values in daily lives8. appreciate the contributions of science and technology towards the comfort of

life9. appreciate arrangement and order in nature


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Do you know the main focus in our primary school science curriculum?Primary School Science Curriculum focuses on:

I. Scientific skillsII. Thinking skillsIII. Relationship between thinking skills and science process skillsIV. Scientific attitudes and noble valuesV. Teaching and learning strategiesVI. Content organization

The main elements of the Primary School Science Curriculum are briefly describedas follows:

I. Scientific skills

Science emphasizes inquiry and problem solving. In inquiry and problem solvingprocesses, scientific and thinking skills are utilized. Scientific skills are important inany scientific investigation such as conducting and carrying out projects.

Scientific skills encompass science process skills and manipulative skills.

Science Process Skills

Science process skills enable students to formulate their questions and find out theanswers systematically. Descriptions of the science process skills are as follows:

OBSERVING USING THE SENSE OF HEARING, TOUCH, SMELL, TASTEAND SIGHT TO FIND OUT ABOUT OBJECTS OR EVENTS.

Classifying Using observations to group objects or events according tosimilarities or differences.

Measuring and UsingNumbers

Making quantitative observations by comparing to aconventional or non-conventional standard.

Making Inferences Using past experiences or previously collected data to drawconclusions and make explanations of events

Predicting Making a forecast about what will happen in the future based onprior knowledge gained through experiences or collected data.

Communicating Using words or graphic symbols such as tables, graphs, figuresor models to describe an action, object or event.

Using space-timerelationship

Describing changes in parameter with time. Examples ofparameters are location, direction, shape, size, volume, weightand mass.

Interpreting data Giving rational explanations about an object, events or patternderived from collected data.

Defining operationally Defining all variables as they are used in an experiment bydescribing what must be done and what should be observed.

Controlling variables Naming the fixed variable, manipulated variable, andresponding variable in an investigation.

Making Hypotheses Making a general statement about the relationship between amanipulated variable and a responding variable to explain anobservation or event. The statement can be tested to determineits validity.

Experimenting Planning and conducting activities including collecting,analyzing and interpreting data and making conclusions.


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Manipulative Skills

Manipulative skills in scientific investigation are psychomotor skills that enablestudents to:

Use and handle science apparatus and substances. Handle specimens correctly and carefully. Draw specimens, apparatus. Clean science apparatus. Store science apparatus.

Note: If you want to know how to apply scientific skills, please refer to unit 2.

II. Thinking Skills

Thinking is a mental process that requires an individual to integrate knowledge, skillsand attitude in an effort to understand the environment.

One of the objectives of the national education system is to enhance the thinkingability of students. This objective can be achieved through a curriculum thatemphasizes thoughtful learning. Teaching and learning that emphasizes thinkingskills is a foundation for thoughtful learning.

Thoughtful learning is achieved if students are actively involved in the teaching andlearning process. Activities should be organized to provide opportunities for studentsto apply thinking skills in conceptualization, problem solving and decision-making.

Thinking skills can be categorized into critical thinking skills and creative thinkingskills. A person who thinks critically always evaluates an idea in a systematic mannerbefore accepting it. A person who thinks creatively has a high level of imagination, isable to generate original and innovative ideas, and modify ideas and products.

Thinking strategies are higher order thinking processes that involve various steps.Each step involves various critical and creative thinking skills. The ability to formulatethinking strategies is the ultimate aim of introducing thinking activities in the teachingand learning process.


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Critical Thinking Skills

A brief description of each critical thinking skill is as follows:ATTRIBUTING IDENTIFYING CRITERIA SUCH AS CHARACTERISTICS,

FEATURES, QUALITIES AND ELEMENTS OF A CONCEPTOR AN OBJECT.

Comparing andContrasting

Finding similarities and differences based on criteria such ascharacteristics, features, qualities and elements of a conceptor event.

Grouping and Classifying Separating and grouping objects or phenomena intocategories based on certain criteria such as commoncharacteristics or features

Sequencing Arranging objects and information in based on the quality orquantity of common characteristics or features such as size,time, shape or number.

Prioritizing Arranging objects and information in order based on theirimportance or priority

Analyzing Examining information in detail by breaking it down intosmaller parts to find implicit meaning and relationships.

Detecting Bias Identifying views or opinions that have the tendency tosupport or oppose something in an unfair or misleading way.

Evaluating Making judgments on the quality or value of something basedon valid reasons or evidence.

Making Conclusions Making a statement about the outcome of an investigationthat is based on a hypothesis.

Creative Thinking Skills

A brief description of each creative thinking skill is as follows:GENERATING IDEAS PRODUCING OR GIVING IDEAS IN A DISCUSSION.

Relating Making connections in a certain situation to determine in acertain situation to determine a structure or pattern ofrelationship.

Making Inferences Using past experiences or previously collected data to drawconclusions and make explanations of events.

Predicting Making a forecast about what will happen in the future basedon prior knowledge gained through experiences or collecteddata

Making Generalizations Making a general conclusion about a group based onobservations made on, or some information from, samples ofthe group.

Visualizing Recalling or forming mental images about a particular idea,concept, situation or vision.

Synthesizing Combining separate elements or parts to form a generalpicture in various forms such as writing, drawing or artifact.

Making Hypotheses Making a general statement about the relationship between amanipulated variable and a responding variable to explain anobservation or event. The statement can be tested todetermine its validity.

Making Analogies Understanding a certain abstract or complex concept byrelating it to a simpler or concrete concept with similarcharacteristics.

Inventing Producing something new or adapting something already inexistence to overcome problems in a systematic manner.


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III. Relationship between Thinking skills and Science Process Skills

Science process skills are required in the process of finding solutions to a problem ormaking decisions in a systematic manner. It is a mental process that promotescritical, creative, analytical and systematic thinking. Mastering of science processskills, possession of suitable attitudes and knowledge enable students to thinkeffectively. The mastering of science process skills involves the mastering of therelevant thinking skills. The thinking skills that are related to a particular scienceprocess skill are as follows:

Science Process Skills Thinking SkillsObserving Attributing

Comparing and contrastingRelating

Classifying AttributingComparing and contrastingGrouping and classifying

Measuring and Using Numbers RelatingComparing and contrasting

Making inferences RelatingComparing and contrastingAnalyzingMaking inferences

Predicting RelatingVisualizing

Using Space-Time Relationship SequencingPrioritizing

Interpreting data Comparing and contrastingAnalyzingDetecting biasMaking conclusionsGeneralizingEvaluating

Defining operationally RelatingMaking analogyVisualizingAnalyzing

Controlling variables AttributingComparing and contrastingRelatingAnalyzing

Making hypotheses AttributingRelatingComparing and contrastingGenerating ideasMaking hypothesisPredictingSynthesizing

Experimenting All thinking skillsCommunicating All thinking skills

Based on your teaching experience, explain why you need to infusethinking skills and science process skills in your lesson.


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IV Scientific Attitudes and Noble Values

Science learning experiences can be used as a means to inculcate scientific attitudesand noble values in students. These attitudes and values encompass the following:

Having an interest and curiosity towards the environment. Being honest and accurate in recording and validating data. Being diligent and persevering. Being responsible about the safety of oneself, others, and the

environment. Realizing that science is a mean to understand nature. Appreciating and practicing clean and healthy living. Appreciating the balance of nature. Being respectful and well mannered. Appreciating the contribution of science and technology. Being thankful to God. Having analytical and critical thinking. Being flexible and open-minded. Being kind-hearted and caring. Being objective. Being systematic. Being cooperative. Being fair and just. Daring to try. Thinking rationally. Being confident and independent.

The inculcation of scientific attitudes and noble values generally occursthrough the following stages:

Being aware of the importance and the need for scientific attitudesand noble values.

Giving emphasis to these attitudes and values Practicing and internalizing these scientific attitudes and noble values


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V. Teaching and Learning Strategies

Teaching and learning strategies in science curriculum emphasize thoughtfullearning. Thoughtful learning is a process that helps students acquire knowledge andmaster skills that will help them develop their minds to the optimum level. Thoughtfullearning can occur through various learning approaches such as inquiry,constructivism, contextual learning, and mastery learning. Learning activities shouldtherefore be geared towards activating students’ critical and creative thinking skillsand not be confined to routine or rote learning. Students should be made aware ofthe thinking skills and thinking strategies that they use in their learning. They shouldbe challenged with higher order questions and problems and be required to solveproblems utilizing their creativity and critical thinking. The teaching and learningprocess should enable students to acquire knowledge, master skills and developscientific attitudes and noble values in an integrated manner.

Inquiry-discovery emphasizes learning through experiences. Inquiry generally meansto find information, to question and to investigate a phenomenon that occurs in theenvironment. Discovery is the main characteristic of inquiry. Learning throughdiscovery occurs when the main concepts and principles of science are investigatedand discovered by students themselves. Through activities such as experiments,students investigate a phenomenon and draw conclusions by themselves. Teachersthen lead students to understand the science concepts though the results of theinquiry. Thinking skills and scientific skills are thus developed further during theinquiry process. However, the inquiry approach may not be suitable for all teachingand learning situations. Sometimes, it may be more appropriate for teachers topresent concepts and principles directly to students.

The use of variety of teaching and learning methods can enhance students’ interestin science. Science lessons that are not interesting will not motivate students to learnand subsequently will affect their performance. The choice of teaching methodsshould be based on the curriculum content, students’ abilities, students’ repertoire ofintelligences, and the availability of resources and infrastructure. Different teachingand learning activities should be planned to cater for students with different learningstyles and intelligences.

The following are brief descriptions of some teaching and learning methods.

Experiment

An experiment is a method commonly used in science lessons. In experiments,students test hypotheses through investigations to discover specific science conceptsand principles. Conducting an experiment involves thinking skills, scientific skills, andmanipulative skills.

In the implementation of this curriculum, besides guiding students to carry outexperiments, where appropriate, teachers should provide students with theopportunities to design their own experiments. This involves students drawing upplans as to how to conduct experiments, how to measure and analyze data, and howto present the results of their experiment.


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Discussion

A discussion is an activity in which students exchange questions and opinions basedon valid reasons. Discussions can be conducted before, during or after an activity.Teachers should play the role of a facilitator and lead a discussion by askingquestions that stimulate thinking and getting students to express themselves.

Simulation

In simulation, an activity that resembles the actual situation is carried out. Examplesof simulation are role-play, games and the use of models. In role-play, students playout a particular role based on certain pre-determined conditions. Games requireprocedures that need to be followed. Students play games in order to learn aparticular principle or to understand the process of decision-making. Models are usedto represent objects or actual situations so that students can visualize the saidobjects or situations and thus understand the concepts and principles to be learned.

Project

A project is a learning activity that is generally undertaken by an individual or a groupof students to achieve a particular learning objective. A project generally requiresseveral lessons to complete. The outcome of the project either in the form of a report,an artifact or in other forms needs to be presented to the teacher and other students.Project work promotes the development of problem-solving skills, time managementskills, and independent learning.

Visits and Use of External Resources

The learning of science is not limited to activities carried out in the school compound.Learning of science can be enhanced though the use of external resources such aszoos, museums, science centres, research institutes, mangrove swamps, andfactories. Visits to these places make the learning of science more interesting,meaningful and effective. To optimize learning opportunities, visits need to becarefully planned. Students should be assigned tasks during the visit. No educationalvisit is complete without a post-visit discussion.

Use of Technology

Technology is a powerful tool that has great potential in enhancing the learning ofscience. Through the use of technology such as television, radio, video, computer,and Internet, the teaching and learning of science can be made more interesting andeffective.Computer simulation and animation are effective tools for the teaching and learningof abstract or difficult science concepts. Computer simulation and animation can bepresented through courseware or Web page. Application tools such, as wordprocessors, graphic presentation software and electronic spreadsheets are valuabletools for the analysis and presentation of data.

Briefly explain how does avisit to the museum help inyour science lesson.


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VI Content Organization

The science curriculum is organized around themes. Each theme consists of variouslearning areas, each of which consists of a number of learning objectives. A learningobjective has one or more learning outcomes.

Learning outcomes are written in the form of measurable behavioural terms. Ingeneral, the learning outcomes for a particular learning objective are organized inorder of complexity. However, in the process of teaching and learning, learningactivities should be planned in a holistic and integrated manner that enables theachievement of multiple learning outcomes according to needs and context.Teachers should avoid employing a teaching strategy that tries to achieve eachlearning outcome separately according to the order stated in the curriculumspecifications.

The Suggested Learning Activities provide information on the scope and dimensionof learning outcomes. The learning activities stated under the column SuggestedLearning Activities are given with the intention of providing some guidance as to howlearning outcomes can be achieved. A suggested activity may cover one or morelearning outcomes. At the same time, more than one activity may be suggested for aparticular learning outcome. Teachers may modify the suggested activity to suit theability and style of learning of their students. Teachers are encouraged to designother innovative and effective learning activities to enhance the learning of science.

Well done, take a break now!Time for a cup of coffee

Select a topic from Curriculum specifications Science Year 1/2/4 andsuggest a learning activity other than the suggested learning activitiesgiven. Write the relevant learning outcome and predict the scientificskills and values involved in carrying out the activity.

Based on your experience, describe how students benefit when theyare involved in science projects?

Briefly explain how technology has made your science teaching moreinteresting.


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Topic 3: Learning theories for Primary Science

Science begins with the child. Questions such as “What is a shooting star?” and“How can birds fly?” have been asked by thousands of children and have, throughouthistory, elicited a hundred different answers. Can you make the child curious allthrough his or her life? To maintain the child’s curiosity in science the teacher shouldknow how the child learns and sustain their curiosity throughout the lesson.

Do you know how children learn science?

Research and practical experience tell us a great deal about the factors, which assisteffective learning. We learn best when:

We are learning about things which are important and have relevance to us; We are able to discuss our work with our peers – including the problems we

are having alternative approaches to our work; We are able to practise and to make mistakes without being judged; What we are learning is demonstrated and accompanied by clear instructions; We succeed, that is, when we can see an improvement in the quality of our

work

To understand how children learn we have to know the cognitive development ofchildren and cognitive learning theories. The Piaget’s theory offers fresh insight intothe child’s cognitive development. Children’s perceptions of the physical world areaffected by the limitations of their cognitive structure. Knowing this has helpedscience curriculum developers to shape experiences for children that are within theirability to perform. Cognitive learning theories like Bruner, Ausubel and Gagne offervarious types of learning. The constructivist approach says that children constructtheir own understanding and knowledge of the world through experiencing things andreflecting on these experiences.

Piaget’s Theory: Cognitive development

Cognitive theorists believe that what you learn depends on your mental process andwhat you perceive about the world around you. In other words, learning depends onhow you think and how your perceptions and thought patterns interact.According to cognitive learning theorists, a teacher should try to understand what achild perceives and how a child thinks and then plan experiences that will capitalizeon these. Jean Piaget proposes that children progress through stages of cognitivedevelopment.


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Stages of Piaget’s Theories are:

1. Sensorimotor knowledge ( 0 to 2 year )Objects and people exist only if child can see, feel, hear, touch or tastetheir presence. Anything outside of the child’s perceptual field does notexist.

2. Preoperational (Representational) knowledge ( 2 to 7 years )The ability to use symbols begins. Although the child is still focused on the“there and now” early in this stage, the child can use language to refer toobjects and events that are not in his or her perceptual field.The child has difficulty understanding that objects have multipleproperties. He or she is not completely aware that a block of wood hascolor, weight, height and depth all at once. The child does not “conserves”attributes such as mass, weight, or number.

3. Concrete Operation ( 7 to 11 years )The child can group objects into classes and arrange the objects in aclass into some appropriate order. The child understands the mass,weight, volume, area and length are conserved. The child has somedifficulty isolating the variables in a situation and determining theirrelationships. The concepts of space and time become clearer.

4. Formal Operation ( 12 years through adulthood )The child is able to think in abstract terms, is able to isolate the variablesin a situation , and is able to understand their relationship to one another.The child’s ability to solve complex verbal and mathematical problemsemerges as a consequence of being able to manipulate the meaningsrepresented by symbols.

Practical applications: Piaget’s Ideas for Science Classroom

1. Infants in the sensor motor stage ( 0 to 2 years )

Examples: Provide stimulating environment that includes eye-catching displays,

pleasant sound, human voices, and plenty of tender loving care sothat the infant becomes motivated to interact with the people andthings in his or her perceptual field.

Provide stuffed animals and other safe, pliable objects that the childcan manipulate in order to acquire the psychomotor skills necessaryfor future cognitive development.


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2. Preschoolers and children in the primary grades ( 2 to 7 years )

Examples: Provide natural objects such as leaves, stones, twigs, etc for the child

to manipulate. Towards the end of this stage, provide opportunities for the child to

begin grouping things into classes that is living/nonliving ,animal/plant.

Toward the end of this stage, provide experience that gives childrenan opportunity to transcend some of their egocentricism. Forexample, have them listen to other children’s stories about what wasobserved on a trip to the zoo.

3. Children in the elementary grades ( 7 to 11 years )

Examples: Early in this stage, offer children many experiences to use the

acquired abilities with respect to the observation, classification andarrangement of objects according to some property. Any scienceactivities that should include the observation, collection, and sorting ofobjects should be able to be done in some ease.

As this stage continues, you should be able to introduce successfullymany physical science activities that include more abstract conceptssuch as space, time and number. For example, children couldmeasure the length, width, height and weight of objects or count thenumber of swings of a pendulum in a given time.

4. The middle school child and beyond ( 12 years through adulthood )

Examples: Emphasize the general concepts and laws that govern observed

phenomenon. Possible projects and activities include the prediction ofthe characteristics of an object’s motion based on Newton’s Laws, themaking of generalizations about the outcomes of a potentialimbalance among the producers, consumers, and decomposers in anatural community.

Encourage children to make hypotheses about the outcomes ofexperiments in absence of actively doing them. A key part of theprocess of doing activities might appropriately be “pre-lab” sessions inwhich the child writes down hypotheses about outcomes.

Give three reasons according to Piaget’s theory why teaching andlearning aids are important to ensure effective learning.

Select a topic from Year 4 primary science curriculum specification andsuggest two learning-teaching activities that suit Piagetian’s learningtheory.


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Bruner’s Theory: Discovery learning

Jerome Bruner’s research revealed that teachers need to provide children withexperiences to help them discover underlying ideas, concepts, or patterns. Bruner isa proponent of inductive thinking, which means going from the specific to thegeneral. Using ideas from one’s experience and applying it in another situation isalso an example of inductive thinking.

Inductive approaches to learning rely more on providing students with a range ofexperiences, which gradually increase their familiarity with new concepts, beforeattempting to draw these together into a coherent understanding of the new concept.Rather than being faced with the teacher’s definition of a concept at the beginning ofa topic, the student’s understanding of the concept is gradually constructed as aresult of exposure to a whole range of activities and experiences.

Figure 2 :Inductive approach to Instruction

Role-play Conceptformationexercise

Otheractivities

Practicalactivity

Student definition ofconcept

Inductive learning


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Figure 3: Inductive Approach

Practical applications: Bruner’s Ideas for Science Classroom

1. Emphasize the basic structure of new material

Examples: Use demonstrations that reveal basic principles. For example

demonstrate the law of magnetism by using similar and opposite poles ofa set of bar magnets.

Encourage children to make outlines of basic points made in textbooks ordiscovered in activities.

2. Present many examples and concept.

Examples: When presenting an explanation of the phases of the moon, have the

children observe the phases in a variety of ways, such as directobservation of the changing shape of the moon in the evening sdemonstration of the changes using a flashlight and sphere, anddiagrams.

Using magazine pictures to show the stages in a space shuttle mission,have the class make models that show the stages and list the stages onthe chalkboard.

3. Help children construct coding system.

Examples: Invent a game that requires children to classify rocks. Have children maintain scrapbooks in which they keep collected leaf

specimens that are grouped according to observed characteristics.

Experiences with instances of a concept or principle

Discovering and forming a concept or principle


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4. Apply new learning to many different situations and kinds of problems.

Example: Learn how scientist estimate the size of populations by having children

count the number in a sample and estimate the numbers of grasshoppersin a lawn and in a meadow.

5. Pose a problem to the children and let them find the answer.

Examples: Ask questions that will lead naturally to activities-why should wear

seatbelts? And what are some ingredients that most junk foods have ? Do a demonstration that raises a question in the children’s minds. For

example, levitate a washer using magnet or mix two colored solutions toproduce a third color.

6. Encourage children to make intuitive guesses.

Examples: Ask the children to guess the amount of water that goes down the drain

each time a child gets a drink of water from a water fountain. Give the children magazine photographs of the evening sky and have

them guess the locations of some constellations.

Ausubel’s Theory: Reception learning and expository teaching

According to David Ausubel, a child learns as a result of the child’s natural tendencyto organize information into some meaningful whole. Ausubel says learning shouldbe a deductive process, i.e. children should first learn a general concept and thenmove towards specifics.

In the deductive strategy, a concept or principal is define and discussed usingappropriate labels and terms, followed by experiences to illustrate the idea. It caninvolve hypothetical-deductive thinking whereby the learner generates idea to betested or discovered. The deductive approach can be used to promote inquirysessions and to construct knowledge. The first phase presents the generalization andrules about the concept or principles under study, and the second phase requiresstudents to find examples of the concepts or principles.

The teacher’s responsibility is to organize concepts and principles so that the childcan continually fit new learning into the learning that came earlier. Ausubel’s theories,which stress preparation and organization, have practical applications for scienceclassrooms.

Deductive approaches to learning are appropriate on many occasions. Over-dependence, however, may result in passive learning and an attitude amongst thestudents that science knowledge is black and white and that there are correctanswers to all problems in science. Additionally, these approaches often fail to valuethe understandings that students bring with them to the classroom which, asresearch has clearly shown, are difficult to change in cases where students havefaulty or non-scientific understandings of concepts. Reliance on deductiveapproaches also ignores the reality that students, like all other people, learn in avariety of ways and that they have their own preferred learning styles.


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Figure 4: Deductive Learning

Figure 5: Deductive approach to Instruction

Practicalactivity

Problems

Examples

Teacherdefinition ofconcept

Experiences with instances of a concept or principle

Receiving ideas and explanations of a concept or principle


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Ausubel’s Ideas for Your Science Classroom

1. Use advance organizers.

Examples: List, pronounce, and discuss science vocabulary words prior to

lessons that use new science terms Role-play situations that may develop on a field trip.

2. Use a number of examples.

Examples: Ask the children to give examples related to the science phenomena

observed in class from their own experiences. Use pictures and diagrams to show various examples of such things

as constellations, animals, clouds, plants, etc.

3. Focus on both similarities and differences

Examples: Discuss how plants and animals are the same and different. Explain what conventional and alternatives energy sources do and do

not have in common.

4. Present materials in an organized fashion.

Examples: Outline the content of particularly complicated lessons. Organize the materials needed for a science activity in such a way

that a sign indicates whether they are to be used at the beginning,middle, or end of the activity.

5. Discourage the rote learning of material that could be learned moremeaningfully.

Examples: Children give responses to questions in activities or textbooks in their

own words. Encourage children to explain the results of science activities to one

another.


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Gagne’s Theory: Conditions of Learning Theory

A) Description

Although Gagne’s theoretical framework covers many aspects of learning, thefocus of the theory is on intellectual skills. Gagne’s theory is very prescriptive.In its original formulation, special attention was given to military training inthose days.

In this theory, five major types of learning levels are identified:

verbal information intellectual skills cognitive strategies motor skills attitudes

The importance behind the above system of classification is that eachlearning level requires a different internal and external condition, that is, eachlearning level requires different types of instruction.

For cognitive strategies to be learned, there must be a chance to practicedeveloping new solutions to problems; to learn attitudes, the learner must beexposed to a credible role model or persuasive arguments. Gagne alsocontends that learning tasks for intellectual skills can be organized in ahierarchy according to complexity:

stimulus recognition response generation procedure following use of terminology discriminations concept formation rule application problem solving

The primary significance of this hierarchy is to provide direction for instructorsso that they can identify prerequisites that should be completed to facilitatelearning at each level. This learning hierarchy also provides a basis forsequencing instruction. Gagne outlines the following nine instructionalevents and corresponding cognitive processes gaining attention (reception)

1. informing learners of the objective (expectancy)2. stimulating recall of prior learning (retrieval)3. presenting the stimulus (selective perception)4. providing learning guidance (semantic encoding)5. eliciting performance (responding)6. providing feedback (reinforcement)7. assessing performance (retrieval)8. enhancing retention and transfer (generalization)


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B) Practical Application

Gagne’s nine instructional events and corresponding cognitive processes canserve as the basis for designing instruction and selecting appropriate media(Gagne, Briggs & Wager, 1992, as cited in Kearsley 1994a). In applying theseinstructional events, Kearsley (1994a) suggests keeping the followingprinciples in mind:

1. Learning hierarchies define a sequence of instruction.2. Learning hierarchies define what intellectual skills are to be learned.3. Different instruction is required for different learning outcomes.

Gagne’s Ideas for Your Science Classroom

1. Verbal information

Examples: Have children recall science facts and concepts orally or in writing. Model the use of advance organizers such as diagrams and lists of

key words prior to children reading science material or observingvideotapes of science phenomena.

2. Intellectual Skills.

Examples: Have children “invent” rules that govern processes, find similarities

and differences, and predict outcomes. Emphasize the search patterns and regularities during hands-on

experiences. Whenever possible have children not only compareorganisms, objects, and phenomena but also contrast them.

3. Cognitive strategies.

Examples: Encourage children to find their own ways to remember

information and ideas. Model the use of mnemonic devices, diagrams, outlines,

journaling, audio taping, and other techniques for retaining ideas

4. Attitudes.

Example: Select content and experiences that are relevant to the child’s

daily life and intriguing to the child so that the child develops apositive attitude toward science and chooses science-relatedexperiences during leisure time.

http://www.patsula.com/usefo/webbasedlearning/tutorial1/learning_theories_full_version.html#FEFF006E0069006E0065


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5. Acquisition of motor skills.

Example: Through the use of discovery-oriented experiences provide

children with opportunities to use hand lenses, simple tools,measuring devices, etc.

Activity 1:Make a comparison between Bruner’s theory andAusubel ’s theory.

Activity 2:Choose a topic and describe briefly how you would teachusing inductive and deductive approaches.

Activity 3Think of 3 ways to inculcate positive scientific valuesamong students while conducting an experiment in thelaboratory.


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Constructivist Approach

What is constructivism?

Constructivism is basically a learning theory based on observation and scientificstudy. It is about how people learn. It says that people construct their ownunderstanding and knowledge of the world, through experiencing things andreflecting on those experiences. When we encounter something new, we have toreconcile it with our previous ideas and experiences. In doing so we may have tochange what we believe or maybe discarding the new information as irrelevant. Theconstructivist learners are active creators of our own knowledge. To be constructivistlearners, we must ask questions, explore ideas and assess what we know.Constructivism proposes that children learn as a result of their personal generation ofmeaning from experiences. The fundamental role of a teacher is to help childrengenerate connections between what is to be learned and what the children alreadyknow or believe. There are three principles that make up the theory of constructivism:

1. A person never really knows the world as it is. Each person constructsbeliefs about what is real.

2. What a person already believes, what a person brings to new situations,filters out or changes the information that the persons’ senses deliver.

3. People create a reality based on their previous beliefs, their own abilitiesto reason, and their desire to reconcile what they believe and what theyactually observe.

In the classroom, the constructivist view of learning can have a number of differentteaching practices. In the most general sense, it usually means encouraging studentsto use active techniques (experiments, real-world problem solving ) to create moreknowledge and then to reflect on and talk about what they are doing and how theirunderstanding is changing. The teacher makes sure she understands the students’preexisting conceptions, and guides the activity to address them and build on them.Constructivist teachers encourage students to constantly assess how the activity ishelping them gain understanding. By questioning themselves and their strategies,students in the constructivist classroom ideally become “expert learners”. This givesthem ever-broadening tools to keep learning. With a well-planned classroomenvironment, the students learn how to learn.

Traditional class versus constructivist class

The table below compares the traditional classroom to the constructivist one. In theconstructivist model, the students are urged to be actively involved in their ownprocess of learning. One of the teacher’s biggest job is becomes ASKING GOODQUESTIONS (The constructivists acknowledge that students are constructingknowledge in a traditional classrooms too but its really a matter of emphasis being onthe student not the teacher).


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TRADITIONAL CLASS CONSTRUCTIVIST CLASS

Teachers disseminate information tostudents and students are recipients ofknowledge.

Teachers have discussed with their studentsand help them construct their ownknowledge.

Teacher’s role is directive, rooted inauthority .

Teacher’s role is interactive, rooted innegotiation.

Knowledge is seen as inert. Knowledge is seen as dynamic ever changingwith our experiences.

Students work primarily alone. Students work primarily in groups.

Assessment is through testing correctanswers.

Assessment includes student’s works,observations, and points of view, as well astests. Process is as important as product.

Table 2: Differences Between Traditional and Constructivist Classroom


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Alternative Framework

Students enter the classroom with pre-existing ideas about the world which aredifferent to those held by scientists i.e. embody misconceptions.

Research indicates that student misconceptions about things which have a scientificdimension or explanation:

are extremely common (unsurprising given that children have been thinkingabout and coping with the natural world for many years prior to theirexposure to a formal scientific education)

hinder understanding of accepted scientific explanations (until they arediscarded by the learner, alternative concepts will not be learned)

are not easily displaced (and will not usually be displaced simply throughrevelation of the scientific explanation/concept or at the behest of theteacher)

can coexist with scientific concepts (in which case they are only used insituations perceived as requiring a "scientific" answer/response, but not inthe student's everyday thinking about the world)

can be found even among the "experts" (research indicates many scientistsand teachers unknowingly retain misconceptions e.g. in physics, the impetusmodel of motion rather than the Newtonian one of inertia)

Techniques To Identify Alternative Frameworks :-

Interview Questionnaires Prediction Observation Explanation

Displacing MisconceptionsMisconceptions can be displaced and students will accept a scientific conception if :

the student understands the meaning of the scientific conception the scientific conception is believable (this means that it must be

compatible with the student's other conceptions. the scientific conception is found to be useful to the student in interpreting,

explaining or predicting phenomena that cannot be satisfactorilyaccounted for by the formerly held misconceptions (i.e. the scientificconcept must be seen to be better than the student's prior belief)

the student progressively gains expertise in using the new scientificconcepts (a slow process requiring a long time period and gradualbuilding of knowledge through experience).


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Applying Constructivism In The Classroom

The constructivist teachers pose questions and problems, then guide students tohelp them find their own answers. They use many techniques in the teachingprocess.

In a constructivist classroom,learning is

Example

Constructed – students come tolearning situations with alreadyformulated knowledge, ideas andunderstandings. This previousknowledge is the raw material forthe new knowledge they willcreate.

An elementary school teacher presents a classproblem to measure the length of the“Mayflower”. Rather than starting the problemby introducing the ruler, the teacher allowsstudents to reflect and to construct their ownmethods of measurement. One student offersthe knowledge that a doctor said he is four feettall. Another says she knows horses aremeasured in “hands”. The students discussthese and other methods they have heardabout, and decide on one to apply to theproblem.

Active – students create newunderstanding for him/herself.The teacher coaches,moderates, suggests but allowthe students room to experiment,ask questions, try things thatdon’t work. Learning activitiesrequire students’ full participationand they need to reflect on, andtalk about, their activities.

Groups of students in a science class arediscussing a problem in physics. Though theteacher knows the “answer” to the problem, shefocuses on helping students restate theirquestions in useful ways. She prompts eachstudent to reflect on and examine his or hercurrent knowledge. When one of the studentscomes up with the relevant concept, the teacherseizes upon it and indicates to the group thatthis might be a fruitful avenue for them toexplore. They design and perform relevantexperiments. Afterward, the students andteacher talk about what they have learned, andhow their observations and experiments helpedthem to better understand the concept.

Reflective – students controltheir own learning process byreflecting on their experiences.This process makes themexperts of their own learning. Theteacher helps create situationswhere the students feel safequestioning and reflecting ontheir own processes, eitherprivately or in group discussion.

Students keep journals in carrying out scienceprojects where they record how they feel aboutthe project, the visual and verbal reactions ofothers to the project. Periodically the teacherreads these journals and holds a conferencewith the student where the two assess (1) whatnew knowledge the student has created, (2)how the student learns best and (3) the learningenvironment and the teacher’s role in it.

Collaborative –the constructivistclassroom relies heavily oncollaboration among students.When students review and reflecton their learning processestogether, they can pick upstrategies and methods from oneanother

A group of students carrying out an experimentto determine the melting point of naphthalene.They collaborate by doing different taskssimultaneously. One reads the temperaturewhile another reads aloud the time interval. Atthe same time another student tabulates thereading and draws the cooling curve. Togetherthey interpret the data and discuss the results.


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INQUIRY BASED – STUDENTSUSE INQUIRY METHODS TOASK QUESTIONS,INVESTIGATE A TOPIC ANDUSE VARIETY OFRESOURCES TO FINDSOLUTIONS AND ANSWERS.

SIXTH GRADERS FIGURING OUT HOW TOPURIFY WATER INVESTIGATE SOLUTIONSRANGING FROM COFFEE-FILTER PAPER,TO A STOVETOP DISTILLATIONAPPARATUS, TO PILES OF CHARCOAL, TOAN ABSTRACT MATHEMATICAL SOLUTIONBASED ON THE SIZE OF A WATERMOLECULE. DEPENDING UPON STUDENTSRESPONSES, THE TEACHER ENCOURAGESABSTRACT AS WELL AS CONCRETE,POETIC AS WELL AS PRACTICAL,CREATIONS OF NEW KNOWLEDGE.

Evolving- students have ideasthat they may later see wereinvalid, incorrect, or insufficient toexplain new experiences. Theseideas are temporary steps in theintegration of knowledge.Constructivist teaching takes intoaccount students’ currentconceptions and builds fromthere.

An elementary teacher believes her studentsare ready to study gravity. She creates anenvironment of discovery with objects of varyingkinds. Students explore the differences inweight among similar blocks of Styrofoam, woodand lead. Some students hold the notion thatheavier objects fall faster than light ones. Theteacher provides materials about Galileo andNewton. She leads the discussion on theoriesabout falling. The students then replicateGalileo’s experiment by dropping objects ofdifferent weights and measuring how fast theyfall. They see that objects of different weightsactually fall at the same speed, although surfacearea and aerodynamic properties can affect therate of fall.


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Teaching Models Based On Constructivist Approach

Needham’s Five Phase Constructive Model

This learning model was proposed by Richard Needham (1987 ) in his work‘Children Learning in Science Project’. It consists of five phases namely theorientation, the generation of ideas, restructuring of ideas, application of ideas andlastly the reflection .

Needham Five Phases Constructivist Model is shown in the table 3 below :-

PHASE PURPOSE METHODSOrientation To attract students attention and

interest.Experiment, video and film show,demonstration, problem solving.

Eliciting of ideas To be aware of the student’sprior knowledge.

Experiment, small groupdiscussion, concept mappingand presentation.

Restructuring of ideas

Explanation andexchanging ideas

Exposure to conflictideas

Development ofnew ideas

evaluation

To realize the existence ofalternative ideas , ideas needs tobe improved, to be developed orto be replaced with scientificideas.

To determine the alternative ideasand critically assess the presentideas.

To test the validity of the presentideas.

To improvise, develop or toreplace with new ideas.

To test the validity of the newideas.

Small group discussion andpresentation.

Discussion, reading, andteacher’s input.

Experiment, project anddemonstration.

Application of ideas To apply the new ideas to adifferent situation.

Writing of individual’s report onthe project work.

Reflection To accommodate ones idea tothe scientific ideas.

Writing of individual’s report onthe project work, groupdiscussion, and personal notes.

Table 3: Needham Five Phases Constructivist Model

Adapted from “Buku Sumber Pengajaran Pembelajaran Sains Sekolah Rendah, JilidIII” ( 1995) ms 15-16.

Further reading:Needham, R & Hill, P ( 1987 ), Teaching Strategies For Developing Understanding inScience. University of Leeds.


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Osborne Generative Model

The generative learning model, developed by Roger J. Osborne and Michael C.Wittrock (1983), is both a model of how children learn and a model of how to teachchildren. This constructivist model is based on the premise that children come to theclassroom with a body of prior knowledge that may or may not be compatible with thenew concept being presented in the science lesson. The learner must be able toconnect between prior knowledge and new information to successfully construct newmeanings. This teaching model outlines a series of steps for a well-designed lesson,the preliminary, focus, challenge, and application phases as shown in the table 4

Interactive Model ( Faire And Cosgrove )

Learning is an interactive process (which actively engages the learner) not a passiveexercise in transmission of knowledge. Interactive learning promotes development ofscientific process skills, development of conceptual understandings, studentownership of process and products of learning.

Learning begins with an initiating event, which motivates and directs the learner ' sattention to the task of learning e.g.

a question to be answered a problem to be solved a challenge to be met a discrepant event to be explained

Learning proceeds to children actively engaging in the learning process by:

asking their own questions stating their own existing ideas proposing hypotheses designing fair tests investigating and exploring refining their ideas stating and presenting their findings


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Table 4: Phases Of The Generative Model

PHASE ACTIVITYThe preliminary phase - includes any activity thatallows the teacher to find out what prior knowledge thestudents have relevant to the new concept. This canbe as simple as a brief pre-test, or it may include aquick demonstration or activity that provides adiscrepant event (an activity with a surprising,unexpected results). This is an opportunity for theteacher to find out what prerequisite knowledge thestudents lack or what misconceptions the studentshave that may interfere with their understanding of theconcept.

In conducting a lesson on buoyancy (sinking& floating), teacher may find that somestudents may lack a thorough understandingof the concepts density, mass, and volume.A lack of this knowledge will block students’ability to put together a sound understandingof buoyancy. If the preliminary phase revealsthat students lack that knowledge, theteacher then knows she/he will have toinclude time to develop those prerequisiteconcepts.

The focus phase - provides an activity (which may bea hands-on inquiry activity or a brain-teaser) that givesthe students an opportunity to play around with anexample of the concept (such as playing around withobjects that sink or float). To create a discrepant eventthat stimulates the students’ curiosity, we wouldinclude objects that students would expect to sink, butwhich actually float.

Students in small groups conduct anexperiment investigating buoyancy of severalobjects. Conducting these activities in smallgroups is very effective. The students oftenautomatically experiment with the materials,discuss their results, and challenge and testtheir explanations/ideas together.

The challenge phase - is a time for the students tocompare their own ideas with those of others.Although this can be done individually, it is a powerfulgroup learning activity. Class members areencouraged to debate, challenge, and test eachother’s ideas, while the teacher encourages all thestudents’ ideas and provides them with challengingquestions about their explanations. It is up to thestudents to test the ideas and eliminate ideas that theydetermine don’t work. The teacher facilitates this byhelping them figure out how to test out each idea.When the teacher determines that the students arecognitively ready to understand the scientific versionof the concept, the teacher can present the concept.

Students present their findings and exchangeideas; students debate and test out theirexplanations. Teacher explains the conceptof buoyancy.

The application phase - provides students withopportunities to find out whether the concept isapplicable to a variety of situations. We suggest thatstudents be given opportunities to examine at leastfive situations to which the concept can be applied.New examples may provide new twists on the conceptthat will lead to a new round of discussion and testing

In the lesson on buoyancy, the aluminum foilboat does not appear at first to fit thestandard concept. The concept must be re-defined to include boats. Finally, the teachercan refine the students’ understanding byproviding one or two non-examples of theconcept, i.e., examples that look like theyshould follow the rule but, on closerexamination, do not. This will help deterstudents from automatically applying the newconcept to all situations.


The teacher 's role in an interactive learning environment

Provide the initiation to learning (by posing the question, challenge, problem ordiscrepant event and motivating the learners to the learning task).

Facilitate the learning activities by:

defining the learning environment (e.g. grouping, access to materials,setting the time frame, defining expectations)

probing children ' s ideas offering guidance in the formation of hypotheses helping children refine and focus their questions helping children set up their investigations providing feedback and encouragement in the children's design of fair

tests challenging children to test, apply, refine and extend their ideas.

Sequential activities in interactive model are shown in the schematic diagrambelow :-

Figure 7: ScheAdapted from “ Buku Sumber Pengajara67.

PreparationTeacher and students choose a topic and

search for information.

Te

Studenta

Studen

Teache

Studeobserv

Teacherle

AdditionalQuestions

Pre-requisite Knowledgeacher determines student’s prior

man P

knowledge

s inskin

ts p

r an

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guidarn

Exploratory Activityvestigate the topic through reading ,
g questions and discussion
Students Ask Questions

tiem

ose questions regarding the topic

d

pror

esed

Doing Researchstudents select questions to study

1-

c Dbe

in greater detail.

Observationesent their findings and teacherchanges in students’ concepts.

stuand

Comparison

Reflectiondent to reflects on what they have

35

iagram of Interactive Modellajaran Sains Sekolah Rendah, Jilid III” ( 1995 ), ms

how they have learned.

Mod

Mul

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MucInte

ule 1: KPLI SR Science Major Unit 1: Teaching Science To Children

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tiple Intelligence

iple Intelligence (MI) theory states that there are at least seven different ways ofning anything, and therefore there are "seven intelligences": body/kinesthetic,personal, intra-personal, logical/mathematical, musical/rhythmic, verbal/linguisticvisual/spatial. In addition most all people have the ability to develop skills in each

he intelligences, and to learn through them. However, in education we haveed to emphasize two of "the ways of learning": logical/mathematical andal/linguistic.

h of this material is from: Seven Ways of Knowing: Teaching for Multiplelligences by David Lazear. 1991. IRI/Skylight Publishing, Inc. Palatine, IL.

Body/Kinesthetic Intelligence

This intelligence is related to physical movement and the knowing/wisdom of thebody. Including the brain's motor cortex, which control bodily motion.Body/kinesthetic intelligence is awakened through physical movement such as invarious sports, dance, and physical exercises as well as by the expression ofoneself through the body, such as inventing, drama, body language, andcreative/interpretive dance.

Interpersonal Intelligence

This intelligence operates primarily through person-to-person relationships andcommunication. Interpersonal intelligence is activated by person-to-personencounters in which such things as effective communication, working togetherwith others for a common goal, and noticing distinctions among persons arenecessary and important.

Activity 1:Define constructivism and its attributes in science classroompractices.

Activity 2:Discuss the various techniques to identify children’salternative framework on the topic electricity.

Activity 3:Choose a topic of your specialize area and discuss briefly theteaching and learning activities using constructivist approach.


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Intra-personal Intelligence

This intelligence relates to inner states of being, self-reflection, metacognition (i.e.thinking about thinking), and awareness of spiritual realities. Intra-personalintelligence is awakened when we are in situations that cause introspection andrequire knowledge of the internal aspects of the self, such as awareness of ourfeelings, thinking processes, self-reflection, and spirituality.

Logical/Mathematical Intelligence

Often called "scientific thinking," this intelligence deals with inductive anddeductive thinking/reasoning, numbers, and the recognition of abstract patterns.Logical mathematical intelligence is activated in situations requiring problemsolving or meeting a new challenge as well as situations requiring patterndiscernment and recognition.

Musical/Rhythmic Intelligence

This intelligence is based on the recognition is based on the recognition of tonalpatterns, including various environmental sounds, and on a sensitivity to rhythmand beats. Musical/rhythmic intelligence is turned on by the resonance orvibration effect of music and rhythm on the brain, including such things as thehuman voice, sounds from nature, musical instruments, percussion instruments,and other humanly produced sounds.

Verbal/Linguistic Intelligence

This intelligence, which is related to words and language both written andspoken, dominates most Western educational systems. Verbal linguisticintelligence is awakened by the spoken word, by reading someone's ideasthoughts, or poetry, or by writing one's own ideas, thoughts, or poetry, as well asby various kinds of humor such as "plays on words," jokes, and "twists" of thelanguage.

Visual/Spatial Intelligence

This intelligence, which relies on the sense of sight and being able to visualize anobject, includes the ability to create internal mental images/pictures. Visual/spatialintelligence is triggered by presenting the mind with and/or creating unusual,delightful, and colorful designs, patterns, shapes, and pictures, and engaging inactive imagination through such things as visualization guided imagery, andpretending exercises.

Well done, take a breaknow! Time for a cup ofcoffee before you moveon to the next topic


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Topic 4: Teaching Primary Science by Inquiry and Discovery

In science, children are being encouraged to be the discoverers of the nature ofthings. Children need to be engaged in ‘real experimentation’ and ‘discovering thingsby themselves. Active participation of children in science lessons is possible throughinquiry and discovery methods. What do you understand by teaching primary scienceby inquiry?

Inquiry

Inquiry is the process of defining and investigating problems, formulating hypotheses,designing experiments, gathering data, and drawing conclusions about problems.The figure 8 illustrates the basic steps in using the Inquiry Model

Figure 8: Basic Steps in Using the Inquiry Model

Source: Lang R.H,& McBeath A. ( ). Strategies and Methods for Student-centeredInstruction, pp 280

The steps of inquiry as suggested in the inquiry model are as follows:

1. Ask open-ended and high level questions, solicit and accept divergentresponses and probes and redirects;

2. Avoid telling answers or suggesting what students must do next; instead, actonly as a clarifier or facilitator;

3. Encourage and reinforce your students in taking more responsibility formaking learning discoveries;

4. Be supportive of their responses, suggestions, and deferring views andinterpretations, but insist that they back up their comments with logicalevidence;

5. Teach students how to phrase or write the concepts, principles orgeneralization that they are forming;

6. Encourage them to act on current verified “best answer”, understanding thatadditional evidence may lead to new “best answer”;

Set up the problemsituation

Learner applies conceptsor generalization

Learner forms concepts orgeneralization

Set up experiences tobring out contrasting

elements

Provide experiences tobring out essential

elements


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7. Teach and encourage students to distinguish between “healthy “ and“negative” skepticism;

8. Encourage student-student interaction and sharing by stressing support andcooperation rather than competition;

9. Point out any errors in logic, misuse of inferences or generalizations that aretoo broad but allow your students to make their own correction as far aspossible, for if you supply corrections, you may defeat the purpose of inquiry;

10. Be sure to identify errors and verify conclusions and generalizations in non-threatening ways.

The essence of inquiry approach is to teach pupils to handle situation, which theyencounter when dealing with physical world by using techniques applied by researchscientists. Inquiry means teachers design situations so that pupils are caused toemploy procedures research scientists used to recognize problems, to ask questions,to apply investigational procedures, and to provide consistent descriptions,predictions, and explanation which are compatible with shared experienced of thephysical world.

Discovery

Discovery is the mental process of assimilating concepts and principles. Discoveryprocesses include

Observing Classifying Measuring Predicting Describing Inferring

A lesson can range from free discovery where the teacher’s role is minimal at oneend to pure expository learning where the teacher’s role is maximum at the other. Inbetween this expository-pure discovery continuum lays guided discovery. When bothrule and solutions are given, the teaching method is thoroughly expository; whenneither is given, it is pure discovery.

Teachingstrategy

EXPOSITION (teacherlectures, instructs,demonstrates)

GUIDED DISCOVERY EXPOLARION OR FREEDISCOVERY(INQUIRY)

Teacherrole

Active/Dominant Active/facilitator Facilitator

Studentrole

Passive or active Active Active

Source: Carin. A. and Sund. R. Teaching Science Through discovery (6th Edition) 1989. pp91.

Figure 9: Dominance/passivity of science-teaching methods


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Guided Discovery

Guided discovery science teaching/learning methods blend teacher-centred andstudent-centred techniques. The younger the children the more you must presentinformation and guide them; the older children, the less you present, the more theywill initiate work with you as a facilitator, resource person, and encourager, andguide. Guided discovery science teaching/learning tries to help students learn tolearn. Guided discovery helps students acquire knowledge that is uniquely their ownbecause they discovered it themselves. Guided discovery is not restricted to findingsomething entirely new to the world such as an invention or theory. It is a matter ofinternally rearranging data so your students can go beyond the data to form conceptsnew to them. Guided discovery involves finding the meanings, organization, andstructure of ideas.

Inquiry should not be confused with discovery. Discovery assumes a realist or logicalapproach to the world, which is necessarily present in inquiry. Inquiry tends to imply aconstructionist approach to teaching science. Inquiry is open-ended and on going.Discovery concentrates upon closure on some important process, fact, principle orlaw, which is required by the science syllabus.

In this section, you will learn three inquiry methods commonly used in Primary SchoolScience. They are experimentation, investigation, and demonstration.

Experimentation

An experiment can also be defined as the setting up of a planned situation; thesituation is planned to provide data that will either support or not support yourhypothesis. If the manner in which a variable can be manipulated and the type ofresponse expected is clearly stated in the hypothesis, then much of the work inplanning how to collect data has been done. After that, you define the variablesoperationally, specify the conditions under which the work will be carried out and youare set to carry out the experiment. You observe and measure the variables andrepeat the procedure if necessary. Later you make inferences in trying to explain theresult while you are interpreting the data. Then you relate the data to your hypothesisand then finally, you make another inference to come to the conclusion of theexperiment.


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The experimental process can be summarized in the followingdiagram:

Figure 10: Steps in Experimentation

Students involved in experimentation should follow all the steps as shown in figure 10so that they will master all the science process skills. However, when students aregiven the experimental procedures and asked to carry out the activity, we do notconsider this as experimentation. This is because students are not undergoing all thesteps of experimentation but merely carrying out a learning activity.

Scientific Problem

Theory

Conduct experiment

Hypothesis

Observation anddata collection

Data analysis

Findings/Results

Conclusion


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Investigation

Investigations are one of the types of practical learning involved in science education.Other types of practical work in science include demonstrations by the teacher andillustrative work conducted by children. Illustrative is largely predetermined by theteacher with one main route expected to lead to a conclusion. This has previouslybeen the bulk of practical science education in many schools.

In contrast, an investigation is largely determined by the children with many possibleroutes and outcomes. Therefore, children have to take decisions at many points inthe investigation. It is not totally predetermined by the teacher, although the teacherstill manages the learning.

Investigations involved a number of interrelated intellectual and manual processes:

Hypothesizing Questioning Planning Experimenting Measuring Recording data Interpreting evidence Evaluating evidence Making inferences Communicating Predicting

Although set out here as a list, these do not form a series of short steps in a linearprocess. Investigating is more complex and cyclical in nature. More sophisticatedinvestigation will be more complex still, with several internal loops within the overallcyclical process.

Demonstration

Demonstration is one of the common techniques used by primary science teachers.The key feature is the division of the demonstration into three parts: prediction,observation and explanation.

Predict – Observe – Explain (POE)

In a POE activity students are given a situation and are asked to predict what willhappen when some change is made. Having made their predictions, the change tothe situation is made and the students are asked to make careful observations of theresults of the change. Next, the students are asked to sort out and to explain thedifferences between what they expected to happen and what did actually happen.The strategy is readily applied to many situations in science, although in somebiological examples the changes might be slow.

Predictions

During the prediction stage, the purpose is to allow the teacher and the students tobecome aware of what they are thinking. The wide range of understanding held bythe students about the situations emerges in the discussion.


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A number of conditions apply;

1. The situation must be one in which students feel comfortable making aprediction; the situation is sufficiently familiar to allow students to suggest anadequate hypothesis and to offer supporting reasons why it might be true.Situations in which students to guess because they don’t have sufficient pre-knowledge are not useful for the POE technique.

2. Sometimes the teacher will deliberately choose a situation in which the resultwill be a surprise for the majority of the students. However, this should not bethe rule. It is important that on many occasions, situations are selected inwhich many of the students will be able to make correct predictions.

3. Students should feel able and should be encouraged to take risks in makingtheir predictions and to talk about their reasons without evaluations by theteacher or the class. While students are making their predictions, the ideas ofright and wrong are irrelevant.

4. It’s important that commitment to a prediction is sort from every student priorto the observation being made. Often it is appropriate that is be written-reducing the threat for individuals.

Observations

The activity may be done as a teacher demonstration or as a student activity. Theteacher must ensure the students observe carefully and that they discuss theseobservations. Often two students will observe the same event in very different ways,commenting on different aspects of the situations or even seeing quite conflictingthings.

Explanations

The process of reconciling students’ predictions and their observations, which is thefinal stage of the strategy, is usually not an easy task. Students will need a chance totalk with on another about their explanations, the differences between theirpredictions and observation and often further experiments will need to be suggested.

Explain how experimentation and investigationcan promote inquiry learning


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Oral Questioning

Since the age of Socrates, questions have been considered essential to effectiveteaching. There are many ways you can use questions. You might, for instance, usequestions as a pre-test to discover what your students already know about the topicor what aspect of the topic interest them most. You might begin a new lesson byasking a challenging or thought- provoking question to motivate your students.

Questioning Procedures

Although questions vary widely in their content and form of delivery, there are certaincommonly used steps in the classroom question-and-answer process.

Figure 11: Basic steps in asking questions

What’s in a question, you ask: Everything. It is the way of evokingstimulating responses or stultifying inquiry. It is, in essence, the verycore of teaching.

(Dewey, 1933. p.266 )

Get attention of all

Ask question

Have studentsrespond to whole class

Wait

Call for response

Student must understandquestion and knowconditions of response

3 – 5 seconds

Spread questionamong volunteersand non-volunteersalike

Wait briefly afterstudents hasresponded

Avoid Call-outs Chorus answers Repeating

questions Repeating

answers Run-on questions Leading questions

multiple questions Blanket questions Yes/no questions
Poor distribution


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The suggestions below can help you frame and use questions productively.

Secure attention

Before you a single question, secure the undivided attention of the whole class.By so doing, you will reinforce your students’ sense that they are part of theclassroom teaching/learning process. You can use eye contact, gestures, andchanges of position to secure and whole your students’ attention.

Distribute questions widely

Distribute your questions widely, selecting students from among both volunteersand non-volunteers to give answers. Avoid choosing responders to any setpatterns (e.g. by rows); if participation is predictable, students will be encouragedto let their attention wander, and management problems are like to ensue.

Distribute questions realistically

Encourage active participation in lesson development by matching the difficulty ofthe questions to the capability of the students. Do this tactfully, however, to avoidsending negative messages about certain students’ abilities. Treat incorrectresponses as “deferred successes” rather than as failures.

Pause productively

When you have asked questions, pause for 3 to 5 seconds before you call on aparticular student to respond. This practice provide students with “think time”during which you can look about the room as a signal that you may choose anystudent to answer, and that no one “of the hook”.

Use “wait time”

Once you have named a respondent, allow 3 to 5 seconds for a response.Learning to use wait time effectively takes courage and perseverance: at first, youmay fear that if you wait 3 or more seconds after asking questions, your lessonwill drag. In fact, while that wait time may seem long to you, it seldom does to thestudents. To encourage your students to frame their replies in complete, well-worded and well-constructed statement, you must give them time to think theiranswers through.

Require courteous group behaviour

Train your students to raise a hand if they wish to volunteer an answer. Thiscourteous behaviour, which gives the floor to one person at a time, allows you toacknowledge correct responses and use them more productively; a studentanswer may lead to your next question or to a redirect (passing the questionalong to another student to obtain clarification or comment) and, thus, becomepart topic’s development. Also train your students to direct their answers to thewhole class and not just to you, to emphasize that answering question is part of acooperative learning experience, and that all students share responsibility forlesson development.


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How can you use different kinds of questions for different purposes?

According to Carin and Sund (1989), there are three classification systems that canserve as a guide to evaluate questions.

1. Convergent and divergent2. Levels of thinking using Bloom’s Taxonomy3. Processes – Critical and Creative Thinking

In this section, you will discuss the convergent and divergent questions only. Furtherreading on Levels of thinking using Bloom’s Taxonomy and Processes –Critical andCreative Thinking please refer to Carin. A. and Sund. R. Teaching Science Throughdiscovery (6th Edition) 1989. pp 157- 160

Convergent questions (closed questions)

Convergent questions focus on specific, teacher acceptable answers, and reinforcethe “correct” answers you may be looking for.

Use convergent questions to guide the student and to evaluate what he or she sees,knows, or feels about the event. Convergent questions help direct the student’sattention to specific objects or events. They also sharpen the student’s recall ormemory faculties. These questions evaluate student’s observational and recall skill,allow you to adjust your teaching to present ideas again, or go back to lesscomplicated ideas.

Divergent questions (open-ended questions)

Divergent questions are those that encourage a broad range of diverse responses.

Today’s science/technology/society complex problems often need more than onesolution. Therefore, divergent thinking is a particularly important skill. Using divergentquestion will broaden and deepen your students’ responses and involve them inthinking creatively and critically. Divergent questions stimulate children to becomebetter observers and organizers of the objects and events you present. Many ofthese questions guide children in discovering things for themselves, help them to seeinterrelationships, and make hypothesis or draw conclusions from the data.

questions

answers

answers

answers

questions answers


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1. Identify whether the following questions are convergent or divergent

Convergent/Divergent Questions Answers

1. What do you think I am going to do with this material?

2. What conclusions can you from the data/

3. Can anything else be done to improve the design?

4. Is baking powder a producer of a gas

5. Do you think heat caused the plant to wilt?

6. What can you tell me about pollution in this area from

the photograph?

7. Which of these animals would you like to be and why?

8. Would you say you have sufficient information to come

to that conclusion?

9. What ways can you make the lights burn with the wire,

switch, and battery?

10. What thins can you tell me about the world during the

time of the dinosaurs?

2. How do you change the other questions in 1. to make them more divergent?


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TUTORIAL QUESTIONS

1. Construct a concept map to show your overall understanding on thePrimary School Science Curriculum by using the following key concepts:

Concept maps should: Be networks with nodes

representing concept terms andlines representing directionalrelations between concept pairs.

Be hierarchical with super ordinateconcepts at the apex when thesubject domain is clearlyhierarchical.

Contain labeled links withappropriate linking words.

Contain cross links such thatrelations between sub branches ofthe network are identified.

Be structural representationsgenerated by students freely andnot constrained by a givenstructure.

Be labeled by students in their ownwords.

Be based on a few (say 10 orfewer) important concepts in thesubject domain.

Either permit students to providetheir own terms in a subjectdomain, or provide concept termsin the assessment.

Contain sufficiently clear,unambiguous instructions to permitstudents to search memory in thedesired manner and to establishappropriate criteria against whichto test alternative responses.

Guidelines on howto construct aconcept map

Scientific skills, thinking skills, scientific attitudes, teaching andlearning strategies, curriculum specification.


2.

The Nationatechnologica

Can you ideliterate citize

In your opincontribute to

InscieTecindiandcom

NATIONAL SCIENCE EDUCATION PHILOSOPHY

consonance with the National Education Philosophy,nce education in Malaysia nurtures a Science andhnology Culture by focusing on the development ofviduals who are competitive, dynamic, robust and resilient

able to master scientific knowledge and technological

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l Science Education Philosophy aims to develop scientifically andlly literate Malaysians.

ntify the characteristics of a scientifically and technologicallyn?

ion, how can a scientifically and technologically literate citizena progressive society?

petency.


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Summary

Science is the study of natural phenomena in a systematic manner. The three major elements of science are processes, products and attitudes. Science is regarded as ordered knowledge of natural phenomena Technology uses the knowledge of science to design products to improve the

quality of life. Primary School Science Curriculum is divided into 2 levels: Levels 1 year 1-3;

Levels 2 year 4-6. The primary science curriculum focuses on scientific skills, thinking skills,

scientific values, content organization and teaching and learning strategies. According to Piaget’s cognitive theory, children undergo four stages of

cognitive development, namely, Sensorimotor stage (0 – 2 years) Pro-operational stage (2 – 7 years) Concrete-operational stage (7 – 11 years) Formal operational stage (11 – 14 years)

Piagetian Theory implies that all children follow the same developmentalpattern regardless of culture and general ability. Children perceive thingsdifferently.

In Bruner’s discovery Learning model, students’ involvement is active in thelearning process. The teachers’ role as a guide and advisor in the student’ssearch for information rather than as a giver of information.

Ausubel’s Verbal Learning model says that instructions should be systematicand given in a deductive manner.

Gagne’s Learning hierarchy is based on the idea that all learning mustproceed from simple to the complex in well-defined stages.

In constructive approach students tries to make sense of what is taught bytrying to fit it with his/her experience. There are three commonly usedteaching models using constructivist approach; interactive model, generativemodel and Needham’s five-phase model.

Multiple Intelligence (MI) theory states that there are at least seven differentways of learning anything, and therefore there are "seven intelligences":body/kinesthetic, interpersonal, intra-personal, logical/mathematical,musical/rhythmic, verbal/linguistic and visual/spatial.

Inquiry in science teaching applies to any procedure where children areinvolved in problem solving. Inquiry means going beyond the knowninformation to gain new knowledge.

In the discovery approach, children are permitted to manipulate material andto investigate on their own.

In guided discovery lesson the teacher poses questions that lead the childrento investigate a common problem.

In the experimental approach the children formulate and test hypotheses.This approach teaches children to define and control variables inexperimental situations, to experiment, and to interpret data, as well as tohypothesize.

Basic to student-centred instruction is the teacher’s ability to ask stimulatingquestions that facilitate creative, critical thinking and the manifestation ofmultiple talents. Questions can be classified as convergent or divergent.


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References

Carin. A and Sund. R. B (1989), Teaching Science Through Discovery, 6th Ed. MerrillPublishing Company, London

Esler W.K and Esler M.K (1996), Teaching Elementary Science, 7 th Ed., WadsworthPublishing Company, Washington.

Fleer. M and Hardy. T (1996) Science for Children, Prentice Hall, Australia pg 7

Grant. P., Johnson. L and Sanders. Y.(1990), Better Links: Teaching Strategies inthe Science Classroom., STAV Publishing, Australia.

Martin. R., Sexton.C and Franklin. T(2001), Teaching Science For All Children, 2nd

Ed., Allyn and Bacon, Singapore.

Ministry of Education Malaysia (2002), Integrated Curriculum for Primary Schools,Curriculum Specifications Science Year 2, Curriculum Development Centre,Kuala Lumpur.

Trowbridge.L.W, Bybee. R.W and Powell J.C (2000) Teaching Secondary SchoolScience: Strategies For Developing Scientific Literacy, 7th Ed., USA.

http://www.ppk.moe.my

http://www.exploratorium.edu/IFI/resources/res.../constructivism.htm

http://www.learningmatters.co.uk

http://www.ppk.moe.my/

http://www.exploratorium.edu/IFI/resources/res.../constructivism.htm

http://www.learningmatters.co.uk/

07 teaching science to children

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