conceptual demand of practical work in science curricula

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Conceptual demand of practical work in science curricula:

A methodological approacha

Sílvia Ferreirab

Ana Maria Morais

Institute of Education, University of Lisbon

Abstract

The article addresses the issue of the level of complexity of practical work in science curricula

and is focused on the discipline of Biology and Geology for high school. The level of complexity is

seen in terms of the emphasis and types of practical work and, most important, in terms of its level of

conceptual demand as given by the complexity of scientific knowledge, the degree of inter-relation

between knowledges and the complexity of cognitive skills. The study also analyzes recontextualizing

processes that may occur within the official recontextualizing field. The study is psychologically and

sociologically grounded, particularly on Bernstein’s theory of pedagogic discourse. It uses a mixed

methodology.

The results show that practical work is poorly represented in the curriculum, particularly in the

case of laboratory work. The level of conceptual demand of practical work varies according to the text

under analysis, between the two subjects Biology and Geology and, within each one of them, between

general and specific guidelines. Aspects studied are not clearly explicated to curriculum receivers

(teachers and textbooks authors). The meaning of these findings is discussed in the article. In

methodological terms, the study explores assumptions used in the analysis of the level of conceptual

demand and presents innovative instruments constructed for developing this analysis.

Keywords: science education; practical work; conceptual demand; science curriculum

a Revised personal version of the article published in:

Research in Science Education, 44(1), 2014, DOI: 10.1007/s11165-013-9377-7.

b Corresponding author, [email protected].

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1. Introduction

Since the beginning of XIX century, with the integration of science disciplines in the curricula

of several countries, practical work, namely laboratory work, has assumed a huge importance

in science education. Throughout the 1960s, major science curriculum projects - for example,

the Biological Sciences Curriculum Study in the United States and the Nuffield in the United

Kingdom - include laboratory activities as a fundamental part of the science curriculum

(Lunetta, Hofstein & Clough, 2007). At the beginning of the XXI century, science curricula of

various countries reaffirm the conviction that practical work in science education is central to

the development of scientific literacy (Abd-El-Khalick et al., 2004; Hofstein & Naaman,

2007). However, many research studies have emphasized the need of rethinking the role and

practice of practical work, since, for example, students’ performance when doing the

respective activities is usually not assessed (Hofstein & Lunetta, 2004; Lunetta et al., 2007).

From this, it derives the importance of further studying practical work in science curricula.

The main aim of this article is to divulge methods and concepts that may be used to

appreciate practical work in science curricula. With this purpose, an exemplary study made

with a Portuguese science curriculum is described. In the case of Portugal (a country with a

centralised educational system), the curricular plan for high school contains science

disciplines for those students who want to follow science careers. Among them is the biannual

discipline of Biology and Geology (ages 16- - 17

+) which is the focus of this study. The

curriculum of this discipline considers the importance of practical work to a point that, in the

academic year of 2007/2008, it was determined that formal moments of assessment should

take place with a weight of 30% in the overall students evaluation of the discipline. It should

be noted that likewise many Latin countries Biology and Geology, although epistemologically

distinct, have traditionally been part of a same discipline (often but not always called Natural

Sciences). Teachers’ training is also directed to both subjects as a discipline.

The study presented in this article follows former research developed by the ESSA

Group1 (e.g., Morais & Neves, 2011). It is part of a broader study that investigates questions

related to the directions the Ministry of Education and Science (MES) gives to teachers for

the transmission and evaluation contexts of practical work in the discipline of Biology and

Geology and to the recontextualizing processes followed by teachers, by studying their

conceptions and practices (Ferreira, 2013). The present article is focused on the analysis of

the curriculum to explore the extent to which the MES guidelines go in the direction of raising

the level of science education through their emphasis on practical work namely laboratory

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investigative and, most importantly, on its level of conceptual demand. The study also

analyses the extent to which the MES makes these characteristics explicit to the direct

receivers of the curriculum that is to teachers and textbooks authors. Theoretically, the study

is multidisciplinary, including sociological knowledge, and, in doing so, it goes further when

compared with Duschl’s perspective (Abd-El-Khalick et al., 2004), when he says that science

education researchers, policymakers and instructional designers “need to look across the three

Ps (psychology, philosophy, and pedagogy) for the design of inquiry science approaches that

support both student learning and reasoning and teachers’ assessments of students learning

and reasoning” (pp.413-414).

In the particular case of the Portuguese current Biology and Geology high school

discipline, and contrarily to the common procedure, Biology and Geology subjects are

strongly classified within the discipline, that is they are separated by strong boundaries,

recognized by the absence of common general guidelines for the two subjects and instead by

the presence of general guidelines specific to each subject. The problem of the study became

the following: What are the messages transmitted by the official pedagogic discourse (OPD)

of the two subjects Biology and Geology, within the Biology and Geology high school

discipline, with regard to the emphasis given to practical work and to its level of conceptual

demand, and what is the extent to which recontextualizing processes do occur? From this

problem the following research questions were derived: (a) What is the emphasis given to

practical work, namely laboratory work, in each one of the two subjects and of the discipline

as a whole? (b) What is the level of conceptual demand of practical work of each one of the

two subjects and of the discipline as a whole?; (c) What are the recontextualizing processes

that may have occurred between the messages of the general and the specific guidelines in the

cases of both Biology and Geology?; and d) What is the extent to which the messages of the

OPD contained in the Biology and Geology subjects are made explicit to curriculum

receivers?

On the basis of data obtained in this study a reflection will be made with regard to the

two following aspects: (i) reasons that may account for possible differences between the two

messages of Biology and Geology and (ii) extent to which differences found in the level of

conceptual demand of practical work can be made accountable for possible differential

teachers’ pedagogic practices and students’ scientific development. As stated before, a

fundamental objective of this article is to highlight methods and concepts that may be used to

appreciate the level of conceptual demand of practical work in science curricula.

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2. Theoretical framework

Theoretically the study makes use of theories and concepts of the areas of psychology and

sociology, particularly Bernstein’s theory of pedagogic discourse (1990, 2000). Current

conceptualizations of science education, namely with respect to the implementation and

evaluation of practical work, are also considered.

2.1. Bernstein´s theory

According to Bernstein´s model of pedagogic discourse (1990, 2000), the curricula of a given

discipline embodies the official pedagogic discourse (OPD), produced in the official

recontextualizing field (in Portugal, the Ministry of Education and Science). This official text

carries messages containing the principles and norms which constitute the general regulative

discourse (GRD). The GRD is generated in the State field as a result of the influence of the

international field, the economy field (physical resources) and the field of symbolic control

(discursive resources)2.

Specific pedagogic social contexts, namely the curriculum and the classroom, are

defined by specific power and control relations between subjects (MES-teacher, teacher-

student and student-student), discourses (between disciplines and within a discipline), and

spaces (teacher-student space and student-student space). It is possible to say that any context

of pedagogical interaction represents a particular transmission and acquisition context,

between a transmitter and an acquirer, with specific power and control relations. In this way,

different modalities of pedagogic code, and consequently different modalities of pedagogic

practice, may occur either more acquirer or more transmitter centred, with the extreme cases

of progressive and traditional practices. In order to analyze power and control relations,

Bernstein (1990, 2000) used, respectively, the concepts of classification and framing.

Classification refers to the degree of maintenance of boundaries between subjects, discourses

or spaces. The more distinct is separation between categories the stronger classification will

be. Framing refers to the social relations between subjects, that is, to the communication

between them. Considering the relation between MES (the official agent) and teachers (the

pedagogical agents), which is the focus of the study presented in this article, hierarchical

boundaries are well established – it is the official agent that has higher status in the relation,

which means that there is a strong classification between them. Framing is strong when the

categories with higher status (e.g. MES) have the control in the relation and is weak when the

categories with lower status (e.g. teachers) have also some control in the relation.

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In a more recent development of his theory, Bernstein (1999) presents the distinction

between horizontal and vertical discourses. The horizontal discourse corresponds to a form of

knowledge which is segmentally organized and differentiated and usually understood as the

everyday or common sense knowledge. The vertical discourse, mentioned as school or official

knowledge, presents the form of a coherent, explicit, hierarchically organized structure, as in

the case of natural sciences, or the form of a series of parallel languages where development is

achieved by the construction of a new language strongly classified from other former

languages, as in the cases of sociology and education. Thus, the what to be learned, in the

case of the sciences, corresponds to a vertical discourse with a hierarchical structure. The how

to be learned corresponds to a vertical discourse with a horizontal structure.

Bernstein’s theory has provided to our research a conceptual structure that is

diagnostic, predictive, descriptive, explanatory, and transferable, broadening the relations

studied and permitting conceptualization at a higher level, without losing a dialectical relation

between the empirical and the theoretical. It is also characterized by a language of description

that allows us to analyse, describe, compare and contrast events in different contexts. At the

level of the curricular analysis, a broader investigation, that was carried out in Portugal,

involved the analysis of the pedagogic discourse contained in the Portuguese Natural Sciences

curriculum for middle school (e.g. Calado, Neves & Morais, 2013) and its results show that

there are recontextualization processes that have occurred within the curriculum, when

passing from the general to the specific guidelines, and which refer to the intra-disciplinarity

between scientific knowledges and to the complexity of this knowledge, in the direction of

decreasing the level of these characteristics. As a consequence, science teachers will receive

two contradictory messages and, if they follow the specific guidelines, they may be led to

devalue intra-disciplinarity and complex scientific knowledge in their pedagogic practices. In

fact the results of the study of Alves and Morais (2012) showed a decrease in the quality of

the teaching-learning process when teachers recontextualize curriculum into pedagogic

practices. At this level of pedagogic practices, the studies done so far suggest a mixed

pedagogic practice to lead students to success at school (e.g. Morais, Neves & Pires, 2004;

Morais & Neves, 2011) in which there is, among other characteristics, a clear explication of

the legitimate text to be acquired in the context of the classroom (strong framing of the

evaluation criteria) and an inter-relation between the various kinds of knowledge of a

discipline (weak classification of intra-disciplinarity). This mixed pedagogic practice was

suggested by the language of description derived from Bernstein’s theory and enables the

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distinction between specific aspects of pedagogic social contexts, introducing a dimension of

great rigor into research.

2.2. Conceptual demand

The curriculum, regardless its degree of centrality, contains a sociological message that

results from the interaction of several factors and represents students learning which, if it is

considered socially necessary in a particular time and context, must be assured and organized.

The level of complexity of a curriculum can be appreciated by its level of conceptual demand.

In the context of the research that has been carried out within Bernstein’s theory, the concept

of conceptual demand was introduced by Domingos (1989a; 1989b) and at that time the

concept was related to the complexity of scientific skills. A lower level of conceptual demand

was related to skills that require a low level of abstraction (memorization and comprehension

at a simple level). A higher level of conceptual demand implied skills that require a high level

of abstraction (comprehension at a high level, analysis and knowledge utilization). Further

studies (e.g. Morais, Neves & Pires, 2004) considered the complexity of both scientific skills

and knowledge to characterize the level of conceptual demand. These studies, which were

focused on classroom pedagogic practices, showed that pedagogic practice can overcome

students’ social background when promoting science learning, particularly when developing

complex cognitive skills and scientific knowledge. For that reason, the common procedure of

lowering the level of conceptual demand in order that all children can succeed at school will

add disadvantage to the disadvantaged.

The concept of conceptual demand evolved to include three dimensions, the

complexity of scientific knowledge and skills and also the strength of intra-disciplinary

relations, that is the strength of boundaries between distinct knowledges within a given

discipline (e.g. Calado, Neves & Morais, 2013). The inclusion of intra-disciplinary relations

was related to the importance of this dimension to raise the level of scientific learning

(Morais, Neves & Pires, 2004). This is the concept of conceptual demand that is used in this

study. Conceptual demand of science education is defined as the level of complexity of

science education as given by the complexity of scientific knowledge and of the strength of

intra-disciplinary relations between distinct knowledges and also by the complexity of

cognitive skills (Morais & Neves, 2012). It is important to note that a concept of conceptual

demand was used in several international studies in the 1970’s and 1980’s, where it was

associated with Piagetian development stages (e.g. Shayer & Adey, 1981). The present study

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departs from this perspective to follow the perspective described above and in doing so goes

deeper in the analysis.

Considering Bernstein’s model of pedagogic discourse (1990, 2000), the conceptual

demand of science education, with its three dimensions, includes aspects related to the what

(skills and knowledges) and to the how (intra-disciplinary relations) of the pedagogic

discourse. Also following Bernstein, the hierarchical structure of science knowledge requires

from the students high levels of complexity and abstraction so that they can attain a

meaningful understanding of that knowledge. That is to say that conceptual demand of

science education should be high, and should be high for all students. For this reason

conceptual demand of science education can be seen as essentially sociological (Morais,

Neves & Pires, 2004).

2.3. Practical work

According to several authors (e.g. Abd-El-Khalick et al., 2004; Hodson, 1993; Hofstein &

Lunetta, 2004; Lunetta et al., 2007), practical work performs an important role in the teaching

and learning process in the sciences. Hodson (1993) considers practical work as a broad

concept which includes any activity that requires students to be active. Millar, Maréchal e

Tiberghien (1999) limit the definition presented by Hodson (1993) to consider that practical

work is ‘all those kinds of learning activities in science which involve students at some point

handling or observing real objects or materials (or direct representations of these, in a

simulation or video-recording)’ (p.36). Unlike Hodson, these authors exclude from this

definition activities such as debates and information research. In the same way, Lunetta,

Hofstein and Clough (2007) give the following definition of practical work: ‘learning

experiences in which students interact with materials or with secondary sources of data to

observe and understand the natural world’ (p.394), for example, the observation of aerial

photographs to examine lunar and earth geographic features’.

The meaning of practical work in the present study is close to Hodson’s (1993) and

follows the concept presented in the Biology and Geology Portuguese curriculum3, although it

is made more precise in that considers that it must mobilise science processes skills. These

skills were considered as ways of thinking more directly involved in scientific research, such

as observing, formulating problems and hypotheses, controlling variables and predicting

(Duschl, Schweingruber & Shouse, 2007). Thus, practical work is defined as:

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All teaching and learning activities in the sciences in which the student is actively involved

and that allow the mobilization of science processes skills and scientific knowledge and that

may be materialized by paper and pencil activities or observing and/or manipulating materials.

Various modalities of practical work are therefore possible and options will be

directed by the objectives to be attained. There is not a consensus with regard to the character

and purpose of the activities to be part of practical work. In this study the following types of

practical work were considered: laboratory activity, simulation, application of knowledge to

new situations, bibliographical research, guided discussion activity and field trip.

The practical work, as a broad category that includes activities of a wide range, has

been analyzed in many texts and contexts by several international studies. BouJaoude (2002)

developed and used an analytical framework to investigate the balance of scientific literacy

themes in the Lebanese science curriculum, and more specifically, to assess whether and to

what extent practical work was addressed in that text. Results showed that the curriculum

emphasizes the knowledge of science, the investigative nature of science, and the interaction

of science, technology, and society, but neglects science as a way of knowing. While this last

aspect appears clearly in the general objectives of science education, the more detailed the

curriculum becomes the less evident is the emphasis given to this aspect. Later on (Abd-El-

Khalick et al., 2004), the investigative nature of science was the subject of deeper analyses

which indicated that the science curriculum lacked a coherent perspective regarding practical

work. For instance, only a few general ideas about science process skills were presented in the

introductions and objectives for each educational level. In relation to practical work

enactment, Abrahams and Millar’s research (2008) has explored the effectiveness of practical

work by analysing a sample of 25 science lessons involving specific practical tasks in eight

English secondary schools. They concluded that the teachers’ focus in these practical lessons

was mainly on the teaching of substantive scientific knowledge rather than on the procedures

of scientific inquiry. The results also showed that practical work was generally effective at

getting students to do what was intended with physical objects but less effective in getting

them to use the intended scientific ideas and to reflect on the data and this was a consequence

of the little time devoted to supporting the students´ development of ideas. Recent research

has been focused on students’ epistemological understanding and argumentation skills.

Katchevich, Hofstein and Naaman (2013) found that inquiry laboratorial activities have the

potential to serve as an effective platform for formulating arguments because of the unique

features of the learning environment (working in small groups). The arguments were focused

on the hypothesis-building stage, analysis of the results, and drawing appropriate conclusions.

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Students are not only expected to learn scientific knowledge but also to mobilize

science process skills whenever they are doing investigative practical activities. It is important

to discuss the nature and the role of practical work in science curricula, since, even if

recontextualizing processes do occur, these are aspects that broadly guide textbook authors

and teachers’ practices. Bernstein’s theory provides an internal language of description which

allows analysis and discussion by using the same concepts across both monologic texts (e.g.

curricula and textbooks) and dialogic texts (e.g. classroom practices).

3. Methodology

This study made use of a mixed methodology (Creswell, 2003; Creswell & Clark, 2011;

Morais & Neves, 2010). On the one hand, the study has a rationalist basis (a characteristic of

quantitative approaches) in that it contains a referential theoretical framework which directed

the construction of instruments for collecting data. On the other hand, the study has a

naturalistic basis (a characteristic of qualitative approaches) when, for example, some

indicators and descriptors of the instruments were defined on the basis of empirical data. In

this way the analysis of the Biology and Geology curriculum for the 10th

and 11th

schooling

years was made through a constant dialectics between the theoretical and the empirical where

research models and instruments represented the external language of description and the

theory represented the internal language of description (Bernstein, 2000). Also at the level of

data analysis, were used qualitative methods (interpretative content analysis) and quantitative

methods (percentage descriptions).

3.1. General aspects

The analysis of the curriculum for Biology and Geology high school was focused on two

official documents which contained directions for the teacher: 10th

Biology and Geology

discipline (DES, 2001) and 11th

Biology and Geology discipline (DES, 2003). Although part

of the same discipline and of the same curriculum, Biology and Geology are presented in the

curriculum as two distinct subjects4, with strong boundaries between them. A text with

general guidelines for the discipline as a whole is not made available. For that reason the two

curricular subjects were analysed separately. Thus, six parts of the curriculum were

considered: general part of Biology, Biology 10th

, Biology 11th

, general part of Geology,

Geology 10th

and Geology 11th

. The study also considered the general and specific guidelines

of the curriculum of the discipline as a whole, by grouping the results of both curricular

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subjects. The whole text was segmented into units of analysis (excerpts) – Table 1. A unit of

analysis was considered as an excerpt of the text containing one or more periods which

together have a given semantic meaning (Gall, Gall & Borg, 2007).

Table 1. Units of analysis defined for the different parts of the curriculum.

Parts of the curriculum Number of units of analysis

General guidelines (GGd) General part of Biology (Bg) 67

140 General part of Geology (Gg) 73

Specific guidelines (SGd)

Biology 10th

(B10) 152

601 Biology 11

th (B11) 132

Geology 10th

(G10) 212

Geology 11th

(G11) 105

Each unit of analysis was analyzed by the main researcher of the study (first author).

To estimate the reliability and validity of the analysis and of the method used, a 20% random

sample of units of analysis was analyzed independently by two other researchers familiarized

with the theoretical framework (second author and a third researcher). A preliminary

discrepancy of 13,6% in relation to the initial analysis was found. The three researchers

discussed both differences encountered in the classification of units of analysis and changes

that should be introduced in instruments, in a dialectical relation between the theoretical and

the empirical. In a third moment of analysis, the first author revised all the analyses. Finally,

in a fourth moment, the three researchers agreed with the classification of all units and with

the final version of the instruments.

The analysis of the Biology and Geology curriculum was centered on the instructional

dimension of both the transmission/ acquisition context (discourse to be transmitted/

acquired) and the evaluation context of practical work. Although the whole curriculum was

analyzed, the object of the study presented in this article is practical work (when it requires

the mobilization of science process skills) and for that reason the units of analysis with a

specific reference to practical work were the only ones considered.

The OPD analysis was centered on dimensions related to the what and the how of

practical work (figure 1). In the first case, the type of practical work and the complexity of

scientific knowledge and scientific skills were selected for analysis. In the second case, the

intra-disciplinary relations, that are the relations between the various knowledges within a

discipline, in this particular case, between distinct knowledges within a given science

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discipline, were selected. The analysis of intra-disciplinary relations was centered on the

strength of the boundary between theory and practice. These are power relations which were

characterized by using the concept of classification. The form how the OPD is explicated to

teachers in the MES-teacher relation was also part of the analysis of the OPD message. The

intention was to understand the extent to which the MES makes explicit to teachers the type

of practical work and the knowledge and skills that are to be the object of learning and

assessment in practical work5. These are control relations that were characterized by using the

concept of framing.

Figure 1. Diagram of dimensions, related to the what and the how of practical work, analyzed in the

high school Biology and Geology curriculum.

The level of conceptual demand of the science curriculum with respect to practical

work in high school Biology and Geology, was then appreciated through the analysis of some

dimensions of the what and of the how (figure 1). The former corresponds to the type of

practical work and the level of complexity of scientific knowledge and cognitive skills and the

latter corresponds to the strength of intra-disciplinary relations between theory and practice.

3.2. Instruments construction and application

In order to characterise the message underlying each one of the units of analysis, and

consequently the OPD transmitted by the curriculum, with regard to the transmission and

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evaluation of practical work, five instruments were constructed, piloted and applied6. The

instruments were validated by two other researchers. They were based on models/ instruments

constructed in former studies for the analysis of science curricula (e.g. Calado, Neves &

Morais, 2013). For each one of the aspects under study, the instruments were organized to

contain the four main sections usually present in any syllabus: (a) Knowledge; (b) Aims; (c)

Methodological Guidelines; and (d) Evaluation. Each unit of analysis was associated with one

of these four sections and analyzed by using the various instruments constructed. These four

main sections were considered as the indicators of the analysis.

The instruments refer to the what of practical work, namely to the complexity of

scientific knowledge and to the complexity of cognitive skills, and to the how of practical

work, specifically to the level of intra-disciplinary relations and to the explicitness of practical

work. The analysis of the type of practical work, a dimension also related to the what, did not

require the construction of a specific instrument. The text that follows contains a brief

description of the instruments constructed and how they were used, and it gives some

examples to show how the analysis was made.

3.2.1. The what of practical work

The instrument for the analysis of the what with regard to the complexity of scientific

knowledge considered the distinction between facts, simple concepts, complex concepts and

unifying themes/theories. A fact is “the data which results from observation” (Brandwein,

Watson & Blackwood, 1958, p.111) and corresponds to a very concrete situation resulting

from several observations. A concept is a “mental construct; it is a grouping of the common

elements or attitudes shared by certain objects and events” (Brandwein et al., 1980, p.12) and

represents an idea that arises from the combination of several facts or other concepts. The

categorization of concepts results from a hierarchy between levels of abstraction and

complexity, where the most abstract and most complex concepts are the unifying themes and

theories. The simple concepts correspond to concrete concepts proposed by Cantu and Herron

(1978) and are those that have a low level of abstraction, defining attributes and examples that

are observable. The complex concepts correspond to abstract concepts proposed by Cantu and

Herron (1978) and “are those that do not have perceptible instances or have relevant or

defining attributes that are not perceptible” (p.135). Unifying themes are structural ideas and

correspond, in science, to generalizations about the world that are accepted by scholars in

each subject area (Pella & Voelker, 1968). Scientific theories correspond to explanations of a

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wide variety of related phenomena (Hickman, Roberts & Larson, 1995). Considering that the

hierarchical structure of scientific knowledge is characterized by integrating propositions that

operate at increasing levels of abstraction, theory development requires a new theory that is

more general and more inclusive than the previous theory (Bernstein, 1999).

This instrument includes the four sections of any curriculum (knowledge, aims,

methodological guidelines and evaluation) and each section contains descriptors

corresponding to four degrees of complexity of scientific knowledge, that were defined on the

basis of the monologic character of the curricular documents. Degree 1 corresponds to facts;

degree 2 corresponds to simple concepts; degree 3 corresponds to complex concepts; and

degree 4 corresponds to unifying themes and theories. Thus, this dimension of the what is not

related to the nature of scientific matters to be learned, but to the conceptual level of these

matters. Table 2 presents an excerpt of this instrument, for the ‘methodological guidelines’

curriculum section, and examples of units of analysis which illustrate different degrees of

complexity, where the last degree if reached may lead students to understand the hierarchical

structure of scientific knowledge.

Table 2. Excerpt of the instrument to characterize the complexity of scientific knowledge.

Section Degree 1 Degree 2 Degree 3 Degree 4

Methodological

guidelines

Strategies/

methodologies that call

for mobilizing scientific

knowledge of low level

of complexity, as facts.

Strategies/



knowledge of level of

complexity greater than

degree 1, as simple

concepts.

Strategies/



knowledge of level of

complexity greater than

degree 2, as complex

concepts.

Strategies/



knowledge of very high

level of complexity, as

unifying themes and

theories.

Units of analysis

Degree 1: “Search for information on the internet, in newspapers and magazines about the consequences of such

situations [human occupation of floodplains and coastal zones, and construction in slope zones] for

populations.” (Geology, 11th

, p.28).

Degree 2: “Create models and simulate in the lab situations of landslides, and identify factors that lead to their

occurrence. […]” (Geology 10th

, p.48).

Degree 3: “The research, discussion and systematization of data, relative to the processes of chemosynthesis, is

recommended.” (Biology 10th

, p.81).

Degree 4: “The study of models that explain the emergence of unicellular eukaryotes organisms and the origin of

multicellularity can be made through the interpretation of images, including also discussion activities,

schematization and systematization of information. […]” (Biology 11th

, p.12).

The instrument to analyze the complexity of cognitive skills was based on the

taxonomy created by Marzano and Kendall (2007, 2008) which considered four levels for the

cognitive system. Retrieval, the first level of the cognitive system, involves the activation and

transfer of knowledge from permanent memory to working memory and it is either a matter of

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recognition or recall. “The process of comprehension within the cognitive system [second

level] is responsible for translating knowledge into a form appropriate for storage in

permanent memory” (2007, p.40). The third level, analysis, involves the production of new

information that the individual can elaborate on the basis of the knowledge s/he has

comprehended. The fourth and more complex level of the cognitive system implies the

knowledge utilization in concrete situations.

Table 3 presents an excerpt of this instrument, for the ‘aims’ curriculum section, and

examples of units of analysis which illustrate different degrees of complexity.

Table 3. Excerpt of the instrument to characterize the complexity of cognitive skills.

Section Degree 1 Degree 2 Degree 3 Degree 4

Aims Cognitive skills of low

level of complexity,

involving cognitive

processes of retrieval, are

mentioned.

Cognitive skills of level

of complexity greater than

degree 1, involving

cognitive processes of

comprehension, are

mentioned.

Cognitive skills of level

of complexity greater than

degree 2, involving

cognitive processes of

analysis, are mentioned.

Cognitive skills of very

high level of complexity,

involving cognitive

processes of knowledge

utilization, are mentioned.

Units of analysis

Degree 1: No units of analysis were found.

Degree 2: “Interpret, schematize and/or describe images of mitosis in animal and plant cells, identifying cellular

events and reconstituting its sequence.” (Biology 11th

, p.6).

Degree 3: “Classify rocks on the basis of genetic and textural criteria.” (Geology 11th

, p.17).

Degree 4: “Use autonomously bibliographical resources – searching, organizing and processing information.”

(Geology 10th

, p.25).

3.2.2. The how of practical work

With regard to the analysis of the how, at the level of intra-disciplinary relations (relations

between knowledge of the same discipline), an instrument was constructed to analyse the

relation between theory and practice. This instrument contained a four degree scale of

classification (C- -

, C-, C

+, C

+ +). The empirical definition of the scale was based on

Bernstein’s concept of classification (1990, 2000), to indicate the strength of boundaries

between various types of knowledge. The weakest classification (C---

) corresponds to an

integration of theory and practice, where both have equal status, and the highest classification

(C++

) corresponds to a separation between theory and practice. The descriptors to each section

translate the relation between theory and practice that is the relation between declarative

knowledge and procedural knowledge.

15

Declarative knowledge, also referred to as substantive knowledge, corresponds to the

terms, facts, concepts and theories of a given subject matter (Anderson et al, 2001; Marzano

& Kendall, 2007; Roberts, Gott & Glaesser, 2010). Procedural knowledge refers not only to

the knowledge of how to do something, of techniques and specific methods of a discipline,

but also to the knowledge of scientific processes. In the discipline of Biology and Geology,

the procedural knowledge involves, for example, knowledge of how to formulate a hypothesis

and knowledge of what a hypothesis is. In a larger research program concerned with the role

of procedural knowledge in investigative work and its relation to declarative knowledge, “the

term procedural understanding has been used to describe the understanding of ideas about

evidence, which underpin an understanding of how to proceed” (Roberts et al., 2010, p.379).

Table 4 presents an excerpt of this instrument, for the ‘methodological guidelines’

curriculum section. This is followed by examples of units of analysis which illustrate different

levels of classification.

Table 4. Excerpt of the instrument to characterize the relation between theory (declarative knowledge)

and practice (procedural knowledge).

Section C++ C+ C- C- -

Methodological

guidelines

The suggested strategy/

methodology focus on

declarative scientific

knowledge only or on

procedural scientific

knowledge only.




knowledge and on


knowledge, but do not

make the relation

between them.



the relation between

declarative and


knowledge, being given

higher status to


knowledge in the

relation.



the relation between

declarative and


knowledge, being given

equal status to these two

types of knowledge in

the relation.

Units of analysis

C++

: “Use ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) to support search for information, data

processing, construction of dynamic models and communication. […]” (Geology, general part, p.13).

C+: No units of analysis were found.

C- : “Carry out field observations at nearby locations, identifying geological risk situations, possible influence of

human activities and preventive measures taken […]. Value the importance of preserving the natural

environment.” (Geology 10th

, p.48)

C- -

: “In order to solve the problem “What happens to the dynamics of an ecosystem when that ecosystem is

subjected to change?”, a field trip in articulation with classroom/ laboratory activities, to be made before

and after the field trip, is suggested. As object(s) of study, real environments are suggested, located, as far

as possible, near to the school […].” (Biology 10th

, p.79).

In order to appreciate the extent to which the Ministry of Education and Science makes

explicit to teachers (MES-teacher relation) the level of conceptual demand required by the

curriculum, Bernstein’s concept of evaluation criteria was used in the analysis. The aim of

16

this analysis is to appreciate the extent to which the MES makes explicit to teachers the

message relative not only to the type of practical work but also to the level of knowledge and

skills to be involved in the teaching-learning and evaluation contexts of practical work. This

is a control relation that is characterised by using Bernstein’s concept of framing (1990,

2000), in a four degree scale where the lowest framing (F- -

) indicates a situation where the

MES leaves criteria implicit and the highest framing (F++

) indicates that the MES makes

criteria very explicit. Table 5 presents an excerpt of this instrument, for the ‘aims’ curriculum

section, and examples of units of analysis.

Table 5. Excerpt of the instrument to characterize the explicitness of practical work

Section F++ F+ F- F- -

Aims The type of practical

work, the scientific

knowledge and the

cognitive skills to be

explored in the practical

activity are explicitly

mentioned.

The scientific

knowledge and the



activity are explicitly

mentioned. The type of

practical work is not

mentioned.

The type of practical

work and the scientific

knowledge and/or the



activity are generically

mentioned.

The scientific knowledge and/or

the cognitive skills to be

explored in the practical activity

are generically mentioned. The

type of practical work is not

mentioned.

Or

The type of practical work is

generically mentioned, but the

scientific knowledge and/or the

cognitive skills to be explored

in the practical activity are not

mentioned.

Units of analysis

F++

: “Carry out field observations relative to the possible damage that may have been caused by geological

phenomena in nearby areas.” (Geology 10th

, p.38)

F+: “Analyzing and interpreting data focused on replication, transcription and translation mechanisms and that

may be presented under different forms (tables, schemas, etc.),.” (Biology 11th

, p.5).

F-: “Identify living things on the basis of data obtained with the help of laboratory instruments and/or

bibliographical research.” (Biology 10th

, p.78).

F- -

: “Observing and interpreting data.” (Geology 11th

, p.18).

In order to clarify how the same unit of analysis was classified in the study in terms of

the dimensions related to the what and the how of practical work, an illustrative example of

the analysis that was made is presented. This example highlights the interpretative content

analysis carried out when doing the curricular analysis.

“Setting experimental devices with simple aerobic facultative living beings (e.g. Saccharomyces

cerevisae) in nutritive media (e.g. “bread dough”, grape juice, aqueous solution of glucose…) with

different degrees of aerobiosis. Identification with the students of the variables to be controled and the

indicators of the process under study (e.g. presence/ absence of ethanol).” (Biology 10th

, p.85)

With regard to the what of the OPD, this unit is focused on a laboratory activity, which

appeals to simple concepts, related to glucose degradation in the presence and in the absence

of oxygen (degree 2), and to cognitive skills involving the cognitive process of analysis, since

17

it implicates the control of variables (degree 3). With regard to the how of the OPD, this unit

of analysis involves a relation between declarative and procedural scientific knowledge,

where equal status is given to these two types of knowledge (C- -

). Through this unit the MES

makes very explicit to teachers the type of practical work and the knowledge and skills that

are to be the object of learning in a specific practical work (F++

) – Table 6.

Table 6. Illustrative example of the analysis made of each unit of analysis.

Sections of the

instruments

(Indicators of

analysis)

Practical work in science curricula

The what of practical work The how of practical work

Conceptual demand

Explicitness of

practical work (based on Bernstein,

1990, 2000)

Complexity of scientific knowledge

(based on several

psychological

concepts)

Complexity of cognitive skills

(based on Marzano and

Kendall, 2007, 2008)

Relation between theory and practice

(based on Bernstein, 1990,

2000, and on Roberts,

Gott and Glaesser, 2010)

G1 G2 G3 G4 G1 G2 G3 G4 C++ C+ C- C- - F++ F+ F- F- -

Knowledge

Aims

Methodological

guidelines X X X X

Evaluation

4. Results

The data presentation and analysis that follow are organized according to the general

guidelines (GGd) and specific guidelines (SGd) of the curriculum of the discipline as a whole

and the six parts of the curriculum that were considered: general part of Biology (Bg),

Biology 10th

(B10), Biology 11th

(B11), general part of Geology (Gg), Geology 10th

(G10)

and Geology 11th

(G11) – Table 1. The units of analysis whose text was ambiguous were not

considered for computing relative frequencies7.

The graph of figure 2 shows the relative frequency of the units of analysis that make

reference to practical work in the Biology and Geology high school curriculum. In the graph,

the results of the general guidelines (GGd) derived of grouping the results of both general

parts (Bg and Gg) and the results of specific guidelines (SGd) derived of grouping the results

of the four specific parts (B10, B11, G10 and G11). The general guidelines of the curriculum

contain a higher percentage of units of analysis that make reference to practical work when

compared to its specific guidelines. Despite having the highest percentages of units of

analysis that make reference to practical work, the introductory texts provided little

information about the transmission and evaluation contexts of practical work, as it would be

expected. Most of the units of analysis of these parts could not be characterized because they

18

were either ambiguous with respect to the characteristics under study or did not refer any

scientific knowledge and/or cognitive skills.

Considering each part of the curriculum, the data of figure 2 shows that the Biology

11th

and the Geology 10th

are the parts that focus less on practical work. When the

‘methodological guidelines’ section of the curriculum is singled out in the analysis, the units

with reference to practical work predominate over those which do not make that reference

(from 51% to 77% depending on the part of the curriculum), as would be expected.

Figure 2. Relative frequency of the units of analysis that make reference to practical work (with PW)

in Biology and Geology high school curriculum considered as a whole and in each part of that

curriculum (n - total number of units of analysis considered; GGd- general guidelines; SGd- specific

guidelines; Bg- general part of Biology; B10- Biology 10th; B11- Biology 11

th; Gg- general part of

Geology; G10- Geology 10th; G11- Geology 11

th).

4.1. The what of practical work

The OPD analysis related to the what of practical work considered the type of practical work,

the complexity of scientific knowledge and the complexity of cognitive skills.

The graph of figure 3 shows the relative frequency of the various types of practical

work – laboratory activity (LA), simulation (S), application of knowledge to new situations

(AK), bibliographical research (BR), guided discussion activity (GD) and field trip (FT).

Simulation is the only type of practical work that is not considered in the curriculum. When

the curriculum is taken as a whole, general guidelines of the curriculum were more focused on

laboratory activity and on field trip. Specific guidelines give more emphasis to laboratory

activity and to bibliographical research.

19

When the parts of the curriculum which refer specifically to the 10th

and 11th

years of

schooling are considered, the data of figure 3 shows that the two curricular subjects contain

different types of practical work and with different weights. In the 10th

curricular part,

laboratory activity is present in most of the units of Biology whilst bibliographical research

reaches the highest percentage in Geology. In the 11th

curricular part, and contrarily to the 10th

curricular part, laboratory activity gains greater expression in Geology when compared with

Biology, yet this is the type of practical work that comes out with higher relative frequency in

both curricular subjects. It should be noticed, however, that most laboratory activities do not

have an investigative character; they instead are used to illustrate a particular kind of

scientific knowledge.

A large number of units of analysis with an ambiguous text, as to the type of practical

work, is present and, for the reason mentioned before, these units were not considered for

computing the relative frequencies shown in figure 3 (the relative frequency of ambiguous

units ranges between 15% and 61%, depending on the six curricular parts). The excerpts that

follow illustrate references to practical work that were considered ambiguous. In both

examples the aims stated can be achieved through various types of practical work, for

example, through a laboratory activity or a guided discussion activity.

“Interpret, schematize and subtitle images about the main meiosis events.” (Biology 11th

, p.8).

“To question and to formulate hypotheses.” (Geology 10th

, p.18).

Figure 3. Types of practical work in Biology and Geology high school curriculum considered as a

whole and in each part of that curriculum (n- total number of units of analysis considered; GGd-

general guidelines; SGd- specific guidelines; Bg- general part of Biology; B10- Biology 10th; B11-

Biology 11th; Gg- general part of Geology; G10- Geology 10

th; G11- Geology 11

th).

The graph of figure 4 shows the results of the analysis of the complexity of scientific

knowledge. The data show that general guidelines of the curriculum do not make reference to

20

the scientific knowledge to be the object of learning and assessment in practical work. When

the curriculum is taken as a whole, the results of specific guidelines of the curriculum show a

balance between the four degrees of complexity of scientific knowledge, prevailing degrees 2

and 3.

Figure 4. Complexity of scientific knowledge of practical work in Biology and Geology high school

curriculum considered as a whole and in each part of that curriculum (n- total number of units of

analysis considered; GGd- general guidelines; SGd- specific guidelines; Bg- general part of Biology;

B10- Biology 10th; B11- Biology 11

th; Gg- general part of Geology; G10- Geology 10

th; G11- Geology

11th).

Comparing Biology and Geology curricular subjects, it is clear that Biology scientific

knowledge of practical work is more complex than Geology scientific knowledge for both

years of schooling. The higher knowledge complexity in Biology practical work is specially

given by the focus on cell theory and on evolution theory. In the case of Geology there are no

units classified with degree 4 and there are units classified with degree 1. This absence of

degree 4 (scientific knowledge of very high level of complexity, as unifying themes) puts at

stake the understanding of the hierarchical structure of scientific knowledge by the students,

whenever they are doing practical activities. The results of Biology 10th

and 11th

show a

balance between simple concepts and complex concepts, whereas in Geology practical work

simple concepts prevail.

The graph of figure 5 shows the results of the analysis of the complexity of cognitive

skills. Although the general guidelines contain a small number of units of analysis that can be

analyzed in terms of practical work, the message they transmit is too important to be ignored

either to characterize these parts of the curriculum or to make a comparative analysis with the

message of specific guidelines. It is possible to observe that complex cognitive skills

associated with practical work prevail. Considering the specific guidelines and when the

21

curriculum is taken as a whole, most units contain complex cognitive skills (degrees 3 and/or

4), corresponding to analysis and knowledge utilization. Degree 1, involving cognitive

process of retrieval, is absent.

Figure 5. Complexity of cognitive skills of practical work in Biology and Geology high school





th; G11- Geology

11th).

Comparing the Biology and Geology curricular subjects, the graph of figure 5 shows

that cognitive skills of the greatest degree of complexity prevail in Geology, as evidenced by

the frequency of units that express degree 4: 57% in general part, 43% in 10th

year and 26% in

11th

year. The highest complexity of cognitive skills in Geology practical work is particularly

related to the formulation of hypothesis, decision making, construction of models and

research, organization and processing of information.

4.3. The how of practical work

The OPD analysis related to the how of practical work considered the intra-disciplinary

relations between theory and practice and the explicitness of practical work.

Figure 6 shows the results of intra-disciplinary relations between theory and practice.

When the curriculum is taken as a whole, the results show that the message of the general

guidelines seems to value the relation between theory and practice (degrees C- and C

- -). In the

specific guidelines of the Biology and Geology curriculum the valorization of that relation is

higher.

22

Figure 6. Relation between theory and practice of practical work in Biology and Geology high school





th; G11- Geology

11th).

Comparing Biology and Geology curricular subjects (figure 6), there are units

classified with C++

, something that is more frequently in the general part of Biology. In these

cases, the C+ +

is related to the presence of procedural scientific knowledge (second part of the

respective descriptor) only. The introductory text of both Biology and Geology (in the graph,

Bg and Gg) contains general guidelines about science processes without relating them to

declarative scientific knowledge. The excerpts that follow illustrate this situation:

“Strengthening the skills of abstraction, experimentation, teamwork, reflection and sense of

responsibility will allow the development of skills that characterize Biology as a Science.” (Biology

general part, p.67).

“Developing experimental skills in inquiry situations arising from everyday problems.” (Geology

general part, p.8).

The data of figure 6 also shows that C- -

prevails in all parts of Geology which means

that most units suggest a relation between declarative and procedural scientific knowledge,

equal status being given to these two types of knowledge. In the case of Biology, namely in

the 10th

and 11th

parts, most units were classified with C-, that is, the units reflect a relation

between the two types of knowledge with a focus on declarative knowledge. The authors

consider that the desirable situation with respect to the theory and practice relation is a

situation in which relations between declarative and procedural knowledge predominate, with

more status being given to declarative knowledge in the relation (C-). Biology 10

th and 11

th

are closer to that situation. This is the situation that best represents an efficient scientific

23

learning that is learning that is supported by the understanding and applying of science

processes knowledge.

The graph of figure 7 shows the results of the explicitness of practical work with

regard to the relation between the Ministry of Education and Science (MES) and the teacher.

The message of the general guidelines and of the general parts of both subjects (in graph,

GGd, Bg and Gg) is similar as they both show a weak concern with the explicitness of the

type of practical work and with the scientific knowledge and cognitive skills that are supposed

to be the subject of learning and assessment in the practical work. When the curriculum is

taken as a whole, the results of specific guidelines show a balance between the four degrees of

framing. About 47% of the units indicate a more MES centered control (F+ +

and F+).

In the cases of the 10th

and 11th

years, there are important differences between Biology

and Geology. More emphasis is given to the explicitness of practical work in Biology when

compared with Geology (that is, the MES control is stronger in the case of Biology). The data

of figure 7 show that 54% and 85% of the units of Biology 10th

and 11th

, respectively, indicate

a more MES centered control (F+ +

and F+). In the case of Geology, this control is limited to

30% of the units.

Figure 7. Explicitness of practical work in Biology and Geology high school curriculum considered as

a whole and in each part of that curriculum (n- total number of units of analysis considered; GGd-

general guidelines; SGd- specific guidelines; Bg- general part of Biology; B10- Biology 10th; B11-

Biology 11th; Gg- general part of Geology; G10- Geology 10

th; G11- Geology 11

th).

5. Discussion and conclusion

The article intended to show a new approach for analyzing the level of complexity of practical

work in science curricula by studying its level of conceptual demand. Although the analysis is

24

focused on the Portuguese curricula of Biology and Geology for high school, the instruments

constructed and the concepts involved can be used to appreciate the level of conceptual

demand of practical work of other international science curricula and to make comparisons

between them. They can also be used to analyze additional educational texts, as are for

example the external assessment tests. The analysis intended also to appreciate

recontextualizing processes that may occur between the messages of the general and specific

guidelines in the cases of both Biology and Geology. At another level, the study intended to

explore empirically Bernstein’s model of pedagogic discourse (1990, 2000).

The results showed that the curricular documents give low emphasis to practical work

in Biology and Geology education for high school. The relative frequency of units of analysis

with reference to practical work varied between 19% and 29% in terms of the total of units

defined for each one of the parts of the 10th

and the 11th

years of both Biology and Geology.

These results contradict the general curriculum guidelines for each one of the two subjects,

where it is stated that in Geology education “practical activities, with an experimental

character, investigative, or of any other type, should perform a particular important role in

science education” (DES, 2001, p.7). Or also when it is stated that in Biology education

“practical work should be valued as a fundamental part of the teaching and learning of the

knowledge contained in every teaching unit” (DES, 2001, p.70). It should be remembered

here that some units of analysis could not be characterized because they were either

ambiguous with respect to the characteristics under study or did not refer any scientific

knowledge and/or cognitive skills.

Within practical work, laboratory activities are represented in all parts of the

curriculum, having the highest status in the Biology 11th

. However, on the whole, laboratory

work is poorly represented. For example, again in the case of Biology 11th

, where only 20%

of the units consider practical work, less than a half of these respect to laboratory work.

Furthermore, laboratory activities with an investigative character are poorly represented.

Faced with the methodological suggestions given in the curriculum, the teacher is free to

decide whether to organize an illustrative laboratory activity, through which the student

verifies something s/he already knows, or to organize an activity with an investigative

character, where the student does not know the results beforehand.

According to the results of the study, Biology and Geology subjects evidence a

somehow considerable level of conceptual demand with respect to the transmission context of

practical work, if the discipline is taken as a whole. However, when these subjects are

25

analysed separately, this picture changes: Biology is the curricular subject with a general

higher level of conceptual demand when compared with Geology. This conclusion is based on

the analysis of some dimensions of the what (complexity of scientific knowledge and

complexity of cognitive skills) and of the how (relations between theory and practice) of

practical work.

With regard to the complexity of scientific knowledge of practical work, it is Biology

that contains more complex concepts/unifying themes (60% of the units of analysis in each

schooling year) when compared with Geology (21% and 38% in Geology 10th

and 11th

,

respectively). Unifying themes are absent in Geology practical activities and this absence of

scientific knowledge of very high level of complexity puts at stake the understanding of the

hierarchical structure of scientific knowledge (Bernstein, 1999) by students. The authors

consider that the situation that better represents an efficient scientific learning, when practical

work is implemented, is a situation nearer to Biology, where unifying themes are acquired by

understanding complex and simple knowledge within a balanced degree of complexity of

scientific knowledge. If science education is to reflect the structure of scientific knowledge it

should lead to the understanding of concepts and big ideas, although that understanding

requires a balance between knowledge of distinct levels of complexity (Morais & Neves,

2012). Bybee and Scotter (2007) also present this aspect as a principle for the development of

an effective science curriculum.

When the focus is the complexity of cognitive skills, it is Geology that gives more

emphasis to complex cognitive skills of high level (cognitive process of knowledge

utilization) when compared with Biology. In this case the situation that better represents an

efficient learning, when practical work is implemented, is a situation nearer to Geology 11th

,

where there is a balance between complex and simple cognitive skills, although it fails the

important skill of memorization. As has been evidenced by neuroscience research (e.g. Geake,

2009), the automation of mental tasks is necessary in order that a larger area of the brain is

available to perform more complex tasks, involving the use of knowledge. Only when

students develop simple skills, as memorization of specific facts and concepts, can they

develop complex skills as the applying of these concepts to new situations.

With regard to the third dimension that was used to analyze the level of conceptual

demand – relation between theory and practice – Biology is closer to the desirable situation as

it is in this subject that these relations predominate, with more status being given to theory in

the relation. The presence of this relation in the curriculum is particularly important since

26

several studies (e.g. Abrahams & Millar, 2008) point out to the existence of a separation

between theory and practice when teachers implement practical activities, particularly

laboratory work.

In order to appreciate the level of conceptual demand we also considered the types of

practical work presented in the science curriculum. The virtually absence of excerpts that

appeal to laboratory activities with an investigative character decreases the level of conceptual

demand of practical work. This places into a different perspective the results that were

obtained through the analysis of the three dimensions of conceptual demand. Conceptual

demand of practical work is not as high as the analysis of those dimensions had indicated. As

Lunetta, Hofstein and Clough (2007) state “science knowledge (conceptual and procedural)

that is central in science literacy […] and difficult to understand without extensive hands-on

and minds-on experience deserves in-depth laboratory investigation” (p.421). Among other

aspects, the investigative laboratory activities also allow the development and the integration

of complex cognitive skills of high level.

The evaluation context of practical work is largely ignored in all parts of the

curriculum. The curriculum is therefore inconsistent with current legislation that determines

formal moments of assessment with a weight of 30% in the overall students’ evaluation of the

Biology and Geology discipline (MES - Portaria n.º 1322/2007). Since curriculum guides

teachers’ decisions, and particularly textbooks authors’ decisions, and given the regulatory

role of evaluation on the learning process, this absence may compromise students’ scientific

learning.

According to Bernstein (1990), an official pedagogic discourse, as it is the case of a

science curriculum, “is always a recontextualizing of texts […] from dominant positions

within the economic field and the field of symbolic control” (p.196). The recontextualizing

processes that were considered in the case of this specific study were those that took place in

the transition from the messages of the general to the specific guidelines of both Biology and

Geology. The extent to which these recontextualizing processes might have been present

would give a measure of the ideological and pedagogical principles of respective authors.

There is evidence that they go in different directions according to the dimensions analyzed,

namely in the cases of cognitive skills and intra-disciplinary relations. Recontextualizing

processes could not be analyzed in the case of scientific knowledge related to practical work

since this knowledge is not mentioned in general guidelines. In terms of the complexity of

cognitive skills of practical work, these recontextualizing processes represent a decreasing of

27

the level of conceptual demand of the general guidelines when compared with the specific

guidelines for practical work. On the other hand, in terms of the relation between theory and

practice, the specific guidelines of both Biology and Geology go deeper in making this

relation when compared with their respective general guidelines. In this case, these

recontextualizing processes represent an increase of the level of conceptual demand. It should

be noted that although specific guidelines are, by nature, more detailed and contextualized

than general guidelines, the two teams of authors (one for the Biology subject and another for

the Geology subject) seemed to have been unable to link given concrete situations of practical

work with the development of the complex skills they had defended in the general guidelines.

This idea is supported by the results of a study made by Ferreira, Morais and Neves (2011),

centered on the Natural Sciences curriculum for middle school, that showed that the

recontextualizing processes may be a consequence of difficulties felt by curriculum authors

when putting into practice, in the form of a monologic text, some dimensions of scientific

learning.

Unlike other studies that were focused on the analysis of science curricula (e.g.

BouJaoude, 2002; Calado, Neves & Morais, 2013), the differences between the sociological

message of the general and the specific guidelines of the discipline were not in general very

marked in any of the both cases of Biology and Geology, with reference to practical work and

to the characteristics studied. The relative continuity between the general and specific parts,

within each one of the two curricular subjects, may be explained by the fact that the two parts

of each subject were constructed by the same team of authors, something that do not always

happen in the cases of other current studies.

Although the MES seems to value practical work in the curriculum for high school

Biology and Geology, this official agency does not make such intentions explicit at the level

of both the general and the specific guidelines of the curriculum. On one hand, the great

number of ambiguous units in some dimensions of the what and the how of the teaching-

learning process evidences how the MES leaves implicit aspects of practical work to be

implemented. The units of analysis which were considered as ambiguous transmit a dubious

message which is open to several interpretations. The teachers when reading and interpreting

the ambiguous text can recognize, or not, the concern with the implementation of practical

work. If the teacher is aware of the importance of practical work to the quality of students’

scientific learning, s/he will interpret the text accordingly, but if not, s/he will probably

interpret the message differently. On the other hand, when the explication of the practical

28

work (evaluation criteria) is considered, the results indicate that, at the level of general

guidelines for each one of the two subjects and at the level of the specific guidelines of

Geology, the MES leaves implicit not only the type of practical work but most importantly the

scientific knowledge and the cognitive skills that are to be the object of practical work. In this

way, the teacher has a high degree of control given by the MES when implementing the

Biology and Geology curriculum, particularly in the case of Geology practical work.

This great space of intervention may have disadvantages in terms of students’

scientific learning, particularly by allowing a greater recontextualization of the Official

Pedagogic Discourse when it passes from the curriculum to the classroom. This is of

particular importance if we consider that the absence of explicit criteria with respect to the

practical work to be implemented in schools may lead teachers and textbook authors,

especially those who have scientific and pedagogic deficiencies, to be unable to build on their

own, a curriculum that takes into account research findings about the importance of practical

work in scientific learning. Thus, the teacher, in the absence of an education that allows

him/her to reflect on the significance of the sociological messages contained in the

curriculum, may subvert the space of intervention that is given to him/her in a situation of

greater control. In fact, several studies carried out at the level of the Portuguese high school

(e.g. Marques, 2005) have shown that practical work is poorly represented in the activities

performed by students and that the practical work that is done mobilizes simple cognitive

skills only. In this situation, if teachers are to promote an efficient scientific learning with

regard to the implementation and evaluation of practical work, the authors consider that

evaluation criteria should be explicit, at least with regard to scientific knowledge, cognitive

skills and the type of practical work. As suggested by Bernstein’s model of pedagogic

discourse (1990), the production and reproduction of pedagogic discourse involves dynamic

processes. For instance, there is a potential or real source of conflict, resistance and inertia

between pedagogic and official recontextualizing fields. For that reason, the authors of this

paper are now giving continuity to the present study by analyzing the relation between the

message carried by the curriculum and teachers’ conceptions and practices, regarding

practical work in Biology and Geology (Ferreira, 2013).

On the basis of the data obtained, it is possible to make a reflection with regard to the

reasons that may account for possible differences between the two practical work messages of

Biology and Geology, considered as separate subjects of the same curriculum. A possible

explanation for these discontinuities is the MES selection of different teams of authors to

29

construct the curriculum for each curricular subject. Each team of authors seemed to value

different dimensions of the what and the how of practical work. Some of these differences

(but by no means all of them) may also be related to the fact that Biology and Geology,

although part of a same discipline, are epistemologically distinct subjects. However, this fact,

by itself, would mostly likely have led for example to higher level skills of the Biology when

compared with the Geology subject, which was not shown to be the case. This leaves

differences in the science and the science education proficiency of the authors of the two

teams of authors as the soundest explanatory hypothesis. The authors who constituted the

particular Geology team should have possessed greater proficiency, with regard to science

skills, than those of the Biology team.

The variables studied are crucial for inferring the influence that the OPD, transmitted

by a given curriculum, may have on the scientific learning of all students. In the case of this

study, it is legitimate to think that the level of scientific proficiency that can be attained by

students who receive a pedagogic practice based on the analysed curriculum will be low with

respect to some dimensions of that proficiency. Unless teachers are able and motivated to

recontextualize the curriculum in the right direction that is in the direction of increasing the

amount of practical work, namely laboratory work with an investigative character and

respective level of conceptual demand. The fact that teachers can change, and in fact do

change, the message present in curricula, does not diminish the importance of making a

detailed analysis of these science educational texts. Curricula constitute the official pedagogic

discourse and as such they primarily direct not only teachers practice but also textbooks

production and external assessment tests.

The mode of analysis used in the study has the potential of highlighting the level of

conceptual demand of a science curriculum, in terms of specific aspects of the what and the

how of learning related to practical work. The strong conceptual and explanatory power of the

theory in which the study was based, and the constant dialectics between the theoretical and

the empirical, enabled the construction of instruments with descriptors that allowed detailed

analysis of the various scientific learning characteristics used as dimensions of the level of

conceptual demand of practical work. It should be noted that the conceptualization and

procedures followed in the study constitute an innovative approach that accords to the study

of science education texts greater rigor than that of other approaches found in literature. By

using the same methodological approach, it may be possible to compare and discuss the

30

conceptual demand of practical work of several international curricula and even of other

educational texts.

Notes

1 The ESSA Group – Sociological Studies of the Classroom – is a research group of the Institute of Education of

the University of Lisbon.

2 Bernstein’s model of pedagogic discourse is accessible at <http://essa.ie.ul.pt/researchmat_modelsofanalysis_

text.htm> and its characterization is available at <http://essa.ie.ul.pt/bernsteinstheory_text.htm>.

3 The concept of practical work presented in the Biology and Geology Portuguese curriculum is the following:

‘practical work must be considered as a broad concept that comprises various kinds of activities, ranging

from paper and pencil activities to activities that require the lab use or field trips. Thus, students can develop

skills as diverse as using a binocular dissecting microscope or an optical microscope, the graphical

presentation of data, making reports of practical activities, autonomous information research in different

supports, without neglecting and strengthening the capacities of written and oral expression’ (DES – High

School Department, 2001, p.70).

4 The high school Biology and Geology curriculum for the 10th

and 11th

schooling years (DES, 2001; DES,

2003) was constructed by two different teams of authors. One team made the curriculum for Biology and

another team made the curriculum for Geology.

5 At this level of analysis, we established a parallelism between the MES-teacher relation and the teacher-student

relation. It was considered that, at the level of the MES-teacher relation, there is a text (the curriculum -

OPD) to be acquired by the teacher and that the more implicit are the evaluation criteria the more control the

teacher will have of that text.

6 The instruments are available online on <http://essa.ie.ul.pt/researchmat_instruments_text.htm>.

7 Units of analysis were taken as ambiguous whenever they did not allow for a clear distinction either of the

type of practical work, or the degree of complexity of scientific knowledge, or the degree of complexity of

cognitive skills or the degree of intra-disciplinary relations, and as such classification was impossible to be

made.

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge to Isabel Neves for her contribution in the analysis of the curriculum. This research

was financed by the Foundation for Science and Technology.

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