Context-based Science Education Research Articles

Students Understanding of Earthquakes and Tsunamis in High Risk Areas

Population growth and spread have increased human exposure to natural hazards and potential disasters affecting people’s quality of life. This situation is especially manifested in marginalized or vulnerable areas. Moreover, within such vulnerable areas, children are especially affected, and are, at the same time, considered to be agents of change. However, children’s voices have been scarcely considered for disaster risk reduction planning, and science education has not widely addressed these ideas. This study explores the understanding of earthquakes and tsunamis by children living in high-risk areas of Chile during a learning unit and according to their geographical zone. The study was part of a context-based science education learning unit. One hundred and two students from four schools used explanations to draw and write the causes of the risk situation, revealing their understanding of each phenomenon. The results show most students attributed earthquakes to the Tectonic Plates Theory while holding ancient scientific ideas about tsunami causes, for example, some explanations were based on air pressures. More sophisticated reasoning was found at the end of the learning unit, advancing their understanding of hazards promoted by the science education of the learning unit. The relevance of context-based science education for disaster risk reduction is discussed, especially for the cases of children with animistic - transferring human needs and attributes to non-animated entities- or fatalist understandings of the phenomena. The scientific understanding perhaps promotes empowerment and action-based choices for safety. Furthermore, the argument for policy curriculum design in primary science education for mitigating disasters is discussed.

Elementary Students’ Reasoning in Drawn Explanations Based on a Scientific Theory

Constructing explanations of scientific phenomena is a high-leverage practice that promotes student understanding. In the context of this study, we acknowledge that children are used to receiving explanations from teachers. However, they are rarely encouraged to construct explanations about the causes and consequences of phenomena. We modified a strategy to elicit and analyze primary students’ reasoning based on scientific theory as a methodological advance in learning and cognition. The participants were fourth-graders of middle socioeconomic status in Chile’s geographical zone with high seismic risk. They drew explanations about the causes and consequences of earthquakes during a learning unit of eighteen hours oriented toward explanation-construction based on the Tectonic Plates Theory. A constant comparative method was applied to analyze drawings and characterize students’ reasoning used in pictorial representations, following the first coding step of the qualitative Grounded Theory approach. The results show the students expressed progressive levels of reasoning. However, several participants expressed explanations based on the phenomena causes even at an early stage of formal learning. More sophisticated reasoning regarding the scientific theory underpinning earthquakes was found at the end of the learning unit. We discuss approaching elementary students’ scientific reasoning in explanations based on theory, connected with context-based science education.

Chemistry revisited: a teacher training workshop on nutrition

Abstract This work presents a teaching training workshop on human nutrition topics with strong emphasis on the underlying chemical concepts. It was designed according to the Sustainable Conscious Cognitive Learning Model (SCCLM) and framed in a Context-Based Science Education (CBSE) approach. The proposal was implemented with 44 upper secondary school science teachers. It consisted of three phases. First, teachers were presented with ‘common-sense’ driven sentences on nutrition topics and they were asked if they agreed or disagreed with them. Through an oral discussion, the emergence of the teacher’s own cognitive conflicts was promoted in order to trigger subsequent motivation for achieving further knowledge. Next, main scientific ideas and related chemical concepts were presented for each sentence, along with teaching recommendations to complete a CBSE approach. Finally, teachers were asked their opinions on the didactic proposal. Results showed that teachers were motivated to learn beyond their strong initial non-scientific based ideas by questioning the reliability of the information sources. They were also willing to revisit their teaching on some of the canonical concepts of chemistry.

Chemical senses: a context-based approach to chemistry teaching for lower secondary school students

Abstract The Context-Based Science Education (CBSE) approach promotes the inclusion of scientific concepts in everyday situations. In this work, we present a non-traditional context-based teaching experience on the subject of chemical senses that seeks, through a unique didactic instrument, to generate cognitive conflicts in order to promote conceptual change from “common sense” to science-based ideas. This experience encourages the active role of the students and involves simple experiences with everyday materials. It was carried out with 95 students from 12 to 15 years old. The contents developed during the experience were focused on taste and smell and the concepts of perception and sensation. The activities were designed to promote students’ self-awareness on their previous knowledge in order to achieve a sustainable learning by constructing appropriate scientific concepts. Assessment of students’ motivation for learning and their conceptual change – from common sense ideas to science based ideas – was done through an initial survey and a post-test. Students’ perception on their commitment and enjoyment about the approach has been evaluated through a metacognitive poll. The results show that the activities were highly motivating and that students were aware of their improvement in knowledge and their own commitment to the task throughout the entire experience.

A one-year teacher professional development programme towards context-based science education using a concerns-based approach

ABSTRACT Professional development programmes for teachers that aim at context-based science education are usually lengthy and less effective than intended. In this study, a one-year professional development programme was designed and evaluated that consistently started from the teachers’ concerns regarding context-based education. The teachers reported a positive shift in concerns, from self-as-teacher concerns towards student-learning concerns. They also reported that they came to grips with what context-based science education means in teaching practice. Although the number of participants was small (n = 5), this study uncovers that focusing on teachers’ concerns throughout the professional development programme is a potentially effective approach to teacher learning. The shifts in their concerns is an important condition for long-lasting change.

Relevance of Life-Cycle Assessment in Context-Based Science Education: A Case Study in Lower Secondary School

The article introduces a science education intervention using life-cycle analysis of consumer products. The intervention aims to promote lower secondary school students’ science career awareness and interest toward science studies. In this study, two lower secondary school teachers planned an intervention on life-cycle analysis, which aimed to be relevant for the students from an individual, societal, and vocational perspective. The study then examined how students perceived the relevance of the intervention, based on classroom observations, students’ life-cycle presentations, questionnaire responses, as well as interviews. The findings indicate that students found life-cycle assessment to be a relevant topic both from an individual and societal perspective. However, findings on vocational relevance were two-fold, as students gained knowledge on different occupations, but this did not seem to directly affect their future career aspirations.

Designing context-based teaching materials by transforming authentic scientific modelling practices in chemistry

ABSTRACTOne of the challenges of context-based science education is to construct high quality teaching materials. This paper presents results from a study investigating the heuristic value of an activity-based instructional framework for transformation of authentic scientific practices for use in the science classroom, in line with cultural historic activity theory (CHAT). The activity-based instructional framework was used to transform the authentic practice of Modelling Human Exposure and Uptake of Chemicals in Consumer Products into a curriculum unit. The transformation was conducted by experienced chemistry teachers well informed about CHAT. The heuristic value was judged on criteria completeness, instructiveness and appreciation. Collected data are designed curriculum materials and a focus group interview. Analysis of the designed curriculum materials indicated that the framework was highly complete and instructive, except for evoking reflection in students. Most important, the framework proved successful in operationalising CHAT into concrete guidelines for educational design. Additionally, the results show that the instructional framework is highly appreciated by the users. Further development of such instructional frameworks is important, since it fosters the construction of high quality context-based curriculum materials.

Socio-scientific issues as contexts for relevant education and a case on tattooing in chemistry teaching

<p>Context-based science education suggests that meaningful science teaching should be based on the lifeworld, society, or potential professional future of the pupils. But: Are all corresponding contexts for science education similarly good? This paper presents a curriculum model for using socio-scientific issues as contexts for science education in general and chemistry education in particular. It discusses the implications of this approach and presents an example on chemistry teaching about the issue of tattooing.</p>

Primary Teachers’ Reflections on Inquiry- and Context-Based Science Education

Inquiry- and context-based teaching strategies have been proven to stimulate and motivate students’ interests in learning science. In this study, 12 teachers reflected on these strategies after usi ...

Enhancing primary science: an exploration of teachers’ own ideas of solutions to challenges in inquiry- and context-based teaching

ABSTRACTStudies of inquiry- and context-based science education (IC-BaSE) have shown that teachers find these approaches problematic. In this study, 12 primary school teachers’ reflections on challenges related to IC-BaSE are explored. The aim of the study was to investigate which challenges primary teachers experience when working with IC-BaSE and how these may be solved. Group discussions and individual portfolios were used for data collection. Content analysis showed that the challenges teachers experienced were mainly practical relating to: how to find contexts, lack of time, handling big classes, students working at different paces, handling materials, and the teachers' need of control. The teachers also presented their own ideas of solutions to the challenges.

The notion of authenticity in the PISA units in physical science: an empirical analysis

The notion of “authenticity”—in the sense of a close relationship to actual and real (or at least realistic) contexts ensuring “relevance to students’ interests and lives”—is essential to PISA’s understanding of scientific literacy (OECD, 2007, p. 36), as well as for tradition of Context-Based Science Education (CBSE; see e.g. Bennett et al., 2007). Looking at the PISA units, there can be no doubt about their factual authenticity, i.e. that they are indeed based on real-life contexts as stated above. The assumption that these situations are perceived by pupils as interesting and authentic (personal authenticity) is more arguable. It therefore appears necessary to investigate this perception, as it is supposed to be essential both for motivation and cognitive activation of learners.

Context-based science education by newspaper story problems: A study on motivation and learning effects

Using real-life contexts has a long-standing tradition and is considered as an important issue in both current science education and educational psychology. Drawing on research in both areas, as well as on practice reports from science classrooms, the present contribution deals with a specific form of establishing such contexts, viz. context by newspaper story problems (NSP). Using the particular form of science problems based on newspaper articles and the real-life contexts provided by them, effects on both motivation and learning were studied.In a quasi-experimental comparison of 6 physics classes of secondary level 1 (N=122; grade 10, topic: energy) learning with newspaper based problems vs. conventional textbook problems (same content, lesson plan and teacher) showed considerable positive effects. This holds for general motivation, including several subscales (p<0.01, ω2=0.52) as well as for achievement, including transfer (p<0.01, ω2=0.20). Moreover, these results show robustness towards to various individual and classroom features (e.g. gender, non-verbal intelligence and school type), and at least mid-term temporal stability. Newspaper story problems thus appear as a useful element of context-based science teaching.

Teachers implementing context-based teaching materials: a framework for case-analysis in chemistry

We present a framework for analysing the interplay between context-based teaching material and teachers, and for evaluating the adequacy of the resulting implementation of context-based pedagogy in chemistry classroom practice. The development of the framework is described, including an account of its theoretical foundations. The framework needs to be sensitive to the problems specific to the implementation of new context-based science education and the professional development of teachers. An effective procedure is described for the collection and analysis of the data with subsequent focus on the designers’ intentions with the context-based teaching materials, the teachers’ perceptions of the materials and the resulting classroom practice. The framework’s use and value are shown in an empirical study. The framework proved to produce reliable and valid insight into the relations between teaching material and the teachers, and in the classroom implementation. Additionally, results on classroom implementation are presented to illustrate the kind of understanding can be expected when this framework is applied in more extensive multi-case studies.

Educating scientists in context: a Namibian case study

Education and science have both been hailed as keys to development and ‘progress’ in the 20th century, which implies that science education in particular will open doors to such outcomes. However, the internationalisation of scientific work and the transnational science and technology industry may ensure that few benefits are experienced by a poor country. The innovative approaches of one institution in the education of scientists in Namibia is examined. It shows the possibilities of context-based science education to produce scientists capable of practical problem-solving, and the value of scientific partnership-building for sustainable development. This raises issues about the broader conceptual framework linking education, science and development.