Primary Science Classes Research Articles

DEVELOPMENT OF SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS ABOUT AIR IN EARLY SCINCE EDUCATION

Air is one of the first terms that students encounter in primary science classes. On the other hand, environmental problems of air pollution are present in the daily life of many people, and environmental awareness is developed and nurtured at all levels of education. Air is omnipresent in the lives of children from the earliest age, but due to its invisibility and intangibility, there are difficulties in understanding and adopting the concepts of air and its physical properties. Hence, these difficulties were the subject of this research. The aim of the research was to evaluate the level of adoption of teaching content about air among students in lower grades of primary schools, as well as, to assess whether and to what extent the teaching of the subjects The World Around Us and Nature and Society affects the development of concepts about air. 140 students of lower grades (I-IV) of two primary schools participated in the research. A knowledge test of twelve tasks related to scientific facts about air and its properties was applied. The obtained results show that there are no statistically significant differences in the level of adoption of tested scientific terms depending on the class (age), which points out to the conclusion that the process of developing certain scientific terms about air is insufficiently effective in the initial teaching of natural sciences. It is recommended to apply some innovative teaching models and strategies when processing teaching content about air, and to connect this content to everyday phenomena and students’ experiences as often as possible.

Correlation between Teachers Knowledge, Beliefs, and Frequency of Implementation of Brain Based Learning Strategies

Brain-based learning (BBL) is grounded in an understanding of the structure and function of the brain, as well as empirical evidence derived from cognitive neuroscience research regarding optimal learning strategies for the brain. Educational programs that prioritize brain science in their curriculum and instructional methods are commonly referred to as "brain-based." The aim is to achieve efficient and expeditious education. As per the Education Reform, this particular approach is based on research that examines the brain's potential to restructure itself in order to enhance its capacity to retain and retrieve information while engaged in the process of learning. Enhancing one's capacity can be achieved through engaging in physical activity, maintaining a healthy diet, and effectively managing stress levels. The emotional state of an individual can also have an impact on their learning process. This study presents findings on the correlation between teachers' knowledge, beliefs, and frequency of implementation of brain-based learning strategies in primary Science classes. The research questions addressed in this paper are focused on determining the existence of such a correlation. The study comprised 207 educators from elementary schools in Croatia. The results suggest that educators at the primary level possess a sound understanding of brain-centered pedagogical approaches, yet they infrequently put them into practice. The educational process remains entrenched in a historically rooted paradigm that has not adequately shifted towards student-centered teaching. This is evidenced by the persistent employment of traditional, teacher-led instructional methods in elementary Science classrooms.

Between biology and religion: dialogue in the Saudi primary science classroom

ABSTRACT This study explored the usefulness of the open dialogue strategy to help Saudi Arabian primary teachers teach, and fourth-grade students learn, the key biological concept of classification, which is a significant challenge for students to grasp, especially the concept of humans versus animals. The convenience sample comprised N = 84 Grade four students (50% female, 50% male) in the 2018 Autumn term from four schools (two boys/two girls) in one city in the Northern region of Saudi Arabia and four (N = 4) teachers (self-selected sampling), one for each of four classes. A content and conversational analysis of translated and transcribed transcripts of the researcher’s classroom observations, interpreted through the communicative approach, the Intermental Development Zone (IDZ), and exploratory talk, affirmed the effectiveness of open dialogue in Saudi primary science classes. Findings showed that, to move through the dialogue process and learn about the scientific concept of classification, students drew on (a) their religious views, (b) their personal religious beliefs and (c) the notions of Darwin’s theory of evolution and Islamic creationism. Findings affirmed that using dialogue in primary science classes helped students learn aspects of the Saudi science curriculum. Findings further supported preparing preservice and inservice Saudi science teachers in both planned and open dialogue teaching strategies.

Features of and representational strategies in instructional videos for primary science classes

ABSTRACT Utilisation of instructional videos for science teaching has become more widespread due to the expansion of online teaching and learning environments and growing awareness of benefits of videos, such as enabling use of effective multiple representations. With this in mind, this study aimed to examine features of instructional videos for teaching scientific inquiry, a key element of science education, and learners’ engagement, a crucial issue in instruction in terms of representational strategies used. We analysed 16 instructional videos for science teaching generated by pre-service teachers. We found that the instructional videos tended to focus on posing a question related to a phenomenon and constructing its explanation conceptually rather than conducting investigations and interpreting the data. It was also found that there were alternations between providing relevant and conceptual resources and affording learners opportunities to answer questions verbally and visually to prompt their engagement. Various representational strategies, such as summarising, comparing, highlighting, sequencing, and presenting vivid phenomena, were also employed for better teaching scientific inquiry as a part of learners’ ongoing cognitive activities. Based on the findings, we argue that there is potential for using instructional videos for teaching science, considering representational strategies in terms of scientific inquiry and learners’ engagement.

A Contextual Learning Approach Based on Augmented Reality to Improve Students’ Scientific Literacy

Inquiry activities are important and challenging in primary science classes since it is not only related to scientific knowledge, but also to scientific literacy. However, with consideration of limited cost and risk issues, most of optical experiments are insufficient to implement in primary schools, so that students should rely on their own imagination to understand abstract concepts without inquiry activities. In this study, a contextual learning approach based on augmented reality (AR) technology was proposed to cope with this problem. A specially developed AR system created a virtual-reality combined environment for students taking an optical inquiry task about rainbow in grade 5. Moreover, a mixed methods research approach was used to analyze understanding about scientific concepts, use of inquiry process skills, and higher order thinking skills of the students who learned with the proposed approach. The experimental results revealed that the learning approach based on AR was able to assist in the construction of understandings about scientific concepts, provide students opportunities to use inquiry process skills, and develop students’ higher order thinking skills. Furthermore, by interviewing the teacher, the benefits and challenges of using this contextual learning approach based on AR were reported. These findings could be valuable references for those who intend to implement contextual inquiry learning activities with AR systems to assist improve students’ scientific literacy effectively.

Overcoming Learning Difficulties with Smartphones in an Inclusive Primary Science Class

This paper examines how pupils with learning difficulties (LDs) used smartphones as supportive learning tools in an inclusive science class and how the usage developed over a two-year period. The case study was conducted in a Finnish primary school, where nine LD pupils’ smartphone usage was followed in three science learning practices that supported LDs. The data consisted of repeated smartphone questionnaires, interviews, learning outcomes, and teachers’ memoranda. The content and co-occurrence network analysis revealed that the smartphone usage varied in different practices, and its benefits developed gradually during the research period. Research highlights that teachers’ and pupils’ engagement with a dedicated, collaborative, and long-lasting process of smartphone usage in teaching and learning enables the achievement of change.

Effects of explicit instruction on the acquisition of students’ science inquiry skills in grades 5 and 6 of primary education

ABSTRACTIn most primary science classes, students are taught science inquiry skills by way of learning by doing. Research shows that explicit instruction may be more effective. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of explicit instruction on the acquisition of inquiry skills. Participants included 705 Dutch fifth and sixth graders. Students in an explicit instruction condition received an eight-week intervention of explicit instruction on inquiry skills. In the lessons of the implicit condition, all aspects of explicit instruction were absent. Students in the baseline condition followed their regular science curriculum. In a quasi-experimental pre-test–post-test design, two paper-and-pencil tests and three performance assessments were used to examine the acquisition and transfer of inquiry skills. Additionally, questionnaires were used to measure metacognitive skills. The results of a multilevel analysis controlling for pre-tests, general cognitive ability, age, gender and grade level indicated that explicit instruction facilitates the acquisition of science inquiry skills. Specifically on the performance assessment with an unfamiliar topic, students in the explicit condition outperformed students of both the implicit and baseline condition. Therefore, this study provides a strong argument for including an explicit teaching method for developing inquiry skills in primary science education.

Pre-service teachers' professional vision of instructional support in primary science classes: How content-specific is this skill and which learning opportunities in initial teacher education are relevant for its acquisition?

Professional vision of instructional support in primary science was investigated with respect to its content-specificity and to learning opportunities in initial teacher education (ITE) which are presumably relevant for the acquisition of this skill. Data from 196 primary pre-service teachers were used. Confirmatory factor analyses suggested pre-service teachers' professional vision of instructional support to be a content-specific skill rather than a general homogeneous or a content-independent one. MIMIC model results revealed that pre-service teachers’ general cognitive ability and the attendance of an ITE program with a focus on science were most significantly related to their professional vision of instructional support in science classes, whereas practical experiences were not.

Inquiry and groups: student interactions in cooperative inquiry-based science

ABSTRACTScience education research has recommended cooperative inquiry based science in the primary science context for more than two decades but after more than 20 years, student achievement in science has not substantially improved. This study, through direct observation and analysis, investigated content-related student interactions in an authentic inquiry based primary science class setting. Thirty-one upper primary students were videotaped working in cooperative inquiry based science activities. Cooperative talk and negotiation of the science content was analysed to identify any high-level group interactions. The data show that while all groups have incidences of high-level content-related group interactions, the frequency and duration of these interactions were limited. No specific pattern of preceding events was identified and no episodes of high-level content-related group interactions were immediately preceded by the teacher’s interactions with the groups. This in situ study demonstrated that even without any kind of scaffolding, specific skills in knowing how to implement cooperative inquiry based science, high-level content-related group interactions did occur very briefly. Support for teachers to develop their knowledge and skills in facilitating cooperative inquiry based science learning is warranted to ensure that high-level content-related group interactions and the associated conceptual learning are not left to chance in science classrooms.

Nature of Science Lessons, Argumentation and Scientific Discussions among Students in Science Class: A Case Study in a Successful School

Argumentation is highlighted as one of the most important activities of science education by many researchers. The main aim of this research is to examine primary school students’ nature of science classes and argumentation skills in terms of their academic success in primary science classes. Thus, the specific interest of the study is centered on the nature of science lessons, the structure of the argument and an effort to scaffold students’ understanding concerning the argument’s structure. As this was considered the initial, but students have to acquire fundamental skills before dealing with the inner validity of an argument. Moreover, successful and labeled students for this study were put under the microscope curiously by the researchers. Within the scope of this purpose, the study was designed on qualitative research techniques which are detailed as explorative and fundamentally interpretation for the related issue. Since a particular school’s successful students are considered in the research, it could be viewed and designed as a case study. The study is conducted with 8 th graders with the age of 12-13 in a private elementary school. Focus group interviews and classroom observations during science lessons were the basic tools to obtain data. The results were grouped under the following aspects: objectives of science education, science teaching methods of teachers in their science class, materials used while teaching and teachers’ approaches for being successful in science. Science teachers in this school are both give importance in order to inquiry for teaching science. This research has demonstrated that even the most successful 8 th graders in science classes do not necessarily apprehend fundamental concepts about nature and science. The science teachers in this research also mentioned that the interactive nature of information technologies can support students in carrying out inquiry-based activities, using topics, questions, and even theories that they themselves define and develop argumentation.

Primary Teachers’ Instructional Behavior as Related to Students’ Engagement in Science Learning

The aim of our study was to investigate how teacherś instructional behavior in primary science class is related to pupils’ engagement in science learning. We used observation and a questionnaire. We found that a balanced teaching style, rather than a dominance of either structured or autonomy supportive teaching, resulted in more engagement but that 38 per cent of pupils did not engage with science learning at all. This is a potentially important issue for teacher education: the importance of fostering engagement in science learning should be explored more and teacher education methodology in the field of science improved.

Erratum to: Professional Vision of Classroom Management and Learning Support in Science Classrooms—Does Professional Vision Differ Across General and Content-Specific Classroom Interactions?

The present study investigates the internal structure of professional vision of in-service teachers and student teachers with respect to classroom management and learning support in primary science lessons. Classroom management (including monitoring, managing momentum, and rules and routines) and learning support (including cognitive activation and structuring of content) are important dimensions of instructional quality. While classroom management is considered as a mainly noncontent-specific aspect of instructional quality, learning support in science classrooms is content-specific. The aim of the current study was to investigate whether professional vision is a general ability of teachers, or a two-dimensional ability which depends on the specific focus of instructional quality considered. In a sample of both 241 German student teachers from different universities and in-service teachers from primary science classes, two video-based instruments were used for assessing professional vision of classroom management and professional vision of learning support. A structural equation model revealed a two-dimensional structure with a high correlation between professional vision of classroom management and of learning support.

Mother tongue as default language of instruction in lower primary science classes: Tension between policy prescription and practice in Nigeria

AbstractThe forecast for the first quarter of this century is that the issue of teaching science in the language to which the learner is most familiar will receive more attention in our quest to win more students for science. Over two‐thirds of countries in Africa, Asia, and Europe have developed policies on the use of the mother tongue for teaching science in the lower levels of their education system. In spite of this policy thrust, the educational system of many of these countries has not responded fully to the demands of such a policy. Because studies which mapped the dynamics of communication in science classrooms taught using the mother tongue are scant, we remain in the dark as to how best to structure such classrooms. The study was conducted in 12 primary schools and it involved 36 teachers in urban and rural locations of Lagos State, Nigeria. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from primary science classrooms where the mother tongue is expected to be used as a medium of instruction. Mismatch between policy and practice was found especially in urban science classrooms. Among other things, it was found that on the average, science lessons delivered in primary 1 in rural settings, were found to be 93.6% in the mother tongue (L1). In primary 2 this fell to 91.1% and in primary 3–84.6%. In contrast, in the urban schools, mother tongue content was found to be 61.8% in primary 1, 49.2% in primary 2 and 26.6% in primary 3. The geo‐spatial communication between and among pupils in urban and rural science classes also showed interesting findings, that is, English served as a mediating language. The implications of the findings for future policy considerations and future research to inform policy are drawn. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 50:62–81, 2013

Self and social regulation of learning during collaborative activities in the classroom: The interplay of individual and group cognition

The purpose of the present research was to advance the development of knowledge regarding social aspects of self-regulated learning (SRL). The study had the objective of exploring the occurrence of self and social aspects of regulation during collaborative activities within regular primary science classes. Through a multiple case study approach, 8 children organised in two work groups were videotaped working in collaborative activities during one academic semester. The findings show a general increase of SRL activity within the groups during the semester, and positive relationships between focus of the activity and type of social regulation. The study sheds light on the advantages of combining analytical and holistic analysis when researching collaborative activities in the classroom. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

The importance of teacher interpersonal behaviour for student attitudes in Brunei primary science classes

This study investigated relationships between students' perceptions of their teachers' interpersonal behaviour and their subject‐related attitude in primary science classes in Brunei. Teacher–student interpersonal behaviour was mapped with the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI) and reported in terms of two independent dimensions called Influence (teacher dominance vs submission) and Proximity (teacher cooperation vs opposition). While prior research using the QTI mainly focused on secondary education, the present study was one of the first in Brunei and in primary education and one of few studies to use multilevel analysis. Data from 1305 students from 64 classes were used in this study. Results indicated strong and positive effects of Influence and Proximity on students' enjoyment of their science class and supported findings of earlier work with the QTI.

Drawing during science activity in the primary school

The project reported in this paper was designed to do a number of things. First there has been an exploration of the purposes which could be achieved by involving children in drawing in junior primary science classes. Second, the study involved the exploration of teaching strategies which could facilitate the achievement of those purposes, this exploration being classroom based whilst meeting the requirements for research.