Taking Science to School Learning and Teaching Science in Grades K-8 (2007) / Chapter Skim
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2 Goals for Science Education
2 Goals for Science Education
Pages 26-50
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From page 26... ...
In this chapter, we describe some different characterizations of science and con sider implications for what is taught in science classrooms. Although the characterizations share many common features, they vary in the emphasis and priority they place on different aspects of scientific activity, with poten tial consequences for what is emphasized in science classrooms.
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From page 27... ...
The ability to examine one's own knowledge and conceptual frameworks, to evaluate them in relation to new information or competing alternative frameworks, and to alter them by a deliberate and conscious effort are key scientific practices. Different Perspectives on the Process of Science Those who study the nature of science and the learning of science have a variety of perspectives not only on key elements of scientific practice and skills (Stanovich, 2003; Grandy and Duschl, 2005)
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From page 28... ...
We summarize the key elements of a number of these viewpoints.1 Science as a Process of Logical Reasoning About Evidence One view of science, favored by many psychologists who study scien tific reasoning, emphasizes the role of domain-general forms of scientific reasoning about evidence, including formal logic, heuristics, and problem solving strategies. Among psychologists, this view was pioneered by the work of Inhelder and Piaget (1958)
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From page 29... ...
provides a good example of the semantic changes that occur when motion and force are examined across Aristotelian, Galilean, and Newtonian frameworks. Science as a Process of Participation in the Culture of Scientific Practices The view of science as practice is emphasized by anthropologists, ethnographers, social psychologists, and the cognitive and developmental psychologists who study "situated cognition" (Brown, Collins, and Duguid, 1989; Lave and Wenger, 1991; Latour, 1990, 1999; Rogoff and Lave, 1984)
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From page 30... ...
One alternative use of the term comes from psychological research. Researchers in cognitive development have investigated the way in which children come to under stand the world around them and have attributed to them a wide variety of immature and inadequate -- albeit pervasive -- "theories" about the world.
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From page 31... ...
In the elementary and middle school classroom, observation usually involves fewer inferences. For example, students may begin by conducting unaided observations of natural phenomena and then progress to using simple measurement tools or instruments such as microscopes.
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From page 32... ...
Thus, another source of confusion for the public understanding of sci ence is the use of the term "theory" to represent promising ideas as well as core explanatory theories. Core explanatory theories are those that are firmly established through accumulation of a substantial body of supporting evi dence and have no competitors (e.g., cell theory, periodic law, theory of evolution, theory of plate tectonics)
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From page 33... ...
than the full general theory of relativity. This is a key understanding: science is subject to development and change, yet well-tested and established theories remain true in their tested domain even when dramatic new ideas or knowledge changes the way one views that domain.
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The specific content of elementary school science has been outlined in multiple documents, including the National Science Education Standards,
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From page 35... ...
It is not the role of this report to specify a list of content to be taught. However, it is important to note that what this report says about science learning always assumes that there is a strong basis of factual knowledge and conceptual development in the science curriculum, and that the goal of any methodology for teaching is to facilitate student learning and understanding of this content, as well as developing their skills in, and understanding of, the methods of scientific observation, experimentation, modeling, and analysis.
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From page 36... ...
The issues of what chil dren bring to school and of how teaching can build on it to foster robust science learning with this rich multiplicity of aspects are the core topics of this report. Strands of Scientific Proficiency Understanding science is multifaceted.
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From page 37... ...
To engage pro ductively in science, however, students need to understand how to participate in scientific debates, adopt a critical stance, and be willing to ask questions. These strands of scientific proficiency represent learning goals for students as well as providing a broad framework for curriculum design.
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From page 38... ...
This perspective stresses how conceptual understanding of natural systems is linked to the ability to develop explanations of phenomena and to carry out empirical investiga tions in order to develop or evaluate knowledge claims. The strands framework emerged through the committee's syntheses of disparate research literatures on learning and teaching science, which define science outcomes differently and frequently do not inform one another.
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From page 39... ...
This strand stresses acquiring facts, building organized and meaningful conceptual structures that incorporate these facts, and employing these conceptual structures during the interpretation, construction, and refinement of explanations, arguments, or models. Generate and Evaluate Scientific Evidence and Explanations Generating and evaluating scientific evidence and explanations encompasses the knowledge and skills used for building and refining models and explanations (conceptual, computational, mechanistic)
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From page 40... ...
Likewise, participation in scientific practices in the classroom helps students advance their understanding of scientific argumentation and expla nations; engage in the construction of scientific evidence, representations, and models; and reflect on how scientific knowledge is constructed. To participate fully in the scientific practices in the classroom, students need to develop a shared understanding of the norms of participation in science.
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From page 41... ...
Therefore, if the goal is to advance the leading edge of children's scientific reasoning, their instruction needs to be grounded in contexts that also build on their relatively robust understanding of content. There is also mounting evidence that knowledge of scientific explanations of the natural world is advanced through generating and evaluating scientific evidence.
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From page 42... ...
In other words, through maturation with age, children will achieve certain cognitive milestones naturally, with little direct intervention from adults. Many science educators and policy makers have assumed that the power and limitations of children's scientific reasoning at different grade levels could be derived from the stages delineated in the cognitive develop mental literature.
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From page 43... ...
Further clouding the picture is that research on cognitive development may not be helpful in illuminating how instruction can advance children's knowledge and skill. Often, studies in developmental psychology do not have an instructional component and therefore may be more informative about starting points than about children's potential for developing scientific proficiency under effective instructional conditions.
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From page 44... ...
Furthermore, there is mounting evidence that instruction can advance these capabilities as well as many others. In short, young children have a broad repertoire of cognitive capacities directly related to many aspects of scientific practice, and it is problematic to view these as simply a product of cognitive development.
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From page 45... ...
These capacities need to be nurtured, sustained, and elaborated in supportive learning environments that provide effective scaffolding and targeted as important through assessment practices. Although there is much that is not understood about the relationships between development and learning, the evidence is clear that a student's instructional history plays a critical role in her scientific knowledge, scientific reasoning, and readiness to do and learn more science.
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From page 46... ...
. Child cognitive development: The role of central conceptual structures in the development of scientific and social thought.
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From page 47... ...
. Cross-domain development of scientific reasoning.
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From page 48... ...
. On the complex relation between cognitive developmental re search and children's science curricula.
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From page 49... ...
Inducing conceptual change by integrat ing everyday and scientific perspective on thermal phenomena. Learning and Instruction, 11, 331-355.
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