derivation and implementation of a model

7/28/2019 Derivation and Implementation of a Model

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Summer 2012 Vol. 21, No. 1 51

AbstractThis paper introduces a model for

using informal science education ven-

ues as contexts within which to teach

the nature of science. The model was

initially developed to enable university

education students to teach science inelementary schools so as to be consis-

tent with National Science Education

Standards (NSES) (1996) and A

Framework for K-12 Science Education:

Practices, Crosscutting Concepts and

Core Ideas (2011). The model has since

been used in other university courses and

professional development workshops

for elementary, middle school, and high

school teachers.

Learners experience the Nature of

Science (NOS) rsthand and develop

their own understandings of NOSthrough interaction with exhibits and

museum patrons. During experiential

learning opportunities (Kolb, 1984),

learners use the strategy of using your-

self as a learning laboratory (Burkett,

Leard, & Spector, 2003, p. 3) to gather

data on how they learn science content

information, experience NOS, and con-

struct strategies for teaching science.

Through reection, face-to-face debrief-

ings, and online discussion, learners

incorporate experiences into their cogni-

tive structures thereby constructing theirown conceptions of NOS consistent with

understandings commonly used in the

science education enterprise (Lederman,

2003; McComas, Clough, & Almazroa,

1998). Examples are given of learners

statements indicating understanding of

the NOS constructed during their work

in the museum. The model for science

education leaders use of informal set-

tings with educators learning about NOS

is included.

Introduction

The introduction of National ScienceEducation Standards (NSES) in 1996

focused science education leaders atten-

tion on ways to enable teachers to con-

struct understanding of the nature of

science (NOS) for themselves and for

students. The need for attention to NOS

was reiterated in 2011 by the National

Research Councils document, A

Framework for K-12 Science Education:

Practices, Crosscutting Concepts and

Core Ideas. A wide range of settings

and techniques have been proposed as

sites and means by which individuals

can learn something of NOS. The model

described herein illustrates a way in

which museums and similar informal sci-

ence education venues, also referred to

as free-choice learning environments,

can assist in communicating aspects of

the NOS. Informal settings that may

be used for this model include natural

physical sites (e.g., forests, beaches),

human-enhanced (e.g., nature centers,

preserves), or human-made (e.g., sh-

ing wharfs, industrial settings, or theme

parks). Venues to be considered may

also be places in the community speci-cally designed for education of the pub-

lic, including museums, aquaria, zoos,

libraries, botanical gardens, and natural

areas set aside as outdoor classrooms.

The impetus for moving university

courses for prospective science teach-

ers to informal science education venues

was the students observed resistance to

learning science through inquiry pro-

cedures consistent with the culture of

science (including NOS) while they

were in a university classroom set-

ting. Becoming disposed to, and able to

accommodate to, the culture of science

(including NOS) were the primary mea-

sures of success for use of this alterna-

tive venue.We provide a theoretical base for

the role of informal education set-

tings in science teacher education and

their potential to contribute to teachers

understandings of NOS. A description

of a methods course for teaching sci-

ence in elementary schools conducted

in an informal setting, the Museum of

Science and Industry (MOSI), is shared.

Procedures used in the museum setting

discussed here are the basis for a model

readily adapted to other informal set-

tings. The model has been successfullyused to develop other methods courses;

science, technology, and society inter-

action (STS) courses; and professional

development workshops for second-

ary teachers. All these learning oppor-

tunities embrace the current focus on

science, technology, engineering and

mathematics- STEM.

NOS as used for a conceptual frame-

work here includes how learners under-

stand what science is, how it works, how

scientists operate, and how the scientic

enterprise inuences and is inuencedby society (McComas et al., 1998, p.

4). Objectives for teaching NOS syn-

thesized from the work of McComas

(1998), Lederman (2003), and Osborne,

Collins, and Ratcliffe (2003), follow:

scientic knowledge is tentative; scien-

tic knowledge is empirical, or based on

theory laden observations, experimental

evidence, rational arguments and skep-

ticism; there are many ways to do sci-

ence (there is no one scientic method);

Barbara S. Spector, Ruth Burkett and Cyndy Leard

Derivation and Implementation of a Model

Teaching the Nature of Science UsingInformal Science Education Venues

Keywords: nature of science, inquiry,informal science education, education,teacher education


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52 ScieNce educator

science is an attempt to explain natural

phenomena; theories and laws have dif-

ferent relationships and roles; science

is embedded in culture, i.e. the culture

inuences science, science is part of

social and cultural traditions, and sci-

ence affects and is affected by the social

and historical milieu; science requires

the clear and open public reporting of

new knowledge, accurate record keep-

ing, peer review, and ability to replicate

ndings; creativity has an important

role in science; science and technology

impact each other; and the evolutionary

and revolutionary nature of science is

revealed in its history.

Science education sources, e.g.

the U.S. National Science EducationStandards (1996), note that scientists

historically have operated within ethi-

cal traditions that reect NOS, including

using empirical standards, respecting the

rules of evidence, making work public,

being open to criticism, valuing peer

review, and desiring knowledge. Science

is, therefore, a way of knowing about

the natural world. This way of know-

ing requires that scientists use habits

of mind, including values and attitudes

(curiosity, honesty, openness to new

ideas, and informed skepticism), com-putation and estimation, manipulation

and observation, communication skills

and critical response skills (American

Association for the Advancement of

Science, 1993). These are learned pat-

terns of thinking, behaving and com-

municating. Collectively these patterns

form what anthropologists call a culture,

the culture of science, a distinguishable

part of the general culture of society. The

label, culture of science, is used herein

and encompasses the nature of science

elements identied above.Theoretical Base

Science as a way of knowing and

thinking and science as it is taught

and learned in schools are not congru-

ent (Riedinger, Marbach-Ad, Randy

McGinnis, Hestness, & Pease, 2010).

Yager reported, Most science courses in

school are devoid of any of the features

that characterize real science (2008, p.

xiii). One way to bring the two domains

together is through rst hand experien-

tial learning (Kolb, 1984) based on the

work of Dewey (1938). Because science

is a culture that is often the antithesis

of learners own culture (Table 1), the

learners must experience it rst hand.

Features of this antithetical culture were

derived from an emergent design quali-

tative study of ve successive preser-

vice elementary science methods classes

modeling inquiry. Data from the ve

classes were treated as a single database

with ve different analytical frameworks

used to compare the students culture to

the culture of science (Spector & Strong,

2001). Table 1 provides excerpts from

that study.

One way to explain why informalsettings are productive for preservice

and inservice teachers to learn NOS is

to combine Kolbs experiential learn-

ing theory with an anthropological per-

spective (Cobern & Aikenhead, 1998;

Duit & Treagust, 1998; Maddock, 1981)

and the psychological theory related to

context and state dependent learning

(Bower, Monteiro, & Gilligan, 1976;

Chance, 1994; Grilly, 1989; McGeoch,

1932). Learning a culture occurs in a

context, an environment of a given pat-

tern of physical and social stimuli. These

stimuli become cues that elicit the corre-

sponding culture, including expectations

for acceptable behaviors in the culture.

Changing the cues makes it difcult

to elicit the culture, thereby providing

an opportunity to develop a new cul-

ture with new expectations for accept-able behaviors. Subsequently, Spector

and Strong (2001) generated grounded

Table 1: Examples of Science Culture as the Antithesis of Student Culture

Science Culture Student/Learner Culture

Ethical Traditions Make work public Keep work private between studentand instructor

Desire knowledge for knowledge sake Do not express desire for knowledgefor knowledge sake. Satised withextant knowledge

Respect the rules of evidence Individual personal experienceoverrides evidence in a research base

Value peer review Dont value peer review. Only reviewfrom instructor matters

Be open to criticism (of ideas andproducts)

Criticism (of ideas & products) isoffensive and not permitted in a groupor class

View science as a way of knowingand understanding

View science as a xed body ofknowledge.

Strive for best possible explanationthat is subject to change as newevidence becomes available

Explanation should be xed. Stopseeking or ignore new evidence so asnot to change explanation

Learners rewards Identifying problems Stating answers

Divergent thinking Compliance and conforming to agroup think

Taking intellectual risks Staying intellectually safe. Not

speaking unless I am rightExpectations forlearners

Ask questions Not ask questions

Have opportunity to investigate Be told the one correct answer by anauthority

Hold decisions in abeyance andtolerate ambiguity

Jump to conclusions. Bring immediateclosure

Psychological proles: High need for achievement-low fearof failure

Low need for achievement- high fearof failure

Process of achieving is reinforcing Not doing anything more than isnecessary to get by is reinforcing

(Spector & Strong, 2001, pp. 13, 14.15)


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Summer 2012 Vol. 21, No. 1 53

theory indicating, To the extent that we

can change characteristics of the context

in which traditional preservice teachers

learn science (and how to teach science),

we should be able to inuence their abil-

ity to accommodate to the culture of sci-

ence (p. 16). Barnes and Spector (1999)

developed recommendations for charac-

teristics of contexts having potential to

help uncertied teachers develop expec-

tations for learning consistent with the

culture of science and the NSES. These

characteristics, when combined in one

setting, describe contexts unlike those

commonly found in university class-

rooms and school district staff develop-

ment centers and more like what occurs

in novel settings, such as informal learn-ing environments constructed for free-

choice learning (Spector & Burkett,

2002). The combined ten characteristics

of a context with potential to inuence

preservice and inservice teachers ability

to accommodate to the culture of science

are shown in Table 2.

A major aspect of the culture of sci-

ence is that learning occurs through

open-ended or full inquiry (National

Research Council, 1996), a technique

resisted by many new and experienced

teachers. Such inquiry involves the pro-cess of generating questions, planning

an investigation, collecting and orga-

nizing data, analyzing and interpreting

the data, sharing with others interpre-

tations and supporting evidence, and

generating new questions. In the model

described here, the teacher education

students inquire into what and how they

are learning in both the informal set-

ting and other course experiences. They

simultaneously construct understanding

of the extent to which they are function-

ing within the culture of science.

An informal setting in the community

provides a collection of resources that

reduce the time and energy teachers need

to invest in inventing, designing, imple-

menting, and cleaning up a classroom.

These settings commonly exhibit more

complex events than teachers ordinarily

are equipped to illustrate in a traditional

classroom. Thus, if the informal setting

is in close proximity to the school, both

money and time can be saved. Further,teachers derive personal satisfaction

from interaction with community mem-

bers when arranging for use of informal

settings (Spector & Barnes, 1988).

The aforementioned theoretical base

supports moving science education

courses from the university classroom to

a science museum or other informal set-

ting. In the example herein, the museum

was selected because of its proximity to

the university, emphasis on science and

technology, and the presence of school

age children (Spector & Burkett, 2002).Additionally, the research base about

learning in informal settings, such as

museums and science centers, supports

this decision (Falk & Dierking, 2000;

Hein & Alexander, 1998; Leinhardt

& Crowley, 1998; Serrell, 1996). The

informal science education research

community did not explicitly report how

people learn NOS in informal settings,

however, it did indicate that studying

how people learn in museums and sci-

ence centers had elements in common

with NOS. These elements include

determining how science and technol-

ogy impact each other, developing

observation and experimentation skills,

and testing ideas as people indepen-

dently discover order in nature (Semper,

Diamond, & St. John, 1982).

The model we developed for using

an informal setting to teach NOS was

tested in the course described below for

preservice and uncredentialed inservice

elementary teachers. Similar courses andworkshops targeting uncredentialed sec-

ondary school teachers have been suc-

cessfully implemented.

VenueThe Museum of Science and

Industry (MOSI) as a context for

learning to teach science.

The 265,000 square feet at MOSI are

lled with interactive exhibits designed

to make science real and make a differ-

ence in peoples lives. Potential teachers

experienced the interaction of science,technology and society in a wide vari-

ety of exhibits. At MOSI students expe-

rienced hurricane force winds in the

Gulf Coast Hurricane, paddled across

a wire that was three stories above the

lobby on the high wire bike, learned

how the wetlands can clean water in

the BioWorks Buttery Garden,

explored the natural diversity of Florida

in Welcome to Florida, learned about

what makes the human body so amazing

in the Amazing You exhibit, soared

into the sky and beyond in the ight

and space exhibit, and studied life under

the sea from the view of a submersible

vehicle. They especially delighted in

taking a preschool/primary grade childs

view of the processing, distribution and

sale of orange products in the O is

for Oranges exhibit. Special events in

which each preservice class participated

as a full group included the scripted role-

play of a mission to Mars in a simulated

space capsule and mission control in the

Table 2: Context Characteristics Facilitating Accommodation to the Culture of Science

Make explicit the discrepancies between the culture teachers commonly bring to class and the culture ofscience.

Make explicit the relationship between science as a way of knowing and thinking and science as a way ofteaching and learning.

Provide authentic inquiry opportunities in contexts with features that serve as cues for learners toaccommodate to the culture of science.

Include exibility in (a) specic objectives, (b) resources, (c) use of time, (d) patterns of interaction withpeople, and (e) objects and events.

Use non-judgmental feedback focused on tasks.

Use ethical traditions of science as a guide for behavior.

Explicitly acknowledge need for multiple perspectives.

Provide time and space to integrate and share thinking, feeling and acting.

Facilitate collaboration among traditional and non-traditional students.

Establish a community of learners providing emotional support and caring

(Barnes & Spector, 1999, p 4)


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54 ScieNce educator

Challenger Learning Center, explora-

tion of the night sky in the Planetarium,

and viewing an IMAX lm of a natu-

ralists or technologists adventures.

Some of the exhibits changed over the

several semesters in which this model

was implemented at MOSI. The out-

comes for learners in successive years

were comparable to those described for

the class detailed in this paper. Thus,

although these exhibits were specic

to MOSI, there are comparably diverse

exhibits in interactive museums and

other informal science education venues

around the world that can be expected to

deliver similar outcomes.

In addition to being in a museum,

the course described here was web-enhanced, although access to the web is

not necessary for using informal educa-

tion settings to teach NOS. The website

provided a variety of resources for study

and a means of communicating asyn-

chronously among all class participants.

Please see Burkett, R. S., Leard, C. &

Spector, B. S. (Summer, 2004), Using

an electronic bulletin board in science

teacher education: Issues and tradeoffs

for details about the web-enhanced

aspect of this course.

Course Instructional DesignThe major reective strategy used

in the informal setting (museum) was

using yourself as a learning laboratory

(Burkett et al., 2003, p. 6). This strategy

involved students in systematic inquiry

by requiring them to reect on their reac-

tions to learning opportunities. Students

were asked to analyze their experiences

from two perspectives: looking through

the lens of a student and then the lens

of a teacher. Using the rst perspective,

they engaged in the activities as learners

of science. Using the second perspec-tive, they stepped outside themselves as

participants in an event to observe what

they were doing, how it felt, and what

they were thinking. Most of the students

had little or no experience with reec-

tion, so the following questions were

suggested to stimulate the reective

inquiry: What am I learning about a sci-

ence topic, about what science is, about

what scientists do, about the learning of

science, and about teaching? How am I

learning? What do I understand? What

dont I understand? What went on during

each experience? How did I react? What

can I learn from that reaction? How were

specic events and my responses to them

opportunities for me as a learner? Did

the events have any implications for me

as a teacher?

Methods students engaged in meta-

cognition, analyzed their own actions

and thoughts, and searched for patterns

revealing the way they made decisions

that enabled them to construct mean-

ing, and thus learn. The reections were

shared on an electronic bulletin board

associated with the class. Students

posted a reective journal each week andresponded to ve self-selected journals

each week. The professor responded to

all participants. Students were able to

read all the professors postings to all

students. Students referred back to their

museum experiences, analyses, and

interpretations to induce meanings for

various aspects of NOS and construct

understanding of the extent to which

they were functioning within the cul-

ture of science, using scientic habits of

mind to question, examine, and evaluate

their own learning experiences.Gathering and analyzing data about

their own learning processes and shar-

ing those in the community of learners

(a) helped learners make sense of course

experiences, including understanding

NOS; (b) provided data for self assess-

ment that helped determine what else

they needed and wanted to learn; and

(c) provided insight to varied ways their

future students were likely to learn.

Students made their work public by post-

ing products in the class electronic bul-

letin board for all class peers to review.Participants questioned each others use

of evidence and reasoning both in class

and on the bulletin board.

A primary goal of the course was for

learners to develop positive attitudes

towards science. An objective in the

course syllabus stated, The learner will

construct an image of her/himself as

an individual who actively participates

in science inquiry and values scientic

investigation as a process used in daily

life. S/he will eliminate any negative ste-

reotypes of scientists and alleviate any

alienation from science (Spector, 2004,

p. 2).

To achieve this objective, the learn-

ers themselves had to understand and

identify with how scientists operate and

be able to function in accord with the

culture of science. These learners had

to develop an understanding of NOS to

function within the culture of science.

Interviews with scientists of their own

choosing within the museum, the uni-

versity, and the community at large con-

tributed to students eliminating negative

stereotypes of scientists. A productive

approach to learning how scientists work

was for learners to do science. Thismeans that students use scientic habits

of mind to interrogate, inquire system-

atically, solve problems and make deci-

sions. The entire course, therefore, was

structured as an inquiry into the ques-

tion, What characterizes science teach-

ing in elementary schools consistent with

NSES? Students gathered data from

multiple sources, including experiences

in the science museum, a site exploration

of their own choosing in their commu-

nity, interviews with a scientist, labora-

tory activities of their own choosing,video taped visits to exemplary science

classrooms, a textbook (Koch, 2004),

readings and multimedia products on the

course website, weekly journals and sub-

sequent asynchronous discussions in the

website, and face-to-face small group

and whole class meetings. Observations

and reections on their own responses

to learning experiences in class were

part of their data set. These learning

opportunities were framed as individual

inquiries illustrating different degrees of

open-endedness nested within the over-all course focal question (inquiry).

The course utilized the ve Es lesson

plan: engage, explore, explain, extend,

and evaluate (Bybee, 1991). This model

facilitated opportunities for participants

to conduct inquiry and experience the

nature of science and its culture, and

empowered learners to see themselves

as individuals who could do science

and were positively disposed to doing

science. From this perspective they


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Summer 2012 Vol. 21, No. 1 55

constructed a vision of science teaching

consistent with current state and national

goals. Such a vision enabled them to

make appropriate decisions about cur-

riculum, instruction, and assessment to

enthusiastically introduce youngsters to

science as a way of knowing and think-

ing, and science as a way of learning and

teaching, in contrast to science as rheto-

ric of conclusions. Setting the course in

the museum allowed the structure of the

ve Es to be experienced multiple times

in authentic contexts.

Procedures at the Museum. Three

steps were used at the museum: activ-

ity prompts to engage students, times

to explore, and opportunities to debrief

in which knowledge being constructedwas explained. The activity prompts

provided by the professor guided the

students in designing their own explora-

tions of the exhibits within the museum.

Each foray to the exhibits began with a

different activity prompt. Learners, how-

ever, were advised to continue to collect

data using current and previous activ-

ity prompts throughout each successive

investigation. They compared their nd-

ings among exhibits to construct patterns

and saturate categories. The multiple

returns to the exhibit oor enabled stu-dents to apply their knowledge construc-

tions extending them to new contexts

provided by differing exhibits.

Students (N=35/class) explored differ-

ent exhibits each time they went to the

museum oor. Each foray to the museum

exhibit hall lasted between 20 and 30

minutes and was followed by debrief-

ings of varied time blocks depending on

the nature of the emergent discussion. In

debrieng sessions, participants focused

on reporting observations of characteris-

tics of the exhibits, themselves as learn-ers, patrons at the museum, and science

learned. Factors inuencing what they

observed were explored, and how they

made use of evidence was discussed.

In other words, they reected on, and

shared, how they made sense of what

they learned from each foray into the

museum evaluating their constructions

of their new knowledge. Readings in

their textbook and on the class website

served as a theoretical framework for

debrieng discussions. Debrieng was

key to ensuring positive impact of the

experience in an informal setting.

At the rst meeting in the museum,

learners received a map showing the

location of the exhibits. For the rst and

second task, in order to encourage peo-

ple to get to know each other, students

were assigned randomly to groups of

ve participants. Building a community

of learners was a priority in the course.

They were assigned the rst exhibit to

explore. Groups were switched for the

second task. For succeeding tasks, each

self-selected group went to a different

exhibit of their own choosing. The fol-

lowing procedures describe each activity

prompt used, its purpose relating to howto teach science, and the alignment of the

activity with the characteristics of NOS

noted earlier in the introduction to this

paper.

Activity prompt 1: Design a

commercial.

Description. Explore your assigned

exhibit and generate a three-minute

commercial to sell this exhibit to the

rest of the class. Enact your commercial

when the class reconvenes. The debrief-

ing begins with each group discussing

which exhibit they next want to visit as

a result of the commercials presented.

The full class addresses these ques-

tions: What did you learn at the exhibit?

What characteristics of the commercial

attracted you? What characteristics of

the exhibit attracted you? Why did these

things attract you?

Purpose. Introduce class participants

to an overview of the exhibits available

in the museum. Begin sensitizing learn-

ers to using themselves as a learning

laboratory by observing, gathering,

recording, analyzing and placing valueon information available about salient

features that become data for decision

making.

Alignment with NOS. This activity

aligns with the NOS characteristic: cre-

ativity has an important role in science.

Designing and enacting a commercial is

a creative way for students to share the

science they are learning.

Activity prompt 2: Analyze the

physical structure.

Description. Explore a second

exhibit. Record the physical character-

istics attracting your attention and those

that cause you to maintain attention.

Debrieng begins with groups reading

their lists of ndings to the full class

and answering questions: (a) What pat-

terns do you see in these data across the

groups? Sample ndings include color,

movement, size, spatial relationships,

sounds, brightness, things that are famil-

iar, things that appear strange, interactiv-

ity, things hidden behind covers to open,

etc. (b) What use is this information to

you in a classroom?

Purpose. Practice observing andrecording details. Identify characteris-

tics that will engage learners, therefore,

should be considered when building sci-

ence centers and other learning opportu-

nities in a classroom.

Alignment with NOS. This aligns with

the NOS constructs of scientic knowl-

edge is empirical and there are many

ways to do science, because students

gather and process data and make com-

parisons in a variety of ways.

Activity prompt 3: Human

interaction.

Description. While exploring a third

exhibit with your self-selected group,

attend to, and record, the contents and

dynamics of your interactions with each

other and the exhibit. Debrieng: What

behaviors of others attracted you to look

at what someone else was experiencing?

What did you talk about to each other?

What questions did you ask? What did

you do to generate answers with each

other? How did you determine which

answers were best?

Purpose. Help students become awarethat the natural process of learning

involves interactions, creativity, search

for evidence, and social construction.

Alignment with NOS. Aligns with sci-

entic knowledge is empirical or based

on theory laden observation, experi-

mental evidence, rational arguments,

and skepticism, because students are

experimenting and developing argu-

ments. This also aligns with creativity


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56 ScieNce educator

has an important role in science because

students are using their creativity during

the process to gather and analyze data.

Activity prompt 4: Link to thestandards.

Description. Collect evidence for

what standards might be addressed

through an exhibit of your choice.

Debrieng: How could any of the exhib-

its be used to meet major standards?

How are fundamental topical standards

included in the exhibits? Shared nd-

ings demonstrated observers needed to

go beyond the obvious topics such as

biology, chemistry, or space science and

see how any of the exhibits that at rst

appear to be specic to a sub-disciplineof science, could be used to meet major

standards, e.g., inquiry standards, pro-

cess standards, STS standards, unifying

themes, etc. Also some fundamental top-

ical standards such as force and motion

or energy could be addressed in almost

every exhibit.

Purpose. Show that one can contrib-

ute to learning many similar standards

regardless of the apparent topic or sub

discipline of an exhibit. This emphasized

almost any event could be used to pro-

vide students opportunity to learn many

required standards.

Alignment with NOS. This aligns

with science is embedded in the culture,

because people looked through their per-

sonal sensitizing lenses to discover the

science standards they saw within the

exhibits.

Activity prompt 5: Make

connections.

Description. Identify various science

concepts, technology concepts, and con-

nections to social studies and other dis-

ciplines in an exhibit. Debrieng: Howcan these connections contribute to

creating engaging and productive learn-

ing environments in schools? What is

the relationship between hard and soft

technologies?

Purpose. Sensitize learners to science,

technology, and society interaction and

the value and ease of enacting transdis-

ciplinary education.

Alignment with NOS. This aligns with

science is an attempt to explain natural

phenomena and science and technology

impact each other, because students are

asked to focus on science and technol-

ogy concepts in the exhibit areas.

Activity prompt 6: Observe

youngsters.

Description. Watch what young-

sters do in the museum. Do not inter-

act with them. Listen to what they say

and to whom they say it. Watch what

adults who are with the children do and

how the children respond to the adults

actions and statements. How does this

compare to what you did? What are par-

allel actions in schools?Purpose. Learn what youngsters do

naturally when stimulated by their own

curiosity, creativity, and actions of peo-

ple around them in a rich environment,

and when not directed by a teacher.

What they do is usually consistent with

the nature of science. Science proce-

dures formalize, systematize, and record

these natural responses. This is intended

to help participants get past experiences

that have encouraged potential teach-

ers to view science as something out of

reach or negative.

Alignment with NOS. Aligns with

creativity has an important role in sci-

ence, because youngsters naturally use

inquiry, and they creatively engage in

this process based on their individuality.

Activity prompt 7: Consider

logistics.

Description. Attend an exhibit that

requires you to wait, e.g., the high wire

bike or the hurricane. What do you do

with the rest of the group when waiting

for each person to take a turn interact-

ing with an exhibit? How do you move agroup from place to place and make it a

learning opportunity?

Purpose. Maximize learning for every

student regardless of the need to wait or

transfer between locations.

Alignment with NOS. This aligns

with science is embedded in the culture,

because participants are asked to reect

on their small groups cultural expecta-

tions in this particular setting. This opens

dialog for talking about science teaching

and learning in a classroom culture or a

world culture.

Activity prompt 8: Explore thePlanetarium.

Description. During the third class

meeting, students participated as a large

group in a visit to the planetarium. They

entered the planetarium to experience a

one-hour complex technology lecture by

a talented performer and space expert.

He described the important role of cre-

ativity in space science, the way space

science is limited by available technol-

ogy, and the way space science history is

evolutionary and revolutionary.

Students had an opportunity to askquestions of the presenter. The debrief-

ing was conducted immediately asking

such questions as: How did you feel

about this experience? A typical response

was I loved it. I expected to fall asleep

because it was dark and those padded

reclining seats were so comfortable. To

my surprise I stayed awake the whole

time. They were completely engaged

by the presentation. Next, they were

asked to individually write down all

the new information they had obtained.

Within ve minutes, eyes started to wan-

der. Each person usually listed one or

two items. Occasionally someone listed

a handful of items. The ensuing discus-

sion was especially important, because

most of these learners were convinced

that real teaching was lecturing. They

believed they could improve students

learning if only they could be better lec-

turers and use more props. Here they had

rst hand data to contradict that assump-

tion. Additionally, the variation in items

students wrote provided opportunity to

discuss the idea that the more you know

about a topic the easier it is to learnmore, even when the new information

is complex. The students realized that

it may be just as energy consuming to

learn basic information as sophisticated

information, if you have no, or minimal,

related knowledge upon which to build.

This opened a discussion of the role

of prior knowledge and its relationship

to the inuence of theories on scientists.

To provide exibility, the professor did


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Summer 2012 Vol. 21, No. 1 57

not plan a specic sequence for topics

of importance she intended to include in

each class session. Instead, she consis-

tently sought teachable moments during

face-to-face class interactions and bul-

letin board discussions on the website

to address key elements. A teachable

moment was when a need to know a

particular topic became evident through

actions, words, or body language. For

example, within the rst three weeks of

a class, without exception, one or more

students will say that science proved

something and/or something isjusta the-

ory. This provided occasion to explicitly

direct their attention to the section of the

syllabus labeled Language of Science,

and discuss the use of common lay lan-guage where scientic use of the words

has different meanings. Students com-

monly resisted the notion that science

can disprove something, but cannot

prove anything. They also found it dif-

cult to accept the difference between

laws and theories and that theories do

not grow up to be laws. These ideas were

cast in the same light as the myth of only

one scientic method they had encoun-

tered throughout their K-12 schooling.

Purpose. Provide self generated evi-

dence that passive lecture was not themost effective teaching strategy. Identify

the characteristics and impact of passive

activity compared to active experience

with the scripted role-play in the simu-

lated Challenger Center the week before.

Alignment with NOS. This activ-

ity aligns with science and technology

impact each ether and the evolution-

ary and revolutionary nature of science

is revealed in its history. The narrator

in the planetarium described what sci-

entists thought about the universe and

how that had changed with the Hubbletelescope. Students saw that science was

limited by the sophistication of the avail-

able technology.

Activity prompt 9: Explore a place

in the community.

Description. With your team, explore

a place in the community to conduct a

site exploration with children. Write

a collaborative report describing how

you could use this place as a setting for

teaching science to children and post it

in the discussion area of the class web-

site. Debrieng: Reect on how you

went about investigating the site and

learning for yourself. Your reactions

provide clues for ways to make the site

exploration an interesting adventure for

children. You have up to 30 minutes

to share with the entire class your plan

for children to use your site. You may

use any format for your performance/

presentation.

Purpose. Encourage prospective

teachers to do the following: (a) explore

ways to maximize learning in diverse

types of real world settings (b) experi-

ence the way an individuals perceptual

screen inuences what the person willsee in a setting and how that diversity

contributes richness to understanding the

whole, and (c) value their own adventure

and learning through full open-ended

inquiry as a meaningful way for their

future school children to learn science.

Alignment with NOS. This activity

aligns with the NOS precepts ofscience

and technology impact each other, sci-

entic knowledge is empirical, science

is embedded in the culture, creativity is

important, and science is an attempt to

explain natural phenomena.

Students Interpretations andResponses Related to NOS

Developing culture compatible with

NOS in a museum setting. When the

science methods class was taught in

the university classroom, the instructor

modeled aspects of the nature of science

including inquiry and ethical behaviors.

This modeling was not consistent with

traditional preservice students expecta-

tions for the role of the instructor in the

classroom (see Table 1). Discrepancies

between these expectations and course

reality led to frustration and anxiety

on the part of students. These were

expressed as resistance to learning and

teaching consistent with the nature of

science

When the course was taught in the sci-

ence museum, the students traditional

cultural expectations (See Table 1) did

not surface as a barrier to accepting a

way of learning and teaching science

consistent with current beliefs about

the ways people learn. The curiosity

of learners surfaced. Students consis-

tently sought new knowledge by asking

questions about the context and lesson

planning, and went about implement-

ing ways to answer their own questions.

They made their thinking (and work),

public instead of keeping it a private

communication between the student and

the instructor, as had been the case when

the course was conducted in the univer-

sity classroom. In cooperative groups

exploring the same area of the museum,

the natural tendency was for people

to talk to each other about the exhib-

its they were experiencing and to share

and question each others ideas aboutthese experiences. It appeared that the

action characterizing scientic inquiry

came naturally in the novel setting of

the museum. Students lost the self-con-

sciousness that often inhibited them in

a classroom. They were encouraged to

focus on the task instead of themselves.

A new culture was established in the

museum context with new norms such

as we share our thoughts and feelings,

we help each other out, we ques-

tion ideas and look for evidence, we

evaluate the quality of the evidence,and we dont punch a time clock. In

the museum, where cues led to percep-

tions of everyone being a part of a learn-

ing community, uncertied teachers

cultural expectations that they should be

teacher dependent and guess what is in

the teachers head were replaced with

expectations for multiple acceptable

answers constructed by various members

of the learning community. Peer pressure

to compete for the right answer, another

phenomenon seen in the classroom, was

reduced with the formation of this com-munity. Relationships between the way

participants constructed knowledge of

science and science teaching and the

way scientists constructed new knowl-

edge through multiple forms of inquiry

became obvious. One student summed

up the change for herself this way:

Now, because of metacognition,

reection, and active engagement

processes in the museum, I am

growing by leaps and bounds. . . . I


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58 ScieNce educator

realize that we are going through a

scientic inquiry process ourselves

and it almost feels as if I am the

one in complete control over what I

learn and how I learn it. It is amaz-

ing to see how far I had come! No

longer am I frustrated and search-

ing for the correct answers, praise,

or good grades! I just want to learn,

inquire and connect! No longer

do I feel bound to a textbook,

syllabus, or teacher-guided sug-

gestion. I realize that while these

things are extremely important, it

is more important for me to explore

independently those things that I

nd interesting and to apply my

observations to what I am learningand experience in this class.

Establishing positive attitudes toward

science. Helping students think posi-

tively about science was the rst step in

gaining a new perspective on the NOS.

The following quotes show how dif-

ferent students were learning to enjoy

science:

Several weeks ago I would never

have thought that I would be

excited about showing up for an 8

AM class. Yes, this past Tuesdaywas another exciting class!

I wish all my classes were as

enjoyable as this one. I am learning

so much.

The book is interesting-What a

refreshing change from my other

classes!

I learned a great deal from this

class, and Ill admit that originally I

didnt think I was going to!

Changing perceptions of what sci-

ence is. Students initially described sci-ence as a dull, boring, disconnected list

of memorized facts. Students percep-

tion of NOS began to change as they

had opportunities to explore exhibits in

the museum. Science became pursuing

curiosity through creatively and sys-

tematically investigating the natural and

human enhanced world around them.

They were amazed to realize that science

was embedded in society and present in

every aspect of their lives. The following

quotes from various students journals,

exit memos, and self-assessments illus-

trate their changing perceptions:

Science is not a bunch of discon-

nected facts to memorize and repeat

on tests, rather it is an exploration

and journey into the questions how

and why as it relates to everything

in our own lives.

I think that [site exploration

presentations] opened my eyes a

little more on the places we can

take children so they might

explore and realize that science is

all around them.

I feel it is important for [our

students] to discover phenomena

on their own and if any questionscome up, they can research for

answers.

[In the planetarium], the data

gathered was that the kids used

their imagination to learn. They

said things like I see the scor-

pion. They also used their prior

knowledge of a recent story about

constellations to build on the new

information they were visualizing.

Okay Okay! Looks like science is

going to beat me over the head! .

Everywhere I look its science. Mybrain hurts! It seems like once I n-

ish observing one thing; there are

six more things that have my atten-

tion. I know this is a good thing,

but ... I think sometimes ignorance

really is bliss!

Science as an on-going process of

improving human understanding of the

natural world as more evidence accumu-

lates was captured in this student com-

ment, Not only do we learn new things,

but we are constantly evolving andchanging what we already know.

Science became asking questions,

gathering data, sharing evidence, rea-

soning, interpreting, and negotiating

interpretations within a community of

learners.

I like that we were able to discuss

the answers with our own group

in order to combine our ideas and

construct different possibilities.

The unique thing that I observe

is how everyone uses and obtains

information in different ways.

... the main idea I took from class

today is diversity. For each group

had different interpretations on the

midterm and each group presented

differently. As a teacher I think

this is one of the most important

concepts to understand.

Changing perceptions of science and

scientists. Students shifted their under-

standings of science from being some

incomprehensible thing done by solitary

eccentric males in a laboratory to a pro-

cess they and their future students could

use to learn together about the world. Atthe end of the course, students provided

evidence in drawings and conversations

that they now recognized themselves and

their students as capable of doing sci-

ence. Drawings showed adult females,

often labeled me, accompanied by

one or more children gathering data in

a natural setting. They all showed happy

faces. Students were also explicit in their

journals, I feel that I have learned that

everyone is a scientist and is always col-

lecting data.

Changing Relationships withScience. As a result of their explorations

in the informal setting of the museum,

students began to develop a deeper

understanding of NOS by examining

their own relationships with science.

They began to perceive themselves as

individuals capable of taking part in

scientic inquiry. Evidence of students

changing relationships with science was

seen in the following quotes:

I now understand that science can

be a way of life, simply taking time

to investigate and explore. Beingcurious and wanting to know why

is a characteristic of a scientically

minded person that can be emo-

tional and fun at the same time.

I now come in with my own

questions and when [the instructor]

gives us the opportunity to visit the

exhibits, its up to me to learn what

I want. Im taking the opportu-

nity that I was denied when I was

learning about science. [The


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Summer 2012 Vol. 21, No. 1 59

instructor] gives us enough time to

discover things on our own ...

This class has drastically changed

my point of view of science. I

am not only a person who uses

scientic methods to make deci-

sions and to live my life, but rather

I have become one with the idea

of science as knowing. Science is

not DNA or factual information.

Science is life. We cannot be born,

live, reproduce, or die without

it. (I hope you understand I am

not speaking biology, chemistry,

or physics here although they

do apply.) Science is language,

music, math, society, interpersonal

skills, grief, playtime, and evendemocracy! I challenge everyone

to nd one thing that science does

not affect! In the end, science

has become everything. It is the

basis of all that we do, think, and

experience.

Changing understandings of science

teaching. The students were successful

learning science through open-ended

inquiry within the ethical behaviors

characterizing traditions of science and

had fun doing it. As they began to expe-rience science as meaningful, relevant

to themselves, fun, and having a lasting

quality, they entertained the idea that

inquiry within the ethical traditions of

science was a meaningful way to enable

their future elementary school students to

learn science. Representative statements

from students included the following:

Isnt it amazing how much

information we have forgotten

since childhood? Teachers taught

much differently then. I know I am

retaining much more information inthe way our instructors are teach-

ing us how to be teaching our

students. Given these opportunities

we can expand on so much, which

leads us to understand things in

our own ways and in turn share the

knowledge.

... I really enjoy being able to

work hands-on and learn by experi-

ence. This is also a great way for

children to learn. By being able to

explore on their own, they are able

to come up with their own conclu-

sions to why things work the way

they do.

... This course has really

opened my eyes to how traditional

classes instill pre-packaged learn-

ing into their students by teaching

science as just a series of facts.

Science taught as inquiry allows

students to question what they

see and know and nd scientic

answers for themselves.

We are now called upon to

become warriors in our own class-

rooms, families, and communities.

We have been empowered. It is

our responsibility to encourage theworld to learn all the implications

of science.

I have learned how to experience

situations, make connections, to

explore independently and then I

was handed the perfect tool [the

5Es] for helping others do the

same! Wonderful!

ConclusionBy taking students to a museum

or other informal setting, they were

removed from the typical classroomatmosphere and placed in a more relaxed

learning environment. In this way stu-

dents let go of their perceptions of what

learning looked like and became free to

explore through inquiry. Students stud-

ied exhibit areas by becoming immersed

in the experience and developed inter-

esting ways to share their learning, a

concept stressed through the learning

laboratory. The course continued to help

students build their skills with repeated

opportunities to practice while building

a community of learners. Revisiting the

museum exhibit areas with various focalquestions in mind helped students recog-

nize inquiry as an iterative process.

These prospective teachers when

immersed in an inquiry experience

began to recognize themselves as capa-

ble individuals who derived benets

from using scientic habits of mind in

their everyday life. They began to recog-

nize the relevance of science to human

existence and to see that developing

scientically literate students included

helping students realize their own poten-

tial. As future teachers their responsibili-

ties lie with helping their students learn

how to learn and providing opportunities

for them to practice within a community

of learners that reect the world beyond

the classroom.

When the methods class was taught

in the university classroom, students

resisted the paradigm consistent with the

culture of science. At the museum, stu-

dents readily accommodated to the cul-

ture of science. Their traditional cultural

expectations and subsequent behaviors

did not surface. Students established

and participated in the culture of sci-

ence, which led to rapid changes in theirperceptions of the NOS, scientists, their

own relationships with science, and how

science should be taught. They changed

their perception of science from a subject

to be avoided to a continuing adventur-

ous inquiry into the natural and human

enhanced world around them, an adven-

ture that was meaningful and rewarding

to themselves and their future students.

An impromptu conversation with

education personnel at the museum

indicated they did not perceive their

current exhibits to be designed speci-cally to contribute to learning the nature

of science. In fact, when given the list

of characteristics of NOS, the immedi-

ate reaction was these things were not

considered in building the exhibits, but

probably should be. This suggests the

instructors approach gives any infor-

mal setting potential to be used to teach

NOS.

The three steps identied for use at

the museum: an activity prompt, a time

to explore, and an opportunity to debrief

could be used in other informal settingssuch as a park or beach. The model for

learning NOS in informal settings is

summarized in Table 3 on the next page.

The activity prompts described above

guide students in designing their own

explorations of a setting. After a debrief-

ing session, students receive an addi-

tional prompt to explore another section

of the setting, gather more data, and par-

ticipate in further debrieng. This itera-

tive process could be used for studying a


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60 ScieNce educator

tropical island, a glacial area, an amuse-

ment park, or a circus. Science education

leaders implementing these procedures

will support construction of an under-

standing of NOS, as well as how to teach

science by doing inquiry in informal

settings.

There are added benets to using an

informal setting to teach the nature of

science. They include (a) stimulating

teachers to include informal education

settings in their future teaching plans and(b) establishing partnerships between

schools and organizations in the commu-

nity, an initiative that appeals to support-

ive funding agencies. Science education

leaders, whose responsibilities may pro-

vide them more exible use of time than

teachers in all day face-to-face contact

with students, can serve as liaisons to

informal science education organiza-

tions. They will then be able to make the

necessary connections and arrangements

to benet teachers. Additionally, science

education leaders using an informal set-

ting assists teachers in making science

relevant to the real world (Riedinger et

al., 2010), setting the stage for life long

learning of science by providing neces-

sary inquiry skills and fostering a con-

tinuum between school and after school/

home activities that continue and enrich

science learning.

ReferencesAmerican Association for the Advancement

of Science. (1993). Benchmarks forScience Literacy. New York: OxfordUniversity Press.

Barnes, M., & Spector, B. S. (1999,January). Creating contexts for inquiryin science teacher preparation: Howdo we do it? Paper presented at theAssociation for the Education ofTeachers in Science, Austin, TX.

Bower, G. H., Monteiro, K. P., & Gilligan,S. G. (1976). Emotional mood as a con-text for learning and recall. Journal ofVerbal Learning and Verbal Behavior,17, 573-585.

Burkett, R. S., Leard, C. & Spector, B. S.(Summer, 2004). Using an electronicbulletin board in science teacher edu-cation: Issues and tradeoffs. Journalof Interactive Online Learning, 3(1).Retrieved from http://www.ncolr.org/

jiol/archives/2004/summer/01/index.

htmBurkett, R. S., Leard, C., & Spector, B. S.

(2003, 29 January - 2 February). Usingyourself as a learning laboratory: Astrategy to mitigate preservice elemen-tary teachers resistance to teachingthrough inquiry. Paper presented atthe Association for Science TeacherEducation, St. Louis.

Bybee, R. W. (1991). Middle school sci-ence and technology. Dubuque, IA:Kendall/Hunt.

Table 3: Spector-Burkett-Leard Model for Learning NOS in Informal Settings

Activity Prompt Exploration Activity Debrieng

Design a Commercial Introduce participants to the exhibits. Begin sensitizing

learners to using themselves as a learning laboratory byobserving, gathering, recording, analyzing and placing valueon information available about salient features that becomedata for decision making.

Each group discussing which exhibit they want to go to next. The full

class addresses these questions: What did you learn at the exhibit?What characteristics of the commercial attracted you to that exhibit?What characteristics of the exhibit attracted you? Why did thesethings attract you?

Analyze the physicalStructure

Explore a second exhibit. Record the physical characteristicsattracting your attention and/or maintaining your attention.

What patterns do you see in these data across the groups? What useis this information to you in a classroom?

Human interaction While exploring a third exhibit with your self-selected group,attend to, and record, the contents and dynamics of yourinteractions with each other and the exhibit.

What behaviors of others attracted you to look at what someoneelse was experiencing? What did you talk about to each other? Whatquestions did you ask? What did you do with each other to generateanswers? How did you determine which answers were best?

Link to the Standards Collect evidence for what standards might be addressedthrough an exhibit of your choice.

How could any of the exhibits be used to meet major standards? Howare fundamental topical standards included in the exhibits?

Make connections Identify various science concepts, technology concepts, andconnections to social studies and other disciplines in anexhibit.

How can these connections contribute to creating engaging andproductive learning environments in schools? What is the relationshipbetween hard and soft technologies?

Observe venue visitors Watch what visitors, especially young people, do in themuseum. Do not interact with them. Listen to what they sayand to whom they say it. Watch what adults with childrendo and how the children respond to the adults actions andstatements.

How does this compare to what you did? What are parallel actions inschools?

Consider logistics Attend an exhibit that requires you to wait. What does one do with the rest of the group while waiting for eachperson to take a turn interacting with an exhibit? How do you move agroup from location to location making it a learning opportunity?

Large group lecture/presentation

As a large group, attend a lecture/presentationspecial event.

How do you feel about this experience? What new information did youobtain? How did being a passive participant differ from your activelearning experiences?

Explore a place in thecommunity

With your team, explore a place in the community to conducta site exploration with your target age group. Write acollaborative report describing how you could use this place

as a learning venue. You have up to 30 minutes to share withthe entire class how you will use your site.

Reect on how you went about investigating the site and learning foryourself. How do these reactions provide clues for ways to make thesite exploration for children an interesting adventure?


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Summer 2012 Vol. 21, No. 1 61

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Grilly, D. M. (1989). Drugs and humanbehavior. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

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Houghton Mifin.Kolb, D. (1984). Experiential learning:

Experience as the source of learningand development. Englewood Cliffs, NJ:Prentice-Hall.

Lederman, N. (2003). Views of the natureof science [CD-ROM]. Philadelphia.

Leinhardt, G., & Crowley, K. (1998).Museum learning as conversational elab-oration: A proposal to capture, code andanalyze museum talk.Museum LearningCollaborative Technical Report [MLC-01]. Pittsburgh, PA: Learning Research& Development Center, University of

Pittsburgh.

Maddock, M. N. (1981). Science educa-tion: An anthropological viewpoint.Studies in Science Education, 8, 1-26.

McComas, W. F., Clough, M., & Almazroa,H. (1998). The role and character of thenature of science in science education.In W. F. McComas (Ed.), The nature ofscience in science education (pp. 3-40).Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

McGeoch, J. A. (1932). Forgetting the lawof disuse. Psychological Review, 39,352-370.

National Research Council. (2011). Aframework for K-12 science education:Practices, crosscutting concepts, andcore ideas. Washington, DC: NationalAcademies Press.

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Osborne, J., Collins, S., & Ratcliffe, M.(2003). What Ideas-about-Scienceshould be taught in school science?A Delphi study of the expert commu-nity. Journal of Research in Science

Teaching, 40(7), 692-720.Riedinger, K., Marbach-Ad, G., Randy

McGinnis, J., Hestness, E., & Pease,R. (2010). Transforming elementaryscience teacher education by bridgingformal and informal science educa-tion in an innovative science methodscourse. Journal of Science Educationand Technology, 1-14. doi: 10.1007/s10956-010-9233-8

Semper, R. J., Diamond, J., & St. John,M. (1982). Use of interactive exhibitsin college physics.American Journal ofPhysics, 50, 425-430.

Serrell, B. (1996). In search of generaliz-ability: New tools for visitor studies.

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Spector, B. S. (2004). Science for thechild: Course syllabus. Retrieved fromhttp:scholar.acomp.usf.edu:8930

Spector, B. S., & Barnes, M. B. (1988).Laboratory instruction: Planning,implementing, and evaluating. Dubuque,Iowa: Kendall/ Hunt PublishingCompany.

Spector, B. S., & Burkett, R. S. (2002,

April 7 - 10). Using the science museumto mitigate preservice teachers resis-tance to inquiry. Paper presented at theNational Association for Research inScience Teaching, New Orleans.

Spector, B. S., & Strong, P. (2001). Theculture of traditional preservice elemen-tary science methods students comparedto the culture of science: A dilemma forteacher educators.Journal of ElementaryScience Education, 13(1), 1-20.

Yager, R. E., & Falk, J. H. (2008).Exemplary science in informal educa-tion settings: Standards based successstories. Arlington, VA: NSTA Press.

Barbara S. Spector, Ph.D., is a profes-sor of science education, and Directorof The Informal Science InstitutionsEnvironmental Education GraduateCerticate Program in the Department ofSecondary Education, University of SouthFlorida, Tampa, FL.

Correspondence concerning this articleshould be directed to:

Dr. Barbara Spector1536 Sanctuary DriveTampa, FL 33647

[email protected]

Ruth Burkett, Ph.D., is an associ-ate professor of science education inthe Elementary and Early ChildhoodEducation Department, University ofCentral Missouri, Warrensburg, MO.

Cyndy Leard, Ph.D., is the educationdirector at the Science Center of PinellasCounty, St. Petersburg, FL.


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