How problem based teaching of diurnal

astronomy affects in knowledge and attitudes

of pre-service primary teachers?

Menargues Marcilla, A; Colomer Barberá, R; Limiñana Morcillo, R; Trompeta Carpintero and Martínez Torregrosa, J

Didactics of Experimental Sciences

Faculty of Education

Introduction and problem statement

Generalists primary teachers.

Negative attitudes towards science.

Negativas Neutras Positivas

56%

20% 24%

Initial attitudes of primary teachers towards science (n=308)

Perc

enta

ge (%

)

Negative Neutral Positive

Education received1. Many topics of P-Q superficial way2. Activities and materials to carry out

with children3. Both (1+2).

PRIMARY TEACHERS HAVE NOT CONFIDENCE AND CERTAINTY TO

TEACH SCIENCE.

Science 17%

Initial education to access to the Degree of Primary Teacher

Humanities20%

Humanities/Statistics applied 63%

Preguntas de interés:OUR STARTING POINT

Primary teachers must to have lived “by themselves” that they are able to learn deeply some of the Big Science Ideas (Harlen, 2010) and a thorough knowledge of these ideas.

EFECTS ARISING

ABOUT ATTITUDES TOWARDS

SCIENCE AND ITS TEACHING

ABOUT UNDERSTANDING AND THROUGH KNOWLEDGE OF

SOME OF BIG SIENCE IDEAS

ABOUT SELF-PERCEPTION AND CONFIDENCE TO LEARN

AND TEACH SCIENCE(Intellectual satisfaction,

Viennot 2010, GIREP)

o Call into question ideas about science of people who have studied science at high school and compare it with people who have not studied science at high school

o How those ideas and knowledge have been generated.

o It is possible a conceptual and epistemological change.

20 h

We start from a subject of 60 hours:

o It could be obvious to teach them a lot of topics on a superficial way. WE ARE GOING TO GO AGAINST THIS POINT OF VIEW.

o We want to show them that they can learn some of the big science ideas in depth, so they can use it to explain natural phenomena.

40 h

2nd section of the subject

WE ARE GOING TO PRESENT THE RESULTS

2. How Sun and/or Earth should move to explain those cycles and symmetries?

1. Are there cycles and symmetries in the Sun movements which allow us to organize time and space?

TEACHING SEQUENCES ACTIVITIES OF INQUIRY

Which have been designed by expert lecturers.

Which have been proved and modified before this study.

DEEPENING INSTEAD OF BROADENING

THIS IS A VERY EXIGENT LEARNING: o They must to understand the

Sun/ Earth model in depth to think about the world with sense.

Science topic chosen (which is one of the big science ideas)

1. Problem based teaching about Sun cycles and symmetries and Sun /Earth model produces in future primary teachers a high level of learning and positive attitudes towards teaching and learning science.

2. The level of learning that they achieve is independent of their initial attitudes towards science and its teaching.

3. Attitudinal change is independent of their initial attitudes. 4. Attitudes generated by teaching received are positive even in

students who have not achieved the understanding indicators. 5. Problem based teaching of these topics promote that students have

a self perception of confidence to learn and tech science.

Hypotheses

LEVEL OF LEARNINGwas evaluated with:

o 2 exams. Answers evaluation: Has he/she achieved learning/understanding indicator…?

0 (no) 1 (yes, but with some non conceptual

mistakes) 2 (yes, perfectly)

TIME LENGTH: 2011/2012 – 2012/2013 – 2013/2014

3 EXPERT LECTURERS IBSE

6 GROUPS OF 60 STUDENTSEQUAL FEATURES • Same time table• Same hours of teaching

Same teaching sequence

Experimental design

INITIAL ATTITUDES Initial questionnaire that assessed subjects and indicate positive / negative attitudes towards several subjects. We classified in: • positive • neutral • negative

EFFECT OF TEACHING ON THE FINAL ATTITUDES

A) self-perception questionnaire of 23 items(0 = strongly disagree, 10 = totally agree).

Questionnaires interaction with people outside the classroom

Exam questions about Sun cycles and symmetries.

TEST ABOUT CYCLES AND SIMMETRIES IN SUN MOVEMENTS

1. (Does he/she know how to follow the Sun? Does he/she know Sun cycles in Alicante?)A person has measured in Alicante the maximum altitude with an astrolabe at unknown date. He/she has not indicated any obtained value, but has drawn the following (see below).

a. Where would be rise and sunset that day?b. How long would be that day?c. Which added information would you need to specify the data

which it was made that measurement?d. Draw Sun path in spread out horizon.

2. (Does he/she know Sun cycles anywhere in the world?)

We have the following information about Sun in an unknown place:a. Sunrise azimuth in the longest day of the year is 42º and

maximum altitude in the shortest day of the year is 10º.b. Find values of sunrise and sunset azimuth and maximum

altitude in all special days.c. Draw Sun path in the astronomical window in summer solstice.d. How do you think duration of daylight will be during the year

compared to Alicante?

1. (Can she/he locate a place on Earth using observational data on Sun movement at that place and vice versa?)

a) Can he/she express in observational terms (measureble) what does the coordenates 10ºN and 30ºE mean?

b) How could a person confirm (with Sun path) that it is...• In the Tropic of Cancer• In Antarctic Polar Circle• In a place located in northern hemisphere

c) The following drawing shows the Sun path of winter solstice in an unknown place of the Earth. Moreover, person who has made the drawing has told us that gnomon shadow is on the meridian line two hours after than in Greenwich. Please, locate this place on the Earth.

2. (Can he/she relate the Earth position in its orbit to how we see the Sun in our local horizon?)Please indicate positions which could answer to the following situations in the northern hemisphere (please draw as you consider to give us your explanations). a) The day length is less than 12 hours and it is increasingb) The day of the highest culminationc) The shortest day of the yeard) The day length is more than 12 hours and it is decreasing

Please justify (drawing, giving explanations, giving reasons...) in which of last two positions (a) or (d) the average temperature will be higher in a same place.

3. (Can she/he use the Sun/Earth model in a functional way?)Please use the Sun/Earth model to deduce how we can see the Sun path in a place where latitude is 55ºN and longitude is 90ºW in winter solstice. Please compare culmination, day length and sunrise and sunset azimuth with this Alicante data.

Exam questions about Sun / Earth model

Experimental designSeveral examples about items that have been used to evaluate final attitudes of students1. Issues structure and its development has allowed me that I was steered, it means that

I knew what was I doing and for what I was doing always.

2. I feel that I have really learned, that I have made progress.

3. Through issues, I have several opportunities of express which I was thought about we were talking about and answer my questions.

4. I feel that I was making exercises, one after another, and I didn’t know very well why I was doing it.

5. I think that I have learned is not only useful to pass the exam but my comprehension about Sun cycles and Sun/Earth model has improved clearly.

6. It has been high or has increased my teaching and learning sciences interest.

7. It has made think about ideas that I had and convince me that it had better ideas.

8. Issues structure has allowed me to take in account about how scientist work and how it make progress with models and theories preparation.

Cronbach alpha (0.8 – 0.96)

Results

2011-12 2011-12 2012-13 2012-13 2013-14 2013-14Group1 Group2 Group1 Group2 Group1 Group3

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Can students use knowledge about Sun cycles and symmetries to orientate temporally and spatially?

No Yes, minor mistakes Yes, perfectly

% S

tude

nts

2011-2012 2012-2013 2013-2014

Results

2011-12 2011-12 2012-13 2012-13 2013-14 2013-14Group1 Group2 Group1 Group2 Group1 Group3

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Can students use knowledge about Sun /Earth model to locate a place on Earth using observational data on Sun

movement at that place?

No Yes, minor mistakes Yes, perfectly

% S

tude

nts

2011-2012 2012-2013 2013-2014

Results

NEGATIVE NEUTRAL POSITIVE0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Knowledge achieved on Sun cycles and symmetries vs. initial atti-

tudes

No Yes

% S

tude

nts

NEGATIVE NEUTRAL POSITIVE0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Knowledge achieved on Sun / Earth model vs. initial attitudes

No Yes

% S

tude

nts

Results

Students’ final attitudes towards science

Initial attitude towards science

Mean final positive attitude

Standard deviation n

Negative 7,56 + 1,48 174Neutral 7,74 + 1,20 60Positive 7,80 + 1,07 72

There are not significant differences (ANOVA F2,303 = 0.957, p = 0.39).

Final attitudes of students to science are quite positive and these are not related to their initial attitudes

Results

0 1-5 6-10 >100

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Interaction of students with people outside the classroom (number of times they have spoken about

diurnal astronomy)

Nº of times they speak

% S

tude

nts

Results on final attitudes of students towards science

Non achieve Achieve0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Mean positive final attitudes of students versus knowledge achievement

Attitu

de sc

orin

g

Positi

ve a

ttitu

des

Neg

ative

atti

tude

s

Conclusions

1. The inquiry-based science education (IBSE) is useful for most of the pre-service teachers to achieve high level of learning (70% before the final exam).

2. The 35% of students achieved an excellent level.

3. Students overcome the feeling of inability to learn science that they had at the beginning of the course.

4. IBSE is useful to improve their initial attitudes towards learning/ teaching science.

5. Interactions that students have had with other people are an indicator of the interest towards the topic studied (positive attitudes towards L/T science), regardless the interaction questionnaire that students had (placebo or astronomy questionnaire).

6. Students who did not pass the exam also improved their initial attitudes towards science.

Thanksa.menargues@ua.es

Science 17%

Initial education to access to the Degree of Primary Teacher

Humanities20%

Humanities/Statistics applied 63%

Negativas Neutras Positivas

56%

20% 24%

Initial attitudes of primary teachers towards science (n=308)

Perc

enta

ge (%

)

Negative Neutral Positive

o Call into question ideas about science of people who have studied science at high school and compare it with people who have not studied science at high school

o How those ideas and knowledge have been generated. o It is possible a conceptual and epistemological change. 20 h

We start from a subject of 60 hours:

HYPOTHESIS OF SCIENCE EDUCATION THROUGH INQUIRY

SCIENTIFIC MISCONCEPTIONS

SCIENTIFIC IDEAS

Must evolve

NON SCIENTIFIC EPISTEMOLOGY (SPONTANEOUS)

Are the result of

SCIENTIFIC EPISTEMOLOGY

LowAttitudinal involvement

High

Are the result of

Must evolve