CHAPTER 2

Students’ Understanding

Of Science

Introduction

Pause for a moment and reflect on how you learned science in elementary and high school.

Which of the two scenarios describes the way you learned science? What did you do to understand the science concepts taught you?

We all go through a process of thinking in trying to make sense of what we currently experience.

In our minds we use previous experience in trying to understand it.

The meaning generated is a result of a complicated process. Students need to be assisted in going through this process.

The first task for teachers is, of course to know how this process takes place in students. Once teachers understand how students learn, they need to develop appropriate science activities to facilitate the process of conceptual understanding for their students.

Lesson 4Students’ Thinking : The Pathway Towards Meaning Making

From a generative learning perspective, students tend to generate meaning by connecting what they currently experience with prior learnings. The sources of prior learnings are

Naturalistic Learning Experiences Informal Learning Experiences Structured Learning Experiences

The above classification (Charlesworth and Lind, 1990) is based on who makes the choice of activity – a significant other or the learner.

Naturalistic learning experiences are spontaneous and it is the learner who controls both the choice and the action.

The following is an example:

Benedict accidentally spills a drop of water on the book he is reading. He discovers that the letters underneath the drop of water are bigger than the rest. He shouts with joy. “I just made a magnifying lens! ’’

The learner interacts directly with the materials in the environment. Without any adult intervention he discovers a new idea. Hill (1992) differentiates informal learning experiences from naturalistic learning experience in terms of outside intervention by a significant other. He says that at some point in a naturalistic learning experience there is Intervention by adult or capable peer who wishes to take advantage of an opportunity to support, clarify or extend the learning.

Informal learning experiences are not preplanned but are initiated, when the chance arises, by an adult.

The intervention may take place for a variety of reasons, such as an obvious need for help, recognition of achievement or an opportunity to take advantage of

a teachable moment (Ferrer, 1996)

An example of an informal learning experience is shown below. Jess is fishing with his father at a nearby lake. With his bow and arrow he targets a fish but misses it. His father tells him to try again by aiming at a direction that is slightly off the position of the fish as he sees it from above the water.

The adult in this situation use this teachable moment to introduce refraction of light by capitalizing on the child’s quest to achieve his goal at that particular time – to catch a fish with his bow and arrow.

The child’s current experience is used as starting point for the informal lesson in science.

The role of the adult is to provide a rich and stimulating environment with many things to investigate first hand. The adult can interfere at some point of the learning to ensure that the correct meaning is being constructed by the child.  The adult can respond with a smile or other form of recognition to reinforce learning that is taking place.

Structured learning experiences are those associated with classroom activities provided by an adult who is usually the teacher.

Students learning activities are planned for and executed according to the scheme of action in the teacher’s lesson plan. However, many of the activities teachers’ carry out do not produce the intended learning outcomes.

Students learn from structured experiences in the classroom is often not linked to their naturalistic and informal learning experiences gained outside the classroom.

Teachers often act as if students come to school without any knowledge of the subject matter at all but the truth is, many students possess prior knowledge of the things we teach them which they get from naturalistic and informal learning experiences.

This prior knowledge, according to Northfield and Symington (1991), influences how and what students learn.

When a student is faced with a new encounter, he/she constructs the meaning of it by connecting the new information received with prior knowledge.

There are possible outcomes when a student attempts to connect a new encounter with prior knowledge.

Complete Fit

A new encounter fits into what has been stored in the mind from a previous learning experience.

When the existing idea that is called upon to explain, the new encounter proves its usefulness, the linked idea is confirmed.

Prior knowledge is retained.

Complete Fit

Prior Knowledge

New encounter (with a lot of

similarities with prior

knowledge.)

Incomplete Fit Prior knowledge is retained and the new knowledge is not accommodated.

It may also be that there are some perceived similarities between the new experience and a prior one.The linked idea will have a complete fit only if it is slightly modified. Otherwise, the learner will still hang on to his/her prior knowledge. 

Howe and Nichols (2001) point out that knowledge is built by assimilating new ideas or experiences and accommodating or modifying old knowledge to include new. 

Construction of a modified knowledge a misunderstanding or a misconception might occur. A misunderstanding often results from immature thinking process, where partial evidence has been gathered and taken into account (Harlen, 2001)

Incomplete Fit

Prior Knowledge

New Encounter

Modified

Misfit

The new encounter does not fit at all with any prior learning experience, the information from the new encounter is abandoned.

There are possibilities that the knowledge gained from the new encounter may be accommodated falsely.

If the learner perceives that the information before him/her is important for examination purposes, then this information is accommodated in the short-term memory. After the need for it is satisfied, it is removed from memory as if that information is never encountered at all.

Prior Knowledge Misfit

New EncounterOr prior knowledge (even if it is not acceptable) co-exist with the knowledge gained from the new encounter.

Examples to illustrate the aforementioned situations: 

Teacher X is explaining about energy-giving foods. She tells the class that sugar gives the body the most energy. Student A, an athlete of the school, connects the statement with his own prior knowledge that he acquired from his PE coach who gives glucoline before the competition. He knows very well that glucose is sugar. Student A accommodates the new information given by Teacher X because it fits completely with a prior learning experience. Prior knowledge is reinforced. (Complete Fit)

Student B, who was not an athlete, believes that it is rice that gives him most energy. His mother always told him to eat plenty of rice to make him strong. Since strength is associated with energy, Student B does not see any relationship between what the teachers says and what he believes in. He drops the teacher’s statement and holds on to his prior knowledge that rice gives him the most energy. (Misfit)

Student C is more flexible than student B.

She has the same conception as of Student B but she accommodates the teacher’s statement because she knows it will come out in the examination. She still holds on to her prior knowledge about food which runs contrary to the new information. After the examination, her prior knowledge remains and the one from the new encounter is thrown out. (Misfit)

Student D recalls an experience just before breaking a fast. He remembers eating dates before taking a full meal. He wonders and tells himself that this is probably connected with what the teacher says. Because of limited knowledge, Student D may not able to generate the meaning that nest explains the new encounter. There is a need, therefore, to guide his knowledge construction. (Incomplete Fit)

It is important to scaffold thinking to promote conceptual understanding in science.

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Prepared By :Paul John T Barrientos III-BSEd General Science