Chris Dawson

Upper primary boys' and girls' interests in science: have they changed since 1980?

Over the years concerns that many students have not been opting to study science further than required, and not progressing to scientific careers, have been partly related to low levels of interest and negative attitudes developed quite early in life. Of particular concern have been the differences observed between girls and boys, especially the negative attitudes of many girls to the physical sciences, where findings from many different international studies have been reasonably consistent. This paper reports on a 1997 study which repeated a 1980 survey of the attitudes of Year 7 South Australian primary school students. Given continuing approaches to improving science education, especially for girls, the aim was to discover whether the overall levels of interest, and the sex differences, detected in 1980 had changed in 1997. The results show that, while there have been some changes, these are not always in the desired direction. Some implications of the findings are discussed.

Equilibration, conflict and instruction: A new class‐oriented perspective

Attention is directed to equilibration‐based instructional studies all of which parallel natural development in that they require the concurrent construction of both strategic and metastrategic knowledge (Kuhn and Phelps 1982, Kuhn 1983). The need for this concurrence is questioned, and theoretical arguments developed for an equilibration‐based alternative instructional strategy separating the two. It is argued that this latter strategy may provide an answer to the problematic retention of invalid ideas. A pilot study is reported providing tentative support for this viewpoint.

Changing misconceptions: a challenge to science educators

In this paper we examine misconceptions as personal explanatory knowledge judged by experts in the field to be in error. To those who have constructed them, misconceptions are not recognizable as different from any other explanatory knowledge: they are formed by the same process, take part in the generation of new knowledge and consequently are difficult to replace. As with construction, replacement involves the processes of equilibration. To date, educational strategies promoting equilibration in the classroom have attempted this through co‐operative debate, using the teacher as chairman and agent provocateur. Here, we briefly discuss the epistemological status of an alternative to co‐operative debate that is more teacher centred, and report on a comparative empirical test of the educational potential of the two strategies.

Controlling Variables: testing a programme for teaching a general solution strategy

Abstract Detail is provided of a theoretically based teaching programme designed to induce students to construct a mental scheme in which experimental design and natural experiments (Kuhn & Brannock, 1977) are understood as facets of the same problem, and which incorporates a general solution procedure applicable to both. A pre‐test‐post‐test‐delayed post‐test controlled examination of the efficacy of the programme is described using grade 8 students as subjects. The results show a highly significant post‐test achievement increase by the experimental group over the control, which is retained in the delayed post‐test. Evidence is also presented indicating a probable decrease in performance decalage between planned and natural experiments by the experimental grade 8 group.

First Year University Physics: Who Succeeds?.

Abstract The question of the wastage of talent is addressed in relation to first year physics at the University of Adelaide, South Australia. Using data for the 1989 intake, three hypotheses are examined: that a relationship exists between school achievement and success in first year university physics; that tertiary success is a function of the motivation and metacognitive strategies of the learners; and that a weighted combination of indicators will allow significant discrimination between levels of tertiary success/failure. A fourth hypothesis raises the question of the generalisabil‐ity of results to the identification of potential wastage in future years, and a test is reported using the 1990 intake. The results support generalisability. Intervention strategies are proposed with the potential for decreasing wastage.

All Other Things Equal: A Study of Science Graduates Solving Control of Variables Problems.

Abstract The responses of science graduates to control of variables problems were investigated using problems in two content areas, biological (plant) and physical (pendulum), and two formats, experimental planning and interpretation of given data. While the pendulum planning problem and the interpretation problem in the plant context were relatively well answered, the pendulum interpretation problem and the plant planning problem proved to be particularly demanding. Inappropriate strategies which utilised prior and, with respect to these problems, irrelevant knowledge of plants and pendulums, and also a restricted understanding of ‘control’ in biological experiments, were adopted by many subjects. Possible reasons for the adoption of these strategies are discussed, together with some educational implications.

Conceptual Mediation: A New Perspective on Conceptual Exchange.

For the last two decades science education researchers have had a major interest in identifying students’ intuitive understanding of a wide range of scientific topics and in reducing the difficulties involved when an attempt is made to replace these views by scientific understanding. Different approaches to this latter problem have been adopted by researchers, with strategies ranging from the pragmatic and atheoretical to those with a stronger theoretical foundation, usually based on some form of constructivism. In this paper we report on a novel theoretical perspective which takes as its foundation the psychological research of about three decades ago which investigated “forgetting,” and the important effects of previous knowledge in this process. In particular this new perspective demonstrates that, under normal teaching conditions, and through the process of proactive inhibition, the student’s prior knowledge can accelerate the forgetting of the newly taught scientific ideas. The paper first develops the theoretical position and then shows that a change in teaching approach can take advantage of the differences between the students’ prior understanding and the scientific view to ensure more efficient replacement. Following this an overview of the new methodology, as it is currently being used on a trial basis by science teachers in South Australia, is briefly introduced.

Snapshots of uncertainty: A new tool for the indentification of students' conceptions of scientific phenomena

In preparation for an experiment to investigate the effectiveness of teaching conservation principles, we showed a large number of Grade 8 students two cubes of exactly the same size but with very different masses, and two other cubes of very different sizes but with the same mass (confirmed using scales). Students were then asked to predict the extent of the water level rise which would occur if each cube of each pair were to be placed in similar beakers of water and submerged. Initially almost all predicted on the basis of mass being the significant factor. A teaching sequence followed in which students interacted with different objects and measured water displacement. Following this they were retested on the same task and many now predicted that the rise of water level would depend only on the volume of the object being submerged. On the other hand some still stated that only mass would be important, and others believed a balance between the two would be the determining factor.

New data and prior belief: The two faces of scientific reasoning

Kuhn (1989) has argued that at the heart of the ability to reason scientifically is the process of differentiating existing mental models (i.e. theory) from new data. In this regard she has proposed a developmental sequence in which, in the early stages, theory and data are fully integrated and are used interchangeably. Later, when theory and data are compatible, they tend to be moulded together as ‘the way things are’, but when they are incompatible conflict is avoided by the use of strategies which bring the two into line: these strategies often include selective attention to the data. Only at the upper levels of this developmental spectrum are theory and data conscientiously differentiated, with each being used to reflect on the other.This paper analyses the responses made by Year 11 students to problems which required them to evaluate a prediction based on some provided data. The problems were set in two contexts, one scientific and one social, and the predictions to be evaluated combined plausibility/implausibility and validity/invalidity.The response patterns were very similar to those described by Kuhn, and the implications of this for teachers, especially those attempting to use conflict based teaching approaches, are developed.