Successful Science Education Practices

EDUCATION IN A COMPETITIVE AND GLOBALIZING WORLD
SUCCESSFUL SCIENCE
EDUCATION PRACTICES
EXPLORING WHAT, WHY AND HOW
THEY WORKED
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EDUCATION IN A COMPETITIVE AND GLOBALIZING WORLD
SUCCESSFUL SCIENCE
EDUCATION PRACTICES
EXPLORING WHAT, WHY AND HOW
THEY WORKED
CHRISTINE REDMAN
EDITOR
New York
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Successful science education practices : exploring what, why, and how they worked / editor,
Christine Redman.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN: (eBook)
1. Science--Study and teaching (Elementary)--Australia. I. Redman, Christine.
LB1585.5.A8S83 2012
372.35'0440994--dc23
2012022858
Published by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. † New York

CONTENTS
Foreword vii
Susan Rodrigues
Chapter 1 Teachers' Feedback to Students 1
Gerry Healy
Chapter 2 Planning for Science Learning Using the 5e’s:
Incorporating ICT with Purpose and Confidence 17
Christine Redman
Chapter 3 What Can We Learn from Chinese and Australian Primary
School Students’ Perceptions of Scientists
and Science Learning 39
Hui Cheng
Chapter 4 Talk About Small: Conversations with Young
Children at Play with Molecule Simulations 71
Cheryl Jakab
Chapter 5 Developing a More Critical Approach to the Teaching
of Environmental Education 93
Ghazal Yazdanpanah
Chapter 6 Do You Get My Drift? The Important Influence of
Personal Practical Knowledge on ICT Use in Teaching 113
Paul D. Chandler
Chapter 7 The Role of Demonstrations in Successful Science Practices:
The Promotion of Chemistry in School Projects 129
Elaine Regan
Chapter 8 Space Science for Teachers 151
Edward Murphy, Bridget Mulvey and Randy Bell
Chapter 9 Teaching Newton’s Third Law 167
Hardimah Said
vi Contents
Chapter 10 Using Models in Teaching and Learning Science 183

Gail Chittleborough
Chapter 11 Dot Drawing in Science Education: Making Learning Visible 203
Claudia James
Chapter 12 ICT and Effective Practices in Science Education:
Lessons Learned and Future Directions 227
Cathy Lewin
Chapter 13 The Collaborative Science Classroom: ICT-Based Approaches 245
Paul D. Chandler
Chapter 14 The Social, Cultural and Affective Factors That
Support Good Practices with New Technologies 265
Christine Redman and Do Coyle
Chapter 15 Teachers’ Secret Stories: Using Conversations to Disclose
Individual and Team Stories of Planning 283
Fiona Trapani
Appendices 301
Index 307
FOREWORD
Susan Rodrigues
When Christine first proposed this joint venture, to edit a book with an overarching focus
on effective practices in science education, I was delighted. For not only did it give us an
opportunity to engage with a task that we both felt passionately about but it also provided an
opportunity to work together on a shared goal. We believe that our shared quest for
improving and informing teaching and learning in science education brings with it a growing
need to see experience shared. We wanted to explain, illustrate, and value the richness of
experience in the science and/or technology education communities, something that is often
reduced to quantifiable measurements and hence missed in our subservience to accountability
practices.
Christine’s call for chapters resulted in a range of chapters that identify and verify the
purpose of, and the parameters for development in science education. The book is unique
because it provides contemporary science education research in a meaningful, pragmatic way
to the beginning teacher. The chapters provide rich accounts of teacher experience that do not
lend themselves to simple quantifiable measurements, but show a beginning teacher how
education research, when considered in its fullest sense, has scope to have significant
influence. Our book, (though in fairness, Christine should take credit for ensuring it got to
press) is an attempt to document and share the complexity inherent in science and technology
education. By describing teacher experience, from the teacher viewpoint, we can help support
the beginner teacher, as well as the science/technology education sector. By providing
illustrative examples of practice in action, we attempt to provide an informed view of the
issues surrounding science education practice, as well as provide insight into exemplary
practice in science education.
It is important that we in science teacher education consider how science teachers see the
world (ontology) and the way in which the knowledge they generate about teaching, learning
and assessment is verified (epistemology). Through this ontology and epistemology, we, as
science teachers are able to try to understand how our science education community works.
This then enables us to see how these ways of knowing, doing and being, can inform and
hopefully profit science education in our classes. Through an iterative scholarly and
exploratory process, involving observation, reporting and reflection, usually involving
multiple sources of input in order to provide triangulation, validation and veracity, science
teachers, and science education researchers come to define learning experiences in science
viii Susan Rodrigues
education in terms of conceptual, procedural, emotional and imagined frameworks. To a

certain extent, teachers, like science education researchers have a foot in the ‘critical realist’
ontological camp (and see things as real) and another foot in the ‘process’ ontological camp
(and see process and interaction as helping to determine things). Knowing more about the
ontological and epistemological assumptions we, science educators (teachers and researchers)
make, will help explain purpose. As science educators we explore science education
classroom practice with a view to generating explanations, while providing data to validate
our explanations, in a form that is then perused and peer reviewed by the science education
community (be they inspectors, other teachers, other researchers, government etc) through
discussion in order to formulate and promote views of teaching and learning. Science
educators and researchers have over several decades acknowledged the dissatisfaction
students have with school science. The chapters in this book provide some insight and
explanation with regard to what is working and why, and in a language that we hope a
beginner teacher can engage with in a successful manner. The chapters also draw on research
involving the use of new technologies in science learning, and given the growing reliance on
the use of ICT, it is important that beginner teachers understand the place of ICT in science
education, as being something more than providing an opportunity to do the same thing but
with a more high tech specification. Student teachers often express their dissatisfaction with
educational material that they cannot read and use, we hope this book, with its variety of
chapters illustrating practice and experience will help. In this book we provide insight into a
variety of classroom practices, which come from an array of cultural similarities and
differences, with a view to supporting and informing teacher professional development.
CHAPTER OUTLINES
There are fifteen chapters in this book. The first chapter by Gerry Healy shows us the
challenge we as teachers face in attempting to change our teaching practice, even when we
know the other path offers greater and better rewards for us and our pupils. Gerry looks at the
area of misconceptions and provides examples of different possible teacher responses to
students' incorrect responses, and he reflects on the impact of these different types of teacher
responses. Gerry suggests that reflecting on our own response styles and content can
influence, and ultimately enhance, student learning and student satisfaction.
Christine Redman’s chapter illustrates how today’s science impacts on science education
practice. In her chapter, through consideration of Bybee’s 5 E’s, (Engage, Explore, Explain,
Elaborate and Evaluate) with its cyclic structure, she identifies ways in which technology
could be better used. With the use of the 5E’s she shows how to better inform choices made
by both teachers and learners to support the goals of improved science learning.
Hui Cheng’s chapter provides marvelous insight into the varieties of primary pupils’
views of science, scientists and learning school science from the perspective of children in
China and children in Australia. The drawings provided by the children supply insight into
the different images held by these two groups, with interestingly, Chinese pupils holding less
stereotypical views.
Preface ix
Cheryl Jakab, like Claudia James and Hui Cheng, provides insight into how children see
how scientists model, visualise, represent and use particles of matter. Cheryl describes how
the ‘molecular mind’s eye’ can be opened through the use of interactive ICT visualisations.
Ghazal Yazdanpanah’s chapter provides a fascinating insight into the educational
practices within a country that may often appear shrouded in mystery. Ghazal’s chapter
describes a private primary school in Tehran, Iran, which has taken a humanistic approach to
primary education. Through the use of Pronoun Grammar Analysis informed by Positioning
Theory, Ghazal reports on pupils’ conversations and narratives as they worked on a small
project about Tehran Zoo and engaged in discussions about various environmental issues, in
particular animal rights.
Paul Chandler’s chapter explores how one encourages effective ICT use in classrooms
and he draws on the stories of two teachers. His chapter suggests that teachers personal
practical knowledge helps determine the nature and scope of effective ICT use in classrooms,
and that this requires an alignment between the teacher’s sense of self and the potential of the
innovation.
Elaine Regan’s chapter has at its focus the nature of successful science practices. Her
focus is on practical work and in her chapter she illustrates the realm of chemical
demonstrations in historical and contemporary contexts in order to consider the effectiveness
of practical work as a teaching and learning strategy.
The chapter by Edward Murphy, Bridget Mulvey and Randy Bell show how purposefully
selected inquiry activities provided learners with a reason to consider more scientific
conceptions. Edward, Bridget and Randy describe through illustration of the Space Science
for Teachers’ workshops, how inquiry activities, aimed at initial alternative conceptions, and
accompanied by direct instruction which included visualizations and demonstrations, can help
learners understand particular science concepts.
Hajah Hardimah Haji Mohd Said provides insights into the teaching of Newtonian
physics in Brunei. Hardimah describes the responses of Year 10 pupils to questions that
warranted an understanding of the concept of force in relation to Newton’s third law. She
signals the need for student teachers to recognize pupils’ difficulty in understanding
Newtonian Physics.
Gail Chittleborough’s chapter explores and describes how models act as tools that may
help explain abstract scientific concepts and as a consequence enhance pupils’ understanding
of these abstract concepts. She identifies pedagogical processes that could be used to raise
pupils’ awareness of characteristics of models. She also describes strengths and limitations of
models with regard to reality in order to show how the explanatory power (in terms of
accuracy and merit) can be determined.
In her chapter, Claudia James describes a dot drawing activity that is insightful for
several reasons. First it shows how the art of drawing can be used in the teaching of science
and second it shows how the drawings can be seen as a way of knowing.
Cathy Lewin’s chapter provides a review of research on the use of ICT to support science
education. In her chapter, she provides some examples of how Technology, combined with
student-centred pedagogies, could make science education authentic, relevant, experiential,
interesting, exciting and fun.
Paul Chandler’s second chapter draws on personal professional experience in describing
a collaborative learning experience. He presents a review of a range of ICT that could be used
to support collaborative learning experiences in science classrooms.
x Susan Rodrigues
Christine Redman and Do Coyle’s chapter, highlights the importance of social supportive
networks within school settings, and identifies this as a significant factor, which enabled four
teachers to adapt their classroom practices. Their chapter shows how teachers explored, and
reflected, on their use of interactive whiteboards in their primary classrooms.
Fiona Trapani explores and reports on teacher experience. Fiona uses three narrative
lenses to analyse conversational interview data in order to better understand the lived world of
teachers through exploration of their experiences in conversation. She provides stories as told
by teachers and shows how detailed reflections can provide insight in to the role and
influence of teamwork and values.
SUMMARY
We hope that the chapters in this book help to show, that just as providing pupils with
‘authentic’ learning experiences, a view often supported by sociocultural learning theories
signals the importance in providing learners with opportunities to participate in activities that
allow them to make sense of their learning, so too, providing beginner teachers with insight of
‘authentic’ teaching experiences allows them to make sense of teacher professional
development. I dare say that most of us accept that just as learning brings with it a complexity
that warrants a situated pedagogy, achieving that contextualization of pedagogy is
challenging, hence there is a need to provide beginner teachers with not just insight into
situated pedagogy, but also guidance with regard to how to make sense of this insight. The
power of this book lies in the fact that the book chapters provide situated pedagogy and
guidance, from the perspective of experienced practitioners.
In: Successful Science Education Practices ISBN: 978-1-62257-387-5
Editor: Christine Redman © 2013 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.
Chapter 1
TEACHERS' FEEDBACK TO STUDENTS
Gerry Healy
The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
ABSTRACT
A focus of much of this book is on promoting students' involvement in their own
learning. Students learn best when they are taking responsibility for their learning; when
they are active in the process, rather than passive receptors. The role of the teacher is seen
to be not so much as a giver of information to passive recipients, but rather as facilitator
of their own active learning. Research and teachers' own experiences lead us to the fact
that one-way giving of information from the teacher to the learner is a less effective mode
of learning. Students assimilate what they find out for themselves; they remember
material when they have been active in assembling and analysing it; when they have had
experience with it themselves. Too often, students develop incorrect concepts; they make
errors in their deductions. The constructivist paradigm of learning, so positive in many
ways, nevertheless in practice can lead to erroneous ―constructions‖. It is the teacher's
role to address any misconceptions, without detracting from the overall learning
approach. What is the role of the teacher in correction of misconceptions and errors?
What response by the teacher is likely to facilitate correct learning in students? In the
context of the realization that students' active participation is the most effective mode of
learning, what is the appropriate response and action when they "get it wrong‖?
In this chapter, we look at some examples of different possible responses to students'
incorrect responses, and the effect of different types of teacher responses.
INTRODUCTION
1) Unifying Ideas
To address these questions and give guidance in the practical classroom situation, we
need firstly to place the question in the context of the current understanding of student

Dr. Gerry Healy. Melbourne Graduate School of Education, The University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
2 Gerry Healy
learning. To do this, we look at current constructivist views of student learning, notions of

student misconceptions, and the way to achieve conceptual change.
The constructivist paradigms of learning flows from the belief that students learn by
constructing their own meaning, in both a personal and social context. It demands that
students engage in a process of shared meaning, under the guidance of the teacher.
Students must make the scientific viewpoint of a situation, concept or theory their own,
rather than see it as something external to them. This requires a process of beginning from
their own experiences and their interpretation of these, and so constructing and internalizing
in a deeper, and hence more scientifically literate, expression of the concept or theory.
To do this, the learning process must begin from the student‘s current, almost certainly
"non-scientific", explanation of the situation or concept. To ignore this will simply establish
two different understandings of the situation - one scientific and one common sense, with the
student almost certainly believing the latter to be the "correct" one! This is conceptual conflict
in the terms of current literature.
Hubber and Tytler (2004) describe conceptual change as:
The details of teaching strategies should be influenced by how we think about

children's intuitive conceptions. For instance, if we acknowledge that intuitive
conceptions can have a useful role as stages on the way to scientific ideas, we will be less
likely to tell students their answers are wrong and are inclined to let discussion run freely.
In fact children's intuitive conceptions are often not 'wrong', simply a restricted
application.
The process must start from the student's current understanding, and move towards the
deeper scientific understanding we are seeking to develop, conceptual change. To simply state
the scientific view, and expect students to accept it in the face of their own "common sense"
experience, is overly optimistic although unfortunately in practice, the approach of many
science teachers. As Driver (1997) states:
Our optimism about what children ought to be able to do stems perhaps from rather
deep-seated views about learning. And that as long as the expert tells the story clearly and
that the person who is learning is listening and paying attention then they will
automatically build up the understanding that the expert has. Now all our current
knowledge in cognitive science and in cognitive psychology, and in science education is
telling us that simply does not happen. Children may well be listening, paying attention to
what is being said or what they are reading in a book, but they are construing it in
different ways to the ways that the teacher intended.
Hence to achieve this, the opening role of the teacher must be to identify the student's
current conception, and to appreciate the experiences that have lead to the student's
construction of this understanding.
To quote an obvious example, most students coming to a study of motion for the first
time will believe that a continuous force is necessary to maintain motion. This view has been
constructed from the obvious everyday experience that, in most of the situations they have
encountered, a force is being applied to any object that continues to move, and to remove that
force will generally lead to motion decreasing and ceasing. To simply tell the student that
motion continues without a force, and that a force is necessary to decrease motion, will
Teachers' Feedback to Students 3
simply lead to conceptual conflict, or, more likely, to the student simply rejecting this
obviously stupid concept of the teachers‘.
As Clough (2002) argues:
Understanding how students learn - and why they often struggle to grasp our
intended meaning - is the foundation of informed teaching. To achieve robust long-term
understanding, multiple connections must be erected and grounded in experience, but
unfortunately these links cannot simply be given to students. Fundamental to our
understanding of learning is that students must be mentally active - selectively taking in
and attending to information, and connecting and comparing it to prior knowledge in an
attempt to make sense of what is being received. However, in attempting to make sense
of instruction, students often interpret and sometimes modify incoming stimuli so that it
fits (i.e. connects) with what they already believe.
To identify students' misconceptions requires an appreciation of the role of assessment,
especially initial diagnostic assessment, in the learning process.
Assessment
The review of science teaching: The Status and Quality of Science Teaching and
Learning in Australian Schools (Goodrum et al., 2001) identified the underutilization of
assessment in improving student learning. Assessment is often seen as a process devoid from
student learning; a check process with little relevance to the learning process; rather, a
measure of the success or otherwise of the teaching in terms of end results.
Traditionally, assessment has been characterized as formative, summative and diagnostic.
Here we emphasize the diagnostic nature of assessment and its contribution to student
learning. If we accept the constructivist paradigm and the necessity for conceptual change,
then identifying initially the student's actual understanding or, rather more likely,
misunderstanding of a scientific concept or situation, is vital.
Similarly, the assessment procedures must monitor the process of change, and guide the
steps to be taken to achieve it. This is best achieved by a diversity of relatively informal
assessment processes.
Student Misconceptions
Driven by the constructivist paradigm, much research has been directed at identifying
common student misconceptions (See, for example, Thompson 2006). The understanding of
many science teachers in the past has been that it is only necessary to give students the
scientific explanation, and that will be accepted. But research has shown that, giving an
explanation of some phenomena that conflicts with the students‘ own common sense
construction, merely leads to conceptual confusion and, ultimately, to rejection of the
scientific viewpoint.
Gradually, realization has dawned that it is essential to understand why particular
common misconceptions have arisen. Almost certainly, the experiences that led to the
misconception have been far more constant and dominant that the scientific explanation.
Thompson (2006) summarizes her research on misconceptions:
4 Gerry Healy
Misconceptions... can be described as ideas that provide an incorrect understanding

of such ideas, objects or events that are constructed based on a person's experience
including such things as preconceived notions, non-scientific beliefs, naïve theories,
mixed conceptions or conceptual misunderstandings. Piaget suggests that children search
for meaning as they interact with the world around them and use such experiences to test
and modify existing schemas.
She finds many sources for these misunderstandings, which are in conflict with the
objectives of science learning. She identified a number in her research:
There are many possible sources for the development of misconceptions. First, not
all experiences lead to correct conclusions, or result in students seeing all possible
outcomes. Second, when parents or other family members are confronted with questions
from their children, rather than admitting to not knowing the answer it is common for
them to give an incorrect one. Other sources of misconceptions include resource
materials, the media, and teachers.
Surprise may be expressed that teachers can be a source of such scientific

misinformation. However it is true; an obvious example is that many students come out of
primary school science lessons believing that global warming and the hole in the ozone layer
are related.
Thompson's research identified much resistance to conceptual change, interestingly
enough, more obvious in older students.
It can be very difficult to change the way an individual perceives something… The
older students tended to give fairly definite answers, and even when they were challenged
and given evidence that they were incorrect, we encountered a great deal of resistance to
modifying their existing schema.
To take a simple example, primary school students have seen the sunrise and set many
times; it is intuitively obvious that the sun is moving and we are stationary. This experience
has been repeated so many times that it is firmly embedded. To simply tell students that the
sun does not move and the earth does, is to contradict what is obvious to them. It is essential
to understand, and ultimately to show, why their construction of the phenomenon is incorrect;
or at least less adequate than the one we are proposing.
It is vital to show that what we are proposing both explains their experiences and
observations, and leads to explanations of situations that the naïve, unscientific view cannot
explain.
Historians of science have sometimes puzzled why the sun-centred (Copernican) system
took so long to be commonly accepted and used. It was that the predictions of the Ptolemaic
(Earth-centric) system gave much better predictions of observations, even detailed and careful
scientific ones, than a model in which the Earth moves in a circular orbit around the sun. It
was really only Kepler's enunciation of elliptical orbits which did lead to more accurate
predictions and subsequently to universal acceptance by scientists of a heliocentric system.
It is interesting to note that astronomers today use a geo-centric system to plot the
positions of stars in terms of declination and right ascension, even though presumably they
are quite aware that the Earth is not at the centre of the universe.
SOURCES OF COMMON MISUNDERSTANDINGS

IN SCIENCE AND TEACHER RESPONSES
I. Misunderstandings Relating to Conflict between "Real World"

Observations and Scientific Explanation
Many misconceptions in science emerge from apparent conflict between scientific

explanation and real world observation or common sense. An obvious example of this is the
relationship between force and motion.
As we observed above, many students believe that a continuing force is required to
maintain motion. This emerges from the obvious common sense observation in the real world
that, because of the almost universal presence of friction, there is always a retarding force for
any motion due to frictional forces.
When confronted in middle school science classes with Newton's First Law ("every
object continues in a state of rest or uniform motion in a straight line unless acted upon by
some external force") they simply disbelieve it, or revert to the: "there is different correct
answer in a science class to a common sense" position.
II. Misconceptions Simply Due to an Incorrect Explanation, Often Because

Insufficient Experiential Evidence Is Available to Support the Scientifically
Correct Explanation
A good historical example of this is the Phlogiston theory. Common sense indicates that
when a material is burned, something is emitted, observed as smoke. Hence when burning
occurs, loss of mass should occur. That mass increases when a material is burned, due to
absorption of oxygen in a chemical reaction, is counter-intuitive.
We will analyse both these examples in more depth later in this chapter.
Reinforcing Learning
Having identified students' misconceptions and misunderstandings, how teachers respond

to these has a significant influence on the process of students' construction of the wider
scientific viewpoint we wish them to embrace.
Developmental psychology has shown that student development occurs through the
testing of various actions and concepts, gauging the reactions to them, and modifying their
beliefs and behaviours in response to these reactions.
Hence the important role of teachers in the learning process is to give that reaction in a
way that will reinforce the desirable outcomes in the students. Students will listen to this
feedback if the context has been overwhelmingly positive. If we reward the behaviour we
wish to reinforce, this will encourage that behaviour becoming a part of the student's persona.
If the student has experienced teacher feedback as regular and positive, then there is more
likely to be acceptance of, and belief in, the corrective feedback. But how this is given is
6 Gerry Healy
significant in its success. It must be prompt, it must be in a positive context, it must be

realistic and it must address the issue from the student's perspective.
Prompt
As teachers know, student attention span is limited! This applies to both short-term
attention, such as the length of a presentation in class, and also to the time that feedback from
an activity can realistically be worthwhile in reinforcing the lesson learned or addressing the
misconception, or error, exhibited.
Positive
It was once said "you can criticize a person the tenth time if you have praised them the
previous nine". Positive feedback serves two purposes. Firstly and obviously it reinforces
correct learning. But secondly and perhaps more importantly, it develops a climate of
welcome to feedback. This then facilitates the giving and acceptance of constructive criticism.
How often do we give positive feedback to students, both immediate, and in correction of
work submitted or activities completed?
Realistic
Let us assume that a student has shown a significant misunderstanding in a task
submitted. We obviously wish to correct this misconception. To achieve this, we must
address the error from the perspective of the student, not from our own. We know the correct
concept or procedure. But what is required to achieve this understanding in the student? The
nature of our feedback and the effectiveness of it is the main emphasis of this chapter. This
we now turn, illustrated by a number of examples of good and bad practice.
2. CORRECTING ERRORS AND MISCONCEPTIONS

There are two possible starting points when student errors;
Firstly - to give them the correct answer.
Or secondly to ask ourselves: Why did the student make this error? Is it a misconception,
or an error in working through a problem?
Let us take a very simple, almost trivial, example, from a common misconception in
small children that we discussed above. The student says: The Sun goes around the Earth. We
can respond by saying: "No, you are wrong, the Earth goes around the Sun". Or we can ask
ourselves: "Why does the student say this?" The answer is obvious, they have seen the Sun
rising, going across the sky and setting. It is obvious that it goes around the Earth. Our
response must be in terms of, firstly, affirming with them that their observations are correct,
the Sun does rise and set as seen by us, but then lead them to see that our explanation also is
compatible with their correct observations. We then have to find some observation of theirs
that can be covered by our explanation, but not by theirs. And to deal with the obvious next
question by an observant student: Well the Moon also rises and sets, does this mean the Earth
also goes around the Moon? If we have sufficiently aroused their curiosity, we can perhaps
move on to a more detailed study of the relative motion, but it must always be in terms of
addressing the real world observations they have experienced.
A student once gave an explanation of something, which was scientifically correct, but
then added - "Of course that is the correct answer in a science class, it is not true in the real
world‖! This student believed that there was a correct answer for a science class, but a
different, and contradictory, answer for the 'real' world outside science class. This student was
typical of very many. Children can live with ambiguity; but we do not want to encourage it in
science!
Many of us as teachers are committed to, and practice, the constructivist paradigm in our
teaching. We believe in inquiry based learning, in introducing topics through problem-based
approaches. But do we practice this in our response to misconceptions and errors? Too often
our response is simply to tell the students that their understanding is incorrect, and give them
the "true" scientific explanation, rather than trying to understand the reason for their
misconception and respond to that. A constructivist approach directs that, since their
misunderstanding arises from the construction of meaning from experience and experimental
observation, some counter observation must be provided to correct the misconception.
Let us look at some more examples, drawn from a number of science areas and levels.
Firstly, for the example we mentioned earlier, force and motion, let us look at some possible
responses.
Example 1: Force and Motion
Inappropriately, a teacher could start by stating a principle (Newton's first law of motion)
Teacher: Sir Isaac Newton stated his first law of motion. An object will continue in a
state of rest or uniform in a straight line, unless acted on by an external force.
A force is only needed to change motion, to start something moving, or to stop it. If
no force were acting, the object would keep moving.
Students know this is nonsense. All their experience is that an object, for example a car,
needs a force to keep it moving. If the force (engine) stops, the car slows and stops.
A student makes this objection:
Student: But sir, if the engine stops, the car slows to a stop.
Teacher's Response 1
The teacher's inappropriate response is simple to restate the correct principle:
Teacher: No, Newton's Law tells us that an object doesn't need a force to keep
moving. There must be some force to stop it.
The students are unlikely to accept the teacher's statement. It contradicts their widespread
experience and the constructed explanation they have unconsciously developed for it namely,
that objects need force to keep moving, and that they stop if the force stops.
The teacher needs to get students to reflect on a real life experience where motion
continues without a force:
8 Gerry Healy
Teacher: Have you ever seen an ice-skater?

Student Yes.
Teacher: Does an ice-skater slow down, or more or less keep moving?
Student: Slows down a bit, but keeps moving
Teacher: More than a person sliding on grass?
Student: Of course
Teacher: What is the difference?
Student: Well, there is a drag force by the grass.
Teacher: Which is less for the ice skate than the person sliding on grass?
Student: I guess so.
Teacher: So what if we reduced that drag to zero?
Student: Well the person would keep moving.
Teacher: So it is the drag force that slows the person down, not keeping
them moving!
It is important that the teacher goes on to show that the understanding constructed
accounts for the student's initial example, namely, the car slowing down when the motor
stops. The alternative is that the student thinks there are two different situations and different
rules apply to each of them.
Teacher: So what about the car?

Student: Well, it needs a force to keep it going. Cars seem to be different.
Teacher: What would happen if the car drove onto a frozen lake? That is,
onto ice?
Student: Well I guess it would slip.
Teacher: What do you mean by slip?
Student: Well it would keep going. I guess cars aren't different.
This example also brings out the point that to relate the issue to some real life or
problem-based example will be more effective in convincing students of the scientific
explanation. Most will have experienced (at least on video) a car skidding. It is a simple
extension of this to the situation of a car on a very slippery surface continuing to move. Real
life examples tend to be more believable to students.
Alternatively, we can try to give laboratory experience of motion continuing without
force. For example, with an air track, or an ice block sliding on a very smooth surface.
But it is important that the student appreciate why their common sense experience was
not a general principle – namely, that there is almost always, in the real world, a drag
(friction) force present.
This is admittedly a fairly simplistic example, and presumably (hopefully) a teacher
would not use Response 1 in any real classroom. But it illustrates the point. I am sure all
teachers at some stage have been guilty of beginning a class, by stating a principle which at
first sight seems to contradict common sense and the students own experience and developed
explanations.
Example 2: Waves
A very common misconception among students is that a wave is caused by material

moving over a distance. Most people believe that with waves in the sea, water moves a long
distance. This common sense understanding inhibits students' understanding of the real nature
of waves; that the medium does not move, and that only a disturbance is propagated by a very
local movement of the medium (e.g. water).
Student (after watching video of sea-waves): We see the water moving towards the
shore.
Teacher: No you are wrong. In a wave the medium does not move, only a
disturbance.
A wave is a disturbance which transfers energy over a distance without any mass
movement of the medium in the direction of wave travel.
The students are unlikely to accept this, even if they understand the terminology. Their
experience is that waves move, and that as waves are in water, it must be the water moving
along with the waves.
Two possible positive responses by the teacher are probably going to be effective here, to
discuss their misconception, or to use a model or experiment.
Teacher: So you say the water is all moving towards the shore?
Student: Yes.
Teacher: In what direction, relative to the beach, do waves seem to always
move?
Student: They always move towards the beach, or near to it.
Teacher: So if the water itself is moving towards the beach, what happens to
the water when it reaches the beach?
Student: Ahh. Perhaps it moves back out underwater?
Teacher: Do you normally experience a lot of water moving back out?
Student: Well actually, no - only occasionally in rips.
Teacher: Do you think that all the water moving in goes back out in rips?
Student: No, obviously; they are too small.
Teacher: What can you conclude then?
Student: Well, maybe you are right, the water is not all moving towards the
beach.
Teacher: But surely, clearly, something is moving towards the beach?
Student: Yes, the waves, but not the water. The waves are something
different.
Teacher: So do you think that the wave is something else than a mass of
water all moving towards the beach?
Student: Yes. Maybe you are right that it is just a disturbance of some kind
that moves.
Teacher: Let's look at some other waves. What about this spring?
(Teacher demonstrates a series of pulses travelling along a spring.
Teacher: Is the spring itself moving all to one end?
Student: No, obviously.
10 Gerry Healy
Teacher: So may be the water wave is similar.
Discussion: Here, in this second response, the teacher has accepted the student's
observation that something is moving towards the beach. By questioning her, the teacher has
tried to get her to see that it could not actually be the water itself that is moving, so it must be
something else. However in this case, a laboratory type demonstration may be the best
approach. Let us look at that.
Teacher: Here I have a tank of water. I am going to get one of you to set up
some waves going from one end of the tank to the other. Does this
look a bit like the waves at the beach?
Student: Yes, but not as big
Teacher: Obviously! Are the waves only travelling in one direction?
Student: Yes, from one end of the tank to other end.
Teacher: Is all the water gathering at the other end?
Student: No. Something is travelling, but not the water.
Teacher: What about your suggestion that the water is coming back along
the bottom? How could we test this?
Student: Perhaps we could put some dye in the water at the bottom of the
tank and see if it is moving?
Teacher: Good, let's do that.
Discussion: A hands-on demonstration or simple practical exercise is a good way to

approach misunderstandings. Ideally, the activity should be as close as possible to the
phenomenon that was misunderstood. Similarly, it would, if possible, be a real world type
example, in this case a model of a beach.
Just to note, waves on beaches are quite complicated. There is a small movement of water
after the wave breaks close to the beach. However the waves at a beach are an example that
appeals so well to students that it is worth using, even if it is not the simplest. A sound wave,
or an electromagnetic wave (like light or radio waves), is so far removed from having visual
impact that it will often be lost on students; it is too removed from the "real world' of
common sense" even if they are so involved with radio waves through social media.
Example 3 - A More Complex Example from Physics
A mass m 1 of mass 1.0 kg is hanging from a string. The string passes over a pulley which
is attached to a 5.0 kg mass on a level, frictionless surface. The mass is released. What is the
acceleration of the 5.0 kg mass?
Student's Solution
∑ Force = Mass x acceleration.
m1 g = m2 x a
1.0 x 9.8 = 5 x a
Therefore a = 9.8 / 5 = 1.96 m s-2
Tells student this is the wrong answer. To simply give the correct solution:
Correct solution:
∑ Force = Mass x acceleration
m1 g = ( m1 + m2 ) x a
1.0 x 9.8 = ( 1 + 5 ) x a
Therefore a = 9.8 / 6 = 1.6 m s-2
Why did the student make this error? What misunderstanding did it involve?
Teacher: What is the force involved?

Student: Gravity acting on the mass 1.
Teacher: Correct; you had that right.
Teacher: What is accelerating?
Student: The mass 2.
Teacher: Only the mass 2?
Student: Seems to be.
Teacher: What is mass 1 doing? Is it accelerating?
Student: Ah, yes.
Teacher: What is causing it to accelerate?
Student: The same force.
Teacher: So what is the total mass being accelerated by the one force?
Student: The total of the two masses - 6 Kg
Teacher: Good, well done. So now recalculate your answer.
Comment: The student had failed to realize that, while the total force is on left side, the
total mass must be on the right side. Had the teacher merely given the answer, the student
would most probably successfully complete an identical question, but would have been
unable to transfer this concept of total mass to a different situation. The lesson for us is to
start our response from the student's misunderstanding, rather than from our knowledge of
what is correct.
FEEDBACK IN LABORATORY AND FIELDWORK SITUATIONS

Having used some laboratory type demonstrations in the last example, let us look more
fully at the sort of feedback we tend to give in actual laboratory practical classes and
fieldwork. As we know, many students, following Gardiner's work on multiple intelligences,
learn best by hands-on activity; hence practical and fieldwork can be a powerful learning tool.
However we can still encourage the "scientific versus common sense" dichotomy, and
encourage on-going misconceptions, if our responses to student errors in laboratory work are
not carefully managed.
We have said that experiences must be provided to students where the scientific
explanation leads to a correct account of a phenomenon. Laboratory work and fieldwork are
significant situations in which students experience scientific explanations in practice. This is
particularly true if the experiment or observation "mirrors" a common experience.
12 Gerry Healy
It is important to select experiments which give students an experience of a situation

where the common sense, non-scientific explanation does not account for the observed
phenomenon. But how we give directions and feedback can still strongly affect the outcomes
in terms of student understandings and correction of misconceptions. Too often directions
tend to be of the "follow the recipe" variety. Students are expected to follow a very detailed
set of instructions. If they deviate from this, our response is often to just instruct them to
follow the instructions more closely, rather than analysing why they deviated, and perhaps
asking them to try to see why the particular instruction is as it is. Similarly students are often
focused on the "correct" answer. In an experiment to measure the acceleration due to gravity
by dropping an object and timing its fall, they are focussing on what the correct answer
should be. Surely we already know the acceleration due to gravity, or whatever physical or
chemical constant we are trying to measure in an experiment. It can be looked up in a
textbook or on Google. The aim of the experiment is surely to get a conceptual understanding
of what the physical measurement means, not to get the right answer. Yet so often our
response is to simply correct their procedure so that they obtain the correct value,
subconsciously reinforcing the emphasis they put on the right answer over constructing
scientific meaning.
Our response to an incorrect procedure should not be to tell them what the correct
procedure is (unless it is very safety related!) but rather to take the opportunity to increase
their conceptual understanding. This involves determining why they deviated from the
instructions; was it because they had some different understanding, some inadequate or even
incorrect prior knowledge.
Let us look at an example:
Example 4: Burning of Magnesiu
A chemistry experiment commonly done is to show that the mass of something actually
increases when it is burned, leading to an understanding of burning as an oxidation process, a
metal burning to a metal oxide. This experiment is counter intuitive to common sense.
Students obviously know that when something is burned the remnant is much smaller,
something obviously escapes from the material when it is burned - the "phlogiston" theory of
old. Almost all their common sense experience of things burning leads to the phlogiston
theory.
Experiment
1 Take a section of magnesium ribbon. Carefully determine the mass of the
magnesium.
2 Also weigh a small crucible (heat proof ceramic container with lid)
3 Place the magnesium in the crucible, place the lid on the crucible, and place over a
Bunsen burner to ignite the magnesium.
4 After it has all burned, weigh the ash and so determine the mass of the remnant after
burning
Students' Action
1 They determine that the mass of magnesium is 5 grams before the experiment.
2 They conduct the experiment without the lid, since the burning magnesium is quite
spectacular and they want to see it.
3 Inevitably the ash escapes and the remnant only weighs 3 grams.
4 They conclude that the phlogiston has burned off.
Conversation
Student: The magnesium lost something when it burned.
Teacher Response 1
You didn't follow the instructions. Put the lid on and do it again.
Students repeat the experiment, getting a reasonable answer this time. Their construction
of meaning however is influenced by both the outcomes - with the common sense explanation
probably dominating. The teacher lost the opportunity to get them to reflect on why they
obtained two different answers, and which one was more likely to be correct.
Teacher Response 2
Teacher: Which of the instructions did you not exactly follow?
Student: Placing the lid on the crucible.
Teacher: Why do you think that instruction is there?
Student: To avoid getting burned?
Teacher: But the reaction was so small that you are not likely to get burned!
Student: Perhaps to make sure that we didn‘t lose any of the contents during
the experiment.
Teacher: Good! And so which of the results is more likely to be correct?
Student: The second - the ash weighs more that the original magnesium,
hence it must have gained rather than lost something.
Teacher: Is this what happens when anything burns? Why, when we have a
bonfire, is the ash much less than the original fuel?
Student: Because it is not a closed situation - some of the ash may have
been lost.
Teacher: Can you think of a reason why the ash may be smaller than the
fuel?
Student: (if we are lucky) perhaps it is denser.
If time permitted, this could be followed up by a discussion of the fact that, as hot gases
rise out of a bonfire they likely carry some of the ash with it.
The teacher has taken the opportunity to look at why the student's misconception existed,
and not only given the correct interpretation but, much more importantly, shown a reason why
the intuitive understanding may have been wrong; because in any realistic fire the updraft is
likely to carry away much of the products of burning.
Our intuitive aim is often to get the experiment to work correctly, or to get the right
answer, rather than using it as a student learning opportunity, especially where the outcome is
counter intuitive.
Fieldwork can be considered similar to laboratory work. It has the advantage of being
hands-on, hence attractive to many students. It can be seen to be in the real world rather than
14 Gerry Healy
the rarefied (to many students) atmosphere of the science classroom or laboratory, divergent
from the world of their everyday experience. However it still retains the danger of a duopoly;
there is a real or commonsense explanation and a scientific one. As in the classroom or the
laboratory, we must still start from the students‘ own current understanding, and by our
questioning and response to their misconceptions, scaffolding their construction of meaning
in accordance with scientific truth.
3. RELATED RESEARCH
Zhara Parvanehnezhad-Shirazian (unpublished PhD thesis, University of Melbourne
2010) conducted research analysing responses to student errors in physics in terms of what
she characterized as Discipline-thinking (DT) and Student-thinking (ST). She considered
discipline thinking to be responding in terms of the "correct" answer according to the
discipline, physics in this case. Student-thinking implied responses in terms of the student's
understanding as exhibited in their incorrect answers. She administered senior physics
problems to a number of teachers, gave them typical responses, and asked them to respond as
they would to a student. As would be expected, their responses varied between the two
extremes. These were plotted on a spectrum from Discipline-thinking to Student-thinking,
with teachers placed on this line depending on the analysis of their responses. This research
supported the contention in this chapter that much of our responses to student errors are in
terms of what she described as Discipline-thinking, that is, of giving the 'correct' answer
without any significant analysis of why the student gave the incorrect response.
CONCLUSION
It can be a challenge to change our teaching practice, even when we know the correct
path. As Clough and Kruse (2010) say:
Even when we genuinely want to change our pedagogical practices, because our past
experiences are so often dissonant with inquiry-based teaching, we struggle to actually
implement such practices, tripping over questions, giving in to student resistance, or
genuinely not knowing how to scaffold students from their mistaken or initial ideas to
accept scientific thinking.
We can identify a number of steps in the process of responding to student

misconceptions:
1 Identify clearly the misconception, and the underlying understanding that has lead to
it.
2 Try to visualize what prior experience has led the student to construct their
understanding in this way.
3 Indicate that while this understanding has given them a satisfactory explanation for
some phenomena in the past, it is inadequate for a full understanding of many other
situations or, in fact in conflict with at least one of them.
4 By questioning, try to get them to see the path that has lead them to their incorrect
one, and the path that has lead you to the one you want them to construct.
5 Support this by real life or hands-on examples and experiences that can have an
explanation in terms of the understanding you are proposing, but is in conflict with
their response.
Above all, try to understand why they have given an incorrect response or exhibited an
incorrect conception. Experiences and examples which resonate with their own experience are
more likely to be persuasive and to scaffold their construction of appropriate meaning.
Student work and assessment, both formative and summative, are important guides for
evaluating our teaching and its consequences for student learning. Our teaching and student
learning styles have been guide strongly by a constructivist paradigm. Students learn best
when they are active in their own learning; when their learning relates closely to their own
everyday experiences. While this guides much of our teaching into inquiry based learning and
problem centred approaches, it is also important to realize that this learning paradigm also has
important consequences for how we respond to students' incorrect responses and
misconceptions. Regularly self-assessing our own way of responding can enhance student
learning and their sense of satisfaction and achievement.
REFERENCES
Clough, M. P. and Kruse, J. (2010). Conceptual Change: It's not just for learning science.
Iowa Science Teachers Journal, 37 (1), pp. 2-3
Clough, M. (2002). Using the laboratory to Enhance Student Learning. In: R. W. Bybee (Ed.),
Learning Science and the Science of Learning. National Science Teachers Association:
Arlington.
Driver, R. (1997). Minds of our own Videotaping Program One: Can We Believe Our Eyes.
Maths and Science Collection, South Burlington.
Goodrum, D. (2001). The Status and Quality of Science Teaching and Learning in Australian
Schools. Australian Government, Canberra.
Hubber, P. and Tytler, R. (2004). Conceptual change models of teaching and learning. In: G.
Venville and V. Dawson, The Art of Teaching Science, Allen and Unwin, Crows Nest,
NSW, pp. 34-53.
Parvanehnezhad-Shirazian, Z. (2010). Physics Teachers' Responses on Student Solutions
When Using Motion Tasks. Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of Melbourne.
Thompson, F. (2006). An exploration of common student misconceptions in science.
International Education Journal, 7 (4), pp. 553-559
Chapter 2
PLANNING FOR SCIENCE LEARNING

USING THE 5E‟S: INCORPORATING ICT
WITH PURPOSE AND CONFIDENCE
Christine Redman
Melbourne Graduate School of Education,
ABSTRACT
This chapter offers you the reflections of a primary teacher on her classroom science
teaching practices. We will hear and consider how she planned for her science teaching to
be effective for her learners. The chapter then proceeds to introduce the planning
approach that provided the guidelines for her planning for teaching science, and then we
consider how she utilised technology tools in effective ways.
The teaching of science has become very important. This is in response to the global
expectation that schools develop scientifically literate citizens. In this chapter, the
references to Information Communication Technology (ICT) tools includes contemporary
technology tools, like digital microscopes, and data loggers, as well as small personal
tablet devices. These types of tools can be highly valuable for science students as they
provide many ways to support students to become more genuinely engaged, thinking
independently, as well as more personally and socially immersed in their science learning
experiences.
Contemporary technologies may help to support the efforts of science educators by
encouraging science students‘ participation with greater ranges of experience through
ICT choices for engaging, and thinking about, their science learning. One of the strengths
of our modern ICT options is that they can help to sustain and enhance conversations
between science students. The goal of using technologies in science is not to simply use
the technology tools in the ways that scientists do, but to utilize these technology tools to
deepen students‘ metacognitive engagement and participation. There are many
pedagogical choices available, and these can be used to ensure that the use of the ICT in
science education is explicit and purposeful, for supporting learning processes, and that
these are understood by the teacher and the student.
The research and theory referred to in this chapter has been selected to be useful in
informing teachers' practices and planning for learning. This chapter brings together
18 Christine Redman
some of the current research and theory about education and learning in two ‗structures‘,
that can inform the pedagogical approaches we choose when planning to teach science, as
well as for ensuring a more highly productive contribution from ICT tools.
We will see that it can be helpful to hear and see how research and theory can come
together in a teacher's thinking, and is evident in their ‗talking‘ and ‗doing‘ with regard to
their science teaching. We will closely examine a teacher‘s pedagogical and teaching
choices and see how these align with an efficient framework for planning for science
teaching. We will also see how the choices are indicative of what an experienced teacher
comes to value over time. This particular teacher‘s pedagogical values will be seen to
influence the positive approaches that she chooses to create for the benefit of her learners.
The teacher‘s ICT pedagogical choices have been coded, against a ‗structure‘, so that we
can identify her exemplary practices in action. The science practices have then been
aligned with an effective tool, or structure, for planning, using the 5Es. These two
structures can help to guide our thinking and planning as we seek to determine if, and
how, we have been effective in our utilisation of new technologies for science learning.
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter we will meet Ann. She teaches in an Australian primary school setting and
has a grade six class. She has planned to teach a science unit, enticingly called Disasters. Ann
is a very experienced teacher and can articulate her thinking about her teaching. Her
conversations about her teaching can be even better understood for their quality when they
have been framed against the two pedagogical structures.
This chapter examines Ann's science teaching in two different ways. We consider the
structure and planning of her science unit, and what factors informed the sequence of the
learning opportunities. We hear what she wanted to offer her students, and why, and then
understand what she wanted them to experience, learn and achieve.
We also examine the different ways that she incorporated ICT into the learning. Once she
can see that she will achieve the major science learning goals in the unit, she begins to
relinquish some control to the students. Together they develop new, and more, learning
outcomes, and she uses the ICT tools to support learner‘s areas of interest and curiosity,
progressively supporting her students, as they undertake new research tasks.
Ann explains her work and what underpinned, and inspired, her pedagogical choices. She
is an effective teacher and this is how her peers described her. Her students were seen to be
highly engaged, motivated and independent. They were asking questions of each other about
the topic and then researching the answers to their own questions, and sharing, the outcomes.
Ann had created a community of active and focused learners.
We can code this teacher's work against seven items that indicate effective ways to use
technology in science. We can see that these items can be useful to guide our own planning
for effective use of ICT. These items will help to support our thinking as teachers who are
planning for purposeful use of ICT. These seven items can help to better inform our ICT
pedagogical practices, and choices, for teaching in science (Osborne and Hennessy, 2003). It
is clarifying to consider these seven items as these have been identified as effective
technology practices for science teaching and learning.
It is important to understand what a teacher chooses, as this indicates their relationship
with science education, and/or with ICT, in their teaching. These, our relationships, influence
Planning for Science Learning Using the 5e‘s 19
our teaching approaches, our visions and our practices. If a teacher values science education,
or ICT; that is, they have a positive relationship with it, we could anticipate seeing a different
approach to that of a teacher who does not recognise the value in these areas to young
students. Identifying and understanding what you value about science education, or ICT in
education, can help to determine how effective you will be as a science educator and, also in,
understanding what pedagogical choices will inform your approaches.
Once you are aware of your visions, you can better understand your choices and modify
any of your pedagogical practices, which may better support the effectiveness of your science
teaching, and, or use of ICT. The interview data in this study was coded and analysed using
Positioning Theory (Davies and Harré, 1990). This will be seen to be helpful in illuminating
this teacher‘s values and her relationship to her pedagogical choices and practices.
Students in schools are keen to learn about the ideas of science. Milne (2010) noted that
students expressed genuine concern about the lack of science teaching in schools and stated
that they were eager to learn more about science. This may be an indication that some
primary teachers lack a positive relationship with science teaching.
The use of ICT in school science can provide science students with many different
opportunities and engaging ways to work with the ideas of science.
Classrooms now have many technology tools available for creating engaging, and
challenging, learning experiences. In science education this has included digital microscopes
and data loggers, but now can include Interactive Whiteboards (IWB), Internet search
engines, personal mobile devices, tablets and software programs for writing, graphing and
creating multimedia presentations.
Understanding why and how teachers choose to use new tools for effective science
teaching is critical. An underpinning premise in this research approach is that teachers usually
have sound pedagogical reasons for what they do in their classrooms.
So, if you have a conversation with teachers they will be able to explain to you the
reasons for their choices. This paper reports on one science teacher‘s practices and her
choices, uses and analysis of her use of new technologies to achieve specified science
learning goals for her students.
This study acknowledges
‗the crucial role played by the teacher, in creating the conditions for ICT-supported
learning through selecting and evaluating appropriate technological resources, and
designing, structuring and sequencing a set of learning activities (Osborne and Hennessy,
2003, p. 5).
Many factors influence what a teacher chooses to do when they are creating learning
environments. In this study we see how a teacher‘s experiences and professional values are
influencing her pedagogical choices. Teachers have to respond to many influences when
selecting technologies for their classroom teaching. There are ramifications from these values,
their pedagogical choices, as these can influence the type and quality of learning experiences
that a teacher provides their students.
Sound pedagogical approaches and practices in science education, with ICT, will be
informed and framed by the teacher‘s experience and understanding of what constitutes
effective teaching practices. But also their personal and professional commitment to science
education, and or ICT, will influence the choices that they make in their classrooms.
20 Christine Redman
SCIENTIFIC LITERACY AND THE ROLE OF CONVERSATION

Let‘s look here at the place of language, and how it shows how we think about and
perform our work and roles. The way that we have come to understand Ann‘s work is through
her conversations and discussions about it. Language is how we make sense of each other‘s
worlds and how we share our own. We choose our words carefully to reflect our thinking,
ideas and perceptions. Next we will differentiate between language and scientific literacy.
There has been a growing emphasis on the need for students to become scientifically
literate citizens (Huppert, 2002). There is no standard definition of what it means to be
‗scientifically literate‘. A useful definition that reflects current thinking, and on which many
do agree, is the one used by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development's
(OECD) Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) that defines Scientific
literacy as, ‗the capacity to use scientific knowledge, to identify questions and to draw on
evidence-based conclusions in order to understand and help make decisions about the natural
world and the changes made to it through human activity.‘
Teachers seeking to progress students towards this definition of scientific literacy will be
planning for their students to be enthusiastically, socially and dialogically involved in science
learning opportunities. In order to achieve this a teacher will design their science classroom to
be highly engaging, collaborative and dialogical and students will be seen to be active and
talkative, when they are involved in their science-learning journey. These types of
engagement, with science activities, means that the student‘s ‗heads, hearts and hands‘
(Fensham, 1981) are all involved in the learning experience. Ideally, and a significant goal for
education generally, is for each student to be able to become increasingly responsible for their
learning journey, and so significantly for them to take responsibility to deepen and
personalise their interest in their learning progress. Students can be scaffolded and
encouraged to be discussing their questions and thinking, to be listening and learning from
each other, and together analyse their data.
This connection between scientific literacy and language is an important goal to be
strived for by the science educator. This is a factor that excellent educators do not overlook
and is well understood to be a contributor in developing understandings about science ideas
(Sutton, 1996). It is in conversation that we make sense of our own ideas, and the ideas of
others. Roberts (1996) has usefully explained this as a discursive triangle. This theoretical
approach helps to frame the pedagogical approaches that can support science learners, that in
the discursive meaning-making spaces, that a social dialogical classroom can provide, to help
students make sense of the world in conversations with others.
A Wittgensteinian approach was taken when considering how this teacher, Ann, choose
to perform her work (Bailyn, 2000). Wittgenstein held the view that language becomes useful
and gains meaning to the user only in and through its use with others. So that means what
people ‗say‘, but also importantly what they ‗do‘, is how we make meaning of conversations
and events. Further to this argument, of ‗action and talk‘ Wittgenstein considered that the
evidence for understanding the extent that the language had been useful, was found in how
well it informed a person in ‗knowing how to go on‘. It is this combination of what people
‗say and do‘, discursive practices that has framed this research focus about discursive
practices.
Wittgenstein‘s idea of people ‗knowing how to go on‘, refers to the practical usefulness
of a person‘s understanding. This becomes evident in a person‘s discursive practices, the
‗saying and doing‘, shown when a person can express their understanding and apply their
practical use of knowledge. People may have an understanding of what is required of them,
and ‗know how to move forward‘, but they may choose not to use it. It depends on how much
they value the ‗what‘ and how much status they perceive it has in their lives, and in the lives
of significant others. By paying close attention to the language people use we make sense of
how they understand the world around them, in their actions we gain further evidence of their
understandings, and its usefulness to them. In the dialogues that occur between people, and in
the narratives of their life histories, their values and ideas become evident. If science students
understand a science idea, it may influence their actions, if they really value it, they may also
want to influence the behaviours of others.
This research has taken a dual focus and so it pays attention to what a person ‗says and
does‘. This combination of ‗sayings and doings‘ combines to be their discursive practices.
This study presents Ann‘s voice, and actions, as she shares her perceptions of her teaching
experience. Language, in the form of conversations and discussions, can assist people, and of
course our students, to convey their values and their interpretations of their world. People
convey their understandings in their actions too, so it is not just what people say, but also
what people do, that indicates their commitment, values and understandings. If what Ann
says, is what she believes to be true, then in her classroom we will see her students familiar
and comfortable with the learning environment she has long since established.
FRAMING THE WORK OF A SCIENCE EDUCATOR USING ICT

This chapter provides a framework for planning science education learning experiences
that can support students to progress, positively, through a learning experience. We are
drawing on the use of language, in education, working as a significant meaning-making tool.
Thinking about ICT tools in this way should inform the choices of ICT that might offer
different dialogical learning experiences for the students‘ learning journey. This language
approach is an essential component of the social constructivist approach that is provided by
the construction of ‗a community of practice‘.
Lave and Wenger (1991) developed the phrase ‗situated learning in communities of
practice‘. The phrase ‗communities of practice‘ is complimentary to, and aligns with, the
social constructivist view of education. The emphasis acknowledges that quality learning
seems occur when the setting supports learning that is social, dialogical, contextual and
collaborative. Teachers are now well supported by ICT to create learning events that are
social, dialogical and collaborative. Tablets, laptops and Interactive Whiteboards are some of
the tools available to the classroom teacher that can be used well dialogically.
Some of the Web 2.0 technology tools can assist teachers to support and sustain the
development of a social and discursive learning environment. Web 2.0 tools, like wikis, blogs
and twitter, are technologies that can help to provide dialogical learning opportunities that
align with the goals that arise from a social constructivist approach to learning and draw on a
community of practice.
22 Christine Redman
A social constructivist teaching approach utilises a community of practice, which can

also be thought as a community of learners. The social dialogical approach is a way that we
can effectively enable learners to work from, with and for others. In Ann‘s discussions about
her science lessons, we hear about her plans for her students to work together, and to share
their discoveries. Ann says that she has a commitment to developing the skills needed for the
co-construction of ideas between students. She enacts that idea by helping them to discuss,
share and refine their understandings together. Web 2.0 technologies are able to offer a range
of different choices of mediums that will allow learners to share and discuss their ideas. This
social constructivist approach requires educators to create dialogical opportunities for their
learners that are meaningfully shared, and refines their ideas, as a community of learners.
In a community of practice a teacher needs to develop a shared point of interest for the
class. This should then help to generate the development of a common, and shared, language
within the community. A community of practice‘s dialogic, or discursive style, of activities
can support the creation of shared understandings and questions.
ICT tools now provide a valuable range of opportunities for science learners to share their
ideas. In this dialogical sharing, in the ‗doing and saying‘, they refine and revisit their existing
understanding, and can extend their thinking. This can be very important for the science
learner. When students are trying to learn about ideas and concepts in science, they need to be
able to understand the ideas of science and also be able to use the language of science. ICT
tools and the Web 2.0 technologies may be able to help educators to address both of these
concerns and to create more natural incentives to use the language of science, by creating
more meaningful scenarios in which learners use the language and engage with the science
ideas. Web 2.0 technologies by their very structure, are dialogic and need the user to be a
thoughtful user of language.
In science education, for it to be effective and meaningful, it is critical that the language
of science is learnt, and that there are meaningful opportunities to use it. When it is engaged
with on a regular, and purposeful basis, it becomes more familiar and useful to the user.
When the language of science becomes well understood then the learner can more easily
engage in discussions about the ideas of science. The broader implications here are that
learners will make more informed and scientifically literate everyday lifestyle choices.
Without a meaningful understanding of the ideas, and language of science, then science-
focused discussions cannot be entered into with any likelihood of pertinent contributions, or
uses, being able to be made by the users. ICT tools, and Web 2.0 tools, have provided a range
of options available to the educator and the student to facilitate the increased use of the
language of science, in shared scenarios.
BACKGROUND IMPERATIVES UNDERPINNING

THIS APPROACH FOR SCIENCE EDUCATION
This chapter has presented a theoretical framework of ‗talk and action, of ‗doing and
saying‘ as ways of making sense of the world. We understand the world of this teacher, Ann,
through her discussions about her practice. We will learn that she values the contribution of
talk and encourages the creation of dialogical places in her classroom for her learners. She
instigates a dialogical approach to learning, and she uses a pedagogical structure to frame the
learning experiences. She will be seen to use a range of technology tools that support her
learners to become more talkative, engaged, independent and immersed in their science
learning experiences.
Science education can at first appear to be a complex and demanding subject to teach. A
science education learning journey will be completed much more effectively if the learners
can ask questions, discuss their answers and findings together, and take some control of the
outcomes. This highlights the need to consider the language abilities, attitude and skills of the
learner, and that these need to be shaped so that learners are becoming independent and active
as learners. The new technologies should be considered for their contribution to enhancing
science learning in these ways.
THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF INFORMATION

COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES (ICT)
ICT has constantly provided a diverse range of tools and applications for both scientists
and science educators that have enabled science investigations to be conducted more
effectively or accurately and over longer time frames. ICT tools now support science
educators, and their learners, to easily capture record and revisit science activities. Learners
are assisted to maintain their focus, interest and participation. Digital microscopes and data
loggers have been a part of the repertoire of teachers for a long time.
Contemporary technologies can support science educators to better support and
encourage their students to have a greater range of choices for engaging and participating in
their learning. There is a chance to include multimedia, and Web 2.0 technologies in science
education to enliven science teaching, and afford better ways to support the development of a
scientific literate community.
This does require an explicit and focused effort on behalf of the educator. The teacher
needs to consider what exists in these newer options that can support, sustain and perhaps
enhance the learning outcomes for their science students.
It also requires that the science educator is alert to and aware of the contributions that
multimedia, and Web 2.0 technologies, offer science learners. In addition, science students
also need to be clear about the learning potential available to them, from within a more
dialogically and collaborative-styled multimedia task, and the effective use of Web 2.0 tools.
It cannot be assumed that learners already know how, and why, to use ICT for effective
learning outcomes (Kennedy et al, 2006; Oliver and Goerke, 2007).
It is part of our generic teaching goals that we help illuminate the learners to the functions
and capacity of ICT and to recognize and understand the specific purpose and aims of more
technological based activities. ICT‘s potential contributions to enhance learning opportunities
are usually lauded. ICT is closely associated with personalised learning and quality learning
environments for learning in science,
In order to engage students in new and emerging science we need modern facilities
and the latest equipment, technology and materials. The best learning environments will
offer opportunities to involve students in problem solving, critical thinking and decision-
making and enable them to see the relevance of science and mathematics to their world.
…. Technology has the potential to increase access to education and improve teacher
24 Christine Redman
professional learning and student learning. …. maximise the use of information and
communication technology (ICT) to create more engaging and relevant learning
environments …. innovative use of ICT will extend learning experiences for students
beyond the physical boundaries of the classroom …. where scientists, mathematicians
and engineers are at work solving real-life problems. (Department of Education and Early
Childhood Development (Vic) Policy and Research Division, 2009, p 14)
ICT is envisioned here as being able to engage learners in cognitive ways, to challenge
their thinking and to support them to ask and answer questions. ICT is also recognized in the
above quote as having the potential to support learners to be dealing with contemporary
issues. There are many significant contributions that can be made to science education, and
there is some promise that ICT can assist.
ICT can contribute to the creation and support of a more dialogical, social learning
environment by supporting the sharing of ideas with others. It is in this communication and
talk with others that Web 2.0 tools can make a positive contribution. Talk and communication
is the most powerful human tool, mediating between the wider community and the individual,
contributing to shaping the learning that can take place (Alexander, 2005). Web 2.0 tools
have the capacity to support the mediation and refinement of science ideas between learners.
EFFECTIVE SCIENCE TEACHING WITH ICT

The following section indicates clearly how science and ICT can be used together
effectively.
The interviews with Ann have been coded to show how she used the components that
have been identified as elements that make up desirable pedagogical practices. Parts of the
interview transcript have been allotted a number to code them against this list of effective
pedagogical approaches for use with ICT in science teaching (Osborne and Hennessy, 2003).
The list below, of seven pedagogical practices, is helpful to indicate effective ways that
ICT pedagogical practices can be used for science teaching. These seven pedagogical
practices, can act as a framework for the use of ICT in science teaching and are helpful when
planning science experiences,
1 ‗ensuring that use is appropriate and ‗adds value‘ to learning activities

2 building on teachers‘ existing practice and on pupils‘ prior conceptions
3 structuring activity while offering pupils some responsibility, choice and
opportunities for active participation
4 prompting pupils to think about underlying concepts and relationships; creating time
for discussion, reasoning, analysis and reflection
5 focusing research tasks and developing skills for finding and critically analysing
information
6 linking ICT use to ongoing teaching and learning activities
7 exploiting the potential of whole class interactive teaching and encouraging pupils to
share ideas and findings‘. (Osborne and Hennessy, 2003, p. 5)
Using the numbers to code various parts of our teacher‘s conversation about her teaching,
helps us to see what Ann achieved in her science unit.
The number after each statement below correlates to the numbered statements above, and
so are aligned to the seven items. The sample below highlights where this teacher discussed
her purposes for her teaching, and this has been coded to the numbered pedagogical
statements. Ann starts by saying that she understands her students learning needs, when she
says;
knowing those children well, [2]
Here, Ann, is purposeful about what she wants her students to achieve;
and what I want them to do is to be able to link their words so… are there patterns …
[4,5]
Ann now emphasises that her students need to relate the various parts of the information,
that they have discovered;
That‘s where we‘re at, we‘re at the linking and that‘s the challenging bit. So that‘s
what I want them to be able to do. So they‘ve all gained…… they‘ve all got some
knowledge, ….. they‘ve all shared the knowledge, now they‘ve got to link the
knowledge. [4,7]
Ann understands the need to gain their interest, that the learning is suitable for her
students, to support their participation;
Well what I wanted it to do was just to gain their interest, and give them something
visual, because that‘s very important for say kids like … [1,3]
This small sample of coding the interview discussion, to the framework, indicates the
diversity of the pedagogical elements in her teaching. The focus here was on aspects of her
teaching that related to her clarity of purpose. This clarity of purpose can be seen to originate
in the ‗knowing‘ of her students in the Wittgensteinian sense of purposeful ‗knowing how to
move them on.‘ In these excerpts it is evident that her ‗saying‘, her philosophy of teaching
and her pedagogy are matched with her actions, her ‗doing‘.
Colloquially labeled as ‗walking the talk,‘ it means that her theories are enacted in her
practices. Tensions can arise when there is no match between one‘s ‗sayings and doings‘. An
example here would be if a school publicises that it is a leading school in ICT, yet the
teachers do not agree then there is a mismatch between the ‗saying and the doing‘, and
tensions arise. A school‘s values need to align with its teacher‘s values and practices, or
anxieties may form.
26 Christine Redman
OUR VALUES AND EXPERIENCES

INFLUENCE THE APPROACHES WE CHOOSE
The analysis of the dialogue previously listed, has indicated that our teacher, Ann, has
identified a strong need to accommodate the learning needs and interests, of different
students. This points to a value that this teacher holds, that of being able to respond to
student‘s specific learning interests and needs. This is an example of a ‗teacher‘s‘ values that
would need to be considered if it was necessary for this teacher to take on any new teaching
approaches. It is likely that she would resist changing her practices if the new ones did not
align with her value of catering for individual students learning needs and interests.
Ann values and enacted her professional need to ensure that students created links
between the new knowledge and understandings, and with their previous knowledge. She
values students being able to recognise the patterns emerging in the knowledge with which
they are engaging. There is an indication that she appreciates the role of language in learning.
It would seem that she values her students forming a community of practice so that they can
exchange and discuss their ideas with each other, as this is the environment she creates and
actively fosters.
ICT PRACTICES IN USE FOR SCIENCE EDUCATION

In this next section, we are able to examine more closely most of the seven items, in the
teacher‘s discussions about her teaching. The following dialogical excerpts indicate a
consistent use of these pedagogical approaches. We see how they align to the 5E structure
(Bybee, 1989) of Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate and Evaluate.
Ann references here how the technologies have supported students to relate to, and make
sense of, the associated science concepts. The teacher‘s statements indicate how she was able
to ‗ensure that technology use is appropriate and ‗adds value‘ to the learning activities‘,
which we can see is item one. She is also referring to her recognition that her students need to
be highly engaged (Engage) and interested.
Well what I wanted it to do was just to gain their interest, and give them something
visual, because that‘s very important for say kids like R., because he doesn‘t come with a
rich background of anything. So if you can actually see it happening you can make some
observations can‘t you? [1]
I called them eventually back as one group … that‘s when we looked at … used the
whiteboard again to look at (unclear) we looked at the damage using those overlays on
Google earth, which they found fascinating, so we did Hurricane Katrina, then we had to
go to Greece to look at the (unclear) and then we had to go to San Diego and look at the
bushfires and it‘s like WOW. It puts that WOW into learning… WOW look at the
smoke!! G. look at that! [1]
Ann used these visual support materials purposefully. Ann ensured that this occurred
early in the lesson introduction and then again towards the end. By revisiting the images and
videos some of the students had demonstrated that they had more understanding and capacity
to take part enthusiastically in discussions. In the discussion Ann created the shared language
needed, and supported and encouraged students to ask questions. She indicated that she
valued these by recording the points made, for future reference and discussion. The pronouns
have been highlighted to indicate which perspective the teacher is talking from, either at a
personal level, and so she uses the ‗I‘, or from a professional level and member of the
community, and so with a ‗we‘. The teacher used pronouns ‗I‘ and ‗we‘ indicating that she
felt and acted as part of the community (Redman and Fawns, 2010). This is evident
throughout her lesson reflections. Her use of ‗we‘ to talk about her students indicates the
relationship she has, and the role she has in the teaching, as co-investigator. This is how
Positioning Theory helps us to understand the relationship and values of this teacher. In
response to the need to be ‗building on teachers‘ existing practice and on pupils‘ prior
conceptions,‘ item number 2, Ann can be heard here attending to this item. Ann is also
helping her students to explore (Explore) the key ideas and develop the language needed.
Well we talked about… explained that we were going to do a climatologically study

so I asked them what that might involve, and we went into the…. got a definition from
Wikipedia, so we had a look at that and checked that … yes … that‘s what we said …
we‘re right. Theeeeen … I got them… yeah…. what do we know? [2]
Come back to what you thought you knew, can you tick anything off? Have a look a
… you know… what you want to find out [2]
Ann now has her students identifying questions and looking for answers and explanations
(Explain) Number three requires Ann to carefully be ‗structuring activities while offering
pupils some responsibility, some choices and opportunities for active participation‘. This is
demonstrated when Ann explained the following,
About weather and typhoons already…, because we‘d done some note taking. So
they just re-read that. So they jotted down what they knew… OK what would you like to
find out? Can you put what you want to find out and include something about typhoons
as well. So they all had a question about that. [3]
In the next excerpt, during a lesson, Ann addresses item four, to ‗prompt pupils to think
about underlying concepts and relationships; creating time for discussion, reasoning, analysis
and reflection.‘ Again, notice that she uses ‗we‘, which indicates her membership of the
group, her class, and her sense of commitment. This is Ann purposefully moving her students
to reflect on their understandings and elaborate (Elaborate) on them and go further, and make
connections and links to related science ideas.
We haven‘t finished yet but what we are doing now, we‘ve gone back to our home
groups, and what I want them to do is to be able to link their words so… are there
patterns of words for instance do typhoons occur in the warmer months with the most
rainfall? [4]
but you‘ve got to link that with the other information. That‘s where we‘re at, we‘re at
the linking and that‘s the challenging bit. [4]
And I said, but let‘s not go there yet, just share and … you know … make some links
with our learning. [4]
28 Christine Redman
Ann sought to support her students to further their understanding of the relationships and
links between the key science ideas. She signaled her recognition, and valuing of the idea that
this linking of ideas needed time to be reasoned through, discussed and shared. The teaching
was slowed down to allow time for this reflection.
The next excerpts are coded responses to item number five. This refers to the need to be
‗focusing students on research tasks and helping them to be developing the skills for finding
and critically analysing information.‘ Ann supports reflection, provides thinking time, and
scaffolds her students to keep asking questions.
The others were saying Oh! I‘ve found out that typhoons travel at this speed and I
said yes, and that‘s good that it‘s been shared, but you‘ve got to link that with the other
information. [5]
They didn‘t write anything straight away, just looked. Then I showed it through
again and they jotted down some observations. Come back to what you thought you
knew, can you tick anything off? Have a look a … you know… what you want to find
out, is there anything there that has been answered by that clip? [5]
Again lesson events were slowed down. Students were invited to reflect further on the
video materials. The technology had afforded them the capacity to present topical visual
materials that were easily revisited. The teacher asked for the materials to be re-examined for
their messages. She demonstrates that she values the need to provide time for reflection and
thinking and how she could use technology to revisit topical materials, and relevant content.
Ann spends most of her teaching time, in this phase, which we will call Elaborating. This is a
very important phase, involving the students in dealing with new ideas or applying their new
knowledge to other situations. The teacher has already referenced item number seven, which
is; ‗has been seeking to exploit the potential of whole class interactive teaching and has been
encouraging the pupils to share their ideas and findings‘. The following example illuminates
Ann‘s planning for this to occur. Ann explains that her students were asked to,
choose a couple of people to work on the computer and they can bring back the
information and then maybe you can swap them around. Largely that‘s what they did.
One group in particular, the newspaper group, said we‘ll deal with these questions, and
the other two I think it was J. and K. went off and dealt with the last question, and they
brought back the answers to that for the group.
Two students went off together and after they had located relevant information they
demonstrated it on the Interactive Whiteboard. The students resolved the answer to their
question, set up the material need to show others, and gathered a group together. They then
shared their results with their research group and a number of other interested onlookers. This
is evidence that Ann values independent and collaborative learning and the inquiry approach
to learning, and provides opportunities for students to have discussions. The students had
many chances to review, test and evaluate (Evaluate) their understandings.
SOUND PEDAGOGICAL APPROACHES

EMBEDDED INTO THE TEACHING
The teacher and students were in a highly organised and effective learning space. The
ICT had been well integrated and supported the learning environment. She had orchestrated
the purposeful use of a range of technologies.
The pedagogical coding of the numbered items has helps us to identify the values and
purposes of the teacher. She valued careful planning, scaffolding and her need to respond to
student‘s learning needs and interests, the development of a shared language and the creation
of a community of practice, who as learners support and learn with, for and from each other.
Item number six referred to the linking of classroom ICT use to ongoing teaching and
learning activities. This has not been used here as it was hard to interpret, identify, and make
sense of in this scenario.
Later Ann made reference to her desire to have more of her students interacting together
and working independently with computers. She wanted more computer access. She made no
reference to computers being unreliable. There had been no time needed for misbehaving
technology. This classroom‘s working time, had not had to absorb unstable, unpredictable and
unreliable technology.
The teacher can been seen to have used a range of effective pedagogical practices and
made use of all the technology available to her, and her students. The use of multi modal
experiences had included audio from radio broadcast, news clips and satellite images. The
Interactive Whiteboard had been used to share images, videos and articles so that small
groups could read and discuss the information together. She valued and nurtured independent
and collaborative learning and had used an inquiry approach in her planning.
This teacher had a clearly articulated vision for the science learning, and had created a
effective inquiry learning environment for science. The students ‗discovered patterns‘
between volcanoes, earthquakes and tsunamis. They recognised that the plate movements
were the common factor that contributed to each of these events. They could answer their
questions about why and what triggered these types of events.
Her values had influenced her choice of pedagogical approaches, and these choices
aligned clearly with the sound practices that Osborne and Hennessy have indicated signal
effective teaching with ICT in science education.
A WAY TO SCAFFOLD LEARNING AND

INCORPORATE ICT FOR EFFECTIVE LEARNING
Another way to view Ann‘s teaching is through her planning. Ann‘s unit follows the
structure of the 5Es. The Bybee 5 E‘s Instructional model for teaching (Bybee, 1989) is being
considered here to be a learning cycle. As a learning cycle, the 5E‘s, was not designed to be
used as a linear model for teaching but it can appear to be this way when first seen written
down. It has the potential to be very responsive when students are progressing through their
learning. The 5E structure is supported as an approach by the Department of Education and
Early Childhood Development, in Victoria, Australia, as a way to support ‗high quality
teacher practice‘ (Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, 2010). The 5
30 Christine Redman
E‘s model is composed of five phases, and supports an inquiry approach to teaching. It
supports learners to be curious, to ask questions, to follow their interests, to identify their
learning needs, and to have a voice and a choice in their learning. These phases were
highlighted in the previous section, by putting them in brackets, to provide examples of these
practices in action.
UNPACKING EACH OF THE 5 PHASES OF THE 5E‟S –

ENGAGE, EXPLORE, EXPLAIN, ELABORATE AND EVALUATE
Let‘s look in detail at how Ann planned this unit, and how the 5E‘s informed her choice
of teaching experiences and activities. The first phase is called Engage. This stage is designed
to scaffold students to consider their prior understandings. They reflect on their prior
experiences and can consider the effectiveness of their ideas and language. At the conclusion
of this phase students should have had multiple opportunities to reflect on their current
knowledge and understandings.
In Ann‘s teaching we saw that she provided purposeful experiences designed to offer her
students a chance to explain their understanding and their learning, using a shared language.
The second phase is called Explore. In science classes students would be actively
participating in reviewing and testing their initial ideas. Students would conclude this phase
having an awareness of what they know and what they don‘t yet fully understand. This stage
often provokes more questions and begins to help students to form some new ideas and begin
to make connections to other concepts. It raises questions, as students confirm their old
knowledge, past experiences and understandings, and they uncover new thinking, and new
ideas.
The Explain phase follows and this may often find students researching and testing their
existing ideas, and explaining some of their ideas to others and their teachers. This phase
involves many opportunities to be discursive with others. This is an important time, as it
refines language use, improves the quality of the known and past understandings, and
highlights the less familiar understandings.
The Elaborate phases is ideally, shaped by student‘s questions. Students may inquire
‗what happens when?‘ or what happens if we?‘ or ‗I wonder why…? These types of questions
frame the next series of investigations that the learners are seriously wondering about, and it
is most likely not all students will conduct the same investigations. This is the opportunity to
move students into consolidating, deepening or broadening their understanding. They
continue to refine their ability to use the language and their understanding of the science
ideas, and more meaningfully, as part of their everyday language. They develop and deepen
their confidence in their science conceptual growth and they will have become more skilled at
using the process skills of science and they will have increased their ownership and
motivation in these new tasks. They investigate their questions, design ways to resolve their
curiosity in investigations that can be replicated by others. This is the phase of greatest
growth, of going further and of applying understandings. It is the space that Ann, and her
students, spent most of their time.
In the last phase, Evaluate, the students and the teacher together determine the progress
that has been made in refining new understandings, abilities and skills. It also becomes the
time to assess the value of what has been uncovered, discovered and how meaningful it is to
others. This phase should provide the motivation to present and share with an audience. This
is the time the community of learners can celebrate and share their outcomes and
achievements, and ICT makes it possible to celebrate locally, and globally. Each phase of the
5E‘s provides multiple opportunities to utilise the potential of ICT to enrich the learning
opportunities for students. The following section expands on the particular contributions that
are perceived to be offered to science education by the informed inclusion of ICT
SCIENCE EDUCATION LEADS TO

SCIENTIFICALLY LITERATE RESULTS
As has been explored earlier in this chapter, the body of science knowledge makes use of
a specific language that it uses to communicate its basic ideas. Understanding the language of
science is a requirement that precedes access to the body of science knowledge. Without a
functional understanding of the language of science a person is unable to engage with the
associated ideas in ways that are meaningful and useful to them. It is necessary to have a good
degree of fluency with the language of science as this will also provide the background
knowledge needed to make use of any classroom experiences, and discussions, about the
ideas of science.
This connection between science language and what the language means is only one
useful outcome of a science education. The language of science is a critical element of
science education and this is a factor that good educators do not overlook. It is well
understood to be a contributor in developing understanding about science ideas (Sutton,
1996). Learners too, do understand the value of social dialogical learning activities, as this
university student explains;
it was through listening and participating in the blog, and in face to face
conversations, that my moon understandings grew, and became more refined. I began to
formulate more wonderings and ponderings on my own, as well as being inspired by
other questions that the people in my blogging group had pondered‘.
A goal for science educators is to be able to help learners make use of science ideas to
inform their everyday ‗actions‘. The science understandings that the learner develops should
have a positive impact on the life of the person. Their science understandings should be able
to influence their practices, ideally making their life, and that of others, healthier or safer or
more beneficial in someway.
Science knowledge should lead to more informed behaviors and habits. Science
understandings should underpin people‘s daily actions and choices. Scientific literacy is about
having developed the skills and knowledge, behaviours and attitudes that have been informed
by contemporary science ideas.
Science educators are aware that science language, science concepts and science process
skills are all required to be incorporated into the school science program. These aims can
provide students with an understanding of science that effectively serves them in their daily
lives as informed scientifically knowledgeable and skilled people. Remember that science
education has refined the definition of scientific literacy to currently mean;
32 Christine Redman
An individual‘s scientific knowledge and use of that knowledge to identify

questions, to acquire new knowledge, to explain scientific phenomena, and to draw
evidence based conclusions about science-related issues, understanding of the
characteristic features of science as a form of human knowledge and enquiry, awareness
of how science and technology shape our material, intellectual, and cultural
environments, and willingness to engage in science-related issues, and with the ideas of
science, as a reflective citizen. (PISA, 2006, p 20/8)
THE IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGE

AND THE MEANINGS OF SCIENCE
It is important not to under estimate the development of an understanding and use of the
language of science. Science language has specificity about the words it uses, and that
accuracy and consistency, can develop and support learners as they develop and share their
understandings of science ideas.
When the learners are using the language of science, the understanding of the words of
science develops, and this should mean that deeper understandings of the science concepts
and content follow. In conversation, people draw on and bring their previous experiences to
the new learning landscape to develop and refine their more informed thinking. The
development of science ideas in the classroom takes careful and thoughtful presentation of the
new ideas in ways that may support better reflective and/or reiterative thinking. It is notable
too, that many science words may create and bring emotional responses, which is often not
overtly factored into the learning of the student.
In the following examples we see how the words that are used in ‗science‘ discussions
can inform and support people to be a part of debates. But we will also see how language can
create anxiety and disempower people.
The science concept of the ozone hole was well understood by the general public (Ungar,
2000). They could discuss it with each other, and follow the related debates, and make
informed choices about their actions. So people‘s responses to the need to change particular
practices could be better supported and managed because they understood the key ideas, and
science principles. People benefit from understanding the science ideas as they can discuss
and refine their ideas and concerns with others. Understanding the language and ideas means
people are informed and more able to change daily habits and to choose more appropriate
behaviors.
There has been a growing need for people to understand the science concepts of global
warming, that is climate change, and this has become important worldwide. Understanding
climate change does also require an understanding of some basic principles of science.
Understanding the phrases that are associated with these environmental changes should lead
to informed actions. If confusions exist around these phrases then this is neither reassuring
nor empowering for people. Confusion about the science concepts can be disabling rather
than enabling. People feel disempowered and discouraged if they lack enough information to
feel that they are making the ‗right‘ choices.
The term global warming was associated with the creation of anxiety in people, and the
term climate change was partly introduced to assist people to feel re-empowered.
Effective learning in science education, and for life and living, requires and relies on an
understanding of the embedded language and ideas of science. The science ideas in the
language are distinctive and nuanced. If you were talking from a position of science, wearing
your science hat, and seeing the world through the lenses of science, then you would not talk
about ‗sunrise and sunset‘. This is because in an astronomically sense, the sun does not move
and go ‗up and down‘. If you state that there are seven days in a week, then you have
removed the idea of ‗night‘ and distinguished it from ‗day‘ and have allocated a day to being
comprised of 24 hours. The specificity of the language of science is both critical to be aware
of and to know how to use in discussions.
QUALITY SCIENCE EDUCATION REQUIRES QUALITY

AND ACTIVE SCIENCE LEARNING - WHAT DOES
ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT MEAN FOR THE LEARNER?
In science education it can often be assumed that a student learner is engaged with the
topic. Science topics can be selected to be part of the learners‘ popular culture. Educators‘ do
need to ascertain that they have a sense of what is relevant and of interest to the learners
(Redman, 2008). Students are keen to know more about volcanoes, dinosaurs and disasters,
and educators can ensure that key science concepts are embedded into these topics. High-
level engagement can link to student‘s interests, as well as their learning needs.
Engagement refers more than to the level of interest, but also to a genuine curiosity and
an intellectual commitment that can motivate a learner to wonder and ponder, and ask
constant questions. The questions from the inquiring learner should be helping the learner to
make sense of their world, to better understand the science concepts, and to make meaningful
connections between their existing ideas and to be exploring further, and elaborating on these
existing ideas.
The ‗engaged‘ student who is thinking, talking with others and questioning in science
classes is actively learning. Students should be seen to be talking and making comments,
observations and asking questions. They will be wondering, and asking what happens ―if‖ and
subsequently wanting to be designing their own investigations and then evaluating and
drawing on their own evidence-based conclusions.
The active learner can explore ideas of interest to them, and these ideas will have been
scaffolded by their teachers, and become part of the key science concepts necessary for a
well-rounded science education.
In their active exploration, often labeled inquiry learning, science learners make sense of
their world, resolve questions of interest to them and draw conclusions from their sturdy
evidence, which quite likely will raise more questions. They can check their conclusions with
the body of knowledge of science.
The history of inquiry teaching and learning is long. Dewey saw that the process of
learning begins when we put ideas before our mind, and enable people to draw conclusions
based on evidence that they understand. This is the intellectual, or cognitive engagement that
draws on the activities of thinking and talking. But this type of thinking and talking is also an
activity that requires a learner to be able to take some genuine ownership and, thus, some
34 Christine Redman
responsibility for their learning journey. Science education has long utilised the inquiry
approach and the 5E model helps to support the planning process.
THE CONTRIBUTION OF ICT TOOLS

Blogging is one ICT tool that can be seen to strongly encapsulate learning through
conversation by using the social collaborative sharing of ideas. Writing as conversation
supports the creation of a need for a refined and competent use of science language. In order
to communicate virtually with others the language in the blog needs to carefully articulated by
the author to ensure clarity for the distant reader. In the blogging, or/any writing or talking,
action that communicates and shares our beliefs and values purposefully with others, we
simultaneously explore and clarify both our existing understandings and our identity (Daniels,
2001). When we strive to make our meanings understood we are driven to use, more
precisely, the language of science to communicate, explain, explore and justify our ideas.
This communication process of articulating our ideas, using more accurate language, engages
the speaker and the author more personally, and cognitively, with the science concepts, and
more ably supports their later participation in the social debates.
Speaking and writing purposefully, can be completed in the closed environment of a local
classroom community, or can be shared in a local school newsletter, in local newspapers, or
can be in a blog or wiki on the web. Language, written or spoken, notably can act as a tool
that empowers and harnesses like-minded individuals and enables the sharing of ideas. As the
speaker or author acquires an ability to share their science ideas, it also reveals to them, the
veracity of their existing understandings.
Authors, more than speakers, are also afforded the time to select the precise language that
they sense is needed to effectively convey their ideas. ‗All language, whether written down or
spoken carries evaluative overtones‘ (Wolfe and Alexander, 2008).
Blogs, wikis or twittering type tools importantly support the sharing of ideas and puts the
learning, via the tools, in the hands of the individual learner. It allows the learner to follow the
interests of other individuals, or groups, as they respond to the discussion of ideas within a
participating community. The ease with which we can add videos and images has added
another multimodal dimension of stimulation.
STAGING THE SEQUENCE OF LEARNING

The shaping of these discursive sharing communities, that are following the curriculum
requirements and the interests of the learners, require very careful crafting by the classroom
based educator, to create a community of learners. The process of staging the learning needs
to take account of the learner‘s specific needs. The learner needs to see that they have had a
‗voice and choice‘ in the learning focus. It needs to be cyclic to support learners to progress,
identify and review their learning progress for themselves. It can be dialogic, social and
collaborative and located in either a local or distant community. It takes time to do this, but
the use of social technologies, like blogging, wikis or twitter, can harness time from outside
the classroom.
Learners are prepared to invest their ‗own‘ time when they sense the purpose of the
learning events. They understand and value the social dialogical place, as this university
student said, ‗I do believe my understandings are more stable talking with friends multiple
times and modeling contributed to this I think‘ and then later, ‗It was long term learning
which we constantly revisited, it was very supportive‘.
This chapter has examined what is necessary for a sound pedagogical approach for
science education that addresses some of the contemporary needs of science education. There
is need for learners to become part of the conversations, to hear the ideas of others, and to join
the discussions and consider the evidence, and its implications on them. A pedagogical
structure must seek to maximise the teaching and learning outcomes that the teacher is
accountable to, and yet also be recognized by the science student as providing a structure
which helps to focus their learning on new understandings. An approach that empowers the
development of such a complex demanding learning sequence is Bybee‘s 5 E‘s (2006). It can
cater for the students‘ learning ‗interests and needs‘; it recognises and requires the voices and
choices of the learners.
The structure of the 5E‘s, with its cyclic structure, may help to better inform the choices
that are made by both teachers and learners to support the goals of improved science learning.
The structure of the 5E‘s generates, and implies, the place for the appropriate selection and
use of ICT. The 5E‘s can support and provide a way to plan for optimizing the use of the new
technologies. The 5E‘s assists the educator and the learners to research, review and share
together their outcomes. It is helpful to examine, through the pedagogical structural lens of
the 5E‘s, the contributions of the ICT offerings, like blogs, wikis, podcasting and twitter.
The staging of the learning through the 5E‘s means that appropriate pedagogical
strategies and ICT tools can be used at the most appropriate points. In the first phase of
Engage, learners analyse and review the efficacy of their existing understandings. This
happens before they begin to Explore, when they compare and test their existing
understandings and move to checking their explanations, with the accepted body of
knowledge. The technology tools also have specific capacities that can contribute to the
learning journey, as seen in the seven items of Hennessy and Osborne, and sustain and
empower them in the important phase of Elaboration.
CONCLUSION
The new, and always, ever changing, technologies have the capacity to support science
students to easily author themselves into their products, and their learning. Then they can
publish and share their ideas and understanding using any combination of sound, movement
and images. Remember, that the goal of using ICT in science education is not to simply use
technology tools like scientists do, but rather to utilise particular ICT tools to deepen science
students‘ participation in science and their cognitive engagement. The aim is to progress
students along their path of learning in such a way that the students are more likely to be
genuinely engaged with the science content, and find it relevant to their daily lives, and
develop an interest and confidence to continue to learn. They should become more and more
able to articulate their understandings, more responsible in their daily lives, and more likely to
be able to engage in the critical debates and inform their everyday habits.
36 Christine Redman
The 5E structure provides learners with opportunities for an increasing role and
responsibility in their own learning. What it is providing to teachers, is also a structure that
increasingly requires students‘ ‗voices and choices‘, as they are also responding to students‘
learning needs and interests.
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Chapter 3
WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM CHINESE

AND AUSTRALIAN PRIMARY SCHOOL
STUDENTS‟ PERCEPTIONS OF SCIENTISTS
AND SCIENCE LEARNING
Hui Cheng
The Universityof Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
ABSTRACT
For many decades, much research has been conducted to investigate young children‘s images
of science and scientists. Commonly a stereotypical image has been reported, especially in the
western world (e.g., Barman, 1997; Chambers, 1983; Newton and Newton, 1992, 1998). Similar
studies conducted in other cultures have reported differences in students‘ perceptions of scientists
(Fung, 2002; Manubu, Shigenori and Hayashi, 2002; She, 1995, 1998; Song and Kim, 1999;
Turkmen, 2008) and comparative studies between different cultural and educational backgrounds
were called for in the highly interconnected contemporary world (Fung, 2002).
This study explored primary school children‘s perceptions of science, scientists and the
learning of school science in a school in China and one in Australia. The research investigated the
perceptions of students and found similarities and differences. It sought to see if there were
different contributions being made in the different settings. Twenty-four students from one
Chinese and one Australian primary school (twelve from each school, six in Year 2 and six in
Year 5) were invited to participate in this study. For each participant, the Draw-A-Scientist Test
(DAST) (Chambers, 1983) was conducted and then followed up by a conversational interview
with the researcher. The findings are interesting and showed that the Chinese and Australian
primary students held different images of scientists, with the Chinese students having less
stereotypical perceptions. Overall the students‘ perceptions from the two countries differed in
several aspects including their understanding of the nature of science. The study also revealed that
science stories maybe rich sources of motivation for engaging young children with science.
Importantly, it might be the use of stories that assist with fostering a more positive attitude
towards learning science in young learners. Attempts to distinguish particular learning experiences
in either country that may have contributed to these students‘ perceptions of scientists and science
are discussed.
40 Hui Cheng
―…Even by just looking out of a window, you can see science… you can see birds flying,
that‘s flight and lots of different things.‖
A Year 5 student
INTRODUCTION
The rapid change and advance in science and technology, especially late last century, and
the increasingly popular public face of science appearing in contemporary life has drawn
attention from scientists, educators and governments to emphasise the importance of science
education for the young. Instead of teaching scientific terms and concepts to prepare future
scientists for society, the science curriculum should be aiming at fostering scientific literate
citizens of the 21st century. Curriculum authorities in many regions and countries, such as the
United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore and China, to name just a few, have
acknowledged this foreseen trend and have designed their curriculum to correspond to the
societal calls (Goodrum, Hackling and Rennie, 2001; Ministry of Education Singapore, 2007;
Murcia, 2005; State Council of the People‘s Republic of China [State Council of PRC],
2006). In a heavily scientific and technology-oriented world science education has a greater
significance and as the National Academy of Science (2007, p.1) has claimed, ―at no time in
history has improving science education been more important than it is today‖.
If providing an adequate science curriculum for younger generations has a significant
value for our future, then the young, as the current learners and future citizens, should be
placed at the core of this movement. It is important to understand how and what they are
learning in science and how they relate to ‗doing‘ school science. Therefore knowing our
learners and understanding their ideas and images of science and scientists would provide
insightful information. This information could contribute to the process of implementing the
science curriculum, and, if necessary, can provide recommendations for modifying the
curriculum. Many an educator has emphasised the important relationship between young
learners‘ perceptions of learning science and their attitudes to participating in school science
(Gough, 2008; Jarvis, 1996; Schibeci, 2006). And since Mead and Metraus (1957), who
reported on children‘s perceptions of science and scientists, many similar studies have been
conducted in various countries, such as the United States (Barman, 1997; Huber and Burton,
1995), the United Kingdom (Newton and Newton, 1992, 1998), and Australia (e.g.,
Chambers, 1983; Schibeci, 1986; Schibeci and Sorensen, 1983). These data help teachers and
schools to understand what children perceive about science and how they relate to doing
science themselves. In recent years, similar research has also been facilitated in Asian regions
and countries such as Turkey (Buldu, 2006; Turkmen, 2008), Hong Kong (Fung, 2002) and
Korea (Song and Kim, 1999).
Personally, I was intrigued by the Science Honours research project that I was involved
in during my fourth year of Bachelor of Education (Primary) with The University of
Melbourne in 2007. It was a small project similar to the studies mentioned above,
investigating children‘s perceptions towards science and scientists and their expectations of
school science. Growing up in China I experienced a different learning system, to that which I
have experienced since coming to Australia to start my teaching qualification course. After
completing this research project in 2007, and intending to return to China to teach science in
primary schools, I wanted to find out what Chinese students‘ ideas would be in an
What Can We Learn from Chinese and Australian Primary School … 41
environment which is very different from what I have experienced in Australian schools, and
how their learning experiences impact on their views compared to western countries‘
students.
A review of the literature in this area did not provide much insight. Although some Asian
countries have been involved in like studies, no detailed studies have been conducted in
mainland China. China appears to have only been involved in two studies. One study
compared children‘s images of scientists from five Asian countries (Manabu et al., 2002). The
other one was conducted more recently by Farland-Smith (2009) and compared American and
Chinese elementary students‘ perceptions of scientists. Neither of the two studies seemed to
have investigated the possible contribution of the participants‘ differing education
experiences in constructing their perceptions of scientists and science.
On a small scale, this study sought to investigate young children‘s perceptions towards
science and science learning from different cultural and education systems. The raw data was
collected in both a Chinese and an Australian primary school. The research examined the
similarities and differences between the two groups of participants. It is hoped that this study
might contribute further insight into the role that the curriculum structure and learning
experiences play in influencing students‘ attitudes towards learning science and what, if
anything, schools and teachers may do to improve the teaching of primary science.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Science Education and Scientific Literacy
Science education has captured much attention along with the vast development in
science and technology in recent decades. The discussion of what school science should teach
has become more public and intense. Education authorities from various countries (e.g., the
United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore) have been reviewing their science curriculum
and refining it to keep pace with these developments. Australia (e.g., Queensland Studies
Authority [QSA], 2007; Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority [VCAA], 2005) and
China (Guo, 2003; Li, 2000) have been among these authorities. In addition, governments and
the wider community are acknowledging the significance of science education in a heavily
scientifically and technologically oriented world and are seeking ways to improve science
teaching and learning for the young generations (Education Review Office, 2010; Murphy et
al., 2010; National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of
Medicine, 2007; Goodrum and Rennie, 2007; Tytler, 2007a; Tytler, Osborne, Williams,
Tytler and Clark, 2008). The notion of scientific literacy emerged with the rapid
developments in science and the requirement for community members to keep pace with the
aggressive progress in science and technology. Scientific literacy is expected to be another
essential tool, in addition to language literacy and numeracy, for the younger generation to
live competently as responsible citizens in this current century. Educators and governments
all around the world have acknowledged that the fundamental purpose of contemporary
science education is to promote scientific literacy (e.g., Goodrum et al., 2001; National
Academy of Science, 2007; OECD, 1999; Goodrum and Rennie, 2007; State of Council of
PRC, 2006; Tytler, 2007a).
42 Hui Cheng
Scientific literate people, as described by Goodrum et al. (2001, p.15), are those who are:
interested in and understand the world around them, to engage in the discourses of and about
science, to be skeptical and questioning of claims made by others about scientific matters, to be
able to identify questions and draw evidence-based conclusions, and to make informed decisions
about the environment and their own health and well being.
This definition concludes the national goals of schooling related to science education in
the Adelaide Declaration in Australia (Ministerial Council on Education, Employment,
Training and Youth Affairs [MCEETYA], 1999) and shares views with those from the United
States (e.g., American Association for the Advancement of Science [AAAS], 1989; National
Science Council [NSC], 1996), the United Kingdom (e.g., Millar and Osborne, 1998), China
(State Council of PRC, 2006) and the OECD Programme for International Student
Assessment (OECD/PISA) (OECD, 1999).
According to this definition, students will not only have the necessary understandings
about scientific knowledge but also possess the skills of working and thinking scientifically.
By achieving this goal, students will be empowered for active involvement in the wider
community having an interest in following scientific development, understand and question
critically the science related issues or debates, and be able to make their own informed
decisions.
Placing scientific literacy as one of the most crucial education outcomes, Murcia (2005)
proposed a framework which well described the knowledge involved in contemporary
scientific literacy. In her view, scientific literacy is a blend of knowledge from three
dimensions: the nature of science, the interaction of science and society, and enduring and
important scientific terms and concepts.
Focusing on the nature of science, students are to be supported to perceive science as a
way of thinking, to understand the dynamic, ongoing characteristics of science and the
development of scientific knowledge, and to have an objective, positive and appropriately
skeptical view towards science.
Holbrook and Rannikmae (2007) also state that learning about the nature of science
strongly supports the enhancement of students‘ scientific literacy. They argued that teaching
the nature of science should be regarded as ―education through science‖ with the main focus
on students‘ interests and needs, and their motivation to engage in science learning. In
primary schools, one of the advantages is that of the children‘s strong drive of their innate
curiosity to explore the world surrounding them.
Also, generally their interests and attitudes to science learning are positive (Goodrum, et
al., 2001; Holbrook and Rannikmae, 2007). Science education, accordingly, needs to be
student-centred and focused on the development of utilising science skills to reason and
investigate as an integral part of the promotion of scientific literacy, rather than the
acquisition of content knowledge only. Science teachers have to possess a clear picture of
what scientific literacy really means, and understand how students perceive themselves when
learning and working on science to assist learners to construct a positive view towards science
learning and progress further.
SCIENCE EDUCATION IN CHINA AND AUSTRALIA

The educational systems in China and in Australian are different. The Australian system
is a representation of the current general western education system and the Chinese education
system refers to its own. In the Chinese education system, learning is usually subject based
and textbooks are provided for each subject. Teaching content is organised rigidly according
to the textbook in use. It is also examination-oriented and can involve a significant part of
memorisation and mechanical drilling throughout the teaching and learning process.
However, in Australia, learning seeks to be more integrated and student-centred. Schools and
teachers follow learning standards or frameworks developed by the relevant education
department but have the option to design and choose learning activities and experiences
according to the learners‘ need. There might or might not be set textbooks in primary years.
Examination is used as a measure and may or may not contribute significantly to the day to
day planning for teaching and learning.
In Australia, since the mid 1980s, scientific literacy has been an extensively discussed
issue nation-wide (e.g., Australian Science Teachers Association [ASTA], 1985, cited in
Goodrum et al., 2001; Rennie, 2005) and frameworks are generally provided in the
States/Territories‘ curricula focusing on promoting scientific literacy. However, the actual
implementation in schools differs from the intended curriculum (Goodrum et al., 2001). In
Goodrum et al.‘s (2001) report, it was revealed that there was a vast variance in the quality of
science teaching in primary schools. The gap between the ideal and actual pictures of science
education was shown to be quite broad. In addition, a recent national report has revealed that
the proportion of students in senior years enrolled in science subjects has continued to decline
(DEST, 2006, cited in Goodrum and Rennie, 2007) and science programs in many schools are
still an overlooked area in the curriculum.
Compared to the development of science education in western countries, China has been
left behind (State Council of PRC, 2006). Although the study of science (Natural Studies as it
was called from 1920s till 2000) has always been part of the primary curricula since early 20th
century, especially in upper primary years, the teaching has been very much focused on the
transmission of scientific facts and knowledge (Guo, 2003; Li, 2000). The importance of
promoting scientific literacy has been acknowledged in the past decade, along with economic
development, and the increasing connection between China and the western world. As stated
in the Guidelines for the National Scientific Literacy Action Plan (State Council of PRC,
2006), one of the goals is to ensure that by 2020 the national scientific literate level should
reach the same as that achieved by developed countries early in the 21st century.
Therefore, there are some challenges ahead for science educators in China if they seek to
align with their western counterparts. In Chinese primary schools, science as a specific
subject is now only offered to Year 3 and above (Li, Qian and Yang, 2008). Western science
teaching materials, mainly from the United States, have been introduced and the content of
current science textbooks has been under amendment in order to reflect contemporary
scientific development.
However, the lack of qualified science teachers, effective science programs, and adequate
time allocation in reality remain as critical challenges for a comprehensive science education
program in primary schools (Committee of Education Shanghai, 2000; Fan and Zhao, 2002;
Hao, 2000).
44 Hui Cheng
STUDENTS‟ PERCEPTIONS OF SCIENTISTS AND SCIENCE

The Draw-a-Scientist Test (DAST) (Chambers, 1983) has been acknowledged as a
feasible and helpful instrument to understand young children‘s perceptions of scientists and
science (Barman, 1997; Fung, 2002; Schibeci and Sorensen, 1983). Though there are many
studies that have used the DAST, the majority have been conducted within a country or a
region, that is mainly in western cultures (e.g., Barman (the United States), 1997; Finson,
Beaver and Cramond (the United States), 1995; Newton and Newton (the United Kingdom),
1992, 1998; Schibeci and Sorensen (Australia), 1983; Song and Kim (Korea), 1999; Turkmen
(Turkey), 2008). There are no similar detailed studies conducted in mainland China. In
addition, while international research is gaining increasing attention in the contemporary
education community (Phillips and Schweisfurth, 2008) and educators all over the world are
paying attention to young learners‘ attitudes towards learning science (Sjøberg and Schreiner,
2010), it appears that only two comparative studies have been conducted so far to understand
children‘s images of scientists from different cultural and educational backgrounds. Farland-
Smith (2009) conducted a very recent one comparing American and Chinese primary school
students‘ perceptions of scientists. This seems to be the only research that involves a western
and another culture. The other study was conducted earlier by Manabu et al. (2002) which
examined children‘s images of science and scientists among five Asian countries.
Nevertheless, both of these two studies were based on the analysis of drawings alone and no
examination had been extended to the participants‘ learning experiences and other possible
influential factors.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
My study has sought to investigate the following two questions:
1) What are Chinese and Australian children‘s contemporary perceptions of scientists

and the learning of science? And what are the differences or similarities between
these two cohorts that come from different cultures with different educational
systems?
2) To what extent do the different learning experiences appear to influence the
construction in young learners‘ perceptions of scientists and the learning of science?
METHODOLOGY
Drawings have played a very important role in much research that involves working with
young children. Many believe that drawings open a window into children‘s minds which
enables us to see, and the students to indicate, their hidden understanding (Gunstone, 1992
and Woleck, 2001, cited in Schibeci, 2006). They also provide young children with a way to
express themselves freely when their language skills may be a handicap when describing
what they want to say. The DAST approach has been adopted by many researchers in the
English speaking world, as well as in other cultures, to explore young children‘s perceptions
of scientists and science (e.g., Barman, 1997, 1999; Buldu, 2006; Fort and Varney, 1989;
Kaya, 2008; Newton and Newton, 1992; She, 1995; Song and Kim, 1999) and has been
proved to be a feasible and flexible method. In order to gain deeper understandings, which
Boylan, Hill, Wallace and Wheeler (1992) have criticised the absence of when using the
DAST only, I have implemented a conversational interview, built upon Positioning Theory
(Davies and Harré, 1990; Harré and Van Langenhøve, 1991). Each participant was
interviewed to better gather and understand children‘s explanations of their drawings. This
supported me to probe for deeper and richer understandings about their perceptions of
scientists and science learning.
Participants
One Australian and one Chinese primary school were selected to participate in this study.
There were 12 participants from each school involved, thus a total of 24 students. In each
school, the 12 students formed two groups at two year levels: Year 2 and Year 5. There were
six students from each year level and they were selected with assistance from classroom
teachers to represent a mix of gender (three boys, three girls) and ability. All twelve children
from China were native Chinese and the twelve Australian children were Caucasians.
Method
The participants were invited first to draw ‗a scientist doing science‘, which was
developed by Barman (1997) based on Draw-A-Scientist Test (DAST) approach (Chambers,
1983). This was then followed by a conversational interview conducted individually with the
child. In each school, the DAST was conducted in groups of each year level. The interview
used the participant‘s drawing as a starting point, inviting him/her to explain what was
depicted and gradually moved on to explore his/her views of and ideas about scientists and
science learning (Appendix A: Interview topics (English and Chinese)). Following from the
discussion about their drawings, a few standard questions were asked of each child about their
views of science in general. Some questions were adapted for Chinese Year 2 students as they
had little to no prior experience of learning science at school. Although the questions were
set, the researcher was flexible and further sought to follow up the conversation about any
interesting or extraordinary responses that the children gave. All interviews were recorded
using a software program called Audacity that was installed on the researcher‘s laptop.
Data Analysis
All drawings produced by the Chinese and Australian participants were coded based on
an adapted version of the DAST-C that had been adopted by Barman (1997, see Appendix B:
Adapted Draw-a-Scientist Checklist). The information about the drawing provided by the
participants during these interviews was also taken into account in the process of coding.
Given that this is a cross cultural study, the researcher was open to the possibilities that there
46 Hui Cheng
might be common stereotypical features that on the original list would not be applicable or
relevant in analysing the drawings for both cohorts from China and Australia.
The first step in analysing interview data was listening to the recordings. Maxwell (2005)
pointed out that listening to interview tapes prior to transcription is an opportunity for
analysis. During listening, notes and tentative ideas about the topics were made. The topics
refer to the broad areas or issues relating to the subject matter under study about which, prior
to the interviews, the researcher anticipated information would be gained (McMillan and
Schumacher, 2001, cited in Maxwell, 2005). The topics in this study included ―images of
scientists‖, ―scientific work‖, ―understanding of the nature of science‖ and ―purpose of
learning science‖.
Then the second step was transcription. All relevant data related to the topics was
transcribed and a coding process (Miles and Huberman, 1994) was used. The coding process
in this study began with identifying important information in each topic and then tabulating
this information to assist the researcher when comparing the Chinese and Australian
participants‘ perceptions of scientists and science.
Whenever applicable, the transcription was also coded using Pronoun Grammar Analysis
(PGA), which was developed based on Positioning Theory. PGA is an objective coding tool
for analysing conversational data (Mühlhäusler and Harré, 1990) and it assists a researcher to
‗identify the relationship a speaker has with the topic at hand, or with the object or artifact,
from the notion of the umwelt‘ (von Uexhull, 1982, cited in Redman and Fawns, 2010, p.
170). Pronouns can be used to track what is said and how the speaker expresses his/her
relationship to the content under discussion.
And people‘s feelings and attitudes can be revealed by the choice of and variety of
pronouns which is reflected in how they position themselves or want to be positioned within
the conversation.
FINDINGS
Part A. Findings from the Drawings
All the drawings from China and Australia were coded based on a revised DAST-C. The
revised DAST-C had two common stereotypes, ―race‖ (i.e., Caucasian only) and ―age‖ (i.e.,
Middle-aged or elderly scientist), removed from the adapted DAST-C (Barman, 1997;
Chamber, 1983; Finson et al., 1995) as they were found not to be applicable to this cross-
cultural study. After that the drawings were further studied by employing the four aspects
discussed by Buldu (2006):
1) types of scientist depicted,

2) gender,
3) distinguishing features of the scientists, and
4) the activities that the scientists were doing.
Participants‘ explanation of their drawing during the interview was counted as well in
presenting the following findings of both countries.
Chinese Students‟ Drawings
The Chinese cohort scored either 0 or 1 in most of the standard categories on the revised
DAST-C. The indicator that had the most responses in these twelve drawings was the
‗symbols of research‘. More than half of the drawings showed male scientists ―working
indoors‖. See Table 1 for detailed responses by Chinese students.
The total number of stereotypical indicators dropped slightly from 16 in Year 2 to 14 in
Year 5. Fewer Year 5 children drew male scientists and scientists working indoors. However,
there was a more significant rise in the portrayal of technology, from 0 in Year 2 to 3 in Year
5.
The types of scientists represented in the twelve drawings by the Chinese students in the
study are shown in Table 2. Scientists have been shown as working outdoors in the Chinese
children‘s drawings: 50% by Year 5 and 33% by Year 2 students. It was also noted that more
girls than boys drew scientists outside the laboratory. This range of scientific activity has not
been reported in the published literature.
Table 1. Stereotypical Features Shown by the Study Sample of 12 Chinese Students
Frequency of Frequency of
Stereotypical features in drawing indication indication
Year 2 (N=6) Year 5 (N=6)
Lab coat 0 1
Eyeglasses 1 0
Symbols of research
5 4
(e.g., scientific instruments, lab equipment, etc.)
Technology presented
0 3
(e.g., computers, telescope, etc.)
Relevant captions
1 0
(e.g., formulae, the "eureka!" syndrome, etc.)
Male gender only 5 3
Scientist working indoors 4 3
Facial hair 0 0
Symbols of knowledge 0 0
Indications of danger 0 0
Total 16 14
Table 2. Type of Scientist Depicted by Chinese Students
Number drawn by Number drawn by Year

Type of Scientist
Year 2 students 5 students
Botanist 1 0
Chemist 3 3
Geologist 0 1
Inventor 2 0
Oceanographer 0 1
Physicist 0 1
48 Hui Cheng
Figure 1. A chemist working on magical potions drawn by Matthew (Year 2 boy).
Figure 2. Three botanists investigate plants drawn by Betty (Year 2 girl).
Figure 3. A geologist studying meteorites drawn by Helen (Year 5 girl).

In Year 5, half of the participants, one boy and two girls, drew female scientists. In Year
2, however, only one girl did the same. Apart from botanists (see Figure 2), most female
scientists were drawn working indoors as chemists (e.g. Figure 5 – 6).
Figure 4. The story about a real Chinese inventor drawn by Debby (Year 2 girl) (Side Text: There were
no umbrellas before. In the speech bubble: What should we do?).
Figure 5. A female scientist drawn by Dan (Year 5 boy).
Figure 6. Two female scientists doing medical research drawn by Nancy (Year 5 girl).
50 Hui Cheng
There were no unique or distinguishing features that related to the scientist‘s stereotypical
appearance (e.g., wearing lab coat or eyeglasses, having facial hair or frizzy hair) in the
drawings of scientists produced by Chinese participants. The scientists in the drawings
produced by Year 2 children were mostly smiling.
Corresponding to the range of scientists that had been depicted in the 12 drawings, there
were a variety of scientific activities shown. There were scientists investigating plants,
creating a time machine, seeking cures of cancer, studying meteorites and inventing things.
The use of technology in scientific work (as noted in Table 1) however, was only found in
three Year 5 students‘ pictures. Two of them drew computers (see Figures 5 – 6). None of the
Year 2s included any use of contemporary science technologies.
AUSTRALIAN STUDENTS‟ DRAWINGS

The Australian students drew a total of 25 stereotypical features listed in the revised
DAST-C instrument in both Year 2 and Year 5. The most common stereotypical feature,
appearing in all twelve Australian drawings, was that the scientists were shown working
indoors. The next two most common indicators were that the scientists were male and used
the symbols of research such as test tubes, flasks and beakers. Scientists were also more
commonly drawn wearing lab coat and glasses by the Australian students. In the Australian
children‘s drawings, the representations of the scientist had a commonality. All twelve
participants had drawn a ―chemist type‖ of scientist working in a laboratory with the same
equipments such as test tubes, flasks and beakers (see Figures 7 – 10). There were no
scientists drawn working outdoors.
Table 3. Stereotypical Features Shown by the Study Sample of 12 Australian Students
Frequency of Frequency of
Stereotypical features in drawing indication indication
Year 2 (N=6) Year 5 (N=6)
Lab coat 4 4
Eyeglasses 2 3
Symbols of research
4 6
(e.g., scientific instruments, lab equipment, etc.)
Technology presented
1 0
(e.g., computers, telescope, etc.)
Relevant captions
0 0
(e.g., formulae, the "eureka!" syndrome, etc.)
Male gender only 6 4
Scientist working indoors 6 6
Facial hair 1 1
Symbols of knowledge 1 0
Indications of danger 0 1
Total 25 25
3 sets out these details compiled from the Australian students.

In the Australian children‘s drawings, the representations of the scientist had a
commonality. All twelve participants had drawn a ―chemist type‖ of scientist working in a
laboratory with the same equipments such as test tubes, flasks and beakers (see Figures 7 –
10). There were no scientists drawn working outdoors.
There were few female representations in Australian students‘ drawings. The two female
scientists were drawn by two Year 5 girls (see Figures 9 and 11). None of the Year 2 children
drew female figures.
Figure 7. A scientist making poisonous fluids drawn by Aaron (Year 2 boy).
Figure 8. A scientist doing experiments drawn by Carol (Year 2 girl).

52 Hui Cheng
Figure 9. A female scientist doing medical research drawn by Fiona (Year 5 girl).
Figure 10. A scientist discovering new medicine drawn by Diana (Year 5 girl).
Figure 11. A female scientist finding a cure for cancer drawn by Emma (Year 5 girl) (The television
was drawn to show a news reporter announcing the research outcome of the scientist).
The stereotypical features of a scientist listed on the DAST-C were common in the
drawings produced by Australian participants. At both Year 2 and Year 5 levels, two thirds of
children in each group drew scientists wearing lab coats and approximately half wore glasses.
One drawing in each year level had facial hair on the scientist and many had drawn frizzy or
spiky hairstyle on their scientists (see Figures 7, 8, 10 and 12). The male images were often
―cool‖ or eccentric with a ‗self-satisfied‘ smile.
All participants drew scientists working indoors with some sort of chemistry activity.
Few details were shown apart from two drawings which included labels and side texts (see
Figure 11). While the symbols of research were found in more than 80% of the drawings, it is
worth noting that the use of computer technology was only found in one Year 2 participant‘s
picture. None of the Year 5 children had any of the contemporary technologies available to
science presented.
PART B. FINDINGS FROM THE INTERVIEWS

The interview data from both countries were analysed based on the following five themes
and are presented in two sections:
1) the children‘s personal reflection on their drawings of scientists,

2) reflections on and connections with the real world,
3) understanding of the nature of science,
4) views of types of scientific work, and
5) interest in learning science.
54 Hui Cheng
INTERVIEWS WITH THE CHINESE STUDENTS

The Children‟s Personal Reflection on Their Drawings of Scientists
Every picture produced presented a story. All Chinese participants were able to provide
richer information when they were asked to explain what they had drawn. Their narratives
added to and unpacked their perceptions of science. For the Year 2 students in particular,
many indicated a sense of ‗self‘ embedded in the drawing. For example:
Betty had drawn scientists investigating plants (see Figure 2). She told her interviewer
(the author) that she really liked observing plants and that she wanted to go on and explore
the Antarctic when she grows up:
Betty, Year 2 Student

Interviewer: Can you please explain what you have drawn in your picture?
Betty: I drew scientists investigating plants.
Interviewer: Do you know what science is?
Betty: Science, is, … is the ability to observe.
Interviewer: Would you like to have science lessons in school?
Betty: Yes, I would.
Interviewer: Would you be interested in science?
Betty: Yes, I would.
Interviewer: Can you explain why?
Betty: Because… because, because I really like observing some plants,
and I want to explore the Antarctic when I grow up.
Betty proposes that scientific work requires skills of investigating and an interest in
exploring. More importantly, she has a perception of herself as a scientist.
Reflections on and Connections with the Real World
Nearly all the Year 2 participants (5 out of 6) were able to tell one or more scientists‘
names and all of them were either Chinese or western inventors. Year 2 students have a
confident personal identity, indicating a relationship, with science as invention of a new
future that is indicated by their use of the first person singular pronouns in their
conversations.
Year 2 Students
Debby: … Because I want to invent things that can be useful to my parents and grandparents.
Jack: I want to invent things just like them.
Matthew: It will enable me to invent things like them when I grow up.
Year 5 participants identified personally less strongly with their representations. Only one
child mentioned that he wanted to be a scientist in future and three were able to recall one or a
few scientists‘ names.
When asked whether the scientists in their drawings represented real scientists, 75% of
the twelve Chinese participants thought they were or almost the same. All the students
believed that science was useful in their daily lives to various extents. The six Year 2 children
were very positive about the usefulness of science.
All except for one child were able to present examples. Year 5 children, however, were
more tentative. Two thought science had some use and one said very little could be used in
everyday life.
Understanding of the Nature of Science
Most Chinese Year 2 participants could not answer the question ―What is science?‖ They
have no experience in learning science in or outside school and were unsure of what science
was about. After three years of learning science at school, three Year 5 students attempted to
answer this question and the other three were uncertain about it.
One boy thought science was a type of complicated mathematics that required
investigations and explorations. One girl believed that science required continuous effort to
seek the truth and careful observation. Another girl thought science was something that had
special standards and its own principles.
When students were asked, ―Why do you have to learn science?‖, the two major reasons
given by Year 2 students were: to invent things like the famous inventors they had been
learning about in stories (3 out of 6) and learning science was very interesting (3 out of 6).
The Year 5 group had a broader view. Half of the group believed that the major purpose was
to help people understand science and not to be superstitious.
Views of Types of Scientific Work
In their drawings, Chinese students presented a relatively broad range of scientists

working in various scientific areas. Nevertheless, when each child was asked the question,
―What else do scientists do apart from what you have drawn?‖, it appeared that they had
limited understanding of the range of scientific work.
Most Year 2 students attempted to elaborate on work of the scientist(s) in their drawing
(e.g. more inventions for inventors) and the majority of Year 5 participants only offered
general scientific processes that scientists do such as sampling, investigating, and
experimenting.
Interest in Learning Science
In regards to their interest in science learning, all Year 2 participants, having had no prior
science learning experiences, expressed strong enthusiasm about learning science. They were
all looking forward to starting science in Year 3. The six children in Year 5 had varied views
56 Hui Cheng
about learning science after three years‘ study. Two were very interested, two were interested
and the other two were not very enthusiastic.
INTERVIEWS WITH THE AUSTRALIAN STUDENTS

The Children‟s Personal Reflection on Their Drawings of Scientists
From the drawings it appeared that these Australian children‘s images of scientists were
more stereotypical and matched the findings of previous studies (e.g., Barman, 1997;
Chambers, 1983; Newton and Newton, 1992, 1998).
What emerged from the interview data, however, presented a different picture. When
asked if ‗real life‘ scientists looked like the one in their picture, nearly all participants in Year
5 responded negatively. They were able to give explanations regarding the differences
between real scientists and the ones they had drawn.
Year 5 Students
Interviewer: Do scientists in real life look like the one in your picture?
1. Diana: Well, that was just the stereotypical drawing of what I had in my head of a scientist. But
um, scientists could be male, female, they could be like young or they could be really old. It
just depends.
2. Emma: No, I wouldn‘t say so. Maybe when they were in the lab, maybe. But, um, I have been
led to believe that they look like that for a while because video games and all of that. I have
seen them on TV. Some, uh, will look sort of like that. But, um, I have seen a few that
actually sort of like surgeons in blue. That‘s …, kind of hard to explain.
3. Fiona: Not all the time. They might have different uniforms and they might not be. Cos there is
like, when you are like, watch movies and you kind of think that scientists are like that but
they‘re probably not. But I just drew that cos it looks like someone I saw.
4. Finn: No. Uh, they are normally a lot more calm, and they don‘t normally, the ones I have seen
they don‘t normally do this kind of experiments. They don‘t really have frizzy hair. So they
are normally more calm. Um, … not usually.
5. Ethan: They usually wear the white coats, the white dresses, and big goggles. Well, they‘d be
calmer not with the dirty hair.
From these responses, it was quite clear that these children had much greater
understanding than was revealed in their drawings. These participants knew that scientists
could be male or female, could be young or old, and could be wearing different uniforms and
doing different things. Two children mentioned the influences that television programs, video
games and movies had on the images they drew (see Emma and Fiona in the above interview
data). Nonetheless, this pattern was not clear in Year 2. The younger group (five out of six)
tended to believe that real scientists could look like the ones in their pictures except for minor
differences caused by their limited drawing skills.
Reflections on and Connections with the Real World
When participants were asked if they knew any scientists, one Year 2 child and five
children in Year 5 answered. Einstein was mentioned by four of the six students who
responded. In relation to the question as to whether the science that is learnt at school was
useful in everyday life: in Year 2, five children believed that science was useful in our life but
only two were able to give examples (medical application and the explosion caused by
vinegar and baking soda). One boy believed that only science outside school is useful but not
the science learnt at school! At Year 5, three children were positive about the usefulness of
science in their daily living and one was tentative. The other two children, however, felt that
what they have learnt in school was not useful. Like the Year 2 student, one of them also
believed that science in general was useful but that this was not what they were learning at
school. Generally the children did not make connections between science knowledge and
applications in their lives. School science and real world science were different entities for
many of the children.
Understanding of the Nature of Science
The majority of Year 2 participants were able to express some ideas about what they
thought science meant to them. Three students focused on skills such as experimenting,
estimating, reasoning and creating. The other two spoke of different categories of science, for
instance, science about the ocean and environment. The Year 5 participants‘ responses to this
question were varied. Some offered simple answers while others were able to display deeper
understandings. Two boys identified science with experimenting and creating useful things
whereas the three girls provided more complicated responses. All girls emphasised that in
science, there were ‗different types of things‘ that could be researched, explored and
analysed. The three of them identified science with constantly looking for new knowledge
and understanding. When they were asked about the purpose of learning science, the main
reason provided by Year 2 children was that they were learning science to know about the
world or to be smart and capable in their future lives. Two Year 5 children started to present
bigger visions for learning science, such as learning science was to help younger children to
be involved in science because scientists help everyone and the society needs them. Two
other students insisted that learning science would be used a lot later in life.
Overall, it seems that the majority of children by Year 5 had accepted that science is
likely to be important in their personal life and in the community in the future.
Views of Types of Scientific Work
Although all participants depicted the chemist in their drawings of the scientist, responses
to the question ‗What else do scientists do?‘ produced a much broader perception, especially
from the year 5 cohort. Two Year 2 children commented on what scientists could do, such as
experiment with and discover things and one said that scientists test medicines on animals to
see if it is safe for humans to use. Year 5 children were aware of one or more different
58 Hui Cheng
scientific areas such as looking at nature, examining asteroids, plants and animals, looking for
cure(s) for cancer and making new things.
Interest in Learning Science
In regard to children‘s interest in learning about science, the majority of Year 2

participants (5 out of 6) were positive about learning science.
In Year 5, however, the views were divided. Three children were very interested, two
were more or less interested and the other one was not interested.
DISCUSSION
Part A. Research Question 1
What are Chinese and Australian children‘s perceptions of scientists and the learning of
science? And what are the differences or similarities between the two cohorts coming from
different cultures with different educational systems?
CHINESE AND AUSTRALIAN STUDENTS‟ IMAGES OF SCIENTISTS

Differences
Types of Scientists and Scientific Activities

Looking at the drawings only, all Australian students had drawn scientists working
indoors with chemistry while it was notable that Chinese students represented their scientists
working in both indoor and outdoor environments and doing a variety of scientific activities.
Scientists working indoors was a concern that many previous studies had raised as very low
percentages of children would depict scientists working outside a laboratory (Barman 1997;
Chambers, 1983; Newton and Newton, 1998; Song and Kim, 1999). In this study, nearly half
Chinese participants had drawn their scientist(s) in an alternative environment to the indoor
lab.
For scientific activities, Farland-Smith (2009) discovered that Chinese students tended to
include inventions whereas American students mainly represented chemistry work in their
drawings. This pattern of scientific work was evident in this study. Coming from a western
education system like the American students, all Australian children had drawn chemistry
related images. For Chinese participants, especially for the Year 2 students, inventions were
the major theme in relation to science.
Nonetheless, when all participants were asked if they knew of other scientific activities
that scientists do apart from what they drew in their drawings, the interview data provided a
different picture to what had been acquired from the participants‘ drawings. Chinese students
had a comparatively limited view of the variety of scientific work to that of their Australian
counterparts. Most of the Australian students, but in particular Year 5, were capable of
explaining various scientific work (e.g., looking at nature, examining asteroids, working with
animals) whereas only two Year 5 Chinese students named a few different types of scientists.
As mentioned in the literature review, science education is introduced from Year 3
onwards in Chinese primary schools while in Australia science is part of the curriculum
starting at preparatory level. It seems the three additional years of learning science by
Australian students compared to that of their counterparts at each year level in China, might
have assisted the Australians to have a better understanding and a broader view of different
types of scientific work.
Distinguishing Features of the Scientists

Australian participants‘ representations of scientists have the commonly found
stereotypical features such as lab coats, glasses, facial hair and strange hairstyle which had
been reported in many previous studies (Barman, 1997; Chambers, 1983; Huber and Burton,
1995; Newton and Newton, 1998; Song and Kim, 1999). However these factors were not
common, nor evident in Chinese children‘s drawings.
The interview, once again, provides more insight into how these children truly see
scientists in reality, particularly for Australian Year 5 children. Each participant was asked if
the real scientist looked like the one represented in his/her picture. 75% of Chinese
participants responded positively whereas nearly all Australian Year 5 children disagreed.
These Year 5 children explained that scientists in reality could be male or female, young or
old, could be wearing different uniforms and doing a variety of things. Some of them
commented on the drawing that they did and said that it was stereotypical and was what they
had seen on television programs, video games and movies.
Images presented by public media such as television programs, cartoons and video games
could be a significant contributing factor to young children‘s images of scientists.
In Song and Kim‘s (1999) study, they discovered that films and cartoons were two of the
most popular sources that the participants identified as their origins of the images.
Compared with Australian and many other western cultures, there were fewer scientific
cartoons or television programs available for Chinese children.
During the interview, one Chinese Year 2 child even mentioned that he had been wanting
to see on television how scientists work. Thus it is possible that the media had less influence
on the Chinese students‘ views of scientists than that of the Australian participants.
This has also shown that Australian Year 5 children in fact were not all holding
stereotypical images of scientists as demonstrated in their pictures. They knew more than
what they had presented in the drawing. When asked to draw, Maoldomhnaigh and Hunt
(1988, cited in Jarvis, 1996) believed that some children tend to present what they feel to be
socially acceptable images first. This could be what happened in this Australian group. They
chose to produce iconic figures or familiar images of what they have seen in media in their
drawings but they were aware that these images were not reflecting reality.
Smiling Scientists
In both cohorts, there were two thirds or nearly two thirds (8 Australians and 7 Chinese)
of the participants drew ‗self-satisfied‘ or smiling scientists. The seven Chinese participants
were made up of six Year 2 students and one Year 5. The eight Australian were divided
evenly in both Year 2 and Year 5 level.
60 Hui Cheng
Smiling scientists were only mentioned in a recent research conducted by Turkmen

(2008), in which he had discovered that 61% of the Year 5 students in his study that had
drawn smiling scientist. Prior to Turkmen, there were no other studies that had discussed this
element except for Huber and Burton (1995). They measured the presence of a ‗weird‘ smile
on scientists and found that the boys were more likely to include a weird smile in their
drawings than the girls. The gender factor on smiling scientists was not evident in this study.
Smiling can be seen as an indication of enjoyment and self-satisfaction that the scientists
being depicted found in their work. It is possible that for these students who had drawn
smiling scientists, they had perceived doing science as an enjoyable experience. It is not
known whether these joyful experiences came from school experiences or other places and
channels.
The Missing Technology

Though not as a highly significant factor, technology had been mentioned in many
previous studies. Barman (1997) found that there was an increasing tendency to depict the
presence of technology (e.g., televisions, computers) in young children‘s drawings as one
moved up year levels. Turkmen (2008) discovered that more than 40% Grade 5 students had
drawn computers and he believed that this could have resulted from the increased use of
computers in science lessons in Turkey.
In this study, surprisingly, neither computers nor other contemporary technologies
available in science (such as digital telescopes) were commonly presented in Australian and
Chinese participants‘ drawings. In the Australian group, only one Year 2 child drew a
computer and no Year 5 participants included any technologies. Two Chinese Year 5 students
included computers and no Chinese in Year 2 had drawn any technologies.
This pattern might be reflecting some reality in these two countries. In Australia,
computers are greatly integrated in young children‘s learning processes and perhaps these
children were no longer considering it as a special tool connected with scientists in particular.
For Chinese children in junior grades, however, they probably had not had as much
experience working with computers and might have been lacking an understanding of what
computers could do in science.
CHINESE AND AUSTRALIAN STUDENTS‟
PERCEPTIONS OF SCIENCE AND SCIENCE LEARNING
Differences
Connection with the Real World

All Chinese and most Australian children believed that science was useful in their daily
life. Nearly all the Chinese students were able to present examples of how science was
applied to their living. However many Australian students were not as successful at making
this connection. Chinese Year 2 children listed inventions (such as telephones, light bulbs),
natural knowledge (ants move up to higher ground when it is going to rain) and medical
applications. Nevertheless, only one Australian Year 2 student was able to present appropriate
examples. In both countries, the examples Year 5 participants provided tended to relate to
what they had just learnt in school. For example, floating and sinking, seasons, combustible
materials. It is noted that some Australian children had the perception that school science was
different from real world science whereas no Chinese children revealed similar views.
When participants were asked to name any scientists they knew, only one Year 2 and four
Year 5 Australian children were able to respond. However, the responses were limited to
Einstein, the Wright brothers and three others that the participants had some personal
connections with. In contrast to the Australian group, five Chinese Year 2 and three Year 5
students successfully answered this question. Their answers provided a variety of scientist
from different scientific fields. Many Chinese children explained that they knew these
scientists from their Chinese language textbook. The contribution made by different learning
experiences to assist young children‘s understanding of science was evident here. The
Australian children had local scientists visiting schools thus they had made a personal
connection with those scientists. In China, the participants had acquired most of their
knowledge about scientists from their literacy education. The role of these varying learning
experiences in children‘s perceptions of science and scientists will be discussed later.
Understanding the Nature of Science

At the Year 2 level, most of the Chinese students, who had no experience learning
science in or outside school, were unsure what science was about. However, the majority of
Australian participants were able to shed some light on what science meant to them. In Year
5, the division between the two countries remained. More than half of the Chinese group was
still uncertain of what science was about whereas only one Australian child was unsure.
Within the Australian group, during an interview in following up one of the girl‘s
thoughts of science as keeping up and needing to seek for new information, the question, ―Do
you think the science knowledge is changing?‖ was asked of her as well as of three other
Year 5 participants (two other girls and one boy). Their responses were very positive. All
replied firmly about the changing nature of scientific knowledge. Three of them agreed with
the possibility that the knowledge they were learning at the moment could be wrong in future.
As this question was not asked of the Chinese group, it was impossible to compare the
responses between the two cohorts. However, the Australian children‘s answers had clearly
shown that they were aware of the changing nature of science. From the comparisons
presented earlier, it was evident that Australian children at both year levels demonstrated
more understanding of what science was than their Chinese peers. This could be the result of
the varied structure of science education in the two countries and the differing emphasis
during the implementation of the science curriculum.
Perceptions of the Purpose of Learning Science

There was a clear contrast between young children‘s views of why they had to learn
science in China and Australia. While half of the Chinese Year 2 students clearly stated that
they would like to be inventors in future just like those famous inventors mentioned in the
conversations, no Australian Year 2 children revealed that they wanted to pursue a scientific
career. In the Australian group, most believed that learning science was to assist them to
know about the world and to be capable in their future lives. At the Year 5 level, both cohorts
presented varying views. Nevertheless the main reason for half of the Chinese Year 5 children
was that learning science was to help people to be less superstitious, this view was not shared
by the students in the Australian group. In addition, particular views held only by Australian
students included that science was about everyday life and would be used a lot later in life.
62 Hui Cheng
The only similar response to the purpose of learning science from both groups was that
science was important to our society. In summary, Chinese and Australian children had
varying perceptions of the purpose of learning science. Chinese Year 2 children had a strong
desire to become inventors and were all treating science as an interesting subject to learn.
Whereas after three years of learning science, less Chinese children had that desire of
pursuing science-related careers. Instead, more children in Year 5 believed that science was
something to be learnt in order to eradicate the superstitious thinking existing in the Chinese
public. Although no Australian children had presented any obvious intention to work in
scientific areas, most of them, in both Year 2 and Year 5 levels, had demonstrated their
understanding of the importance that science held in society and the role that science would
play in their personal life in future. The element of science being part of life in future was not
present in the Chinese group.
Similarities
Children’s Interest in Learning Science

It was noted that in both Australian and Chinese groups, children in Year 2 tended to be
more interested in learning science than the Year 5 students. In the Chinese group, although
the Year 2 children had not had any science learning experiences, they displayed strong
enthusiasm towards science and were all looking forward to starting science in Year 3. Five
of the six Australian Year 2 students were positive about learning science as well. The Year 5
children in both countries, however, commenced to have divisions in terms of their interest in
learning science. Some were very interested (a third Chinese and half Australian) and others
(about a third of each group) were less engaged.
This trend of upper primary school children starting to lose interest in learning science
was found in other countries too. In the United Kingdom, a number of studies have
demonstrated that there was a significant decline of interest in learning science in young
children from 8-9 years old to 10-11 years old (Institute of Electrical Engineers, 1994,
Murphy and Beggs, 2003, Parliamentary Office for Science and Technology [POST], 2003,
all cited in Murphy et al., 2010). In addition, the National Education Monitoring Project
(NEMP) in New Zealand also identified that there was declining levels of engagement in
science by primary students as they got older (Education Review Office, 2010). It seems that
the decline of students‘ interest in learning science was occurring in many nations regardless
of the differences in the structure or the implementation of science curriculum. This issue
raises concerns for science educators and actions need to be taken to look for strategies to
assist in raising children‘s engagement in learning science.
PART B. RESEARCH QUESTION 2

To what extent do the different learning experiences influence the construction in young
learners‘ perceptions of scientists and the learning of science?
Despite the differences between the primary education system in China and Australia,
interviews with these participants has revealed a number of distinguishing learning
experiences that have contributed to these children‘s constructions of their perceptions of

scientists and science.
It is notable that one experience provided to Chinese students and not apparent in the
Australian students‘ experience is that of the presence of science stories and texts. This is a
most intriguing element. Other variations in science learning experiences included the
opportunity to make connections with the local community in science education. This
occurred in Australian settings.
The Inclusion of Scientific Stories and Texts in Chinese Language Education
In China, science is introduced into the primary curriculum in Year 3. None of the Year 2
children had had science learning experiences in or outside school prior to the interview.
Nonetheless they had demonstrated a degree of understanding of what scientists do - evident
in their drawings and responses in the interview.
In addition nearly all the Year 2 participants (5 out of 6) were able to name one or more
scientists (either Chinese or western inventors) whereas most of their counterparts in
Australia were unable to recall any. The conversation with them later on disclosed one
possible critical contributing reason for this phenomenon.
In the participants‘ Chinese language textbook, the children had heard stories about
famous inventors; both Chinese and western. One of the two real scientists that two Year 2
participants drew, Ban Lu (an ancient Chinese inventor) was one of the inventors that the
students had been reading about (Appendix C: Excerpt from the Table of contents of the
Semester 2, Year 2 Chinese Language textbook). Year 2 students had been learning about the
inventing experiences that those inventors had encountered. In the interview, they also
mentioned that they were asked to do a research project about other well-known inventors
such as Lun Cai (who invented paper), Edison and Bell. By learning about these widely used
inventions, some young learners had been inspired by what they had learnt and wanted to
become inventors.
Another notable aspect was the representation of female scientists in the Chinese Year 5
group. Half of them (one boy and two girls) had drawn a female scientist. In the Year 5
Chinese language textbook, there were a few female scientists that these children had been
able to read about (Appendix D: Excerpt from the Table of contents of the Semester 2, Year 5
Chinese Language textbook). Female scientist stories included: Madam Curie, and Chengshu
Wang who worked on making China‘s first atom bomb in 1960s. It is likely that the frequent
exposure of female figures working in scientific areas might have contributed to the
participants‘ representations of female scientists in their drawings.
It seems evident that using science stories and texts may have contributed to Chinese
primary school children forming positive perceptions of scientists and learning science,
especially for the Year 2 students.
In addition, it seems that science stories and texts may offer valuable access for learners
to make more meaningful connections with their personal interest and daily life. It also may
create an effective bridge between scientific knowledge and societal application.
Soloman (2002) and others (e.g., Holliday, Yore and Alvermann, 1994; Sutton, 1992)
have been advocating the inclusion of reading science stories and texts in classrooms to
support children in learning science and to be engaged in scientific discussions. The use of
64 Hui Cheng
science stories has been reported previously to have positive influences on students, assisting
with forming their perceptions and understandings of science and scientists (Sharkawy, 2006;
Tao, 2003). Further, a recent New Zealand report on improving science education in middle
years (Bolstad and Hipkins, 2008) also emphasized the impact of narratives in science to
support children making personal connections with the persons in the narrative and thus assist
them shaping their early career thinking. In the Chinese Year 2 group, it is clear that these
children were inspired and informed by the stories about famous inventors they had read.
Therefore they had embedded a personal voice into their drawings of the scientists and stated
that they were intrigued and interested to learn about science.
Connections with Local Community in Science Education
Rennie (2006) discussed the role that communities could play in science education. She
has listed four main categories of community resources that could be helpful in dealing with
school science education. These categories include families and friends, institutions such as
zoos, museums and environmental centres, government organizations and media. Rennie has
also argued that these community resources could support children‘s learning beyond school
if they are used appropriately.
Making connections with the local community in science education only appeared in the
conversations with Australian children. All four categories defined by Rennie had been
mentioned by the Australian students. Some recounted his/her experiences visiting museums
or other institutions, others recalled the scientists who worked with them in classrooms or
came to the school for incursions.
The influences of media, however, were found to be less positive in this study as
mentioned by some Year 5 students. It seems that the media may have contributed to the
stereotypical images of scientists.
It is Rennie‘s point of view that making proper use of the community resources would
help children in forming a more social view of science and assist them to construct their
understandings in science learning. In a number of articles, Tytler and his colleagues (see
Tytler, 2005, 2007b; Tytler and Nakos, 2003) have reported their successful experiences in
improving science teaching and learning in both primary and secondary schools by involving
local scientists and the community. Similar results have been reported by Painter, Jones,
Tretter and Kubasko in the United States as well (2006).
One of the findings in this study is that Australian Year 5 children were aware of what
real scientists can be despite the stereotypical images they had drawn. It is possible that the
experiences of seeing or working with local scientists contributed to their perceptions of real
world scientists. In addition, it might have supported the Year 5 students to identify the
stereotypical features represented in the media by knowing and working with real scientists.
In China, there seems to be fewer accessible institutions to support school science
education for young children. The involvement of local communities in science teaching and
learning might require some time to develop suitable ways to contribute to school programs.
Chinese and Australian Primary Science Education
The following paragraphs will discuss significant differences between Chinese and
Australian primary science education that have emerged from this study. The two countries in
this study have different curriculum frameworks for science education. Chinese students
begin their science education in Year 3 whereas Australian children have science lessons
from their preparatory level. Although the Chinese literacy program seems to have assisted
the students to obtain and broaden their ideas of scientists and make connections with the real
world, it appeared that Australian children had more understandings of the nature of science
and broader views of types of scientific work. Secondly, the differing emphasis and ways of
implementing the science curriculum may have contributed to children having different
perceptions of the purpose of learning science. While most Australian children stated that
they believed learning science was for the bettering of personal life and the society in future,
many Chinese students were focusing on the positive aspect that science informed people to
distinguish from superstition. Questioning superstitious behaviors is one of the discussion
recommendations listed under the standards of Attitudes and Values in the Chinese National
Standard of Science Education (Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China,
2003). It is possible that these Chinese Year 5 children had experienced regular discussions
regarding the role that science plays in the socio-cultural settings in contrasting science ideas
with superstitions. Thus they had a rather strong belief in not being superstitious and saw this
as a purpose of learning science.
CONCLUSION
The visual information in the drawings has shown that Chinese children have different
images in contrast to the stereotypical representation, whereas Australian children were more
likely to include stereotypical features in their drawings. However, the interview data has
demonstrated that the Australian students, Year 5 in particular, did not think that the scientists
they produced represented the reality. They had more understanding than what they put in
their drawings. Nonetheless, they were more likely to draw familiar images or iconic figures
that they had seen frequently on television, in video games or books.
Differences existed in the Chinese and Australian young children‘s perceptions of science
and scientists. These differences include their ability to make connections with the real world,
understanding the nature of science and the purpose of learning science. Consistent with
relevant research in other countries such as the United Kingdom (POST, 2003, cited in
Murphy et al. 2010) and New Zealand (Education Review Office, 2010), similar patterns
were noted in both countries with the students‘ declining level of interest in learning science
from Year 2 to Year 5. Learning experiences, school or social environment and cultural
values all have influences on the young generations‘ perceptions of science and scientists. In
this study, a number of distinguishing learning experiences in the two countries emerged from
the conversations with the participants. One of the most interesting findings was the use of
science stories and texts in language education in Chinese primary schools. As demonstrated
from the data, this enabled the Chinese students to broaden their views of scientists and
science and assisted them to make connections with the real world.
66 Hui Cheng
Implications
One of the main implications is that using real scientist stories can be beneficial to foster
learners‘ positive attitudes in learning science. The data have shown that young children have
gained inspiration from stories about real scientists. These scientists then became role models
to inspire and encourage young children to pursue scientific knowledge or even consider a
scientific career in future. Secondly, making connections with the real world in science
teaching could improve young students‘ engagement in learning science. Making connections
with the real world, including the local community, supports learners in developing a clearer
understanding of the role that science plays in contemporary life. Finally, the variance
between the visual and interview data in this study has demonstrated that the DAST alone
cannot be an accurate instrument to investigate young children‘s images of science and
scientists. Other means of data collection such as interviews need to be adopted jointly with
the DAST to provide thorough and insightful information.
APPENDICES
Appendix A: Interview topics (English and Chinese)
Appendix B: Adapted Draw-a-Scientist Checklist (DAST-C)
Appendix C: Excerpt from the Table of contents of the Semester 2, Year 2 Chinese Language
textbook
Appendix D: Excerpt from the Table of contents of the Semester 2, Year 5 Chinese Language
textbook
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Chapter 4
TALK ABOUT SMALL: CONVERSATIONS

WITH YOUNG CHILDREN AT PLAY
WITH MOLECULE SIMULATIONS
Cheryl Jakab
ABSTRACT
There is a lot a child has to wonder about when first exploring the small scale world
of the particles of matter. Considering, as seven year old Bronwyn (pseudonym) put it
―what molecules could be‖, is complex, multifaceted and context-dependent. The very
idea of molecules and atoms, in and of themselves, opened as the topic of conversation,
leads young children to raise a wide range of linguistically and scientifically appropriate
questions; questions that develop when children apply their own past experience and
understandings in their attempts to make sense and create interpretations of signs. This is
all part of the learning process necessary to developing meanings for the molecular world
and its artifacts.
Today, many Popperian third world molecular artifacts reside in our 21 stC
information technologically rich cultures. These artifacts come to the attention of children
through everyday experience from an early age. Today, in the early 21 st century, such
science related ideas do not solely develop through the processes of schooling, as has
been reported to be the case to date. Ideas about the molecular or nanoworld, that is,
about particles, molecules, atoms and their chemical symbols, can develop today as
everyday knowledge of childhood. Learning about how scientists model, visualise,
represent and use particles of matter is no easy process. It is however, as is shown in this
chapter, the cognitive tool central to directing developmental progress towards more
sophisticated material and chemical thinking. This progress can be made easier when the
young learners ‗molecular mind‘s eye‘ is opened through contact with today‘s dynamic
interactive ICT visualisations.
72 Cheryl Jakab
INTRODUCTION
Excerpt 1 Sarah (8.4) Year 4
Interviewer: I was wanting to ask you, - can you read that word? [pointing to word
‗molecule‘ written on screen]
Sarah: mole-cule [said as two syllables heard]
Interviewer: Have you heard that be [fore]
Sarah: No Oh! Yeah, Yeah!
Sarah: It makes me think of …really of …of small ah [pose of thinking] … particles.
Interviewer: …What do you mean by that word you used then, ‗particles‘ [with nod
as emphasis]?
Sarah: Like I don‘t know much about it but …um…… I don‘t know how to explain
it …..
Interviewer: mmm …
Sarah: Um…like If you look into a telescope …no, not… a microscope, you see all
the little like bubbles, like the particles
Interviewer: … bubbles? … …
Sarah: maybe … the little dots
Eight year old Sarah connects talk of molecules with ‗particles‘, and ideas of small, ‗tiny
bubble[s]‘ -like entities, which she says ‗you would see‘ with a magnifier instrument, a
‗microscope‘. She does not claim to have such experience, in fact she acknowledges ‗I do not
know much about them‘. Her expression does identify Sarah knows molecules as objects or
entities through her expression ‗them‘.
Contrast Sarah‘s utterances with those of Robert, who is a few years older than Sarah.
Robert claims much more specific and extensive everyday knowledge for himself:
Excerpt 2 Robert (11. 9) Year 6

Interviewer: Firstly I was wondering … can you read that word? [indicating the word
molecule on computer screen]?
Robert: Molecule [definite, no hesitation]
Interviewer: You sound like you have heard it before
Robert: Well Yes. I read books by Dr Karl! One of my favourite areas of science is
particle physics.
[…] [short description of desire to study particle physics as career]
Interviewer: What do you know about that word ‗molecule‘?
Robert: I think a molecule is a group of atoms.
Interviewer: Could you tell me a bit more … [about molecules]?
Robert: Water is a molecule because it is made of hydrogen and oxygen. It‘s H2O as
there is hydrogen and oxygen… I have seen it drawn like that before.
This talk about the small bits of stuff demonstrates that the word ‗molecule‘ has everyday
associations for both Sarah and Robert, though Robert can spontaneously recount more
specific detail and uses more scientifically appropriate terminology. They have already started
on the road of learning about the small scale world of the particles of matter from their
everyday experience and activity. How many of their contemporaries would have similar
things to say? What do the children you work with today ‗say and do‘ when offered the
opportunity to interact molecular artifacts (Reckwitz, 2002)?
Talk About Small 73
This chapter presents a fine grained analysis of the ‗sayings and doings‘ of one cohort of
6-11 year old children as they explore a wide range of ‗everyday molecule‘ artifacts. Progress
towards opening the young learners ‗molecular mind‘s eye‘ through contact with today‘s
molecular artifacts including dynamic interactive ICT visualisations is demonstrated by close
attention to the learners‘ own voices.
WHAT ARE „EVERYDAY MOLECULES‟?

Today reference to atoms and molecules is increasing in our everyday world as a wide
range of nano-scale objects. Knowledge of matter as particulate not only impacts on
scientists‘ ability to design our modern material goods, ‗molecules‘ have also developed a
level of ‗reality‘ in the cultural and symbolic orders in contemporary society. Perhaps the
most important of these, at this time in the 21st century, is the everyday talk of rising levels of
carbon dioxide (CO2) from burning coal or oil and cows, rice fields and melting permafrost
releasing methane (CH4) all of which are adding a human induced increase to the greenhouse
effect leading to global warming and climate changes.
In communications rich societies, at this particular time in history, social constructions of
scientific knowledges (which include other hard won ideas such as the earth is a planet in
space in our cosmological thinking; and germ, cell and evolution theories in biological
thinking) have become part and parcel of daily life. Chemical symbols that came into
existence in the scientific realm now have come to reside in society as everyday objects,
entities or artifacts. Advertisers brand bottled water with H20, nano particles and genetic
engineering of DNA are hotly debated as safety and health issues. These are just a few of the
‗everyday molecules‘ forming evidence that molecular ways of knowing have moved
residence from the scientific realm, where they came into existence, to also residing in this
society at this time as common sense, folk or naïve ways of knowing. This movement of
residence, perhaps better described as an expansive migration into everyday culture, is
occurring as a gradual process as, one by one, these artifacts are appropriated by reporters,
teachers, advertisers and the public into everyday use. The idea that there are many objects
too small in scale for us to see with our own eyes, items that have as their realm, the micro
and nano dimensions, is a science-derived idea that has now permeated this culture at this
time in history as an everyday way of knowing. Ideas currently in the process of moving into
the everyday from the lower end of the scientifically derived ‗scale of things‘ include entities
such as carbon dioxide, prions, DNA and nano-particles which have become more and more
evident in everyday life in recent times. The small end scale has today become, for a child
developing in this culture, an accepted everyday starting point, a starting point that can be of
assistance in the development of more scientifically sophisticated thinking.
WHY THIS STUDY? WHY NOW?

The impetus for the research project this chapter is based on came from years of
experience in working with teachers and children and creating reference materials for science
learning (Jakab, 1993; Jakab and Keystone, 2000, 2007; Jakab, 2007). Hearing children as
74 Cheryl Jakab
they explore their science projects, and while using encyclopaedia, dictionaries and library
books, including those I had written, I came to realise that children today are being exposed to
far more about the molecular world than had been the case in recent past. I am experiencing
more and more primary school teachers being confronted with assisting young children to
come to grips with this fascinating and confusing world, despite the absence of a directive to
do so from curriculum guidelines, by conducting activities such as role plays of particles in
solids, liquids and gases in the early years of schooling (Jakab, 1993).
This everyday existence of identifiable molecular artifacts in our early 21st century
culture indicates that, in this society, at this time in history, this scientifically accepted way of
seeing not only acts as the basis to nanotechnologies, but, that matter as particulate has been
appropriated into everyday or folk uses. In this context I now ask:
● What can or do young children make of or with molecular world artifacts?

● What does playing with a molecule building game afford 6-11 year olds in their
progress towards molecular thinking?
Meaning and Culture
In neo-Vygotskian cultural historical activity theory (CHAT) students are seen as

motivated to make new meaning with ideas from their culture, and this I contend here,
includes molecular world ideas of central interest in this paper. Developing new meaning is
achieved through activity where the learning is scaffolded or mediated within the context of
the social setting. According to Vygotsky (1978, quoted in Kozulin et al, 2003) working
within the zone of proximal development (ZPD) creates the greatest potential for
development. The ZPD ‗contain[s] abilities that are still forming and are on the cusp of
emerging, but will not yet be manifested without social guidance‘ (Tan, Pfordresher and
Harré, 2010, p172). In Vygotskian terminology, an enabling approach to what children can
say and do is established by the social partner listening closely to the learners ‗budding‘ or
embryonic ideas and encouraging the take up of more sophisticated ideas as ‗fruits‘ of
development. Such an approach is explored here to consider a more scientifically
sophisticated way of thinking about the entities that constitute matter as an idea to assist
developmental thinking.
Sociocultural investigations have been conducted across many domains of science, to
explore how take up of concepts as cognitive tools for thinking can direct learner
development (Furberg and Arnseth, 2009; Siegal, 2008). To date there has been little research
into children‘s everyday knowledge of molecular thinking from this sociocultural tool use
perspective. In comparison a great deal of conceptual change research, conducted over the
past forty years, has demonstrated the variety of ways in which learner‘s individual ideas
about particles of matter differ from the scientific view (Lui and Lesniak, 2006; Wiser and
Smith 2008). This conceptual change research approach in the learning sciences has as its
focus individual mental representations of the scientific concepts.
From a conceptual change approach (Posner, Strike, Hewson, and Gertzog, 1982)
students‘ developing understandings of scientific concepts are viewed as naïve or intuitive
theories held in the mind of the learner that must change towards more scientifically
normative theories in development. This approach is described by sociocultural researchers,
Talk About Small 75
who are more interested in more enabling assessments of children‘s thinking, as a deficit view
of children‘s knowledge (see Siegal, 2008 for a summary across biology, cosmology and
germ theory among others).
THE STUDY
The study interviews described here were conducted with one cohort of children from
one small rural state primary school in central Victoria, Australia. The study included 24
participants ranging in age from six years and one month (6.1) to 12 years and five months
(12.5). The research conversations took place in 2010 with individual 6-11 year old children
(and two paired interviews) with this researcher acting as the adult or more expert other.
The Interview Artifacts
The difficulty in achieving a theoretical interview design was associated with how to
offer young children molecules as artifacts. What artifacts could be offered that would be able
to stand in for molecules and atoms for children today? The choice is not as easy as giving
them any macro-world object to explore, as has been used exploring children‘s cosmology.
Schoultz et al (2001) applying a cultural tool approach in order to re-examine conceptual
change research on children‘s cosmological thinking (Vosniadou, 2008) had a commonly
available object, a model globe of the earth, to give to children in their interviews, which can
act as the conceptual tool to aid thinking. For this research on chemical thinking there is not
one obvious or readily available object that would act in a similar way to a globe as an iconic
symbol (of molecules) in our culture. Indeed a search of the relevant literature would suggest
there is no such object. Conceptual change researchers propose that children do not have
preconceived ideas of particulate nature of matter prior to schooling. According to Wiser and
Smith
…learning about atomic-molecular theory is not a matter of revising one‘s pre-

existing concepts and beliefs about atoms and molecules but about developing them in
the first place… (Wiser and Smith, In Vosniadou (Ed) 2008 p. 207).
If this were true today, it would follow that there are no iconic molecular artifacts for our
children at this time in history. Thus the first step of the interview about ‗molecules‘ needed
to establish which, if any, of a range of molecular artifacts was acting as everyday objects for
these children. Only then could the question be asked, for those artifacts that have become
everyday iconic artifacts: How are these recognised artifacts understood by the participants?
And further: What are the referents for these signs? and Where do these everyday ideas came
from? It is important to remember here that the excerpts that introduce this chapter are
examples of the responses found in a study conducted at one point in time, in early 2010.
Thus, in the interview, the first stage of the process involved offering not just one artifact
to encourage and direct participants towards molecular thinking but, rather, exploring a wide
range of artifacts that the participants could use as ‗molecular‘ thinking tools (see Figure 1
below).
76 Cheryl Jakab
Figure 1. The double stimulation interview design.
The final decision was to offer various items in a range of representations in the forms of
words, images, and chemical symbols then finally playing with a web-based interactive
molecule building game (at The Molecularium). The offering of artifacts was conducted in a
flexible manner dependent on the participants‘ knowledge, skills and disposition. The last
artifact to be offered was ‗playing‘ with a web-based interactive molecule building game. The
offered idea of ‗molecules‘ was then encouraged to be applied in a physical activity,
dissolving sugar, as a problem situation. During the interactions at the different parts of the
interview conversation various themes became evident in the talk.
Awareness of fruitful themes was used to help direct conversations into what the
researcher considered may be more productive directions. The progress of the interview also
included the possibility of teaching and learning occurring as a natural consequence of the
interaction. The use of grounded theory allowed analytic categories to emerge from the data
and direct the progress of the conversation along with keeping the conversation natural.
Maintaining the interactive-dialectical (Hedegaard et al, 2008) research interviews as genuine
conversations required active participation and monitoring by the researcher in concert with
the participants. According to Grice, following Kant, normal conversation conforms to rules
of quality, quantity, relation and manner. Grice‘s maxims (see Siegal, 2008, p152) must be
adhered to if a conversation is to run in a normal or natural manner.
Interactive Visuals As Learning Tools
One of the major differences between the research approach described in this chapter, and
others exploring children‘s developing concepts of matter, is the initial offering of explicit
‗molecular‘ sign, including the 21st century interactive visualisation tool (see Figure 1 Stage
1). This interactive provided the context for close examination of the efficacy of purpose built
ICT visualisation to mediate or assist performance of participants in developing meaning of
and thinking with molecular signs. The participants were invited to play with this web-based
interactive game, with the assistance of their conversational partner after an initial discussion.
in which the participant‘s Vygotskian everyday knowledge was demonstrated. The particular
game chosen for inclusion in the research reported here is freely available on the web, The
Molecularium (Nessler Corporation). The Molecularium Kidsite is designed specifically with
young children in mind. It is a very high quality, clear interactive with colourful cartoon
characters, bright colours, songs and music along with very simple interactive activities for
children to follow.
Talk About Small 77
The Game
The Molecularium Kids Site (Figure 2) has three interactive games accessed by clicking
on the ‗Nanolab‘. Each game is based on one of the basic particle concepts central to
beginning to think with atomic-molecular theory:
1 Transform game that involves changes of state by changing temperature using a

‗vibrating dots‘ model of matter
2 Zoom game that explores the relative size by changing images by powers of ten
3 Build game that provides trial and error building of molecules simulations using
atoms of hydrogen, carbon and oxygen atom buttons.
The Build game was the main interactivity used in the research described here. In the
Build game molecules are modelled in this interactive game as being ‗built‘ by combinations
of atoms, modelling the bonding of substances using this everyday term ‗build‘ as the
conceptual analogical bridge. How well does this interactive assist, mediate and/or direct
progress in meaning-making? The majority of excerpts presented below focus on elucidating
the participants‘ steps towards meaning making during the activity with that game.
Figure 2. The Molecularium Kidsite (http://www.molecularium.com/kidsite.html) Nanolab opening

screen showing three games available – Build, Zoom and Transform. Children‘s meaning-making
with/of the Build game interactivity is central to this research.
Analysis
The theoretical framework used to analyse the conversations is informed by cultural tool
approaches (Rogoff, 2003; Gauvain, 2001), social semiotics (Ash, 2003) and discursive
psychology (Harré, 2003). The feltness of the activity situation for the learner was maintained
as central to the conversation‘s progress. The participants‘ actions and utterances have been
closely examined using positioning theory (Harré, 2002) to explore what the molecular
artifacts afforded (Gibson, 1978) the learners in their progress towards development of
molecular thinking. What is presented here highlights the dialectical relations between the
participants‘ starting point or ‗everyday molecule‘ knowledge and the scientifically more
sophisticated or normative knowledge as their meaning making advances through the activity
within the conversation.
78 Cheryl Jakab
The process therefore aims at opening the ZPD and captured meaning-in-the-making, as
compared to children simply establishing ‗cold cognition‘ (Pintrich, Marx and Boyle, 1993;
Pintrich and Sinatra, 2003) of the concepts.
RESULTS
Everyday Molecules and Atoms
the molecular model has the eminent function of a toy: among other features, it
points to an infantile regression under the cloak or umbrella of advancement of
knowledge (Laszlo, 2000, section 5).
As shown in the excerpts from Sarah and Robert above, prior to commencement of play
with the building game, participants were provided opportunity to share their everyday
knowledge of molecule and atom. Most participants 8+ years old had much more detailed and
scientifically sophisticated everyday knowledge of molecules and atoms than has been
previously documented. Many of the older participants (9-11) expressed awareness of the
word molecule as referent to a relationship between the terms ‗molecule‘ and the second term,
yet to be offered, ‗atom‘. In a paired interview with two participants, Volkan and Brutus, their
utterances, immediately upon being asked to read the word ‗molecule‘, demonstrate this.
Excerpt No 3
Volkan (9. 1) and Brutus (8.11) Year 4/5
Interviewer: I was wondering, can you read this word?
V: I can - molecule
B: Atoms make them. Atoms make the molecules up and the molecules…..
V: Everything is made of molecules
B: everything yeah
V: yeah …
[]
The proposition that Brutus and Volkan put forward is knowledge drawn from their
everyday experiences. This was enthusiastically offered immediately on seeing the written
word ‗molecule‘. This co-constructed first thought, a spontaneously expressed statement,
shows an awareness of a definitional relationship between atoms and molecules. Although
this study should in no way be seen as quantitative it is true to say that most of the
participants eight years and over (N= 17/18) could read the word ‗molecule‘ phonetically and
gave some semantic meaning related to ideas of particles of matter. The self attributed
sources of these expressed ideas included television, newspapers, Dr Karl (a popular science
writer and television personality), stories and science museums, such as Scienceworks in
Melbourne.
There is a close alignment in the participants‘ expression of a definition of the word
‗molecule‘ and a very basic, though scientifically acceptable, definition. Volkan and Brutus
do not make mention of other important features of molecular definitions, such as size,
vibrations or parts of atoms at this point, though they do offer the word ‗make‘ and then later
in the conversation ‗join‘ as terms used to express ideas of bonding between atoms into
Talk About Small 79
molecules. This initial response relating molecule and atom, common to most of the
participants 9 years and older in this study, shows use of more sophisticated terms than has
frequently been attributed to children of this age group in the past. I present this brief
summary of the participants‘ everyday knowledge of the molecular artifacts to show the ways
in which the word molecule itself has entered the every day lexicon of this cohort and to
contextualise a set of storylines created later in the conversations, when the participants play
with the interactive (described in the next section). Certainly the above excerpts support the
contention that for many of the participants the molecular thinking is, at this entry point of the
conversation, beyond an introduction to the terms. These responses do not support the claim
that ideas of molecules and atoms are initially developed in schooling as suggested by the
quote from Wiser and Smith above.
Emergent Storylines
The fine-grained analysis of the sayings and doings of children playing with ideas of
molecules and atoms using an interactive website, produced a set of emerging storylines that
were repeated in various iterations in the study sample. Most of these molecular world
storylines focused on a particular question that arose early in the interview for the participant,
for example, about size, details of chemical symbols and formulae, the relationships between
atoms and molecules and what molecules of certain types of substances, such as oils, might
look like. Particular individuals in the study returned again and again to a specific aspect of
the molecular world that became of heightened interest to them at some point in the
conversation.
Five of the many storylines identified in the study through application of discourse
analysis using positioning theory are described below. These storylines are
● I know that is H2O

● I need a two
● A matter of size
● It must be molecules are coming off
● What a molecule could be
I Know That Is H20
The chemical formula for water H2O was the only molecular world artifact, from all
those offered, that Bronwyn could identify as recognisable from her everyday experience:
Excerpt 4 Bronwyn (7.8)

Interviewer: Do you recognise any of these symbols
Bronwyn: ‗I know that is water‘ (pointing at H2O)
Bronwyn was the oldest participant in the study to not know of the term molecule from
prior everyday knowledge. Bronwyn was however typical of the cohort with her knowledge
80 Cheryl Jakab
of this one symbol. She understood this chemical formula purely as an iconic sign, to which
she assigned as referent to water.
For Bronwyn, who commenced the interview with negligible everyday knowledge of
molecules, building water was a significant experience.
This symbol was the one item she recognised at the start of the interview. She took
control of the computer mouse for the first time and directed her attention to trying to build
the familiar molecule for herself, when the H20 symbol (in chemistry terms a chemical
formula) came onto the screen.
Excerpt 5: Bronwyn (7.8)

Molecularium Mal (website): Molecule three - Water! H2O [The symbol H2O comes
onto build screen]
Bronwyn (B): [Putting her hand on the computer mouse] Which one‘s … … [talking
slow, self directed questioning voice] is that?… I think [moves body forward and moves
cursor towards H button icon on screen using mouse]…
I: … What do you think you might need?
B: … one … a … hay-tch [reads out letter H from H2O] … ahh … here [moves
cursor directly over H button icon and clicks]
Molecularium: ‗Doi-iong‘ [sound occurs as a ball-like model Hydrogen atom pops
onto screen]
Bronwyn clicked the H symbol once and one atom of hydrogen came to the screen. She
then hesitated as she was still confronted with decoding the meaning of the two in the
formula.
The encouraging ‗what do you think‘ at this point was enough to assist Bronwyn to
making an action based on her own self talk, to give it a go, and she correctly chose what to
do. She had previously observed me building molecular oxygen and hydrogen but had not
correctly figured what the numbers meant as yet, even though I had talked through my
decision making in these demonstrations. What she ‗knows‘ at this point about atoms and
molecules is not in the forefront of the activity, but rather ‗knowing how‘ to interpret the
chemical formulae in terms of mouse clicks in the game provides a knowledge in action.
Building water was a breakthrough moment for Bronwyn, as it was for many other
participants.
This familiar iconic sign became a sign that could be decoded, read more in line with the
scientific understanding as being built from two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen.
Playing with molecule building in the interactive led Bronwyn and the other participants to
not only ‗know that‘ H2O is water, but to ‗know how‘ to make a water molecule.
I Need a Two
The subscript numbers in the chemical formulae presented to participants in written form
as artifacts, and then on the interactive website posed a problem universally in this cohort.
The two, for example, in the very familiar iconic sign H2O, acted as a stumbling block to
action in the molecule building game.
This difficulty with interpreting the numbers occurred not only for Bronwyn (7.8) in
building water as shown in Excerpt 6 above, it was also problematic for those with far more
Talk About Small 81
everyday knowledge of molecules as their starting point, including Volkan and Brutus who
had spontaneously offered the utterance ‗atoms made up molecules‘ as seen in Excerpt 3.
Even Robert (11. 2), a very knowledgeable participant who had expressed wanting to ‗study
particle physics‘ when he ‗grows up‘, hesitated in the first builds, and expressed some
wondering about the numbers. He acknowledged ‗not really [having] thought about it‘, even
though he knew that water was composed of two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen, he
did not generalise this idea to interpreting the subscripts in other formulae he had seen.
John, another of the oldest group of participants in the study, developed an understanding
of the process of decoding the chemical formulae through building two molecules in the
interactive
Excerpt 6 John (11.2)

Interviewer: So can you tell me … had you worked out before now …that the 2
meant two atoms of
John: No I thought it meant two different elements -sorts of atoms ...but it didn‘t tell
me …now … I …
John worked out what ‗it‘ meant very quickly in playing with the interactive. His
expression ‗but it didn‘t tell me‘ was immediately followed by a first person expression ‗
…now … I [know] …‘. The idea went from being knowledge outside that needed decoding to
an idea that John could use, as expressed by the first person ‗I‘. At this point in the
conversation I shared with John my thinking about the themes emerging in my interpretation:
I: So what I have learnt from you is … we need to say …to let students know what
this two means [indicating with finger]– that it means two atoms of that sort … or type …
that element
The metacognitive conversation continued with John contemplating the way the molecule
building game playing assisted his developing ideas. Some more extensive probing questions,
perhaps pushing the conversation away somewhat from being natural according to Grice‘s
maxims, established what John now thought in terms of the chemistry involved:
I: [as water is being built] What do you now think …what would the symbol
[pointing at H2O]….What do you think it represents again … was it.
J: Water
I: mmm … what does this [pointing to chemical formula H20] mean to you
J: Two hydrogens and one oxygen
I: two hydrogen …what‘s
J: atoms
I: And what does it make again?
J: Water. …A molecule of water
I: Have you seen water looking like that before? [indicating model turning in 3d
after building complete]
J: maybe… mmm
I: I have heard some children call that the Mickey Mouse ears water molecule…
J: so water is a molecule…
I: So could you have an atom of water?
J: No …. it is made of three atoms together
82 Cheryl Jakab
John had an established semantic relation between the words atom and molecule which
he stated as a ‗know that‘ at the start of the interview, prior to this exchange. Here a more
active ‗know how‘ idea of a molecule as being made up of atoms is developing in the process
of ‗doing‘ with the interactive. This more active meaning that is developing is one that is then
applied by John, put into action in further molecules constructions in the building game.
John‘s use of the word ‗made‘ [in the last line of excerpt 6 above] uses the metaphor of
building from the game for how the atoms associate. He continued to practice this way of
knowing, applying the metaphor in his talk during the molecule building activities that
followed in the game.
For Bronwyn at the start of the play with the website (see excerpt 5 above), the linguistic
sign ‗2‘, which she can read as two, had no symbolic interpretation (Harré, In Johnson and
Erneling, 1997 p364). Having worked out how to get a hydrogen atom model onto the screen
(Excerpt 5) Bronwyn is confronted with trying to make the 2 subscript:
Excerpt7: Bronwyn (7.8) (continuing from excerpt 5)

B: … and … what would make the 2? Would it make … … … [looking at screen,
holds cursor over H button. Looks up after a long pause staring at screen] If I click
another one? [referring to the H] will it do … will it …?
C: Do you want to click it and see?
The wondering ‗If I click another‘ is Bronwyn‘s self talk made overt. After the hesitant
start, Bronwyn then went on to successfully build the water molecule. And after a short
relaxing breath out and a smile of success, was ready and willing to go on and ‗try again‘.
At the end of the interview Bronwyn said she thought one of the best parts of the
experience was ‗finding out what the 2 meant‘. The game mediated the development of
‗know how‘ in building the H2O, so Bronwyn developed the ability to decode the symbol or
‗know that‘ the two meant two atoms of that type.
Sarah, one of the voices that opened this chapter, had asked about the number in the
chemical symbols (formulae) when looking at the images artifacts earlier in the interview.
Excerpt 8: Sarah (8.3)

Sarah: What do…like…it has two‘s and fours…What do they mean?
Interviewer: Have you seen these before?
S: That‘s CO2 (said as see-oh-to). I think I am remembering I have seen it before.
We often don‘t recognise … that we see it.
S: There‘s companies producing carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is not good for our
environment.
In the final metacognitive review of the interview Sarah commented on what the 2 stands
for:
S: Well …I don‘t know…uh-mmm….lots of things run through my brain …firstly

kids of my age should be doing it … science about particles and atoms and stuff. And
what the two stands for in the H2O. I didn‘t know that. For me it‘s quite easy but …and I
think it would be for a lot of other people my age.
Talk About Small 83
A Matter of Size
One of the greatest difficulties many children (and adults) have in thinking at the
molecular levels is imagining the scales involved. This is true even for those of us who can be
described as more expert in the field. We are limited by our dimensions and senses to
perceiving only part of what is available in the world. Small objects to us are those things in
our everyday world that we can see with our own unaided eyes, such as the thickness of a
sheet of paper for instance, which is about 0.00001m (10-5 metres) thick. Hydrogen atoms are
so very much smaller than that, just 10-10metres across (average).
On being offered the word ‗molecule‘ to consider Sarah, as quoted at the start of this
chapter, immediately brought the idea of size into the conversation:
Um…like If you look into a telescope …no, not… a microscope, you see all the little
like bubbles, like the particles (Excerpt 1 line 9: Sarah, 8.4)
Sarah knew she would need a magnifier to ‗see‘ the particles of matter. The ‗if you look‘
indicates that this is something that Sarah does not have firsthand experience of, but rather is
knowledge from outside. As the interview conversation with Sarah progressed there was a lot
of talk about size and interest in nanoscale compared to more familiar dimensions. Sarah
returned to the idea of the actual size of this world in the interactions several times in the
interview. She examined a Nanoscale chart (http://orise.orau.gov/ihos/Nanotechnology/
nanotech_scaleThings.html) in detail, went through the Molecularium Zoom game and was
very interested in the Powers of Ten website (http://www.powersof10.com/film).
This way of imagining size, and the ways of visualizing size available for examination
and comparison, was of great interest to Sarah who asked if there were any others she could
look at. Sarah spent some time describing and inspecting the labeling of parts of the ‗Scale of
things‘ diagram with great interest, pointing out, and naming, things she knew such as the ant,
the head of a pin, red blood cells and DNA. Others that were completely new to her, including
the atoms of silica and nanotubes, were examined and the names read out and ‗What is that‘
questions asked. In this conversation focused on size of atoms and molecules, I offered the
input that the size is better described as molecular or nano-scopic rather than microscopic.
Sarah agreed this was a ‗good point‘ based on what she could appreciate were great
difference in sizes of cells and molecules in the nanoscale chart.
Initially, when the word molecule was offered to Sarah, she tried but had difficulty
expressing reference to the actual sizes in the nanoscale, choosing to use the words ‗very,
very small‘ as the only terms at hand for her to use. She thought of, and named, an instrument
for looking at the very small as ‗microscopes‘ from her own everyday understanding, after an
initial mistake of naming another magnifying instrument, the ‗telescope‘ (which she then
stated was used to look at things at great distances). Exploring the ‗Scale of things‘ chart was
very helpful to Sarah‘s ability to discuss size. The chart commenced Sarah‘s contact with
terms used in this scale and relative sizes of a range of objects, objects both familiar and
unfamiliar to Sarah. She browsed and questioned, wondering about the scale, showing
motivation through directed attention and question rising to learn more.
The conceptual difficulty the participants in this study had with size was greatly reduced
by being able to be involved in repeated practice with the learning activity games such as on
the Molecularium, which can create a visualisation scaffold for use as a cognitive tool to aid
84 Cheryl Jakab
thinking about the smallest end of the scale in comparison to more familiar dimensions. The
degree of sophistication of the use is not the issue here, so much as having initial contact
with, and time to interact with, this valuable way of thinking.
Molecules Are Coming Off
Robert, who we heard from at the start of this chapter in excerpt 2, was at the high end of
the starting knowledge spectrum in this cohort as demonstrated by the following excerpt. He
read the opening screen on the Molecularium Kids site, ‗Three states of Matter‘ and
responded surprised:
Excerpt 9: Robert (11.2)

Robert: Three states of matter? (said with doubt and surprise in manner)
Interviewer: mmm
R: Well, ah, I thought there were four -solid, liquid, gas -and then there is plasma
[short discussion of three states solid, liquid, gas in normal conditions on Earth]
I: Well … it is true there is a fourth state …yes … do you know … what do you
know about this state you named -plasma
R: Plasma is a super heated gas – well I have heard that it is ionised … but I do not
know what that means.
Robert expressed his knowledge of plasma as an objective, remembered, definitional

statement. He acknowledged with the first person statements above that ‗I have heard‘
something about plasma, and was self aware of his limits in knowledge with ‗I do not know‘.
We discussed plasma, and ionised, with information being given verbally. Then Robert
continued to demonstrate his extensive contact with atomic theory ideas with:
R: Atoms wobble more when they get hot. At absolute zero they do not wobble at
all.
Therefore it came as a surprise that Robert had some difficulty with visualising as a
physical change the activity of dissolving. The sugar dissolution physical activity, which was
presented as a problem situation for participants, was conducted on completion of the
interactive, that is, as stage 2 of the interview (see Figure 1). Robert was able to accurately
predict what he thought would happen when sugar was put in water and then tested this out.
He did not spontaneously use the word molecule in discussing dissolution but rather chose to
talk about particles.
Excerpt 10: Robert (11. 2) Stage 2 Problem, Physical activity

Interviewer: What do you think will happen when you put the sugar into the water?
Robert: It will just sink to the bottom until we stir it.
When the word dissolve was mentioned in the conversation Robert explained what he
thought it meant, but without the use of the terms introduced earlier:
R: It means it breaks sugar down to tiny particles, pieces much too small to see.
I: Thinking about the molecules what do you think happens.
Talk About Small 85
Robert proceeded to create a drawing of what he imagined using two symbols,

one he labelled water molecules and the other sugar molecules. The sugars were
between the water molecules.
I: That‘s the water? [pointing to drawing symbol] Is this the sugar then?
R: Yes … I was thinking that the molecules broke apart, that atoms come off …
I: in dissolving
R: – but it must be still molecules because it is still sugar. It must be molecules
coming off.
I: mmm how do you know?
R: because before when we built the sugar … before from the atoms. Sugar is a
molecule
The building of the molecules in the interactive had given Robert a tool for
thinking that encouraged him to make more sense of the dissolving activity. That
sugar dissolving would have molecules of sugar ‗coming off‘ the crystals may seem
an obvious idea in physical change to the more expert chemist. These comments
from this relatively expert child learner indicates he needed to have the concepts of
atom and molecule clearly related in his mind for the appropriate image to come to
mind when considering this physical change, as compared to chemical change.
What a Molecule Could Be
Bronwyn worked at finding out ‗what a molecule could be‘ through the interview by
coming back to this issue, one that started for her at the very beginning of the interview. The
complete lack of everyday knowledge and meaning of the terms molecule and atom of the
younger children in the study, the oldest of whom was Bronwyn, did not act as a block to
wanting to progress with the conversation, the activity, or the game. Bronwyn was attentive
and curious about this topic of conversation, which appeared to be concepts totally new to her
conscious attention. Reading definitions in books helped but still left Bronwyn wondering,
able to say that she did not really ‗get it‘.
When playing the interactive Bronwyn was tentative at first, though she continued as an
active observer while I, as her more expert conversation partner, built molecules. She then
began asking questions, and at just the third molecule build (of H2O, described in excerpts 5
and 7 above), Bronwyn took control of the game by taking over performing actions with the
mouse and sitting more centrally to the computer. It appears that Bronwyn‘s complete lack of
everyday knowledge of molecule, motivated thoughts about ‗what a molecule could be‘
throughout the conversation. On being asked at the final review stage of the interview to share
her metacognitive analysis of what we had done together in the whole conversation, Bronwyn
offered that ‗the best thing‘ was ‗trying to work out what a molecule could be‘.
Excerpt No 12: Bronwyn (7.8) Review

I: Which bit did you like best?
B: About there can be molecules … and the oxygens have two… in air … …mmm
and… [deep thinking affect]
I: and
B: and trying to …to work out what a molecule … could be.
86 Cheryl Jakab
I: What a molecule could be?

B: I did … I didn‘t know before you … now
I: now
B: Now I know
Bronwyn did not say ‗what a molecule is‘, she was wondering what it ‗could be‘, what
are the possibilities, options, or what does it relate to? This was her project throughout the
artifacts exploration, website game playing, and physical activity of dissolving sugar in water.
Although she was slow and tentative in beginning to use the molecule building interactive
independently, needing a great deal of encouragement to ‗give it a go‘, by the fifth molecule
build in the interactive, she was using the word ‗molecule‘ in her utterances in the
conversational interactions.
Playing with the interactive by building molecules from atoms allowed practice in using
the terms atom and molecule in association with each other. Bronwyn developed the ‗know
how‘ of building molecules from atoms with the support of the game. The doing allowed
active practice in considering the relationship between the words, atom and molecule, the
symbols in the chemical formulae and the signs that were the chemical symbols of the atoms.
Bronwyn was working with two forms of representation in chemistry, the symbolic and
nanoscopic, that many students much older than her struggle to bring together and think with.
Trying to find out ‗what a molecule could be‘ was a positive motivation for Bronwyn in this
research setting. She did not necessarily solve that problem she had in ‗not knowing‘, what
she did achieve was something personal, which she expressed using the personal pronoun ‗I‘
in her expression ‗now I know‘. And importantly for her progress she was ‗saying and doing‘,
she knew how to use the word molecule in conversation and she knew how to ‗build a
molecule‘.
DISCUSSION
Cultural Tools, Developmental Thinking and Motivation
Just as Ainsworth et al (2003) found in their study of information processing, in which

‗[P] participants given information about the human circulatory system in diagrams learnt
more than those given text‘ (p 678), the interactive game investigated here acts as a mediator
or scaffold for the participants‘ visualising that molecules are ‗built‘ from atoms. Format of
information influences learning. Graphical representations preserve some of the geometric
and topological information, whereas text is arbitrary in its relationship to the represented
object (Larkin and Simon, 1987; Schnotz, 2002). Making molecular world simulations and
visualisations available as learning activity, the children of today can begin to lever their way
up to more scientific ways of thinking about substance.
During the time spent on the game the children‘s thinking was directed to molecules
being built from atoms by ostension (Barnes et al, 1996). This pointing out, again and again
by the series of builds in the game, ensured that individual molecules were experienced, one
at a time, showing their differences or variety, while at the same time showing their inclusion
into the category of ‗molecules‘. The set of examples became individual demonstrations
making sense of the semantic meaning of the word, allowing the participants to make
Talk About Small 87
meaning with many molecular world ideas, principally, that molecules are ‗built‘ from
numbers of atoms and the chemical formula is as sign coding for this information. The
chemical symbols and subscript numbers that make up these formulae indicate the numbers of
each type of atom in the molecule. The participants experienced this in the game like setting
that scaffolded action, directing them to increased ability and knowledge.
The storylines presented above show influences of motivation due to self directed
questions, questions that arose when the various participants experienced inadequate
comprehension while exploring molecular artifacts, particularly in playing with the web-
based learning interactive. The offering of the molecule artifacts created a situation in which
the learners were exploring the basic terminology they need to be able to put to use,
molecular terminology that acts as a tool when scientifically explaining macro-world
phenomena. The situation of the interactive was one in which the learners had opportunity to
develop self awareness of inadequate knowledge and was a motivating, structured activity
that provided the context for furthering their knowledge.
According to Hatano motivation to pursue comprehension occurs when people recognize
subjectively that their comprehension is inadequate. This theory of motivation proposes that
extended engagement in comprehension activities ensues if comprehension is inadequate and
when there is opportunity. Engaged learners seek further information from social sources,
including people and other resources, to gain new experience of new knowledge which allows
generation of new inferences to overcome comprehension inadequacies. This theory of
motivation, developed from work in everyday activity related to biology and mathematics,
supports the notion that there is a rise in subjective desire to examine compatibilities of the
already existing and newly generated inferences as an ongoing process until some form of
resolution is reached [Hatano and Inagaki, 1987]. The game in this research provided a rich
opportunity for extended engagement with activity that demonstrated molecules are ‗built‘
from atoms. The metaphor of building worked in this context to provide a scaffold for the
developing awareness of the terms. The visual expressions in chemical symbols, formulae and
3D models in combination reinforced the development of more elaborated ‗know how‘ with
these ideas, not just a ‗knowing that‘ as purely semantic knowledge.
Here I will give the last word to Pen, who said at the end of the interview when asked
what she thought of the process:
Excerpt 13: Pen Review

Pen: That‘s a hard question. I kept of kind of …thinking of atoms and then kind of
thinking of the past, when you said those thingy things … er molecules are in everything
…make everything.
It feels … I may have trouble saying it … it feels extraordinary … I feel happy and
excited.
[]
I think this is important to learn about…extra…ordin…ary [chuckles]
A Hinge Proposition
―I start with the belief that meaning is created dialogically over time, among
collaborating speakers and listeners, and that scientific understanding is talked into being
over time between speakers.‖ (Ash, 2003, p. 856)
88 Cheryl Jakab
The proposition that molecules make up matter may be considered what Wittgenstein has
called a hinge proposition. I propose here that the world of molecules and atoms can be
offered to children to use prior to developing an understanding of what these artifacts are in a
detailed scientific sense. Wittgenstein‘s idea, as described by Harré and Tissaw, is that: ‗Only
if a place has already been prepared for where the word is to go in the language of the learner
can the learner grasp the correct semantic import of the display‘ (2005, p.74). A great deal of
scientific investigation is needed to establish the currently accepted scientific models of
molecules and atoms. The scientific road to the development of this idea is complex. This
complex knowledge is not available to the learner as a beginning. Perhaps an analogy to
learning words in very young children can better encapsulate the process here. A young child
learns a new word by pointing to an object and being given a label. The label ‗duck‘ may be
applied by an 18 month old to refer to any water bird they are pointing at, or ‗dog‘ or perhaps
‗cow‘ for any four legged mammal. The word ‗paper‘ is invoked and applied to any thin
material and the word ‗water‘ to any liquid. We congratulate the very young child at each
production of a word, with excited encouragement and repetition. The word label is first
applied in an individual case, the application then likely to become overextended with
practice and then the meaning slowly reigned in to a more adult world appropriate sign-
referent relation. So too the child learning about atoms and molecules may gain an advantage
by moving through this early phase of learning where a word is applied before understanding
of the meaning, in this case a more scientific meaning, has or can be developed.
When first using the terms molecule and atom a learner may go through many inaccurate
uses and productions before more normative meaning develops. In fact this may be necessary
in order for that more sophisticated meaning to have the opportunity to develop. As Wertsch
put it:
Not only may it be possible, but it may be desirable for students to say and do things
that seem to extend beyond their level of understanding. This is because such a
possibility means they can enter into a basic form of intersubjectivity with more
experienced teachers and experts and thereby leverage their way up through increasing
levels of expertise. What might at first appear a failure to communicate is often the key to
entering into a new area of instruction (1998, p188).
Providing the labels molecule and atom gives access to a way of seeing that is valued in
science, and accepted as a true propositional statement in our culture. Matter, or material
substances, is considered to be made of atoms and molecules. Matter is particulate. This true
statement acts as the base proposition in chemistry, or, in Wittgensteinian terms, acts as a
hinge proposition. The proposition that acts as the base of a complex set of reasonings can
then follow.
Understanding of the nature of the evidence for the proposition, that is what makes us
think that atoms and molecules could be the way they are thought of today, develops for each
learner a long time after the base or hinge proposition that matter is particulate is first
contacted, appropriated, refined, and only then available for contemplation. There are debates,
both philosophical and chemical, about the very idea of molecule as an accurate
representational model of structure of materials in actuality. The concept of a molecule
however is still useful to scientists and taught to learners today to enable thinking about,
among other things, the chemistry of substances.
Talk About Small 89
Molecules are now seen as artifacts in the everyday world as the components of material
compounds. The approach of delaying introduction of molecule concepts until children are
more ‗abstract thinkers‘, to use the Piagetian theory term, has not been highly successful to
date, as attested by the enormous numbers of papers documenting children‘s‘, adults‘ and
even some more expert scientists‘ difficulties in thinking in chemistry (Wiser and Smith,
2008). It is timely (Arzi, 2004) to revisit our assumptions in this ‗matter‘. According to
Helldén and Solomon (2004), who conducted a longitudinal interview study on early life
episodes in environmental education, young children ‗have fixed ideas in their young brains
which survive better than other ideas introduced later on‘(p.898) due to ‗strangely powerful
implicit memory systems‘.
CONCLUSION
The child‘s sayings and doings analysed here are subjective accounts of starting point
‗molecular thinking‘ (Gauvain, p10). By taking into account the social and emotional context,
and available visualisations, that is, by setting out to provide a more naturalistic and 21 st
century learning setting, a much richer view of children‘s development towards molecular
thinking was obtained than has been described in earlier ‗cold cognition’ studies (Brown et al,
1983) to date.
The participants in this research raised more scientifically sophisticated questions than
these cold cognition conceptual change studies describe. This occurred because their thinking
was directed towards, and stimulated by, molecule artifacts as tools for thinking. Questions
raised and explored by the participants in this study included:
What is the difference between an atom and a molecule?

What is an atom compared to a molecule?
What is the two in H2O?
What do the letters in H2O and CO2 (chemical symbols) mean?
The ‗little bits of stuff‘ (particles of matter) are very tiny, but how tiny?
What is the difference between different types of atoms and molecules?
How do they (atoms of an element) get their numbers (atomic number)?
What happens to the particles in crystals when sugar dissolves?
These scientifically appropriate questions provide opportunity for progress in

understanding ‗molecular worlds‘ along productive lines. We are no longer limited to ‗seeing‘
what our limited senses can offer us if we use the tools that have been developed to go
‗beyond appearances‘ (Kind, 2004). That we all need to learn about ‗unseen‘ greenhouse
gases and how they influence the global temperatures is one example of how understanding of
molecules is vital for future citizens.
The exploration of nano worlds is well described as the ‗new geography‘ of today, in
which journeys of discovery are already occurring in the many new technologies we use each
day. That nanotechnology will continue to develop and be the place of discovery throughout
the 21st century is in little doubt. Appreciating the scale of the molecular world in comparison
to other objects of the universe, from viruses, cells, people, planets, solar systems and
galaxies, allows appreciation of just how much room there is ‗at the bottom‘ as Richard
90 Cheryl Jakab
Feynman put it back in 1959. Exploring at this very bottom end of this scale is ‗the new
geography‘, one we are beginning to colonize today. It is comparable to explorers finding
new lands in sailing ships of the 15th to 18th centuries or the finding of new details of the
cosmos using telescopes and spaceships in the 20th century. That we open this world to the
next generations is a cultural imperative (Stocklmayer and Bryant, 2011), one that seems at
this point in history to be somewhat neglected in educational research.
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Chapter 5
DEVELOPING A MORE CRITICAL APPROACH

TO THE TEACHING OF ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
Ghazal Yazdanpanah
ABSTRACT
This chapter is based on a small scale study carried out at a private primary school in
Tehran, Iran, which has a humanistic approach to primary education. Iran, like many
other developing countries at the dawn of the twenty first century, is faced with a range
of serious environmental problems. With the increasing severity of these problems in the
past three decades, Iran‘s environmental status is now considered as one of the most
critical in the world. In response to this environmental crisis as a teacher, I deemed it
important to explore and reflect on the current practices and the culture of Environmental
Education at the school I worked for. Using Pronoun Grammar Analysis informed by
Positioning Theory, I focused on, and analysed, students‘ conversations and narratives as
they worked on a small project about Tehran Zoo and engaged in discussions about
various environmental issues, in particular animal rights. The findings revealed main
resources or perspectives students utilise in the process of gaining knowledge and making
sense of the environmental topic and its issues. The result also showed that the current
culture of EE at the school accords with the principles and goals of contemporary
environmental education. Furthermore based on the findings, possible enhancements to
current EE practices were identified.
In an attempt to contribute to the narrowing of the existing gap between educational
research and practice in Environmental Education, I focused on the main characteristics
of the school‘s curriculum, namely project orientation, outdoor activities and excursions,
and diffusion of focus conventionally put on teachers and prescribed books as the main
sources of knowledge and truth. I explored how and why these certain practices and the
overall educational approach at the school, are considered to have been successful in
delivering a critical teaching and learning approach for the environment.
94 Ghazal Yazdanpanah
INTRODUCTION
My first year of primary education coincided with the peak of Iran-Iraq war during
1980s. Towards the end of the war Tehran, the capital of Iran where we lived, was being
bombarded; with the severity of the conflict, schools and businesses were closed and people
were encouraged to leave the town and take shelter in suburban, rural areas or other cities. My
family and I traveled some 400kms south and, alongside a few other families and relatives,
stayed at my aunt‘s house in the suburbs of Isfahan for a few months. In an effort to make up
for the closure of schools, the state TV started to broad cast daily teaching programs for each
Grade. At my aunt‘s house, the TV was on from morning to midday and, in turns, children in
the same Grades would gather in front of the TV to watch the designated half an hour
program for that Grade level. The programs were mostly focusing on literature and
mathematics and, unlike school, they were actually fun. They used animations or short plays.
The female teacher on the TV was always smiling and, as she was a pre-recorded video
image, she had absolutely no power to interfere with our way of doing things or learning. She
had no ability to pick on us, compare us, judge or humiliate us for our handwriting or
behaviour, or threaten us in any way. These half-hour programs, and the little amount of time
we had to spend on doing homework (monitored by our parents), were the only times of our
formal education. For the rest of the day we kept ourselves busy simply playing.
Surprisingly, doing so was not hard at all. With our natural curiosity, we explored our
surrounding physical and emotional environments to find ways to do things and fulfill our
need to play. Each day we came across new objects, events and little dilemmas to solve. We
gradually bonded with the wonders around us. The garden was an ever-changing entity
comprised of insects, plants and birds, the tricks of sunshine and moonlight, and the
occasional passing of Iraqi aircrafts in the sky. On a daily basis we observed how our mothers
selflessly prepared, cared and created new ways of getting around the shortcomings; and our
fathers, constantly fixing and meddling with and in the house, kept the wheels of the
household routine rolling. With no exception, each night we witnessed how our old uncle
tried to cross borders through his little black radio, hoping to reach the Farsi program at BBC
radio to hear news and discussions relating to the war.
Eventually, we became the inventors of the tools and toys we needed and, as we dealt
with the physical, emotional and social dilemmas within the boundaries of that small
community, our problem solving skills gradually developed and enhanced. The time we spent
together playing and exploring the world around us at our aunt‘s house not only eased the
trauma of war, it became one of the most joyous, memorable events in our lives.
Twenty years later when I was returning to Iran from Australia as an environmental
studies graduate, I could not have imagined that the experience of my aunt‘s house would
resurface to shine as a light that would help me in my career as a teacher/facilitator. Not long
after my arrival, I was invited to join the teaching team at a private primary school in Tehran.
The school had a progressive style and its pedagogical approach was mainly based on a
humanistic approach to psychology and pedagogy, particularly the theories of Carl Rogers
(1961), Erich Fromm (1956, 1965 and 1968) and Paulo Freire (1972). I was asked to get
onboard and handle the subject ―science‖ at first and second Grades.
As excited I was about the offer, I also had my doubts and worries as I had never
undergone any teacher training course. I discussed these doubts with the director and senior
Developing a More Critical Approach to the Teaching of Environmental Education 95
staff of the school in one meeting. I was assured that I will be fine: ―one thing to keep in mind
is that as teachers, we are not here to transmit our knowledge to these children or teach them
anything; what we are aiming is to facilitate and help each child on the unique path each
individual child is on to understand and make sense of the world around‖. Simple as it
sounded, the first few months of my work at the school turned out to be one of the biggest
challenges of my life; and the most prominent obstacle seemed to be my very own
educational experience within mandatory conventional schooling in Iran. The sort of
democracy and equality being practiced at the school were new to me and overwhelming at
times. At first I found it extremely confusing and difficult to function in this new world where
there was no trace of prescribed textbooks, marks or exams; a world in which students and
teachers had equal powers and rights and therefore any sort of direct or indirect punishment
or form of threat was to be avoided. At times I felt like an old, outdated machine, sluggish
and useless; and my only way out of the situation (save for quitting) was to upgrade.
The upgrading was a gradual, time and energy consuming process. It involved careful
observation and understanding of this new educational setting I was now part of, and this
would be followed up by reflecting on my own experience of schooling. In this second part I
had no choice but to ask myself questions I had never before dared to ask: how did I feel
about my twenty years of studying? Which parts did I enjoy? Had there been any form of
suffering involved? Finally, and most importantly, how was it that I learned? At the peak of
this process, one day as I was working alongside children in the garden on a little planting
project, memories of my aunt‘s house came flooding back to me. All the images were sharp
and clear. With much detail I remembered many of the activities and adventures I took part in
during that time. I remembered the colours, tastes, sounds, feelings and emotions related to
each of these snapshots. As a teacher, this resurfacing of memories meant more than just a
nostalgic reliving of the past.
I could see clearly what I had learnt through each of these experiences. Putting aside all
the prescribed books I read at school, the math solution I resolved, or all the things I pushed
and stored in my memory to pass the exams, my deepest and most owned knowledge about
the world around me seemed to be rooted in the experiences at my aunt‘s house and all such
similar localities and experiences throughout my life. Right there, I had an epiphany and
understanding of what I was asked to do at the school and everything started to make a lot of
sense. I suddenly became aware and, as I was smiling, I thought to myself: ―Ok, as for the
boundaries of my own class, I‘ll make it feel like an aunt‘s house for each of these children‖.
Since then, whenever I get lost or a little confused in my position as a facilitator, I close
my eyes and imagine myself back in my aunt‘s house. I quietly observe the seven year old me
playing, observing, thinking, interacting, creating, making, breaking and solving. And then
sometimes I approach her and ask her if and how she wants me to accompany her. Her
answers, of course, often serve as the solutions to my little dilemmas in my classes.
FROM TEACHING TO RESEARCHING

As time passed at the school, which I will call by the pseudonym Novin, I found myself
more at ease with its educational approach. I then started to go back to my deep, old worries
and concerns about Iran‘s environmental status.
The bitter truth is that Iran, like many other developing countries at the dawn of twenty
first century, is faced with a range of serious environmental problems. A country with one of
the most diverse ecologies in south-western Asia containing many of the world‘s major
ecosystem types, is now suffering from various issues such as desertification, loss of
biodiversity, major oil and industrial pollution, uncontrolled urbanization, soil erosion and
exponential overpopulation (Larijani and Yeshodhara, 2008; Parizanganeh et al., 2006).
Unfortunately, with the increasing severity of these conditions in the past three decades,
Iran‘s environmental status is now considered to be one of the most ―critical in the world‖
(Peritore, 1999, p.209).
Linking my concerns about Iran‘s environmental status to my own work at the school, I
became curious to know how the educational approach at Novin dealt with the topic of
Environmental Education and, furthermore, if and how the practices at this school were
capable of developing environmental awareness and critical sensitivity towards
environmental issues in students.
This small-scale study the current culture of EE at Novin, on a micro level. I hoped this
would contribute to the enrichment of my own professional knowledge and might also
enhance and contribute to the improvement of current practices at the school. On a macro
level, such a study could potentially add to the local knowledge of alternative and progressive
schooling in Iran, considering that the demand for such new educational approaches currently
seems to be on the rise in the country.
The opportunity of doing a Master in Education by research in 2009 through Graduate
School of Education at the University of Melbourne, supervised by Dr. Christine Redman,
made the conduct of such study possible. The idea of the research project gained full approval
of the management of the school, and the research methodology shaped up gradually through
consultation and collaboration between myself, Dr. Redman and the director of Novin.
Before moving on to other details about this research project, it would be helpful to
briefly review the history of modern education in Iran and also describe the pedagogical
approach at Novin.
AN OVERVIEW OF MODERN EDUCATION IN IRAN

It is believed that the root of modern public education in Iran goes back to the conquest
of this land by Muslim Arabs in 644 AD which, in terms of education, lead to the formation
of religious schools throughout the country. The establishment of these institutions, which
were tightly linked to mosques and often run by the clergy, broke the ancient class barriers in
terms of access of public to education (Jahani Asl, 2003).
During the Qajar dynasty (1781 -1925) Iran was influenced by Western ideas in areas
such as economics, politics and education. One of the prominent figures in Iran‘s history of
modern education was Mirza Hassan Roshdieh. In 1886, he established the first non-religious
school in Iran. Perceived as an anti-religion movement, clerics and conservatives were
enraged by the opening of Roshdieh‘s school. The school was attacked a number of times by
angry protesters during which a few students were killed and Roshdieh himself became the
target of few unsuccessful assassinations. The announcement of a religious statement against
Roshdieh and his school by the clergy made it difficult for him to continue his work in Iran,
leaving him with no other choice but to flee the country (Kasravi, 1940).
Despite the resistance of religious figures in the establishment of modern schools, the
educational scene in Iran witnessed the birth of its first secular schools during the 1930s and
underwent many fundamental changes during Pahlavi's era (1925-1979). The Islamic
Revolution of 1975, which marked the end of around two thousand years of monarchy in Iran,
resulted in the Islamization of the educational system once again. Teachers and textbooks
remained as the main tools for education and the emphasis remained on the delivery of
knowledge from teacher to student.
The progressive education movement in Iran began in early 1950s with the opening of
two schools in Tehran named Mehran and Farhad. By the term progressive education I am
referring to an educational approach which is student-centered, breaks away from the
conventional functions of schooling and the established power relations, and moves towards
recognizing that each individual student has abilities, interests, needs, rights and cultural
identity. This kind of education also tries to establish and expand a more equitable society
within the boundaries of the school and the community.
The previously mentioned Mehran and Farhad schools fit the above mentioned
description; they altered the common schooling practices of their time and showcased a
different kind of education throughout their two decades of operation. The political,
economical and social conditions after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, alongside the effects of
the Iran-Iraq war which started shortly after the Revolution and lasted for eight years, made it
impossible for private progressive centres to continue their work (Mafi and Mafi, 1991;
Khomarlou, 1997).
After the end of the Iran-Iraq war the number of Iranian non-government organizations
(NGOs) grew and they became increasingly active in various fields such as early childhood
care and primary level education (Rostami Povey, 2004). The work of these institutions in the
past two decades has eventually given birth to private pre-schools and primary schools with a
progressive approach, such as Novin, in Tehran and a number of other smaller cities like
Kerman and Isfahan
NOVIN SCHOOL
Novin is a pilot project of one of the leading NGOs in Iran specializing in early childhood
care, development and education since 1994. This school was founded in 2005 with only
fifteen students and in 2011 has 80 students. As it is a pilot project, Novin is not authorised to
provide students with any sort of certificate regarding completion of primary education. The
educational approach at this school is mainly based on a humanistic approach to psychology
and pedagogy, particularly informed by the theories of Carl Rogers (1961), Erich Fromm
(1956, 1965 and 1968) and Paulo Freire (1972). Four foundational principles shape up the
educational approach, decisions and practices at Novin:
1 Each child is different from another and such differences should always be respected
and paid attention to in the educational process;
2 The educational process should assist each child towards realizing and fulfilling
her/his full potential and talents;
3 The educational process should be in accord with each student‘s needs at the time
4 The educational process can be successful only when it is embedded in the everyday
life experience of the child.
Based upon these principles, the use of prescribed books, exams and marks are
abandoned at Novin. The emphasis of all activities in classes is on the provision of
opportunities so that children can directly and personally experience events, processes or
phenomena while developing and exercising a range of skills and abilities. Apart from
common subjects such as literature, music, math, arts and science, the children are exposed to
a range of different topics and activities such as origami, sign language, brail, gardening and
cooking. Travelling and going on daily excursions are prominent parts of the curriculum at
this school, mainly aiming at providing students with opportunities to encounter the diversity
in the physical and social world around them.
Student‘s psychological and educational status alongside their needs, interests and skills
is monitored and evaluated through three different means. The first type of evaluation and
monitoring is a process of documentation in which daily reports about the dynamics of the
class, as well as personal reports about each child, are prepared by teachers.
The other prominent method of monitoring and evaluating is through the individual
projects that each student takes up each semester. Individual students, according to their
interest, define the topic and scope of these projects. The process of choosing a topic is
considered very important and informative for evaluation of children at Novin as it is a phase
through which a student can become familiar with her or his talents, likes and dislikes, and
decides (hopefully with no outside influence or disturbance) what she or he finds important or
interesting to focus on. When a topic has been chosen, it then becomes the direct
responsibility of the student to define the goals and objectives and to take the required steps to
finish the project. Throughout this phase, the students develop various planning and problem
solving skills and experience directly how their own actions, plans, abilities and skills can
contribute to the progress of their work and its final outcome. At the end of each semester, the
students have the opportunity to present their work to their classmates, to a number of staff
and their parents if they wish to do so.
Apart from these two main means, teachers and the director of the school have regular
meetings in which they discuss the progress of current conditions of individual students
alongside class-related issues. The school maintains regular links with the families of children
in order to gain better understanding of each child‘s current conditions and possible issues.
AIMS AND METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY

The field of Environmental Education (EE) research has witnessed significant changes in
the past four decades. During the 1960s and 1970s, the use of quantitative research methods
was highly favoured. The common study designs have included surveys, correlational and
experimental approaches, and the researchers tried to be as detached as possible from the
research setting in order to avoid bias (Palmer and Birch, 2005, p.119). Quantitative research
approaches in EE research came under substantive criticism during the 1980s and 1990s,
causing a shift toward the utilisation of ―more humanistic and interpretive lines of inquiry‖
(Palmer, 1999, p.104). This trend seems to be continuing in the 2000s and there is now an
increasing emphasis on ―grounding methodological positions in practice and linking
improved educational practice with empirical research‖ (Palmer and Birch, 2005, p.118).
A review of the literature shows that in most research projects in which Environmental
Education programs in schools have been evaluated (e.g. Littledyke, 2004; Nagel, 2004;
Hacking, Scott and Barratt, 2007; Eames, Cowie and Bolstad, 2008) mostly a qualitative
approach has been adapted. The common methods used for data collection in such studies
have been collective interviews, focus groups, discussion groups and also collaborative
research studies that have involved students in the design and implementation of the research
project.
In my research project at Novin, I chose a qualitative approach as I was aiming to gain
insight into a sub-culture (environmental education) within a small community (the school).
This sub-culture had never been studied before; therefore not much prior knowledge was
available to draw upon both in designing the research itself or in holding to assumptions
regarding its potential outcomes. The exploration needed to be in depth and reflective. The
other driving factor in choosing a qualitative approach related to the nature and functioning of
the community under study. In a progressive educational setting where quantitative
approaches and conventional tools for assessment such as exams and marks were absent, only
a qualitative research approach seemed to be the appropriate way to collect data.
Coming this from another point, the concepts of meaning, understanding and rule
following were of importance in this study. I was concerned with how these students have
come to understand the meaning of environmentalism (be it awareness or activism) through
its use within their school.
To investigate such notions, I adapted a language based approach to collection and
analysis of the data. Discourse analysis can be a powerful tool to explore and understand the
cultures within institutions such as schools (Allen, 2004, p.20). As Stables (2006, p.328)
argues, the study of everyday discourse and language use can provide us with more insight
regarding the interaction of knowledge and the ethical judgment of issues in environmental
education. Within an institutional setting, the study of discourse therefore allows us to better
understand the things that are valued or are not valued, things that are permitted or forbidden,
how power and knowledge are linked within an institution and how the production of truth is
governed. Moreover, the reflexive nature of discourse analysis gives it the ability to be critical
as it can provide the support for the identification of any dominating practices that may have
negative effects imposing institutionally in support of the status quo. The critical ability of
discourse analysis could be of value when considering how to enhance the current EE
practices of the school (Allen, 2004, p.20; Stables, 2006; Reis and Roth, 2007).
In my research project at Novin, I focused on discursive interactions and the
conversations of students in a number of group discussions while they were engaged in an
environmental project. My main analytical tool was Positioning Theory (Harré and van
Langenhøve, 1990; Redman and Fawns, 2010) and alongside it I also used Pronoun Grammar
Analysis (PGA), as informed by Positioning Theory, which supports a more determinate
analysis of certain conversational utterances.
Positioning theory was developed as an analytical tool in social constructionist research
as is influenced by the work of Wittgenstein, Vygotsky and Bakhtin (Jones, 2003, p.359;
Redman, 2005, p.62). This theory assumes human behaviour as ―goal-directed‖ and human
subjectivity as being ―a product of each individual‘s interactions with other people‖; it also
acknowledges that group norms put constraints on the behavior and subjectivity of humans
(Barnes, 2004, p.1).
Positioning Theory focuses on the language and intention of persons in everyday
discourse as they explore and work in their social norms and structures. The metaphorical
term 'position' in a conversation refers to a speaker's psychological location and attributions
within the local moral order of duties and responsibilities. In Positioning Theory, a person‘s
personal identity is viewed as being constructed, and reconstructed, in the discursive practices
of the everyday conversations and social acts and societal icons are generated and reproduced
(Harré and van Langenhøve, 1999).
In Positioning Theory there is an emphasis on people's pronoun choices in indexing the
position of the speaker in their own storyline (Harré and Mühlhäusler, 1990). Pronoun
grammar analysis (PGA) can be described as a coding tool that allows a fine-grained analysis
of conversational data. PGA helps with the identification and coding of the existing
relationship between the speaker and the ―topic, object or artifact at hand‖ (Redman and
Fawns, 2010, p.167). For example the use of the pronoun 'I' strongly commits the speaker to
what is being said in a very substantial way and can be seen as equal to a promise. The
change of pronouns are equally important in this theory: the change of 'I' to 'you' in a
conversation by a speaker can indicate a change in commitment and perhaps a shift in
responsibility, confidence, experience or a lack of intention to a particular position being
made (Redman, 2005, p. 67).
In recent years the use of positioning theory as an analytical tool has been widely applied
in education settings (Redman and Fawns, 2010) in particular in math and science educational
research projects. While the use of discourse analysis in Environmental Education research
has been gaining popularity (Reis and Roth, 2007; Søreide, 2006), not much attention has
been given to the use of discursive psychology and positioning theory as an analytical
framework for use in Environmental Education research.
Positioning Theory may contribute to EE research by revealing the dynamics and power
relations within every day institutional conversations in home or at school, showing how
actors (here students) position themselves in the social-psychological spaces afforded by
environmental topics/objects/artifacts, and in particular, in the discursive episodes, within the
local moral order. As positioning theory can help a researcher to more meaningfully interpret
people‘s conscious and unconscious commitments and intentions, deliberate or forced in a
particular conversational episode, it was deemed a suitable analytical tool for exploration of
the culture of Environmental Education at Novin.
I designed the methodology of the study in consultation with the Director of the school
and it included the participation of students in a Fourth Grade class within a
science/environmental group activity. Tehran Zoo was identified as a suitable project for the
students to focus on. The Zoo in recent years has been identified as below global standards
and the site had been attracting constant criticism from environmental and animal welfare
NGOs for its poor conditions. The idea was that without much intervention by the researcher,
participant students could be set upon a journey to potentially explore the nature of the zoo,
observe, assess, reflect and work out possible solutions to any identified problems.
In total, six sessions were held with students in Grade four, with 10 students, ranging
between 10 and 11 years of age. Each session lasted about 30 minutes. The invitation and
participation of students in this study took place according to ethical considerations as

approved by the Human Research Ethics Committee at The University of Melbourne.
Having the prior consent of both the students and their parents/legal guardians, the
discussion sessions were audio-recorded so that I could pay close attention to their language
and ideas. Later, they were transcribed and checked for accuracy. The transcriptions were
translated from Farsi to English in a gradual process. Pseudonyms used for the students‘
names, and the names of certain locations were also altered to provide a higher degree of
anonymity. This discursive data set was then analysed using Positioning Theory as a tool to
help make better sense of the students thinking and sense of relation to the topic (Harré and
van Langenhøve, 1999; Redman and Fawns, 2010).
ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS

The analysis of students‘ conversations took form through a structured and gradual
process of reflection on, and examination of, the transcripts. The preliminary analysis of the
data indicated that were patterns in the content of the discursive activities of the students. By
focusing on these patterns, I was able to identify two broad themes that allowed for an
informative arrangement of students‘ conversational acts across all six sessions.
The first theme related to the resources that were available to the students to gain
knowledge about, and to make meaning of, the environmental topics and issues. The second
theme involved the conversations where students were specifically discussing issues relating
to their Zoo project. Within both of these categories, I also tracked and highlighted student
accounts of the institutional norms, practices and values, aiming to illuminate how these
accounts may have shaped up, and are affecting, the current culture of EE at this school.
Gaining Knowledge, Making Meaning
After analyzing the excerpts, from the discussion sessions with the students, five main
resources or perspectives were utilised by the students in the process of gaining knowledge
and making sense of the environmental topic and its issues. The most prominent of these were
books, magazines and printer material.
At Novin there are no prescribed books in the curriculum, but there is a well-equipped
library. This has resulted in the frequent use of books and other publications by students to
complete their research needed for their individual projects, or to read and follow issues of
personal interest. The analysis indicated that students used these sources to develop and refine
their knowledge and information about the natural world and the related environmental
topics, and that they perceive books as a highly valid source.
The other frequently mentioned source for gaining knowledge was through engagement
with visual media productions. In the students‘ accounts about movies and documentaries
they indicated that they had enhanced their knowledge of nature and environmental issues and
this showed a growth in their individual sensitivity towards such issues (Bahk, 2011; Nagel,
2005). However, it seemed that in cases where the language of the production was not in
Farsi, it could have implications for how students construct reasoned meaning from
unfamiliar visual experiences, leading to the educational values of such sources not being
fully accessed.
Direct contact and place-based experiences in natural environments, particular visits to
rural areas around Tehran and the trips that they have made outside of Iran, had a special
place in students‘ accounts and narratives. Students also often mentioned the presence of, or
referred to, adult figures in these narratives. In a comparison of the narratives, two distinct
positions were identified for adult figures. In one, the adult position seemed to be directly
influencing the process of meaning making of the natural world for the child and somehow
defining what reality should be for the child in this sense. In the other prominent position of
adults in the students‘ narratives, an intentional or unintentional withdrawal of influence by
adult(s) was noted which seemed to have afforded the child opportunities in the conversation
to rehearse and explain not only the child‘s intellectual authority but also their moral agency.
The outcome of the analysis of the discursive data further revealed that students
generally.
Interestingly, fewer references were made to experiences at the school, particular subjects
or teachers in students‘ talks compared to the ones noted previously. In such references, the
pronoun choice often suggested that first the students perceived the culture at Novin as being
pro environmental values, and secondly, signalled the presence of a strong sense of
community and involvement.
Students draw upon all the previously mentioned resources, particularly family values, to
gain knowledge and understanding of nature and environmental issues. Also the reality of
God and the power of God in creating and shaping the world were sustained in these
conversations. Such talks would however, come up mostly it seemed as a default or common-
sense position, when students were deep into a debate or argument and unable to provide a
reason or the scientific answer to how things came to be as they are. It seems, however, that
the micro-cultures students are part of (school or home), tolerate and allow reflection on, and
the questioning of, such entities.
The Tehran Zoo Project
This research study focussed on a group project about Tehran Zoo. As described earlier
Tehran Zoo had been attracting some negative attention in recent years. The way students
approached and dealt with the Zoo project was structured through three guiding phases:
1 Problem identification
2 Creative problem solving
3 Evaluation of possible actions and solutions
Within each of these three phases, students were engaged in deep, prolonged discussions
that often involved philosophical and ethical issues. The focus and topics that needed to be
discussed included the actual existence and operation of zoos, animal rights, and also the
individual and collective obligations and rights in dealing with the current issues.
The main concern of students in relation to zoos in Iran, and Tehran Zoo in particular,
was that insufficient space had been allocated to the animals and that the places where the
animals were being kept did not resemble their natural habitat. However, they also recognized
and approved of the need of humans for wanting to directly observe living animals from close
proximity. They unanimously disapproved of the use of cages and associated the cage with
imprisoning and torturing. Students would frequently attempt to imagine ―how would we feel
if we were trapped in our rooms forever?‖ Children agreed that while it is beneficial for
humans to have zoos, the solution is to enhance the condition of such places.
In the process of brain storming solutions, they drew on examples of zoos they had been
to on their trips to other countries, namely Germany, Australia and Canada, or places that they
had read about in books or magazines. Their general perception was that in other countries,
animals were better cared for, and that animal freedom was always respected and was also
supported by law.
Finally, students reached the conclusion that the best possible solution was to have an
open range zoo. At this point they discussed different actions they could take to help Tehran
Zoo become an open range zoo. Adult figures (mainly parents and relatives of students) who
were perceived by children to have power, knowledge and skills, and or financial resources,
were identified as possible assistants with such a project.
Students then entered a socio-critical phase. They discussed their civil rights, identifying
who was responsible for the current situation and what could be done to convince authorities
that change was needed. Finally students discussed the importance of increasing public
awareness regarding environmental issues in general and animal rights in particular. Public
education methods they identified which could be effective included advertising through
flyers and posters, Television (TV) ads and TV programs that targeted both children and
adults. They favoured also gaining the support of celebrities. As the data gathering came to an
end, the students seemed eager to further pursue this project.
The overall findings of the study showed that pro-environmental values and attitudes
were highly regarded in Novin‘s school culture. Students seemed to have developed and used
various skills, which had enabled them to engage in an effective process reflecting on
environmental topics and to feel confident about their intellectual abilities and capacities to
take up individual and collective action.
While there was no subject or class designated to EE within this school, the EE principles
seemed to be tacitly woven into the different subjects and various practices. The findings
have highlighted the need for establishing strong links between the community of the school
and the families of the children regarding environmental issues and awareness. The results
suggest the value of offering EE as a separate topic for students in Grade three and above, as
they have the capacity to provide students with the opportunity to work on local
environmental issues and apply their skills in different areas.
CLOSING THE “RHETORIC-REALITY GAP”

When environmental education was formed in mid 1960s both as a discourse and
practice, the hope was that through the provision of a new kind of education, the three
interconnected. This educational approach has been promoted in key international documents
for two decades, and was deemed to be ―interdisciplinary and flexible‖ with its focus on
―problem-solving and action-based activities‖ (Palmer and Birch, 2005, p.117). It was
envisaged that this kind of educational experience would result in the shaping of ―responsible
and active citizens, tooled with the knowledge and will to produce environmental, social and
educational change‖ (Flogaitis et al., 2005, p.126).
In reality however, the formal inclusion of EE into the school curriculum in countries
such as UK, Australia and Canada has proven to be difficult, ―limited in scope and troubled
with biases and distortions‖, far from reaching its internationally stated goals, principles and
guidelines (González-Gaudiano, 2007, p.157).
Much of this difficulty, as described by scholars such as Stevenson (2007), relates to the
existing conflict between the nature and goals of environmental education and the traditional
nature and functioning of schools. Historically, schools have been ―uncritical‖ institutions for
the transmission of basic knowledge and skills, aiming to serve industrialized societies that
create citizens with certain required skills. Also, schools were tools through which ―the
‗mainstream‘ or dominant beliefs, values and norms, shared by those who have political
power in our society,‖ would be maintained (Stevenson, 2007, p.144).
Environmental education, in contrast, has a social-critical, and political action oriented
nature, with the ―revolutionary purpose‖ of changing and transforming the kind of values
people hold which have resulted in the current misuse of the planet, to ―those which support a
sustainable planet in which all people live with equal human dignity‖ (Stevenson, 2007,
p.145). The institutionalization of environmental education within general education, as
Gruenewald (2004, p.71) explains, ―works against its own socially and ecologically
transformative goals" and "mutes its potential as a transformative educational discourse
practice". Such inconsistencies between academic and rhetorical perspectives in
environmental education and the actual practice of EE, grabbed the attention of researchers
and scholars in the mid 1990s. Palmer (1998, p.96) refers to this as the "Rhetoric-Reality
Gap" and later describes how that gap has lead to ―conflicts, inconsistencies, and limitations
in environmental education practice‖ (Palmer and Birch, 2005, p.117).
One of the means through which such a gap could be reduced is to link empirical research
to the practice of environmental education and to improve educational practices based on
research outcomes and (Palmer and Birch, 2005, p.121).
In the small scale study I conducted at Novin School my initial aim was to explore the
nature and functioning of EE within a humanistic educational approach in Tehran, Iran. As
stated previously, the result showed that the current culture of EE at Novin accords with the
principles and goals of contemporary environmental education; furthermore, possible
enhancements to current EE practices were identified. Here, in an attempt to close the
―Rhetoric-reality Gap‖, it would be right to now explore how and why the educational
approach and practices at Novin have been successful in delivering a critical teaching and
learning approach for the environment. In the following section, I will point to three main
educational aspects at Novin which have perhaps begun to answer this critical question.
Placed-Based Education and Outdoor Experience
In accordance with the majority of previous EE research, (Chawla, 1998; Palmer, 1999;
Gruenewald, 2000; Martin, 2007; Risenhoover, 2008) the importance and significance of
outdoor and fieldwork experiences were highlighted in this small scale study.
At Novin, a high value is put on the time each student spends outside the classroom,
whether it be daily excursions or the longer group trips students make alongside their teachers
to different parts of Iran. These events are designed to link what students do inside their
classrooms to a reality outside in the wider community. Students are familiarised with the
natural, social and economical realities and variations that surrounds them. The longer trips of
a few days provide an opportunity for students to develop a range of skills such as problem-
solving while away from their home and family.
Notably, these events create and emphasize a connection between children and nature and
serve the ―proximity‖ factor mentioned by Martin (2007, p.59). Based on the structure of
caring, explored by Noddings (1984 and 2002), Martin recognizes proximity as the most
powerful determinant, and a primary factor that is required for the development of ―caring‖
for nature and the ―non-human‖ environment in children which helps students and young
people not to conceive environment as ―something out there‖ (Martin, 2007, p.59).
Novin plans visits that are varied in nature and purpose, covering all subjects (maths,
values of life, history and social science) that go beyond the common popular destinations
such as museums, zoos or botanical gardens. The result is that children can gain information
and knowledge about socio-economical and political structures of their community through
direct contact and experience. Such knowledge and experience is directly beneficial in the
social-critical and action-oriented aspects of EE. These are the aspects which, some scholars
argue, are muted and dismissed in EE programs within formal, conventional schooling.
Project Orientation
In her comprehensive review of available literature and research focusing on

environmental education and young children, Risenhoover (2008, p. 249) refers to
Hungerford and Volk‘s (1990) model of determinants of responsible environmental
behaviour. Risenhoover states that Hungerford and Volk (1990) emphasize helping children
develop and utilise their confidence and action skills. In my study, a strong sense of
competence in taking action was present in most of these students‘ narratives and
conversations. Based on the findings, I assume that such confidence, in taking action, is an
outcome from the individual projects. The conversation below supports this hypothesis. The
student had just moved to Novin, from a conventional primary school, while we were
conducting the research:
Ghazal: and if you want to compare this school with your previous school
in terms of paying attention to environmental issues?
Ray: here we might even become successful in freeing the animals.
Ghazal: so you think we pay more attention to environmental issues here?
In which classes have you come across such topics?
Ray: well, almost nowhere.
Ghazal: so where does this hopefulness in you come from?
Ray: cause [here] each person has good resources and can do good
research and we can even prove that [animals] can live more freely
and have a better life... like Nel has prepared a list and Aiden said
he‘s got photos and Sue also said she has [photos] and you are
[audio] recording this and taking notes.
It seems that the ongoing engagement of students, with their individually selected
projects, has developed respect for research as well as skills in effective research processes in
project development, implementation and delivery.
One of the variables mentioned by Hungerford and Volk‘s (1990) which Risenhoover
(2008, p 249) highlights in her review, is the ―empowerment variables‖. The argument is that
students need to develop ―skills and knowledge of environmental action strategies‖ so that
they feel capable of using their citizenship strategies to help identify and resolve issues. The
following excerpt is from the final discussion session where students were discussing the
possible actions they can take to enhance the conditions at the Tehran Zoo:
Mat: I have a great idea, which I think all kids would agree, we write a
letter to the head.
Ghazal: head of the Zoo?
Mat: yes
Phil: we can also write a letter to Ministry of Environment
Nik: … I can take you to the Ministry of Environment, or we can go to
Municipal Council and report [the issue], or I can go and talk to the
President.
Phil: the President? [Laughs out loud]
Nik: He is the main person.
Nel: what‘s the point of writing a letter? They won‘t pay any attention,
even if they say they‘ll do, they won‘t do anything.
Phil: Well, we keep on telling them till they do [take action].
Nik: … we have our rights, I agree with Phil, even if it takes a damn
hundred years, we want animals to be free.
Phil: The President should think about our suggestions, and should listen
to us, because this is the job of Presidents.
Here children‘s pronoun choices, along with certain terms and names they have used,
suggest the presence of knowledge of civil rights and action strategies which can lead this
group to push forward their environmental agenda outside the boundaries of school. It is also
interesting to see how individuals in the group support each other and try to keep the
motivation alive when a member is having doubts, or is pessimistic, about the actions and
solutions suggested.
The narrative presence of these qualities, and the positions recognised as available to
these students, can be linked to their knowledge of the political structure and their citizenship
rights through certain subjects and individual projects, as supported by various excursions.
Here again, it is observed how the different skills and knowledge gained in a variety of
activities can come together and serve as one of the key variables in effective environmental
education, giving students the confidence to engage with different topics (here, an
environmental issue) and to feel competent to take action if required. This point could be of
particular importance in the more conventional approaches to schooling, and supportive for
teachers for whom their topic of teaching is not directly related to science/environment.
In my previous study exploring the professional identity formation of teachers at Novin
regarding EE (Fawns and Yazdanpanah, 2009) I had a chance to review the practices of
teachers in variety of subjects. The result showed that while many of the practices of teachers
would fall under three main categories of teaching about, in or for the environment, and
overall the formation of effective environmental education approach at school, most teachers
themselves did not recognise such activities as having any value in terms of EE. The findings
of my two different studies show how various activities and approaches in different subjects
would contribute to the development and formation of skills and intellectual capacities in
students, and contribute to effective environmental education.
Knowledge Sources and Democratic Skills
Traditionally, within conventional schooling, teachers have been viewed as bearers and
distributers of knowledge (Palmer and Birch, 2005). Such views still dominate formal
primary education in Iran; teachers and textbooks are the main tools for educating and are
responsible for delivery of knowledge to students (Jahani Asl, 2003). The result of this
approach is that the opinions, answers and views can become fixed and divided into right and
wrong, based on what the teacher believes and what the textbooks say.
Relating this point to the practice of EE, there is strong evidence that adult figures can
have significant effects on the process of meaning making of children regarding nature and
environmental issues (Palmer and Birch, 2005). Therefore it can be argued that the views and
opinions expressed by individual teachers, and those provided through prescribed books, may
shape and limit the views and opinions of students in this regard.
One of the key aims of the humanistic educational approach at Novin is to breakdown
and transform such positions and power relations. In order to do so, two distinct changes have
been made to more traditional view points: 1) teachers have been transformed into facilitators,
aiming to have the least interference or effect on the individual path that each child is
undertaking in the process of learning 2) the use of prescribed books or texts have been
abandoned in the curriculum. Various books and other published materials are available at the
school library, and these have become one of the main sources of gaining knowledge and
information for children.
These two fundamental changes have resulted in a diffusion of children‘s attention to a
variety of sources for gaining information and knowledge; a process that requires them to
develop researching, analytical and critical thinking skills. Furthermore, as a result of these
changes in power relations and traditional positions, a culture has formed within the school in
which differences are more than just tolerated but are perceived as vital and necessary for the
community to function and progress. Students are encouraged to question, explore, express
and critique ideas, beliefs, as well as rules and norms. The skills and confidence that develop
in children in this democratic culture aligns with the social-critical and political action
oriented nature of environmental education.
CONCLUSION
My involvement as a teacher with Novin primary school in Tehran, Iran, laid the
foundation for conducting a small scale research study, exploring the culture of
environmental education in the progressive, humanistic educational setting at Novin. In this
research project, I used a qualitative research approach and used Positioning Theory (Harré
and van Langenhøve, 1990; Redman and Fawns, 2010) as my main analytical tool. I focused
on, and analysed, students‘ conversations and narratives as they worked on a small project
about Tehran Zoo, and engaged in discussions about various environmental issues, in
particular, animal rights.
This study was the first attempt to explore the culture of environmental education within
a humanistic educational approach in Iran. The findings indicated that pro-environmental
values and attitudes are favoured in Novin‘s culture; while there is no subject or class
designated to EE within this school, EE principles seem to be tacitly included in different
subjects and various practices. The results highlighted three main characteristics of Novin‘s
curriculum which are considered to be of importance to successful environmental education
practice; these three include:
1) project orientation of the curriculum

2) emphasis on outdoor activities, excursion and trips in all subjects and topics
3) diffusing the focus put on teachers and prescribed textbooks as the bearers of
knowledge and truth.
These three main aspects of curriculum at Novin seem to have been successful in
equipping children with knowledge about nature and environmental issues, as well as various
skills such as problem-solving, critical thinking and action skills. The results suggested that it
would be beneficial to have a separate subject dedicated to EE in the curriculum in which
students can use and practice their skills through focusing on real environmental problems at
a local level.
Conducting this small-scale study made it possible to gain a better understanding of the
culture of EE at Novin and to make enhancements to the EE curriculum and current practices.
It has also showcased how research of this kind can contribute to the closing of the ―Rhetoric,
Reality Gap‖ (Palmer and Birch, 2005, p.117) in Environmental Education at the primary
school level through highlighting the outcomes of successful practices.
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Chapter 6
DO YOU GET MY DRIFT? THE IMPORTANT

INFLUENCE OF PERSONAL PRACTICAL
KNOWLEDGE ON ICT USE IN TEACHING
Paul D. Chandler
University of New England, New South Wales, Australia
ABSTRACT
How to encourage effective Information and Communications Technology (ICT) use
in classrooms is a topic of long standing but enduring significance. A perspective which
informs this perennial question is to regard teachers as knowledge and wise practitioners
who have good reason for doing what they do with the technology they have available,
whether that might seem to be an optimal or effective use or not.
This chapter is centred around the year-long case study of two teachers who strove to
use ICT in their teaching. Their stories are used to illuminate the importance of elements
of teacher knowledge, especially personal practical knowledge, on how and why they
used ICT. The enduring message for successful practices is for a close alignment between
what teachers want to achieve and to be, at the deepest levels, and any technology or
innovation which they encounter.
INTRODUCTION
This chapter concerns the importance of personal practical knowledge of teaching, those
internal frames of reference deeply rooted in personal experiences, and the interpretation of
which guide teacher action (Marland, 1995). This knowledge is at best partially articulated,
but also context-specific, intensely personal and possesses considerable explanatory and
predictive power for the teacher concerned (Marland, 1994). The context for this discussion is
the educational environment in which we are presently immersed, with changes to curriculum
and pedagogy being placed at the doorstep on a nearly daily basis. It is almost self-evident
and trite to observe this, but in the era of Web 2.0 technologies, teachers are probably being
called on to develop entirely new practices in ways which they have not been called upon to
114 Paul D. Chandler
do in the past. But whether it is a technological innovation, a new pedagogical framework

such as e5 (Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, 2010) or a new
outlook on science education such as the ‗representational approach‘ (Hubber, Tytler and
Haslam, 2010; Prain and Tytler, 2010), the issue of teacher adaptation to new pedagogical
circumstances clearly has enduring currency.
The departure point for insights into this context is Louden and Wallace‘s (1990) study of
teachers with no background in the content or pedagogy of Science who were in the position
of teaching Science. (So-called ‗out of field teaching‘ being perhaps the most distinct and
recognisable form of needing to adapt to ‗new pedagogical circumstances‘.) In it was
observed that pedagogy in an unfamiliar subject area was appropriated directly from the
teaching of a discipline with which teachers were more familiar. For one of the teachers in
their study, Bill (an English teacher) they comment, ―the goal and content were science, but
the pedagogy was English‖ (p. 185) and for another, Malcolm, a Craft teacher, they consider:
―his Science lessons took the form with which he felt most comfortable. Like Bill‘s drift
towards English, Malcolm‘s drift was towards Craft‖. (p. 186)
And so this chapter directs the following question to the reader/teacher/practitioner:
―what is your drift?‖ The view taken is that if we can better understand our personal practical
knowledge – that is, our ‗drift‘–then we will be in a stronger position to understand the ways
we are already equipped to change and innovate.
With Louden and Wallace‘s observation as the departure point, the case studies of two
teachers who, with minimal background in the field, took it upon themselves to use
information and communication technologies (ICT) in their teaching, are presented. Drawing
on those case studies, I then consider in more detail the notion of personal practical
knowledge and the implications for the Science teacher in this era when available
technologies and recommended teaching approaches are expanding and changing at a rapid
pace.
TWO TEACHERS, ONE SCHOOL

Outeast College (pseudonymns are used throughout) is a private, co-educational school in
the Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne, Australia providing education for students from Pre-
Preparatory until the end of their secondary education. It is the site where the author taught
and where he met and worked closely with two colleagues described herein. Neither the
school nor the teachers are presented as in any way ‗representative‘ or ‗typical‘ of schools.
The only claim here is that there are some important learnings that arise out of the telling of
these teacher‘s stories. Prior to introducing these teachers, the circumstances by which these
teacher‘s stories were collected is now described.
The Study and Method
The study took the form of a collective case study (Stake, 1994, pp. 236-7). Data was
collected using a combination of semi-structured interviews (Drever, 1995, pp. 13-15) and
scheduled videorecording of classes in progress (Erickson, 1982). Howard and Arlene were
Do You Get My Drift? 115
volunteer participants. They chose a particular class with which they planned to use
computers regularly, and their work with that class in the computer laboratory was videoed as
often as was practical for the whole of a school year.
In addition to video recording, I held individual interviews with Howard and Arlene four
times during the course of the year. Each interview lasted between 45 and 70 minutes. On
three of these occasions, I used video replay to promote discussion and thereby to learn
something of their views of particular classroom events. This usually took the form of the
tape being played and either myself or the participant pausing the tape and discussing features
which interested us.
Analysis of the video recordings began by my writing a commentary on each class as I
reviewed the videotapes. The degree of detail and scope of the commentary proceeded
according to the recommendations of Erickson (1982) and Cohen and Manion (1989, p. 127).
I read and re-read the interview transcripts and commentaries, trying out different
categorisation methods and, as Lancy (1993, pp. 21-22) says, generally pushed and pulled
text and ideas until they fell into reasonable, broader topics and differentiated outlines.
In this way, the categories were emergent from the data and not the result of applying a
pre-defined theoretical framework. Throughout his process, I kept an open mind about the
importance of teachers‘ knowledge on the pedagogy of Howard and Arlene, together with
other possible influences such as incentive structures, subject subcultures, professional
support structures, number and distribution of computers, and technical capacity of
computers. What emerged from the data was that, for these teachers in the particular
circumstances of Outeast College, teachers‘ personal practical knowledge was the dominant
influence on pedagogy.
Howard
Howard had taught at Outeast College for just over eight years, having completed his
teacher education course approximately 18 years earlier. Howard‘s teaching career, as he told
me during our first interview, is marked by being an English teacher during an era when there
have been infrequent vacancies for English teachers. His initial appointment at Outeast
College was to teach English and SOSE (Studies of Society and the Environment), but more
importantly to work with overseas students. The first full year that he taught at the school was
also the first year in which the school offered places to 120 overseas students, and Howard
was appointed to the role of International Student Co-ordinator (ISC).
Howard was ISC and a teacher of English as a Second Language (ESL) when I first met
him, and it was as a teacher of Year Eleven ESL in which he participated in the study. In our
first interview, Howard outlined his career trajectory. He had moved directly from school to
university, and much of his teacher education experience had been in a school with a great
many migrant students. During his university studies, Howard had a church-based position as
a worker for human rights and justice.
Following teacher education, Howard told me that he had spent about six months as an
itinerant teacher taking any job he could find before taking a permanent position in
Singapore. Howard‘s interest in helping people make a new start in new situations are the
factors which I believe enabled Howard to manage the teaching of a diverse range of
discipline areas and year levels, as discussed later in this paper.
Arlene
Prior to the commencement of this study, I had known Arlene as a Year Level Co-
ordinator and teacher of English and History in the senior levels. Arlene participated in this
study as a teacher of Year Seven English, the first time in several years that she had taught
that subject. Arlene was a late entrant to the teaching profession, having commenced at
Outeast College eight years earlier, and in mature years. Prior to this, she had worked in
general secretarial and personal assistant positions, and as a result of her training and
employment she was a proficient typist. Later in life, she took several short computing
courses learning word processing, spreadsheets, and BASIC programming. Arlene was a
much more skilful computer user than Howard, but I did not find that this was reflected in her
pedagogy. Rather, as elaborated later, I believe that both teacher‘s pedagogy was more
influenced by themes running through their life as a teacher.
HOWARD‟S PEDAGOGY
Beliefs
Throughout the year, Howard sustained four beliefs relating to the value of computers to
ESL teaching and learning. Firstly, Howard believed that the computer could be used to assist
with drafting, improving spelling and encouraging students to do more writing. There is
support for this in the scholarly literature. For instance, Hartley (1993) considers that research
into use of the word processor predicts that there will be more drafting, longer texts and texts
of better quality. Specifically, Howard considered that there were four advantages of using
the word processor. Firstly, he commented,
I‘m not sure [if using the computer will result in students producing more]. Some of
them … may well produce more at this stage just by handwriting, but in the long term,
given the nature of drafting and redrafting for [major assessment tasks], it‘s going to help
them a lot if they get their skills up to the level where they can do first drafts on the
computer.
(Howard, Interview 1)
A second belief which Howard articulated was the particular value of spell checking to
ESL learning. In our second interview, using the example of the particular needs of one
student, Howard commented,
Ben … [is very weak at English, and perhaps more than anyone else in the class] …
needs to use a computer … His spelling is something atrocious. I mean, his sentence
construction is - well - recognisably English, but his spelling often isn‘t and if he could
manage to get his text down there, and use the spellchecker, it wouldn‘t magically
provide the right word on every occasion, but he‘d have more of a chance.
A third advantage of computers to ESL learning discussed by Howard related to the

desirability of students proficiently using computers by Year Twelve:
they will have the ability to produce all of their drafts, for their [major assessment
tasks], and to do their revisions on computer. So, that is pretty significant for ESL
students given that it can help them a great deal with spelling. I also think, speaking from
personal experience, that one can think more clearly and edit and evaluate your own work
when what you are looking at is classy compared with scribbly handwriting.
A fourth advantage of computers to ESL teaching and learning discussed by Howard

relates to the teachers‘ role:
Similarly with my ability as teacher to mark or … to make suggestions, corrections,

whatever, kids who give me stuff on the computer I can do it a lot better for them
especially if they do as instructed and these kids, these Year Eleven‘s are doing as
instructed, at least ten or twelve point, double spaced, one side of the paper, printed to a
reasonable sort of standard. So they are all doing that and they are doing their revisions
so in terms of word processing - heading in the right direction.
If students are to have these benefits at Year Twelve, then it is most important that they
be taught suitable computer skills in lower year levels. Any disadvantages of use in Year
Twelve in terms of efficiency would be counteracted if suitable skills were taught in
preceding years.
Several times during our interviews, Howard also drew attention to less tangible
advantages of using computers in the ESL classroom: students‘ liking for using computers,
capturing their interest, and gaining pleasure from their composition and their ability to
present work well.
Howard was also conscious of some limitations relating to the use of the computer for
composition. He did not draw attention to concerns such as plagiarism or quality of students‘
using work, believing, I assume, that suitable technical and procedural solutions can
overcome these. Rather, Howard drew attention to the process of composition and the
relationship between teacher and students which is necessary to achieve this:
… with the hard copy I have a set of sentences I use for correcting things I teach in
Year Ten and Eleven and employ in Year Twelve, where … guidelines [allow you to]
identity their mistakes but not allowed to correct them for them so ―v for verb‖ and ―w
for wrong word‖ and ―sp for spelling‖ and things like that so I can teach them those
things and help them get their corrected version when I am using hard copy. I obviously
can‘t write on the computer in the same way, but I can correct it for them or get them to
correct it on the spot and I can write in paragraphs, write in sentences, highlight the
words that are wrong on the screen just by double clicking on the word so ―OK, these are
the verbs you have got to fix up - we are talking about something in the past so we need
past tense here‖.
Howard was comfortable with the idea that hardcopy and softcopy offered different
advantages and disadvantages. He was, in fact, thoughtful enough not to consider the
computer (softcopy) as a panacea for all concerns within the ESL classroom, but as a tool
which offered many advantages but also with disadvantages which the teacher and student
would have to find ways of managing.
Table 1. Advantages of Word Processing
For learners, word processing For teachers, word processing

• enhances their perceptions of themselves as
―real‖ writers
• gives their text a better public image
• brings their writing closer to public forms
of communication and adult models
• permits them to spend more
• gives them a new perspective on spelling
time on individual
and punctuation errors
supervision and tutoring
• enables them to reflect on the thinking that
• directs and controls the work
goes on behind the writing
of small groups
• makes it easier for them to share their work
• gives a theme store of
with others
information on children‘s
• encourages and facilitates collaborative
writing and thinking
writing
• makes compositions easier
• gives them control over the pace and
to read
direction of their own learning
• helps them adopt an appropriately self-
critical distance from their writing
• encourages experimentation and risk taking
• provides a focus for group discussion
It is interesting to compare Howard‘s perceived advantages and disadvantages of word

processing with those presented by Geisert and Futrell (1990, p. 111), as shown in Table 1
(which, despite the early date of the reference, has a very current and Web 2.0 ‗feel‘ to it).
Howard‘s beliefs relating to word processing correspond very closely with the
advantages for learners presented in this textbook which is aimed at encouraging computer
use by teachers. Particularly, Howard perceives word processing as ―process-orientated‖ - a
tool that places as much emphasis on learning to write as on producing a finished
composition.
Feeling that computers offered his students many advantages, Howard set himself the
goal of learning to teach more effectively with computers during the year, and had established
several aims for himself.
Aims
As I have already noted, Howard had used computers in his ESL teaching in the year
prior to the present study taking place. In my opinion, he had used them for the same range of
reasons (as described above) during the present study, and in fact he used his participation in
this study to consolidate his pedagogy relating to computer use. Commensurate with his
desire to be well-planned, in our first interview Howard clearly articulated aims for his work
with computers over the year:
1. Have students produce more. Howard explained during our second interview that he
encouraged his students to
just go and write as much as they can, no matter how ungrammatical it is, even if
they get the wrong words in there, even if they leave spaces for words they don‘t
know.
In other words, the issue of having students produce ―more‖ related to the quantity of
thoughts and words composed. Howard saw the use of computers as being a vehicle
which would encourage students to ―produce more‖ because use of computers
captures students‘ interest and they gain pleasure from the presentation of their
composition. I found it interesting that, as Howard himself stated, even though the
final exams in the subject were hand-written, Howard‘s desire to encourage an
increase in the quantity of composition over shadowed any reluctance to favour
keyboarding over hand writing. This aim also related to the efficiency with which the
word processor was used, as Howard explained:
Yes, there is a lot of scope for them improving their actual technical skills, and not to
waste time with formatting and doing pretty things. I really want them initially to get
the words down on the page and later they can fix it up.
2. Have students follow guidelines accurately rather than following well-worn and stale
paradigms of writing. Howard gave a very clear example of this during our fourth
interview:
… they had a very conventional notion of how you do writing when you report about
event, so they would always start off formulaticly [sic]: ―on the 17th October …
[Outeast College] held its Presentation Night at Monash University‘s Robert
Blackwood Hall. The event began at 7:45. The whole school was in attendance. We
gathered in the foyer and chatted with our friends and took some photos‖. So …
pretty boring stuff … I did [an oral presentation of that] beginning in a monotone and
then I did an alternate version. ―Henry … moves confidently from the edge of the
stage out to the centre. He reaches forward and takes the microphone. He bows his
head in a moment‘s concentration … ‖
3. Successfully give clear direction in computer room procedures. Howard explained:
I find it hard to break the link between the kid and their computer once they‘re
logged in and going it‘s hard to get their eyes off the screen. It‘s hard to get their
attention again, and so you tell them a particular procedure, but you find that half of
them haven‘t logged in properly. They think they have or they haven‘t really caught
on to the basic thing you‘ve told them to do, so that‘s a challenge.
4. Use computers for teaching and learning tasks other than word processing,as he
explained:
[When I‘ve used computers in my teaching in previous years I‘ve] mainly … done
word processing. Now, there is obviously a whole range of other things that can be
done as an English teacher, and I would like to [do] appropriate work on some of
those other things as well…
And I‘m also going to have to develop more skills myself too - insofar as I haven‘t
used a laptop yet and learn using the ‗net and things like that too.
The fact that Howard had, of his own volition, formulated aims which we wanted to
achieve during the course of this research project is evidence that he not only values planning
and preparation, but is deliberately thoughtful about the detail of his lessons.
Features of Howard‟s Classroom
The immediate impression Howard‘s classes provided me with was that of informality
and even disorder. For instance, whilst it was not expected that senior classes would line up
outside the classroom door for their teacher (as did junior classes), there would be up to five
minutes between the first arrival to class and the last. The ‗ordinary‘ classroom lessons which
I observed were conducted in rooms with individual tables and chairs which were supposed to
be arranged in neat rows and columns; they rarely were, and Howard‘s students would sit
more-or-less anywhere.
During the lessons in the computer laboratory, during times of work at the computer,
students were free to move around the room. Some students seemed to me to be wandering
around the room somewhat aimlessly. Howard, however, referred to them as ―conferring‖
with their peers, and reminded me on several occasions that they might be seeking out other
students with whom they share a common language or from whom they can better understand
the English. Howard commented that a feature of the dynamic of the class was that weaker
students tended to be assisted by their friends, whether or not the friends were any more
competent than themselves. As a result, the better students sit together and the weaker
students sit together. This accounted for the movement of some students, particularly those
identified by Howard as weaker ones, around the room.
Importantly, I learnt that what seemed to me to be aimless, Howard often interpreted as
purposeful; what I might have interpreted as a little work (maybe a few paragraphs), Howard
was able to interpret as being a lot of good work from a particular student. That is not to
suggest that Howard had low expectations of his students, I believe that his expectations were
certainly high, but that there were many times when classroom activity and student interaction
could have been misinterpreted through the eyes of someone (such as myself) who is not an
ESL teacher, and I valued Howard‘s commentary on lessons in each of the interviews. During
our interviews, I noticed Howard‘s keen memory of classroom events and his personal
knowledge of students. We might have been watching a video of a lesson which took place a
week or more earlier, but Howard was able to refer to each student on the videotape by name
and he had a clear idea of what each student was doing.
Howard described some of the particular teaching practices that he used:
… the less you talk the better, and … the more the kids talk, the more kids do
activities the better. So being prepared means having tasks that are at the right level - and
that the students get on with, so on hands - hands-on work for them is really the most
desirable sort of model in terms of ESL teaching …
… I get all students to contribute in class - they‘ll tend to sit there and not volunteer
answers and I‘ve found that students are happy if you single them out and ask them the
question and give them time to answer, which is something you can do in a class that‘s all
international students where you don‘t have ten local [students] jumping up and down
with impatience, and you don‘t have time to wait for kids to formulate their answer. Try
to give clear directions in simple language with written directions as much as possible on
the board or in terms of handouts, that gives the kids another chance to translate and
process the language. They miss a lot of things that are purely verbal - they go right past
them, particularly as the day wears on, because it‘s exhausting to listen to another
language.
I saw Howard do all of these things. I also saw him use drama to act out concepts which
ranged from a computer operation to the exposition of a subtlety in the plot of a novel. All of
these fit very closely with his espoused values and practical theories of teaching, as is
discussed in a later section.
ARLENE‟S PEDAGOGY
Beliefs and Aims
Whereas Howard articulated his aims for teaching freely, Arlene made no explicit links
between her aims, values and beliefs and her teaching practice. Arlene was a much more
private person when talking about her teaching, and the task fell to inferring her aims and
beliefs teaching from the data available. In our first interview, Arlene had told me that she
tries to
1 motivate students so that they want to learn rather than feel that they have to;
2 ensure that all students have opportunities to express a point of view and for students
to recognise that others may have a different viewpoint which is equally valid;
3 be understanding, recognise if a child is having difficulties and hopefully have the
ability to help the child overcome it; and
4 be approachable, so that the students feel they can come to her for assistance with
problems of work, organisation and even at a personal level.
Arlene also indicated that these arose as a response to how she had been taught. She
recalled that in her school days children were expected to sit in the classroom and absorb
everything the teacher said without question; that there were teachers who had been very
unapproachable and often engaged in heavy-handed discipline. At their valedictory dinner,
Arlene‘s Year Twelve students of the previous year described her as a teacher who had
‗mothered‘ them and had been an ever-present person to talk to and shoulder to cry on.
Throughout our discussions, it also became clear to me that Arlene valued
5 students not getting bored, and I observed considerable variety in her regular
classroom lessons - spelling tests, writing a play, reading a play, designing a poster,
writing a short story;
6 students presenting work well and taking pride in their work;
7 students producing completed pieces of work, achieving both a good quality and a
good quantity of writing;
8 academic enterprise - more work, less play in the classroom; and
9 group work, and she made particular comment in our first interview that when
students work in groups of mixed ability they can help and encourage one another, a
way of making a conscious departure from the chalk-and-talk and empty-headed
model of teaching and learning which she had experienced as a student herself.
Features of Arlene‟s Classroom
Arlene‘s class used the same physical computer room as Howard‘s. In my notes on the
first video, I had written that Arlene‘s ―seemed like a very full class‖, which was an
impression which persisted over the year. Arlene chose to use her English lesson on the last
period on Wednesdays for time in the computer laboratory. This, I would contend, would
hardly be the time in the week when students would be most responsive or at the height of
their academic prowess. Whereas there were certainly a few students who I observed to
consistently display disruptive and rambunctious behaviour, I see this choice of time related
to Arlene‘s desire to provide variety and purpose in her teaching during the one English
lesson in the week when it was perhaps hardest to be academically engaging.
In our second interview, Arlene noted that students find computers quite motivating
―normally they are all desperate to get a machine‖ (Interview Two), and she also found that
there was less of a need to persist with a seating plan in the computer room because students
were better behaved.
The layout of the room also influenced the effectiveness of monitoring all 26 students in
the room. In principle, it might have been easy to monitor, because all the screens faced the
front. As this also meant that the students faced away from the teacher, it meant that the
teacher had to actively mix with the students to engage with them, and at such times things
happened outside the gaze of the teacher, and Arlene certainly knew of students being off-
task and doing mischievous things such as touching one another‘s machines and pressing
keys. She observed that
… you'll get kids writing notes to each other in any class room BUT the difference is
with the piece of paper you see it being passed so you can grab it. With the computer,
when you can't see that screen and you feel, ―Oh-oh! That kid's doing something!‖ - by
the time you get there they've got it off the screen.
(Arlene, Interview 3)
Using computers and tolerating certain behaviours was an active trade-off maximising
learning opportunities and finding ways to engage students at a time in the week when that
might be harder.
Arlene commented that in the computer laboratory, students tended to be more talkative
than the regular classroom:
They‘re chatty enough in the classroom but they still tend to chat even more in the
computer room. They look at each other's work more … [which I think is a good thing]
… They share each other's work and now they will talk about what they're writing. Yeah
it's good in that sense … They read what's been written so … that helps the weaker ones
as well, if they‘re sort of stuck, or… [they can] look at someone else's.
(Arlene, Interview 3)
Arlene appreciated the computer environment because, through it being ‗chattier‘, group
work and collaboration were promoted, which she valued. The contrast here with Howard‘s
class is interesting. Howard found that a problem was the persistent ―connection‖ between
computer and students, as if the student had entered into his/her own world with the
computer, which he tried hard to overcome. Arlene found the opposite problem - work in the
computer room was more chatty, more collaborative and more public. Common to them both
was that work with computers brought some changes to both the learning and social
environment to which they had to adapt. Both sought to respond to the reality that they found
in ways which allowed them to pursue their overall aims and purposes.
Arlene applied a certain formality and order to the classroom, allowed students to be in
control of their work (working at their own pace and in their own way), was active in
monitoring student work, and required hardcopy submissions. There were also a number of
strategies which Arlene made in response to the computer room environment: maximising the
use of computers, trying to be especially vigilant to maintain classroom order, valuing
students ability to manage the technology.
During our fifth interview, Arlene contrasted students learning about the technology
(which Arlene referred to as ―us[ing] the word processor as a skill‖), with students learning in
various subjects. She considered that her role was assisting the students to effectively use the
tool, and whilst she taught some technology skills over the year, she did very little of this.
Along with Arlene‘s valuing of the presentation of work (―it looks as though they‘ve taken
time with it when they do present it on computer‖, Interview Two), I believe this statement is
central to understanding Arlene‘s pedagogy, because she in fact did extremely little teaching
about the technology. It is almost as if Arlene approaches student use of computers in the
same way as she would their using a pen in the classroom; she would not have to show
students how to use a pen (that knowledge can be assumed), and the content of the class can
proceed on the assumption that students know how to use that technology. It seems to me that
Arlene made the same kind of assumption about computers - appropriate use was assumed
(either learnt already, or acquired from peers in the classroom), and the lesson content
proceeded regardless. The computer was largely a ‗silent partner‘ in her teaching of English.
In summary, I believe that Arlene found that using computers in her teaching supported
her desire to promote her core values and beliefs. The most strongly recurring themes in
Arlene‘s work throughout the year are the notions of having students present their work well,
and to take pride in their work; the motivation which using computers provides to students, to
take care with a piece of work and to complete it thoroughly, are recurring themes.
DISCUSSION
Personal Practical Knowledge As Explanatory
As I observed and worked alongside Howard and Arlene, patterns in their classroom
work and in their work life as a whole gradually became apparent. For Howard, ―breaking
patterns‖ is a major theme which spans his professional activity. Likewise for Arlene, finding
ways for students to be engaged, motivated learners who express their own opinion and have
pride in their work are consistent themes in her teaching. These practical theories of teaching
have arisen out of a deep consideration of teaching and learning and what each teacher seeks
to do and be as a professional, and they are consistent across the ‗regular‘ and the
technologically-infused classroom.
Miller and Olson (1994) contend that ―... what teachers are trying to accomplish shapes
what they do with what they find. When they find computers in a room they shape them to
their purposes‖ (p. 137) and ―the existence of innovative practice in the classroom has less to
do with the advent of technology than it does with the teacher‘s pre-existing conceptions of
practice‖ (p. 123). This point is particularly well illustrated by Middleton (1999), who argues
that existing pedagogical orientation determines use of technologies:
For teachers committed to student-centred pedagogies, what were known at the time
as ‗audio visual aids‘ could foster ‗relevance‘. For these teachers, tape-recorders, video or
movie cameras and projectors, and recorded music helped school knowledge ‗connect‘
with students‘ expressed ‗needs and interests‘ at the appropriate ‗level of development‘.
The technology lent itself to group work in classroom environments designed to cater for
diversity.
Others incorporated the new appliances into ‗top-down‘ pedagogy. For example, the
overhead projector is arguably the simplest ‗visual aid‘ to operate. While some teachers
allowed students to create their own transparencies and use the projector to display their
own individual or group projects, others used it as a sort of ‗permanent blackboard‘ and
projected the same notes unchanged from year to year. (p. 18)
A change in pedagogy is not merely a matter of wresting teachers from their long-held
routines, it is a matter, as Ridgway and Passey (1991) consider, of a ―change in world view―.
Change is not difficult because of an unwillingness to change or a lack of technical
proficiency but rather because of the durability of the internal frames of reference. Ridgway
and Passey (1991) observe that
if one accepts the view that actions derive from constructions about the world, then
one faces the challenge that the majority of teachers do not have constructions which are
well suited to appropriate educational uses of computers … teachers bring existing
constructs to bear when they introduce [computers into their teaching]… (p. 7)
It is this observation which is the inspiration for this chapter: that in order to help teachers
improve their use of computers in teaching, we must embrace their existing constructs (‗get
their drift‘) and discern their practical theories of teaching, which are deeply connected with
their very sense of themselves as teachers, and work towards identifying computer
applications and pedagogies which align well to these.
At several schools that I have visited from time to time, there has been a small number of
very high profile and creative teachers who have been held up as exemplars to their
colleagues and the wider educational community. I sometimes feel that the subtext to this
goes something like, ―become like Jane, and that way, you will use computers well in your
teaching‖.
Teacher educators need to be careful not to be too intent on trying to re-shape a Howard
or an Arlene into a (hypothetical) Jane.
Rather, there seems to be a good deal of merit in adopting a line of thinking from Gestalt
psychology, as Robinson (1989, p. 280) did, to argue that change occurs when one becomes
what he/she is, not when he/she tries to become something that he/she is not; that change in
other people is most likely to be facilitated by abandoning altogether the aim of trying to
change them and giving them instead the opportunity to be fully themselves, a vision of the
choices around them, and the support to embrace any venture they choose.
In other words, to help a Howard become the best Howard that he can be, and help him
clothe himself in the most exciting range of computing applications that he can comfortably
wear. That is not to deny the enthusiasm, ideas and strategies that can be learned from
listening to and observing exemplary teachers, but we must seek to ‗get his drift‘ and ‗go with
his flow‘, or the best ideas will fall on deaf ears.
The same thinking can be extended to ‗out of field‘ teaching. Louden and Wallace (1990)
comment on two teachers in their study:
Malcolm‘s silent … lesson prevented students from making their own ideas explicit
or generating alternative interpretive models. Similarly, Bill presented the experimental
method as if it were linear and rational, and his stage-management of students‘
observations prevented them from reconstructing their own understanding of scientific
activity. (p. 187)
In this case, because the pedagogy originated from a subject area more familiar to the
teacher, it actually did a disservice to the content being taught. In contrast, Whelan (1992)
found that the nature of the subject area (Legal Studies) matched very well with teachers‘
(lack of) experience:
the teacher‘s lack of base for authoritarian knowledge transmission, their depth of
teaching and life experience, and the offer of relevant knowledge to study by the syllabus
in a discipline which mandates contestation … combined in a unique opportunity.
(Whelan, 1992, abstract)
It cannot be assumed that practical theories of teaching will necessarily do a disservice to

the teaching of content knowledge which is unfamiliar, however they will always hold
implications for how the unfamiliar is both appreciated and taught by a teacher. Likewise, if,
for example, because of staff shortages, we need to identify out-of-field teachers to teach
science, knowledge of the content matter is one consideration, but so is how their deep sense
of self resonates with, or can draw new possibilities out of, science teaching.
CONCLUSION
In terms of ―what works‖ (in the title of this volume), this attention to teachers‘ personal
practical knowledge highlights the importance of a good alignment between a teacher‘s deep
sense of self and the possibilities offered by a particular innovation. For instance, if the idea
of collaboration does not resonate readily with a teacher then Web 2.0 technologies are not
likely to be readily embraced. The desirability of deep reflective practices to identify and
mould ones‘ personal practical knowledge cannot be under-estimated.
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Chapter 7
THE ROLE OF DEMONSTRATIONS IN SUCCESSFUL

SCIENCE PRACTICES: THE PROMOTION
OF CHEMISTRY IN SCHOOL PROJECTS
Elaine Regan
Department of Education and Professional Studies,
King's College, London, UK
ABSTRACT
When considering successful science practices in teaching, engagement is
acknowledged as a priority. Practical work is a central feature of science and
demonstration is just one kind of practical work that has been used as a method of
inciting interest, motivation and fun in the classroom. The excitement of chemical
experimentation has been appreciated since the earliest days of alchemy in classical
Greece, and a rich tradition of performance persists to the present day in museums and
edutainment media such as the BBC‘s recent series Chemistry: a volatile history. In this
chapter I will locate chemical demonstrations within the historical and contemporary
contexts and address the question: what does research have to say about demonstration in
science teaching and, in particular, about its effectiveness as a teaching and learning
strategy?
The chapter opens with a review of what we know about the use of demonstrations in
science promotion and how science can be made more engaging for students. Published
literature on safely performing chemical magic is discussed, followed by a detailed
description of the Chemical Magic Show component of the Promotion of Chemistry in
Schools Project (PCSP). Taken together these should enable readers to design and safely
perform their own demonstrations. In conclusion there is an analysis of some of the
evidence from the PCSP pupil (n=536) and teacher (n=75) evaluation data showing that
demonstrations are an empirically supported strategy for promoting interest in science.
130 Elaine Regan
INTRODUCTION
‗Just as an artist uses a paintbrush to reveal an underlying concept, a science
educator uses a demonstration as his or her tool to illustrate scientific principles. In both
cases, the picture is worth a thousand words‘ (Swanson, 1999).
When considering successful science practices in teaching, engaging learners is a

priority. Practical work is a central feature of science and demonstration is just one kind of
practical work. Contemporary educational discourses tend to focus on themes such as
effectiveness, success, quality, and performativity. Issues debated include teachers‘ practice
and improving outcomes for students, particularly academically. This chapter approaches the
topic of successful science practices from a slightly different perspective: discussing
performance rather than performativity. This is not to negate debates about how science
should be taught, rather to illustrate that positive results, inspiration and success can take a
variety of forms, including having some fun and being entertained by science. The teacher as
a performer is not a new concept. From the scientific revolution of the sixteenth century to the
present day the experiment is a central part of science practice and from a communication
perspective the demonstration was the way to show science. This chapter illustrates the role of
demonstrations in science as distinct from practical work in a traditional sense, though of
course they may also be used to plan inquiry based teaching and learning.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF DEMONSRATIONS

IN SCIENCE AND EDUCATION
Demonstrations have been used as a method of inciting interest, motivation and fun in the
classroom and other promotional situations (Krnel and Glazar, 2001). The joy of chemical
experimentation has been widely recognised, at least from the early days of alchemy
(Ramette, 1983 p.xiii). The scientific lecture demonstration has been a central part of science
education from the seventeenth century with the nineteenth century representing its heyday
(Kauffman, 1996). It can be said that the purpose of the appealing, spectacular, entertaining
and often dangerous experiments was to give a broader public appeal to science (Anonymous,
1999). In the nineteenth century Humphrey Davy‘s performances were largely characterized
by ―a deranged looking Humphrey dispensing laughing gas to a somewhat raucous
audience”(Raynor-Canham, 2002) - this chapter offers something considerably tamer than
that approach!
Faraday‘s first use of the demonstration lecture to promote and popularise science
established the idea of putting some unusual and spectacular chemical experiments and
reactions together into a performance. The conception of the ‗Chemical Magic Show‘ was
born (Hanson, 1976 p.577) and is still used widely in outreach and informal science learning
contexts. In 1825, Michael Faraday founded the Children's Christmas Lectures at London's
Royal Institution; his goal was to communicate to children the excitement of scientific
discovery (Croft, 2004). In fact, Davenport (1992) could not have put it more aptly,
―Faraday’s well known advice to young William Crookes ‘Work. Finish. Publish.’ might well
have been ‘Work. Finish. Publish. Popularise”.
The Role of Demonstrations in Successful Science Practices 131
Within the science education community the tradition was also evident in journals such
as the Journal of Chemical Education which published so many examples of demonstrations
that it would be impossible to cite them in any pleasantly readable form since they form
sections of every issue of more than seventy volumes of the journal. Utilising and producing
Chemical Magic in Chemistry classes was also included (Berka, 1974; Bailey, Bailey,
Anderson, Koski and Rechsteiner, 1975; Kauffman, 1996; Schwartz and Kauffman, 1976;
Bergmeier and Saunders, 1982; Hague, 1983; Ramette, 1983; Fenster, Harpe and Schwarez.
1985).
As a consequence of the multitude of publications in the Journal of Chemical Education
and other academic journals it is possible to assemble reports and anecdotal views on the role
and uses of chemical demonstrations in teaching chemistry, how to use them in the classroom
(with a focus on safety in recent times), and how to both plan a lecture demonstration and
produce a chemical magic show. Discussions on the use of demonstrations and shows to
motivate and stimulate students and to promote Chemistry have continued to interest
educators, evidenced by the continued publication of articles into the new millennium
(Sullivan, 1990; Wolfe, 1990; Blankespoor and Piers, 1991; Katz, 1991; Gammon, 1994;
Battino, Fortman and Scharlin, 1995; Beall, 1996; Katz, 1996; Kauffman, 1997, 1997;
Louters and Huisman, 1999; Anonymous, 2000; Davidson and Slabaugh, 2003; Meyer,
Schmit, Nozawa and Panee, 2003). Unfortunately there was an absence of empirical studies -
this led to the Promotion of Chemistry in School Project which is detailed in this chapter.
The literature in the Journal of Chemical Education and other journals such as School
Science Review, Science Education, Chem13 News, and University Chemistry Education has
led to the treatment of demonstrations under a number of headings such as their role in
teaching science, sources of demonstrations, safety concerns, and Chemistry Magic Shows
(design, production and performance). Aspects of these areas are covered in the following
sections as due consideration was given to each in deciding to research, plan, design and
execute an intervention strategy targeted at influencing students‘ views of science and subject
choice at secondary school level in Ireland.
TEACHING CHEMISTRY AND THE ROLE

OF THE LECTURE DEMONSTRATION
This section outlines the role chemical demonstrations can play in the science classroom.
The rationale for inclusion as teaching strategy becomes clear as their power of persuasion,
appeal and communication is described. Science is often viewed as a subject that requires
special intellectual talents, and its study is frequently considered to be irrelevant to everyday
life, ―for the purist and the elitist‖, as it often means strange terminology, unpronounceable
words, bad smells, and explosions (Sae, 1986). Hueftle, Rakow and Welch (1983) claim that
as students progress through school, their positive attitudes toward science decrease, and they
appear to be unenthusiastic about the value and personal relevance of their science learning.
By the time most students reach secondary school they are convinced that science is not for
them because they‘ve heard that the studying the sciences is tough, nearly incomprehensible,
and they tend to believe it (Regan and Childs, 2005). On the other hand, mention science to
primary level and junior second level students and without knowing what any of it means
132 Elaine Regan
their faces light up, it is something special and exciting (Guerra, 1988 p.23). Not all students
are born with an interest in science, but I agree with Knight (1989 p.43) who asserts that most
can be teased into trying. The most effective means is thought to be by showing the
fascinating nature of experimental science. Students often become bored and disenchanted
with the subject before they enter the secondary level. Because these students are at an
impressionable age, presentations such as those described in this chapter compensate for the
lack of stimulating materials (Bergmeier and Saunders, 1982). Bodner (2001) proposes a
model based on a theory of motivation, which assumes that demonstrations fall into a
category of phenomenon known as discrepant events, which have two properties: they are
contrary to what we intuitively expect and they are events we experience for ourselves. We
respond to situations that have an element of surprise, so demonstrations do not have to be
spectacular to be effective, but they must have an element of the unexpected. Bassam
Shakhashiri's central message is SCIENCE IS FUN! (Kolb, 1992 p.xiii) which he wears on a
T-shirt when teaching science or performing the shows he is famous for. He is a strong
advocate of lecture experiments exclaiming that they are a ―universal solvent for dissolving
the interface, the boundary, the gap, the cut between thoughts and sensations, telling and
showing, the blackboard and the lab bench…‖ (Shakhashiri, 1985 p.xxii). Since science
enrolments in secondary institutions are declining drastically in many countries it is
Shakhashiri‘s, and my view, that it is the educators‘ responsibility to stimulate and motivate
the minds of students, who will someday be an integral part of our sophisticated and advanced
technology (Shakhashiri, 1992). Teachers are in a highly responsible position when it comes
to helping form attitudes toward science. Years later students may remember only small
fragments from lessons, but they definitely will have attitudes toward science and it would be
desirable if students retained a feeling that there is a certain amount of ‗charm‘ associated
with the subject (Shakhashiri, 1983 p.xvi). Romance, passion, exhilaration, these are words
that Schibeci (1988) believes apply to the beautiful science of Chemistry, and that one way in
which the beauty of Chemistry can be shared with others is through chemical demonstration
since an experiment can appeal to the sense of sight, sound, smell and taste where
appropriate. Reading about science is interesting, but seeing it in action is fun, with colour,
light, bubbles, fire, explosions, and many other kinds of excitement (Kolb, 1992 p.xiii, citing
Ramette, 1980). Students need to have some vivid mental images of the experimental side of
the science, and good demonstrations can spice up a lesson, help teach principles, and build
up general experimental knowledge making science seem less abstract (Ramette, 1980).
Many of the more interesting and exciting demonstrations may not be part of the examination
syllabus but they do help promote and maintain interest (Iddon, 1986 p.704) and so their
absence from the syllabus should not become an excuse for not demonstrating to students.
Hague (1983) and Bailey et al. (1975, p.524) both drew attention to the universal appeal
of presenting spectacular demonstrations which could be scientifically stimulating to people
of all ages. Their suggestions were the use of humour, gimmicks and performances to spice
up the classes and motivate students toward higher achievement by selling chemistry as an
academic and intellectual pursuit and believing that the ultimate goal is to make students like
Chemistry (Hague, 1983 p.741). Demonstrating in this manner is believed to not only
enhance the interest of capable students but also that of the less engaged thus building interest
in class work (Mohar, 1994). Transforming chemical demonstrations into informative student
notes could, according to Bent (1985 p.xxii), also transform inarticulate students into
observant, noteworthy, expressive ones.
Figure 1. The role of the demonstration.
At this juncture it should be pointed out that demonstrations have a dual purpose as a
pedagogical method and as a promotional tool in science teaching. Each of these functions
exhibits the role demonstrations play and the consequences or implications that result in the
classroom. Figure 1 shows the complex web of relationships between the pedagogical roles
and the promotional role. Many of the consequences of the pedagogical role have an impact
on promoting the subject in the classroom. Likewise, the use of demonstrations as a
promotional tool exerts an influence on the teaching of the subject. The diagram below,
Figure 2 shows the duality of the role of demonstrations by illustrating the common values
exerted by both. Some useful starting points for resources for using demonstrations in science
can be found in:
● Shakhashiri, B. Z., (1983, 1985, 1989, 1992, 2011 Vol. 1-5). Chemical
Demonstrations: A Handbook for Teachers of Chemistry, The University of
Wisconsin Press.
● Physics demonstrations: A sourcebook for teachers of physics. Julien Clinton Sprott
● Classic Chemistry Demonstrations from the Royal Society of Chemistry
http://www.rsc.org/images/Classicdemos_full_tcm18-198883.pdf
● A joint project of the Nuffield Foundation Curriculum Programme and the Royal
Society of Chemistry in association with CLEAPSS. http://www.practical
chemistry.org/about-us/about-this-website,45,AR.html
134 Elaine Regan
● Institute of Food Technologists Booklet http:// www.accessexcellence.org/pizza/pdf/

fcbook.pdf
● Simple and More Advanced Classroom Experiments, Demonstrations, and Resources
for food science http://foodscience.psu.edu/ public/kitchen-chemistry/classroom
Figure 2. The duality exhibited in the role of the chemical demonstration.
To summarise, chemical demonstrations began as a means of making science appealing

to a broader audience. Demonstrations can incite interest, motivation and fun in the
classroom. They can communicate the excitement of scientific discovery and promote and
popularise science. But why do they work? The answer is similar to the expression ―a picture
is worth a thousand words”. Children respond to situations that have an element of surprise.
Children are also very impressionable. These types of experiments can be classed as
discrepant events that are contrary to what is expected and can be directly experienced by the
children.
Demonstrations can then act as the ‗universal solvent‘ to dissolve the gap between telling
and showing. They are the link between sensations and thoughts. Demonstrations can lead to
understanding of the interplay between theory and experiment in science as they appeal to
every sense.
USING LECTURE DEMONSTRATION AND „MAGIC‟ IN SCIENCE!

In this section the concept of ‗Chemical Magic‘ is explained complete with what
constitutes a Chemical Magic Show. Magic and science have a lot in common as both can
produce wonderful effects that leave the audience ‗gob-smacked‘ (Robinson, 1991).
According to Katz (1996) magic is science without explanations and demonstrations without
explanations are often of little value however Ford (1993 p.xi), promotes the use of
performing an experiment without an explanation to leave the students to consider it and to
come up with a means of explaining it. Hughes (2000 p.72), Mohar (1994), and Shakhashiri
(1992 p.xix) are in agreement that lecture demonstrations help to focus students‘ attention on
chemical behaviour and chemical properties, and to increase students‘ knowledge and
awareness of Chemistry. They can also, according to Kauffman and Yen (1991 p.308), be an
intriguing, provocative, and motivating introduction to a lesson or topic. One way to make
Chemistry appealing to young students is to allow them to actively participate in chemical
demonstrations that are safe and fun, claim Carvalho, Mendonca and Piedade. (2002 p.1464).
In fact, Hughes captures the idea well when he reports that the subject of Chemistry lends
itself well to spectacular classroom demonstrations as a means of motivating students towards
an interest in the subject (1984 p.72).
Shakhashiri (1992 p.xix) is not in favour of using the lecture demonstration simply as a
chance to show off dramatic chemical changes or to impress students with the ‗magic‘ of
chemistry, as this procedure alone fails to appreciate the opportunity they provide to teach
scientific concepts and descriptive properties of chemical systems. He holds the belief that the
lecture demonstration should be a process, not just a single event. Hague (1983 p.742-43)
states however that it is not possible to teach Chemistry if you do not have any students to
teach and ―nothing seems to rouse interest in Chemistry more than a good old fashioned
chemical magic show”. Bailey et al. (1975 p.525) contributed to the science education
literature a method of producing a chemical magic show including emphasis on the need for
safety considerations, showmanship, costumes, props and decoration, in addition to the
spectacular experiments. Chemistry magic shows have been used widely in schools and
colleges to promote Chemistry and as a unique learning experience (Wolfe, 1990 p.1008). A
positive experience for a student can develop into a relationship whereby the student
advocates Chemistry to friends and relatives.
Harris, Wassink and Wooton (1981 p.196) had a lot of fun putting on 'magic shows' for
elementary schools claiming that the show got children of all ages really excited and
interested in science. The goal of the show, described by Sae (1986 p.57), was not to teach
Chemistry but to show some of the fun and excitement of science and scientific inquiry,
however, an explanation at the appropriate level was provided for each experiment to avoid a
‗magic-show‘ atmosphere. The children were attentive and eager, they and suggested
explanations for the experiments and sometimes carried out experimental verifications.
Frequently, they were surprised at the results; they enjoyed most of the experiments in which
they actively participated. Hanson (1976 p.577) reported on a program developed for
elementary school teachers and students using mostly classical ‗magic‘ demonstrations. These
were used as instructional aids rather than as entertainment, complete with explanations of
chemical principles to dispel the myth that chemistry is mysterious and magic. It was directed
at a younger audience than previously reported (high school programs used for
entertainment). The program was given to the teachers and participation by members of the
audience was encouraged whenever appropriate. The program was enthusiastically accepted.
Hague (1983 p.742) also targeted elementary schools, to drum-up interest in science at the
elementary level and as ―an excellent means of future recruitment in chemistry”. Waterman
and Bilsing (1983 p.415) found their elementary school program to be most effective for
grades four through six and concluded that a group of 75 students is an ideal size and that
136 Elaine Regan
reactions by both students and teachers was highly favourable. As an external performer
visiting schools, I found that 50 students, or two classes was a more manageable number.
Bergmeier and Saunders (1982) utilised a statement from H.J. Hausman on the
importance of scientific experiments in elementary schools in formulating their program.
Hausman felt that science ―may well be the subject best adapted to help younger children
develop critical thinking abilities, positive attitudes towards their environment, and an
understanding of the world they live in‖ (Bergmeier and Saunders, 1982 p.529). Emphasis
was heavily placed on concepts, observations, and most importantly, safety and
encouragement was given to the children to apply their ‗new found‘ knowledge and curiosity
in a constructive manner. Kyle, Bonnstetter, Sedotti and Dvarskas. (1989 p.20) outlined a
program ScienceQuest that used selected classrooms to pilot a program to enhance the
student‘s attitudes toward science. After the pilot program‘s first year, students possessed
significantly enhanced attitudes toward science when compared with their counterparts in
control classrooms, and the data supports the fact that elementary students prefer inquiry-
oriented, process-approach science. Between 50 and 88 percent of the students in the pilot
program at any given grade level indicated that science was their first or second favourite
subject in school. Only 35 per cent of the control group indicated similar preferences (Kyle et
al., 1989 p.21).
Science shows were believed to be so successful that, in the United States in the 1980s,
science shows were developed for children‘s television - aimed at the nation‘s 8-12 year olds.
I believe that there is a place for the ‗grand demonstration‘ in the chemistry laboratory, a
point of view that is not new, and is also held by Iddon (1986 p.704). The point of all this is
not that we should become clowns in the classroom, or that clever demonstrations should
displace hard-core development of chemical principles (Shakhashiri, 1983 p.xvi), but should
be used as an additional tool available in teachers‘ repertoire. Burn‘s thesis (2003) provides
the first comprehensive theoretical study of science shows and establishes a method of
maximizing the effectiveness as a tool in communicating science in the form of a set of
professional principles of best practice.
PRODUCING A CHEMICAL MAGIC SHOW

Chemical magic shows have a number of characteristics, as defined by published
research, and include that they:
● Show teacher enthusiasm.

● Make chemistry appealing.
● Promote chemistry.
● Grab student attention.
● Simulate interest.
● Motivate students.
● Provide concrete examples of scientific ideas.
● Have pedagogical value as a unique learning experience.
● Most importantly, they can teach Chemistry.
Shakhashiri (1992 p.xx) advises, in planning a lecture demonstration, to begin by

analysing the reasons for presenting. This is because the chemical demonstrations can be used
to achieve specific teaching goals, whether a demonstration is a spectacular one or quite
ordinary. Once a demonstration has been chosen, it is a prerequisite for any chemist or
teacher to carry out a safety assessment on any chemicals that s/he is handling for the first
time (Iddon, 1986 p.707). Criteria for choosing demonstrations require that they be relatively
safe, easily portable, highly visible, and sufficiently illustrative and reinforcing of the major
concepts to be presented (Waterman and Bilsing, 1983 p.415). It is important to rehearse
demonstration experiments several times before presenting them before an audience/class,
whether small or large (Iddon, 1986 p.707). A show has to meet three important requirements
to be undertaken by a schoolteacher, it has to be (1) safe (2) cheap and (3) feasible with
minimal equipment. The presentation of any series of demonstrations requires the
consideration of a number of factors each of which are now outlined (Taylor, 1988 p.96-106).
With regard to location, firstly, an adequate distance must always be placed between the
demonstrations and the audience - the demonstration bench should be protected adequately
with asbestos free heat resistant mats. Demonstrations that can be carried out only in a good
fume cupboard are not suitable to conduct before large audiences unless a ‗portable‘ fume
cupboard is available (Iddon, 1986). It may be necessary to scale experiments up or down,
depending on the size of the audience expected. But safety should be considered again if this
is attempted because the reactants behave differently when this is done. Scaling up
experiments can be hazardous, particularly if they are highly exothermic! It is important to
rehearse them first on the scale required prior to presentation (Iddon, 1986).
Visibility is an extremely important consideration in the planning of a magic show
(Taylor, 1988 p.106-114). It is important that every member of the audience can see the
demonstration clearly wherever they are sitting. Thus if the floor is flat and the demonstration
bench is low, black or white wooden cubes of an adequate size should be used to lift the
apparatus up as each demonstration is performed. Where colour is involved, a white surface
and background are essential. Spotlights will help to light up the demonstration in a room that
is badly lit. Some demonstrations require total darkness and this should be organised in
advance, if required, and arrange for someone to operate the lighting controls. In a purpose
built lecture theatre/classroom, with a tiered floor and a good demonstration bench, visibility
should not be a problem (Iddon, 1986 p.708).
Another important consideration is the audience (Taylor, 1988 p.75-78). Young children
have not yet learned to be reserved, and their enthusiasm makes all the difference for the
performers according to Wolfe (1990). Consideration should be given to the age of the
audience to ensure the content is appropriately matched, and the size of the audience is also
an important issue. Waterman and Bilsing found that a group of 75 students is an ideal size
for grades four through six (Waterman and Bilsing, 1983), I personally found that numbers
greater than 50 presented ‗crowd control‘ issues for the lone performer. Wolfe (1990)
performed before very large audiences; generally the show went best with small groups.
Audience participation always helps break down an icy atmosphere. A teacher performing to
their own class will be well aware of the needs of their students (and potential risks),
however, if you do not know the audience it is best to involve their teacher in the risk
assessment. For example, a learner with autistic spectrum disorder may find explosions
upsetting (Regan, 2005b). Perhaps one of the most important considerations of all is that of
showmanship and performance. The presentation of ‗magic‘ experiments is much more
138 Elaine Regan
important than the experiment itself, declares Ford (1993 p.x). If one is to convey the
excitement and fun of science in general, and Chemistry in particular, it is important that the
presenter has fun and enjoys doing the demonstrations. A healthy dose of showmanship is
desirable. One should not underestimate the young peoples' interests or abilities. Get down
with them and enjoy rather than talking down to them (Sae, 1986). It is important to
determine what to say about the demonstration and at what stage to say it (Taylor, 1988 p.98-
106). By practicing the ‗routine‘, and by doing the demonstration in advance, it is often
possible to see aspects of the chemical change which help to formulate both statements and
questions that can be used in class (Shakhashiri, 1992 p.xxi). Shakhashiri also prefers to
emphasise the importance of observing all changes rather than announcing what should
happen (p.xxi). Bouma (1988 p.124) likes to work with the Chemistry a little bit differently
by adding a story, and Harris et al. added some dialogue, costumes and actions with the
reactions. Hague (1983 p.47) points out ―one of the most important qualities of a good
teacher is humor....55 minutes of work plus 5 minutes of laughter are worth twice as much as
60 minutes of unvaried work‖, and that like it or not students will remember as much about
your personality and idiosyncrasies as they will about the content of your lessons (Hague,
1983). Careful consideration should also be given to the termination of the show. After the
conclusion of the demonstration lectures it has been Iddon‘s experience (1986) that members
of the audience crush around the demonstration bench in an attempt to handle materials. This
is an obvious hazard, and should be pointed out to the audience.
The most succinct summary of how to produce a show is provided by the account of
Wesley Smith (1978) who outlines six characteristics of effective demonstrations that best
promote student understanding, cited by Shakhashiri (1992 p.xv-xvi). The six characteristics
of effective demonstrations are that:
1 Demonstrations must be timely and appropriate. Demonstrations should be done to

meet a specific educational objective.
2 Demonstrations must be well prepared and rehearsed.
3 Demonstrations must be visible and large-scale.
4 Demonstrations must be simple and uncluttered.
5 Demonstration must be direct and lively.
6 Demonstrations must be dramatic and striking.
SAFETY CONCERNS ASSOCIATED WITH CHEMICAL

DEMONSTRATIONS
It is obvious, but important to emphasise the safety aspects of demonstrations (Schibeci,
1988). Every person who does lecture demonstrations should be thoroughly knowledgeable
about the handling of all chemicals used in a demonstration, as every chemical is potentially
harmful if not handled properly. Demonstrators should be prepared to handle any emergency
(Shakhashiri, 1992 p.xxiii). Bodner (1985 p.151) has pointed out some specific problems
which have occurred in some well-known demonstrations, to encourage us to pay more
attention to safety issues rather than to discourage us from demonstrating, since it has been
stated that ―doing experiments in lecture frequently yields unexpected, interesting, and
memorable observations‖ (Bent, 1985p. xiv).
An old idea persisted that Chemistry was concerned mainly with bombs, explosives,
smells, rocket fuels etc and this meant that some of the quite dangerously exothermic
experiments were performed, occasionally with unfortunate results (Hughes, 1984 p.72).
Unfortunately, demonstrations are routinely done under conditions where neither the students
nor the instructor are adequately protected against injury (Bodner, 1985). There are many
demonstrations that can be performed, with impressive effects, which are not violently
exothermic and do not emit noxious fumes. These reactions rely on colour changes for their
effect (Hughes, 1984 p.72). Jearl Walker once proclaimed that ―the way to capture students’
attention is with a demonstration where there is a possibility the teacher may die‖
(Shakhashiri, 1992 p.xxiii). I wholeheartedly agree with Shakhashiri in objecting strongly to
the use of demonstrations that result in injury, as these are likely to confirm beliefs that ALL
chemicals and their effects are dangerous. The Health and Safety Executive in the UK (2009)
recently released a statement encouraging the use of demonstrations in science saying "school
science teachers are being urged to stop using a fear of breaking health and safety rules to re-
introduce exciting and engaging practical classroom demonstrations"1.
The American Chemical Society Division of Chemical Education has produced a set of
minimum safety guidelines for chemical demonstrations (ACS, 1997)2. Thus Chemical
demonstrators must:
● Familiarise oneself with the properties of the chemicals and the chemical reactions
involved in all demonstrations
● Comply with all rules and regulations (these may vary from country to country).
● Wear appropriate eye protection for all demonstrations.
● Warn members of the audience to cover their ears whenever a loud noise is
anticipated.
● Plan the demonstration so that harmful quantities of noxious gases (e.g. NO2, SO2,
H2S) are not produced or enter the local air supply.
● Provide safety shield protection whenever there is the slightest risk of contents being
propelled with sufficient force to cause personal injury.
● Always have a fire extinguisher at hand whenever the slightest possibility for fire
exists.
● NOT taste or encourage spectators to taste any non-food substance.
● NOT use demonstrations in which parts of the human body are placed in danger
(such as placing dry ice in the mouth or dipping the hand into liquid).
● NOT use ―open‖ containers of volatile, toxic substances (e.g. benzene, CCl4, CS2,
formaldehyde) without adequate ventilation as provided by fume hoods.
● Provide written procedure, hazard, and disposal information for each demonstration
whenever the audience is encouraged to repeat the demonstration.
● Arrange for appropriate waste containers for subsequent disposal of materials
harmful to the environment.
1
http://www.hse.gov.uk/press/2009/e09078.htm HSE Release no: E078:09.
2
See document on http://www.flinnsci.com/ Sections/Safety/chemicalSafety/L678_MS_ SciSafetyArt.pdf.
140 Elaine Regan
In order to make the demonstration healthy, safe and exciting you should always do a risk
assessment before carrying out any demonstration work which takes account of the Health
and Safety legislation and have them approved by those in authority in your school or college
laboratory. I would like to add the following based on my experience of planning and
performing chemical demonstrations to large groups of adolescents as a chemical magician in
Irish schools:
● Complete a full risk assessment for each demonstration and/or show.

● Always trial and test any experiments you wish to scale up prior to use in front of an
audience: scaling up demonstrations can be hazardous.
● All demonstrations should be tested beforehand to avoid complacency due to
familiarity.
● Provide appropriate eye protection and lab coats for audience participants where
necessary.
● Ensure that a safe minimum distance is maintained between the demonstration table
and the audience (I recommend at least two metres).
● With large groups ensure additional supervision is present to maintain an adequate
level of discipline: make this expectation explicit prior to any performances.
● Never allow your attention to be drawn from the demonstration area while the
audience either enter or leave the area, nor leave it unattended at any time, as pupils
can be too curious for their own safety.
THE PROMOTION OF CHEMISTRY IN SCHOOL PROJECTS:

A CASE STUDY
The Promotion of Chemistry in Schools Project (PCSP) was developed as a response to
the declining enrolment in science at secondary level (Regan, 1999, Regan and Childs 2003)
– a trend that was evident in Ireland and many other Western countries for several decades.
The main components of the intervention project were a chemical magic show, student
magazines and teacher support for using demonstrations in their lessons.
The main pedagogical assumption of the PCSP was that no single style of teaching can
ensure that all the needs of learners will be met. As a result, aspects from many of the theories
of learning were used in structuring the magic show and reinforcing the promotion with a
magazine.
The Chemical Magic Show aimed to positively influence students‘ attitudes towards
chemistry in the participating schools. The aspiration was to increase the numbers of students
studying chemistry at Leaving Certificate Level in subsequent years. The goals of The
Chemical Magic Show were:
1 To provide a Chemical Magic Show to a large sample of Irish students.

2 To make teacher resources available in order to incorporate chemical magic into the
curriculum.
3 To assist in promoting Chemistry in Irish second level schools.
4 To help increase student enrolments in Leaving Certificate Chemistry.
5 To promote a positive image of science and chemistry.

6 To establish personally relevant links between students and Chemistry.
7 To show the fun and mystery of Chemistry.
8 To promote a better student understanding of the relevance of Chemistry.
For the purposes of this chapter I concentrate on goals 2 and 7.

The Chemical Magic Show involved the presentation of a number of visual experiments
with a ‗wow‘ factor, some of which related to everyday life.
I performed the show to approximately 8,500 students3 in sixty-seven schools and in
branch meetings of the Irish Science Teachers‘ Association (192 shows) incorporating
nineteen of the state‘s twenty-six counties.
A typical show lasted 45 minutes so that it could fit into a normal class period and
consisted of 10 elements:
1 Genie in a bottle
Shows the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide to produce oxygen using a catalyst.
2 Disappearing Ink
Use of indicators: Sodium hydroxide reacts with carbon dioxide in the air to form
sodium carbonate, which is less basic than sodium hydroxide.
3 Blue Magic Handkerchief
Demonstrates the detection of water.
4 Burning Money
Demonstrates the conditions required for combustion.
5 Methanol Cannon
Demonstrates the combustion of methanol to give water and carbon dioxide.
6 Disappearing pellets and coffee cups
Demonstrates an interesting example of a gas formed not by a chemical process, but
by a physical process. The expanded polystyrene does not actually dissolve in the
propanone; it merely softens as it absorbs the propanone and allows the air to
escape, thereby collapsing the foam.
7 Mystery Jug
Demonstrates acid-base indicators and equilibrium.
8 Disappearing Water
Demonstrates the properties of Super Absorbent Polymers.
9 Chemical Cannon
Demonstrates that carbonates and acid generate carbon gas, which when confined
exerts pressure.
10 Combustion of peroxyactetone4
Explosive demonstration using an unstable compound.
The main focus of the performance or the theme of the show was to link the
demonstrations to the Junior Certificate Science syllabus, since the intervention strategy was
3
For evaluation purposes a sample of 328 (536 including control students) students was analysed.
4
Peroxyacetone is a very unstable compound and shock sensitive. It is not safe to store, and it has been used as a
contact explosive. This experiment might now be classed as dangerous or inappropriate.
142 Elaine Regan
targeted at 14-15 year old students who would be selecting subjects for upper secondary level
going forwards (Regan and Childs, 2003). The junior cycle programme at that time was based
on a number of principles: breadth and balance, relevance and quality. The show was
designed to complement this system in the following ways:
1 To review some of the core elements of the essential body of scientific knowledge
appropriate to the students‘ age.
2 To examine and develop students‘ understanding of matter in its various forms and
also interactions and energy in its various forms, usage and potential.
3 To induce an awareness of the potential use, misuse and limitations of Chemistry.
4 To promote observation and evaluation of phenomenon and processes.
5 To promote voicing opinions and judgements based on evidence and experiment.
6 To evoke an awareness of the technological, social, and economic aspects of science
and their applications in everyday life.
7 To develop a sense of safety, accuracy and attention to detail in the lab and an
appreciation of the scientific method.
Magic is science without explanations and demonstrations without explanations are often
of little value. The Chemical Magic Show, however, aimed to strike a balance by changing
science into magic and the intention was to explain some of the tricks, and allow the
remainder as topics for class discussion with the teachers involved. Once the experiments
were selected, they were rehearsed for competence, and to practise the showmanship of the
demonstrations, see Figure 3.
The demonstrations were presented in an entertaining manner to show the fun of
chemistry. The show was designed with due consideration of the following theatrical
components such as scene, lighting, characters, costumes, props, positioning, character
development, and the theme of the show. Swartz holds the view that education as
entertainment occurs when a student is momentarily interested in what goes on in the
classroom, and that unfortunately, these few moments of interest are not usually enough to
encourage or allow a student to go beyond classroom activities, that entertaining classrooms
become ends in themselves and they do not provide students with the opportunity to develop
and sustain worthwhile interests (Swartz, 1974 p.121).
In order for education to be more than entertainment it must interest children to go
beyond what is done in the classroom (p.122). Hence, ChemKidz and CheMystery magazine
were developed so that students would have material to reinforce the ideas and concepts
introduced in the show and a teacher support and training booklet was provided to all
teachers.
CONCLUSION
Much of the literature discussed earlier in the chapter suffers from the significant
weakness that it is written by enthusiasts of Chemistry and demonstrating. These apologists
frequently lack evaluation data to verify the impacts they claim. The Chemical Magic Show
was evaluated using clearly defined research methods in an attempt to secure empirical
evidence supporting or refuting the use of the intervention as a promotional tool in science
teaching.
The goal was to evaluate the PCSP from four perspectives: pupil and teacher perspectives
on the show, chemistry enrolment data for participating schools, and changes in pupil
attitudes towards science. In the conclusion I concentrate on teacher and pupil views of the
show itself.
Teachers in the sample (n=75) were unsure as to whether the magic show was very
successful in promoting Chemistry in schools and slightly more teachers disagreed that ‗this
type of intervention is an inadequate method of promoting Chemistry‘. The majority of
teachers did not believe that ‗the Show 'oversold' Chemistry with the result that students were
attracted to the subject for the wrong reasons‘.
Steps Tools Rationale

1. Read demonstration literature Science education journals Become comfortable with area of
chemical demonstrations
2. Observe 'chemical magicians' Videos of demonstrations in science To learn the art
3. Prepare show script Journals, demonstration books, the Design a show program suitable for
internet use with the target audience
4.Read script Show script Become familiar with the content,
running order and presentational
aspects
5.Practice the show Show script, chemicals, props, To polish the presentation of the
supplies performance
6. Monitor the show Discussion with teachers, pupils and Review challenges and alternative
colleagues strategies
Figure 3. Preparation for the design and delivery of the intervention.
Experiment Frequency Percent

Genie in a bottle 18 6.9
Disappearing Ink 18 6.9
Blue Magic Handkerchief 10 3.8
Burning Money 70 27.1
Methanol Cannon 61 23.6
Disappearing pellets and coffee cups 10 3.8
Mystery Jug 9 3.4
Disappearing Water 4 1.5
Chemical Cannon 15 16.6
Combustion of peroxyactetone 43 16.6
Total 258 100.00
Figure 4. Relative popularity of the experiments in the show.
Despite being divided on these aspects of the show, teachers felt that this type of
intervention should be continued and extended to other subject areas. Forty-five per cent of
144 Elaine Regan
teachers thought that the show was very effective; twenty-eight per cent thought that it was
reasonably effective, and twenty-one per cent didn‘t know.
Both pupils (n=328) and teachers expressed how effective ‗the experiments‘ in the show
were, and both pupils and teachers ranked these in first place. For the students it was because
―it amazed everybody‖ since the experiments were different, real, exciting and risky. The
experiments were very visual and this had an immediate impact on the audience as they really
did not know what to expect, and of course because students like explosions! The suddenness
and ferocity of some of the reactions really impressed the audience. The students were
educated and entertained, and everyone ―got the laugh‖.
Another effective component was the involvement of the audience and their teachers.
This heightened the excitement as pupils watched their friends do things that they thought
were not possible; for example burning the teachers‘ money (Regan, 2009). Furthermore,
since all pupils had some level of involvement credibility was added for the students: ―She
done it to everyone and then you knew it was not fixed‖ (Student ID 90). The figure 5 below
shows the relative popularity of the ten different experiments in the show.
A further dimension, not captured in the data presented above, was a gendered preference
for the type of experiment; put simply, boys preferred explosions and girls were more
fascinated by transformations and magic such as colour change.
One experiment performed in the show was adaptable for use at home. This was a highly
successful experiment, but the adaptation for home was even more successful (baking soda
and vinegar in a bottle with a balloon on top). Students reported that they learned how to do it
at home, showing the impact of the show in terms of motivation to explore science outside of
school. Another effective component was the presentation and the novel approach to learning
science. Students felt that the show was a good way to learn and remember things; it was a
fun and enjoyable experience while revising Junior Certificate Chemistry. Student liked the
presentation as the presenter ―made everything to be so easy‖ and ―was easy to understand‖.
The least effective aspect of the Chemical Magic Show was the fact that it was a one-off
event and teachers thought that it was ―too short to make a lasting impression‖. The show
was devised to fit into a single class period for limited disruption to a school timetable. The
pace of the show was fast, exciting and focused on edutainment. Teachers and pupils alike
would have liked to see a longer show, and the teachers suggested the incorporation of more
career information.
Despite some reservations, the study (Regan, 2005a) showed that the Chemical Magic
Show is an empirically supported intervention, effective as a means of promoting Chemistry.
It is less effective, being a once-off event, as a means altering student enrolments in upper
level Chemistry (for a detailed account see Regan, 2011).
Chemistry magic shows have been used widely to promote Chemistry, and also as a
unique learning experience (Wolfe, 1990 p.1008). Bailey et al. (1975 p.525) contributed a
method of producing a chemical magic show including emphasis on the need for
showmanship, costumes, props and decoration, in addition to the spectacular (and safely
performed) experiments. Consequently, the Chemical Magic Show utilised theatrics and
dramatic elements, major components of a ‗show‘. Thus, the major influences of the magic
show evaluated in this chapter are:
1 Inciting interest, motivation and curiosity in science.

2 Content.
a Colourful, novel, spectacular experiments.

b Illustration of chemical principles.
c Applications to everyday life.
3 Presentation.
a Visual effects.
b The excitement.
c Student participation.
d Novel presentation style that facilitates understanding and recall of school science
– useful as a revision tool.
4 Experiments that can be modified to allow students to do them at home.
Educational Entertainment can be found everywhere from art exhibits to museums and
science centres. Educational Entertainment can inspire as well as inform, open up new
possibilities, stimulate curiosity, move people to action, and transform the way we view the
world. Some of the most valuable insights in this area come from related fields; such as
drama in education, museum literature and public understanding of science area. The
exploration of these diverse ideas may help to create a new generation of effective and
empowering educational experiences. Lecture demonstrations, though meaningful are
demanding for lecturers. They are highly motivational, have immense heuristic value,
tremendous rhetorical power, and overwhelming persuasive force (Bent, 1985 p.xxi). To learn
science, students need to see science, hear science and think science. A lecture experiment is
not a memorable, thought-registered phenomenon in students‘ minds until it is an exam-tested
phenomenon. To make chemistry memorable, a teacher must show, tell, and test according to
Bent, 1985 p.xxiii, however my findings refute this claim. Teachers who feel that they have
―been down that road‖ and are tired of demonstrations should remember that it is all new and
interesting to their students. Teachers who do not take advantage of the wealth and variety of
demonstrations are doing students a disservice (Shakhashiri, 1983 p.xvi). Chemical
demonstrations are a means of making science appealing. Demonstrations motivate, inspire
and incite interest and fun in the classroom. But why do they work? The answer: they
dissolve the gap between telling and showing. Furthermore, students respond to situations
that have an element of surprise and respond well to teacher enthusiasm. Demonstrations
make chemistry appealing because they grab student attention and are concrete examples of
scientific ideas. Pupils learn and remember the subject matter more easily when they can see
the effects from a suitable demonstration, in a way a textbook will never provide. Chemistry
can be seen to be more fun and accessible to students because they are interested and are
motivated to try harder.
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Chapter 8
SPACE SCIENCE FOR TEACHERS
Edward Murphy,1 Bridget Mulvey2 and Randy Bell3

1
Department of Astronomy, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, US
2
College of Education, Health and Human Services, Kent University, Kent, OH, US
3
Curry School of Education, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, US
ABSTRACT
Space Science for Teachers is a professional development program created to
address the astronomy and space science coursework in the Virginia and National
Science Education Standards. A unique aspect of the course was the integration of
lessons on the nature of science. Informed by social constructivism and situated learning
theory, the participating teachers performed many inquiry investigations, hands-on
activities, and demonstrations that they could use in their own classrooms. The
Astronomy Diagnostic Test v. 2.0 was used as the formal assessment of gains in content
knowledge. Averaged over the seven times the workshop has been offered, teachers‘
scores improved by 20.7%, with a normalized gain of 44.8%. The teachers‘ increase in
content knowledge associated with our two-week workshop was greater that the gains in
learning associated with a one-semester college astronomy course. The combination of
focusing on activities that the teachers could use with their own students, a final
collaborative group project, and discussions about the nature of science, created an
authentic and meaningful context for the participating teachers to learn targeted concepts
and effective ways to teach them. In particular, the group final project (finding/creating
and describing uses of activities that address each space science/astronomy standard)
helped participants learn from, and support each other in translating, their conceptual
understandings to effective and engaging instruction.
INTRODUCTION
Motivation
The Virginia Science Standards of Learning contain astronomy components in the fourth
and sixth grades and in ninth grade earth science. In grade four, students are expected to
152 Edward Murphy, Bridget Mulvey and Randy Bell
investigate and understand the relationships between the Earth, Moon, and Sun including the
rotation of the Earth, its revolution around the Sun, the seasons, phases of the Moon, the
relative sizes, positions, and compositions of the three bodies, and the history of our
understanding of the Earth-Moon-Sun system.
In addition to the concepts covered in the fourth grade, the sixth grade standards state that
students will understand the organization of the solar system and the various bodies that
comprise it. This includes learning about the layout and scale of the solar system, the physical
properties of the main bodies in the solar system, the role of gravity, tides, and the history and
technology of space exploration. In ninth grade earth science, students must review previous
concepts and learn about stars, stellar evolution, galaxies, and the Big Bang.
Elementary (grades K-5) and middle school teachers (grades 6-8) are not required to take
an astronomy class at the college level. For many of these teachers, their last formal
instruction in astronomy was in elementary or middle school. Also, many college level
courses in astronomy do not model pedagogical approaches to teaching astronomy which
teachers can use in elementary and middle school classrooms.
In addition to the needs among elementary and middle school teachers, there was a
critical need for professional development programs for ninth grade earth science teachers.
Currently, the demand for earth science teachers far exceeds the supply provided by the
colleges and universities in Virginia. From 2003 to 2007, earth science was one of the top 10
critical teacher shortage endorsement areas in Virginia. In fact, in the 2004-2005 and 2005-
2006 academic years, it was the top critical teacher shortage area. In an effort to meet the
need for additional earth science teachers, the Virginia Earth Science Collaborative (VESC)
was formed by a consortium of nine institutions of higher education and nonprofit agencies
and 71 school divisions (Cothron 2008). Through Virginia Department of Education
Mathematics and Science Partnership grants, the VESC developed and implemented courses
in physical geology, geology of Virginia, astronomy, meteorology, and oceanography. Five of
the workshops described here were funded under the VESC grant.
Theoretical Framework
This course was designed to strengthen teachers‘ mastery of the content knowledge while
improving their instructional skills by teaching the space science and astronomy content using
tested, hands-on, inquiry-based activities that teachers could use in their own classrooms.
Course activities and assignments were based on the frameworks of social constructivism
and Lave and Wenger‘s (1991) situated learning theory. Taken together, these frameworks
support more natural learning through doing. The teachers first recognize and then confront
existing ideas, before constructing new understandings in authentic contexts.
Social constructivism focuses on individuals creating meaning for themselves in social
settings. But individual learners are not blank slates; instead, they use their prior experiences
and understandings as they attempt to make sense of something. Learning, then, is an
inherently active and iterative process that involves much interpretation on the part of the
learner (National Academy of Sciences, 2000). The key aspect of constructivism is the active
nature of all learning regardless of the context, including the instructional method used
(Sweller, 2009).
Space Science for Teachers 153
Though constructivism itself does not speak to pedagogy, it has implications for
instruction. It is considered a philosophical framework by many including Mayer (2009);
Minner, Levy, and Century (2010); and Tobias and Duffy (2009). The instruction stemming
from this framework (including inquiry instruction) has been termed constructivist. When
applied to instruction, constructivism is a broad understanding of teaching as the facilitation
of minds-on, commonly hands-on, active learning for understanding (Lunetta, Hofstein, and
Clough, 2007). Constructivist instruction commonly focuses on preparation for new
knowledge construction (Schwartz, Lindgren, and Lewis, 2009).
Social constructivism focuses on the community of knowledge, or social and scientific
community context, in which individuals‘ knowledge construction occurs (Duffy and
Cunningham, 1996). As scientific knowledge and processes are socially and culturally
embedded (Lederman, 2007), so, too, are science learning experiences (Felix, 2005). This
informed the design of the Space Science for Teachers course. For example, the teachers
worked in groups to compile engaging activities that address each Virginia space science and
astronomy standard. Working together provides learners with additional support as they
navigate new concepts and skills. In the case of teachers enrolled in the course, the new
science concepts and skills were linked to reforms-based science instructional models (i.e.
inquiry) and strategies.
The second framework used was situated learning theory which emphasizes the
importance of learning in an authentic context, similar to that in which the learned knowledge
and/or skills will be implemented. Context plays an essential role in learners‘ co-constructing
knowledge (Brown, Collins, and Duguid, 1989). An authentic context offers relevance and
motivation associated with problem solving in the appropriate framework, thereby supporting
learning. Brown et al. (1989) interpreted this theory as favoring tasks that resemble those of
practitioners, in this case the practitioners were considered to be both scientists and teachers.
The task environment (authentic context) is thought to actually reduce cognitive burdens
by providing authentic clues that help a learner define and solve the problem (Brown et al.,
1989). The implication for inquiry instruction is that an authentic context for students‘ inquiry
may serve to support learners‘ efforts. Though all learning is situated in a context, when
situated learning theory is applied to instruction the more authentic environment may support
increased transfer of content and process knowledge to other real world problems (Brown et
al. 1989).
In an authentic context, learning is natural, with learners picking up cues from the
situation to support their own learning. Embedding instruction in an authentic context
supports learning through a natural integration of and need for knowledge that can increase
relevance to and motivation of learners. In this sense, a context is authentic if the activity is
done to work toward the objectives that people might regularly have in that context (Sadler,
2009).
A more authentic learning environment may also support increased transfer of content
and process knowledge to other real world problems (Brown et al., 1989).
In short, the contexts used in education necessarily impact the learning experience for
learners (Sadler, 2009). For teachers, we considered an authentic context to include two
components: 1) the incorporation of activities and discussions that teachers could see
themselves using in their own space science instruction, and 2) inquiry-based activities that
parallel the processes and thinking that scientists use in investigations.
Providing curricula that teachers could readily see themselves using was the first
challenge of designing the course. The typical lecture-based textbook-centered college course
would not meet our first component of authentic context. Instead, we gathered activities and
curricular components from a wide variety of sources that addressed the target concepts in
ways that were appropriate for middle school students. Modeling desired behaviors to
facilitate participants' move from teacher-centered, traditional approaches to more student-
centered, investigative approaches, became a key feature of the course. Research indicates
that provisions for scaffolding and encouragement of critical thinking (de Jong et al., 1999)
and reflection (Klahr, Triona, and Williams, 2007) are essential components of effective
instruction. Therefore modeling these for teachers was essential. Modeling effective teacher
behaviors within inquiry-based and/or hands-on activities, serves as the teachers‘ first step in
a cognitive apprenticeship associated with reforms-based science instruction.
Our second component of authentic learning context involved extensive use of inquiry
instruction. Inquiry activities are seen as a pathway for students to develop understandings of
both content knowledge and the ways scientists investigate the natural world (National
Research Council, 1996). The ideal inquiry instruction consists of a number of activities that
span a variety of inquiry levels, from guided-to open-inquiry, that will facilitate appropriate
scaffolding of inquiry instruction (Banchi and Bell, 2008; Bell, Smetana, and Binns, 2005).
The ―Five E‖ model of inquiry instruction—Engage, Explore, Explain, Extend, and Evaluate
(Trowbridge, Bybee, and Powell, 2000) provided the framework around which the inquiry
activities were structured. Research has shown this approach to inquiry instruction to be
engaging to students, authentic to science, and straightforward for teachers to implement
(Bybee and Loucks-Horsley, 1998).
In a recent meta-analysis of 138 inquiry studies from 1984 to 2002, Minner et al. (2010)
identified inquiry-based practice as occurring within an investigation learning cycle
instructional model similar to the ―Five E‖ model. Of the 42 comparative studies selected, 23
found that students experiencing more inquiry showed statistically significant (though not
necessarily practically meaningful) improvements over those students experiencing less
inquiry. In particular, high levels of learner responsibility, coupled with hands-on
involvement with scientific phenomena, resulted in positive gains in conceptual
understanding.
Of the comparative studies reviewed by Minner et al. (2010), 19 studies with at least
moderate methodological rigor had results that favored inquiry. Of the nine studies that
evaluated the level of student responsibility, six found statistically significant difference
between student conceptual understanding for high and low inquiry amounts, with learners
experiencing high levels of inquiry outperforming, on average, learners experiencing low
levels of inquiry. Minner et al. (2010) concluded, ―There is a clear and consistent trend
indicating that instruction within the investigation cycle (i.e., generating questions, designing
experiments, collecting data, drawing conclusion, and communicating findings), which has
some emphasis on student active thinking or responsibility for learning, has been associated
with improved student content learning, especially learning scientific concepts‖ (p. 493).
Finally, inquiry experiences also can prepare teacher and student learners to engage in
fruitful, reflective discussions of the nature of science. Inquiry provides learners with
experiences from which to draw during discussions that generalize about science and its
characteristics. Explicit attention to the nature of science during authentic inquiry activities
has been shown to promote appropriate conceptions of the nature of science (Bell, Blair,
Crawford, and Lederman, 2003; Hanuscin, Akerson, Phillipson-Mower, 2006; Khishfe, 2008;
Scharmann, Smith, James, and Jensen, 2005; Schwartz, Lederman, and Crawford, 2004).
Course Design
The Space Science for Teachers course was designed as a two-week long, residential
workshop with follow-up sessions after the course ended. For participating in the workshop
and completing the follow-up activities, teachers earned three graduate credit hours.
The Spring 2009 session was designed to meet the needs of teachers in rural southwestern
Virginia. Many of these teachers could not travel to Charlottesville during the summer, and
therefore we offered the workshop in their local area during the academic year.
Table 1. Daily Schedule for 2-week Residential Workshops
Week 1 Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Phases of the Nature of
Introduction Nature of Science:
9:30-10:45 Moon Starry Science: Process Introduction to
Registration What is Science?
Night Activity Skills Approach the Solar
11:00- Astronomy Phases of the System
The Seasons The Moon
12:15 Diagnostic Pretest Moon Hands-on
12:15-1:45 Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch
Using a Starlab Comets and
1:45-3:15 The Sky Eclipses
Planetarium Asteroids
Work on
Introduce and
Activity
Work on
Introduction to Introduction to Starry Guest Scientist Roundup
3:30-5:00 Activity
Planispheres Night Lecture Assignment
Roundup
Assignment
Evening
8:00-11:00 Evening Observing
Observing
Week 2 Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Tides Inquiry How Far Are Expanding
9:30-10:45 Telescopes Stars
Activity the Stars? Universe
Starry Night
11:00- Nature of Science: Stellar
Tides Deep Sky Cosmology
12:15 Theories and Laws Evolution
Scavenger Hunt
12:15-1:45 Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch Lunch
Electromagnetic Astronomy
Electromagnetic Work on
1:45-3:15 Spectrum Black Holes Diagnostic Post-
Spectrum Activity
Spectroscopy test
Roundup
Safe Solar Cosmic Evaluations,
3:30-5:00 The Sun Assignment
Observing Classifier wrap up
8:00-11:00 Evening Observing Picnic Dinner
In addition to four full days of face-to-face instruction spread throughout the spring 2009
semester, there was an online component in which teachers read from an astronomy textbook,
completed assignments using the Mastering Astronomy online learning system, and
participated in discussions in an online course management system.
For every course, the number of applicants greatly exceeded the 25-30 spaces that were
available based on funding. Priority was given to ninth grade earth science teachers who
needed an astronomy course for their endorsement. If spaces remained, admission was offered
to elementary and middle school teachers from high needs schools divisions as defined by the
Virginia Department of Education. The dates of the workshops, the locations, and the number
of participating teachers are listed in Table 2.
During the two weeks, teachers participated in classes and activities during the day, and
up to three astronomical observing sessions in the evening. The daily activities focused on the
implementation of hands-on and inquiry based activities that addressed both the astronomy
content and teacher understandings about scientific inquiry (the nature of science), as outlined
in the Virginia Standards of Learning. The Virginia Standards are closely aligned with the
National Science Education Standards (National Research Council, 1996) and the
Benchmarks for Science Literacy (AAAS, 2009). The daily lessons were designed around
using science process skills critical to learning astronomy. The value of teaching science
content, and the nature of science through process skills instruction, have been demonstrated
by Bell (2008); Bell, Binns, and Schnittka, (2007), and Toti (2006). The lessons featured
explicit (not didactic) instruction about the nature of science (Abd-El-Khalick, Bell, and
Lederman, 1998; Abd-El-Khalick and Lederman, 2000) in which specific process skills were
linked directly to relevant aspects of the nature of science. Particular attention was paid to
observation skills and the construction of inferences, which are essential processes in science
in general and in astronomy in particular (Lederman, Abd-El-Khalick, Bell, and Schwartz,
2002; Murphy and Bell, 2005).
To assist teachers in their classrooms, we provided them with extensive references and
teaching materials for space science and astronomy. In addition to a college level astronomy
textbook, teachers received two manuals published by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific
(Universe at Your Fingertips and More Universe at Your Fingertips) which provide many
hands-on classroom activities grouped by subject area and student level.
Table 2.
Number of
Dates Location
Teachers
July 14 – July 26, 2002 University of Virginia, Charlottesville 26
June 29 – July 9, 2004 University of Virginia, Charlottesville 24
June 20 – July 1, 2005 University of Virginia, Charlottesville 24
MathScience Innovation Center,
August 1 – August 12, 2005 29
Richmond
June 21 - June 30, 2006 University of Virginia, Charlottesville 28
MathScience Innovation Center,
August 6 – August 17, 2007 19
Richmond
Spring 2009 Blended online 29
Additionally, teachers received a copy of Teaching the Nature of Science Through

Process Skills, which provides a reference for integrating nature of science into their science
instruction.
Participants also received the Starry Night High School planetarium software and
accompanying activity resource book that includes inquiry activities. Teachers also received a
star atlas, planisphere, and other hands-on teaching materials associated with Project Star for
use in their classrooms. All materials given to the teachers were demonstrated and used in
hands-on and inquiry-based lessons during the workshop so that teachers would understand
how to use them to teach the astronomy and space science concepts in their classroom. Key
exercises were demonstrated and practiced during the workshop and we found that providing
the teachers with the documentation assisted them in classroom implementation of the
activities. Again, this provided an authentic context for teachers as they learned astronomy
content and activities that they could use in their own instruction.
The participants used a variety of innovative technologies during the course, including
Starry Night High School planetarium software and an inflatable StarLab planetarium. Starry
Night has been shown to be extremely effective in helping students develop a scientific
understanding of astronomical phenomena (Bell and Trundle, 2008). During the evening
observation sessions, the teachers were taught to use Meade LX-10 8-inch Schmidt-
Cassegrain telescopes. The experiences using the telescope helped the teachers learn to make
observations using authentic data.
As a capstone project, the teachers worked in groups of four or five to compile a resource
collection of hands-on activities that addressed the astronomy and space science content.
Each teacher was expected to find and assess at least three activities that they felt were
outstanding, and then share these with the rest of their group. Significant time was allocated,
during the workshop and in the evenings, for teachers to research activities on the Internet,
search through the extensive resources provided as part of the workshop, or to search through
additional resources provided by the instructors. Their assessment of each activity included a
short summary on how it is used in the classroom, the preparation and materials needed to
carry out the activity, modifications that need to be made to adjust to different grade levels,
and reference materials for further information such as a resource book or website. Each
group was responsible for finding at least one activity for every astronomy and space science
standard. Teachers posted their activity summaries, including links to additional resources to
carry out the activity, on a private (within the course management system) Wiki page, or they
were written to a CD and distributed to the teachers. Thus, at the end of the workshop,
teachers had access to a resource containing 75-100 summaries of activities that address the
astronomy and space science components of the Standards. The course homepage within the
course management system was made permanent so that teachers will have continual access
to the activity descriptions.
The groups‘ work on the final project offered the opportunity for teachers to collaborate
and learn from each other. This approach was selected based on our frameworks of social
constructivism and situated learning. The groups became more of a science and teacher
community, helping each other fine-tune their space science understandings and finding ways
to translate what they had learned into the selection or development of activities appropriate
for teaching their own students. For teachers, activities for use in their own classroom are an
essential part of the authentic context associated with the teaching profession. The authentic
context, coupled with the support of each other and the course instructors, assisted the
teachers in their efforts to bridge the gap between their conceptual understandings and how
best to teach those concepts included in the Standards.
ACTIVITY HIGHLIGHTS
The Night Sky
Beyond covering some basic concepts in astronomy and the night sky, teachers used a
planisphere to find what stars were above the horizon on various dates, demonstrated
circumpolar motion, and solved problems with the planisphere such as determining star and
constellation rise and set times and the rising and setting time of the Sun. Participants also
investigated the daily and annual cycles of the sky, as well as constellation myths and
legends, during a 60-minute session in the StarLab planetarium. By using problem solving
and short inquiry activities, teachers had foundational experience on which to build with
respect to fundamental astronomy concepts. Teachers served as support for each other from
the beginning of the course, thinking through problems aloud with others in the class. This
constituted the initial development of a science and teacher learning community, an important
part of learning as indicated by social constructivism.
The Seasons
The lesson on seasons began with teachers investigating the common misconception that
the Earth is closest to the Sun during summer in the Northern Hemisphere. Our goal was first
to address participants‘ alternate conceptions, before helping them construct a scientifically
accurate model of the seasons. To dispel the misconception, teachers described months as
either hot, warm, cool, or cold and then were asked to predict when the Earth was closest to
the Sun. In every course there was unanimous agreement that July and August in Virginia are
hot and many teachers thought this was when the Earth must be closest to the Sun. The Earth
actually is at aphelion (farthest from the Sun) around July 5 of each year and at perihelion
(closest to the Sun) around January 3. Images of Christmas in Australia, which occurs in early
summer, helped to stimulate discussion about the seasons in the Southern Hemisphere which
are opposite those in the Northern Hemisphere. Teachers concluded that a model in which the
seasons are due to the Earth‘s distance from the Sun would not result in opposite seasons.
Teachers next worked to build an accurate model of the seasons. They examined the
Earth‘s orbit around the Sun using Starry Night High School, with a viewpoint from far above
the Sun looking down on the solar system. Teachers could easily see that the Earth‘s orbit is
very nearly circular. With an eccentricity of only 0.0167, the difference in distance between
the Earth and the Sun at perihelion and aphelion is approximately 3%. Teachers determined
that it was not likely that such a small change in distance would result in such drastic changes
in weather from summer to winter. After teachers learned of the near circularity of the Earth‘s
orbit, they used Starry Night to investigate the daily motion of the Sun on the four important
marker days of the year: March 21, June 21, September 21, and December 21. Using a
transparency taped to the computer monitor, teachers traced the path of the Sun across the sky
on the four marker days. This experience prepared teachers to learn why the maximum
altitude of the Sun changes during the year, and its relationship to the seasons. A
demonstration using a flashlight supplemented this inquiry, reinforcing that the Sun more
effectively heats the Earth when it is higher overhead.
With a combination of class discussions, demonstrations, and inquiry activities, the

teachers continued to develop as a community, supporting each other in their learning. The
teachers could easily use the same activities as whole class inquiries, coupled by similar
debrief discussions, with their own students. This is aligned with situated learning theory in
that the teachers learn in the authentic context of activities they can incorporate into their own
instruction.
Phases of the Moon
A two-week workshop does not allow teachers to observe and record a complete cycle of
Moon phases. However, the use of the computer simulation, Starry Night, allowed
participants to collect observations on a full cycle of the phases of the Moon within a short
period of time. Teachers investigated the relationship between the phase of the Moon and the
angular distance from the Sun. After the first few virtual days of observations, teachers
predicted where the Moon would be and what its phase would be the following day. In the
end, teachers determined that the greater the angular distance between the moon and sun, the
fuller the phase of the Moon.
Next, the teachers participated in a hands-on activity to help construct an accurate model
of the phases, and each teacher‘s own head representing the Earth, teachers were given a 3-
inch polystyrene ball mounted on a wooden kebab skewer (to represent the Moon) that they
held out at arm‘s length. The instructor then led the teachers through the phases of the Moon
in order (counterclockwise as seen from above) by demonstrating each phase and asking the
teachers to position their Moon, Earth, and Sun in the same relative positions. Teachers again
noted the relationship between the angular distance between the Sun, Earth and Moon and the
phases of the Moon. Then we introduced an engaging formative assessment that they could
use with their students—playing a game of Simon Says with the phases of the moon (―Simon
says show me a new moon!‖). In the first round of Simon Says, the phases were done in
order. While calling out the phases, an instructor watched the learners to see which ones were
uncertain about the relative positions of the Sun, Earth, and Moon. Instructors noted teachers
who hesitated when asked about a phase (or were seen to be copying their neighbors), taking
those teachers aside later that day to review the phases of the Moon with individual
instruction. Once teachers were comfortable with the phases of the Moon, we introduced the
concept that the location of the Moon in the sky is related to both the phase and time. For
example, a full moon always rises at sunset, is highest at midnight, and sets at sunrise.
The Electromagnetic Spectrum, Telescopes, Spectroscopy
After an introduction to the electromagnetic spectrum, the participating teachers

conducted an inquiry activity in line with situated learning theory. The teachers used
authentic scientific equipment to determine the gas contained in a standard fluorescent tube.
Like astronomers, the teachers had to use spectroscopy since they could not directly sample
the gas in the tube. Teachers observed a variety of known samples and recorded their spectra.
They compared the known samples to the spectrum of the fluorescent tube to determine that
the tube contained mercury. The lesson ended with a description of how astronomers use
exactly the same technique to measure the compositions of distant stars and galaxies.
Lunar Geology
The goal for the lesson on the Moon was designed to teach teachers about the geology of
the lunar surface and the similarities and differences in geologic activity on Earth and the
Moon. The use of authentic scientific data throughout this activity enhanced its appeal for
both teachers and students. Teachers first investigated a famous Lick Observatory image of
the Moon and identified features on its surface. Teachers also investigated the stratigraphy of
the Moon using a Lick Observatory image of the Imbrium basin. Teachers inspected the
image of the Moon to look for layers and to determine how they were related to one another.
From this, they assembled the geologic history of this part of the Moon. The authentic
scientific data analysis within the authentic instructional context of activities participants
could use with their own students, offered supportive, authentic cues to engage teachers in the
learning experiences. The transferability of the activities for use in middle and high school
classes helped enhance teachers‘ engagement with the core science concepts addressed,
increasing the likelihood the teachers would not only learn the concepts themselves but also
be able to effectively guide students through inquiry to reach those same scientific
conceptions.
Tides Inquiry Lesson
In the tides inquiry lesson, teachers used online tidal tables to search for a relationship
between the maximum tides for a day and the phase of the Moon. Again, authentic scientific
data were analyzed to draw conclusions. Teachers graphed tidal ranges and compared these to
the Moon phases, determining that the largest tidal ranges were correlated with new and full
Moon phases when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are in a line. After the inquiry activity, teachers
were introduced to an online simulation that exaggerates tidal range on Earth while showing
where the Moon is relative to the Earth and Sun along with the Moon phase. Here new
vocabulary, including spring (largest) and neap (smallest) tides, was introduced. Additionally,
teachers witnessed a demonstration of how the Earth‘s geosphere gets pulled toward the
Moon, creating a high tide on the sides of the Earth facing toward and away from the Moon.
The extensive experience with authentic data was supplemented by visualizations that helped
the concepts come to life. It also served as reinforcement of the identification of Moon
phases.
The Solar System
Teachers were given materials to construct a scale model (accurate in both size and
distance) of the solar system, selecting from a variety of materials including balloons,
polystyrene balls, and beads. They used the Exploratorium‘s ―Build A Solar System‖
calculator to calculate the relative sizes and distances of the planets, and then laid out their
model of the solar system (at least as far as was practical given time constraints). They were
given a set of materials enabling them to do this activity with their own classes. In a comets
and asteroids lesson, teachers made a comet using the classic ―Making a Comet in the
Classroom‖ activity (Schatz 1985). Hands-on activities such as these not only helped the
teachers better understand the related concepts and provide a memorable experience, they
also gave the teachers practice doing activities they could do with their own students. The
teachers‘ learning was situated in meaningful hands-on activities transferrable to their own
classrooms.
Evening Observation Sessions
The evening observation sessions were designed to make teachers familiar with the night
sky and teach them how to use a telescope, though their completion depended on weather and
workshop location. One evening, teachers were broken into groups of 5-6 teachers per group
to complete a jigsaw activity. Each group learned the location of two constellations visible in
the night sky, the mythology around constellations, and the names of the brightest stars in
each constellation. New groups were then arranged and each teacher was responsible for
teaching their two constellations to their new group members. This helped increase teachers‘
need-to-know, activating a social construction of knowledge in which teachers in the groups
supported each others‘ efforts to increase in expertise, and improve their ability to clearly
communicate their understandings to others.
During the second evening observation session, teachers worked in groups as they
learned to set up and use an 8-inch Meade LX-10 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. Teachers
began using the telescopes to observe the Moon and planets, and then moved to progressively
more difficult objects. For the final evening observation session (for the Charlottesville
workshops), teachers observed at a nearby dark sky site free from significant light pollution.
Cosmic Classifier Activity
In the Cosmic Classifier Activity, developed by the Space Telescope Science Institute,
teachers examined 50 objects in the Hubble Space Telescope Ultra Deep Field. First, they
selected reference objects based on shape (stars, spiral galaxies, elliptical galaxies, and
irregular galaxies) and color (red, yellow, white, or blue). Each group of teachers used the
reference objects to classify 50 galaxies in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field based on shape and
color. The results were tabulated on a board, followed by teachers using the results to make
inferences about galaxies based on their observed properties. For example, classification
showed very few blue elliptical galaxies. Teachers, working with the instructor, developed
theories to explain the observed characteristics.
This activity utilized authentic scientific data (Hubble Ultra Deep Field) for an inquiry
investigation that also incorporated explicit attention to the nature of science. Participants
learn through experience that getting feedback from others and justifying a conclusion can
improve scientific conclusions. The teachers appreciated the authentic nature of the activity
and readily agreed that their approach to classifying galaxies was comparable to that used by
astronomers. Additionally, the activity helped to reinforce the importance of observations and
inferences for science.
NATURE OF SCIENCE
In addition to discussing the nature of science in the context of space science content and
associated activities throughout the course, we incorporated some non-contextualized
activities that explicitly targeted common misconceptions about the nature of science. For
example, teachers experienced, and learnt, about the important role of inference in creating
scientific explanations through a variety of observation and inference activities. In one, the
―string cheese candle‖ (or ―potato candle‖) activity (described in Bell, 2008), teachers are
asked to make careful observations of an object that appears to be a candle. When teachers
make inferences, such as ―the candle has a wick,‖ the instructors redirect the class by asking
―What makes you think that?‖ After burning the ―wick‖ for a few moments, the instructor
takes a bite out of the ―candle,‖ thus revealing it to be a stick of string cheese (or a slice of
potato). The activity serves as a discrepant event, providing an engaging context for a
discussion about the nature of science. In the ensuing discussion, teachers recognized that
some observations included inferences, how our senses can be misleading, and how our
perceptions are influenced by prior experiences and knowledge.
Additional activities using cartoon drawings were used to hone teachers‘ skills at
identifying inferences, and their roles in interpreting scientific evidence.
Teachers also learned about the role of perceptual frameworks and creativity in science,
through making observations, and inferences of Gestalt images (Bell 2008) and ambiguous
text directions. Teachers shared their different interpretations of the material which set the
stage for a discussion of how experience and prior knowledge shape our interpretations.
Additionally, the activity highlights the role of creativity in science.
Overall, the nature of science activities provided engaging and memorable experiences
from which to draw during reflective discussions about the nature of science. The resulting
understandings about science were referenced and integrated into the science content
throughout the course.
ASSESSMENT
In order to assess teachers‘ gains in content knowledge, we used the Astronomy
Diagnostic Test v. 2.0 (ADT). It was developed by the Collaboration for Astronomy
Education Research in order to assess students‘ conceptual understanding of astronomy in
introductory undergraduate astronomy courses (Hufnagel 2002). The ADT consists of 21
multiple choice questions that cover a range of astronomical topics similar to the content
areas emphasized in the Virginia Standards and the National Science Education Standards,
and 12 participant background questions. It is typically administered pre- and post-course to
determine the gains in student understanding.
Table 3. Astronomy Diagnostic Test Scores
Number of
Pre-course Post-course
participants Normailized
Dates average average Difference
with both pre- Gain
score score
and post-scores
July 14 –
July 26, 25 48.9% 73.2% 24.3% 47.6%
2002
June 29 –
25 57.8% 77.5% 19.7% 46.7%
July 9, 2004
June 20 –
24 55.8% 71.4% 15.6 35.3%
July 1, 2005
August 1 –
August 12, 29 44.8% 64.5% 19.7 35.7%
2005
June 21 -
June 30, 28 61.2% 81.5% 20.3 52.3%
2006
August 6 –
August 17, 19 47.4% 67.4% 20.0 38.0%
2007
Spring 2009 27 55.9% 80.4% 24.5% 55.6%
Weighted
53.3% 73.9% 20.7% 44.8%
Average
The gain is typically defined as the normalized gain which is the realized gain divided by
the maximum possible gain, or (POST-PRE)/(100-PRE).
The ADT was tested for reliability and validity using a national sample of pre- and post-
course scores (Deming 2002). A total of 68 instructors teaching 91 courses participated in
pre- and post-course testing at a variety of institutions (universities, four-year colleges, and
two-year colleges).
As reported by Deming (2002), the average pre-course score for undergraduate students
was 32.4% (5,346 students) while the average post-course score was 47.3% (3,842 students),
for a gain of 14.9% or a normalized gain of 22.0%.
In comparing our course to the national averages, a few interesting results emerge (see
Table 3).
First, the average teacher pre-course score (53.3%) is significantly higher than the
average undergraduate student pre-course score (32.4%). It is also somewhat higher than the
undergraduate post-course score (47.3%). Thus, the average teacher begins our course with
knowledge greater than that of students who have completed a one-semester astronomy
course (at least on those topics measured by the ADT).
Second, the weighted average gain for teachers in our workshops was 20.7% and the
normalized gain was 44.8%, both of which are higher than the gains in a typical
undergraduate astronomy course. Thus, the teachers’ increase in content knowledge in our
two week long workshop is greater than the gains in learning seen in a single semester
college astronomy course.
CONCLUSION
When learners‘ initial alternative conceptions are taken into account, an instructor can
scaffold inquiry in ways that support confrontation of the inadequacy of their initial
conceptions. Purposefully selected inquiry activities, as done in the Space Science for
Teachers‘ workshops, introduced a reason for learners to consider more scientific
conceptions. In this way, inquiry can help learners recognize a need to understand particular
science concepts. These inquiry activities, which targeted initial alternative conceptions, were
accompanied by direct instruction including many visualizations and demonstrations. The
course activities and associated demonstrations and discussions served a dual purpose:
improving teachers‘ conceptions, and preparing teachers to be able to implement effective
instruction on space science and astronomy.
The additional aspect of the course, an explicit focus on the nature of science, provided
an overarching and reflective component to the course. Teachers learned to think about
science while still learning very specific science content. This unique aspect of the course
supported teachers‘ application of course understandings, not only to space science concepts
but also to any other science content they covered in their own classrooms. This broader
applicability of course content may have supported longer term retention and application of
teachers‘ improved understandings, about science in general, and space science in particular.
Overall, course results indicated that teachers‘ increase in content knowledge in our two
week long workshop was greater than the gains in learning seen in a single semester college
astronomy course. This supports the effectiveness of situating teacher learning experiences
within the authentic context of activities and discussions the teachers can use with their own
students.
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Chapter 9
TEACHING NEWTON‟S THIRD LAW
Hardimah Said
Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Gadong, Brunei
ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the research findings in relation to students‘ and physics
teachers‘ understanding of Newton‘s third law. The topic was chosen because often not
only students but also their physics teachers, in particular early career teachers, find
difficulty in understanding this concept fully. This may be due to the fact that these
abstract concepts are often at odds with their meaning in everyday life. Questionnaires
were administered to students and interviews held with teachers and selected students.
The findings, together with previous studies from the related literature, are discussed in
terms of the implications for teaching this topic. The findings indicate that attention is
needed for appropriate changes to physics teachers‘ preparation programmes and teacher
professional development. A summary of possible teaching sequence of this topic is
offered for the interest of the early career teachers.
INTRODUCTION
There are two key questions that focus this study. How do teachers, in particular early
career teachers, use their understanding of subject matter and pedagogy within the demands
of the curriculum and the school? How do teachers work in their classrooms in order to
improve their students‘ learning? To answer these questions, there is a need to investigate the
contextual factors that shape teachers in their current position. One of the approaches needed
is to find out teachers‘ content knowledge in the subject they teach.
Research indicates that the levels of teachers‘ subject matter knowledge is related to
teaching practices developed in the classroom (Gess-Newsome, 1999; Parker and Heywood,
2000; Tobin, Tippin, and Gallard, 1994). The adequacy of their subject matter facilitates how
they plan their teaching activities and deal with important situations faced in the classroom,
such as recognising students‘ everyday ideas when there are different from the current
scientific knowledge (Traianou, 2006).
168 Hardimah Said
However, a review of the research on the nature and development of the subject
knowledge of pre-service teachers indicates that pre-service teachers show little integration or
stability in their subject knowledge (Cochran and Jones, 1998; Kennedy, 1990). In general,
the impact of the pre-service teachers‘ lacks of content knowledge seemed unable help them
to present their subject knowledge in a coherent manner. Interestingly, they were unable to
explain important science concepts that are often being taught in elementary schools. This is
because they themselves often did not understand these concepts. This is an indication that
having a major degree in a particular subject does not guarantee that a person can explain
their subjects concepts effectively.
Parker and Heywood (2000) agreed that knowing the subject content did not necessarily
translate into effective teaching of that subject. For students to know and understand their
science subject, teachers are required to know and understand more about pedagogy, and this
is much more than just knowing the scientific facts. Parker and Heywood (2000) claimed that
the limited time available during teacher training programmes and courses might be the cause
of the reasons that the concepts of science content knowledge cannot be fully acquired by
teachers. They struggle to develop adequate understanding of the content knowledge as well
as the pedagogy.
Often, secondary science students have their own alternative conceptions prior to and
even after instruction (Driver, Squires, Rushwort, and Robinson, 1994; Wandersee, Mintzes,
and Novak, 1994). Teachers, particularly pre-service and student teachers, are also not free
from these alternative conceptions. Teachers are found to hold the same kind of
misconceptions as their students do, although teachers have fewer in number (Halim and
Meerah, 2002; Wandersee, et al., 1994). Secondary physics teachers in training invariably
hang on to some alternative concepts in physics such as force and acceleration. They have
held these for many years because their alternative concepts have not been sufficiently
challenged to bring about their rejection (Driver, R et al. 1994). In addition, there is a
tendency for teachers to not have had to change their childhood conceptions in their
adulthood. Their childhood conceptions may contradict science concepts but, as their
knowledge is satisfactory within the existing school science curriculum, these remain
unchanged (De Jong, Korthagen, and Wubbles, 1998).
Traianou (2006) highlighted that the adequacy of a teacher‘s subject matter helped to
facilitate them to plan their teaching activities and to deal with situations faced in the
classroom such as recognising that students‘ everyday ideas may differ from the current
scientific knowledge. The extent of teachers‘ subject knowledge becomes important when
teachers are asked to focus outside their major subject matter area. However, Traianou (2006)
stated that teachers‘ misunderstandings can be seen as resulting from making inappropriate
links between experience and knowledge, or from their use of misleading everyday language.
This was also identified by McDermott (1990) who stated that an in-depth subject knowledge
did not necessarily make a better science teacher. She stated that to prepare efficient physics
teachers, the teacher preparation programs need to incorporate content knowledge, knowledge
on pedagogy, and Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) as categorised by Shulman (1987).
Content knowledge refers to teachers‘ degree of understanding in the subject that he or she is
teaching. The pedagogical knowledge refers to knowledge about teaching and learning
theories and pedagogical content knowledge relates to the knowledge about appropriate
strategies for each topic concerned. Teachers‘ subject knowledge and their pedagogical
knowledge influence each other (Shulman, 1987). Teachers who possess an in-depth and
Teaching Newton‘s Third Law 169
detailed knowledge of their subject would be more effective in representing the subject to
students. They are likely to be more capable at posing questions and responding to students‘
questions, selecting tasks and evaluating their students‘ understanding, and also capable of
making sound curricular choices (Crawford, 2007; Kennedy, 1998; McDiarmid, Ball, and
Anderson, 1989). There is an agreement among researchers that PCK is an integrated set of
knowledge, conceptions, beliefs and values that teachers develop in the context of a teaching
situation (Gess-Newsome, 1999; Loughran, Mulhall, and Berry, 2004).
This chapter discusses the research finding from a small scale study conducted with
students and physics teachers using questionnaires and interviews of their understandings on
Newton‘s third law (Said, 2007). The topic was chosen as often not only students but also
new physics teachers can find difficulty in understanding the concept. This may be due to the
fact that these abstract concepts are often at odds with their meaning in everyday life (Driver,
et al., 1994; Gunstone and Watts, 1985; Montanero, Suero, Perez, and Pardo, 2002).
One of the common alternative ideas is that force is an entity which belongs to an object
(Brown, 1989). Problems arise when teachers themselves do not realise they are having
alternative conceptions about the concept. Besides, factors like teachers and their methods of
teaching, errors in textbooks and different everyday use of terms such as ‗force‘ and ‗energy‘,
may contribute to the alternative conceptions and difficulty in grasping the concept of force.
Numerous research studies have shown that students over a wide range of ages and
educational backgrounds have alternative conceptions particularly about understanding the
concepts of Newton‘s laws. Students‘ ideas are usually based on their everyday experiences
and sensations that are resistant to change even after classroom teaching (Brown, 1989;
Gunstone and Watts, 1985; Halloun and Hestenes, 1985; Terry, Jones, and Hurford, 1985).
Furthermore, Maloney (1990) believes students are having difficulty in understanding the
nature of forces as interactions often lead them not to have a clear and satisfactory
understanding of the concept of force. Warren (1979) mentions that misunderstanding
Newton‘s third law often arises as a result of not being aware of, and confusion between,
pairs of forces acting on different objects as well as pairs of forces acting on a single body.
The terms ‗action‘ and reaction‘ are used to describe Newton‘s third law and can imply the
relation of cause and effect whereas both of the forces actually arise at the same time from the
same interaction. He further explains how the term ‗opposed‘ might suggest that the two
forces must act on the same body. As a result, some students consider this law only applies to
equilibrium where equilibrium is sometimes mistaken with objects at rest. Besides, when an
object is at rest students fail to indicate the presence of force let alone the action and reaction
of forces as required by an understanding of Newton‘s third law.
In Halloun and Hestenes (1985) study, students appeared to inconsistently apply the
concept of force in different situations. Nearly every student in their study used a mixtures of
concepts from the three theories of Aristotelian, Impetus or Newtonian. Their study which
investigated students‘ common sense concepts about motion found that most of the students
had acquired rote knowledge of Newton‘s laws. The authors stated that although the students
were able to state Newton‘s laws they usually failed to see how the laws applied to a
particular question. Similar findings were found with Brown‘s (1989) study on the concept of
force in various contexts. Although most of the questions could be answered using a basic
knowledge of Newton‘s third law, many students tended to explain or give reasons
concerning the forces acting on objects interacting with each other with respect to speed,
weight, position and direction of the objects. He explained how students tended to hold a
170 Hardimah Said
view of force as a property in which an object is more or less ‗force-full‘ as a result of

‗having‘ more or less force. Thornton (1995) also found similar findings where students
tended to use the mass or weight of the object to decide the magnitude of the force. For
example, when two objects collide with each other, ninety percent of students in Thornton‘s
study indicated the forces are not equal and depend on the speed and the weight of the
colliding objects.
In summary, students‘ views regarding Newton‘s third law generally seemed to be as
follows:
1 There is no force acting when a body is at rest. (Minstrell, 1982; Terry, et al., 1985;
Watts, 1983)
2 Force as an innate or acquired property of objects rather than arising from an
interaction between objects. (Brown, 1989; Halloun and Hestenes, 1985; Maloney,
1984; Thornton, 1995; Watts, 1983)
3 Action and reaction pair of forces arise from a same single object where they have
the relation of cause and effect that is they occur one after the other and not
simultaneously. (Hestenes, Malcolm, and Swackhamer, 1992; Terry and Jones, 1986)
The scientific view of Newton‘s third law states that forces always come in pairs with an
equal and opposite action-reaction pair of force. Newton‘s third law of motion states, that ―for
every action there is an equal and opposite reaction‖. As suggested by Brown (1989), the
following five ideas of the third law in classical mechanics are worth noting:
1 A body cannot experience a force in isolation. This is to say that there cannot be a
force on a body A without a second body B to exert a force on it.
2 An attractive or repulsive force between two bodies arises as a result of the action of
the two bodies on each other either in contact or at a distance.
3 The paired forces have the same magnitude. The force exerted by body A on body B
is always equal in magnitude as the force exerted by the body B on the body A.
4 Neither force precedes the other one. The forces must have the same magnitude
regardless of the state of the bodies such as their masses and speed.
5 The forces exerted by the two bodies are in opposite direction to each other.
Based on Newton‘s third law, the pairs of the forces of two objects interacting are always
equal whether both or only one of the objects are accelerating or moving at a constant
velocity. The velocity, mass and identity of the objects, make no difference to the magnitude
of the forces on objects that interact. Physicists view the relationship between force and
motion to be coherent such that if there is acceleration, there is a force in the direction of the
acceleration and vice versa (Thornton 1995). The force and motion relationship does not alter
with the state of motion of the object, the identity of the object, or the source of the force on
the object.
The findings of this study done in Brunei are no different to other studies carried out with
students from different countries. A great majority of the students found difficulty in
understanding the full concept of force as well as the concept of Newton‘s third law.
FINDINGS FROM STUDENTS‟ RESPONSES

Overall, the questionnaire was poorly completed by the students of Year 10. Most
students seemed to have a problem that involved a simple case of static equilibrium. The
majority of students did not understand the concept of force let alone Newton‘s third law.
Most of the students thought that there was only one force that acted on a box at rest on a
table which was the downward force of gravity. This corresponds with similar findings
reported by Terry and Jones (1986) and Minstrell (1982). Questions that involved forces
between two boxes placed on top of each other, and forces during the collision of two balls,
further indicated students‘ difficulties in understanding forces as interactions between two
objects.
Some students‘ responses clearly showed their poor understanding of Newton‘s third law.
Most students provided a variety of views about forces acting on a table and on a rock falling
towards the ground such as the upward force is the resultant force. A few stated there is only
downward force acting called gravitational force. Even if the students were able to indicate
the correct forces, they were not able to draw in the forces at the correct position. A few
students even mentioned the term acceleration as the force. It can be suggested that the
students did not understand, or were not able to differentiate, the terms force and acceleration;
or that they simply did not understand the question.
From students‘ other responses, it can be seen that some of them did not understand the
questions. For instance, instead of describing the forces acting on the rock, some students
described the motion, or what happened to the rock, without indicating the type of forces
acting. This is particularly obvious in questions that required student‘s justification of their
choice of answer. Although some students chose the correct answer in the multiple-choice
questions, their reasons were often not scientifically valid. Some students‘ responses
contradicted their choice and their reasons. This was further confirmed in the interviews.
Some of them used the term ‗energy‘ rather than ‗force‘ to explain their reasoning. Thus,
there was also confusion with the concept of force, energy and workdone. For instance, their
explanations included such that the greater force was due to the energy transfer from one to
the other. Most students use the term ‗has force‘ rather than ‗exerts force‘. Thus, students‘
reasoning seemed to indicate their views of force as a property of an object where its mass,
size, position or speed plays a part in determining the object‘s force. The majority of the
students tended to indicate the greater the mass of an object or the faster the speed of an
object, the greater the force of the object. However, a few of the students also have the
opposite view. They indicated that the smaller the size of the object, the greater the force.
They related their reasoning to pressure.
Students also had difficulty identifying the forces involved with the two colliding balls
and the two boxes being placed on top of each other. Another indication where students did
not understand the questions was questions which involved the collisions of two balls.
Students‘ reasoning tends to explain what happens to the ball before or after a collision
instead of what happens to the forces during collision. In a question about the man pushing
the wall, most often students referred to the force applied by the man instead of what the
question was asking for, that of the force of the wall on the man‘s hand.
Many students were able to identify the equal forces of a man pushing the wall due to this
situation tending to be familiar to them. Some students chose the correct option with common
172 Hardimah Said
sense and everyday reasoning such as the forces must be equal or else both man and the wall
would fall. Similar findings have been presented by Bao et al. (2002) where many students
give correct reasoning related to the physical features of pushing, but they failed to do so
when the questions were slightly different. The authors acknowledged that students‘ ability to
respond correctly with pushing features might be due to its common use when introducing the
third law in class. Furthermore, students can relate to this from their personal experiences of
being pushed back when they are pushing an object. Terry and Jones (1986) stated students
are more likely to show difficulty when they are asked to consider situations that are slightly
different to the ones with which they are familiar. The students will be inclined to use mass or
velocity as their reasoning and seemed to completely forget to apply the concept of equal but
opposite forces based on the third law.
In this study, students‘ view of force as a property of an object was similar to previous
studies. Terry and Jones (1986) mention that when students attempt to identify a third law
pair force, they do not see the need for forces to act on different objects. As a result of this,
Brown (1989) believes students‘ qualitative conceptual understanding and quantitative
problem solving ability will be affected. This is to say that students might fail to recognise
forces as arising from interactions because most often students view the objects as the ones
‗having‘ the force. Brown (1989) suggests that students would be less likely to have difficulty
with both quantitative and qualitative problems if they fully understood the third law. This is
because the ability to understand the third law, with its main conception of forces arise from
interactions would allow an understanding of the overall concept of forces. Furthermore,
Terry and Jones (1986) indicate students would have difficulty when applying Newton‘s
second law of motion, and understanding the conservation of momentum, without an
understanding of the third law.
The interviews with some of the students further verified the findings from the
questionnaire as a whole. The interviews clearly indicated the students‘ poor understanding
about the topic of forces. The interviews were mainly seeking for students‘ ideas and
reasoning about their written choice of answers. Most of them still agreed, and adhered to,
their written answers during the interviews. A few of them changed their answers but mostly
the answers remained incorrect. However, there was only one student who changed her view
to Newton‘s third law. For the rest, they either held views that were consistent and incorrect
throughout the questionnaire, or had views that were varied from one situation to the other,
especially when determining forces exerted by the objects. Most often, the students associated
forces with the movement of objects. As a whole the students did not have a clear
understanding of the forces and Newton‘s third law. Some students admitted that they find the
topic of force interesting but they have difficulty in solving the questions on this topic as this
topic can be confusing and hard to understand. Some even considered they acquired good
understanding on the topic by learning about it but their written and oral responses showed
the opposite.
Overall, the students in this study showed a poor understanding on the concept of force.
This was particularly evident during the interviews. Students‘ understandings about Newton‘s
third law was poor as many students tended to use combinations of different reasonings. This
finding is similar to other studies (Bao, Hogg, and Zollman, 2002; Halloun and Hestenes,
1985). Bao et al. (2002) found that Newton‘s third law is one of the various physics concepts
that cause students to hold a variety of contextual features to describe their reasoning. These
different contextual features include mass, speed, pushing (initiator of action) or mixed
contextual features of mass and pushing. The authors noted that if these features are not
properly considered, it can increase teachers difficulty in both assessing student learning and
then implementing effective instruction.
TEACHERS‟ RESPONSES AND THEIR CURRENT TEACHING

STYLES FOR TOPIC FORCES AND NEWTON‟S THIRD LAW
Only one of the teachers was aware the questionnaire was about Newton‘s third law. The
other teachers thought it was focussed on general concepts about force. One of them even
thought the questions involved workdone (question about a man pushing the wall) and
momentum (question about the balls). The other teacher responded that force was determined
by its mass, size and motion. This could indicate that not only the students but also their
teachers, particularly new teachers, still have an insufficient understanding about the third law
specifically and concepts of force in general. Teachers‘ lack of understanding about Newton‘s
third law can affect their teaching and, as a consequence, might impact on effective teaching
and learning processes in their classroom.
All teachers said they provided their own notes for their students and most of their
resources were taken from textbooks and the internet. The assessment questions were taken
from either the textbooks or past year exams questions. All the teachers said that they taught
Newton‘s laws in a sequence of first, second and third laws. When introducing the topic, all
of them said they used diagrams or pictures of real everyday examples. One of them said he
used demonstrations that used simple objects, for example a book on a table when introducing
Newton‘s law. However, this was the teacher who thought that the man pushing the wall was
about workdone and the balls colliding were about momentum. It could be that this teacher
was only aware of the application of Newton‘s third law for objects at rest and thus, because
his own understanding was not thorough on this topic, he could not apply the concept of
moving objects. The other teacher said she only used diagrams or pictures such as two cars
colliding to introduce this topic explaining that equipment in the laboratory was inadequate.
Her reasoning could indicate a lack of a full understanding of the topic herself because there
are many everyday things that can be used to demonstrate this topic without requiring the
equipment in a laboratory.
The teachers that were interviewed in this study seemed to be aware of their student‘s
difficulty. All the teachers predicted only a few students would be able to perform well in the
questionnaire, while most of their students would surely have done poorly. The teachers were
aware that most of their students had difficulty in physics in general and in topic of forces in
particular. However, they considered the problem arises because most of the students were of
low ability and teachers can only spend a minimum period of time in teaching the topic. This
was explained because there are so many other topics to be covered in order to prepare the
students for their ‗O‘ level examination. Because of the lack of time, they said it was difficult
to help students individually. One of the teachers said that he realised his students were able
to answer some questions about forces in one situation but failed to answer at another
situation. For example his students realised the application of Newton‘s third law when
hitting a ball using a bat but failed to apply this to a moving ball that would hit a stationary
ball. The other teacher being aware of her students‘ low ability said she tried to explain by
174 Hardimah Said
giving more examples. The other teacher predicted his students would only be able to answer
the first half of the questionnaire because the other half was on workdone and momentum. He
admitted to not had used the terms ‗action‘ and ‗reaction‘ when teaching Newton‘s third law.
REVIEW OF LITERATURE ON TEACHING IMPLICATIONS

ABOUT FORCES AND NEWTON‟S THIRD LAW
Next, this chapter reviews on the approaches to teaching about forces and Newton‘s third
law based on previous studies. The reason that the third law is often misunderstood by most
students might be due to how it is being presented to them. For example, Warren (1979)
suggests that the term ‗action‘ and ‗reaction‘ tend to imply a cause and effect relationship
rather than a pair of forces arising simultaneously. Furthermore, Terry and Jones (1986)
believe that the use of the term ‗opposite‘ implies the two forces are acting on the same object
and hence this might also lead to a reason as to why students associate the third law with the
equilibrium condition. Therefore, the authors suggest that it is more appropriate to avoid the
use of these terms and instead to provide discussion and explanation of how the forces of
third law arise in order to achieve a more meaningful statement of the law.
Hellingman (1992) mentions that even during Newton‘s time, the action and reaction was
understood as separate agents rather than as two sides of one interaction. As a result, he
proposes that we restate the law as follows: ―a force is one side of an interaction; the
interaction takes place between two bodies working equally strongly in the two opposite
directions‖. As his words do not differ very much from those of Newton‘s law, the meaning
of the concept has not been changed. He further explains the importance of physicists
adopting a consistent and systematic view of Newton‘s law so that misconceptions can be
avoided.
Brown (1989) mentions that in order to modify students‘ initial ideas, it is essential to
involve a deep understanding rather than simply a memorization of the third law. It is
important to ensure the concept of forces is understood by the students to be arising only from
interactions between the two objects, rather than the force as an innate property of a single
object. Hestenes et al. (1992) also agree that in order to achieve effectiveness in instruction, it
is not sufficient to simply tell the students about their misconception. A well-designed and
tested instructional method is necessary in order to bring significant conceptual change.
There is a variety of suggested teaching approaches in dealing with students‘
understanding about Newton‘s third law such as using Force Concept Inventory (FCI)
designed by Hestenes et al. (1992), model analysis by Bao et al. (2002), using a variety of
paper and pencil exercises supplemented with texts and class presentation (Maloney 1990),
using bridging analogies and bridging representation in promoting conceptual change
(Clement 1993, Savinainen et al. 2005), using Content Representation (CoRe) approach and
the Pedagogical and Professional-experience Repertoire (PaP-eR) approach (Loughran, Berry,
and Mulhall, 2006) among others.
Although using these approaches to change students‘ views is not an easy task, reports
show that there is considerable success to be experienced when helping students confront and
change their views rather than using the traditional ways (Gunstone and Watts, 1985).
Maloney (1990) states that to make the students aware of their alternative concept of
forces and replacing them with the scientific views is not enough. It is important to guide
students when they start questioning and doubting their existing ideas and then to ensure that
the new science ideas being introduced to them are intelligible, plausible and fruitful.
Maloney (1990) indicates that having a variety of question formats will help to develop
students‘ understanding about forces as interactions. These are the features outlined by Posner
et al. (1982) and are mentioned by both Maloney (1984) and Terry and Jones (1986).
Maloney (1990) states it is important to explain forces as interactions and not as a property of
the object of itself. It is essential to make students identify the agent and object when writing
down any force particularly for all free-body diagrams. Once students are convinced forces
are there as a result of interaction, then it might be appropriate to introduce the concept that
any two interactions always exerts equal forces regardless of the state, mass or speed of the
objects. The forces that involve a horizontal direction is the next one that can be introduced
after the static situation because it represents situations in which students can use and relate to
their everyday life experience. For example, when a person hits an object in a horizontal way
with his hand, students tend to be able to respond correctly that equal forces are involved
because they are familiar with the situations in their everyday life experiences. Hence, in
teaching, the use of the concept of force in a horizontal direction could provide a useful
‗bridging analogy‘ in conceptual change.
Savinainen et al. (2005) mention that the concept of force in the context of interaction
could be introduced at the early stage of the instructional sequence. For example, students
could be asked to press their thumb down onto a table and to observe what happens. This
would help to identify whether students do have ideas that forces are necessarily exerted by
living objects. This will also help to convince them that inanimate objects can exert forces by
looking at the process of how a thumb is being deformed, because the deformation indicates
any object either living or not exerts forces as a result of interaction. This kind of activity can
be interpreted as building students‘ existing ideas and extending them to new domains by
using bridging analogy (Savinainen et al., 2005).
Clement (1993) discusses the use of bridging analogies in order to deal with students‘
alternative conceptions of Newton‘s third law through class demonstration and discussion. It
is hoped that the discussion would build up students‘ understanding firstly at a qualitative
level and later mastering it at a quantitative level. These discussions are also likely to
encourage students becoming more aware and critical of their own ideas, and eventually to
develop new science concepts. Clement gave an example where a lesson about the dynamic
third law of moving objects uses a sequence of analogous cases to connect an anchoring
problem familiar to students and linked to the target problem. Forming analogies between
more difficult examples and thus anchoring the situation, is a significant instructional
technique to encourage active thinking and discussions for students and to allow students‘
prior knowledge and reasoning to be incorporated with the science concept.
Hellingman (1989) suggests that educationists should develop curriculum that describes
the force concept as an interactional one for both dynamics and statics situations. Hestenes et
al. (1992) describe FCI as an instrument that consists of a forced choice between Newtonian
concepts and commonsense alternatives. FCI is hoped would probe the students‘ beliefs about
the concept of force and motion so that their beliefs could be compared with their
understanding of Newtonian concepts. Teachers could use FCI in any way that fits into their
teaching to assess the effectiveness of their physics instruction. One of the items in the FCI
176 Hardimah Said
challenges students‘ understanding of action and reaction pairs. Most often students use their
commonsense and the dominance principle such as the ‗more forceful‘ exerts the greater
force because the ‗more forceful‘ is bigger and has greater mass and thus is more active
object. FCI has been proven to be valuable in providing data on the problem of commonsense
misconceptions in physics instruction at any levels of education (Hestenes et al. 1992).
A type of exercise that can emphasise forces as interactions as suggested by Maloney
(1990), could include a ‗ranking task‘ where students are asked to rank a group of situations
on a specified basis such as colliding carts, and other possible systems, for Newton‘s third
law. Students will be given a number of similar situations involving the ranking task. For
example, two blocks of A and B are touching each other with different magnitude of masses;
and students will then be asked to rank the ratio of the force A on B to the force B on A in
descending order or, if the ratios will be the same. Students will then be asked to give their
reasoning for their answers. A sample item, or a written explanation as well as a few clues,
will be given to the students before they start working. This is to help students decide and
compare the situations and to apply their own knowledge, rather than being told what to do
and think. Students will then have opportunities to consider the matter repeatedly from a
number of different but related perspectives. Thus Maloney (1990) indicates that all
traditional tools of teaching such as demonstrations, laboratories, textbooks, as well as new
tools such as computer simulations and class discussion, should be used to develop students‘
understanding of forces as interactions and not simply learnt by rote.
Bao et al. (2002) developed a multiple-choice instrument intended to measure students‘
reasoning where for each question only a single physical feature of Newton‘s third law is
tested. Students‘ responses are analysed using model analysis based on systematic research of
student conceptual models. As some students might respond with different models about
different questions, the effects of different contextual features of students‘ use of models can
be measured and obtained. This in turn provides more details about student conceptual
development status. When students‘ conceptual models are acknowledged, teaching
instructions can be developed in the process of achieving conceptual understanding for
students. It is essential to identify students‘ ideas through discussion to achieve meaningful
learning.
In Newton‘s third law, the initial discussion could aim at finding out students‘ ideas
about forces. It is easier to start the discussion with what students are familiar with based on
their everyday experiences and common sense. Meanwhile the much less familiar situation
can be placed at the end of the teaching sequence. It is usually easier to start with cases in
static equilibrium so that students do not have to worry about factors like speed that has the
‗dominance principle‘ and tends to influence students‘ reasoning.
Loughran et al. (2006) introduced the use of CoRe and PaP-eRs approach for topics in
science including topic force and Newton‘s third law intended to be used by teachers, teacher
educators or others related to the field. They indicate that the approach of CoRe outlines some
of the aspects of PCK that are not only representation but are mostly attached to the content.
It helps to ‗bring to life‘ the aspects of the topic. A PaP-eR is a content area approach and
allow the reader to look inside a teaching/learning situation in which the content shapes the
pedagogy. Two CoRes are developed to focus on developing understanding of the forces
involved in situations where objects are stationary and when objects are moving. The CoRe
consists of questions such as asking what a teacher intends his/her students to learn about the
topic, why it is important for students to know it and what else the teachers know about the
topic that he/she does not intend for the students to know yet. The CoRes are then linked to
the PaP-eRs which gives a variety of formats designed to capture and portray particular and
distinctive aspects of PCK.
SUGGESTED ALTERNATIVE APPROACHES TO TEACHING FORCES

AND THE THIRD LAW
From the findings in this chapter as well as from previous studies worldwide, there is a
need to examine students‘ everyday views and compare these with the scientific view in order
to help students to change their views. Students should be allowed to construct their existing
knowledge with the scientific views being taught in the classroom. In order to do so, it is
important to identify students‘ everyday reasoning in the early stages of teaching and learning
in order to design effective teaching interventions. It is essential to identify students‘ ideas
through discussion to achieve a meaningful learning experience.
Furthermore, teachers themselves should be aware of their own understanding of this
concept. There is a need for teachers to review and adapt their understanding of this concept
to a consistent scientific view. Teachers should take and consider students‘ ideas as starting
points in their teaching rather than introducing the topic based on their own understanding
and way of teaching. For instance, instead of using teachers‘ examples, students should be
allowed to give examples based on their initial conception of Newton‘s third law. Students
should be given opportunities to talk about and discuss their ideas and compare these with the
scientific view of Newton‘s third law. It is important to allow students to offer their examples
of Newton‘s third law whether their explanations are right or wrong with the hope that the
students would be more confident and gain better understanding about the concept of the
force. Through students‘ discussion it is hoped that teachers can make informed decisions
when planning for teaching strategies and sequences.
Realising students‘ difficulty in understanding fully Newton‘s third law, teachers should
introduce the topic by emphasising that no force can be exerted and occur in isolation. It is
only when students are able to understand these that it is then appropriate to introduce the
law. This is to avoid the most common misunderstanding of force where it is often viewed as
a property of an individual object. The use of the statement ‗every action has an equal and
opposite direction‘ as discussed earlier, should be avoided, as this statement might lead to
conceptual difficulties of the third law. It is better to state the meaning of the law as suggested
by Warren (1979) without the use of the terms ‗action‘ and ‗reaction‘.
Figure 1 is a summary of a suggested way of introducing Newton‘s third law which
outlines a possible teaching sequence of Newton‘s third law by using everyday experiences in
familiar situations.
Recommendations in figure 1 are simply that these are examples of the possible teaching
sequence targeting for early career teachers. It is hoped could bring an effective teaching and
learning into classrooms. Attempts to include both instructional activities and active
classroom interactions are essential. Open discussion either in small groups between students
and teacher as well as among small group of students themselves, or as a whole class, should
take place in order to achieve meaningful learning.
178 Hardimah Said
It is easier said than done however if teachers are able to see the benefits of these
approaches in order to develop students‘ deeper understanding, they may be more willing to
alter their teaching styles. Furthermore, reviewing teacher training and professional
development could be the starting point in order to achieve a meaningful and effective
teaching and learning of physics. It is necessary for future research and investigations to look
for which teaching implications can bring meaningful teaching and learning to take place in a
physics classroom.
Figure 1. Continued on next page.

Figure 1. A possible teaching sequence.

180 Hardimah Said
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Chapter 10
USING MODELS IN TEACHING

AND LEARNING SCIENCE
Gail Chittleborough
Deakin University, Burwood, Victoria, Australia
ABSTRACT
Models can be excellent tools to help explain abstract scientific concepts and for
students to better understand these abstract concepts. A model could be a copy or replica,
but it can also be a representation that is not like the real thing and can provide insight
about a scientific concept. Models come in a variety of forms, such as three dimensional
and concrete, two dimensional and pictorial, and digital forms. The features of models
often depend on their purpose: for example, they can be visual, to show what something
might look like, dynamic to show how something might work, and or interactive to show
how something might respond to changes. One model is often not an accurate
representation of a concept, so multiple models may be used. Students‘ modelling ability
has been shown to improve through instruction and with practice of mapping the model
to the real thing, highlighting the similarities and differences. The characteristics of a
model that can be used in this assessment include accuracy and purpose.
Models are commonly used by science teachers to describe, and explain scientific
concepts. Pedagogical approaches that include students using models to make predictions
and test ideas about scientific concepts encourage students to use models for higher order
thinking processes. This approach relates the use of models to the way scientists work,
reflecting the nature of science and the development of scientific ideas. This chapter will
focus on the way models are used in teaching: identifying pedagogical processes to raise
students‘ awareness of characteristics of models. In this way, the strengths and limitations
of any model are assessed in relation to the real thing so that the accuracy and merit of
the model and its explanatory power can be determined.
184 Gail Chittleborough
INTRODUCTION
Models are commonly used in teaching science to motivate learners, promote
engagement and to provide authentic, hands-on activities and links to the real world. Models
have multiple values in teaching and learning science: teaching the scientific concepts, the
scientific process and the nature of science, as presented in Table 1. Teaching science can be
challenging for teachers in many ways, such as being confident and knowledgeable in the
subject matter, organising equipment for the classroom activities, and planning lessons so that
students have opportunities to develop an understanding of scientific concepts (Hackling,
Peers, and Prain, 2007). Models serve as descriptive and explanatory tools - they are central
in supporting both students and teachers in developing conceptual understandings of scientific
ideas.
Modelling is central to learning - and modelling scientific concepts provides
opportunities for students to think scientifically. This chapter discusses the nature of models
and modelling, explores how and why models can be used in teaching science and provides a
description and justification for the model-based pedagogical approach, teaching with models.
WHAT IS A MODEL?
A model is commonly thought of as a copy or replica; but a model can include a variety
of representations such as scale models, symbolic models, mathematical models, theoretical
models, maps, diagrams, and simulations (Harrison and Treagust, 2000). Models are useful
tools that can provide detail about ideas and concepts that are not readily visible or accessible
for various reasons, such as being too small to be seen, too large to be seen, too dangerous or
based on abstract theories.
Models can be two or three dimensions including concrete, virtual, and diagrammatic
models. Models may or may not provide a depiction that is a likeness of the real thing;
furthermore they are often depicted in terms of something else with which the learner is more
familiar. The use of concrete models, pictorial representations, animations and simulations
has been shown to be beneficial to students‘ understanding of scientific concepts (Tasker and
Dalton, 2006). Modelling is the mapping of a model to a target such as the scientific idea or
concept, and in this way, they are useful explanatory tools to understand phenomena.
Table 1. Use of models in understanding science
Use of a Model Understanding the Science

Models represent scientific concepts and act as descriptive
the scientific concepts, the scientific
and explanatory tools. They can provide a focus for further
subject matter
hypothesising and testing of ideas.
By using a model, the learner develops the skill of modelling. the scientific process
Modelling is an authentic scientific practice. So by using
models, learners can communicate their understanding of
the nature of science.
scientific ideas and hence model scientific processes and
scientific thinking
Using Models in Teaching and Learning Science 185
The visualisation provided by models can be instrumental in helping learners construct a

personal mental model of the target - the scientific idea or concept. A mental model is a
―psychological representation of real, hypothetical, or imaginary situation‖ (Johnson-Laird,
Girotto, and Legrenzi, 1998, p. 1) and as learners assimilate new information provided by the
various representations including models they build internally a personal mental model of the
concept being studied in their own schema. Schnotz, and Bannert describe the use of pictures
and text in learning ―as the process of analogical structure mapping between a system of
visuo-spatial relations and a system of semantic relations‖ (2003, p. 146). It is through the
expressed model, that the extent of the mapping and depth of learning becomes apparent. The
expressed model is communicated by an individual through action, speech or writing (see
Figure 1).
TYPES OF MODELS
There are a variety of typologies for models, based on a variety of criteria such as their
purpose, role, and attributes to name a few. Harrison and Treagust (2000, pp. 1014-1017)
proposed:
● Scientific and teaching models

● scale
● pedagogical analogical model
● Pedagogical analogical models that build conceptual knowledge
● iconic and symbolic models
● mathematical models
● theoretical models
● Models depicting multiple concepts and processes
● maps diagrams and tables
● concept process models
● simulations
● Personal models of reality, theories and process
● mental models
● synthetic models
Boulter and Buckley (2000) proposed a typology of models based on the mode of the
representation, (three-dimensional, verbal, visual, mathematical or gestural), and the attributes
of the representation that may be quantitative/qualitative, static/dynamic, or deterministic.
Figure 1. The relationship between real models, mental models and expressed models.
a) b) c)
d) e)
f) g) h)
i) j)
Figure 2. Examples of models: a) Scale model of the heart. b) Scale model of a motor c) Student made
model of an alarm on a door. d) Teaching model –a professionally made diagram of a cross section of a
flower model. e) The use of a lever to model movement in a crocodile jaw - a scale model. f) Dynamo.
g) A model of the earth in centre of universe. h) A model of DNA, i) A model using levers to create
movement. j) A model volcano.
Chittleborough and Treagust (2009) adapted the typology proposed by Gilbert and
Boulter (1995) - distinguishing teaching, scientific mental models and expressed models.
Krajick looking at chemistry models used the properties of the models - such as the structure,
interactivity, dynamic nature, quantitative aspects and macroscopic attributes (Krajcik, 1991).
Typologies are constructs that can be useful in highlighting properties and making
comparisons. Typologies may be better suited for the particular situation such as specific
discipline or particular use of models. The examples of teaching models presented in Figure 2
and Table 2 illustrate the usefulness of the multiple typologies.
Table 2. Mode, Accuracy and Purpose (MAP) for each model in Figure 2
Model Mode Accuracy Purpose

a. Scale model of the 3D Static, Made to scale Visual representation,
heart qualitative
b. Scale model of a 3D Dynamic Accurate - like a To show how a motor
motor quantitative real motor works
c. Student made door 3D dynamic real alarm, very To show how a simple
alarm. quantitative accurate alarm works
d. A cross section of a 2D static Much larger than Shows relative sizes of
flower quantitative reality, flower parts
e. Model of lever 3D dynamic, Not like the real To show the use of levers
action in crocodile qualitative thing, to make the crocodile
mouth
f. A model of a 3D dynamic, Accurate To show how to produce
dynamo quantitative electric current from
moving water.
g. A model of the earth 3D static, Not like the real To provide a three
qualitative thing, inaccurate dimensional perspective
h. A model of DNA 3D quantitative, Not accurate Provides an image of the
static three dimensional
structure
i. A model using levers 2D dynamic, Not accurate. to use lever to create
to create movement quantitative movement
j. A model volcano 3D dynamic, Not at all accurate Visual representation

quantitative
STUDENTS‟ PERCEPTIONS OF MODELS

Many students view models only as copies of the scientific phenomena (Grosslight,
Unger, Jay, and Smith, 1991) and their understanding of the role of models frequently is seen
as being simplistic (Treagust, Chittleborough, and Mamiala, 2003). For example students and
teachers commonly consider models to be an exact replica of the real thing; that models are
accurate and will not change over time (Treagust, Chittleborough, and Mamiala, 2004; Van
Driel and Verloop, 2002). Students see scientific ideas being explained by one model only;
and they often confuse the model with the content by considering the model as a new thing to
learn - not a means to explain what has to be learnt (Gilbert, 1997; Grosslight, et al., 1991).
Within this scenario, the use of models can lead to students developing misconceptions.
Generally, students‘ understanding of the role of models improves with increasing years of
schooling. Some secondary students learning introductory organic chemistry with a model
based approach, failed to appreciate or recognise that they were using the ball and stick
models in predictive and testing ways, modelling as they are used in authentic scientific
processes (Treagust, et al., 2004)
Models are used to provide a picture of abstract and unfamiliar science concepts and
ideas. Models require mapping the target to the model, and when the target is known e.g. the
movement of the diaphragm and the lungs, can be mapped to a model of balloons in a bottle
(Figure 3). This mapping is logical and plausible for the learner, and is based on their
personal experience, however, when the target is unknown e.g. electrons in an electric circuit
being modelled with moving dots representing electrons, in an applet (Figure 4), the mapping
becomes more difficult for the learner to accomplish and the model has greater importance.
Figure 3. A model of how the lungs work.
Figure 4. Circuit construction kit - PhET applet simulating an electric circuit (http://PhET.colorado.edu/
accessed 1/8/2011).
The model of the electric circuit requires the learner to link the moving dots and the light
glowing; connecting the concept of sub microscopic charged particles (dots) carrying energy
through a conductor and being transformed into to the light being emitted. These unfamiliar
scientific concepts and ideas can affect the credibility of the models. Al-Balushi (2011) has
researched students‘ perceptions of the credibility and authenticity of models according to a

measure of the degree of abstractness and distinguished four levels:
● Certainty level - where the target is considered to be real and there is good evidence
that the model is accurate (e.g. photo).
● Imaginary level: where the target is considered to be real, but the model shows what
scientists imagine it to be.
● Suspicious level - where the target is considered to be real but the model is not real
nor accurate,
● Denial level: where the target is not considered to be real (Al-Balushi, 2011)
Al-Balushi (2011) reported how as students used more complex and abstract models their
confidence in the model waned: ―the overall students‘ epistemological perceptions across
grade levels showed a decrease in the certainty level and an increase in the imaginary level‖
(p.599).
This is true for chemistry where the dual characteristics: the real and visible
characteristics of the macroscopic level and the real and ―invisible‖ characteristics of the sub-
microscopic level collide creating suspicion in learners (Chittleborough and Treagust, 2008).
TEACHERS PERCEPTIONS OF MODELS

Teachers‘ level of understanding of models has been described as limited because they
have a simplified understanding of models and modelling in science (Van Driel and Verloop,
2002). Similarly pre-service teachers have reported to have ―uninformed views of the role of
models and modelling in science‖ (Crawford and Cullin, 2004, p. 1399). Teachers with
limited background science knowledge in science content areas and in the history and
philosophy of science can find teaching with a model focus challenging (Henze, Van Driel,
and Verloop, 2007).
Teachers require an understanding of the role, purpose and use of models in teaching and
learning science content, the scientific process and the nature of science. Teacher education
about models and teacher experience with using models is critical if the teaching with a
model focus is to impact on student‘s learning. Henze, Van Driel and Verloop (2007) reported
improvement in teacher‘s knowledge about the use of models and modelling when teaching
with a model focus, but acknowledged the need for teachers to reflect on the nature of
models, and to plan how modelling is used as a learning activity and have time to try out new
ideas.
WHAT IS MODELLING ABILITY?

Modelling requires the user to relate the model to the target, and to use the model to form
hypotheses, test ideas and make predictions about the target using the model. Not recognising
a model as an analogue and not being able to link the model to the target suggests an inability
to model. Modelling is a skill that is often assumed, however modelling ability is not an
innate skill. Students may be experienced modellers – such as copying parent behaviour or
playing with models of familiar items, but unable or inexperienced in modelling in the
context of abstract science concepts. Grosslight et al., (1991) distinguished three levels of
modeller:
● Level 1: ―the model is thought of as a toy or simple copy of reality‖. (Grosslight, et

al., 1991, p. 817)
● Level 2: students ―realise that there is a specific explicit purpose that mediates the
way the model is constructed‖. (Grosslight, et al., 1991, p. 817)
● Level 3: ―the model is constructed in the service of developing and testing ideas
rather than as servicing as a copy of reality itself‖ (Grosslight, et al., 1991, p. 818).
A student‘s level of modelling is not fixed or predetermined and develops with

instruction. Modelling ability is closely aligned to reasoning ability and higher order thinking
skills (Harrison and Treagust, 2001). Model-based activities depend on the learners ability to
model in order to use models for reasoning and thinking processes such as, forming
hypotheses, making inferences, identifying variables, perceiving trends and patterns,
providing reasons and explanations. While modelling is an important skill in science, it is not
usually taught directly to students as a skill, rather it is taught within and alongside science
content, and runs the risk of being overlooked. In their study, Grosslight, et al. (1991) based
their classification of students‘ modelling abilities on six dimensions: the role of ideas, the
use of symbols, and the role of the modeller, communication, testing and multiplicity. These
dimensions are evident in a student‘s ability to:
● identify the target of the model and assess the Mode (form), Accuracy, and Purpose
● transfer from one model or representation to another.
● recognise the strengths and limitations of each model.
● use models for testing, predicting and evaluating ideas.
● use multiple models in congruent ways.
Using models can be challenging, motivating and engaging for students. Ownership of
self-made models can provide opportunities for creativity, understanding, as well as
highlighting misconceptions. To use the models as effective thinking tools, they must involve
the integration of new knowledge with existing knowledge. The models can use familiar
materials to present new knowledge. By analysing and reflecting on the parts of the model, its
role, purpose and links to the target are emphasised. The scientific content being modelled
does affect the appropriate mode that we use. Questions that inform the underlying theoretical
frameworks and which can achieve this objective include the following:
● What are the attributes of the model in terms of Mode, Accuracy, and Purpose?
● Is the model logical?
● Does the model explain the concept that you are trying to learn?
● Is the model useful? – Do I understand the concept better because of the model?
● Are there other models that could be useful?
Inherent in answers to these questions is an assessment of the model as an explanatory

tool – separate from the content or concept that is being taught. This refers to the model being
integral to the development of scientific ideas in the process of science.
MODELS AND THE NATURE OF SCIENCE

Models are used to help construct scientific knowledge, however students‘ appreciation
of this idea is reported to be unclear (Al-Balushi, 2011). Modelling is a core process of the
scientific method and as such it is worthwhile attempting to understand what students think
about models. The link between using models in science classrooms and their use by
scientists in the development of scientific ideas can be tenuous and unconvincing, and there
seems a heavy reliance on individual teachers to highlight and build these links. This is
unlikely if the teachers themselves are without a good foundational knowledge of the nature
of science. Teachers with naïve conceptions perpetuate these perceptions among their
students. As reported by Loxely (2009), a teacher ignorant that her oversimplification of
scientific ideas was not accurately portraying the complexity of nature of science. Loxely
describes ―the consequences of this naïve understanding of the nature of science can be a
conceptually barren approach to science learning‖ (Loxley, 2009, p. 1618).
Australian students from Year 8, 9, 10 11 and first year university responded to a survey
about models and modelling (VOMMS) (Chittleborough and Treagust, 2009). The data is
presented in Table 3. In addition students provided reasons for their choice. The data revealed
that many students considered models an important tool in the process of science. Some
students could identify the roles of models in the nature and process of scientific ideas. In
response to item 4, many students explained their understanding of the relationship between
fact, theory and model. Examples of such responses include, ―having an accurate model will
emphasise change of future models having to adapt to new theories‖ and ―the model needs to
clearly support and help explain a theory – that‘s what they‘re designed to do‖
Many students reasoned that Science was based on fact, confirming the importance of the
factual basis of science – with comments such as, ―Science is based on facts as we know them
and accepted until proven otherwise‖ and ―Science is not a negotiable subject and should not
be based on opinionative information but on fact‖. The fixed and constant nature of facts is
tempered with the realisation that facts can change, and many comments by students revealed
that they were aware of this. The responses to the VOMMS instrument indicate that the
students support the relationship with models as the starting point for the development of
theories, and models taking up an intermediary position between observed reality and theory
(Gilbert and Osborne, 1980).
MODELS IN THE PROCESS OF SCIENCE

Modelling is one part of the scientific processes - in which problems are posed, ideas
explored, questions asked, experiments conducted, data analyzed and interpreted and re-
evaluated leading to further experiments, possible conclusions, new theories being proposed,
explanations being tested etc. The process of science is iterative and it is not predetermined.
Models may be used to test ideas, provide descriptions and form hypotheses. Models are tools
for scientific thinking and can be included in an inquiry approach to learning.
Table 3. Comparison of Results for Views of models and modelling Science (VOMMS)
Instrument for Studies 1, 2, 3, and 4 (n=275)
Total % Responses for Each Study

1 2 3 4
Statement n=275 n=36 n=174 n=17 n=48
yr 11 yr 8,9,10 univ univ
1) Models and modelling in science are
important in understanding science. Models are:
a) Representations of ideas or how things work. 85 86 74 88 92
b) Accurate duplicates of reality. 11 8 26 12 8
2) Scientific ideas can be explained by:
a) One model only, – any other model would
7 3 16 0 8
simply be wrong.
b) One model, – but there could be many other
92 92 84 100 92
models to explain the ideas.
3) When scientists use models and modelling in
science to investigate a phenomenon, they may:
a) Use only one model to explain scientific * *
15 17 12 NA NA
phenomena.
b) Use many models to explain scientific * *
85 81 89 NA NA
phenomena.
4) When a new model is proposed for a new
scientific theory, scientists must decide whether
or not to accept it. Their decision is:
a) Based on the facts that support the model and
88 83 71 100 96
the theory.
b) Influenced by their personal feelings or
11 11 29 0 2
motives.
**
Both a and b 2
5) The acceptance of a new scientific model:
a) Requires support by a large majority of
23 19 17 24 30
scientists
b) Occurs when it can be used successfully to
70 72 83 59 66
explain results
**
Both a and b 20 - - 18 4
6) Scientific models are built up over a long
period of time through the work of many
scientists, in their attempts to understand
scientific phenomenon. Because of this scientific
models:
a) Will not change in future years. 7 3 18 6 0
b) May change in future years. 91 89 82 94 100
**
Students chose both a) and b) simultaneously – contradictory to the instructions.
Note: the percentages provided do not total 100% because several students did not respond. For
example, for item 1, 5.5% of students did not respond. (Chittleborough, Treagust, Mamiala, and
Mocerino, 2005, p. 201).
MODELS IN THE CURRICULUM

Science curriculum statements encourage the teaching of the nature of science and the
way of knowing in science. The Australian National Statements of Learning for Science
reflect this in the section of the ―Science as a way to know‖ (Curriculum Corporation, 2006).
The Australian National Curriculum incudes models as a part of science knowledge –that is
described as ―facts, concepts, principles, laws, theories and models that have been established
by scientists over time.‖ (http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/ Science/Content-structure).
Modelling is presented across all year levels as part of the inquiry process that is commonly
included in investigations to provide explanations, predictions and test ideas.
The way models are used in science classrooms does not always make full use of their
potential; as Raghaven explains: ―Science instruction rarely uses models beyond the purpose
of illustration. Students have not been taught how to use models to analyze and solve
problems‖ (Raghavan, 1995 p. 4). Cosgrove and Schaverien (1997) describe the use of
models that hinders deep understanding as naïve. This criticism would imply that teachers do
not use models to their full potential when teaching science. Yet, models provide scope for
visual, verbal and symbolic representations that can be suitable for a variety of learning
styles. The research literature provides examples of models being used in integrated and cross
curricular approaches. Models are commonly used for descriptive purposes and also for
students to create their own models using their imagination (Halpine, 2004).
THE ROLES OF MODELS

Models have been described as thinking tools – but this description is dependent on how
teachers and students use the models (White, 1993). Models are commonly used passively for
descriptive purposes, The results of research observing a chemistry classroom with seventeen
year old students indicated that the majority of students recognised the descriptive nature of
models but did not recognise their predictive nature. This is despite their personal experience
using chemical models in the chemistry class in tasks on predictive and testing tasks
(Treagust, et al., 2004). In addition students did not always understand the role of the model
(Treagust, et al., 2003). The way models are used in teaching can reflect the three different
roles of models: describing, explaining/reasoning and predicting/testing (see Table 4).
The roles – describe, explain, predict/test - require increasingly higher levels of thinking
as described by the Bloom‘s taxonomy (reference). Teaching with a model-based approach
can provide ―opportunities for independent thinking and problem-solving‖ as described by
Zohar and Schwartzer (2005, p. 1061) as an essential component of higher order thinking that
requires a significant amount of time and effort by the teacher.
WHY USE MODELS?

Models are used to represent abstract concepts, for which there is no other visual or
concrete anchor. Students rely on models to build their personal mental model even though
they know it may not be accurate or precise.
So for example, for atomic structures, students use the chemical models of elements and
compounds to think about, explain and understand chemical concepts.
Table 4. Various Roles of a Model
Type of Reasoning based on

Role Purpose of a Model Examples in model-based teaching
(Tytler and Peterson, 2003, p. 459)
Students making a model to describe
something that is not easily observed -
To represent a particular it may be too big or too small to be
scientific idea or seen with the naked eye, it may be ―Phenomenon-based reasoning,
concept in order to help hidden, or occurs too slowly or too where explanation and description
To visualise, and to help quickly to observe. Examples -a are not distinguished, and the
Describe understand how model of the solar system or a model purpose of experimentation is to
something works, of a cell, a model of internal body ‗look and see‘.‖(Tytler and
moves, feels, and parts, the model of a life cycle, a Peterson, 2003)
changes. model of a nuclear reactor. Strong
emphasis on vocabulary and the
function of various components.
The connection of ideas here-
requires phenomena and relational
To represent a particular Make a model to explain a scientific reasoning. ―Relation-based
scientific idea or concept - for example making a reasoning, where explanation is
concept in order to model of the moon and the earth to seen as involving the identification
To explain a phenomena, explain the changing phases of the of relations between observable or
Explain and to describe how moon, or a model of plate tectonics to taken-for granted entities rather
/Reason something works, and explain the tectonic features, or a than the searching for an
show the connection model of how valves impact on blood underlying cause, and exploratory
between concepts/ideas, flow in the heart, and how the approaches tend to be
such as cause and effect. diaphragm influence the lungs confirmatory and
uncritical.‖(Tytler and Peterson,
2003)
Models can be used to make ―Concept-based reasoning, where
predictions or test ideas such as explanation is cast in terms of
To use a representation
making models of chemical conceptual entities that represent
of a particular scientific
compounds and using the structure to an underlying cause or deeper
idea or concept to make
To Predict test their strength or predict their level interpretation, where
predictions, test
/Test reactivity. The model- based activities experimentation is guided by
hypotheses, solve
include generating and testing hypotheses, where the role of
problems, and generate
hypotheses, and making inferences disconfirming evidence is
causal mechanisms.
that require higher order relational acknowledged‖ (Tytler and
mapping of the target and the model. Peterson, 2003)
In knowledge construction, we usually start with what we know and build on it – in a

constructivist manner. But for abstract concepts especially those about very, very small ideas
or very, very large ideas – there is no everyday experience to start with so models play a vital
part in describing and explaining the idea or concept. Models are used to extend and broaden
the conceptual understanding to make learning more meaningful. The categorisation of
phenomena-based, relational and conceptual reasoning included in table can assist in
highlighting how models can be used to promote various types of reasoning.
TEACHING WITH MODELS APPROACH

Pedagogical approaches that focus on models include model-based reasoning (Stephens,
McRobbie, and Lucas, 1999), the model-observe-reflect-explain thinking frame (MORE)
(Tien, Rickey, and Stacy, 1999), the Question, Identify, Gather evidence, Interpret, Model,
Predict, Demonstrate (QIGIMPD) approach, (MacIntyre, Stableford, and Choundry, 2002),
Models Use in Science Education (MUSE) (National Center for Mathematics and Science,
2002) and Construction, Analysis and Validation - Hestenes‘ modelling pedagogy (Hestenes,
1996) and the Interconnected Model of Teacher Professional Growth (IMTPG) (Justi and Van
Driel, 2006), Models of Modelling (Justi and Gilbert, 2002). Pedagogical approaches that
focus on other processes such as inquiry (Hackling, 2005) or a representational approach with
defined pedagogical principles as developed by Hubber, Tytler and Haslam (2010).
The pedagogical principles provide detail to support teacher‘s trialling new pedagogical
practices. The research literature focuses on the teachers and pre-service teachers as the
instruments of change. The pedagogical ideas in these approaches are consistent with a
Teaching with Models approach (Hubber, 2009). Six pedagogical aspects are explored as
being important for Teaching with Models: Teachers as Learners, Identifying the Scientific
Concepts; Target and Then Model, Target and Then Model Again; Setting a Task, Problem or
Challenge to Solve; Iterations and Negotiation of Assessment of Models; Characteristics of a
Model
1) Teachers As Learners
The teachers must experience the learning using models and therefore need to trial using
or creating a model and generating typical responses, as a student. They need to become a
learner who is using a model to respond to a challenge in order to appreciate its value. This
may mean isolating yourself from your existing knowledge base and relying on the model to
make inferences and new observations to generate a response.
Risk Taking
There is an unknown aspect to the lesson when embarking on a pedagogy that includes
open ended tasks that encourage students to construct models or generate responses.
Commonly there is no one single correct response. Passing responsibility of learning to
the learner – valuing their model or their interpretation or use of it is a necessary transition by
the teacher for model focussed pedagogy to be successful.
Start with Where the Student Is At

Consistent with a constructivist approach, current student learning will build on their
existing understanding, so it is vital for teachers to determine where the child is at and
provide appropriate learning opportunities. Models can be adapted or used at all stages of a
lesson or teaching sequence. Models can be used to probe students‘ understanding, and to
identify their alternative conceptions from feedback about their understanding of the model
and the scientific concept being modelled.
2) Identifying the Scientific Concepts
The scientific concept(s) needs to be written in everyday language, with elaborations.

Hubber describes a concept in terms of the representations that are used to portray it, ―A
scientific concept is not simply an idea embedded in curricular documents and textbooks but
consists of a set of interlinked representations and practices‖ (Hubber, 2010, pp. module 1,
slide 10). Deconstructing large ideas into smaller ones is a useful task. The excerpts here see
Table 5 are taken from the Science Continuum for the topic Living Things Don’t Exist in
Isolation. The critical teaching ideas listed on the Science Continuum describe the concepts
that are embedded in this topic: The starting point should always be the concepts and then
develop model based tasks that will help the learner to develop a deeper and broader
understanding.
Table 5. Concepts linked to model based activities
Concepts Model - based activities

Making a model of a food web to show
―The behaviour of organisms and their interaction with other changes over time.
organisms assists their survival. Predicting the impact of an introduced
predator, disease etc.
Organisms have a variety of body parts and structures that assist their Making models of body parts to show
survival by making or finding food, finding shelter and reproducing. adaptive features.
Organisms of the same type interact with one another and with other
organisms in various ways. Some examples are parent/child and Virtual simulations of populations and
feeding relationships, the dependence of many plants on animals for the impact of changes. For example
carrying their pollen to other plants or for dispersing their seeds and Simulations, - virtual (e.g.
the dependence of animals on plants for food‖ http://PhET.colorado.edu/en/simulation/
(Accessed3/3/11http://www.education.vic.gov.au/studentlearning/tea natural-selection)
chingresources/science/scicontinuum/l3isolation.htm)
3) Target and Then Model; Then, Target and Then Model Again
Modelling begins with identifying the target. Where possible, when modelling, start with
the real thing, noticing its characteristics, patterns, behaviour etc and then design, describe or
evaluate a model in terms of the target. This may seem obvious, but remember that models
are commonly considered to be the real thing - rather than a representation.
Valuing the observations as scientific data and critically evaluating the model as a means
of explaining the data embeds the use of the model in a scientific framework. In electricity for
example, it is the light bulb that glows (reality) and the value of the model is in being able to
explain or account for this observation in a scientifically sound way.
The particulate nature of matter has become accepted as fact and is often the starting
point of many introductory lessons on the states of matter, rather than this model of matter
being proposed as a tool to help explain the macroscopic features of solids, liquids and gases.
Because the particle nature of matter is accepted universally, its role as a representation
of the real thing and its purpose as an explanatory tool are not always emphasised. It is
accepted as a fact rather than a theory - which is represented by various models. Yet it is this
role and purpose that provides a way of modelling the process of the development of
scientific ideas. When students are taught with a model-based approach they are encouraged
to generate their own models and representations, interpret ready made models, and answer
the questions:
● Which observed characteristics of the phenomena does the model explain, and which
doesn‘t it explain?
● Can you use the model to make predictions about changes in the observed
characteristics of the phenomena?
When the target is unfamiliar or unknown the model can assume the role of the target and
the real target becoming categorised as suspicious, or in denial as described by Al-Balushi
(2011).
Multiple models can provide a variety of perspectives and appearances and students
recognise that multiple models can be useful in explaining ideas in different ways
(Chittleborough, et al., 2005).
Experiences with multiple models should enhance the constructing of personal mental
models where the learner draws on attributes from multiple models. Using multiple models
can reinforce their role of the model and highlight the variety of characteristics. In electricity
for example, a role-play, a virtual simulation, a circuit diagram, can be mapped to the students
experience with setting up a real circuit.
4) Characteristics of a Model
The strengths and limitations of a model in relation to the real thing needs to be discussed
and assessed –thereby focuses on the mapping. Criteria can be useful to guide an evaluation
of a model. The acronym MAP describes some criteria of models: the Mode of representation
(M), the Accuracy of the model (A), the Purpose of the model (P) (Chittleborough and
Treagust, 2009), see Figure 2.
5) Setting a Task, Problem or Challenge to Solve
The setting of a challenge or problem provides incentive and motivation for learning.
Even when models are used for descriptive purposes, mapping between the target and model
is required. Setting challenges so that they are appropriate for the student and for the student‘s
conceptual development takes professional consideration.
The tasks need to be positioned in the zone of proximal development (ZPD) for the
learner, as described by Vygotsky (Crawford and Cullin, 2004; Tytler and Hubber, 2010).
Ideally, a challenge or problem should be open ended with no single correct solution. It
should require higher order thinking.
For example making a model to compare the phases of the moon in northern hemisphere
and southern hemisphere takes students away from a textbook answer. The textbook would
however, provide useful starting information.
The development of modelling and science skills is gradual with tasks designed with
developing autonomy. Similar to the guided inquiry approach described by Hackling (2005),
the teacher can provide support as necessary to scaffold the development of modelling skills.
Table 4 presents an increasing degree of thinking and reasoning required as the role of
the model changes from descriptive to explanatory and onto predictive and testing.
6) Iterations and Negotiation of Assessment of Models
Modelling is an active process requiring mapping and comparison in an iterative

approach, that can be done individually or in groups. Feedback from the model and
negotiation of understanding among peers should assist the evaluation of models (Justi and
Van Driel, 2005). The model in itself is not evaluated, rather its effectiveness at representing
the target. The target/ model focus directs the pedagogical approach to cover all three aspects
of the model- the subject matter, the process of science and the nature of science.
PEDAGOGICAL CONTENT KNOWLEDGE OF MODELS

AND MODELLING IN SCIENCE
Models and modelling is a good pedagogical focus for teaching science because it
addresses all aspects of science learning - the knowledge, the nature of science and the
process of science, and challenges the criticism of science teaching being recipe driven or fact
orientated or simplified to activity sciences, and hands-on science. Models and modelling
promotes active learning that has a student centred approach with collaborative hands-on
activities. In addition, models and modelling can promote metacognition by the student
reflecting on the role and purpose of the model in their own learning and mental model
development about the concept. (Chittleborough, et al., 2005).
The pedagogical power of model-based approach is in its authenticity reflecting a
scientific way of working. Pivotal is how the teacher scaffolds the mostly student-centred
learning.
All the research indicates that the model does not do the teaching and learning, rather it is
how the model is used that can make if an effective tool for teaching and learning.
These uses of models to describe, explain, make predictions and test ideas about the
scientific concepts, relate the use of models to the way scientists work, and reflects on the
nature of science and the development of scientific ideas.
A study that used a model-based teaching approach with Year 11 chemistry students in a
Western Australian chemistry class resulted in the students‘ verbal and manipulative skills
positively impacting on their understandings of the chemical concepts (Treagust,
Chittleborough and Mamiala, 2003). Initially these students‘ abilities to talk about the models
and the scientific concepts meaningfully were lacking and their vocabulary was limited,
however, this improved over the period of the study. Providing students with time to work
collaboratively with the models was an important part of learning how to use the model and
to appreciate their role. But probably even more important was the challenge that the teacher
gave students - problem solving tasks that were not immediately easy to solve - that
challenged the students, increased the competition and forced the students use the models to
help them think and work out a solution. Forcing students to make a prediction or test an idea
requires them to use the model to make a judgment.
Constraints to adopting a model based approach include – the extra time needed for
negotiation and discussion, the willingness to take risks with an unfamiliar pedagogical
approach in the classroom, and giving students more responsibility for their own learning
often with an unknown outcome. These constraints are balanced against the demands of
curriculum and assessment (Coll, France, and Taylor, 2005).
DIGITAL TEACHING MODELS

New technology brings new types of models. The explosion in information computer
technologies has meant that the quality, accuracy, detail and capabilities of visual
representations including animations and simulations are constantly improving to higher
standards, along with lower costs and increased availability. The use of visual representations
in science education is commonplace and expected, especially among learners who have
grown up in a visual-learning domain. With new technologies the availability and variety of
models has increased dramatically.
Gilbert (2005) has concluded that ―there is a steadily growing body of research that
suggests that student achievement in science is generally supported by direct access to multi-
media forms of representation‖ (p. 14). Models can provide opportunities for authentic, active
student-centred learning (Roth, 1995), such as thinking, interpretation, deductions and deeper
understanding. Teachers can take advantage of the models and scaffold these learning
opportunities.
Despite the new types of models the pedagogical issues remain the same- the model does
not do the teaching and learning, rather it is how the model is used that can make it an
effective tool for teaching and learning. The increase in the availability of the excellent visual
representations may be the trigger that makes us examine more closely how models are used
effectively in teaching and learning.
CONCLUSION
Teaching with models can promote science by having teachers and students use models
not only to explain scientific ideas but also during inquiry activities, at the same time
modelling typical scientific behaviour. The authenticity of a model based approach to
teaching science motivates teachers and students and creates learning opportunities.
Immersing teachers in model based learning to raise awareness of the excitement, the risks,
the cooperative work and the fun that is part of doing science.
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Chapter 11
DOT DRAWING IN SCIENCE EDUCATION:

MAKING LEARNING VISIBLE
Claudia James
ABSTRACT
Children love doing science experiments, but what sort of meaning do they gain
from them? What do they imagine is happening in the invisible world of science? Young
children may not have the verbal or written skills to express their understandings clearly.
Nor may they have the capacity to fully grasp the meanings of scientific words. They
may have no simple way of making the invisible visible. Perhaps this problem can be
overcome by studying the lessons of art.
This chapter outlines a number of ways in which an artistic approach, in the form of
dot drawing, can be used to teach children how to think about and participate in science
theory. It demonstrates the ways in which dot drawing can provide children with an
intellectual tool to explore the invisible goings-on in the world of science. It is argued
here that the use of the dot in drawing may become a meaningful and easily understood
language that can improve classroom conversation and student understandings.
INTRODUCTION
It is difficult for children to focus both their interest and attention on things they cannot
see, particularly while doing a science experiment or while being asked to explain a scientific
phenomenon. Young children are not in the habit of attending to things once they become
invisible (James 2005, 2011). There is often little awareness of the immediate connection
between the invisible world of science theory and its visible expression. This is an issue. A
large part of scientific knowledge and understanding encompasses worlds beyond human
sensory experience, both the very large and the very small. Knowledge and understanding of
such worlds is dependent on an active, well-informed imagination. There are many special
204 Claudia James
words to assist the scientific imagination. However, their meanings are not always clear to
those who use them.
A child needs access to an immediately understood material language to make visible,
and hence communicable, the richness of scientific thought and imagination. To fully
appreciate the ideas and meanings of science one must comprehend the meanings of its
abstract word usage. This chapter discusses the ways in which the doing of dot drawings as
part of science education can provide children with an easily understood material language.
The dot, as an imaginary tool, can help both student and teacher to ―see‖ the invisible by
allowing it to be expressed in a visible format.
The dot may be viewed, by those who do not use it, as just a clump of meaningless
pigment. It is, however, the basic icon of science and the simplest mark-making technique of
art, particularly the art of drawing. It is also the smallest unit the human eye can detect. All
extremely small objects, just discernable to the eye, whatever their shape, appear as dots. All
faraway objects, of all shapes and sizes prior to their moment of disappearance at the horizon,
appear as dots. Any material object smaller than a dot occupies the realm of the invisible.
The idea of the dot reduces all objects to the same abstract, material presence. Only when
an object is magnified, or brought closer to the eye, does it begin to reveal its once hidden
detail and individual characteristics. Like a fingertip, the dot points to an object‘s position in a
landscape. Historically, the mapmaker has always made good use of this knowledge. The dot
is the smallest representation of presence. In the image schemata of Lakoff and Johnson
(1999) the dot represents presence as opposed to absence. Like the primordial noun of Harré
(2002), the dot can be substituted to represent anything.
THE MATERIAL DIMENSION

Science education, practice and research seems to often overlook the importance of the
material dimension of a child‘s daily here and now. It appears to seek precision in the
language of ―ideas‖, things that have been abstracted from another time and place. Ideas are
powerful human artefacts. They are the symbolic organisers of the material reality of human
cultural history. Their practical application and appreciation requires imaginative activity.
Without attending to the primary materiality of the here and now, scientific ideas lack early
embodied reference or experience.
Both art and science focus on the material dimension. The material dimension refers to
the stuff of which the world is made, and its position in space and time. We perceive it by
consciously attending to the immediate sensory qualities of the world. Dewey (1934) and
Burkitt (2000,1998) argue that material knowledge is something our bodies naturally
comprehend. We are genetically programmed to attend and respond to it. It is the material
dimension that connects us to our here and now, to our place in time and space. Such
knowledge is there, before the use of words. Through the use of the immediately understood
―material‖ language of dot drawing, children can be invited to actively participate in the
world of scientific ideas and thought.
The psychologist, J. J. Gibson, was interested in the way in which we perceive the
material world. According to Gibson (1979, pp.240-242), in perception, we only attend to
place (landscape), objects (dots), substances / the stuff of which objects and places are made
Dot Drawing in Science Education: Making Learning Visible 205
(the dot at the next level of magnification or dot quality) and events (any change in place,
object or substance). For Gibson, to see these things is to perceive what they afford. If the
objects of science afford dot drawing, then the invisible world of science would be
immediately made visible to the imagination, thus gaining entry into the world of sensory
experience and understanding.
Drawing, like thought, is both rational and creative (Holder, 1995). When we draw dots
we purposefully place marks logically to test in imaginary space-time what we believe to be
true. As we draw we also take risks, experiment and play. Unanticipated chance occurrences
happen that we learn to develop and exploit. New logical forms and sequences emerge which
can be used in consciousness.
Dot drawing enables us to think about the signs stored in the material dimension and their
meaning, by forcing us to attend to the material appearance of the world as the product of the
self as creator, the re-constructor of end products from their constituent materials. Such re-
creation is a type of hypothesis making. This is important for science education.
According to Peirce (1931) we perceive the world in terms of hypotheses. Such
hypotheses take the form of imaginary action in the world that leads to its perceived
appearance. As perception of appearance becomes more fine-tuned, so does hypothesis
making. Once a hypothesis is made we can re-look at the material in terms of our hypothesis;
in doing so it reveals more information, leads to a new object for consciousness that can be
used to refine the hypothesis. This structure of the dynamic, forever shifting object, is present
in both Dewey‘s notion of experience and Merleau-Ponty‘s intentional arc / feedback loop
where the interactive body is forever acting on itself, continuously refining its perceptions of
the world (Dewey, 1934; Merleau-Ponty, 1962).
The dot drawings of others can be used to direct our own experience, to make us aware of
other ways of thinking or ―seeing‖ and other objects of thought. They save us time. They
mediate knowing by directing attention. They enable us to focus and frame our attention, to
select from the immense continuity of the noisy world.
Drawing is thought (Arnheim, 1969). In thought, the objects of thought immediately take
on the qualities of material entities in the imagination. They are moved in space according to
the spatial knowledge of the body learnt through actions in the world. It is through such
simple imaginative action that the art of dot drawing enables us to open up a more interesting
world through active, meaningful and imaginative thought. ―Without imagination people are
slaves of the actual‖ (Garrison, 1997, p.77). Mathewson (2005,1999) claims that visual-
spatial thinking is an aspect of science that is seriously overlooked by educators.
THE DOT IN ART

By studying how the dot has been used in art we can learn how to use it to represent the
objects of science. In material terms it is just a simple mark. Yet, it can take on many
meanings. It is only a matter of knowing how to direct the viewer‘s attention by situating the
dot in an appropriate context. The artist is aware of this and purposely applies such
knowledge. We can all draw a dot. It takes no special artistic skill. The skill lies in where to
place it.
206 Claudia James
Since the beginning of recorded history artists from all cultures have made good use of
the dot to represent material stuff in space. The dot is the first point of contact between mark
maker and picture plane. It is the simplest drawing element. Artists have used it to represent
small nearby objects as well as large distant objects. They have drawn or painted with dots
using various media. They have created dots out of emptiness by removing dots of pigment
from coloured surfaces. They have carved dots into wood, clay and linoleum. They have
glued, sewn or nailed dot-like objects onto surfaces. They have created new surfaces from
dots by piecing together stained glass and textiles.
There are certain artists and periods in art history that have made extensive use of the dot.
Their dot-dominated works are of particular interest with regard to the teaching of science.
They demonstrate how scientific ideas and thought can be expressed visually in a way that
can easily be transformed for classroom use. They provide the student with a way of seeing
and thinking that enhances scientific understanding while providing both student and teacher
with a mode of communication.
Mosaics were the first dot-dominated images of Western Art. They had been used in
Greek and Roman times to tile floors. They reached their zenith during the Byzantine era (5 th
to 13th century AD). Representations of objects / things were created from bits of stuff for the
purpose of instruction and decoration. Various shapes or forms, usually depicting Christian
religious themes, were reconstructed bit-by-bit, using dot-like pieces of stone, glass or
marble. There was no attempt to depict three-dimensional space. There was no perspective.
The images were not drawn from life. The dot-like pieces were used to break up space into
separate bits that came together to form distinct and easily readable images.
It was not until the Renaissance (1420 – 1520) that the world was represented in
perspective, as seen through a window. It was noted that with distance, objects appeared to
decrease in size. When traced on a window distant objects were no larger than a dot. Artists
used this mathematical and perceptual knowledge to depict large objects in the distance. For
example, a daub of pigment placed on a painted hill took on the meaning of ―tree‖. The
Renaissance painter, Piero della Francesca (1415 -1492), in his painting ―the Duke and
Duchess of Urbino‖‘ illustrates this and other uses of the dot.
Figure 1. A sketch in the style of a Byzantine mosaic.

Many Australian landscape painters have made use of the dot to represent single entities.
Australian aboriginal painting, renown for its use of dots, could also have entered the
discussion at this point. However, because of my unfamiliarity with its meaning, I thought it
best to omit it. Much of the Australian landscape is wide, open and empty. There is the
opportunity to view many objects in the landscape from a distance, hence readily revealing
their dot-like character. For example, Fred Williams (1927-1982) used dots to depict trees and
people in the landscape.
Another Australian landscape painter, John Olson (b.1928), draws his landscapes from
above. From this viewpoint, trees and shrubs all look like dots. Zooming down on Google
earth, or flying by plane, reminds us of the dot-like nature of objects from a distance. Many
landscape painters, whatever their nationality, use dots to represent the leaves on trees. A
good example is the ―The Letter‖ (1884) by Fred McCubbin.
The French Pointillists (circa 1880 – 1900), used the lessons of science to do art, to
carefully place tiny brush strokes of pure colour close together, so that when viewed from a
distance the colours blended together to form other colours. Their dots of pigment were used
to construct images in a similar way to the mosaics of the Byzantine artists. The big
difference being the size of dots and the way in which the light reflected from the dots
interacted.
Figure 2. A sketch in the style of a Renaissance portrait. The dot represents both small objects and
distant large objects.
Figure 3. Thumbnail sketches in the style of the Australian landscape painters.

208 Claudia James
Figure 4. Impressionist dots.
Figure 5. Sketch in the style of Joan Miró.
―A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte‖ (1884) by George Seurat is the
most famous example of this type of painting. Another of his paintings, ―Le Bec du
Hoc‖(1885) is a simple composition of water, air and rock. By representing such everyday
substances using this technique he transformed them into something quite beautiful.
Joan Miró (1893-1983) was a Spanish painter who used the dot extensively in his work.
He spoke about the ability to draw being linked with the sense of touch. Drawing for Miró
was a spatial activity. In Miró‘s early work the dot was used to represent texture and dot-like
objects. As his work matured and became more abstract, the dot took a more prominent role
and dominated many of his later paintings. He spoke of it having ―the magnetic appeal of the
void‖.
Unlike the previous works, the art of Abstract Expressionism is non representational. The
dot was used to depict feeling. Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) who equated painting with
music, claimed the dot to have a particular sound. The dots in many Abstract Expressionist
works appear to be animated, to have a life of their own independent of landscape. Good
examples of this are the drip paintings of the American Abstract Expressionist, Jackson
Pollock (1912-1956). As he flung the paint onto his canvases the drips terminated in dots,
suggesting animated dots with their movement lines, a technique often exploited by
cartoonists. Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997) used the comic book form to do his famous Pop
Art paintings using the Ben Day dot of printing. The flat colours of comic books and
newspapers, when placed under a microscope, reveal hundreds of tiny dots smaller than those
in a Pointillist painting. To direct the viewer‘s attention, and to maintain their comic book
character, Lichtenstein‘s paintings usually incorporated text.
Figure 6. A sketch in the style of the Abstract Expressionists.
Figure 7. A sketch in the style of Roy Lichtenstein.
The use of the dot in art may provide children with drawing techniques that allow them to
express meaning in terms of a material language that has more in common with scientific
knowledge than the mere use of words. It may also provide them with an imaginative tool for
exploration and play. The use of the dot in art may also allow the teacher to tap into the ways
in which children perceive the visible world in terms of the invisible.
THE DOT IN SCIENCE

The dot is a very powerful visualization tool used in the construction of scientific ideas
and theories. The dot‘s most important use is as a tool for visualizing the particle model. This
model began with the Greek Atomists (5th Century BC) and has become fine-tuned with time.
The particle model forms the foundation of all of the sciences.
The dot is used extensively in science textbooks and magazines to help the reader
visualize the ideas that are being expressed in words. It is often used to trace the journey or
story of a certain particle through a specific scientific landscape. The dot is used to explain
the visible world in terms of the invisible; to explain what we know in terms of what we will
never have access to, except via the imagination.
Isaac Newton (1642 – 1726), the father of classical mechanics, used the ―dot‖ to explain
the workings of the physical universe (Gleick, 2003). He imagined the particles of matter to
be made up of small hard billiard ball like particles continuously bumping and crashing into
one another. He believed that the substances of matter were the same everywhere and their
210 Claudia James
changes of form were due to the many varied operations of nature. Newton also put forward a
corpuscular theory of light in which he believed light to be the flow of distinct material dot-
like particles that travel in straight lines. As well as doing thought experiments, Newton was
also an experimenter, craftsman and drawer of diagrams. Apples, celestial bodies, pendulum
bobs, cannon balls, globes filled with air and mercury, balls made of steel, glass, cork and
even wool were part of his experimental arsenal. All are dot-like in shape and helped to fire
his creative imagination. He believed in universal laws of motion that govern the movement
of everything, including his dots. Newton‘s now famous laws are the result of his ―dot‖
experiments, both imaginary and practical. His laws still stand and are used to account for the
behaviour in everyday life of all material objects.
In astronomy dots are used to illustrate maps of the night sky. All the heavenly bodies are
dot-like in appearance. Dots are used to trace the journey of the planets against the fixed
background of stars. Our models of planetary motion are illustrated using dots of various
sizes to represent the sun and its family of planets.
In biology, the mechanisms of cellular chemistry can be clearly explained using dot
diagrams. Dot thinking helps us to understand the nature of digestion and why we must chew
our food and digest it before the body can assimilate it. The cell is dot-like. Under the
microscope many of its internal structures appear to be dots. Reproductive cells are always
illustrated as dots. Those visible to us, for example pollen and eggs, are very dot-like in
appearance. Many of the animals that inhabit waterways are very dot-like, until placed under
the microscope.
In geology, drawings of rocks include the dot-like appearance of their composite
minerals. In crystallography the locations of atoms are indicated by dots.
Dot imagination continues to dominate atomic theory. Modern atomic theory states that
the sub-atomic dots are made of still smaller dots. This is the realm of particle physics and is
well outside the domain of chemistry. This ―particle zoo‖ consists of quarks, photons,
neutrinos, muons, gravitons, plus many other exotic particles; all of which can be represented
by dots.
It is important to remember that scientific models, illustrations and diagrams are
developed to help express scientific ideas, to illuminate certain aspects of reality and to assist
with scientific thinking. They have their limitations. Like an artwork, they can only mimic
certain aspects of reality. If interpreted literally, they cannot function as intended. Anyone
who draws understands this only too well. The inclusion of one truth often means the sacrifice
of another. For instance, models of the solar system and atomic structure can never be drawn
to scale on the same sheet of paper. The telling of most scientific stories in terms of drawing
or illustration involves the use of multiple scales operating at once. We find it difficult to
imagine matter and space at the same scale at the same time, and find it impossible to draw.
We often use one scale for landscape, and another for the objects we are attending to within
it.
When we visualize or draw objects as dots we only represent the things relevant to the
problem at hand. We cannot tell all truths in a single drawing. When we visualize things we
cannot visualize all truths at once. J. J. Gibson, demonstrated that this is also true for the way
we see the world before us. We select from it, rescale and reshape it to suit our immediate
purposes. For instance, when we visualize the behaviour of light there are times when we
must imagine light to be made of particles and at other times, as waves. The particles of
chemistry are said to have fuzzy edges, they have a particular shape, they don‘t have colour,
they are 3D entities that move in 3D space, they are constantly moving, they may have a
certain electric charge. We cannot include all of this information in the same drawing. We
cannot think of everything at once. There is no need to. We only have a need to attend to what
matters and suits our purposes. Throughout the history of science, many creative scientists
have used drawing as their thinking tool. Some examples are: Leonardo da Vinci (Richter,
1989); Galileo (Sobel, 1999); Issaac Newton (Gleick, 2004); John Dalton, Charles Lyell,
Humphrey Davy, Michael Faraday (Johnson, 2000); Richard Feynman (Gleick, 1992). These
are the people who have reveled in the ideas of science and are spurned on by their rich
imaginative lives. Their imaginations, like those of artists, have enriched the way many of us
now perceive the appearance of the world we live in.
Scientific theories are like the paintings hanging in our art galleries. They can never be
substituted for the real world. They can only provide us with a way of picturing it, a way of
seeing. They can act as sources of inspiration and can uplift the spirit. They are
documentations of the history of human thought, forever changing with the times. They can
teach us how to appreciate the world we inhabit and to enjoy the ordinariness of everyday
living. The art of drawing allows children to step into the world of science and inhabit it. By
using dots to draw, the basic icon of science may become embedded with meaning. It may
become a tool for understanding the world of appearances and change.
The children‘s dot drawings that follow show some of the ways children have used the
dot in science. They have been taken from a study I did in a large primary school close to the
metropolitan fringe, north of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Three elementary grade 5/6
classes and four elementary grade 3/4 classes used the dot to draw and to do science theory
(James, 2005, 2011).
Introducing Children to the Dot
In the style of the Renaissance painters, we can explore dot meaning with children by
using a da Vinci window to draw an object from different distances. The da Vinci window is
a tool that enables children to successfully draw realistic perspective drawings without prior
drawing experience (Reith, 1997). The da Vinci window used here was a clear sheet of 3mm
Perspex. The children traced around the object, as viewed through the window, using a felt
pen. For a permanent record, they printed their tracings directly onto blank sheets of paper.
By doing so, a child can actively experience increased abstraction with distance.
Knowing that things change in visual appearance every time we look at them from a
different distance, or angle, is perceptual knowledge. This is rarely brought to consciousness
except in drawing. Our bodies know this every waking moment. We rarely notice in
consciousness that things get smaller and less detailed with distance. Yet a drawing depicting
a smaller object in a landscape, we immediately read as more distant. We ―see‖ object detail
that does not exist. Seeing is more than the passive entrance of light into the eye. It is also
habit, based on prior knowledge and experience (Merleau-Ponty, 1962; Gibson, 1979;
Dewey, 1934). A dot takes on meaning and imaginary detail according to its location within a
particular landscape or context.
The children, as a result of this initial dot drawing experience, were now equipped to
consciously and purposefully use the dot to draw the invisible goings-on in the world of
science.
212 Claudia James
Figure 8. Printing of a eucalyptus leaf taken from a da Vinci window, drawn at different distances by a
grade 5 student. Note the dot-like print in the top right hand corner.
USING DOTS TO DRAW

Much of science is about that which we cannot see. We must learn to attend to its signs.
To look for them. To know how and where to look. Pre-drawn landscapes, designed to depict
various scientific scenarios, can direct a child‘s attention towards the materiality of the
invisible world in a particular way. In this particular study I designed a series of empty
landscapes that directed student attention to certain aspects of their everyday lives that
incorporated the objects and ideas of science. In the style of the Australian landscape painters,
the French Pointillist‘s and Joan Miró, children can add dots to pre-drawn landscapes to
represent the objects and ideas of science. The landscapes, along with their attached text,
provide a context for dot meaning. Children add dots, one-by-one, to the empty landscapes
until they consider their drawings to be complete. The placement of one dot informs the
placement of the next. A dot drawing is progressively built up in small increments, allowing
self-corrections to be made without erasure. Feedback is immediate.
The most important thing about dot drawings is that all children, whatever their ability
level, can do them. There is no single ―right‖ way to do a dot drawing. Their purpose is to act
as a touchstone for conversation and to provide children with a way of engaging with the
objects of science in a meaningful way. All children can play with the dot to do science. Like
Girod and Wong (2002), the focus was on a single big idea: A dot can be used to draw
anything. The drawings here are a small selection from my study depicting a limited number
of scenarios. They have been chosen to give a broad overview of the various ways the
children used, and spoke about, the dot. The drawings demonstrate meanings attached to dot
quality (size, colour and gesture), dot arrangement and dot position within the landscape.
Colour and Gesture
Both dot colour and gesture were used to express differences between the qualities of
water and dirt in a dot drawing of a glass of dirty water. The use of conventional colour was
popular to distinguish between substances. Here, in figure 9, the conventional colour blue was
used for water and brown for dirt. The differences between dirt and water can also be
distinguished by the children‘s use of dot gesture. Gesture is the result of the way the hand
moves while drawing a dot. A slow, carefully drawn dot is much different in appearance from
a quick, carelessly drawn one. Gesture is an expression of feeling. ―In gesture drawing you
feel the movement of the whole form in your whole body … To be able to see the gesture,
you must be able to feel it in your own body‖ (Nicolaïdes, 1988, p.p.15-16). Often in the
children‘s drawings substances like air, water and perfume were drawn with a horizontal
―floating‖ gesture, as is clearly seen here with the floating dirt dots in the first picture and the
blue water dots in the second.
Studying a dirty glass of water may appear to be a very ordinary and boring activity, until
viewed carefully and subsequently drawn. The Pop artist, Andy Warhol, has demonstrated
through his art, that ordinary everyday objects are worthy of our attention, and can be quite
beautiful, even a can of Campbell‘s tomato soup.
Imagining Invisible, Dangerous Things
Part of science education is making children aware of the dangers lurking in the invisible
world of microbes. Unlike water and dirt, germs are invisible. Drawing invisible objects gives
children a lot of freedom with regard to dot placement and expression.
Colour was frequently used to express the nastiness of germs. Black, brown, insipid
greens and yellows were popular germy colours. The children also used very expressive ways
to demonstrate how germs are transmitted. Here we have an example of germs exiting the
mouth like vomit, the other via a forceful blast.
Attending to Detail and a Cautionary Tale

Drawing has been shown to improve and motivate scientific observation (Gainer and
Child, 1986; Hayes, Symington and Martin, 1994). Van Sommers (1984) found that
children‘s drawings are significantly influenced by drawing directly from a model or life.
When drawing directly from an object, children are very observant with regard to detail. This
was evident in many of the children‘s drawings.
Figure 9. The representation of dirt and water in a glass of dirty water. Note the floating gestures of the
sinking dirt dots in the first drawing and the blue water dots in the second. Also note the gesture in the
second drawing of the dirt dots that appear to be sliding down the edge of the glass.
214 Claudia James
Figure 10. Two very different ways of imagining the invisible world of germs. Both are very expressive
of student feeling with regard to the transmission of germs.
In figure 11 both children have drawn the curved edge of water due to surface tension.
While drawing, they had a melting ice cube in a large plastic container that they could interact
with and observe. The curved edge was not pointed out to them; they noticed it and it
informed their drawing.
When a child draws ice and water using different coloured dots, it could be assumed by
the teacher they mean that water and ice are made of a different sort of dot. Through
conversation with the drawer of the second drawing in figure 4, it was revealed that the
difference in colour was used for the purpose of making visible the water and ice interface.
The child observed that the sides of a melting ice cube are covered with a thin layer of water
en route to the base of the container. Such a drawing is an excellent way of opening up the
classroom conversation. Are water and ice dots different? What makes ice and water look
different? How exactly does a cube of ice melt when sitting in a dish? Does it melt the same
amount from all sides, or only from its vertical sides? How does its shape change over time?
What exactly is happening in the invisible world of melting ice?
Appearance, Knowledge and Spatial Activity
The children reconstructed weak and strong cordial by drawing differences in dot quality
or differences in dot number. The strong cordial was represented by darker dots, larger dots or
a greater number of dots. All the children‘s cordial reconstructions had more pigment placed
on the page for the strong cordial.
Those who focussed on dot quality did not think beyond the surface of visible
appearance. They reconstructed their cordial like a Byzantine mosaic or as a piece of tapestry.
Children who attended to dot number did drawings showing a scientific understanding of the
meaning of concentration.
Figure 11. Ice melting in a dish demonstrating different uses of colour. Note the curved edge of the
water.
Figure 12. Reconstructing the difference between weak and strong cordial.
They could ―see‖ that there had to be more dots in the strong cordial. Some spoke of the
imaginative activity of making cordial, ―to make it stronger you have to pour in more dots‖.
In one class, after noticing how many children drew their cordial by focusing on dot quality
instead of number, I demonstrated making a glass of cordial stronger. A student suddenly
gasped. ―I did mine all wrong. I did darker dots. I should have drawn more.‖ She suddenly
attended to the reconstruction of the darker cordial colour differently, in a way that linked
‗doing‘ with perceived appearance.
Some students drew cordial as a mixture of different coloured dots. They knew that
cordial was made of sugar, food colouring etc. They knew, from the French Pointillists that
different dots, of separate colours, can blend to form one continuous area of colour. Some
attended to the presence of water as well, by including blue water dots, with fewer dots in the
stronger cordial. If the cordial was allowed to sit for a while, its components tended to
separate out into layers. Some students noticed this and represented it in their drawings. The
advantage of doing drawing in science is that it provides opportunity for all levels of thought
216 Claudia James
and knowledge to be expressed. There are different ways of thinking about the same thing
that are equally legitimate and can easily be expressed in a drawing.
One student, whose cordial drawing in coloured pencil showed much darker dots for the
stronger cordial, told me, while energetically moving his hand up and down, that he drew
―very strong dots‖. I noticed indentations on some of the students‘ drawings of strong cordial
indicative of a heavy handed (strong?) gesture. Did the word ―strong‖ halt thought by cutting
it short before it had time to develop? What does the word ―strong‖ really mean for young
children?
The Importance of Mode of Attention
―Drawing air inside and outside a balloon is hard because you can‘t see air.‖ This was the
comment frequently made by the younger students. Many young children expressed an
interest in trying to capture the physical qualities of air by drawing very faint light dots.
Others knew that there was air inside a balloon but unaware of its presence outside. Their
drawings showed that there must be a hole in the balloon to account for this.
Most children attended to the air inside and outside the balloon before them, by telling
the story of how a balloon ―blows up‖ in the same way that some children spoke about
making cordial of different strengths. They blew imaginary air dots into their balloons. ―The
dots inside the balloon became compacted and that‘s why a balloon goes up‖. ―There is no
more room so the dots push out the balloon.‖ Their drawings showed a greater number of dots
inside the balloon than outside. Those who don‘t imagine the act of blowing up a balloon
think about it differently, drawing on different knowledge and experience. Some spread the
dots inside the balloon further apart as is the case when air inside a hot air balloon is heated.
Another, because of his experience with model aeroplanes spoke of air currents, claiming that
―the air bounced off the surface of the balloon, moving in circles inside‖. Some noticed that
the colour of the balloon changed around its edges. They believed this was ―where the air was
pushing on the balloon‖. They only drew air along the inside edge of the balloon. One student
believed this explanation to be true because he once filled a balloon with water and it ―was
just hanging around the sides‖. Others attended to differences in dot quality instead of
differences in dot position and number. Some drew larger dots inside the balloon, with each
dot taking on the quality of the whole balloon itself.
Many attended to the air in terms of differences in the chemical composition of air as a
result of blowing up a balloon. They knew that the air we breathe out is different from the air
we breathe in. They represented this by drawing dots of different colours for outside and
inside the balloon. Some extended this knowledge further by drawing air as a mixture, with
the different proportions of the various coloured dots inside and outside.
A couple of students spoke about the air breathed out into a balloon as being warmer. In
one case, this was represented by drawing red dots inside the balloon and blue ones outside.
In another, the student literally drew all the air at the top of the balloon (note its floating
gesture in figure 6) because ―hot air rises‖ This student misunderstood the meaning of this
snippet of information. Had he attended to the shape of the balloon, while drawing, he may
have realized he had misinterpreted the real meaning of this piece of acquired knowledge. Do
sound bites, like ―hot air rises‖ halt thought? Bring stories of explanation to a premature end?
How do we really know that children understand the meaning of such words?
Figure 13. Reconstruction of the invisible appearance of air.
Observation, Description and Imagination
Like air, perfume is also invisible. However, its presence is easily located via our sense of
smell. Figure 14 shows some of the ways students have reconstructed the way perfume moves
across a room. Their drawings hover between description and explanation. The gesture of
their dots is indicative of how the students imagined perfume to be moving across the room
and at what speed. What makes perfume move? Is it air pushing on it? Is it self-propelled?
What is happening in the invisible world to make it move so quickly, and to move
everywhere? How can this movement be best described? How can the smell be best
expressed? Where does the perfume actually go?
When using dots to draw invisible things, many children drew on their knowledge of
visible things with qualities they knew and understood. The known patterns that visible
smoke and steam make were used to describe the movement of invisible perfume across the
room. Others accounted for the spread of perfume via human action by drawing spray
patterns or explosive clouds. ―By shaking a can of soft drink and suddenly opening it, it
explodes everywhere. When the top was taken off the perfume bottle, perhaps something like
this happened?‖ Some drew on their memory of storybook illustrations and television
cartoons. Others thought the perfume had a life of its own and made a beeline directly to their
nose, traveling nowhere else in the room. Some represented the spread of perfume based on
their careful observations using their sense of smell, by drawing lots of dots concentrated
around the mouth of the perfume bottle becoming more spread out with distance. One student
drew her dots spreading out low across her drawing, as though trapped in a thermal layer of
air. There are many discussions that could arise from such a large variety of drawings.
218 Claudia James
Using Stories to Do Abstract Thinking
A good example of using drawing to do abstract thinking is the drawing of ―why one boat
sinks while the other boat floats‖. The children in this study found it very difficult, they had
never been asked to think about such things before. Despite this they enjoyed the challenge.
The children were given a whole page of challenge drawings to do, one of which was the boat
drawing. Once finished many immediately asked for a second challenge page. On numerous
occasions in this study it was showed that children enjoyed a challenge.
Like the work of Joan Miró each single picture frame told a story over time. When the
children spoke about their drawings they created an imaginary story around the boats. Some
were quite long and involved. They pretended their dots were many different things.
Pretending is a form of abstraction. If there is more material stuff in a boat, whether it is
people, cargo or seawater, it is more likely to sink.
To draw this, more dots were drawn in the sinking boat. All the various possibilities were
reduced to the same abstract, material dot.
Many other sorts of sinking boat stories were also told. Some children put more dots in
the floating boat; the dots represent air because ―there is no air in the sinking boat, that‘s why
it sank‖. Others drew dots to represent air bubbles rising to the surface of the water from the
sinking ship. One student put big foam dots in his boat that floated, because ―big dots like
balls are made of foam or air and are lighter than small dots, made of things like sand and
wheat‖. For many of the younger students the only way they could think of using dots to
explain the difference between sinking and floating was to draw a dot to represent a hole in
the sinking boat. One child thought in terms of playing with boats in a bathtub. He drew a
whale composed of dots on the ship to make it sink.
Figure 14. Reconstructing how perfume moves across a room. Note the many expressive ways of
representing the invisible.
Figure 15. There are many ways of thinking about why one ship floats and another sinks. It is all a
matter of making up a good story of explanation.
By reducing all these stories to dots a commonality may emerge. The abstract language
of density, of being heavy for its size. Dots convert words to their material spatial meanings.
These stories brought to life the meaning of buoyancy through the storytelling power of the
dot.
ANIMATING THE DOT

Children can be easily taught simple animation techniques. Already we have seen how
dot gesture results in a form of animation, giving the feeling of dot movement. The children
in this study were very receptive to learning animation techniques. They were taught various
ways to ―move‖ their dots on a flat sheet of paper. They learnt how to draw vibration lines
and movement lines of varying speed. By purposefully using these techniques their dots
immediately became alive. They took on a life of their own. They appeared real. While
drawing their animated dots the children were no longer observing particle theory through a
frame or a Renaissance window. Like the Abstract Expressionists, they were in their work
living the particle theory. Via their newly learnt animation techniques the children‘s dots
became Newton‘s ball of physics to be bounced around and played with, the sheet of paper
becoming their new-found playground.
CONSTRUCTING STORIES IN TIME

In comic book art a series of separate frames or images are arranged sequentially to tell a
story in time. McCloud (1994, p.139) claims that children need images, or the material object
itself, when exploring the meanings of words. Comic books are a form of ―show and tell‖, a
style of communication that children use in which images and words are used
interchangeably.
220 Claudia James
Figure 16. Simple dot animations.
Figure 17. Living the dot, creating a new-found playground.
The stories illustrated here contain a minimum of 3 frames, each representing the
beginning, middle and end of a particular story. The children told stories by selecting
sequential segments of time, and illustrated them by drawing their own landscapes and then
adding dots. The younger children told the story of a simple experiment, dissolving a sugar
cube in water. The older children told a pollution story, based on the topic they were studying
at the time with their classroom teachers.
The Issue of Scale
The story of the dissolving sugar cube revealed that all the students chose to represent the
changes that occurred at the visible human scale, rather than to represent them at the invisible
human scale. Their dots represented the visible grains of sugar. They reduced the size of their
dots to represent the appearance of the sugar as it dissolved. They tended to account for
change in terms of dot quality rather than changes in dot position or arrangement. They were
not in the habit of shifting their attention from one magnification level or scale to another in
order to explain or describe changes in visible appearance. They may have needed to be
inspired to do this by using the comic book technique of zooming-in to indicate an increase in
magnification or a close-up viewpoint.
As science teachers we often thoughtlessly move from scale to scale during our stories of
explanation. This could be quite confusing for students. An understanding of scale, and how
and when to attend to it, forms an important part of science education. As Gibson claims we
naturally attend to things at different magnification levels according to our needs and
purposes. For example, we attend to the food we eat more closely than the ground we walk on
(Gibson, 1979, p.233).
Making the Invisible Visible
In the pollution story dots were used to represent pollution. The journey of the pollution
dots was traced from landscape to landscape as illustrated in figure 19. This was an
opportunity for the children to apply the drawing techniques they had already learned. They
chose and drew their own landscapes and then added dots. Such drawing makes visible that
which we often choose to ignore, pollution. Invisible means we can‘t see it. It does not mean
it is not there.
Figure 18. Dissoving a sugar cube.
Figure 19. Pollution story.

222 Claudia James
DISCUSSION
Elements of perceptual knowledge emerged as part of the language of dot drawing. Dot
position matched perceived position of stuff in space. Denser things were drawn with dots
closer together than less dense things. More things, or more stuff, resulted in the drawing of
more dots. Dots of different appearance indicated differences in object type, quality or
behaviour. Bigger dots represented bigger things. Darker dots, heavier things, or things
containing more stuff (denser). Pale dots, light things. Floating things, like water, were drawn
with a different gesture from sinking things like particles of dirt. A sprayed perfume dot was
drawn differently from one that was exploding from its container (as when shaking a can of
soft drink before opening). Objects moving to the right were drawn differently from objects
moving to the left, and different from those moving up or down. Such knowledge is part of
everyday human experience. It is knowledge that every child can express, via their bodies,
through drawing.
The drawing of dots seemed closer to acting in the ―real‖ world of science theory for a
child than words. Anything that feels real, we believe. A visual language is more closely
connected to space than a verbal one. It allows children to ―feel‖ the reality of science theory.
As teachers, when we use only labels and catalogues of experience in our conversations, we
leave out the felt immediacy of experienced material reality. The children were aware that
through pictures they had greater access to the reality of others and perhaps, as a result, new
ways of seeing.
The drawings acted as touchstones for conversation. They made visible the children‘s
thinking and understandings. It allowed them to blend scientific theory with their experiences
outside the classroom. Drawing empowered them to work out things for themselves by
matching perceived sensory appearance (the material dimension) with their drawing. There
was immediate visual feedback as they added each dot.
In the words of Gibson, they ―reality tested‖ their perceptions and hypotheses. Any
dislocation between appearance and drawing could quickly be self-corrected, or resolution
sought via reflection or enquiry (Windsor, 2004). If the children failed to attend to appearance
they would be unable to self-correct. The drawing of ―hot air rises‖ is a good example of this.
It is through conversation that children establish the meanings of words like ―hot air
rises‖. Richard Feynman was concerned about the empty words and meaningless
conversations used in science education (Gleick, 1992, p.399). For him words like ―energy
makes it move‖, ―gravity makes it fall‖, ―friction makes it wear out‖ mean nothing to
children.
All understanding starts at the material level, words make sense afterwards and can direct
attention for future material interaction. ―The child‘s framework is purely situational, with the
word tied to something concrete, whereas the adults framework is conceptual‖ (Vygotsky,
1986, p.133). This does not mean that a child is not capable of abstract thought. It may only
mean children need a material language with which to do it. By adding dots to a boat to talk
about why one boat sinks while another floats has more meaning than the use of words like
buoyancy, density, pressure and upthrust. Even a simple phrase like ―light for its size‖ may
not make sense to very young children. Common words like ―strong‖, ―dense‖, ―heavy‖,
―more‖, ―evaporate‖, ―dissolve‖ and ―melt‖ often have different meanings in a scientific
context than in normal everyday use. ―Evaporation‖ for some may mean ―to disappear‖.
Using dots to draw opened up the conversation so that the meanings of these words could be
explored and made visible. The dot drawings, because they reduce all material entities to the
same abstract level, crushing, melting and dissolving may appear to be similar processes.
By using dot drawings the differences between these processes could be explored and
help in the process of refining the meanings of each of these words. Drawing sugar crushed,
molten and dissolved may be able to resolve these differences. The drawing of ―hot air rises‖
reveals that only the words are being attended to without an understanding of their real
meaning.
Children are not fully armed for language use in the scientific classroom. When Driver,
Squires, Rushworth, and Wood-Robinson (1994) probed 7-14 year old thinking about
buoyancy, few children mentioned the importance of weight / size ratio. Most were focused
on the stories of particular material entities like air, water, space, and shape. Rather than not
knowing the relationship between density and buoyancy, perhaps they were unpractised in
reducing experience to an abstract language. Young children have not acquired the language
to communicate scientific thinking, but this does not mean they cannot think abstractly or
express themselves abstractly.
CONCLUSION
The drawings and verbal dot conversations showed that the children in this study did not
need to abandon their sensory perceptions in order to understand scientific ―reality‖ as
suggested by Novick and Nussbaum (1998). There is often no conflict between sensory
perceptions and scientific knowledge. The difference more commonly lies with differences in
language use and mode of attention. A visual exploration of the possible meanings of words
helps to limit their meanings, for both child and teacher, by providing a context for meaning.
This is more easily communicated through drawing and word use, than word use alone. This
suggests that science education and research should look to equipping children‘s habits of
attention, before focusing them on the labeling of things. The dot draws on a material spatial
language that is more closely connected to the world as experienced, than words. Dot drawing
is a ―primitive‖ or primary tool that can precede word use at any age.
Through dot drawing children can learn new or more refined ways of attending to the
sensory appearances of the material dimension. They can be supported to learn to maintain
scientific attention by continuing the interaction between the self and the objects of science,
thus developing observational skills. They learn how to select and frame appropriate sensory
information and develop the skills to imagine the construction / reconstruction possibilities
based on scientific theory.
Scientific understanding requires interacting with the world and attending to its material
dimension with a trained scientific ―eye‖. It requires a form of scientific connoisseurship
(Eisner, 1998).
As Dewey insisted, knowing how to see and what to look at, and choosing a relevant
body activity for imaginative reconstruction, or knowing how to play until perceived
appearance is accounted for, is scientific knowledge.
224 Claudia James
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Chapter 12
ICT AND EFFECTIVE PRACTICES IN SCIENCE

EDUCATION: LESSONS LEARNED
AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS
Cathy Lewin
Education and Social Research Institute,
Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a review of research on the use of Information of Information
Communication Technologies (ICT) to support science education. The multimodal
features of ICT in contemporary classrooms such as video, animation, sound and colour,
together with new forms of interaction, offer science teachers innovative alternatives to
traditional teaching approaches. Teachers can present complex scientific concepts in
much more accessible ways. Learners can now collect, manipulate and visualise data very
easily, as well as engage in simulations of scientific experiments. They can also
communicate more easily with a wider range of stakeholders, including scientific experts,
and gain immediate access to scientific data worldwide.
Vignettes of effective practice will be presented including the use of interactive
whiteboards, learning platforms, audience response (voting) systems and other handheld
devices, digital microscopes and dataloggers, simulations, and stop motion animation.
These examples will be reviewed briefly, drawing on socio-cultural theories (Vygotsky,
1978; Wertsch, 1998) to identify the affordances of ICT tools which enable teachers and
learners to engage in new social practices in school contexts and beyond. Thus, the reader
will gain a deeper and research-informed understanding of the potential benefits of ICT
in the classroom. The chapter will conclude with further suggestions of how to
incorporate such technologies in classroom practices, as well as highlighting future
directions for ICT in science education.
228 Cathy Lewin
INTRODUCTION
In a recent critique of science education across Europe (Osborne and Dillon, 2008),
which is also pertinent for an international audience, it is suggested that ‗education does not
meet the needs of the majority of students who require a broad overview of the major ideas
that science offers‘ (p.7). Furthermore, the authors argue that ‗both the content and pedagogy
associated with such curricula are increasingly failing to engage young people with the
further study of science‘ (p.7). The authors suggest that innovation is required to engage
students through increased opportunities for extended investigative work and hands-on
experience, and a shift to student-centred pedagogies. ICT can offer a variety of means of
facilitating and supporting such approaches. However, technology should not determine what
is done in the classroom; rather it should be used when it adds value to pedagogical practices.
Firstly, this chapter reviews recent research on the use of ICT to support science
education. Although technology has been used in science education for 30 years or so, it is
now much more accessible both in classrooms and in the home. It is easier to communicate
with experts, peers and others, and the range of resources available online is increasing. ICT
offers multimodal features including sound, colour, animations, and video clips. This supports
visualisation which lends itself to science education, particularly for teaching complex
concepts. Learners can now collect, manipulate and visualise data very easily, as well as
engage in simulations of scientific experiments. They can also communicate more easily with
a wider range of stakeholders, including scientific experts, and gain immediate access to
scientific data worldwide. As such, they can engage in authentic and purposeful activities
which in turn can be motivational and engaging. Firstly, the review focuses on simulation and
visualisation. Although these have been available for many years, recent technological
developments, particularly in the graphical capabilities of technologies, have led to
substantial improvements. It then turns to interactive whiteboards, a particular type of
interface which can be operated by pen or by touch, enabling the user to manipulate objects
on the screen. This tool is being adopted on a large-scale in many countries. The review then
turns to data logging technologies which again have been available for some time. However,
now the data collected can more easily be combined with visualisation tools which makes
their use more powerful than previously. Audience response systems have become more
popular in recent years, supporting formative and summative assessment in the classroom.
Games-based learning is not very commonplace in current classrooms, but a couple of studies
have explored the potential of this approach in science. Similarly, virtual worlds are little used
but have potential to support inquiry-based approaches. Finally the review covers engagement
with experts in the field of science. The review is by no means inclusive as science educators
could also use more generic tools such as social media tools to support collaborative activities
and online discussion for example. However, it represents the broad spectrum of uses of
technology to support pedagogical innovation in science classrooms.
The chapter then focuses on a major Government funded initiative in the UK (ICT Test
Bed), presenting brief examples of practice in science education together with teacher and
learner perceptions. The examples focus on interaction and visualisation tools (including
interactive whiteboards, visualisers, digital microscopes, video clips), learning platforms and
audience response (voting) systems. These examples will be reviewed drawing on socio-
cultural theories (Vygotsky, 1978; Wertsch, 1998) to identify the affordances of ICT tools
ICT and Effective Practices in Science Education 229
which can enable teachers and learners to engage in new social practices in school contexts
and beyond. Thus, the reader will gain a deeper and research-informed understanding of the
potential benefits of ICT in the classroom. The chapter concludes with some additional
suggestions for science educators networking with colleagues from around the world, sharing
ideas and finding resources, as well as more recent trends such as the use of smartphones,
tablets and apps. The final comments reflect briefly on possible future directions for ICT in
science education.
CURRENT ICT PRACTICE IN SCIENCE EDUCATION:

A SELECTION OF INDICATIVE STUDIES
Digital technologies are most commonly used in science education in schools for finding
information and are rarely used for conducting experiments or simulations (EACEA P9
Eurydice, 2011). However, the use of digital technologies in science has a long history and
early adopters have made effective uses of tools such as data loggers, animations and video,
collaborative tools to promote group work and inquiry, and virtual connection to the ‗real
world‘ of scientific exploration. A selection of recent studies of ICT and science education,
involving a range of digital technologies and approaches, are now described.
A wide range of simulation and visualisation tools exist to present information through
images, diagrams, graphs and animations; this application of ICT lends itself to science
education, supporting interaction with dynamic representations of complex phenomena.
These tools are perceived by both teachers and learners to be beneficial for science learning
(Kay and Knaack, 2007). Although such tools have been around in various forms for over 30
decades, more recent developments such as increased access to computers and the internet in
schools, browser-based applications and more sophisticated graphics capabilities and intuitive
user interfaces, mean it is now easier than ever for teachers and learners to engage with these
educational resources.
In the US for example, WISE (Web-based Inquiry Science Environment,
http://wise4.berkeley.edu) provides a research-based portal of digital learning resources
(organised as projects) designed to support middle and high school students. It offers
curriculum resources including simulations and visualisations, as well as tools for teachers to
monitor and assess student progress. The projects are designed to run over a period of a week
with pairs of students. As well as simulations and visualisations, the resources are designed to
scaffold the learning process by eliciting students‘ predictions prior to observing the online
experiments to then compare predictions against actual results and consider the reasons for
any differences. For example, one module enables students to visualise the processes involved
in collisions (forces and motion) through simulations of airbag deployment which would be
difficult to observe in real-time (McElhaney and Linn, 2008). By participating in the
scaffolded processes described above, students developed a better understanding of motion
graphs and the dynamics of airbag deployment.
Interactive whiteboards (IWBs) are large touch sensitive display screens enabling
teachers and learners to interact with digital resources, for example, manipulating objects on
screen. IWB manufacturers also provide software with ready-made activities and tools, and
templates for teachers to create their own resources. IWBs are now commonplace in schools
230 Cathy Lewin
in many countries, with others currently implementing programs of rollout of infrastructure

and professional development. Particular benefits include sharing dynamic and interactive
multimedia resources with large groups or whole classes, engaging learners, and there are
reported learning gains (Somekh et al., 2007). Warwick et al. (2010) report on the use of
Interactive Whiteboards to promote collaborative group inquiry in Science with 8-10 year
olds. The project involved the use of resources designed specifically (by the participating
teachers) for the IWB in order to promote dialogue and collaboration. Explicit ‗group rules‘
were developed by the teachers to ensure productive talk took place, and these were
embedded in the resources. Teachers prepared a number of lessons during which a group of
learners worked together semi-autonomously at the IWB (for example, a sorting activity
requiring the group to place a set of organisms in the correct positions in a food web).
Teacher interpretation of interactivity and creativity were considered critical in shaping
classroom dynamics. The teachers perceived that the affordances of the IWB included object
manipulation, and the ability to provide structure and scaffolding through limiting learner
choices with the capacity to embed cues and hints.
Interactive whiteboards were also used by primary teachers in a study, by Murcia and
Sheffield (2010), to display the teachers‘ own interactive notebooks and promote scientific
discourse to support inquiry-based approaches in the classroom. These notebooks were
designed in ways that built connections between student and teacher activity, and classroom
conversations. They included virtual demonstrations, documentaries, pictures, diagrams,
animations, films and photos. The teachers used these as part of a shift towards a pedagogy
that focused on dialogue and discussion. Other benefits identified by the authors include
engaging and appealing interactive representations and activities (visualisations), easy access
to online resources and video clips, and flexibility. The authors stress that technological tools
need to be embedded in effective pedagogies to maximise impact.
Data logging technologies combined with visualisation tools can enable science students
to collect and analyse data more efficiently, providing authentic experiences. For example,
Crook et al. (2010) present a case study of the use of data loggers in a UK science classroom
with 14-16 year olds. Students used the devices to create time-distance movement graphs
which were then shared with the whole class via a data projector, and discussed. The
approach was practical and interactive, rather than theoretical and didactic. The teacher noted
that this activity enabled a shift towards greater collaboration, learner autonomy, peer-
learning and peer-reflection, as well as supporting authentic learning through the analysis of
real-time data.
If the data logging tools are mobile (and thus able to be used anywhere) this increases the
opportunities for collecting real data in the field. The Participate project (Needham and
Crellin, 2009; Woodgate et al., 2011) centred on the use of mobile sensing technologies (data
loggers with GPS systems and light, temperature and sound sensors) with 11-14 year olds.
Teachers worked together to create open-ended investigations which supported the
curriculum. Students used the location-based data logging approach to capture data, and used
online mapping applications (Google Earth, Google Maps) to create contextualised
visualisations of pollution and other environmental data. Students also incorporated
photographs and video and used Web 2.0 tools to share their findings publicly. Students were
asked to make sense of the data using the visualisation tools, and explain their findings. The
tools were perceived to have promoted learners‘ critical engagement with data and increased
motivation. Students appreciated the increased autonomy.
The 3 year Personal Inquiry project (Anastopoulou et al., 2008; Scanlon and Gaved,
2011; Sharples and Scanlon, 2011, http://www.nquire.org.uk/) in the UK also focused on the
use of data loggers, cameras and GPS systems as well as netbooks (small, lightweight,
inexpensive laptop computers) to support inquiry-based learning in science in Key Stage 3
(11-14 year olds) in and out of school. Software to support scripted personal inquiry learning,
including visualisation tools, was developed and included a facility for teachers to select and
modify activities for their learners. The ‗scripts‘ within the software provide support and
guidance for students facilitating the conduct of experiments, data collection and analysis, and
informed debate. Of the 7 school-based trials, one suggested that learning outcomes were
improved and that learner motivation had increased. Across all trials, learners and teachers
were perceived to have developed a deeper understanding of this technology-supported
pedagogical approach. Teachers perceived that their learners were engaged in richer
investigations.
Mobile devices can also be used in the classroom to support formative and summative
assessment across the curriculum. Such devices, including dedicated audience response
(voting) systems and devices with similar features, can make a lesson more interactive,
engage the whole class, and support discussion and self-reflection (Kay and Knaack, 2009).
Teachers can set closed and open questions to establish immediately whether or not students
understand the concepts being taught. Students choose an answer (for example labelled A, B,
C or D) or can enter short text responses akin to texting on a mobile phone. The devices link
to software which enables the teacher to share a visual summary of responses with the class
(for example a bar chart showing the responses to a multiple choice question), and also
collates the responses enabling further analysis after the lesson. Moss and Crowley (2011),
working in a substantial science outreach project involving 5,000 learners in the 15-19 age
ranges, suggest that audience response systems offer a highly flexible and transferable
approach to engaging learners of all ages in the use of interactive technology. In particular,
they report that audience response systems can be used effectively to identify student
misconceptions and help learners to understand challenging scientific concepts.
Game-based learning is by no means a new field yet adoption in primary and secondary
schools is still low despite the potential to engage learners. In relation to science education,
game-based learning approaches have more recently been combined with augmented reality
(overlaying images of the real-world with computer-generated sounds, images and text) and
mobile devices. Squire (2010) evaluated the use of an augmented reality game in seven
secondary classrooms in the US in 2007. The cross-curricular science mystery game was
designed to be played over 2 weeks by groups of students, with one day collecting data in the
field using a mobile device with GPS. Video and data (from readily available public
documents) were shared with the learners via the mobile devices as they approached
geographic hotspots, augmenting the learners‘ perception of the physical context with
additional information related to the topic at hand. Teachers provided support in interpreting
the data acquired. In the classroom, learners role-played investigators (doctors, chemists,
environmentalists) researching the cause of sickness of students who spent a day at a local
beach. The author concludes that integrating game-based pedagogies together with problem-
based approaches is a powerful catalyst for learning in the classroom.
In addition to playing games, young people can also benefit from authoring games
themselves. Greenhill with Pykett and Rudd (2007) present a case study of a mobile phone
and web application designed to embed physics learning through games authoring and play.
232 Cathy Lewin
The students created microgames involving balls and springs, and the associated rules
governing their movement, through a simple 2D interface. The games could be grouped
together and played by peers. It was trialled in secondary schools with learners aged 11-12
years; the authors conclude that its use was authentic and engaging, and consolidated
learning, not only about science concepts but also about science design processes and digital
literacy. Moreover, it was considered most effective when presented with a dialogic pedagogy
(teacher as facilitator of discussion, peer-interaction and peer-learning) rather than a didactic
pedagogy.
Virtual worlds (for example, Second Life) offer 3D online communities in which
individuals are often represented by an avatar (an animated person or image) and can interact
with others, and objects in the environment, in various ways. Ketelhut and colleagues (2010)
describe a project which investigated inquiry-based approaches to science instruction through
a virtual world environment. Over 2000 students collaborated in teams to solve problems
around disease and bacteria through interacting with each other via avatars and accessing
digital artefacts. In addition, learners could also interact with computer-based ‗agents‘ which
acted as mentors. The study was designed to support teachers to change their practices, and
included a professional development programme to achieve this. The focus of this paper is on
students rather than teachers‘ experiences, but the authors conclude that the environment was
effective in enabling teachers to incorporate inquiry-based learning in their classrooms.
Other communication and collaboration tools such as email, forums, blogs and wikis, can
also be used to facilitate engagement with experts in the field beyond the classroom walls as
well as stimulate discussion between learners. Veletsianos and Doering (2010) describe a
study of an ‗adventure learning‘ project in which learners interacted with a team of scientists
exploring the arctic. Such projects are often implemented using collaborative learning
approaches and tools which support this. 30 learners from a primary school in Australia
participated in this project during 2005-2007.
The teachers involved adopted a mix of constructivist and traditional teaching
approaches, readily facilitated by the project website which was designed to support different
pedagogies. The teachers appreciated this flexibility. The authors conclude that the
environment supported ‗dynamic, participatory, engaging, collaborative, and social‘ (ibid,
p293) experiences for learners.
Ridgewell and Exley (2010) describe the use of an asynchronous online forum in a
primary middle school in Australia with a mixed age class. The forum was used to support an
8-week project which included hands-on activities.
The 19 students aged between seven and 10 years participated voluntarily in the forum
engaging with adults (teachers, researchers, an industry-based scientist, and a parent
interested in ICT) and learners. 237 posts were made of which 90 related to science content
(60% of these were posted outside school hours). The authors suggest that online forums used
in this way offer a unique pedagogical approach that can engage learners in deeper forms of
scientific inquiry and offers greater opportunities for reflection and engagement with
authentic audiences.
However, the role of more traditional approaches such as hands-on activities was
considered important for stimulating the discussion suggesting that ICT should be used to
supplement existing approaches.
ICT TEST BED: INNOVATION AND CHANGE

IN PRIMARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION
ICT Test Bed (2003-2006) was a government-sponsored technology innovation involving

3 clusters of schools and further education colleges in areas of socio-economic deprivation.
£34 million was invested over the four years to explore the impact of high levels of ICT
provision across educational institutions on: teaching and learning; leadership and
management; workforce development; cross-cluster relationships, and home-community
links. School leaders decided how to invest the funding, with guidance from participating
Local Authorities and project advisors. Technology included management information
systems, interactive whiteboards, visualisers (electronic overhead projectors), voting systems,
laptops and software. In addition, many of the institutions employed additional staff to
undertake a variety of roles from supporting parental engagement to developing bespoke
software.
The evaluation comprised three strands. Quantitative data were collected each year in
relation to performance in national tests, self-reporting of e-maturity levels by school leaders,
and surveys of staff‘, learners‘ and parents‘ perceptions. Qualitative data drew on
observations, interviews, and document analysis and focussed on specific aspects of the study
such as the initial implementation of the project, the management information systems, the
impact of whole-class technologies, and a case study of the introduction of a learning
platform across a cluster of schools. Finally, 90 teachers and para-professionals (for example,
classroom assistants) engaged in action research, generating 116 action research reports
between them.
In relation to science, over the four-year period, primary school pupils‘ performance in
science national tests improved from a relatively poor performance, in relation to comparator
schools, to the national average. There was no difference in performance between ICT Test
Bed secondary schools and the selected comparator schools. However, at secondary level,
teachers perceived that the presentational technologies, which were placed in every
classroom, enabled them to shift their pedagogies from didactic models to more interactive,
student-centred approaches. Exemplars of the kinds of practices that emerged are now
presented.
Visualisation and Interactivity
ICT Test Bed was one of the earliest studies of interactive whole class technologies. Two
of the clusters of schools replaced traditional static whiteboards with IWBs whilst the third
chose large static display screens, visualisers and graphics tablets to facilitate interaction
remotely from the desktop computer. The large screen display was greatly appreciated by
science teachers, particularly when used with off-the-shelf interactive software designed for
use with whole-class technologies which included simulations and models, and customisable
resources based on presentation software. Learners used specialist simulation software for
science to run virtual experiments. Variables could be manipulated easily supporting
scientific inquiry approaches and, in some cases, enabling learners to experience (virtually)
reactions that would not be possible, or safe, to run for real in school science laboratories.
234 Cathy Lewin
These resources were also considered useful for supporting independent learning (for
example at home, or in ICT suites).
The affordance of visualisation through the large display screen of the whole class
interactive technologies, and the graphical representations through multimodal software, was
perceived to be indispensable in topics such as the solar system, light and sound:
For example, in photosynthesis you‘ve got a demonstration that‘s visual. You can
change some of the data and you can see the effect of those changes. More light and you
get more oxygen and it‘s measured. This is graphed instantly in front of them. (science
teacher, secondary school)
In a similar example, simulating the effect of the positioning of a lamp on pond weed and
oxygen production, a teacher commented:
If it‘s the middle of winter and that‘s when you‘re teaching that topic and there‘s no
pondweed that‘s really handy. (science teacher, secondary school)
The visualiser is an electronic overhead projector linked to the computer and display
(whether static or an IWB). The visualiser was popular with many teachers, enabling
students‘ work to be shared with the whole class easily, textbook pages and worksheets to be
displayed, 3D objects to be explored from any angle, objects to be magnified, and,
importantly for science, experiments and practical activities to be displayed on the large
screen. Sharing the work of other students‘ so easily enabled teachers to facilitate useful
discussions in the classroom; this was perceived to ―lead to higher order questioning‖ and
higher quality oral work (science teacher, secondary school). In addition, any images can be
captured on the computer, annotated and saved for future use. In science lessons it was used
as an electronic microscope to enlarge images of specimens and artefacts, and to share
dissections with the whole class. It was also used to demonstrate how to lay out the write-up
of science experiments. Overall, it was perceived to be a very flexible technological tool,
enabling teachers to respond to students‘ needs.
One primary school used some of the ICT Test Bed funding to purchase some digital
microscopes with inbuilt video cameras which were easily linked to the interactive
whiteboard, ensuring that any images could be shared with the whole class (Price, 2005). The
teacher investigating this, through an action research project, suggested that an effective way
of using the digital microscopes was for children to use them independently in scientific
inquiry rather than in teacher-led learning. Children in groups (aged 8-9 years) used laptops
with the microscopes attached, or individual children used a microscope attached to the IWB.
An example of this came when the children were asked to investigate a range of
materials to find which were transparent, translucent or opaque. The children used the
microscopes to investigate the structure of the materials, including how they were made,
and then they were able to relate their findings to say why the materials were transparent,
translucent or opaque. The microscope had allowed the children to investigate the
structure of the material which ultimately would affect the amount of light to pass
through it. (Price, 2005)
The children observed absorption in different rocks. They dropped water onto the
surface of the rock sample, whilst it was under the microscope and recorded what
happened to the water. It was very easy to see the water being absorbed, and they were
even able to compare the rates that the water was absorbed. The children then used their
findings in their conclusions – which were of a much higher standard, with much greater
detail. (Price, 2005)
The teacher described the benefits as follows. Firstly, being able to see the large image on
the IWB enabled her to check progress wherever she was in the classroom, and enabled the
children to see the artefacts and their structures clearly. Secondly, the images could be
captured (either still or moving), manipulated and annotated, and exported into other software
packages for presentation/recording and sharing with others. Thirdly, children were more
engaged and found the activities fun. Finally, the teacher felt that the children had a deeper
understanding of the concepts being covered, and the ‗real-life‘ experiences meant that they
were able to recall the knowledge more easily. In addition, she noted that the confidence of
children with special educational needs improved, and the communication skills of all
children improved as they began to use more technical language than they had done
previously.
One of the interesting aspects of ICT Test Bed was that it involved all staff within each
school rather than just the early adopters and innovators working in isolation from the rest of
their community. With a whole-school focus on the use of ICT to support teaching and
learning, there was investment in specialist software, and a re-thinking of some of the
organisational issues within schools. For example, the provision of school servers facilitated
the storage of ICT resources by year group and/or department, and this led to a greater sense
of shared ownership for resource development reducing individual investment in planning.
Whilst seemingly obvious almost 10 years later, teachers were delighted that they were
developing resources which could readily be adapted and re-used. In two of the clusters,
specialist ICT staff were employed to support the teachers in the development of resources.
Learners across the three clusters of schools in ICT Test Bed (Jarvis et al., 2005)
perceived that science was one of three subjects in which the whole class technologies were
most used. The use of animation and video clips was perceived by learners and teachers to be
particularly beneficial, and especially when combined with teacher explanation. A primary
school, for example, invested in an online service providing access to video-rich resources.
One of the teachers at the school explained that the video clips were an invaluable resource
for supporting the teaching of science, particularly with concepts which would be hard to
show otherwise. Examples noted included demonstrating the movement of gases or plants
growing. In a secondary school in one cluster, learners described how they accessed the BBC
Bitesize site (revision notes, activities and tests using animation, video and audio as well as
text, to support the National Curriculum and formal assessment in UK secondary schools,
launched in 1998) and were able to access animations, for example the heart beating.
Interestingly, teachers also spoke about the freely available resources online from sites such
as the BBC and how useful these resources were in science. The learners also commented that
the science teacher made more use of video, and that they themselves had used ICT (rather
than traditional notebooks) to record and share their own understanding of science topics.
They particularly enjoyed opportunities to share what they had learnt with others.
A lecturer at one of the further education colleges involved in ICT Test Bed conducted
action research into the benefits of creating video clips to support science access students
(Cooper, 2005). Access students often miss practical sessions, due to varied commitments at
home and work, but are not able to catch up by conducting the experiments themselves in
236 Cathy Lewin
their own time due to health and safety reasons. The lecturer created video clips of
demonstrations (for example how to construct and operate an optical microscope) and
practical activities (for example adding chemical reagents to foods) to address this issue. ‗The
tests were especially useful in that they showed the correct handling of potentially dangerous
chemicals and the manipulation of delicate glass apparatus, as well as the stated objective of
showing food tests‘ (Cooper, 2005). There were some logistical and technical challenges in
developing these resources in terms of getting the relevant people together at the same time
(lecturer, cameraman, and technician) and capturing the clips without background noise for
example. The production of the clips was also considered to be labour-intensive. However,
the students were very positive about the clips and appreciated the opportunity to catch up on
missed activities, albeit without personal hands-on experience. Staff felt it was particularly
useful to be able to create content that was tailored to their students‘ needs rather than relying
on externally produced content which was not always directly relevant. Another further
education (FE) lecturer conducted an action research project around his use of video-
conferencing to support teaching students, aged 16-18, in biology and chemistry (Skilbeck,
2006a; Skilbeck, 2006b). The lecturer had relocated to California in the USA but continued to
support his group. He used video-conferencing technology linked to the interactive
whiteboard to teach from a distance, supported by a colleague (technician) present in the
classroom. The three students and lecturer were able to see each other. And the lecturer was
able to ‗write‘ on the IWB, using a graphics tablet, with a picture of him appearing alongside
it. In addition, he used instant messaging to support students on a one-to-one basis.
Used the multimedia science package on my PC via [screen sharing software] to

revise last lesson‘s topic (photosynthetic pigments and spectra). (Skilbeck, 2006a)
Used [screen sharing software] to project my PC screen onto the whiteboard at [FE
college]. This enabled me to check and correct the student as they drew chemical
formulae and isomers on the whiteboard. (Skilbeck, 2006a,)
Overall, the lecturer felt that this approach had been successful. He had actually
implemented a range of ICT-supported pedagogical changes to address the issues of being at
a distance; including greater use of interactive resources such as simulations and models, the
development of webquests (an inquiry-based approach to learning, students are guided to
specific online resources and set challenges to complete), more questioning, ‗interactive‘
handouts, and greater levels of one-to-one support. He noted after his first study (Skilbeck,
2006a) that in the future he would develop more ways to obtain feedback from students, as he
missed being able to look over a student‘s shoulder and to get a feel for what they were
finding difficult. In the second study he described in greater detail how he used ICT to
support students engaged in practical activities. The students used digital microscopes and
captured images for the lecturer to comment upon or annotate. Digital cameras were used to
record the outcomes of dissection practicals. With simpler practical activities (for example
measuring photosynthesis rates) students were provided with very minimal guidance initially,
and were given minimal support from the lecturer. They completed the activity almost
independently, and successfully. One of the Biology students (Kaur, 2006), reflecting on her
experience, noted that the group dynamic had not been adversely affected by this approach,
that she had felt more in control of her learning with a different teacher-student relationship
than she had experienced in the past, and that the approach had been more interactive and
engaging. She also felt that she had developed new ICT skills.
A science teacher in a secondary school described her exploratory uses of the whole class
interactive technologies in her classroom. She developed a timed drag and drop activity for
her biology group in the sixth form (students aged 16-18). Students had to come to the IWB
and match key words with their definition. The use of the games and quizzes on the IWB such
as this was perceived to be beneficial as starter or plenary activities. She was also considering
using the IWB in similar ways for individuals and small groups. Although at an early stage,
this teacher was exploring the affordances of an IWB in her classroom and trying out new
pedagogical approaches. As well as developing her own resources using the IWB software,
she identified resources readily available on the internet. She described the use of a drag and
drop activity on the BBC website to support teaching of the solar system. She asked
individuals to come to the IWB to place the planets in correct positions in the model. There
were ‗hints‘ available which she found useful with lower ability students. When asked how
she would conduct a similar activity without technology, she said that in the past students
would perhaps label a diagram: ―so it’s much more fun, much more engaging, more
motivating [with technology].‖ Identifying existing resources can be time-consuming but
often organisations, such as the BBC in the UK, museums and societies, provide lists of
useful websites through web portals. This teacher had identified one such site from the
Biochemical Society which had links to resources for the curriculum for 11-14 year olds in
the UK: www.scibermonkey.org. This portal provides links to presentations, models,
simulations, and interactive games. She had yet to review the resources but felt there would
be some useful resources to use on the IWB. When asked what the most exciting development
had been through involvement in ICT Test Bed, she talked about the use of data loggers. She
was developing lessons that began with preliminary work in the classroom, followed by data
collection outside the classroom to support the investigation and, finally, using software to
analyse the data and generate graphs for example.
Learning Platform
One of the three clusters of schools (a secondary school and its seven feeder primary
schools) involved in ICT Test Bed was an early adopter of learning platforms in the UK
(Lewin, 2006). One of the reasons for pursuing this application of ICT in an area of social
deprivation was to address concerns around a lack of homework undertaken by students in the
secondary school. However, the vision also included promoting e-learning, engagement and
personalised learning (DfES, 2004), and reducing teacher workload, improving efficiency and
sharing teacher resources. Some of the funding within ICT Test Bed for this cluster was use
to appoint a content development team who were based at a building on the secondary school
site.
In the secondary school, a small number of teaching staff were very enthusiastic about
the potential of ICT and, working closely with the content development team, were able to
drive the implementation of the learning platform. However, uptake across the whole school
teaching community was to varying degrees (unsurprisingly). The learning platform provided
a repository for resources and information, as well as automating the submission of
homework, its assessment, and feedback to the student. The homework system, implemented
238 Cathy Lewin
in May 2005 through a curriculum management system in the learning platform, was adopted
initially with a cohort of 11-12 year olds focusing on English and Mathematics. Teaching
staff were able to create basic activities (without animations) using system tools and
templates. They also designed interactive resources, through a ‗storyboarding‘ process, which
were developed with the support of the content development team. The homework system
enabled teachers to see which students had completed assignments, receive homework which
was to be marked by hand, adjust automated marks (for example to give credit for ‗working
out‘) and easily identify underachieving students. Towards the end of the ICT Test Bed
project, some members of the science department started to trial the system with learners aged
13-14 years (who were about to undertake national assessments in core subjects). Some
homework was set via the learning platform and automatically marked. The science teacher
perceived that this was useful for staff and learners of all abilities. As well as developing their
own resources, the science department had decided to purchase content for chemistry. A
member of staff was in the process of identifying which aspects of the science curriculum the
ready-made content could support. However, ―it’s not as good as if you were doing it yourself
because you’ve bought a product and bits of it fit but not all of it fits‖ (science teacher,
secondary school).
In one of the primary schools, a teacher used the homework feature of the learning
platform to support science revision in preparation for the national curriculum assessments for
11 year olds. The teacher developed questions focussing on aspects covered in the science
lessons which children had struggled most with. For example, one question displayed parts of
a flower and was accompanied by multiple choice questions about male and female parts, and
the specific functions of each. Where possible the questions were auto-marked, which meant
that the students received feedback as soon as they submitted their answers. In addition, the
teacher set a specific open-ended question (via a text box) relating to self-assessment. The
children identified what they had found particularly difficult, enabling the teacher to get a feel
for concepts that needed to be covered again in the classroom.
Audience Response (Voting) Systems
One teacher conducting action research in her primary classroom with children aged 10-
11 years explored the use of voting systems in relation to the ‗accuracy‘ of the assessment
(Toothill, 2005). She had already been using the devices for two years. She perceived the
benefits of voting systems as being a ‗fun and quick way to access their understanding and the
children‘s progress‘ (Toothill, 2005). She also used the devices to gather opinions and values
from her children, although not in science specifically. In relation to science, she used the
devices to test the children on multiple choice questions from the UK national curriculum
assessment tests. The answers were discussed with the children, particularly individuals‘
strategies for selecting an option, and the results were then exported to a spreadsheet. The
teacher was able to analyse the results and identify areas for improvement.
Science [assessments] were prepared to test knowledge and understanding of the

topic taught, ‗More about Dissolving‘, and tested understanding of evaporation,
condensation, dissolving etc. Scientific enquiry was explored through questioning and
children responded to questions relating to fair testing, reliability of result, control and
variables. (Toothill, 2005)
Perceived benefits included learners being motivated and engaged, although the three
children with special educational needs found it stressful and randomly selected the multiple
choice options. The teacher investigating the use of audience response systems found the
technology easy to use and believed that the results represented individual‘s abilities. She felt
that sharing the results with the children positively affected confidence levels and enabled
them to identify what they needed to do to improve their ‗score‘, thus supporting assessment
for learning:
Sharing results is an essential process for children to recognise areas for

improvement, whilst celebrating success and progression. With the exception of special
needs children, this was seen to be a positive experience. (Toothill, 2005)
Stop Motion Animation
Some schools participating in the ICT Test Bed invested in child-friendly digital video
cameras and specialist software for creating stop motion animations. By manipulating
modelling clay and capturing each small ‗movement‘ as a single frame of a ‗movie‘, children
can not only develop understanding of creative processes such as this but also the concept
being explored.
In relation to science, children in one primary school created stop motion animations of
the life cycle of a plant using modelling clay, and the movement of the sun by monitoring the
changing shadow of a pencil in the ground. This approach was perceived by the teacher to
extend students‘ understanding of complex concepts as well as being engaging and
motivational.
Reflections on ICT Test Bed Exemplars from a Sociocultural Perspective
Sociocultural theories enable us to explore the role of tools in ‗mediating‘ human activity
(Vygotsky, 1978) and particularly to explore how the introduction of new tools enables, in
this case, teachers to adapt existing practices and develop new ones (Wertsch, 1998). A key
concept in sociocultural theories is ‗affordance‘, originally coined by Gibson (1979), meaning
the latent possibilities an artefact possesses which are dependent on an individual‘s
capabilities to identify the possibility and make use of the artefact in that way through action.
In relation to ICT, teachers need to recognise the potential of such tools to mediate
learning, develop the appropriate technical and pedagogical skills to make effective use of
them, and thus change their practice. ‗The development of new social practices will [...] be
transformative to varying degrees, depending on the affordances of the tool, the skill with
which human agents learn to use them and their ability to imagine new possibilities‘
(Somekh, 2007, p.13). However, for many reasons, teachers often adopt technological tools
initially to support existing practices.
ICT Test Bed practitioners made use of many affordances of the various ICT tools
provided through the project. Science educators in particular reported many benefits and
240 Cathy Lewin
changed their pedagogical practices, introducing more student-centred pedagogies. Some of

the activities they described would not be possible without technology and some activities
were made easier through efficiency gains of technology use.
The whole-class display technologies enabled teachers to use a greater range of
multimodal resources including simulations and visualisations. This large, easily accessible,
and shared focal point enabled teachers to engage in whole-class discussion and enabled
learners to share their own work or understanding through direct interaction with the IWB or
the graphics tablet. Greater discussion led to higher order questioning and improved
communication skills. Learner engagement boosted levels of confidence. Simulations and
dynamic visualisations (created in an instant from collected data) are not always possible (or
would demand extensive time and resources) without technology use. Yet they offer engaging
experiences for learners. In particular simulations enabled hands-on, inquiry-based
approaches as well as access to experiments that would be difficult to set up in the classroom.
Similarly, video clips and animations offer easier ways for learners to understand complex
scientific concepts. The use of visualisers enabled teachers to make demonstrations (such as
dissections) more readily shared with the whole class through the magnification and
projection on the display screens (whether static or an IWB).
The technologies were used to support a greater focus on student-centred pedagogies and
a greater degree of personalisation – facilitating learner control, choice, self-assessment and
arguably more authentic experiences (such as collecting data through data loggers or
accessing live data such as weather via the internet). Instant assessment (for example via the
homework facility of the learning platform) and formative assessment (for example using
voting systems) was seen to be beneficial for learners. In terms of efficiencies, using
technology to manage homework submission and assessment was seen to be effective, and
creating, sharing and re-using resources was perceived to be time-saving (although required
significant investment initially). This led to a greater use of pre-prepared resources in the
classroom which freed up time for more discussion or for the teacher to focus on what the
learners were actually doing or saying. Most importantly perhaps, learners and teachers found
the experience of learning and teaching more fun.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, this chapter presents recommendations for practitioners and identifies
potential future directions for the use of ICT to support science education. The following
ideas are merely a selection of what is currently possible. The literature and exemplars above
provide further examples of how technology can be used to support science education
effectively. It seems very likely that smartphones, tablets and social media will be important
technological tools in educational settings.
In turn, to make the most of technology pedagogy needs to shift to student-centred
approaches including inquiry-based learning, collaboration, and authentic experiences
through project-based learning.
One of the most powerful developments in recent years has been the growth of social
media, enabling people to communicate and network more easily, as well as share their own
resources with others. Micro-blogging tools such as Twitter can offer ways of sharing ideas,
useful websites and portals, as well as simply asking a question, often receiving responses
from ‗followers‘ within minutes. Hashtags are a form of tagging (representing a key feature),
which enable twitter users with a shared interest (for example science education) to easily
find relevant posts. At the time of writing this chapter, examples included #scichat, #edtech,
and #stemtech. In some countries, scheduled get-togethers are organised around hashtags at
particular times in the week although contributions can still be made at any time. Another
way of finding new ideas and linking with other science educators is to identify blogs (online
diaries which others can comment on) or wikis (collaborative shared documents) set up by
teachers.
Online portals offer a good starting point to gather new resources and ideas, providing
links to other websites and, in some cases, locally created resources including video clips,
animations and games. Portals are often provided by subject associations, museums, science
societies and government sponsored sites (such as those dedicated to teacher professional
development or connected to educational departments). Technology manufacturers also, often
have a portal of resources. For example, interactive whiteboard manufacturers can have
extensive repositories of resources which make the most of the interactive features and
capabilities of IWBs and associated software tools to which teachers often contribute their
own ideas and resources.
Online video clips can be accessed via different portals and websites. However, the most
popular video-sharing website at the time of writing this chapter was YouTube. On YouTube
you can find a dedicated Education section (http://www.youtube.com/education) and a
specific section for teachers (including video clips on how to use YouTube to support
teaching and learning) with the option to join the teacher community and receive regular
email updates.
With the growth in the use of tablets (a cross between a smart phone and a netbook) both
through personal ownership and national/regional educational initiatives, there is plenty of
potential for making use of the growing number of apps. There are already plenty to choose
from in science education, including interactive periodic tables, animal dissections, cells,
molecules, earth sciences, anatomy, the solar system, physics principles and an app from
NASA, providing dynamically updated information, images and video clips. Using the
Twitter hashtag #edapps could be a useful starting point to find out about the latest releases.
Devices for tablets (for example probes to collect data) and apps are being released all the
time.
Of course, there are many other generic apps which teachers (and learners for that matter)
can use to create resources through collating video links, web links, images and photographs,
and worksheets for example. Smartphones and tablets can be used in numerous other ways
such as capturing data (video, photograph, GPS, logging data via probes or through sound
apps). GPS tracking data can also be combined with visualisation tools such as Google Earth.
In terms of the near future, and according to the latest Horizon report for school education,
game-based learning is highlighted as a trend that is likely to become increasingly prevalent
in educational systems within the next 2-3 years (Johnson et al., 2011). As well as the benefits
of playing games, engaging young people in developing their own games can be very
beneficial, developing both critical thinking and creative design skills (ibid). The Horizon
report also notes that resources and communication are going to become increasingly
accessible. There is also an increasing interest in just-in-time, alternate, or non-formal
avenues of education, such as online learning, mentoring, and independent study. Another
242 Cathy Lewin
trend that the Horizon report identifies is the growth of Personal Learning Environments,
which can combine formal and informal learning opportunities. They give learners greater
control over managing their own learning and seeking guidance and support. For example, the
Khan Academy (www.khanacademy.org) is a free virtual school, with video tutorials
covering a range of topics in mathematics (primary and secondary) and science (secondary)
together with activities to practice the concepts and an assessment management system. It has
recently added game mechanics to help motivate young learners. It was originally designed
for home tutoring but has been taken up by some schools in the US as it enables learners to
progress through concepts at their own pace whilst allowing teachers to easily identify
learners experiencing difficulties.
Science education has a crucial role to play in engaging and inspiring young people to
become scientists themselves. Technology, combined with student-centred pedagogies, can
help to make science education authentic, relevant, experiential, interesting, exciting and fun.
This chapter has presented some examples of how this could be achieved from recent research
and a major UK study. Technology will always develop; teachers (and learners) will discover
new affordances of technologies and come up with new ideas for integrating existing and
emerging technologies in the classroom. Hopefully, in the near future, learners across the
world will no longer report that the most common use of technology in science education is to
find out information.
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Chapter 13
THE COLLABORATIVE SCIENCE CLASSROOM:

ICT-BASED APPROACHES
Paul D. Chandler
University of New England, New South Wales, Australia
ABSTRACT
It is a powerful experience when students and teachers find opportunities to learn
from one another. When computers or portable devices enter the fray of classroom life it
is easy to imagine students immersing themselves in a private space. At one level, the
issue is how to transform an individual experience to a collaborative one, but it is really
about how Information and Communications Technology (ICT) can support collaborative
learning in ways not possible without it. Drawing on the author's experience as a science
teacher, an ICT manager, and ICT learning coach, this chapter describes a range of
technologies and pedagogies which can foster productive collaborative learning
experiences including, but not restricted to, the science classroom. The technologies
discussed span Local Area Networking (LAN), Web 2.0 and cloud computing,
acknowledging that the match between technology and pedagogy is what is important, is
not the recency of the technology. Whilst particular technologies are necessarily
discussed (and possibly out of date by the time this is published), it is to demonstrate the
possibilities which currently exist, emphasize the increasing ease of collaborative
capability, and to underline the ultimate importance of the teacher's intentions and
pedagogical practices.
INTRODUCTION
What do you value in your classroom? Do you value students working silently and
independently? Or do you value students working together toward achieving learning
outcomes? The purpose of this chapter is not to convert the reader to a collaborative approach
to teaching and learning, or even to outline principles and practices related to such an
approach, and that has been addressed in detail elsewhere, for instance in Brady (2006) and
Gillies, Ashman and Terwel (2008). Rather, it is to present some Information and
Communications Technology (ICT) approaches to achieve collaborative aims. I do so with

some hesitancy because of the need to make reference to particular software products or
online services; invariably it will be an incomplete review illustrative of the sorts of
teaching/learning approaches which are made possible by certain technologies. My intention
is to offer some insights into the teaching/learning, which may have been difficult or
cumbersome in the past but which are now more easily facilitated by ICT.
Certainly collaboration is a goal for education, and that ICTs are uniquely able to
advance that aim has increasing currency amongst those who seek to use computers in their
teaching. Whereas Taylor (1980) portrayed computer use in schools in terms of three nouns
(tutor, tool and tutee), some 30 years later, the same author (Taylor, 2003) writes
Unlike the three-noun subtitle of the 1980 book, … [I would now use] four verbs
[access, collaborate, communicate and experience] to categorize the uses of digital
technology in today's schools. This new categorization of how digital technology is used
reflects four types of activities in which students and teachers can engage to enhance their
educational experiences together.
Extending Taylor‘s conception, Bull (2009) has added ‗fabricate‘ to embrace

manufacturing technologies, 3D printers, personal fabrication systems and the like, and thus
establish a five-verb categorization. Without doubt, collaboration as a goal is in vogue, and a
range of ICTs make various styles of collaboration easy to achieve, possibly for the first time
ever in a classroom. It is a moot point as to whether the affordance of the technologies have
led to educators more readily embracing collaboration, or whether the two have been evolving
and have co-incidently met in a happy marriage. Documenting or deconstructing the
background to educational trends or technologies is not my brief here; rather it is to describe
some technologies (and it could never pretend to be a definitive list) that should at least be
considered by those who embrace collaborative goals. Prior to doing so, it will be helpful to
outline the scope of what might be meant by ‗collaborative practice‘ and some theoretical
touchstones.
COLLABORATIVE PRACTICES
There would certainly be a good overlap between collaborative goals and educational
agendas which are founded on constructivist learning, interactive learning, higher order
thinking, inquiry based learning, project-based learning, 21st century curriculum, authentic
learning, or a range of other relevant approaches. I‘m not eschewing any of those, but rather
trying to deal with a single target – collaboration – recognizing that such a discussion will
necessarily feed into thinking about other related agendas or objectives. I‘m using the word
―collaboration‖ both broadly and loosely. Brady (2006, p.8) recognizes that there is flexibility
in the term anyway, and collaborative learning and co-operative learning are often used
interchangeably, with collaborative usually meaning a higher degree of student interaction.
This chapter seeks to identify resources and approaches for teachers who espouse that
―learning together‖ is better than ―learning separately‖ in the various ways in which that may
happen.
The Collaborative Science Classroom: ICT-Based Approaches 247
Collaborative practices might involve various participants. Certainly, there is

collaboration between students. Equally, there might be collaboration between student(s) and
the teacher(s). The collaboration may also be between teachers or students and their
respective parents. Alternatively, there may be collaboration between teachers/students and
people from outside the classroom. When students collaborate, they may be organized into
the class grouping and in the same geographical location – or they may not. In the main, the
ideas presented assume a fairly traditional class organization with teacher and student mainly
located in the same space. A respectable discussion of distance education practices or of quite
different class organization arrangements would deserve a book in their own right.
Collaboration might occur at what we can call different levels of curriculum planning and
implementation. We might immediately think of the interaction between learners in a
classroom in relation to the learning activities that have been prescribed. But equally, the
interaction might be in relation to assessment and reporting (perhaps even replacing some
conventional practices with both of those), but it might also be at various levels of curriculum
planning, as teachers collaborate with colleagues at the same or different schools, or as ICT
approaches make it more possible to engage parents, teachers and outside contributors or
experts more directly in the curriculum planning processes. Again, it would require a sizeable
tome to do justice to highly collaborative or participatory curriculum development processes.
Simplistically, collaboration in the classroom might be thought to be embraced even when the
teacher continues to take sole responsibly for allocating tasks for students to complete – what
would be collaborative then, is the nature of the task. Approaches which are either more or
less ‗deep‘ in the collaboration than that are nevertheless still collaborative.
There is a range of purposes for collaboration. It might be because of a commitment to
fostering communities of practice (within a class, among teaching colleagues, between
teachers and students, between teachers and experts, etc). It might be because of a
commitment to group work, because of a need to foster better social relations between
students, or because of a belief that the collected knowledge of a group is more powerful than
that which any one learner can aggregate. It might be because of promoting mentoring
between students of different ages, experiences or abilities. It might be to foster inter-cultural
exchange between schools. It might be because highly current data or situational observation
is valued, leading to wanting to speak with an Antarctic scientist or comparing rainfall
between East and West Tasmania in the previous week. In short, no particular motivations or
goals for collaboration is assumed, but some approaches are offered as they may assist with
our desire to cater for a range of these.
THEORETICAL TOUCHSTONES
Whilst not presuming any particular objectives, it is important to observe that
collaborative practice is connected with several epistemological positions (that is, theories
about the nature of knowledge). The first is that collaborative learning is linked with
constructivist approaches to learning (Brady, 2006, pp. 7-8), especially the social
constructivism of Vygotsky (1978) which stresses the fundamental role of both language and
social interaction in the development of cognition. A commitment to a Vygotskian
perspective will therefore seek to foster social interaction and will require spoken and written
languages to support that, along with visual and multimodal forms of communication.
Emerging out of Vygotskian theory is an emerging strand of research in science
education (a ‗representational approach‘ or, more properly, ‗a theory of representational
construction affordances‘), which focuses on science knowledge as a set of subject specific
literacies rather than being concerned with knowledge structures imagined to exist in
students‘ heads. Researchers in this tradition (e.g. Carolan, Prain, and Waldrip, 2008; Hubber,
Tytler, andHaslam, 2010; Prain and Tytler, 2010; Tytler, Haslam, Prain, and Hubber, 2009)
argue that to learn science effectively students must understand different representations of
science concepts and processes, and be able to translate these into one another, as well as
understand their co-ordinated use in representing scientific knowledge and explanation-
building. Moreover, as Prain and Tytler (2010, p.8) argue, in the world of ‗being a scientist‘,
―any explanatory account of ideas in science can only be communicable in different or new
representations, whether linguistic or non-linguistic, and therefore the production of shared
scientific meanings and reasoning cannot transcend representational constraints and enablers
of shared meaning‖. Thus, the making of representations, being situated in a community of
practice and being engaged in the discourse of that community, is ―core business‖ to being a
scientist. Therefore, science teaching approaches both science content and an apprenticeship
into the discipline through a social constructivist approach which values group processes. A
pedagogical approach consistent with these ideas is provided by Hubber (2010, pp.20-21),
and is summarised as follows
1 Sequencing of representational challenges involving students generating

representations to actively explore, and make claims about, phenomena.
2 Explicitly discussing representations, the process by which they are generated, their
form and function, and their adequacy.
3 Providing strong perceptual/experiential contexts, and attending to student
engagement and interests through choice of task and encouraging student agency.
4 Assessment through representations.
A further epistemological position is that of connectivism. A key proponent of this theory

of knowledge, particularly in relation to Web 2.0 technologies, is Stephen Downes. Downes
(2007a) explains that
at its heart, connectivism is the thesis that knowledge is distributed across a network
of connections, and therefore that learning consists of the ability to construct and traverse
those networks. It shares with some other theories a core proposition, that knowledge is
not acquired, as though it were a thing. Hence people see a relation between connectivism
and constructivism or active learning (to name a couple).
Downes continues, arguing that
where connectivism differs from those theories … is that connectivism denies that
knowledge is propositional. That is to say, these other theories are ‗cognitivist‘, in the
sense that they depict knowledge and learning as being grounded in language and logic
… Knowledge is, in this theory, literally the set of connections formed by actions and
experience. It may consist in part of linguistic structures, but it is not essentially based in
linguistic structures, and the properties and constraints of linguistic structures are not the
properties and constraints of connectivism.
Even to the casual reader, it can be seen that connectivism is quite a radical idea, and
quite different to other (possibly more familiar) epistemologies and learning theories; a more
detailed description of connectivism as provided by Downes (2007b). It is certainly not
without its critics. What can be observed, though, is that it fits in very nicely with many Web
2.0 and collaborative tools, such as blogs, wikis and RSS feeds in which the software
effectively becomes a collaborator with the learner in building connections.
Finally, mention should be made of a position – an epistemological one, because it is
concerned with the nature of knowledge – which is sometimes expressed in various teacher
communities and conferences. It is not really an evolved theory, but could connect with any
of the above, or provide a modus operandi for a teacher in its own right. It is the notion that,
for the teacher, it is no longer ―I have the knowledge‖ but ―the knowledge is out there, I will
help you organise it‖. Often this is coupled with a desire to move away from low level
thinking skills (because, it is suggested, that facts are readily found by using search engines
such as Google, Bing or WolframAlpha) and towards classrooms attending mainly to higher
order thinking skills. Of course collaboration is not necessarily an outcome of a position such
as this, but it may be. Using an RSS reader to access the blogshere or the use of social
bookmarking, for instance, necessarily means that one is deliberately working within a
community, even if connectivism is not specifically espoused. With group-based
collaborative learning in mind, Raitman (2006, pp.126-127) has used a helpful ‗collaboration
cycle‘:
● I know
● I know what the group knows
● I increase what the group knows
In summary, what we have identified is that collaborative approaches might arise out of a
range of commitments to, and beliefs in, knowledge and learning. Certainly, it aligns with a
line of current thinking about what it is like to be ‗working as a scientist‘ and therefore what it
means to ‗teach science‘. As stated previously, no particular motivations, goals or theories for
collaboration is assumed, but some approaches are offered as they may assist with a range of
these, and I proceed to that now.
IDEAS FOR COLLABORATION USING ICT

Voice and Video Chat, and Considerations
Given that much of ―Web 2.0‖ is about social networks and collaboration, it is important
to recognize that these are not the only technologies which can facilitate this educational aim.
Phones (that is both mobile/cell phones and POTS – the ‗plain old telephone system‘) are a
perfectly reasonable way for people to collaborate. These are ubiquitous and their use is
familiar; moreover they are interactive and synchronous, whereas many other technologies
are deliberately asynchronous. So whether it‘s students speaking individually to an expert in a
different city, bringing in a guest speaker, liaising with parents or students being in touch with
one another outside of class – voice chat and SMS should not be overlooked.
Of course, with services such as Skype http://www.skype.com and Google Chat
http://www.google.com/talk/, video capacity is introduced and costs are likely to be
decreased. Such services, though, require a good internet connection – and where there is
none, perhaps POTS becomes the best option. A further, subversive and cheeky application of
this and other technologies comes to mind. Imagine a teacher has set a ‗test‘ to be done for
‗homework‘. This might be administered using an LMS or it may be in soft copy. What will
happen, of course, is that the students are already in good connection with each other via their
phones, Skype, or facebook http://www.facebook.com/ and will be connecting with each other
and sharing answers. The objective, then, might not be obtaining answers, but to ‗insert
education into‘ the social networks which are already in place, and finding what might seem
at first to be off-beat ways to kindle collaboration about a topic.
The movement towards ‗bring your own technology‘ (BYOT) or ‗bring your own device‘
(BYOD) in schools implies that Web-based technology (therefore not requiring proprietary
hardware or software) is highly desirable – and indeed much of the remainder of this
discussion concerns Web-based systems. But it also raises the issue that this is not the only
type of technology that they may ‗bring‘, and so strategies to embrace phones and SMS
should be given due attention. If learners have their own technology, then they also have their
own social networks, mediated through whichever technology they happen to favour. At the
outside, then, can I alert the reader to the need to ‗build on what is already there‘ in terms of
collaboration rather than presuming that a ‗new thing‘ needs to be built in order to facilitate
collaboration. (A point returned to with the brief mention of LMSs below.)
Classroom Management Software
Before moving to Web-based systems, we consider the possibilities offered by a type of

software which is increasingly available on school networks. There are several packages
which are broadly ‗classroom management‘, including iTALC (free and opensource), and
various commercial products such as NetSupport, Netop, ABTutor, DyKnow and
LANschool. For a comparison between a number of these products, refer to
http://www.schoolaccountingsoftware.net/impero-vs-netsupport-vs-netop-vs-lanschool-vs-
vision-vs-abtutor-remote-control/. There are several functions which classroom management
software offers. As a management tool a ‗teacher‘ computer can lock all computers in the
class so that the students must ‗take their head out‘ of a computer, the range of applications
and web sites which can be visited can be managed, and computers can be shutdown or
logged off at a central location. However, it is not these functions which have particular
appeal for the collaborative classroom.
Appropriate use of this kind of software can help transform certain activities which are
ordinarily quite isolationist to ones in which students have a real sense of working together.
Two functions which have particular appeal are as follows. Firstly, a ‗teacher‘ computer can
observe what is occurring on all the ‗student‘ computers and, whilst this fits within a
‗management‘ approach, it also means that each group‘s work can be shown, in turn, on a
data projector or interactive whiteboard. Consider small groups of students working on an
activity requiring data probes. They have their probes connected to a computer, and the
computers are connected to the schools‘ network (either cabled or wireless). The experiment
might be as simple as observing how long it takes to melt ice blocks, but each group works
with ice blocks of different mass or different surface area. There is considerable power in
students being able to observe and compare what is occurring with other experimental set-
ups. So this is a way of facilitating, collaboration between groups or individuals. There are
other ways of implementing this functionality without going to the ‗full‘ classroom
management suite such as the remote control software such as VNC, and I have also heard
that for iPads and iPods, under iOS 5, are now able to do screensharing; the intention is to
raise the possibility of increasing collaboration by facilitating groups or individuals observing
what others are doing.
Second is the capacity for interactive chat text between teacher and student. Whilst there
are numerous other ways in which a teacher could collaborate with a student on a particular
document (some of which we will touch on, as follows), this is simple and straightforward.
For a reluctant writer to have a message pop up ―great start on the opening paragraph‖ is
wonderfully motivating. Moreover, a simple statement such as ―think about the tense in the
third paragraph‖ would help point a student in the right direction. Of course, the teacher could
be moving around the class providing the same advice, but for immediacy and for those
students who need to see something in print to fully understand or remember, this feature of
classroom management software can be used to support collaboration between the teacher and
students. There are numerous other ways in which the same kind of result could be achieved,
such as Google Chat, Skype, twitter or a LAN-based chat client.
Wikis, Web Sites and Online Content
In days gone by, the author of a web page or internet site would manually type up both
the words to be displayed and the formatting of them using HTML, and then upload the page
to a directory on a Web server. Software which allowed pages to be created in a familiar
fashion to using a word processor and which also managed the uploading of the files
improved this somewhat, but it is (and remains), a fairly technical task and a single person
effort. The scene changed rapidly with the development of dedicated Wiki and blog software
which started to become common practice in the first years of the 2000s (History of Wikis,
2011; Blog, 2011). A wiki (the name is derived from a Hawaiian word for ‗quick‘) is
explained by a wikipedia entry (wiki, 2011) and Grant (2006, p.1):
● a wiki invites all users to edit any page or to create new pages within the wiki Web
site, using only a plain-vanilla Web browser without any extra add-ons;
● a wiki promotes meaningful topic associations between different pages by making
page link creation almost intuitively easy and showing whether an intended target
page exists or not;
● a wiki is not a carefully crafted site for casual visitors. Instead, it seeks to involve the
visitor in an ongoing process of creation and collaboration that constantly changes
the Web site landscape;
● wikis are generally designed with the philosophy of making it easy to correct
mistakes, rather than making it difficult to make them. Thus, while wikis are very
open, they provide a means to verify the validity of recent additions to the body of
pages;
● wiki software frequently provides capacity for automatic linking between pages so
that simply keying in ‗digestive system‘ on one page automatically creates a
hyperlink to a page on the same wiki titled ‗digestive system‘; and
● wiki software commonly includes the ability to compare previous versions of a page,
discuss issues prior to making changes, and track who edited what and when.
Grant (2006, p.1) further explains that,
Probably the most well known public wiki is Wikipedia, an online encyclopaedia.
The principles behind the operation of Wikipedia are that the knowledge of the group is
greater than that of an individual, and that those who use it are also those who create it. In
this way, new entries are created when necessary and through collaborative editing an
article emerges and develops, reflecting the needs of the group at that time. Different
groups use wikis for a wide range of different purposes. One potential use of wikis in
education is the facilitation of a group writing process where a group takes responsibility
for creating their own content, learning from and collaborating with one another and
building upon each others‘ contributions.
It is also important to observe that ‗wiki‘ might be increasingly used in common

discussion, but it is not always well understood. For instance I have, at times, presented to
groups of teachers about ―wikis‖ to which several people have interpreted as ―how to use
wikipedia in my classroom‖; the term ‗wiki‘ and the site ‗wikipedia‘ being synonymous in
their minds.
It is well to observe that a common application of a wiki is either with encyclopedia-style
sites or for system or software documentation. In both of these applications, a range of people
can be delegated responsibility for crafting certain pages, and contributing to the review of
one another‘s – it is collaborative, certainly, but not necessarily of the same level of
‗intimacy‘ as if several people are creating and editing content on the same page. Also, just
because there is ―wiki‖ in the name doesn‘t mean that the intent is collaborative, as a single
person can establish a wiki for no other reason than it being a convenient way to set up a web
site; a blurring of the division between wikis, blogs and websites. A person may wish to place
―content‖ online; it could be done through a online site editing and hosting service such as
Google Sites; they could install their own version of a wiki engine (see
http://www.wikimatrix.org/); use a hosting service (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Comparison_of_wiki_farms); install their own a blogging engine (see
http://www.weblogmatrix.org/ ); or use a blog hosting service. All these methods are
perfectly acceptable ways of creating a ―web site‖.
It is fraught with danger to dwell too much in terms of particular systems or software
products; rather, attention should be given to the purpose of the activity as there might be a
range of technical means available to achieve a particular purpose. Grant (2006) conducted a
study into student project work developed as a wiki. Important findings were that
looking at the functional affordances of wiki software and considering the multiple
uses of wikis in educational and wider contexts, it can be seen that wiki software could
have the potential to support knowledge-building networks, and to be a useful tool in the
shared repertoire of communities of practice engaged in collaborative learning …

However, the social and culture practices of collaborative working that need to
accompany the use of the software … were not in the students‘ repertoire … Instead, they
imported practices of individual written assessment.
In short, the students largely worked on ‗parallel‘ tasks, and did not naturally warm to the
idea of editing or contributing to other‘s work and were wary of others doing the same to
theirs.
From personal experience, I have observed similar difficulties. The ‗review changes‘ and
‗roll-back‘ have a number of advantages, such as allowing a teacher to track the contributions
by different students. But I have also seen a wiki project degenerate into a competition
between students who want to register the most number of edits per lesson, or an ‗edit war‘
between different students. The roll-back also means that certain students‘ contributions can
be completely erased – disagreements which would be much better solved by working face-
to-face. In short, the in-built collaboration in wiki technology seems to be very well suited to
mature-thinking people who are separated by time or distance, but who nevertheless want to
work together to produce online content. As Grant (2006) found, the practices and attitudes of
a community of practice are not ‗naturally‘ present in a group of students, but if fostering that
is a goal, wiki technology – and appropriate tasks – would be a context to help foster that.
I would like to raise a warning about wiki use, and I am being deliberately provocative.
Imagine a class divided up into working groups where each group has to research (say) a
different body system and create a certain number of pages on it; the class then ends up with a
rich resource covering half a dozen body systems. That kind of approach has got its benefits,
such as students not needing to be in the same room at the same time to collaborate. We
might ask, for instance, what plans there are for a group who has studied the endocrine system
to interact with the material on the circulatory system, because if they don‘t, what is occurring
is a number of parallel groups re-constructing mini Wikipedia entries. If it is true that ―the
knowledge is out there, I will help you organise it‖, then there might be better, higher-order,
tasks such as social bookmarking using diigo or creating an animation to explain key concepts
or function and engaging in evaluation using voicethread (see below). Of course, if the class
were to create an online resource about aspects of the local environment to collaborate with a
local environment group which sorely needed a web presence, then that is a different matter
altogether. The provocative thoughts here are that it seems possible to ‗tinker‘ with existing
student project tasks to apparently incorporate collaboration but without really serving that
objective and from that, to wonder how many genuinely appropriate uses of student-built
wikis there really are.
Nevertheless, collaboratively edited documents or classroom web sites have their place.
Apart from wikis, the range of technologies to allow this has been burgeoning. Google Sites
allows either one person or a whole community to create a web site, with no more difficulty
than a wiki.
There are various ―realtime collaborative editors‖ (see http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Collaborative_real-time_editor), of which the online variants such as Google Docs
(http://docs.google.com ) and Zoho (http://www.zoho.com) are probably the best known, and
documents created therein can subsequently be published so that ‗all the world‘ can see them.
Abiword (http://www.abisource.com) and Codoxware (formerly CoWord) (http://www.
codoxware.com/) are desktop-based real-time document editors. One feature which some of
these systems including zoho provides, is a Check In/Check Out facility. This helps a
collaborating team to manage files allowing only one person to work on a file at a time, thus
preventing team members from overwriting each other's changes. Typewithme
(http://typewith.me/) allows you to set up an online collaborative word processing document
in seconds (no account creation necessary). If the objective is make documents available to
various users, which they may edit (or not) at various times, then it‘s hard to go past Dropbox
(http://www.dropbox.com) or Google Docs. The point is that either real time or asynchronous
collaboration for document development – word processor, spreadsheet, presentation and
graphic – is readily achievable, as are a range of tools to create a web presence.
Blogs
Blogs have their origin in people‘s online diaries, and conversation threads were initially
a set of manually updated web pages. Several hosted blog tools had arrived by 1999, and the
popularity and impact on society followed from then (Blog, 2011). They provide an
opportunity for people to write, publicly, about themselves, or topics of interest to them.
Alexander (2008, p.152) observes that
Blogs are Web pages, or Web sites consisting of many pages. Their reverse-
chronological structure implies a different rhetorical structure than a Web page, which
has no inherent timeliness. Blogs are devoted to frequent updates … readers can
comment on most blogs, building and layering content to individual posts over time. The
simplicity of creating and updating blogs empower readers to write. The practice of
blogging … [has grown] over time to elicit a new form of audience … consisting of
bloggers commenting on each other, checking posts and collaborating on projects.
As noted, blog software can be used for a whole range of purposes, from creating a quite
static web site to an electronic portfolio of work. In the case of an e-portfolio, a student could
create a blog entry for all (or some selected) items of work, with the text of the entry being a
reflection on the task and the actual work itself present as an attachment or hyperlink.
Collaboration is then facilitated as students are encouraged to comment on one another‘s
work, usually on the basis of some pre-defined criteria or evaluation rubric.
In addition to using blogs for this purpose, there are a range of specific e-portfolio tools
such as Mahara (http://www.mahara.org), but a portfolio could also be developed using any
of the web/wiki tools mentioned above, and LMS environments (below) often have a facility
built in. One source of useful information is http://electronicportfolios.com/
The power in this approach, and why blogging is valued by those of a connectivist
outlook, is due to the software which is typically used to read blog entries. Really Simple
Syndication (RSS) is a way for websites to distribute new content as it becomes available. So
with your RSS reader, such as Google Reader, you subscribe to a range of blogs, and when
changes or new entries are made, your reader automatically detects these rather than going
back to the web site where you found the blog originally. From within your RSS reader, you
can then ―like‖ (ie approve of) or ―tag‖ an entry (see below), ―share‖ an entry with others, or
– importantly – ―discover‖ other blogs/sites with similar content. Kay (2011) summarises the
uses of Google Reader as:
● Keeping updated on current events and news

● Collecting, annotating, and sharing research for collaborative projects.
● Reading items that are shared by their teacher or colleague
● Keeping track of student blogs all in one place.
● Following best practices in education by reading other educator‘s blogs.
● Sharing relevant news articles with students or colleagues
(We might well observe that similar aims could be achieved using twitter
[http://twitter.com/], and many teachers find that twitter and google reader connects them to a
wider community and provides excellent professional learning. However, the micro nature of
twitter and the fact that it is completely unrestricted makes it more challenging to manage in
the classroom.)
What is important about blogs and RSS readers (and, for that matter, twitter) is that it
takes time and a commitment to blog before a critical mass is built up that provides a basis for
the RSS reader to search for ‗like content‘. So blogging, whether it is personal reflection,
students taking turns to create a class blog or an e-portfolio needs to consist of (a) a
commitment to blog for more than a few entries (b) use of an RSS reader and (c) deliberately
‗discovering‘ and ‗sharing‘ connections. My inclination is to think of ―blogs‖ not so much as
a technology which can achieve many ends, but as a commitment to reflective practice.
Whether in-house (ie student e-portfolio) or public, the long term investment in blogging as a
practice will reap rewards.
Social Filtering, Folksonomies and Social Bookmarking
As Alexander (2008, p.153) explains, many of the technologies mentioned above

combine into the strategy of social filtering, often in the form of single words that users
choose and apply to the content they encounter. This is in contrast to the metadata, used in
more formal or established classification systems, which is strongly structured, hierarchical
and predetermined in form. This tagging practices is call ‗folksonomies‘ (compared with the
‗taxonomies‘ of formal classification systems). This practice is embedded into a wide range
of online applications including blogs, youtube, and flickr. Frequently, folksonomic tags can
be arranged into concept maps called tag clouds. In terms of ―the knowledge is out there, I
will help you organise it‖, one of the ways we can organize it is to apply tags, and then use
the range of tags used as a basis for further discussion, collaboration and understanding.
Simply put, a social bookmarking service is a way for a user to create bookmarks
somewhere ‗in the cloud‘ so that this list of site can travel with them no matter where they go
or what computer they‘re on. But they are more than that. Bookmarking services such as
delicious.com and diigo allow (actually, expect) users to provide a folksonomic classification
with each page book marked, but can remind users of previously used tags, suggest new tags,
and highlights tags used by others. If you have booked a site as ―quantum physics‖, you can
look at the list of other people who have also bookmarked this site, and from that see a list of
the other sites they have been identified using the same tag which might lead you to finding
other sites of interest to you.
Diigo (http://www.diigo.com/) takes this idea just a little further, because users can use
virtual sticky notes to summarize the important points of information from the website, and
users can be associated together in groups who can see each other‘s bookmarks. So a research
project on, say, the circulatory system could involve students identifying relevant pages (ie as
a web search, or through the connections of bookmarks) and creating a ‗sticky note‘. In this
way, the location, organization, quality control, summary of the source material, and overall
commitment to collaboration, can take be given due weight compared with any ‗project‘
which might then ensue.
Web 2.0 Technologies
As Alexander (2008) notes, there is no agreement about what is meant by Web 2.0
technologies, although there would be fairly wide agreement that the term embraces social
networking, blogs, folksonomic tagging and microcontent (ie smallish ‗chunks‘ of
information rather than large compendia), and these principles have been covered above.
Space is insufficient to do justice to any meaningful review of the available options. I would
refer the interested reader to Web 2.0 How-to for Educators by Solomon and Schrum (2010),
which amplifies the ideas about Web 2.0 presented in this chapter considerably.
Youtube (http://www.youtube.com) is extremely well known; it‘s where you find videos.
It‘s also where you upload videos. You tag content that has been uploaded, and vote for
content. You have video content suggested to you based on your uploads (tags) and your
searches. You can also annotate video content, and make comments. Vimeo
(http://vimeo.com) is similar in many ways but allows users to be allocated to a group (a la
diigo). (There are systems which share audio in the same way as youtube shares video, for
instance houndbite, http://www.houndbite.com/, or soundcloud, http://soundcloud.com/)
VoiceThread (http://voicethread.com) is increasingly popular with educators, and for
good reason. VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images,
documents, and videos and allows people to navigate slides and leave comments in 5 ways -
using voice (with a mic or telephone), text, audio file, or video (via a webcam).
VoiceThreads can be shared with friends, students, and colleagues for them to record
comments too. At the time of writing, there were some restrictions with the range of video
formats which could be uploaded; video is a more complex data type to deal with than text,
still images or audio, and so technology may lag behind a little – so always check systems out
well in advance when it comes to video. Rather than working with blogs or videos, lino
(http://linoit.com)works with virtual sticky notes. Skrbl (http://www.skrbl.com/) provides an
online interactive whiteboard (a bit like ietherpad, but for drawing). Mindmeister
(http://www.mindmeister.com/) and Webspiration (http://www. mywebspiration.com/) both
provide for online concept mapping. The challenge is not the lack of online tools, but finding
ways to use them beyond the surface and to use them in ways which develop the practices and
attitudes of a community of practice.
Online Projects, Forums and Email
E-mail based project and inter-classroom collaborative efforts have been around for a
very long time, at least since the mid 1980s (Beazley, 1988), when using a word processor
would have been new to many and connecting via e-mail virtually unheard of. Long ago,
Andres, Jacks and Rogers (1989) put together a considerable compendium, the Educator’s
Guide to Instructional TeleComputing, with ideas for inter-classroom collaboration projects.
Their work is continued in what is now Global SchoolNet (http://www.globalschoolnet.org/).
This, and the International Education and Resource Network (iEARN) (see
http://www.iearn.org), are both premium organizations for connecting with classrooms on
particular projects. These days, communication is more likely to be facilitated using wikis,
blogs or online forums, but the underpinning technology is really not important and e-mail
would be a perfectly satisfactory way of communicating. Inter-classroom projects work really
well as long as all participating classes engage in a mutually relevant project, have adequate
engagement, and can work to similar timelines. The Global Learning and Observations to
Benefit the Environment (GLOBE, http://globe.org) program is a worldwide hands-on,
primary and secondary school-based science and education program. GLOBE‘s vision is to
promote and support students, teachers and scientists to collaborate on inquiry-based
investigations of the environment and the Earth system, working in close partnership with
organizations such as NASA. Students contribute in a range of ways by collecting data and
then having opportunities to analyse it. It is highly regarded project, with no less of a figure
than Leon Lederman quoted as observing that ―GLOBE is the quintessentially ideal program
for involving kids in science‖.
Inter-classroom collaboration aside, we should not dismiss the enduring potential of e-
mail for exchange of ideas and information among students, teachers and outside experts. The
author once ran a series of ‗virtual site visits‘ where students had an e-mail exchange with
industry professionals. It‘s a technology which remains widely available and very reliable.
Interactive Whiteboards (IWBs)
Much has been (and will be) written about IWBs elsewhere, but as the word ―interactive‖
is in the title, it is important to at least mention them here. For the present purpose, the central
issue is ―who is using the technology‖, because if it‘s a tool for the teacher to use, then the
technology is probably not advancing the ‗collaborative‘ cause very much. If students are
using the board – or working together to help the teacher use the board – then collaboration is
much more likely. If students are working on a visual problem-solving activity, or working
playing a game (eg chess), then that seems to be rather good application of an IWB to foster
interactivity. Devices such as an ―interactive projector‖ (for example, the Epson Brightlink
455i) have the potential to enhance this experience allowing users to work together on either a
table or a wall.
Two factors to be taken into account are (a) some software which would appear to be
well suited to supporting collaboration such as OpenCobalt (mentioned below), require
sophisticated mouse techniques such as simultaneous use right and left mouse buttons and the
availability of a 3 button mouse; IWB technology has yet to catch up with such demands and
(b) if learners are working together on creating text or graphics, this may be better facilitated
using classroom management software or collaborative document creation; simply having
learning clustered around a big screen rather than a small screen does not necessarily create
equitability in using the technology or contributing ideas.
Along with IWBs, some mention needs to be made of ‗learning response‘, or ‗clicker‘
systems. These allow either a whole class or small groups of students to use hand-held
devices to respond ‗in the moment‘ to multiple choice, yes/no, sort order, Likert, numeric or
free text questions – and for teachers to track the responses. Marketed to increase the
interactivity of the IWB and to generate sets of data to help track student learning, resource
books such as Powell‘s (2001) The response revolution contain many interesting lesson
activities, but are nevertheless strongly teacher-centred. As with most technologies, the
degree to which they can facilitate collaboration lies with how teachers structure classroom
interactions, form small groups, and use data, to ‗seed‘ collaborative activities.
Learning Management Systems
A review such as this would be remiss if Learning Management Systems were not
touched upon. The term ―learning management system‖ is a fairly broad one (Learning
Management System, 2011) and there are many variations on the theme. Common products
are the commercial Blackboard (http://www.blackboard.com) and the OpenSource moodle,
(http://www. moodle.org) but this far from exhausts the market or possibilities. These are not
online services but packages which can be installed, so the user of such a system needs to
either have sufficient knowledge to create his/her own installation or be associated with an
organization where there is sufficient commitment to install or maintain such a package.
It is typical that a whole school would ―go moodle‖, and thereby provide a ‗walled
garden‘ (or enclosed community) for teachers, students (and possibly parents) which includes
services such as blogs, wikis, interactive chat, calendaring, online tests and online assignment
submissions.
As these are many of the features which are provided by services elsewhere (see above),
the argument in favour of school-based systems seems often to be more about ownership,
control and protection. As more than one teacher has thought ―why are we making a fuss
about providing forums for our students to ‗talk‘ in, when they are already connected using
facebook, and anything they don‘t want us to see will occur there instead‖. Not that a sound
educational argument for the establishment of an LMS can‘t be created, but in terms of
‗collaboration‘ it seems more natural and more extensible for teachers to use modes of
communication and systems already in use by their learners wherever possible. Certainly, for
younger learners, the idea of a closed and controlled community has a good deal of merit.
It is worth mentioning two particular online services. Firstly, Edmodo (http://www.
edmodo.com) is a free service which allows the creation of ―class groups‖ as a social
network, and within each closed community provides for user profiles, text chat (similar style
to facebook), file sharing, calendaring and assignment management and grading. It‘s a little
bit like a cut-down moodle which is free and doesn‘t require the user to maintain the
infrastructure; for many schools it is a perfectly adequate platform.
There are many schools and educational projects which have established an online social
presence and online community using Ning which was once a free service, and for groups (eg
school, classroom) who need a (closed or open) site which provides services such as user
profiles, forums, messaging, and the presentation of online content such as videos, images
and sound, it still seems to offer a very good solution (For those who might want to host and
administer their own software, the BuddyPress is an extension to the blogging software
WordPress which provides many ning-like social networking features. See
http://buddypress.org/).
Collaborative Peer Assessment
One of the more compelling reasons for using an LMS may be found in the provision of
managed peer assessment (ie moodle‘s ―workshop module‖ and Blackboard‘s ―self and peer
assessment‖ facility). Using the process associated with moodle‘s workshop as an example
(see http://docs.moodle.org/20/en/Workshop_module), the sequence related to this learning
activity is as follows:
 Setup – the teacher determines a rubric or other marking scheme

 Submission phase - Students turn in work within a time frame
 Assessment phase - Peer assessment by students; the system automatically randomly
allocates each student to assess the work of one or more other students
 Grading/evaluation phase – If a teacher evaluation of student work is desired, the
teacher now completes that task
 Closed phase - Final grade is calculated, which can be based on how each student‘s
work has been assessed by others and/or on the assessments made of other‘s work
This approach has been used by the author in senior high school settings to good effect.
After several tasks graded in this fashion, the talk in the classroom notable changed to a very
strong ownership of the criteria (and precise interpretation thereof), and so teaching and
learning strongly embraced assessment-as-learning. The effect was less meaningful for junior
high school classes who only experienced this approach once or twice; it is therefore
suggested that managed peer assessment will be most valuable when (a) it is used to foster
assessment-as-learning rather than as a way of reducing teacher load in summative
assessment and (b) short, frequent tasks can be assessed in this way so that students can
become used to the process and the discussion then can become embedded in the classroom
culture.
Virtual Worlds
To the ‗outsider‘, virtual worlds probably seem outside the mainstream of education.
They provide a ―persistent online computer-generated environment where people can interact,
whether for work or play in a manner comparable to the real world‖ (Bainbridge, 2010, p.1).
Save for users not needing to be physically in the same place as each other to collaborate, the
‗outsider‘ probably wonders what the educational benefits of virtual worlds are, and
envisages a range of impediments such as cost, connectivity adequacy of hardware, and
support. The educational possibilities and benefits of virtual worlds have barely been
explored,of course, so the outsider, or skeptic, rightly seeks for valuable possibilities.
However, if we take the sheer number of ‗insiders‘ seriously, the need to explore the
possibilities of virtual worlds is a major challenge to education. Many people will have at
least heard of virtual worlds because they have heard of (if not directly engaged in) the
enormously popular Second Life. But the largest online community is actually in the 3D
massively multiplayer online game, World of Warcraft, with over 11 million subscribers
(Bainbridge, 2010). Whether we have recognised it fully or not, virtual worlds are a key
feature of the life experience of students of all ages (or their siblings or parents). What they
provide is an alternative way of meeting people, working with people and engaging with
content. In a sense, we can think of virtual worlds providing ‗place‘ to do all of the things that
have been previously mentioned – doing them ‗in world‘ rather than ‗with a Web browser‘, in
what is a highly visual and (potentially) animated environment. The capability for voice and
text chat in a virtual world is fairly easy to imagine, as is the possibility of users building or
importing objects into that world. It should also be noted that systems such as OpenCobalt
already enable in-world VNC sessions, the editing of word processing and spreadsheet
documents, and in-world web browsers. Whilst not mature technology at the time of writing
(and to a large extent the ‗problem‘ with virtual worlds is the disparate nature of the various
systems and the fact that none of them are genuinely mature technologies), it is clear that a
vision of being able to achieve all the things mentioned in this chapter – and more – ‗within‘ a
virtual world is well on the way to being realised.
A full review of virtual worlds, where to start, how to access them, the current state of
their development, is not possible within the confines of this chapter. Suffice to say that the
technology is evolving rapidly, and in the commercial fields ―competition between virtual
worlds is fierce, and new ones are constantly being created and destroyed‖ (Bainbridge, p.1).
As Lombardi and Lombardi (2010) note, ―although they were designed to provide a
foundation for what has become a multibillion dollar gaming and entertainment industry,
[virtual worlds] … will clearly expand their influence, facilitating collaboration and
productivity across many more realms of human activity‖ (pp.111-112).
It is pertinent to mention, by way of example, two applications of gaming to education.
DoomEd (2007) is a single-player first person shooter, built on the gaming engines ‗Doom‘
and ‗Half Life‘ that combines science and history with ‗first person shooter‘-game-style
action, taking players through the horror of bio-terrorism and WWII chemical
experimentation gone wrong. Not explicitly collaborative, but the sort of thing which could
be very appealing to game-savvy learners. The second is ―A hero‘s journey‖ by Lucas
Gillespie (2011), which provides detailed teaching resources for using World of Warcraft as a
literacy text in a way which is highly engaging and collaborative.
Lombardi and Lombardi (2010, p.111) observe that today‘s first generation of the virtual
world system are essentially walled gardens under the control of various corporate concerns,
and this stands in stark contrast to the open, scalable and non-commercial approach that
propelled the World Wide Web (and it‘s predecessor technologies) into wide scale adoption.
Nevertheless, I will illustrate some of the possibilities by referring to two examples. The first
is the ―Virtual History Centre‖ (http:// virtualhistorycentre.com), designed to support
immersive learning by allowing students to ‗virtually visit‘ a particular location, the ―Point
Nepean Quarrantine Station‖ and the various buildings and sites there (eg hospital, ship, hut,
cemetery, etc), and through observational discovery reveal some the history of that site.
The second example is that of ScienceSim (http://www.sciencesim.com) which, rather
than being a simulation of a particular real-world site, is a full virtual world in its own right,
with its own governance structure and with the capability (and expectation) that users would
add buildings and objects and thus populate the ‗world‘. The goal is to enable new usages in
education and visualization through the construction of persistent 3D spaces built and
deployed by a federation of organizations and users; the target ‗content‘ is, naturally, Science.
Both the Virtual History Centre and ScienceSim can be accessed by downloading a virtual
world client – the same software as the user might use to access Second Life – and, much like
a Web browser, provide a different address for it to communicate with depending on which
world one wants to access.
Lombardi and Lombardi (2010, p.120) express the vision of an ‗open metaverse‘ which
makes possible an opensource technology that allows its users to freely publish and acess
virtual worlds, is not reliant on a server or other resource bottlenecks, is able to leverage the
creativity of the crowd, and can be used to establish hyperlinks between multi secure virtual
world contexts. The OpenCobalt initiative, presently underway, will allow users to build and
experience avatar-mediated 3D wiki environments that are hyperlinked and inter-operable.
Maybe such environments will be the ‗place‘ for collaborative learning in the future. The
introductory videos on the http://www.opencobalt.org/ site provide some insight into what the
future may hold.
CONCLUSION
The pedagogical orientation in this chapter has been that of collaboration – certainly
collaboration between teacher and student and student to student, but also between
classrooms and with experts. Much of the text has briefly reviewed a range of ICT which may
facilitate the various forms in which the collaboration make take. My intention has not been
to be aligned with any particular ICT product or service, but to use examples to both delineate
the discussion and provide suggestions. Various forms of collaboration have been identified,
as have a range of theoretical touchstones. In summary, three key points may be identified.
(1) there is sound theoretical justification for science pedagogy to strongly embrace
collaborative practices (2) there are many ICT products or services which can effectively
support the various collaborative enterprises which may be embraced (3) ICT is rapidly
evolving and certain products or services may have already been replaced by new or better
ones and we may be reasonably confident that 3D virtual spaces will become a productive
platform for further exciting collaborative opportunities in the future.
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Taylor, R. P. (2003). Reflections on The Computer in the School. Contemporary Issues in

Technology and Teacher Education, 3(2). Retrieved from http://www.citejournal.org/
vol3/iss1/seminal/article2.cfm
Tytler, R., Haslam, F., Prain, V., and Hubber, P. (2009). An explicit representational focus for
teaching and learning about animals in the environment. Teaching Science 55(4), 21-27.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Wiki (2011, August 2). In: Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved, August 2, 2011,
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki
Chapter 14
THE SOCIAL, CULTURAL AND AFFECTIVE

FACTORS THAT SUPPORT GOOD
PRACTICES WITH NEW TECHNOLOGIES
Christine Redman1 and Do Coyle2

1
2
University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
ABSTRACT
In this chapter four primary teachers have explored and reflected on their use of
technology in their primary classrooms. Their stories indicate the clarity of their
pedagogical views and the purposes they have for their young science learners. This
study was funded by the University of Melbourne and the University of Nottingham and
was conducted with primary teachers in the Midlands of England and the Australian state
of Victoria. Twelve primary teachers were invited to participate. Six from each country
participated in the study which sought to understand how teachers utilised the potential of
the Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) in their teaching of science. The study sought to
understand what choices teacher see that they have when they use information and
communications technology (ICT).
The IWB is one of the ICT tools that can be useful for helping to create
conversational spaces that could contribute to students thinking about scientific ideas, in
particular ways, in their primary classrooms. The IWB potentially creates a social and
dialogical learning space that can enhance science learning. This chapter reports on how
four of the 12 teachers created learning opportunities that were made up of social,
dialogical and visual learning opportunities, revealing what primary educators value and
perceive an IWB, as a digital device, can provide their learners of science.
This chapter considers how UK and Australian teacher‘s perceive their pedagogies
when planning to use an IWB, for the development of scientific reasoning and ideas with
their students.
266 Christine Redman and Do Coyle
INTRODUCTION
Science educators often need to model scientific ideas and ways of thinking. Primary
science teachers achieve this using a diverse range of media and pedagogical teaching
strategies. Everyday materials have long been used to support learners‘ exploration of their
own existing science ideas and those from the scientific community. Science learning
materials that might have been used in the primary classroom have included books, posters,
hand lenses and commercially made models. We can think of these as technologies, as they
act as tools; tools that support learners‘ investigations and understanding of science ideas. It is
useful to think of technology tools as offering us low and high technology options.
Low-end technology options for science teaching can include paper, straws and masking
tape. Teachers can effectively utilise low technology options to provide young learners with
great opportunities for problem-solving, practical reasoning experiences through the
manipulation of materials and consideration of designs. Students can also experience
purposeful and useful opportunities to engage socially and collaboratively with each other to
resolve any science questions that they experience.
So, if students build a wind vane, anemometer, kite or paper plane they will experience
and explore the properties and patterns of air and wind and become more familiar with the
invisible presence of gases.
High-end technologies for use in the classroom for science teaching are many and varied.
In 2012 they include video flex and document cameras, digital microscopes, digital data
loggers, digital cameras as well as the ever pervasive smart phone.
Teachers have choices between low and high technologies for the exploration of either
two or three-dimensional objects of science. Low technology opportunities can include two or
three-dimensional experiences. Low technologies have a place in the classroom, as objects
and materials of science that can provide informing and elucidating learning experiences for
students. The objects and accompanying science understandings that can be investigated
using low technologies are many and varied, and have stood the test of time, and continue to
warrant a place in the primary classroom.
Digital devices, the high-end technologies, have been appropriated into classrooms, often
with no instruction manual for uses suitable for the primary classroom. These devices are put
into the hands of the classroom teachers, who apply their pedagogical understandings to the
decisions that they make about the best ways to use these tools.
High-end digital devices have now provided the primary classroom teacher with a range
of ways to present science explanations to their students. These new technologies provide
new choices about how science can be explored in the classroom. They can provide teachers
with versions of realities of the world of science that can be used for teaching with young
primary students, safely, easily and powerfully in a classroom.
Teachers reasonable anticipate, and assume, that digital devices have the ability to
communicate science concepts with a degree of authenticity, accuracy and effectiveness. The
literature committed to understanding the place of such devices to offer new types of ‗models‘
in science education, points to a need for an improved theoretical understanding of the
science model, and its complex relationship to a person‘s thinking and learning (Harré, 2004;
Gilbert, 2005).
The Social, Cultural and Affective Factors That Support Good Practices … 267
Any form of new technology in the primary classroom warrants consideration, and an
exploration of its contribution to the learning process. There has been steady growth in the
capacity of digital technological devices to capture, store and share images, sound and
movies. Smart phones and small personal computer tablets are devices that can support the
gathering and sharing of images and photos to use in the science classroom.
Many of these devices are now small and mobile and they have shifted into the bags and
pockets of the everyday person. The quantity and quality of images available for discussion in
the classroom are no longer limited to books and posters, but have been opened up to pictures,
photos and videos that sometimes are only hours old, or minutes old when created by the
learners.
The key focus question being asked in this study is; what influences and supports a
teacher‘s choices when opting to use the IWB to model science ideas and promote critical
reasoning and discussions with students about science ideas?
FOUR TEACHERS REFLECT ON NEW TECHNOLOGIES

IN THEIR PRIMARY SCIENCE CLASSROOM
This chapter introduces four teachers; Ann, Alice, Marc and Wilma, and their reflections
and use of the IWB in the teaching of science. It is also an examination of their pedagogical
choices that the teachers made, as we consider their explanations for their approaches. We are
closely examining the practices of these four primary teachers, in grades three to six, as
representative of the 12 teachers in the study. We are not focussing on the hemisphere that
they teach in, but rather on the professional choices they make.
This chapter examines their approaches for using the IWB and technologies, in
anticipation that we can learn from the ways that new technologies can contribute more
positively to effective primary science teaching.
The first teacher to be introduced is Ann. After many decades of excellent teaching
practices Ann is about to retire from primary teaching. Her science lessons utilise a range of
technologies, the IWB being one that she has only recently added to her repertoire of teaching
tools. Ann is teaching a science unit focussed on Global Climate and Local Weather.
The next teacher we meet is Alice, and she is a young teacher with less than five years
experience in the classroom. Alice like her Oxford storybook counterpart, enters the IWB
teaching space for the first time, and enters into the world through a looking glass and finds
herself on an adventure. Alice has planned for a series of lessons with a chemistry focus, and
the students are studying the properties of materials, in different conditions.
Our third and fourth teachers are Marc and Wilma, both mid-career teachers. Marc has a
senior school leadership role. He has some responsibility to support other teachers, as they
take up the IWB into their teaching practices. Marc and Wilma teach at the same school and
share their perspectives about using the IWB in their classrooms. They are both keen to
encourage students to use the board and this becomes evident in Marc‘s lesson, as students
use the board about 90% of the time that it is in use in the classroom.
The examples we will consider all involve primary classroom lessons which have a
science focus, but of course they will draw on a range of other disciplines and skill sets.
These teachers can all articulate clear goals for the teaching and learning outcomes.
The IWB is just one of the digital devices available to the classroom teacher. We hope
that by considering the approaches and practices of these four teachers we may contribute to a
better understanding of the types of pedagogical approaches and uses that are possible for the
IWB in the primary classroom. The focus here is to affirm, and perhaps introduce some
different types of effective practices that are available to the teacher aspiring to utilise,
technologies, as e-learning, effectively into their science classrooms.
There has been, and there will continue to be, a constant change in the range of new
technological devices suitable for the classroom. This has been increasingly better support for
the making, storage and sharing of, and in class use of, dynamic images, video making, and
has also provided ready access for web interfacing.
Many homes are more likely to have multiple devices that have Internet access. It is not
uncommon to sit in cafes or on trains and see both the old and the young utilising digital
devices as web interfaces for entertainment, and engaging with the world beyond their present
space. There are ramifications and implications of this everyday access by everyday people,
for educational spaces like classrooms. This ability to utilise digital devices anywhere, has
been a focus of the educational mobile technology groups and research reports provides
useful data and approaches for harnessing these tools. The everyday pervasiveness of mobile
technology means that teachers, and their students, are used to connecting to others and being
able to gather answers to questions promptly.
The classroom use of mobile technologies can be seen to be continually developing and
creatively refined by teachers. A new phenomenon in 2012 arose, around the world that has
made use of the pervasive infiltration of mobile technological devices. It is using mobile
technologies for enhancing learning in classrooms. This new approach, called the Flipped
Classroom, has quickly captured, and influenced, the imagination and practices of primary,
secondary and tertiary educators. The flipped classroom utilises the potential to have 24/7
access to resources by providing learners with opportunities to have thoughtful engagement
with key ideas outside the classroom. These ideas are brought from the outside, to the inside,
for collaboration and extension of this learning with the potential to impact on classroom
practices.
Variations on the forms of the Flipped Classroom continue to bubble up and in, whatever
form they have evolved, they have harnessed enthusiastic and committed teachers who are
seeking to create more engaging worthwhile classroom learning experiences. Careful
consideration, and constant examination of the approach needs to be adopted, to ensure it
does give way to becoming didactic.
Teachers need to ensure critical reflection and questioning is happening, and that learners
are being challenged and extended in their understandings in meaningful, effective and useful
ways. Questions to be asked include; does it differentiate the learning experiences available
for learners? Does it creating social collaborative learning opportunities? Does it support
learners to personalise and extend the experience and to go further?
Teachers who are committing to the principles of the Flipped Classroom are hoping to
find that they can create more learning time and opportunities for their class. They have
achieved this using the capacities of the new technologies, which include mobile devices and
the IWBs. Time created in classrooms for teaching and learning can now be spent providing
more targeted teaching and learning experiences.
UNDERSTANDING THE PRACTICAL USE OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES

WHEN WORKING WITH MODELS IN SCIENCE EDUCATION
Models have been used in science education, and will continue to prevail. Models are
useful for communicating science ideas. It is also important to remember, note and discuss
how the model is different to the ‗real‘ thing. Some excellent points can be made when we
juxtapose the ‗real‘ and the model. Different models can be used to model the same idea, in
different ways, highlighting different aspects. Models can help us to focus our learners on
different aspects, and to represent things that happen too fast to see, or too slowly to watch.
The models are representing our human constructs, and substituting for the ‗real‘ things.
That means that science concepts are ways that humans have organised and constructed
enable them to make sense of, and represent, the world around them. We can‘t easily bring
the solar system into the classroom, nor show electrons in action. Science ideas represent
what we know about the world and how it works. These ideas have been tested and examined,
and we can use them to make better sense of our world.
New technologies have helped us to model ideas in many ways to be able to interact with
the models, and change them, as we explore our ideas and interact with them. Stimulations
can help us model change, processes and a range of different types of events, that would
otherwise be difficult to explore in a classroom, or a laboratory.
In science education these ideas need to be represented to learners of science in ways that
help them to thoughtfully engage with new concepts, think about them, talk about them and
then work with them in their everyday lives. So, over time, many different types of models
that represent science ideas have been developed and are now familiar tools in the science
classroom. The models seek to offer a ‗new‘ informing reality, often of the invisible world,
and to represent for learners, ideas in ways that it can be better understood, more easily
recalled, and more useful in the future.
Harré, (2002) explains that science education models are used to represent real-world
structures, to explain phenomena, to allow a person to manipulate or test the reality and to
help construct an understanding of laws and theories. The IWB is a tool that teachers can use
to provide science learners many different opportunities to interact with a variety models for
each of these purposes.
The IWB provides a large surface area easily visible anywhere around a classroom. It can
show large images that can be hand drawn, or photos or pictures of any type that can be used
on a computer screen. In addition to projecting these images, it can also be written on by the
teacher or students, so that annotation and labelling of images can take place. This is the
difference between a black board, or a whiteboard, and an IWB, as the IWB allows the user to
interact with the material on the board in many ways. Users have access to a highlight facility,
thus drawing a learner‘s attention to a specific detail that is a focus of the lesson, or use
colour or symbols to maintain a specific focus. Video link facilities are available where of a
classroom can discuss topics of interest with others, real-time, anywhere around the world.
Science work on an interactive board may assist in the development of important skills in
visual-spatial thinking and orientation (Mathewson, 1999). It has become apparent that IWB‘s
can bring a useful model of the ‗real‘ thing into classrooms, and teachers anticipate that these
models are contributing to the improvement of science understandings and reasoning.
Teachers and students have the potential to use the IWB in different interactive ways. When
teachers and students label, drag, amend and or interact with the IWB in some way, this
becomes a form of practical reasoning, (Reckwitz, 2002) which, when carefully selected by
teachers, can mimic or represent some types of the practical use normally made of science
models. Teachers can use their classroom IWB to replicate, reproduce or replace science
experiences that are normally conducted with the real thing, or with a science model.
In the following study we examine, four of the teachers‘ practices and perceptions of the
IWB, and how they used the tools to provide practical reasoning opportunities. We will try to
better understand how these teachers embedded the use of their technological devices, into
their pedagogic frameworks, to achieve the science goals for their students. We will see how
each of these teachers recognise and considered the cognitive and affective components of the
interactions that the IWBs can offer for the primary science learner. It is useful to consider the
reasons that these teachers articulate, by making explicit pedagogical choices based upon
their experiences with the topic and their students. These choices are informed by teachers‘
practices as they are thinking about how they might best implement this ‗new‘ technology
into their practices.
Our argument is, after Wittgenstein and Harré, that this practical, pedagogical and
reflected reasoning will be evident in the teacher‘s ‗sayings‘, that is, in their conversations
about their practices. It will also be evident in their practices, that is, in what they ‗do‘. A
teacher may ‗say‘ they are going to do something and then change their mind, mid-stream
during a lesson, but they will often have very good reasons for ‗doing‘ something differently
to what they originally stated would occur. It is often in these changes that some excellent
choices and practices lie, as this is when teachers are being flexible, and when they are
informed by and responding to what their students are doing. When teachers are asked about
these changes and their practices, and why they did took a particular course of action, they
make clear what was that was being valued by them at that specific moment.
A critical element considered in this study is how these teachers feel when they are using
the IWB (Schatzki, 2002) (as this teleological component, that is the ‗feltness‘ impacts on,
and influences), the teachers‘ ‗sayings and doings‘. Teachers may say, ―I will then use the
video clip to extend students thinking‖ and later say ―I felt the students were not ready for the
video, they seemed to need to ask more questions, and needed more time to connect the ideas,
I will show that video to them later‖.
In order to better understand a teacher‘s pedagogical relationship to IWBs, Harré‘s
(1999) Positioning Theory has been used to code and analyse the teacher‘s ‗talk and actions‘
with the IWB; that is their discursive practices. Positioning Theory attends to people‘s
language very closely. We value the explanations that teachers offer and the perceptions that
they share. We attend to people‘s words, as representations of their thinking and, of their
cognitive activities. In the conversational interviews in this study, teachers have highlighted
and explained their choices. Positioning theory also illuminates the tacit social-cultural
practices that are valued in a particular school setting. Practices emerge in social settings, like
schools, and become favoured, and then sustained, by a community of practice, and then
continually affirmed in the daily, cultural, and discursive events in a school.
Positioning theory supports a methodological approach that accounts for the dynamic,
immediate moments of change in a classroom, and the teachers‘ stories as they talk and
describe what will, and did, happen. But positioning theory also points to the relationships
that a teacher has to outside influences that come from their broader institutional setting. It
acknowledges that the choices enacted in a classroom by teachers in flexible and, sometimes,
unpredictable ways, adapt moment by moment and respond to their learners‘ needs.
Positioning theory supports a more considered hermeneutic, that is interpretation, of a
teacher‘s practice that can provide a richer and informed understanding of teachers‘
pedagogical approaches.
Positioning theory supports an analysis of teacher practices and consideration of these
practices in relation to the local community of practice, as well as their response, and
adaptation to, the influence of their local setting and a more generalised outside world.
Practices in a school site (Schatzki, 2002) are closely aligned with ‗the local communities
practices‘. These practices often become tacit, and drop into the background, the social and
cultural practices are also dynamic, potentially changing moment-by-moment; they are
substantially informed by a person‘s experiences of, and reactions to, previous actions and
events. These practices are understood by focussing on the local ‗doings and sayings‘
(Redman, 2008).
Shotter (1996) suggests attending to both the words and gestures, as both of these can act
as indicators of a person‘s reactions and responses to their daily lived events and can help us
to make better sense of a person‘s umwelt. The concept of the ‗umwelt‘ is useful when
thinking about how people perceive the values embedded in their local environment.
Shotter gives prominence to words and actions, ‗sayings and doings‘; but notes that these
are to be considered in the light of the daily social-cultural practices and are ‗ways of
grasping our continuously changing sense of living relatedness, both to each other, and to the
larger world around us‘ (p 293). The implications here are that, what people ‗do and say‘
reflect the dynamic and immediate environment. , It also reflects how people feel, that is their
‗feltness‘; but we also need to recognise that the demands on a person also permeate from
outside their daily environment. The local culture and history of a setting, like a school, can
influence a person‘s actions and talk.
In this study it became evident that what teachers ‗say and do‘ is in accordance with both
their perception of the immediate needs of their classroom and the wider sense of the
requirements of their professional practice. Importantly, their perceptions and narratives of
themselves as teachers, and their institution, seem to influence their willingness, and
eagerness, to experiment with, improve and refine, their practices.
For many years now, UK teachers have been immersed in, and acting as, critical agents
and users of IWBs, and have steadily adapted their pedagogies (Glover and Miller, 2001,
Nuthall, 2004) and consider how these underpin their IWB‘s use when working with students
and their scientific ideas. Many Australian teachers have had nearly a decade working with
IWBs and have been doing the same thing, exploring and exploiting the technology to serve
their learners.
THE APPROACH USED TO BETTER UNDERSTAND

TEACHER‟S PRACTICES
As explained in detail earlier, positioning theory can provide an enhanced understanding
of the relationship of the teacher to the IWB. The relationship with an IWB is impacted on by
a number of elements. Teachers are influenced by the social, historical and cultural practices
of their school, and their professional and pedagogical experiences and beliefs. Positioning
Theory takes account of a community‘s storylines, as well as the teacher‘s narratives, and
creates a co-construction of both perspectives, providing a more complex sense of what is
valued and is influencing a teacher‘s daily practices.
As groups of people, teachers define their community‘s needs and characteristics;
together they build up their shared pedagogical constructions, through their regular discursive
practices that is, their ‗doings and sayings‘.
To return to Harré‘s positioning theory, which has at its origin the social constructionist
approach of Wittgenstein, Vygotsky and Bakhtin, it is a powerful alternative to role theory at
it explores and makes better sense of social behaviour. By the term ‗positioning‘ Harré refers
to discursive practices as the way ‗by which oneself and other speakers are presented as
standing in various kinds of relations‘ (van Langenhøve and Harré 1994, p 362). The socio-
psychological stance adopted by positioning theory forms the basis of a new social
psychology, (Howie and Peters, 1996) in which a central premise is that a person reveals ‗the
self‘ within their discursive practices. A teacher‘s position is shaped by their experiences and
interpretations of their schools‘ storylines.
Once positions have been created, and are identified, they are often actively sustained and
challenged by people, in conversations and actions; these are their discursive practices
(Davies and Harré, 1991). Storylines, images and metaphors arise as a person talks from their
perceived position, and this position influences a person‘s view of what makes the most
appropriate discursive practices.
People can choose to accept, reject or challenge a position (Harré and van Langenhøve,
1999). Understanding a person‘s position, in their local community of practice, can inform us
of the distribution of peoples‘ rights and duties (van Langenhøve and Harré 1994, p 362) and
begin to indicate why people perform in particular ways, and make certain choices, especially
pedagogical choices. In understanding teacher practices with IWB‘s, their perceptions of their
rights and duties can be considered, along with their perceived responsibilities. Understanding
peoples‘ perceptions of the rights and duties can indicate their sense of power, or agency, to
influence or control their local world, and the choices that they make.
FINE-GRAINED ANALYSIS OF THE CONVERSATION

WITH POSITIONING THEORY
Davies and Harré (1991) explain how the pronoun choices that occur in a conversation
offer one way of identifying a speaker‘s socio-psychological location in their own storyline.
The pronouns can be coded as one indicator of the persons‘ position and how they have
chosen to locate themselves in a conversation or in a storyline (Redman, 2010).
Often speakers adopt different personae in discussions. They may speak and act, ‗say and
do‘, like a leader or they may position themselves as subservient to others, and so a follower,
with limited choices or agency. Indexical pronoun analysis supports an exploration of the
various social episodes and positions from the speaker‘s perspective. When the pronoun ‗I‘ is
used, listeners are expected to assume that the speaker is using their personal authority, and
therefore qualifying the statement with their personal commitment. A speaker‘s choice of ‗I‘
in a statement indexes their sense of personal responsibility. ‗I‘ indexes a person to a
particular idea, person or place and indicates that there is a particular relationship to others
and ‗things‘.
A person‘s construction, and reconstruction, of their identity is temporally and
dynamically located in the story lines of their conversational acts. Pronoun choices can reveal
changes and shifts in a person‘s commitment to the ideas being discussed. It can also indicate
the beliefs that people have about themselves, and their ability, and willingness, to take
responsibility for their actions and act intentionally, their degree of commitment or
confidence in the topic under discussion.
MEETING THE FOUR TEACHERS AND UNDERSTANDING

THEIR PERCEPTIONS OF THE TECHNOLOGIES
Each teacher participated in a preliminary interview before his or her teaching occurred.
The science lessons were then recorded. The lessons varied in length from 30 minute to 60-
minutes. Approximately one-hour interviews were held at the conclusion of the teaching. We
discussed the outcomes of the lessons, and questions sought as perceived and interpreted by
the teacher. The interviews were conducted on the day the teaching had occurred, and directly
after the teaching had concluded.
Ann
Ann was a primary teacher who was due to retire. But she found new inspiration for her
classroom teaching in the IWB placed in her primary classroom, and had subsequently
postponed her retirement. A much younger teacher had supported Ann in her use of the IWB.
Ann had found potential in the IWB and she stated that it had given her a new ‗lease of
teaching life‘. A significant comment that she made about the IWB‘s contribution was that
she had found that ‗the students were really engaged‘. Ann stated that she could finally teach
her students in the ways that she had always wanted.
In her science unit, Ann had used the IWB to show video clips from the Internet of recent
storms around the world to initially secure her students‘ attention.
Later they read current newspaper articles on the IWB, that were reporting from around
the world on the storms. The teacher said she was thrilled at the way the students attended to
and read the newspaper stories and enthusiastically discussed the embedded information. She
highlighted words, phrases and data on the IWB and copied and stored for later uses and
discussions.
When discussing the purpose of her lesson introduction, she stated in her interview, that
‗I wanted it to … to gain their interest, and give them something visual‘. Her impression of
the video clips was that, ‗It puts that WOW into learning, WOW look at the smoke!‘ Ann said
that during lessons ‗It‘s hard now, it‘s hard to turn it off, but we do have to turn it off‘. Here
she refers to the IWB as being difficult to turn off (i.e. referring to the IWB).
In the pre-lesson interview, Ann had acknowledged that the IWB took ‗a lot of time‘ and
that she had had to put more time ‗into planning‘. But Ann felt that she was rewarded by this
investment of time because she achieved her professional goals. Ann indicated that she felt
like she was in control, this was evident when she was repeatedly stating, ‗I wanted it to …‘
What had inspired this retiring teacher to invest time and effort into learning a new
technology might be found in the following comments, ‗even Patrick, who is very difficult to
engage, was actually participating and he actually produced something and he was very keen
for me to see‘.
Ann also identified another student, explaining, ‗that‘s very important for, say, kids like
David, because he doesn‘t come with a rich background of anything so if you can actually see
it happening, you can make some observations can‘t you? Like it‘s not abstract, but it‘s there,
so it‘s kind of like … to excite‘. Pedagogically, Ann values the high level of engagement and
cognitive connections that her students are making with the ideas in the science unit.
Ann felt empowered. She had used the IWB to engage the ‗difficult to engage‘ students‘
successfully. She had excited them to learn, motivated them to participate and had them keen
to share and to be productive. The time she had invested paid off and her sense of
responsibility to engage and excite all her students had been satisfied. Ann achieved what she
felt was required of her and she felt deeply accomplished and rewarded.
Ann is a very experienced teacher, who came as a late adopter to these IWB technology
skills but, significantly, she had been prepared to be a risk taker in front of her students. She
had progressed quickly from being a novice with an IWB, her colleagues informed me. Ann‘s
personal identity as a teacher was very positive and how she felt and how she, and others,
perceived her as a professional educator, seemed to be an important contributor. She was also
perceived, and labelled by her colleagues, as a ‗champion‘ and as an‘ inspiration to others‘.
The lessons continued, as students carried out their own research using classroom
computers sharing their results with each other. The students used the IWB as needed to, and
projected material for discussion, sharing and interacting with others.
Alice
Alice was a young teacher and a novice with an IWB. In her initial interview Alice
remarked that she had noted how involved students were when ICT was being used in other
classrooms. This higher level of student motivation inspired her to rise to the challenge of
using an IWB in a lesson, for the first time, in front of a researcher visiting her classroom. As
a teacher Alice was very organized, and clearly focussed on the science learning outcomes.
The IWB had inspired her and she had identified highly motivating features she felt could
help her students to be more engaged, more curious and more likely to understand the science
ideas. Alice frequently described the IWB as ‗powerful‘, or ‗quite powerful‘ and ‗really
powerful‘ and ‗powerful really‘. It is reasonable to anticipate that she would feel more
empowered as a science teacher, through her thoughtful use of the IWB.
Alice had crafted her IWB lessons to capitalise on the recent science ‗hands-on‘
experiences she had provided for her students in previous lessons. The experiences her
students had been offered prior to this moment had been designed to develop their awareness
and understandings of a diverse array of materials and their properties. Alice‘s students had
tested everyday materials, in a range of ways, and recorded the outcomes. They were now
aware of some of the properties, and patterns.
Now Alice planned to utilise the IWB to provide students with more materials to explore,
in a virtual way. By drawing on their prior science experiences, her students would predict
what would happen before they enacted their experience, in a virtual laboratory.
Alice was concerned that she would incorporate a way to further challenge her students‘
thinking, and had planned for this carefully. But she also wanted to create a conversational
shared learning space that would allow her students to investigate the properties of these
materials. So students were to work together in pairs. They would predict, and debate and
record their decisions. The materials available to be tested and explored on-line would be
normally unsafe or problematic if conducted in a classroom environment. The IWB gave
these students access to animations that replicated their prior science activities in realistic
ways. The animations were engaging, and followed the approach the students had already
used in their classrooms for their science experiments.
Students watched the IWB as a whole class and, they became familiar with the use of the
software. They noted how it was demonstrating and repeating some of the things they had
tried. The students quickly made sense of how these science investigations worked, and
reviewed the key science concepts. In pairs, students worked together on their laptops; they
tested materials for different physical properties and progressively recorded their results.
They were able to explore the forces involved in ‗smashing glass‘ in the virtual setting of a
laboratory. Then students shared their results in various forms of mathematical presentation
styles, discussing the strengths of each, as their teacher quickly displayed, shared, discussed
and, if needed, amended their graphs on the IWB.
Students watched the investigations on their laptops, and they discussed with their partner
what they thought was happening. They recorded their answers. This provides opportunities
for social shared cognition (Hennessy, Deaney, Ruthven and Winterbottom, 2007). Then
Alice presented the experiments for review and discussion on the IWB. Students shared their
results and reasoning and, together, the class conferred on the outcomes. Students came to the
board, recorded their results and gave their reasons, then checked their own predictions.
Alice asked each student to run the experiment on the IWB, and the results were
displayed at the conclusion of each laboratory activity. Students could then discuss the ‗how
and why‘ of their results with the class, noting any differences.
The IWB meant that all students could see at once, and that Alice could re-play the
experiment if needed, for discussion and clarification, over and over. The students now were
able to apply and test, then refine their science understandings in other scenarios, which
would have been impossible to explore except in this virtual space.
After the IWB lesson had been completed, Alice concluded she was pleased with the
learning outcomes. She noted that these extension activities in her science unit had meant
students did not get caught up in the ‗doing‘. She felt that were better able to focus on the
investigations and their science understandings. Alice felt that the lesson was ‗a bit more
controlled like a laboratory testing, a bit more organized, they‘re extending their
understanding but in a more, I felt, efficient way.‘
Notably, like Ann, Alice found that students who were normally difficult to involve were
focused, ‗… normally Ben would find it very difficult to stay on task, he was engaged, he
wanted to be doing, he was enthusiastic to come to the board, there were incidences during
the lesson where he needed to be spoken to, but that was minimal compared to what we can
have to do‘. Ben had been late for school; he had been seen running into school, and told a
teacher, that he has in hurry as he knew they would be working on their science experiments
and using the IWB.
Using Positioning Theory for the analysis, Alice‘s next statement indicates her strong
sense of belief and her pedagogical commitment to engagement, evident in the presence of
the ‗I‘ and ‗my‘ in her discussion below. Alice, like Ann, felt empowered and satisfied as
students achieved high levels of engagement, ‗I think just generally from my point of view I
just found it very powerful in engaging them generally as a class that sort of focus was
there.‘….‘ from my point of view you‘re half way there when you can get that focus
immediately‘. Alice felt a strong sense of professional responsibility to engage her students,
and subsequently, an appropriate sense of achievement during the sequence of science
experiences.
Alice also acknowledged and identified her need to make continued efforts to steadily
improve her skills. Alice envisioned that she will build up her repertoire of skills, ‗it‘s
something extra that I can now add to my bank of, you know‘ ideas in my head that I can then
just right I can use then, and, once I‘ve done it and the more I do it will just become easier
and like I say become second nature to think, oh yes, and that‘s easy for me to do‘. She was
very keen and eager to do this first IWB lesson and she can foresee it will get easier, ‗I‘m
quite excited in terms of what I will get from it …this will be a very useful thing‘. This was
stated with a strong illocutionary force and positive sense of personal identity evident in her
choice I.
Ann and Alice have both signalled that they had identified that an IWB could provide a
high level of engagement and focussed attention that could motivate their students to actively
participate in the learning opportunities. The teacher‘s rights and duties (Harré, 1999) can be
seen to be contributing to the storylines they tell of themselves.
These teachers had a strong pervasive sense of responsibility to effectively engage their
students. This may have successfully motivated Ann and Alice initially, but something else
was sustaining them in their quest to do new things. They demonstrated a new vision, of a
personal identity, that located them as empowered and competent professionals, in control of
their teaching, and effectively able to motivate all their students.
Marc and Wilma
In the following conversational interview, held with Marc and Wilma, they had an
opportunity to discuss and reflect on their practices, material choices and pedagogical options,
and therefore their ‗reasonings‘ that are informing their practices.
Marc and Wilma are teachers in the same school setting. This was school had IWBs
installed into every classroom, at once. Marc and Wilma described the clarity and
manipulation of the IWB images to be a key element that they recognised and utilised for the
benefit of their students. The dynamic responsiveness of visualisations was frequently
credited as contributing to the immediate success of the high level engagement and
motivation evident in student behaviour and participation. Marc responded that his students,
‗oh, they love it‘ and added, I can ‗present in a much more engaging way‘.
Marc stated that the IWB made presentations, ‗look(s) more professional‘ and elaborated
further declaring, ‗it has revolutionised my teaching‘. This may be a significant comment as
Marc implied that the use of the IWB has contributed to the creation of a robust positive self-
image, and that this personal identity formation may be an important aspect, worthy of further
consideration. Marc declared, on behalf of all teachers, ‗it‘s improved our credibility‘. Marc
found that the IWB added to the perception of his role as an educator, his professionalism and
credibility in the eyes of his students, and possibly his peers.
His colleague Wilma stated, ‗I wouldn‘t like to be without it really‘. Wilma, no longer a
novice, used the IWB now for challenging students in a range of lessons and in a recent
Religious Education lesson, had used an activity that involved ‗solving problems‘ that were
‗quite challenging‘.
Wilma and Marc seemed to sense that they were now more effectively engaging and
challenging their students. Wilma explained this as, ‗I think it‘s certainly interested those
people who might have been a little bit disaffected with learning as they get older‘. Marc and
Wilma perceived themselves in a new empowered way as the IWB provided high quality
images Marc explained this as ‗I think what it‘s done, it‘s helped us to catch up with the
children‘s world‘. Wilma added that ‗It actually keeps me more interested‘. Both Marc and
Wilma are using the ‗I‘, highlighting their professional and personal sense of belief and
conviction. Marc has referenced the social professional ‗us‘ and speaks from a visionary and
broader perception than Wilma, who tells her story from a personally located perspective of
‗me‘. The analysis of these narratives explains, not unexpectedly, that teachers had found the
IWB offered an effective way to more successfully engage and challenge students, but they
had now added an unanticipated storyline.
This storyline reveals that it had been a positive and rewarding experience, personally
and professionally, for Ann, Alice, Marc and Wilma. They all felt empowered with a tool that
had given them a sense of credibility with their students and themselves. The IWB had added
to their sense of professionalism and responded to their ever-present sense of responsibility to
effectively motivate students and sustain higher levels of interest and involvement. Ann
indicated that she felt this when she said, ‗Patrick, - very difficult to engage, - actually
participating - actually produced something - very keen for me to see‘. Alice also highlighted
her successful experiences, stating that, ‗… normally Ben - very difficult to stay on task, -
engaged, he wanted to be doing, - enthusiastic‘. Marc explained, it‘s much better to deal with
engaged children then bored or disaffected ones‘. Wilma affirmed this, ‗its certainly
interested those people who might have been a little bit disaffected‘. These teachers were
sharply focussing on their achievements with those more difficult to engage students, and
they felt successful as they had fulfilled their personal and professional responsibilities.
Students learning needs and interests had come first.
These teachers note that they were better able to respond to the range of their learner‘s
needs. Marc perceived that the ‗interactive‘ component of the IWB supported students
coming up to the board and contributed to this heightened engagement and learning. Marc
illustrated this when he related that the IWB was ‗very engaging …. I think it (interactive)
gives them a better idea than just seeing it on the screen and watching …. I think that standing
up and moving around it helps‘. Marc underpinned these statements with his personal
commitment, evident in the use of ‗I‘.
There appears here to be a prevailing institutional rhetoric about the value of, and the
ways to use, the IWB. The IWB experiences were often being embedded into class
discussions. This created valuable social dialogical learning spaces and potentially created
learning communities. Most notable is that each of these teachers stated; they felt that their
local community of practice had supported them in their uptake of new technologies. They
made it clear that they had experienced support, and local interest, and that their institution
valued the IWB. They each could identify moments of encouragement from others to trial
new ideas, to share their exploits with others and to explore its capacities. Marc commented
‗I‘ve sort of pushed myself a bit‘ to learn new techniques and to become familiar with new
software. As a senior teacher and a school leader, he was leading, modelling and changing his
practices.
DISCUSSION
These teachers in this study, influenced by their professional need to cater for student
interests, were attending to student levels of engagement. They acknowledged that, without
high levels of engagement, student interest and potential for learning, dissipated quickly. The
IWB was favoured for the clarity of its images, range of software, and the dynamic interactive
component that enabled teachers to introduce and review ideas, and have students participate,
share and lead their class from the board.
The IWB had brought a sense of the outside ‗real‘ world into the classroom. Ann
accessed news video clips, replaying it twice, to provide a deeper sense of the embedded
information. Alice set up a virtual science laboratory for testing materials. The ‗ready at hand‘
convenience of the data show projector, laptop, and internet, supported her classroom
practices. In the busy classroom this is an imperative that cannot be underestimated.
Teachers used the IWB to introduce new ideas and engage students. The science ideas
were signaled in the dynamic ‗wow‘ components of the software, website or video clip. Once
engaged students were challenged to ponder the science ideas and wonder about the events
they had encountered. Students were encouraged to discuss and share their ideas. These
teachers felt deeply satisfied that they had engaged the ‗un-engage-able‘ and given students a
chance to participate in more meaningful and productive ways. Importantly also, teachers
found that the IWB empowered them, gave them a new sense of professionalism, and brought
them to a place of public credibility, clearly able to hold their own with the technologies
being used in their students‘ home environment.
Each teacher had stated that they had drawn on the support of their peers, immediate and
more remote, like principals and head teachers. Ann had worked with the school‘s ICT
‗guru‘, and knew that the students, parents and other teachers valued her efforts. People spoke
enthusiastically of Ann‘s marvellous achievements and recognised this as evidence of her
dedication to teaching. This perhaps had reinvigorated Ann, and stalled her retirement.
Alice stated that the ‗school‘ had been keen to install IWB‘s and that ‗they‘ were
prepared to support her. Other teachers openly admired her efforts as she braved the new
technology and enthusiastically included it into her lessons. Alice and Ann both felt
supported, admired and appreciated. They were both members of communities which
recognised and celebrated their efforts. This factor may be considered to have contributed to
their willingness to continually change and refine their practices.
Marc and Wilma explained that the teachers in their school had had to support each other,
formally and informally. Marc and Wilma were more experienced users of the IWB‘s than
Ann and Alice, and seemed to be sustained on their learning journey by the quality and
effectiveness of their work with their students. They had already targeted the next skills they
wanted to learn. Marc shared the interactive elements of the IWB, sitting almost amongst his
students rather than standing over them, encouraging students to participate with the IWB and
ensuring that the ideas were being explored in the group. Miller and Glover (2006) note the
experienced IWB teacher shares the use of the board in livelier lessons. Marc had encouraged
the students to explore a website at home, prior to this use in the classroom on the IWB, and
thus was able to flip/handover the introduction and exploration to his students.
These teachers put faith in the large colourful images, high quality graphics and video
clips to communicate science reasoning. The IWB was used primarily to engage and to
generate initial conversations and discussions. But there is still a need for teachers to be
supported, to understand the science ideas in the images and to be alert to installing too much
faith in pictures which may fail to accurately convey the correct science understanding
(Redman, 2005).
The teachers noted that students who were often difficult to engage were more
enthusiastic participants when the IWB was included. The teachers responded to the
supportive environment of their schools, and in their classrooms they enacted their
professional need to engage students, providing great personal satisfaction. In practice they
appear to use the IWB‘s capacity to show images, more than the interactive components, to
gain the initial attention. Once lessons were underway they drew on the interactive elements
of the IWB more, and this was described as a factor that could maintain students‘ interest. In
this small study it is hard to say if this is how an IWB should be used. But it is evident to
these teachers that IWB‘s can be effective in obtaining, and maintaining the focus and the
attention of the easily distracted.
These teachers felt satisfied at their capacity to use the IWB to gain and hold student‘s
attention but also to be able to generate richer conversations and thinking. They had faith that
the images conveyed science concepts in more real and meaningful ways for their students to
engage with and discuss. They were able to support students to work collaboratively together,
and share their ideas (Warwick, Mercer, Kershner and Kleine, 2010) and make use of the
dynamic features of the IWB that can support the development of cognition in social ways
(Hennessy, Deaney, Ruthven and Winterbottom, 2007).
It is important to note that the social supportive networks in the school settings that these
teachers experienced in their schools appeared to be a significant factor that enabled them to
adapt their classroom practices.
CONCLUSION
So in summary, what we have learnt from this study is that those around them can ably
support teachers in their uptake of new technologies. This will include the senior members of
staff who provide time and support for teachers to develop and refine their skill base. The
support can also comes from peers who are sharing and discussing their work. Students too
can play a part in helping their teachers to progress in their use of classroom technology.
A school can be seen to be a community of learners, who are all assisting and supporting
each other, to develop and refine their skills. The teachers learn new skills as their teaching
demands it of them, or their students require it, and change can be seen to be a constant in the
lives of all.
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Miller, D. J. and Glover, D. (2006). Enhanced secondary mathematics teaching: gesture and
the interactive whiteboard. British Educational Research Association, Warwick.
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Chapter 15
TEACHERS‟ SECRET STORIES:

USING CONVERSATIONS TO DISCLOSE
INDIVIDUAL AND TEAM STORIES OF PLANNING
Fiona Trapani
ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces a concept of the use of three narrative lenses to analyse
conversational interview data. Narratives and stories have been utilised to better
understand the lived world of teachers through exploration of their experiences in
conversation. The time, culture and context of the school setting and the people within
them, is considered as a whole environment. In addition to classifying the types of stories
related to the environment, I will use positioning theory as a discursive analytical lens.
This chapter provides you with samples of stories as told by teachers. It shows how
detailed reflections upon the interactions of teachers in planning can inform us about
teamwork and values.
INTRODUCTION
Let me introduce you to Jasmine, an experienced Biology teacher. She teaches in an
Australian Secondary school. She will tell you what is important to her about her teaching in
Biology through her written reflection below.
―My job is to assist students in their understanding of Biology concepts and prepare
them for exams, so that they can achieve the best possible results. In order for them to
experience success for the exams, I must present biological concepts in a manner that will
not only aid students‘ understanding of the topic, but will also help them to remember the
important details. I must also teach them how to apply their knowledge in unfamiliar
situations. Teaching Biology helps students develop a ‗way of thinking‘ that I believe is
284 Fiona Trapani
useful in many other aspects of their lives. It is a ‗scientific way of thinking‘ to be more
precise, that most students find hard to do. This ‗scientific way of thinking‘ needs to be
taught to students and they need to be provided with opportunities to practice their new
thinking skills.‖ Jasmine, Experienced Teacher reflecting on teaching Biology.
Her considered response can be seen to be rich in articulation. Jasmine‘s reflection about
teaching science goes beyond imparting ‗important details‘ to her students. She states that
biology teaching helps students to develop a way of thinking and interacting with the biology
classroom and, beyond this, the world. Her words and actions as a ‗Biology teacher‘ she sees
help her students in their own Personal Identity Formation (PIF) to see themselves as
scientists, ‗Scientists‘ in the real world. Personal Identity is constantly forming through
experiences and interactions with others (Watson, 2006). Jasmine‘s narrative above also
signals to us how refined and clear her vision of herself is, and indicates her Personal Identity
as a Biology teacher.
Jasmine‘s Personal Identity, told to us, makes clear what can be embedded in a teachers‘
perception of their professional role that is linked to their sense of Personal Identity. This is
then just one part of their ‗story‘ within a school. I will introduce you to a number of lenses
that you can use to think about and reflect upon conversations with teachers to explore the
rich lived world of schools. This chapter presents and explores these tools through the
analysis of the stories of three teachers.
The professional life of a teacher is complex (White, 2008; Mackenzie, 2007) and is
constantly informed by interactions with students, other teachers and parents. Conversational
exchanges are a fundamental component of these interactions. Over the last twenty years
(Sfard and Prusak 2005; Watson, 2006) there has been a shift in research culture away from
statistical data and interview coding, towards using interview data with people to better make
sense of their stories. It has been shown to be useful and it values the teachers‘ viewpoints.
This type of data enables us to go beyond merely recording the words that people say,
and to validate the voices of teachers by taking account of many aspects of the school site and
setting of the teachers in these interviews, and showing this as dynamic. It is also important to
acknowledge that teachers have ‗agency‘ (Ratner, 2000) within their school. This means that
they are actively using their conversations and actions to interpret their social structures and
situations within their school. How we record and analyse the narratives teachers offer
provides us with greater insight into their agency. It is through analysing these stories that
teacher identity and agency (Ratner, 2000; Haniford 2010) can be better understood, and
learning or change can take place (Wood, 1992 and Phillips, 1997). The examples I have
provided for you in this chapter present different types of teacher narratives and show how
three specific tools can be used to explore these teachers‘ stories about teaching and planning.
First let me introduce the three lenses you can use for your daily conversational interactions
with others.
LENSES FOR ANALYSIS

The field of Teacher Narrative research is a vibrant one. Much debate has occurred
around the use of narratives and ‗discourse analysis‘ to give teachers a voice within research
(Carter 1993). I sought to research the dynamics of teachers as they planned for various
Teachers‘ Secret Stories 285
learning situations. These interactions were complex, and this is where recording interview
data and analysing the conversations of the teachers is a great way to allow teachers the
opportunity to really hear the voices.
Wood (1992), Carter (1993), Ollerenshaw and Creswell (2002) and Barkhuizen (2008),
all support the use of teacher narratives as a mode of knowing and understanding the world of
teachers, while cautioning the researcher to also reflect upon their influence in these interview
situations and their ability to analyse the resulting narratives impartially. Others, including
Scheurich (1995), Johnson (2008), Holley and Colyar (2009) and Rolling (2010), suggest that
the stories of teachers need to be considered with reference to the contexts they were
disclosed in and cross referenced with other data. This can free the teacher narrative from
simply being a retelling of the way it was, and allow the reader a broader view of the
narrative as an event that is influenced by a range of interactions in an environment.
Interestingly, Clandinin and Connelly (1996 and 2006) suggest that professional
interactions can be described through three types of stories. These stories are told and retold
differently depending on the context of the conversation, who is being spoken to, and the
purpose of the conversation itself. More recently (Nicholls 2011; Clandinin 2011) Clandinin
and Connelly‘s stories have been embraced by teachers within schools to promote
‗professional learning landscapes‘ where conversations, reflection and action are the focus.
Below I will outline the three story types described by Clandinin and Connelly (1996) for you
to consider.
‗Cover stories‘ refers to the information that is presented to parents and the wider school
community. This will include the newsletters, presentations, school assemblies and
conversations teachers have with parents and the broader community. They are the ‗official‘
story of the school, and are directly promoted by the school.
‗Secret stories‘ are those shared about teachers in spaces like staffrooms and meetings
and include discussions about students and their progress and behaviours, classes and also
other teachers. They are the stories that show how the ‗cover story‘ is enacted everyday
within the school. Secret stories would also include conversations about students‘ progress
that a teacher has with their parents.
‗Sacred stories‘ are those that are influenced by the accountability and policies that drive
the school. Sacred stories may be shared with close colleagues, often in places other than the
school. Sometimes these stories are only shared with partners in the privacy of home.
As a teacher you will become aware of these different types of stories and will also be
active in creating and retelling your own. You will be able to distinguish which conversations
would be appropriate to have with parents, students, or perhaps even the Principal. Being able
to listen to, participate in, and record these stories, is our first lens, let‘s call it ‗the
conversation‘.
When teachers meet to plan their teaching together the conversation may appear to be
about documenting their curriculum and activities for the students. An outsider would be able
to recognise this as a professional conversation, but you now know that it is a ‗secret story‘.
Teachers also bring to the conversation their specific subject knowledge, their
understanding of the workings of the school and the students within it. They have
expectations of the direction and outcomes for the meeting. There is also a plethora of their
own thoughts, feelings and ideas, influenced by anything from their interactions with other
staff, past meetings, their teaching experiences, the kind of day they have had and even their
‗outside‘ life.
286 Fiona Trapani
All of these elements can impact on the interactions and conversations that are
contributing to the story that will become the ‗lived‘ reality of the meeting. These elements
are what each teacher brings to the meeting, and are influenced by the physical and social
spaces they are active in during the conversation. These combine to create the environment of
the meeting, and are what are known as the ‗umwelten‘ (Jakob von Uexküll 1934 as cited in
Lorenz, K 1971; Harré 1993), and this adds our second lens.
The third lens in this narrative analysis approach is ‗positioning theory‘ (Harré and Van
Langenhøve, 1999 and Howie and Peters, 1996). This theory assists us to interpret not just
what is said in a conversation, but how it is said, and what relationship, or value, or
commitment the content has to the person who said it.
As an analytical tool, positioning theory encompasses ‗pronoun grammar‘ (use of ―I‖,
―We‖, ―He‖, ―She‖). The investigation of the pronouns assists us to reflect upon the ‗position‘
of the person speaking. It indicates their sense of agency in this situation. What is their
relationship to the events; do they feel in control of the actions and conversation, are they
empowered within the social group, do they attempt to empower others within the group
conversation? We can gain insights from positioning theory and pronoun grammar analysis.
Positioning theory offers us a finely grained analysis of speech and action. Positioning
Theory takes account of the umwelten of individuals to help give the researcher a sense not
only of what is being said, but what it means for the people involved in the conversation, and,
in developing their story.
The three lenses presented above recognise that teachers, and people, are not passive
individuals in the story of the school. They are thinking and active agents, constantly
managing the world of the school where the cover, secret and sacred stories overlap to create
the structured reality and perception of what ‗school‘ is, for themselves and their students.
Let‘s use pronoun grammar as a lense to re-consider the language used in Jasmine‘s
story:
―In order for them to experience success for the exams, I must present biological
concepts in a manner that will not only aid students‘ understanding of the topic, but will
also help them to remember the important details.‖
We can see Jasmine focuses on constructing a story of school for her students that aligns
with her philosophy of how presentation of concepts and experiences can be used to produce
a ‗biology story‘ for her students to embrace and make their own.
―This ‗scientific way of thinking‘ needs to be taught to students and they need to be
provided with opportunities to practice their new thinking skills.‖
She is focused on providing experiences and having her students involved in the actions
that will help them create meaning from experiences and remember the concepts. It becomes
clear that Jasmine‘s interpretation of this teaching dynamic is more than a transmission of
knowledge. She hopes it becomes part of her students‘ way of thinking about the world,
beyond the classroom.
―My job is to assist students in their understanding of Biology concepts and prepare
them for exams, so that they can achieve the best possible results.‖
At the same time she is aware of the policy and guidelines imposed by the Board of
Studies (for the senior school system, in Victoria, Australia) for examinations (―My job‖) and
her broader role of guiding her students to becoming ‗biologists‘ in the years beyond their
schooling.
Jasmine has used pronouns like ―My job‖ and ―I must‖ to show her personal commitment
and her position as a responsible teacher. Jasmine‘s personal identity is of a committed
professional who is teaching the students the skills needed to ―prepare for exams‖,
―experience success‖ and obtain the ―best possible results‖ within standardised structures.
Jasmine‘s story is that of a classroom, nurturing her students to create a secret story of her
students‘ learning journey as they grapple with, and learn, a new way of thinking. Already
you can see that the analysis tools combine to give more of a sense of the work of a biology
teacher, from a teacher‘s viewpoint.
COVER STORY OF SCHOOL A

The next examples we will explore come from interview data taken during teacher
planning sessions for special events for year 7 students. You will get a feel for the broader
concerns of teachers across schools and how interactions may occur in different situations.
First let‘s examine the ‗cover story‘ of the school. School A is a suburban state secondary
college in Victoria, Australia. It was opened in the early 1990‘s to cater for middle school
students (years 7-10) using a German based Team Small Group (TSG) (Ratzki, 1988)
teaching model.
TSG requires that both teachers and students work in teams to develop engaging and
stimulating curriculum. Teachers have planning time each week in order to facilitate this
coordinated approach to curriculum, allowing curriculum to be integrated and tailored to the
students needs. A teaching team was based around an English and a Math teacher and would
include at least 2 teachers from other learning areas. These core 4 teachers would teach the
same 75 students, split into 3 classes, for all of their subjects. It would mean that most often
the English teacher would also teach Studies of Society and Environment and that the Math
teacher was likely to also teach Science.
In the true TSG model these teachers would follow the students up through all 4 years of
schooling, providing ongoing pastoral and academic guidance for the students‘ middle years
of schooling. The students stay in the same ‗team‘ for four years, developing a supportive
structure and working relationships within the team. The TSG also requires that students are
not seated in rows but in table groups, gender balanced groups of 4-6 students, who work
together for at least a term.
School A was designed to support the TSG model of teaching and promote cross-
curricular teaching of larger than normal (25 students) groups. Integrating curriculum units
was encouraged for year levels from 7-10. Teams were assigned teaching spaces with
concertina doors to facilitate open plan teaching and learning. Adjoined to these rooms were
the team offices where the teachers assigned to the team could work and meet together. The
culture and physical structure of the school was directly linked to the experience of TSG for
the students.
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SECRET STORY OF SCHOOL A

Fast-forward now, to almost 10 years from it‘s opening, and the school had changed
considerably. Changes in the core philosophy of the school had to shift as it grew to
encompass a senior school, in the form of the Australian Victorian Certificate of Education
(VCE). Teachers now had an opportunity to teach a subject ‗outside‘ the team. As a
consequence additional demands were placed upon the teachers, and the timetables. How
would the TSG work given that 100% of a teachers load would now, most likely, not be just
in the team? The schools VCE results also became a focus for teachers and parents.
The standardised VCE program brought its own structure into the school. It was in
contrast to the TSG program as it was an individually focused and competitive program. It
required additional resources, and time for teachers to prepare and teach the appropriate
content. This standardised structure, though necessary for the long-term growth of the school,
was imposed upon teachers and students and its core was essentially the opposite of the
philosophy that TSG had engendered and developed. Where TSG promotes individualized
curriculum, VCE has externally set examinations, state-wide scaling and scoring. Where TSG
promoted group work and integration of subject matter, VCE has large-scale individual,
subject specific projects. Both students and teachers needed to reflect on the impact of the
changes that this imposed upon the school and it is against this contextual background that the
following teacher interviews took place.
USING POSITIONING THEORY TO ANALYSE A GROUP INTERVIEW

Now that you have an understanding of the dynamics of the school setting, and an
overview of our analysis tools, let‘s meet a team of teachers in an interview setting.
The interview focus was on ‗team planning for integrated curriculum‘, and examines
‗team S‘ talk about their examples and experiences. This interview was set in a classroom at
an afterschool team meeting, a meeting time generally utilised for planning curriculum and
discussing the needs of the students. Three team members were present from the beginning of
the interview, and others joined the meeting later. The age and experience of those present
was predominantly composed of younger teachers I did sense that I was ‗leading‘ them a little
more with the direction and definitions as the conversation continued. The excerpt below is a
verbatim transcription of three team members‘ discussion about integrated curriculum. I have
highlighted pronouns in bold for our analysis later.
I=Interviewer (me)
Rachael=Italian teacher in the team, 5+years experience.
Ricardo=PE and Science teacher, in his first year of teaching at the time of this
interview.
Jane-English and SOSE teacher, 4 years teaching experience.
KLA=Key Learning Area (subject area, e.g. English, Math, Science, Physical
education (PE) etc.
I: What is Integrated Curriculum to you?
Rachael: It‘s say, choosing a topic like communication and then seeing how you can
integrate that into all the different KLA‘s like setting up activities and tasks that relate to
a topic in the different KLA‘s, or most of them.
Ricardo: So they don‘t get repeated sort of thing, which we find we‟ve been doing a
little bit this year, things getting copied over different KLA‘s..
I: And the kids say ‗but we‟ve done that in English‘ or whatever?
Ricardo: yeah, hopefully Integrated Curriculum would be to do a big section across
different subject areas on different parts of a certain part of curriculum, maybe work it
out that way.
I: Have you guys actually done any Integrated Curriculum things yet or-
Ricardo: No, not me.
Jane: ahhh….
I: I suppose you haven‘t had a chance to do much planning together?
Rachael: We haven‘t done it at all this year.
Ricardo: There‘s no intentional…
Jane: nah, I can‘t think if it‘s this year or last year, sometimes like English or SOSE
might cross over…
I: and if you are teaching both…
Ricardo: Yeah, I did a bit of PE and science cross over.
Jane: Yeah, you might do that, but not planned.
Rachael: We haven‘t sat down and planned.
Ricardo: You can see how it could probably be integrated pretty well.
Reading through this transcript, there is a sense they are sharing a textbook definition
about Integrated Curriculum and a dawning realisation by all three members present that they
don‘t discuss curriculum as a team. We get an idea of the classroom as being their private and
individual domain. For example they do ―crossovers‖ (make links between maths and
science) in their own subjects, but this is not planned by a teacher to be a team pursuit.
Rachael begins by using the pronoun you: “you can integrate it into all the KLAs‖, she is
actively removing herself from the action. The you (Redman, 2008) indicates she may have
created a distance between herself and the content of her statement, ‗you‘refers to some other
teacher in some other time, it is not Rachael‘s reality. Ricardo backs her up to explain how it
would be more economical in terms of time if content was not repeated in different subjects,
as they are finding this is happening, then the students complain.
When asked if they have planned any Integrated Curriculum (IC) yet, all three state that
they haven‘t. Ricardo says ―We haven‘t done it at all this year.‖ Using a collective pronoun to
share this accountability with his team. This is a shared responsibility and the team has been
spending time on other issues, including discipline and running other activities. Jane reflects:
‗I can‘t think if it‘s this year or last year, sometimes like English or SOSE might cross over‘,
giving her personal experience and the impression she has done this before, on her own, in
her own subjects. Ricardo then says he has done some integrating when there is a crossover in
the subjects he teaches, and then Jane partly qualifies this for him by saying ‗Yeah, you
might do that, but not planned.‘ Indicating you to ensure that it is understood that Jane has a
distant vision but would do this in an individual, ad-hoc fashion, and wouldn‘t really plan it.
This could be a statement to show that, in her experience, planning for IC is not a team task.
In a way it is also reflective of her longer experience in schools and in hindsight may have
been a comment to put Ricardo in his place: the ideals of the beginning teacher won‘t be
realized in this current teaching reality, it is too hard.
Not surprisingly, Ricardo then provides a visionary statement: „You can see how it could
probably be integrated pretty well.‘ He is intent on trying team planning, but there seems to
be no time in the team for this. Using the pronoun ‗you‘ may be a way of shifting the action
290 Fiona Trapani
of this planning of curriculum to someone else, in some other time, and no one is responsible
for it. He, and his team members are providing the cover story: it could be done quite well,
but it is not us who feel confident planning for this type of learning. At this point in the
conversation about Integrated Curriculum, I shifted the focus to explore how they do use this
time. It is obvious that they are busy planning something, so if curriculum isn‘t part of their
agenda, what is? The interview continues below:
I: So what sorts of things do you find yourself planning as a team?

Rachael: Nothing, it‘s just sort of…
Jane: It‘s not curriculum based.
Ricardo: No, it‘s just all the day to day running, isn‘t it.
I: All this stuff (indicating documentation of an harassment issue being discussed
earlier.)
Rachael: For example, during talk time we organise brain games for the students…
I: Cool.
Rachael: Instead of just spending that time going through, for example, what
excursions are coming up or what notes need to be passed onto students. We play a brain
game with them.
Jane: It‘s just team organization, isn‘t it.
Ricardo: Yeah.
As interviewer, I had shifted the question to use ‗you‘ to indicate ‗the team.‘ This
personalized the interaction and supported the team members to have the freedom to voice
their own experiences, without sticking to a cover story or script. They are quick to down play
that what they do in their team meeting is anything special, ‗Rachael: Nothing, it‘s just sort
of…‖… “Ricardo: No, it‘s just all the day to day running, isn‘t it.‖ And Jane adds that it is
not curriculum based, and I get the sense she is touching on the idea that the meeting is
needed for all these everyday ‗nitty gritty‘ things. Curriculum is something the teacher will
organize themselves, they don‘t need the team for this. The team planning time and support is
needed ‗at the coalface‘ of teaching. Dealing with the harassment issues, and teaching the
students to be organized, is the focus of the team at this time as implied in the continuation of
the interview below.
Emily: Who‘s going to meet with which parent? You know, I‟ll organise this
excursion if you‟ll organise the next one – or we‟ll organise it together. We don‘t do very
much cross curriculum, I mean we share curriculum but there‘s not much organization, is
there?
I: We‟re doing this and here is what we‟ve done, do you want to have a look?
Jane: Yeah.
I: Ok, cool, so what is the ‗educational vision‘ of the team? So what do you kind of
see as your role in teaching? Is it, um, I suppose beyond the welfare stuff, is it a mixture
of different things? Being in a year seven team it becomes very focused I suppose, on
discipline stuff.
Jane: And welfare.
Ricardo: Yeah, it‘s social and welfare sort of side of it, I‟m finding out.
I: It‘s a big focus isn‘t it!
Rachael: It‟s organising and teaching the students how to be organised, to have the
right equipment and books and their time table, making sure they can read it properly.
Ricardo: And dealing with their own issues that arise.
Jane: And just making them social, kind of turning them into social animals, cause
they‘re sometimes…. {laugh}.
Rachel: You get a lot of the teasing and bullying and harassing so just trying to
mediate, we‟re doing a lot of mediation.
Jane: Yeah, we‟re doing a lot of mediation.
Rachael: That kind of thing…
In this excerpt we find out that the team uses this meeting time to organize excursions
and parent meetings. Working together the teachers have focussed closely on the
administration of the team, and this is referred to throughout the interviews many times. The
support for each other in this excerpt gives a strong indication of the teachers‘ identity
formation in the team. The simple agreement of ‗we‘ between Jane and Rachael of ―Yeah,
we‟re doing a lot of mediation‖ exemplifies this collegiate identity.
Jane again tries to explain about the lack of integrated curriculum planning that occurs,
she seems troubled by this conflicting reality. Jane uses ―I mean,‖ to try and clarify that the
team does support each other in curriculum, and there are other things that are important to
the running of the team. The team focus becomes apparent in the next few lines, when
discipline and welfare are brought up. Rachael outlines the ‗nitty gritty‘ of teaching year
seven students; organization and timetable reading. In fact it goes further than this; it is not
just organizing them, it is teaching the students the skills of organization that is the ‗social
and welfare‘ issue currently, in addition to the harassment issues.
Rachael has a more vocal role in this section of the interview. Perhaps this is an area she
was most comfortable talking about. She was supported in her statements about what they
were teaching the students about organization and in the mediation of the students. Jane‘s
comment: ‗making them social‘, seems like a flippant comment. Instead I think it probably
vents a frustration. The issues of their students are time consuming and this is another reason
they don‘t plan curriculum as a team. Jane is trying to show that the reality doesn‘t meet the
cover story for her team.
Ricardo also has his light bulb moment, ―Yeah, it‘s social and welfare sort of side of it,
I‟m finding out.‖ Teaching is different to what he thought. He is finding out that there is
another pressing agenda than just teaching his PE and Science class. The pronoun ‗I‘m‘
highlights his personal relationship and understanding of what teaching encompasses. Again,
I praised this sentence, and it is one I would love to now dig in deeper with: e.g. What were
Ricardo‘s thoughts of what teaching would be? How is the reality different to his imagined
life as a teacher? Can he identify key moments where this change has occurred? Such insights
would be lost now, should I track him down and ask him. It is so important to reflect upon
your own beginning teaching journey. To see how you shift and change your own teacher
persona and personal identity in relation to the school setting, school cover stories and
interaction with students, teachers and parents.
REAL TEACHER‟S STORY 1: JANE

Let‘s now look at Jane‘s individual interview. Jane is in ‗team S‘ and has taught at the
school for three years specializing in English and SOSE. This is the first team she has been
involved with and plans on following from year 7. In other teams she worked for single years
292 Fiona Trapani
as a replacement teacher. Jane‘s individual interview took place in a classroom adjoining her
team office. It was after school, on a no-meeting day so she was not under any time pressure,
neither was I. We had worked in a team together previously; at that time we had both worked
with Max (Real teacher story 2, below) in our team.
Jane had expressed uncertainty about planning integrated classroom units and so her
interview was centred upon the planning of other team activities. The team interview,
completed a month or two before Jane‘s individual interview, indicated that little curriculum
planning was done as a team and so this individual interview focussed on the planning of
special school activities.
The ‗Fun Fete‘ activity Jane refers to in this interview is a whole school fete/arts festival
day, it raises funds for the TSG teams to use directly for their resources. The students develop
their own stalls, displays, and performances and children, parents and friends are welcome to
attend the day and enjoy the variety of activities on offer. It runs on a school day, supervised
by teachers and has a timetable to support students to experience as much as possible in the
day. In my memory it continues to be a special part of School A‘s culture.
I: Now, do you have an individual story about team planning that you would like to
share?
Jane: Ok. ‗Fun Fete‘ this year was a team based activity. It was like a whole school
fete day and our team organized to have some stalls and some competitions. It worked
out really well, the kids were fantastic. Organisation; a lot of it happened during lunch
times and some enrichment time just so that we could get the kids organized. On the
actual day it worked really well, we all supervised, kind of rotated, um, it was a really
successful day. Our students seemed to be with us all the time. We didn‘t have any
dramas about being disorganised and them not meeting up. We marked the roll numerous
times that day just to make sure everyone was still there, as I said a lot of the planning
went on at lunch time.
I: That was planning with kids or planning with teachers?
Jane: Well kind of both. With teachers it happened in our team meetings we divided
up who was going to buy what and who was going to supervise which bit and what area.
I: What was your main role?
Jane: Well basically, I organized the room with Rachael and set it up, I also
supervised that room during the day. I was basically in that room all day, supervision of
the kids. The thing that I organized the most was the cake stall. Some of the girls baked
cakes and cookies and muffins at home and brought them in and I kind of organized that
bit mostly. That was probably the one that needed the most because you had to go and
buy the ingredients and things I went and that. Did the money, got the money from ‗Fun
Fete‘ and paid it back and we made a bit of a profit actually and bought a CD player, so it
was pretty good. Yeah, a CD player for ‗team S‘ which is good. You see I think my role
is just organization and supervision on the day, and clean up. I mean it went well and we
all did our part, divieed up all the jobs, who was going to go buy what, the prizes and
yeah it worked well it was a good day.
I: Thanks Jane
Already, from the first question, I was choosing my words so I did not direct the
interview towards a particular negative or positive path as I hoped my wording would allow
Jane to choose that path she wanted to follow. She refers to the students as ‗our‘ students,
displaying a deep link with these children. The joint nature of planning for this Fun Fete day
is evidenced in the pronouns she uses throughout to support this position. The team includes
the students as active members. The day ran smoothly with the formality of roll checking
through the day to support Jane‘s claims of supervision. She explains that planning was with
both students and teachers, using meeting times and lunch times with the students. The fact
that this time is given freely by both students and teachers gives great insight into the nature
and culture of interactions within these teams, and indeed the school itself.
As to organization, Jane also gave up her after school time to shop for ingredients that the
students needed for their cake stall. She also organized the finances for the students. She says
that Rachael helped set up their rooms for this activity, proof the team teachers are united in
supporting their students. Jane‘s pride in making a profit on the day and being able to buy a
CD player for the team of students to use is further evidence of the success of the day.
Despite this task taking weeks to organise and obviously requiring time, planning and effort
from Jane, her team of teachers and students, her statement: ―You see I think my role is just
organization and supervision on the day, and clean up. I mean it went well and we all did our
part, divieed up all the jobs, who was going to go buy what, the prizes and yeah it worked
well it was a good day.”, she continues to describe her role in a minimalist way, for example:
‗Just‘ and ‗we all‘. Jane clearly sees herself as part of the team, not just the teaching team, but
side by side with the students also. This interview was not a forum where I would pat her on
the back and say ‗well done‘. She was not trying to win points with me, in fact there was a
good chance at the time that no-one else would ever see this interview, so this was not (in my
opinion) a ‗look at me, I‘m so humble‘ type interview I feel deeply that Jane sees these
opportunities the team provides for the kids as an innate part of the team‘s work and, by
extension, the work of a teacher.
To take this one step further, Jane has spoken about what she believes any teacher would
do to help their students. This provides an understanding of Jane and her opinion of the
professional nature of teaching. Her actions are not onerous, and are supportive of the Cover
story of the school for this activity to be a celebration of and for the students and the teams.
We know from this interview that she feels that her team members are supportive and share
her vision. This experience on the day was perhaps so positive because these stories, and the
resulting reality, were meshed together. The secret story shared in the interview is the same as
the school‘s cover story for the vision of this activity.
REAL TEACHER‟S STORY 2: MAX

‗Max‘ is a teacher in ―team P‖. Max is one of the foundation staff at the school and has
been a major supporter of TSG and the opportunities it provides for students. He is in a
teaching team with 4 other teachers, who have varying teaching experience at School A. His
particular subject area is geography, which has extended to encompass English and SOSE in
his time at School A. Within the wider school community Max has been extremely active
over many years in developing fair assessment tasks across year levels and also in developing
personalized curriculum and assessment for year 9 and 10 programs. He has made a
deliberate choice in his teaching career to not take on VCE teaching and to work as much as
possible within his team. By taking this role Max is ensuring his agency as a TSG teacher is
not compromised, though there are other impacts upon his agency as we will see below.
294 Fiona Trapani
The interview took place in his team office space after school. It was a busy time of day
and people were in and out of the office, talking about their day and organizing themselves
for meetings and work the next day. We had about 30 minutes to have our interview, as Max
had to pick up children from day-care and school and I was late for a curriculum meeting. I
had presented Max with some questions before the interview took place to allow him to think
about the part I wanted to focus on. This was important as Max‘s individual interview took
place quite some time after his whole team interview.
During our discussion, Max was focused on a storyline about the impact of timetables on
the running of the Integrated Curriculum units. The following excerpts describe how he
perceives two of the integrated units that the team presented were different ways of planning
and running integrated curriculum. The two units were ‗Life after school‘ and ‗the Olympics‘:
I: Drawing on stuff we were talking about in the big interview last year- We were
talking a bit about how the Olympics unit was different to the ―life after school‖ unit, and
I know it was a long time ago, could you maybe give me some information about the
different styles of planning that were used, in the 2 units, like – what were the differences
that made the ―life after school‖ one better than the ―Olympics‖ one?
Max: Ok- the life after school one wasn‘t constrained by KLA; it was a
consideration rather than a constraint Um- we simply looked at some of the skills and
info that they would require, within the um – (whistling and shouting in the background –
request from Max to keep down the noise-) so um,
I: KLA was more of a consideration
Max: well, yeah- only in – with life after school we basically threw the timetable out
and it was just a block of time- um, we just looked at some of the skills shared and threw
it into a big bag and basically said ―ah well they‘ll be doing this and we‘ll help them
work through that; however if they complete this task they will be addressing a number
of different tasks, um, and we‟ll acknowledge that, as when we take it back as, and take a
look at it in the light of the KLA – initially we‟re looking at it in terms of teachers and
how the students were approaching their study and things like that, um, that worked
really quite well in that there was a lot of openness but it had parameters placed on the
students and they quite enjoyed that in that way.
Ah, the Olympics unit was a little bit more rigid, it was down to individual teachers
delivering the content, guiding the students on the work, all it was, was integrated in terms we
were taking into consideration that someone might do this piece of work, someone might do
that piece of work. And so by the time each KLA has done their little bit they have pieced
together a complete picture. I don‘t see that as completely comprehensive in terms of an
approach to integrated curriculum. When three of us are standing in a classroom, working
with students and they‟re actually able to select what they want to study from the matrix we
have provided to them, um, which would then go back and answer their questions- it was
allowing them to be self paced, it was allowing them to be selective and it was also getting
them to focus in and working them through to an understanding that knowledge and skill
isn‘t constrained to a particular time of the day, isn‘t constrained to a particular subject and
they, that can follow a pathway if they want to and so there was all that openness. I mean
you had a certain degree of expertise in a room that would allow that to happen and they were
following their own line of interest – where as if they came to English for the Olympics unit,
then they pretty much did what was being prescribed, all it meant was, (interruption more
people in the office), we were addressing each piece of a jigsaw puzzle – and so I had six
pieces, someone else had six pieces and by the end of the term everybody had put the picture
together.
I : and hopefully the kids did too.

Max: Exactly, and but, it was still prescriptive, it wasn‘t a way of dealing with
individual differences, individual learning skills or that type of thing, which I do believe
we took the time and the effort to allow for students there. Some students took all day to
get through half a piece of work, other students got three pieces of work done in a day,
so, that was the beauty of it, you weren‘t constrained by bells and times and things like
that you just worked around that. Students were able to be more selective.
Again, in the introductory question I was trying for a positive story I had used the word
‗better‘ to prompt Max‘s reflection upon the two units of work. Looking at pronouns, Max
doesn‘t use ‗I‘ a lot. It seems his reflection focuses more on the ‗we‘ of the team teachers and
the ‗they, them, their‘ to refer to the learning needs of the students. I also used the pronouns
‗We‘, ‗I‘ and ‗You‘, to refer to our previous group interview and to support him in sharing
this story with me. I am very aware of the language used to share the interview space and
want to be an interviewer who witnesses the speech acts, influencing their content as little as
possible. I can see the contrast in the language I use between the earlier group interview and
the individual ones I have presented here.
He reflects on three areas: timetabling of learning, teacher directions for learning and
targeting the skills the students‘ want/need to acquire. Timetabling is Max‘s bug bear. He
recalls the ‗life after school‘ unit where three teachers could be present in one classroom to
help guide students learning. In contrast, the ‗Olympics unit‘ was tackled by individual
teachers in their own subject time slots, constraining the ‗learning‘ of the students to each
teachers‘ own area of expertise and to 45 minute teaching blocks. Max laments this; it hinders
the possibilities for learning for the students and the range of planning available to the
teachers. He feels like he is not creating a living Integrated Curriculum reality for his
students. It means that Max‘s cover story, and secret story, do not align.
Max has referred to developing and using a matrix for both units, one planned by the
teachers in response to the students questions about a topic. In this way the curriculum is
student centred, which is reflected in Max‘s use of ‗they, them, their.‘ Max‘s frustration at
being forced to use KLA time and single teachers for the ―Olympics unit‖ is obvious, he
doesn‘t feel the students were given enough support to develop their skills as they would have
had in the whole day, open classroom and three teachers ―life after school unit.‖ The
―Olympics unit‖ was ‗prescriptive‘ and didn‘t easily accommodate the students learning
styles and work needs as it is hoped an integrated curriculum would do. This frustration is
palpable; Max sees how far he and the teachers in his team are from his ideal learning
environment. He seems to be in a constant struggle with the timetable to still provide the time
for these learning experiences for students.
Let‘s take a deeper look into Max‘s secret story disclosed in the interview. When we
reflect upon the fact that he is a foundation member of the school, involved in the more
idealistic times where Max was an active agent in Integrated Curriculum and team based
endeavours. The classroom reality was closely aligned with his cover story of the school.
Now, ten years on, Max is understandably struggling to realign his personal identity with that
of being a TSG teacher when confronted with the new cover story of the school, that of a
school offering a VCE curriculum. The school policy has reflected the change in their cover
296 Fiona Trapani
story, to encompass VCE and all that it entails including specialist teachers. Perhaps Max
feels that his school cover story hasn‘t changed, evidenced by his resistance to teaching VCE,
trying to keep the essence, as he sees it, of TSG alive in his team, and is frustrated when his
attempts to uphold the vision of the original school are thwarted.
REAL TEACHER‟S STORY 3: JASMINE

Jasmine is a science and math teacher, specializing in VCE Biology and VCE Math. She
was a colleague of mine at my last school, not at School A. Jasmine and I are still in contact,
mostly via phone and email conversations. Jasmine‘s reflections were written responses to a
series of questions (Q) I posed in an email. By reading her responses you can tell she has
considered her words carefully to represent her teacher identity. If this had been a face-to-face
interview the words used would have been more casual. There are noticeably less personal
pronouns through her writing than may have been present in a spoken conversation. The
written word can carry a more considered and edited response to a question than the spoken
word.
From the excerpt at the beginning of the chapter we can see that her journey as a teacher
is linked closely to guiding her students toward successful learning beyond the walls of her
classroom. In the excerpt below, Jasmine reflects upon the question of team planning:
Q: Could you reflect upon an instance of team planning for Biology or Science?
Jasmine: At the school that I last taught at, there were regular Science meetings
during which teachers worked in teams to plan for a particular topic. It is always
insightful and valuable to work in a team when planning for a Science topic. Other
teachers can give you fresh ideas on how to present a topic. These ideas may be
completely different to what you had in mind or they may be similar. Nonetheless, it is
useful to know how other teachers may approach a topic, whether you do it in the same
way or not. It also provides for consistency in the curriculum.
Q: What were the strengths and weaknesses of this experience?
Jasmine: One of the weaknesses in such meetings is that there is often not enough
time to plan a topic thoroughly enough. For example, there were instances when old and
outdated assessment tasks were used, simply because there wasn‘t enough time to re-do
them.
While few pronouns are used here this reflection on planning does give insight into the
preferred team nature of planning, the recognition of the value that other staff members can
contribute, and consistency in approaches that this affords the students. The use of this
focused meeting time to plan a science topic is definitely seen as a strength, her beginning
reflection is positive. When prompted about weaknesses, there is an absence of pronouns and
a frustration is disclosed, attributed to the eternal enemy of teaching, time. Teachers were
using out dated assessment tasks because there was just not time to redo them. Jasmine does
not blame anyone directly, and appreciates the sharing of other ideas and resources in this
subject specific meeting time. However it is a problem for her, and we could take from her
lack of pronoun use in this statement about weaknesses that she is sharing this secret story
with me, but doesn‘t want it to reflect upon her professional identity.
CONCLUSION
We have witnessed Jasmine‘s teaching experience through her own reflections, we have
been present in a team meeting as they discussed planning. We have also had discussions with
Jane and Max in relation to their contributions and ideas about planning for both curricular
and extra curricular activities. I say ‗we‘ because by reading this, and thinking about stories,
positioning theory and pronoun grammar, you have joined me on this journey into the
mechanisms of planning for teaching. You have become aware also, perhaps, of your own
agency and what influences your ongoing stories.
In analysing these stories we see that all of these teachers are involved and active: within
their teaching and planning spaces, responding to the cultures of their school, and the
personalities of those around them. They are agents within and of their own stories and also
that of their peers and students. Jasmine sees her role as very much an obligation to her
students and promotes their success through her words and actions. Jane discussed the
opportunities provided within her school‘s culture to work closely with her students to
empower their broader development. Max laments changes in the school culture that are now
limiting what was once possible in the learning opportunities his team provides for their
students, but despite this lament has still battled against the odds to provide his students with
the best integrated units his team could provide. Teacher Narrative Research can be seen to
provide rich data, allowing the reader to be taken on a journey in time and space to better
understand the dynamics that can lead to teacher conversations and action. We can use
multiple tools, including those offered by positioning theory and pronoun grammar, to verify
the conversations and give teachers a genuine voice within the research. Being aware of the
different types of stories that teachers tell, and the different situations that can influence how
they are told (or not), is an important part of developing yourself as a teacher. The excerpts
outlined in this chapter allow a window into considering teachers‘ stories at different stages of
their careers. We have analysed these to expose their hopes, dreams, values and also
disappointments. The three tools, ‗conversation‘, ‗umwelten‘ and ‗positioning theory‘ can be
powerful tools to validate the voice of teachers in their own stories.
Using Teacher Narrative as a research vehicle provides not only an account of life in
schools, it also can be combined with other analysis tools to allow deeper understanding of
the life of schools. By reflecting upon these interviews we can witness the umwelten that is
constantly being shaped over time by those living and working in the school space itself.
Those working to manage schools and teachers can then reflect on the research and their
experiences to identify and create their own spaces for effective planning, teaching and
learning in their schools. And you, as a beginning teacher, can begin to reflect upon, and
understand, the professional conversations of those around you as you develop your own
voice and secret stories to share.
REFERENCES
Barkhuizen, G. (2008). A Narrative Approach to exploring Context in Language Teaching.
English Language Teaching Journal. 62 (3),231-239.
298 Fiona Trapani
Carter, K. (1993) The place of story in the study of teaching and teacher education.
Educational Researcher 22 (1), 5-12.
Clandinin, D. J. and Connelly, F.M. (1996). Teachers‘ professional knowledge landscapes:
Teachers stories; stories of teachers, school stories, stories of schools. Education
Researcher, 25 (3), 24-30.
Clandinin, D. J. (2006). Narrative Inquiry: A Methodology for Studying Lived Experience.
Research Studies in Music Education. 27 (1), 44-54.
Clandinin, D. J. (2011). Narrative Understandings of Lives Lived in and out of Schools. [Web
log post] Retrieved from http:// www.learninglandscapes.ca/component/content/article/27
Haniford, L.C. (2010). Tracing one teacher candidate‘s discursive identity work. Teaching
and Teacher Education. 26, 987-996.
Harrè, R (1993) The Social Being (2nd ed). Blackwell Publishers. Oxford.
Harré, R. and van Langenhøve, L. (1999). Positioning Theory: moral contexts of intentional
action. Blackwell Publishers. Oxford. (Chapters 1 and 2).
Holley, K. and Colyar, J. (2009). Rethinking Texts: Narratives and the Construction of
Qualitative Research. Educational Researcher, 38 (9), 680-686.
Howie, D. and Peters, M. (1996). Positioning Theory: Vygotsky, Wittenstein and Social
Constructionist Psychology. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour. 26 (1), 51-64.
Johnson, A. S. (2008). The Moral of The Story: Agency in Preservice Teachers‘ Literacy
Stories. English Education. Jan., 122-144.
Lorenz, K. (1971). Studies in animal behaviour, Vol. 2. Cambridge MA: Harvard Univ. Press.
Mackenzie, N. (2007). Teacher Morale: More complex than we think? The Australian
Educational Researcher, 34 (1), April, 89-104.
Nicholls, J. (2011, March 18) Professional Knowledge Landscapes. [Web log post] Retrieved
from http://ictucan.blogspot.com/2011/03/professional-knowledge-landscapes.html
Ollerenshaw, J. A. and Creswell, J. W. (2002). Narrative Research: A Comparison of Two
Re-storying Data Analysis Approaches. Qualitative Inquiry 8 (3) 329-347.
Phillips, D. C. (1997) Telling the Truth About Stories. Teaching and Teacher Education, 13
(1), 101-109.
Ratner, C. (2000). Agency and Culture, Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour. 30 (4)
413-434.
Ratzki, A. (1988). The remarkable impact of creating a school community. American
Educator, Spring, 10-17 and 38-43.
Redman, C. (2008.) The Research Planning Meeting. In: F. M. Moghaddam, R. Harré, N. Lee
(Editors) Global conflict resolution through positioning analysis. 95-112. New York,
Springer Science and Business Media.
Rolling, J. H. (2010). Art education at the Turn of The Tide: The utility of Narrative in
Curriculum-Making and Education research. Art Education. 63 (3) 6-12.
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in Education, 8 (3) 239-252.
Sfard, A. and Prusak, A. (2005). Telling Identities: In: Search of an Analytic Tool for
Investigating Learning as a Culturally Shaped Activity. Educational Researcher, Vol. 34,
(4), May 2005, 14-22.
Watson, C. (2006). Narratives of practice and the construction of identity in teaching.
Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice, 12 (5), 509-526.
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Education and Development, Issue 24, Retrieved from: http://ihjournal.com/teachers-
professional-life-cycles
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Harvard Educational Review, 62 (4), 535-550.
APPENDICES
APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW TOPICS (ENGLISH AND CHINESE)

Notes
Ask the participant: could you please draw a scientist doing sciencefor me?
请画一幅画：一位科学家从事科学工作
Once the participant finishes the drawing. Ask him or her to describe what s/he has
drawn: Can you please explain to me what you have drawn?
你能给我解释一下你画的是什么吗？
Relate to the drawings and ask the applied questions of the following:
Do scientistsin real lifelook like the one(s) in your picture?(If the answer is negative,
ask: What do they look like?)
现实生活中的科学家和你画中的一样吗？（如回答否定，则问：那他们是什么样
的呢？）
Do they look like one of us?
他们和我们一样吗？
Whatelsedo scientists do?
科学家还做什么？
Do you think scientists do science alone or in a team?
你觉得科学家是单独一个人工作呢还是和一个团队一起工作？
Can you tell me the name of any scientists that you know of?
你能告诉我你知道的任何科学家的名字吗？
What is science?
科学是什么？
At school what have youdone in science?
你在学校的科学课做了些什么呢？
Would you like to do more science at school?
你希望能在学校多上些科学课吗？
What would make science more interesting to you?
怎样才能让你对科学更感兴趣？
Do you think the science you learned in school is useful in your everyday life?Can you
please give me an example?
你觉得科学课上学到的东西在我们的日常生活中有用吗？你能给我举个例子吗？
Why do you think that you have to learn science?
你觉得你为什么要学科学？
302 Christine Redman
(Questions underlined are the adapted ones for Chinese Year 2 students.)
Notes
(What is science?)
Do you know what science is?
你知道科学是什么吗？
(At school what have youdone in science?)
Have you done any science at school or other places?
你在学校或其他地方上过科学课吗？
What activities have you most liked doing in science?
在科学课上你最喜欢做什么？
(Would you like to do more science at school?)
Would you liketo do science at school?
你希望在学校上科学课吗？
(What would make science more interesting to you?)
What would make science interesting to you?
怎样能让你对科学感兴趣呢？
(Do you think the science you learned in school is useful in your everyday life?Can you
please give me an example?)
Do you think science is useful in your everyday life? Can you please give me an
example?
你觉得科学在我们的日常生活中有用吗？你能给我举个例子吗？
Why do you think that you have to learn science?
你觉得你为什么要学科学？
APPENDIX B: ADAPTED DRAW-A-SCIENTIST CHECKLIST (DAST-C)

Student's Name : Score:
Gender (circle): M / F Grade level:
1. Lab coat (usually but not necessarily white)

2. Eyeglasses
3. Facial hair (beard, mustache, abnormally long sideburns)
4. Symbols of research (scientific instruments, lab equipment of any kind) Types of
scientific instruments / equipment.
5. Symbols of knowledge (books, filing cabinets, clipboards, pens in pockets, and so on)
6. Technology (the "products" of science) Types of technology (televisions, telephones,
missiles, computers, and so on):
7. Relevant captions (formulae, taxonomic classification, the "eureka!" syndrome)
8. Male gender only
9. Caucasian only
10. Middle-aged or elderly scientist
11. Mythic stereotypes (Frankenstein creatures, Jekyll/Hyde figures, etc.)
12. Indications of secrecy (signs or warnings that read "Private,"
"Keep Out," "Do Not Enter," "Go Away," "Top Secret," and so on)
Appendices 303
13. Scientist working indoors

14. Indications of danger
Note: Several images of the same type in a single drawing count as one image (for
example, two scientists each with eyeglasses receive only one check, not two).
APPENDIX C: EXCERPT FROM THE TABLE OF CONTENTS OF THE

SEMESTER 2, YEAR 2 CHINESE LANGUAGE TEXTBOOK
Translation of the underlined texts:

13. Words from the Laser
14. Ban Lu Invented the Umbrella
15. The Origin of the Stethoscope
16. The Super House Worker (Robots)
Appendices 305
APPENDIX D: EXCERPT FROM THE TABLE OF CONTENTS OF THE

SEMESTER 2, YEAR 5 CHINESE LANGUAGE TEXTBOOK
INDEX
Bybee, R., 36, 165, 166

5
5E, v, viii, 17, 26, 29, 30, 31, 34, 35, 36
C
A Chemistry, v, 12, 53, 58, 80, 81, 86, 88, 89, 91,
129, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 138, 139,
Acceleration, 10, 11, 12, 168, 170, 171 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148,
Acid, 141, 146 149, 187, 188, 189, 193, 198, 201, 202, 210,
Affordances, 127, 227, 228, 230, 237, 239, 242, 236, 238, 267
248, 252, 262 Collaboration, 70, 96, 123, 126, 162, 230, 232,
Agency, 102, 248, 272, 284, 286, 293, 297, 298 240, 246, 247, 249, 250, 251, 253, 254, 255,
Air, 8, 85, 139, 141, 208, 210, 213, 216, 217, 256, 257, 258, 260, 261, 262, 268
218, 222, 223, 266 Community of learners, 22, 31, 34, 279
Alexander, R., 36, 37 Community of Practice, 21, 22, 26, 29, 248, 253,
Alternative concepts, 168 256, 270, 271, 272, 277
Animations, 94, 184, 199, 202, 220, 228, 229, Computer simulations, 36, 176
230, 235, 238, 239, 240, 241, 275 Computers, 29, 47, 50, 60, 115, 116, 117, 118,
Assessment, vii, 3, 15, 20, 37, 41, 42, 68, 70, 99, 119, 120, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 229, 231,
116, 117, 137, 140, 147, 151, 157, 159, 162, 243, 245, 246, 250, 274, 281, 302
165, 173, 183, 191, 195, 198, 199, 225, 228, Connelly, F.M., 298
231, 235, 237, 238, 239, 240, 242, 244, 247, Constructivist, 1, 2, 3, 7, 15, 22, 126, 127, 153,
248, 253, 259, 293, 296 165, 166, 181, 194, 195, 232, 246, 247
Astronomy, 92, 151, 152, 153, 155, 156, 157, Conversation, x, 13, 19, 20, 25, 32, 34, 45, 46,
158, 162, 163, 164, 165, 201, 210 63, 71, 76, 77, 78, 79, 81, 83, 84, 85, 86, 100,
Atoms, 71, 72, 73, 75, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 102, 105, 111, 203, 212, 214, 222, 223, 242,
84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 210 254, 272, 283, 285, 286, 288, 290, 296, 297
Authentic, ix, x, 151, 152, 153, 154, 157, 159, Cover stories, 285, 291
160, 161, 164, 166, 184, 188, 199, 201, 228, Creativity, 162, 190, 230, 261
230, 232, 240, 242, 246
D
B
Demonstrations, v, ix, 11, 80, 86, 129, 130, 131,
Biology, 75, 87, 90, 210, 236, 237, 283, 284, 286, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140,
287, 296 141, 142, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 151, 159,
Blog, 31, 34, 251, 252, 254, 255, 261 164, 173, 176, 230, 236, 240
Burkitt, I., 224 Dewey, J., 224, 280
Burning, 5, 12, 13, 73, 141, 144, 162 Dialogic, 22, 34, 37, 232
308 Index
Dialogical, 20, 21, 22, 24, 26, 31, 35, 265, 277 Higher order thinking, 183, 190, 193, 197, 246,
Digital data loggers, 266 249
Digital microscopes, 17, 19, 23, 227, 228, 234,
236, 266
Discursive practices, 20, 21, 100, 270, 272 I
Dot, vi, ix, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209,
210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216, 218, 219, ICT, v, vi, viii, ix, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25,
220, 222, 223 26, 29, 31, 34, 35, 36, 37, 71, 73, 76, 113, 114,
Drawing, vi, ix, 21, 33, 45, 46, 47, 50, 53, 54, 55, 227, 228, 229, 232, 233, 234, 235, 236, 237,
56, 59, 85, 114, 154, 203, 204, 205, 206, 208, 239, 240, 242, 244, 245, 246, 247, 249, 261,
209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 265, 274, 278
218, 219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 224, 227, 228, Information Communication Technology (ICT),
245, 256, 269, 275, 294, 301, 303 17
Inquiry, ix, 7, 14, 15, 28, 29, 30, 33, 37, 69, 99,
109, 110, 130, 135, 136, 151, 152, 153, 154,
E 155, 156, 158, 159, 160, 161, 164, 165, 166,
180, 192, 193, 195, 197, 199, 201, 224, 228,
Earth science, 151, 152, 155, 241 229, 230, 231, 232, 233, 234, 236, 240, 243,
Enquiry, 32, 222, 238 244, 246, 257, 298
Environmental Education, v, 89, 93, 96, 98, 99, Interactive, ix, x, 19, 21, 24, 28, 29, 68, 71, 73,
100, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 76, 77, 79, 80, 81, 82, 84, 85, 86, 87, 183, 205,
111, 148 227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 233, 234, 236, 237,
Evaporation, 222, 238 238, 241, 243, 244, 246, 249, 250, 251, 256,
257, 258, 265, 269, 277, 278, 279, 280, 281
Interactive Whiteboard (IWB), 265
F Invisible, 189, 203, 204, 205, 209, 211, 212, 213,
214, 217, 218, 220, 221, 225, 266, 269
Feedback, v, 1, 5, 6, 11, 12, 161, 195, 198, 205,
212, 222, 236, 237, 238
Fensham, P., 36 L
Feynman, 90, 211, 222, 224
Flipped Classroom, 268 Lave, J., 36, 165
Force and motion, 5, 7, 170, 175, 180, 181
Force Concept Inventory (FCI), 174
Forces, 5, 169, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 176, M
177, 181, 229, 275
Mass, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 90, 170, 171, 172, 173,
175, 176, 251, 255
G Meaning-making, 20, 21, 77
Mercer, N., 281
Games, 56, 59, 65, 77, 83, 90, 228, 231, 237, Misconceptions, viii, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 14,
241, 244, 290 15, 91, 162, 168, 174, 176, 187, 190, 231
Gaming, 260 Mobile devices, 19, 231, 268
Gilbert, J., 200, 201, 280 Mobile technologies, 242, 268
Glover, D., 280 Modeling, 35, 91, 111, 154, 201
Goodrum, D., 15, 67 Models, vi, ix, 15, 66, 87, 88, 91, 111, 118, 125,
Gravity, 11, 12, 152, 171, 222 153, 176, 180, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188,
Gunstone, R., 180 189, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197,
198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 210, 233, 236, 237,
243, 266, 269
H Molecules, 71, 72, 73, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81,
82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 241
Harré, R., 36, 37, 66, 67, 68, 90, 92, 109, 224, Multimodal, 34, 227, 228, 234, 240, 248
280, 298
Hennessy, S., 37, 280
Index 309
Rights and Duties, 272, 276

N
Narrative, x, 64, 106, 108, 283, 284, 285, 286, S

297, 298
Nature of science, 39, 42, 46, 53, 61, 65, 67, 70, Sacred stories, 285, 286
151, 154, 156, 161, 162, 164, 165, 166, 183, Safety, 12, 73, 92, 131, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139,
184, 189, 191, 193, 198 140, 142, 145, 146, 236
Sayings and Doings, 21, 25, 73, 79, 89, 270, 271
Scaffold, 14, 15, 29, 30, 83, 86, 87, 164, 197,
O 199, 229
Science, i, iii, iv, v, vi, vii, viii, ix, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7,
Opensource, 250, 261
14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26,
27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 39,
P 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 50, 53, 54, 55, 57,
58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69,
Particles, ix, 71, 72, 73, 74, 78, 82, 83, 84, 89, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 78, 82, 88, 90, 91, 92, 94,
188, 209, 210, 222 98, 100, 105, 106, 108, 109, 110, 111, 114,
Pedagogical Content Knowledge, 168, 180, 198 125, 126, 127, 129, 130, 131, 133, 134, 135,
Pedagogies, ix, 37, 124, 228, 230, 231, 232, 233, 136, 138, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145,
240, 242, 245, 265, 271 146, 147, 148, 149, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155,
Pedagogy, x, 25, 36, 94, 97, 109, 113, 114, 115, 156, 157, 158, 160, 161, 162, 164, 165, 166,
116, 118, 121, 123, 124, 125, 126, 153, 165, 168, 175, 176, 180, 181, 183, 184, 188, 189,
167, 168, 176, 181, 195, 201, 202, 228, 230, 190, 191, 192, 193, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199,
232, 240, 244, 245, 261, 262 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 209,
Physics, ix, 10, 14, 15, 72, 81, 133, 146, 147, 211, 212, 213, 215, 221, 222, 223, 224, 225,
149, 165, 167, 168, 169, 172, 173, 175, 178, 227, 228, 229, 230, 231, 232, 233, 234, 235,
180, 181, 201, 210, 219, 224, 231, 241, 255 236, 237, 238, 239, 240, 241, 242, 243, 244,
Positioning Theory, ix, 19, 27, 45, 46, 77, 79, 93, 245, 248, 249, 257, 260, 261, 262, 263, 265,
99, 100, 101, 107, 108, 109, 270, 272, 276, 266, 267, 268, 269, 270, 273, 274, 275, 276,
280, 281, 283, 286, 288, 297, 298 278, 279, 280, 281, 284, 287, 288, 289, 291,
Positions, 4, 99, 102, 106, 107, 116, 152, 159, 296, 298, 301, 302
230, 237, 247, 272 Scientific concept, ix, 3, 74, 91, 135, 154, 160,
Practical reasoning, 266, 270 164, 165, 183, 184, 188, 194, 195, 196, 198,
Pre-service teachers, 168, 189, 195 201, 227, 231, 240
Primary Education, ix, 62, 93, 94, 97, 107 Scientific content, 190
Primary school, ix, 4, 18, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, Scientific literacy, 20, 31, 41, 42, 43, 67, 68, 69,
45, 59, 62, 63, 65, 67, 74, 75, 93, 94, 97, 105, 70
107, 108, 109, 200, 211, 224, 232, 233, 234, Scientific process, 55, 184, 188, 189, 191
235, 237, 238, 239, 244 Scientific thinking, 14, 184, 192, 210, 223
Primary science, 41, 64, 181, 243, 266, 267, 270 Scientific views, 175, 177
Pronoun Grammar, ix, 37, 46, 69, 93, 99, 111, Scientists, v, viii, ix, 4, 17, 23, 24, 35, 39, 40, 41,
280, 286, 297 44, 45, 46, 47, 49, 50, 51, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57,
58, 59, 60, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 69, 70, 71,
73, 88, 89, 153, 154, 183, 189, 191, 192, 193,
R 198, 211, 232, 242, 257, 284, 301, 303
Secret stories, 285, 297
Ratner, C., 298 Sense of self, ix, 125, 126
Reckwitz, A., 92, 280 Shotter, J., 90, 281
Reflective, 32, 90, 99, 126, 154, 162, 164, 166, Shulman, L., 181
255, 280, 289 Simulation, 159, 160, 165, 196, 197, 228, 229,
Representations, 50, 51, 55, 59, 63, 74, 76, 86, 233, 260
127, 184, 185, 192, 193, 196, 197, 199, 202, Smart phones, 267
206, 229, 230, 234, 248, 262, 270
310 Index
Social constructivism, 151, 152, 153, 157, 158, 127, 132, 152, 165, 199, 200, 228, 231, 233,
247 236, 237, 239, 240, 241, 242, 243, 244, 245,
Social constructivist, 21, 22, 248 246, 250, 253, 255, 256, 257, 260, 261, 262,
Stories, vi, ix, x, 39, 55, 62, 63, 65, 69, 70, 78, 263, 265, 266, 267, 268, 270, 271, 274, 278,
113, 114, 210, 216, 218, 219, 220, 221, 223, 279, 280, 302
265, 270, 273, 283, 284, 285, 293, 297, 298 Technology tools, 17, 19, 21, 23, 35, 266
Students, v, viii, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, Tytler, R., 15, 70, 126, 127, 201, 202, 262, 263
12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25,
26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 33, 35, 36, 39, 40, 41,
42, 43, 44, 45, 47, 50, 51, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, U
59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70,
74, 81, 86, 88, 90, 91, 93, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, Umwelt, 46, 271
100, 101, 102, 103, 105, 106, 107, 108, 111,
114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, V
123, 124, 125, 129, 130, 131, 132, 135, 136,
137, 139, 140, 141, 142, 143, 144, 145, 146, Van Langenhøve, 45, 67, 90, 281, 286
147, 148, 149, 151, 152, 153, 154, 157, 159, Virtual, 147, 159, 165, 184, 196, 197, 228, 229,
160, 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 167, 168, 169, 230, 232, 233, 242, 243, 255, 256, 257, 259,
170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178, 260, 261, 262, 275, 278
180, 181, 183, 184, 187, 189, 190, 191, 192, Virtual world, 228, 232, 259, 260, 261
193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201, Visualisation, 76, 83, 185, 200, 228, 229, 230,
202, 215, 216, 217, 218, 220, 221, 228, 229, 231, 233, 234, 241
230, 231, 232, 234, 235, 236, 237, 238, 239, Vygotsky, L., 244, 263, 281
243, 245, 246, 247, 248, 249, 250, 251, 253,
254, 255, 256, 257, 258, 259, 260, 265, 266,
267, 268, 269, 270, 271, 273, 274, 275, 276, W
277, 278, 279, 283, 284, 285, 286, 287, 288,
289, 290, 291, 292, 293, 294, 295, 296, 297, Waves, 9, 10, 210
302 Web 2.0, 21, 22, 23, 24, 113, 118, 126, 230, 245,
248, 249, 256, 261, 262
Wenger, E., 36, 165, 281
T White, R., 299
Wiki, 34, 157, 251, 252, 253, 254, 261, 262, 263
Teaching strategies, 2, 177, 266 Wittgenstein, 20, 21, 36, 88, 90, 99, 108, 270,
Technology, vii, viii, ix, 17, 18, 19, 21, 23, 26, 272, 280
28, 29, 32, 35, 36, 37, 40, 41, 47, 50, 53, 60,
62, 69, 70, 90, 91, 109, 113, 123, 124, 126,

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EDUCATION IN A COMPETITIVE AND GLOBALIZING WORLD

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NOTICE TO THE READER

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

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Chapter 10 Using Models in Teaching and Learning Science 183

education in terms of conceptual, procedural, emotional and imagined frameworks. To a

TEACHERS' FEEDBACK TO STUDENTS

learning. To do this, we look at current constructivist views of student learning, notions of

The details of teaching strategies should be influenced by how we think about

Misconceptions... can be described as ideas that provide an incorrect understanding

Surprise may be expressed that teachers can be a source of such scientific

SOURCES OF COMMON MISUNDERSTANDINGS

I. Misunderstandings Relating to Conflict between "Real World"

Many misconceptions in science emerge from apparent conflict between scientific

II. Misconceptions Simply Due to an Incorrect Explanation, Often Because

Having identified students' misconceptions and misunderstandings, how teachers respond

significant in its success. It must be prompt, it must be in a positive context, it must be

2. CORRECTING ERRORS AND MISCONCEPTIONS

Example 1: Force and Motion

Teacher: Have you ever seen an ice-skater?

Teacher: So what about the car?

A very common misconception among students is that a wave is caused by material

Teacher: So may be the water wave is similar.

Discussion: A hands-on demonstration or simple practical exercise is a good way to

Example 3 - A More Complex Example from Physics

Teacher: What is the force involved?

FEEDBACK IN LABORATORY AND FIELDWORK SITUATIONS

It is important to select experiments which give students an experience of a situation

Example 4: Burning of Magnesiu

We can identify a number of steps in the process of responding to student

PLANNING FOR SCIENCE LEARNING

SCIENTIFIC LITERACY AND THE ROLE OF CONVERSATION

FRAMING THE WORK OF A SCIENCE EDUCATOR USING ICT

A social constructivist teaching approach utilises a community of practice, which can

BACKGROUND IMPERATIVES UNDERPINNING

THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF INFORMATION

EFFECTIVE SCIENCE TEACHING WITH ICT

1 ‗ensuring that use is appropriate and ‗adds value‘ to learning activities

knowing those children well, [2]

OUR VALUES AND EXPERIENCES

ICT PRACTICES IN USE FOR SCIENCE EDUCATION

Well we talked about… explained that we were going to do a climatologically study

SOUND PEDAGOGICAL APPROACHES

A WAY TO SCAFFOLD LEARNING AND

UNPACKING EACH OF THE 5 PHASES OF THE 5E‟S –

SCIENCE EDUCATION LEADS TO

An individual‘s scientific knowledge and use of that knowledge to identify

THE IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGE

QUALITY SCIENCE EDUCATION REQUIRES QUALITY

THE CONTRIBUTION OF ICT TOOLS

STAGING THE SEQUENCE OF LEARNING

WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM CHINESE

SCIENCE EDUCATION IN CHINA AND AUSTRALIA

STUDENTS‟ PERCEPTIONS OF SCIENTISTS AND SCIENCE

1) What are Chinese and Australian children‘s contemporary perceptions of scientists

1) types of scientist depicted,

Chinese Students‟ Drawings

Table 1. Stereotypical Features Shown by the Study Sample of 12 Chinese Students

Table 2. Type of Scientist Depicted by Chinese Students

Number drawn by Number drawn by Year

Figure 1. A chemist working on magical potions drawn by Matthew (Year 2 boy).

Figure 2. Three botanists investigate plants drawn by Betty (Year 2 girl).