Rosalind Driver drew together ideas on cognitive behaviour in children and how they influenced the manner in which pupils learned science. Students' everyday knowledge of natural phenomena was viewed as a coherent framework of ideas based on a commonsense interpretation of their experience in living in the world, rather than as 'misunderstandings' or 'mistakes'. She argued that children's learning was dependent upon existing ideas about a phenomenon, rather than being limited by a child's developmental stage. She directed the Children's Learning In Science Project (1982-1989) and the Children's Learning in Science Research Group (1990-1995). The CLIS team at Leeds University described their findings into some of the common alternative ideas. This has made constructivist theories more accessible to teachers, to allow them to use such information to improve the quality of student’s learning in science. Some of the implications involved with constructivism are as follows:
- Pupils are less willing to take on new ideas.
- When conflict occurs the idea is not replaced but even more extravagant ideas are made to fit both.
- When unsure they tend to revert back. This is demonstrated during examinations.
Wellington (1994:66) summarised current constructivist teaching methods, which tackle the problems described above:
Orientation; activity or discussion to set the scene and focus initial attention and thinking; advance organiser of topic might be provided
Elicitation of learners’ current ideas
Challenges and changes; the teacher interprets learners’ ideas for her/himself and responds, questions and steers emerging ideas towards closer awareness and understanding of the science community’s ideas
Application of new ideas to new situations, problems or tasks; involves reflection and action in response to new ideas
Review of the topic and of the learning
Whatever labels are adopted the principle of pupils actively constructing their own new knowledge is essential. There is no halfway method to it. It is arguable that constructivist teaching is time consuming and some teachers use demonstration as a method for explanation. Pupils may interpret such unequivocal evidence quite differently than the teacher would like, since they do not always ‘see’ what YOU want them to see. It must be realised the children are not blank pages which teachers just fill.
- Figure 2: Traditional view of teaching and learning
Pupils have their own intuition of why things happen and ‘Making Sense Of Secondary Science’ (Driver et.al., 1994) can be used to provide alternative frameworks so we can understand their reality. A constructivist view to learning implies opportunities for students to:
- Clarify their personal meanings for situations.
- Sharing their own personal meanings with other students and to compare and contrast ideas.
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Have their alternative ideas challenged in a non-threatening* way. (*Otherwise fear of failure will lead to submission and pupils not being able to express their current framework)
- Construct the scientific accepted idea.
- Use the scientific idea in a problem-solving situation so that they gain confidence in using the new ideas.
Teachers were given the tools to change their perceptions of children's learning, and were able to respond to children's thinking more directly in their teaching. It was a change from far-reaching theoretical ideas, to research evidence that is user friendly to the classroom science teacher and underpin curriculum development.
1.2 Sound and light waves
The SCIENCE MAP of a domain (topic) sets out the main scientific areas that construct a logical teaching sequence(s) to lessons planning for KS3. I am treating sound and light as the same topic because the concept of waves in the two subjects is closely interrelated. The NC requirements for this topic can be found in the appendix (1). The use of the wave concept is a powerful model for explaining the behaviour and similarities of sound and light but it is complex. Hollins (ASE2000: 44) recommends that this should be covered as late as possible since much of this topic can be taught without reference to waves. Since they are taught together, care has to be taken to draw attention to the differences between them at first.
The topic is titled “Sight and Sound” in Spotlight Science and the main areas of interest are:
- Understanding Vision
- Colour from light
- Sound Production and Transmission
- Hearing
The common misconceptions in each area of interest will be reviewed as follows:
Vision
Research into children’s ideas about misconceptions on vision has been carried out in several countries. Andersson and Karrqvist (1983) found the visual ray idea to be a common one, i.e. we see not by light reflected to our eyes, but by looking. Ramadas and Driver (1989) report that many children did not see the necessity of light in order to see things. When pupils are told that light is necessary they reconcile their existing idea by drawing the line from the light source to the eye and then to the object. This finding is reinforced in other studies, even when light is understood to be necessary it was difficult for pupils to link it with vision.
Colour
It is necessary to understand how we see in order to understand how we see colour. Firstly they need to understand that black and shadows is the absence of light. Tiberghein et.al. report that 90% of their sample correctly located their shadow when given the position of the sun as in front or behind them. However, pupils did not offer explanations in terms of the straight path of light.
Anderson and Smith (1983) found that the majority of their sample did not know that white light was a mixture of the colours of light. Of them, they mainly thought that colour was an innate property of an object, that our eyes see the colour of the object rather than the colour of the reflected light.
Sound Production and Transmission
Pupils need to know that sound is produced by vibrations. Assoko et. al. (1991) found that children related sound to the movements of the sound source, e.g. striking a drum. The upper range of his sample ~16 were found to be more acute to the reference of sound as vibrations. However, given various situations no pupils used ideas about vibrations consistently. Watt and Russell (1990) found that pupils did not readily express sound as being able to travel. They suggested that children envisage sound as an invisible object with dimensions and needs room to move from A to B. Linder and Erickson (1989) found that tertiary pupils also had difficulty in the interpretation of sound and they conceptualised sound as microscopic or macroscopic entities that travels though a medium.
Hearing
Watt and Russell found that most pupils by KS3 know that sound reception is associated with the ear. About 11% of their sample connected sound waves and vibrations in connection with hearing. Some pupils (18% at age 11) held an active ear model, in which their most important factor in hearing is that the listener is concentrating on the source of the sound. Generally, the older pupils gave the more scientific response (~80%)
2.0 School-focused study
I teach two Y8 groups (Middle band and upper band) and they both have science 3 times a week. For this essay I will focus on the Top Band science group. They follow Spotlight Science course, which is a spiral curriculum. The department has adapted it and the Scheme of Work reflects the need of prerequisite knowledge and builds foundations in Y7 and 8. Aspects that require higher cognitive ability to understand are used in Y9. During Y9, the pupils have subject teachers (Biology, Chemistry and Physics) and they revise previous work, adding on more difficult work to complete the course. Shifting away from a spiral curriculum was necessary because pupils were frustrated at covering similar topics again and again.
2.1 My own findings
A copy of the SoW and lesson plans are in the appendix. I will follow the flow of lessons and summarise my findings.
The introduction to the topic was important in assessing what they already knew or what they thought about vision. Firstly they were introduced to the eye and they investigated how the eye (pupil) reacts to darkness and brightness. Then they were given a problem of how two girls think they see a book. They were asked which girl’s hypothesis is correct.
I allowed the pupils’s the opportunity to jot down their own ‘vote’ for Tina or Emma in the back of their books. I expressed that they will not be judged on their vote and there was a show of hands for or against each idea. I did not stress too much for all pupils to vote because they maybe shy and cautious of failure. However, a majority of pupils did vote and about 8(out of 30) thought that Tina was right. The emphasis was on expression. I set up a challenge/game where they have to prove or disprove Tina or Emma’s theory (It wasn’t directed at disproving the pupils and telling them they are wrong.) The pupils were very open and responsive; they were set into groups and during their short 5-10mins they debated with each other and formulated investigations. For example:
Pupil 1: (loudly) Of course light comes from our eyes otherwise we can’t see!!! You see like Emma says, otherwise there is no light getting to the book.
Pupil2: Don’t be stupid! (Laughing) We don’t wander around with light beaming from our eyes.
The groups shared various scientifically correct investigations to the class. The general requirement was for a dark room with a single light source and a book. Pupils were promoted to try it as homework, but it seemed unanimous at this point that Tina was correct.
The final part of the lesson was for pupils to investigate how shadows are formed. The OHP was used as the light source and a pinhole was made in a sheet of cardboard, which provided a narrow source of light. I demonstrated how obstruction from the top (behind the cardboard) was seen on the screen at the top. There was a problem in creating a thin beam of light and the images were rather blurred. It may have been helpful to use a convex lens to focus the light.
After lessons in bending light by reflection and refraction their understanding how we see was put to the test when explaining how colour is seen.
Pupils were asked to list the colours of the rainbow. In reply, they recited the nursery rhyme for the colours of the rainbow (this included the colour pink and random colours in the wrong order). Immediately, it was obvious that social construction has lead to misconceptions. A prism was used to split white light onto a screen and pupils were asked to list the colours as they saw them beside their original ones, in a couple of minutes. Pupils were allowed to discuss when naming the colours. The discussion spanned out and I realised that the colours were not well defined and they had trouble in identifying them. At this point I intervened and listed the colours. It was difficult to convince the pupils that there was indigo present since the spectrum wasn’t well focused. In the book there is a short passage following, about red and violet wavelengths. Since the electromagnetic spectrum is skipped this year (to be covered in Y9) it is not essential to understand the relationship with waves yet. It may also be confused with sound waves since higher energy of a sound is higher amplitude!! As acknowledged earlier, pupils should be introduced to light as a wave as late as possible.
A short video was used to educate the class about colour. Many scenarios could be seen that would have been difficult to demonstrate in the lab. There was a short crime story at the end and pupils had to understand colours in order to solve the mystery. After the video the pupils had to answer a series of questions to assess their understanding of how colour is seen. Pupils were invited to express what they understood by a series of short questions on the board. Their understanding was short lived and were often confused and reverted back to their own models. Pupils answered many, but not all of the questions correctly. Suggesting conflict between new and old knowledge.
The first lesson about sound was to investigate how sound moves. They have been introduced to sound in Y7, relating production of sound to vibrations and the speed of sound compared to light. They wrote a few lines to explain how they hear sound and if they think sound can travel through liquid and solids given some short pieces of information. A slinky was used to demonstrate the longitudinal waves of sound and those sound waves need to pass on its vibrations for it to travel. The need for particles for sound to travel was expressed using a bell in an evacuated bell-jar. Difficulties were faced because the vacuum pump wasn’t very efficient and it was very loud. Pupils were asked to focus on seeing the hammer hitting the bell rapidly and the decrease in sound as the pump was left on. To emphasise this, they listened carefully as air was allowed back into the bell-jar and they were asked to compare the two.
The pupils have recently had an end of module test and also an end of year test. For the end of module test I investigated their answers and how they understand reflection.
Pupils were asked to draw lines, with arrows to represent how light is reflected off a key on the table. This is indirectly related to the understanding of vision. Pupils in general, answered the question well. Marks were lost when pupils did not draw arrows to show the direction of light. This is more likely to be pupils not reading the questions properly rather than not being able to show reflection. They have practised drawing the line of incidence and reflection during their experiments. There were instances when both arrows pointed to the key but only 2 out of 30.
One pupil did not draw a continuous line from the lamp to the reflection and was deducted the mark.
Most pupils were able to describe the shadow of the mug was formed due to lack of light. Answers I accepted included, light travels in straight lines and the mug blocks the light and the mug is opaque.
In their end of year test, which tests all Y7 and Y8 work, pupils had to assimilate data from a table and state whether sound travels fastest through solids, liquids or gases. Most pupils were able to answer the first part correctly, when the answers were incorrect the pupils answered air. This may indicated that the pupils have a dimensional model of sound and that sound needs space to travel.
Following from that, they were asked to describe how a string telephone works.
The response to this question was very different. Although most answered that sound travelled by vibrations some used the term echo and vibration together. As if it meant the same thing. The bulk of the answers that were incorrect were in part ii, when asked how the tin can makes a sound.
2.2 Analysis and Discussion
When Light and Vision were taught it was evident that the common misconceptions were present e.g. visual ray idea. I had attempted a constructivist approach to this topic but conflict occurred again when trying to understand colour. Maybe I didn’t give pupils enough time to reflect on the new knowledge and compare its validity before trying to explain colour. They could have reinforced their new ideas in familiar situations. Pupils’ didn’t have a chance to review for themselves because I told them what was right at the end of the investigation. They need to realise for themselves. However Hodson and Hodson (1998) state the importance of teacher intervention, to teach the correct knowledge, and that review takes place in the pupils’ head. As a whole, the SAT past question was well answered.
When teaching sound I assumed they knew a lot about it already and I didn’t elicit their previous ideas as much. Even a short question: Describe how you think sound is made? Could have been sufficient to assess misconceptions and their common knowledge. The homeworks were cloze based with an investigation on sound which they drew a graph and investigated the results. The goal was for pupils to understand that all sounds are made by vibrations. The sequence of two questions looking for the same answer made some pupil’s unsure and they used, in their mind, an alternative word, echo. This is concurrent with Driver’s findings that pupils use both words to mean repeat.
Although my lessons try to start off with a constructivist viewpoint, the ending (which is arguably most important) needs to be developed. Pupils need the opportunity to compare old with new knowledge and gain confidence with new knowledge. I will need to rethink teaching of colour in particular because pupils had the most trouble with it. Although a video may seem a good idea, in-terms of resources, I think pupils need the opportunity to try out for themselves on their terms. Also, the clarity of the spectrum for pupils need to be reinforced, maybe a lens could be used to focus the light.
For the topic of sound I don’t think that two lessons did it justice, especially if a constructivist teaching method was used. Investigation of sound travelling through different materials could be integrated into the SoW. Rather than pupils being able to just presume so because it is in a table of data. For example, pupils can explore by listening with their ear on the table that someone taps, explain why water engineers use wooden rods to listen to leaks or why a doctor uses a stethoscope.
It would be beneficial to always refer new topics to the previous one, i.e. to reinforce the newly developed concept. Science Maps such as ‘making sense of secondary’ science are very helpful in identifying common alternative ideas and a logical series of lessons that fulfils the curriculum.
3.0 Conclusion
It is evident from my own teaching experiences that pupils are not blank canvasses, and they have their own explanations of how things occur in the world. When children become older and gain more experiences their conceptions may be challenged and they need to reformulate and explanation. Sometimes they reach secondary school with some correct scientific concepts, however not all concepts are sufficiently challenged in everyday experiences for pupils to formulate the right answer. The constructivist teaching method seeks to provide situations that challenge pupils.
There is a place for behavioural learning, learning by rote, since it is commonly used in Mathematics to teach pupils the times-table and this has been proven to be the most efficient method for learning it. This is true for some topics in science, many models just has to be accepted rather than explained e.g. charges of particles. Most topics in KS3 are researched by Driver (1994) to produce her package of support materials for secondary science. For the science teacher, this is an essential resource to know what could be taught by a constructivist method.
CASE is a project derived from Piaget’s theories that pupils should educate each other to formulate their equilibrium. I am more comfortable with Vygotsky’s theory that teachers need to intervene. It is a shift from personal construction to social construction. The teachers are their social constructors and essential in checking they are learning the ‘right’ science and to prescribe activities that challenge misconceptions.
It is dangerous to think that constructivist teaching will solve all misconceptions. When teaching to the National Curriculum, time is an expensive resource. It will help most pupils, but some pupils may need longer periods of time for challenge and reflection to reach the scientifically correct meaning. It maybe argued how deep their misconceptions are and how their culture affects it. When teaching in a mixed ability and multicultural society, some pupils will need constructivist teaching more than others. It is sensible to choose constructivist teaching at major target areas where the majority of pupils have misconceptions, to use curriculum time more effectively. It would be fruitful to consider if it is more beneficial in the long term to understand a topic well. For example, an understanding of circuits is very beneficial since it is applied in their GCSE’s.
In conclusion, there is a place for constructivist ideas in teaching though teachers have to be selective to make the most out of constructivist teaching. I have tried to do so and my downfall is that I haven’t given pupils the chance to test out their new knowledge thoroughly and reflect on their previous misconception to disprove it. It is essential that all aspects of constructivist be followed teaching for it to be effective.
