Research in Science Education, 1992, 22, 348 - 357

CHALLENGING STUDENT TEACHERS' CONCEPTIONS OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION

Gilda Segal and Mark Cosgrove University of Technology, Sydney

ABSTRACT

To address expected negative attitudes to studying science and technology held by primary school student teachers, we devised a learning model which combined cooperative group strategies with a learners' questions approach in a context which allowed for pluralism in methodology and epistemology. The model was used in a teacher education elective subject studied by final year Diploma of Teaching students at the University of Technology, Sydney. We found that some students were inexperienced in participating in the planning and design of their learning and that for many students, being responsible for their learning in a science and technology context aroused reactions of alarm and determined avoidance so that alternative pathways for achievement in the subject had to be offered. Some students reported feelings of satisfaction in their successful learning despite initial anxiety, low confidence or indifference.

INTRODUCTION

A new subject, Science and Technology, became part of the primary school curriculum in New South Wales in 1991. Preparation of student primary teachers for the demands of this new subject, when many already lack confidence and interest in science and technology, and/or possess an inappropriate view of teaching/learning science, poses significant challenges for teacher educators. We attempted to meet these challenges in a primary teacher education elective subject, Science and Technology in Australia, using learning methods which took account of learners' prior ideas, experiences and attitudes and encouraged learners' ownership of ideas and learning.

BACKGROUND TO THESTUDY

Evidence is accumulating to indicate that primary and student primary teachers, a mainly female population, display low confidence in teaching in the physical sciences and technological areas (DEET, 1989; Skamp, 1991). Consequences of low confidence include continuation of a cycle where negative attitudes towards science and technology of female primary teachers are transmitted to female children in their classes (Eccles, 1987, cited in Kahle, Anderson & Damnjanovic, 1991). This may in turn result in low participation of women and girls in physical sciences (Aiuley & Jones, 1990; Kelly, 1987).

Critical analysis has shed light on barriers to science learning (e.g. Fensham, 1988). Three facets of that analysis are central in our planning of an inclusive learning model designed for learners who are in different states of readiness to engage in further learning in a science and technological context. Our model encompasses pluralism in

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views on the nature and philosophy of science, in methodology, alternative methods of teaching and learning, and context, chosen for its relevance to the learner.

Females' negative attitudes to science: armmaents for epistemolo~cal and methodological pluralism Females may be alienated from the physical sciences by factors that underlie the ways science and its philosophy are presented in secondary schools (Bentley & Watts, 1987). These factors include an epistemology which is characterised as objective, officially sanctioned knowledge built around abstract and hard ground rules, and an experimentalist/manipulative methodology (Keller, 1985). Formalism is lauded as the only state for reasoning and not lust one style (Turkle & Papert, 1992). Challenges to that dominant and singular epistemology have helped to identify an alternative view of knowledge which is "flexible and non-hierarchical and is associated with negotiation, relationship and attachment" (Turkle & Papert, 1992, p. 166). Alternative epistemologies may result in inclusive approaches to learning.

Asoects of an alternative methodoloav for learnin~ and teachin~ A desire for an alternative epistemology (arising from feminist and constructivist criticisms of practices and philosophies of science education) has spawned a range of learning approaches exemplified by Barnes' conversational style (1976) and Biddulph and Osborne's (1984) interactive approach. Almost in parallel development, learning in cooperative groups has attracted widespread interest from practising teachers and educational researchers concerned with psychological and social issues (Johnson, Johnson & Holubec, 1990; Sharan, 1990). These ways of learning suggest new roles for students and teachers.

In learning driven bv learners' auestions, students may make significant choices in their learning, negotiate outcomes and can be active in and responsible for their learning. This method was thought to be novel in the context of the previous experience of the students in our study.

When learning takes place in coooerative _m'oups, enhanced academic achievement can result when learners work together, with group goals, group rewards and individual accountability (Sharan, 1990). The choice of a cooperative group learning environment for this study also allowed us to incorporate factors (such as cooperation, sharing, opportunity to speak freely and be accepted by peers) which are recognised as important for female learners (e.g. Kelly, 1987). These factors complement the learners' questions approach and are consistent with developing a hofistic view of science in which social, ethical and moral questions are involved. As the class of 27 contained 23 females, we considered that this part of the learning model would help support learners cognitively and affectively.

Context Context, where the learning is located, and where it becomes alive is claimed to be crucial in meaningful learning (Cosgrove, 1989). By blending the above approaches to learning with a context which itself meets demands of social relevance, we considered that learners disaffected with science and technology may be tempted to risk, and to enjoy, this scientific investigation.

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We chose heat pumps as a technological context, on several grounds. * We predicted that the impact of refrigeration on peoples' lives would appeal to

female learners and its everyday familiarity and accessible technology would make its study less threatening than examining other technological systems which may carry with them an alienating effect.

* Air conditioners and refrigerators are of major importance both domestically and industrially in Australia. There is scope for inquiry into: the invention of refrigeration, how refrigerators work, the storage of food before refrigeration was invented, the historical development of refrigeration and its effect on lifestyle, scientific explanations of heat and its transfer and their relevance elsewhere and the wise use of refrigeration in this society.

* Ways of introducing refrigeration studies had been developed and evaluated (Cosgrove & Mueggenburg, 1986; Newman, 1986; Cosgrove, Newman & Forret, 1987).

* Female learners in an upper secondary class achieved high understandings in this topic (Newman, Cosgrove & Forret, 1988).

In the light of developments which will be discussed later, we should state here that we expected that this would be a scientific and technological study, calling upon our learners to interpret technical effects through scientific explanations. Although the context lends itself to study of historical and sociological issues, we did not intend these to be the focus of the students' work.

THE STUDY

Students in the subject, Science and Technology in Australia were near the end of a three year teacher education course. These students had elected not to study science discipline subjects, so for them, this background subject was their only chance to study science and technology, apart from two science teaching-method subjects. Few of them selected Science and Technology in Australia as their first choice from a set of six background elective subjects.

The project occupied five weeks of class time (three-hours per week). Although other technologies were studied in the remainder of the subject, they are not discussed in this paper.

To promote reflective analysis of events, learners kept a journal in which they recorded notes about their learning, their reactions to the sessions, notes and comments about group processes and interactions, the effects of the cooperative group on their progress, summaries of the group's deliberations from each end-of-session discussion and other information which would be helpful in their reflection.

As part of the assessment requirements, and in line with the philosophy for an aspect of cooperative learning, each group undertook a major project about refrigeration and all participants in the group presented an individual report on their learning.

Ouestions The information that most of these students would have preferred to have been studying something else, suggested some research questions. Four were identified for

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their central beating on addressing the issue of low participation and low confidence of females in the physical sciences.

Subject choice ouestions Is the preference for other electives due to: 1 lack of interest in science and technology, particularly among the female

students? 2 students' lack of confidence in their ability in science (particularly the physical

sciences) due to experiences in science classes at school?

Learning model ouestions Can we gain insight into: 3 how these students manage when they are called upon to be responsible for

their own learning and achievement? 4 whether cooperative group work supports these students if they are anxious

about learning science and technology?

The next section describes briefly the teaching activities arranged for these sessions and our observations of students. A full description of resources used, activities, class discussions conducted and the co-operative group strategies used for building group relationships are given elsewhere (Segal, 1991).

The teaching v

Introduction: Sessions one and two Here we distributed an initial questionnaire (to gather background about the students) and explained the learning approach, including the parts groups and individuals would play in planning and learning. One third of the class missed the first session, due to unexpected internal arrangements. Therefore, in the second scheduled class we attempted to develop a shallow-end first approach with these late students too, by repeating some of the first week's introductory activities with them, prior to integrating them into groups in accordance with student preferences.

We had anticipated that groups would start to begin their own planning after further class demonstrations towards the end of session two. Instead, we observed that students were not engaged in active discussion or planning. Some students asked us again about the nature of the assessment, which we construed as displaying anxiety. The general atmosphere was one of unease and disquiet. This suspected anxiety was addressed by holding a discussion with the entire group, so that they could voice their concerns about how they were expected to go about their learning without being told exactly what to learn, and could ask questions about the nature of the assessment. We suggested how they might go about their planning.

Session three Two groups came to class at the beginning of session three, with evidence of planning undertaken during the week. Students in one of these groups, (one female and two males) had an air of excitement about them and made immediately for the refrigerators on display, t o check out some understandings. As they looked at the refrigerators in the laboratory, their actions were purposeful and all three sought to find the path of the refrigerant and to discover how the thermostat operated. Other students sat passively at their tables, engaged in quiet conversation.

We introduced some additional and puzzling experiences related to refrigeration to encourage people to formulate questions. One further group (two females) could be

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encouraged to come with one of us (GS) to the part of the laboratory containing refrigerators and other equipment.

Sessions four and five All groups were observed to be carrying out plans for their project.

Information gathering Information bearing on possible answers to our research questions came from students' journals, assessment items, initial and final questionnaires, observation and interpretive commentary based upon our interactions with students, some of which were taped. We reviewed each class with another researcher who observed this teaching. Here we compared our construction of events from our individual observations and interpretations.

FINDINGS

The questionnaire given to the group (N=27) during the first and second session enquired into self-ratings about science subjects studied in high school, attitudes to high school science subjects, science and technology, and learning preferences. Some information is presented in Table 1 and some other findings are discussed below.

Subjects studied in years 11 and 12 Few of the group of 27 students had studied either physics or chemistry in Year 11 or 12, (both students who studied physics were male). A large number had studied no science subject in senior high school (Table 1). This data is consistent with other findings (e.g. Jane, Martin & Tytler, 1991).

TABLE 1 SCIENCE SUBJECTS STUDIED IN

YEARS 11 AND 12 (SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL)

Subject studied Year 11 Year 12

Biology 12 11 Physics 2 2 Chemistry 5 2 General Science 2 2 No Science 10 11

Feelings about ~cience and tr as a subject About half of the class did not rate their level of confidence, degree of interest, keenness, or level of skill positively. We sought and found a link between students who were willing to carry out a scientific investigation and previous science experiences. Links to p0sitivr attitudes to high school science Two groups fully investigated how the fridge worked. These five students had selected this elective as first choice and reported that they enjoyed at least some part of science at high school. Linkz tO negative attitudes to high school science The attitudes of some of the students who avoided contact with the refrigerators were based on low interest, and apprehension about further failure after lack of success at school science, Students readily reported this in journals and in conversation.

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The projects The projects were completed after the fifth session. They included videotapes produced by students who had not used a video camera before; transcriptions of taped interviews conducted with refrigeration and air-conditioning experts; social histories of elderly people who experienced alternative methods of keeping food cold; photos taken of a refrigeration plant in a factory. In addition to information gained through library research and brochures, projects displayed artistry in presentation of both typed and illustrated material. We were impressed with the standard reached by each group.

DISCUSSION

In spite of our efforts to be non-threateuing, we were conscious of student anxiety which reached a peak during session two and in the first part of session three. In the first part of this discussion, we suggest possible reasons for this anxiety. In part two, we explain how and why the pressure was alleviated. In part three, we consider our learning model and describe some outcomes which were observed, and in part four, discuss some issues related to communication and learning which are relevant to our model.

Part one: Student anxiety Among possible contributors to student anxiety were the display of refrigerators and other equipment; the prospect of having to carry out a scientific investigation; the assessment and students' low experience of serf-directed learning; what happened at the beginning of the subject.

Technology on display, Students were reluctant to approach the refrigerators to make observations and inferences about how a refrigerator works, and in some eases, this was totally avoided. Scientific or technological investigation It was not clear whether it was the technology

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itself, or the prospect of investigating, or both which caused the anxiety. We suspected that this reluctance could be an example of learned helplessness in a scientific context, but this is conjecture. The a~cssment and low ex_oerience of self-directed learning Students were reluctant to accept that they were able to present the results of their learning in any way they chose Later we confirmed that this was the first time that some of these students had

experienced any school or university subject in which they could make sitnfificant choices. The events at the ~tart of the subject The students who missed the first session contributed to the developing anxiety, even among students who had been present for both sessions. This is indicated in some journal entries.

Part two: Modification of aooroach The high level of anxiety and the passivity of many students meant that at that stage of development of the subject, the situation needed to be carefully assessed in terms of risks to the students to determine whether we needed to modify our approach.

Risks for students In discussing the anxiety and passivity of the students at the end of session two, we did not know if it were possible for these students to change from their dependent mode of learning, especially in a technological context. This could have meant failure in a subject in the final semester of their course.

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Modifying plans Our original plan for the unit, scientific investigations embedded in historical and sociological background research, seemed alienating and non-motivating to most of these students. Faced again with mostly passive students in session three, resisting engagement with the equipment on display, we encouraged students to concentrate on other possible loci for their projects:- an historical study of refrigeration, sociological studies, including questionnaires to people of different ages and cultures about refrigeration were mentioned as choices for their learning.

After the modification The change led to more enthusiastic approaches to students' planning, shown in sessions four and five.

Part [hrer Learnin~ model issues We now analyse the part played by our learning model in the outcomes of our study.

Learners' auestions approach, pluralism and context These parts of our learning model provided us with flexibility to accept and act on the unreadiness of the majority of our students to plan a scientific investigation in our chosen context of heat pumps by encouraging them to ask questions of social and historical concern, within the same context. This seemed to appeal to them more. If we had been unable (or unwilling) to abandon our original plans, we think that we would have been virtually denying them access to future learning in science and technology by reinforcing their low self-esteem and confidence in this area.

Coooerative grouo learnin~ Early and continual emphasis on cooperation and on learning group skills contributed to students reporting that they were enthusiastic about working in a group (as opposed to working alone) and that fellow group members supported them in their learning. Completed group projects illustrated one anticipated outcome of the cooperative learning group strategy, as the high level of attainment evident in each project was dependent upon a division of tasks and upon each member completing her/his assigned tasks.

We attribute the ultimate success of every group in managing their own learning to the flexibility of the entire model, but we found that other aspects of the learners' questions part of our teaching model were more advantageous to the learning of students engaged in scientific investigations than to the social investigators. We now take up this issue.

part four Communication with students The development of social, rather than scientific studies by some of our groups led them to ask different types of questions, most of which the groups themselves could set about answering without further assistance from their lecturers. This type of question seemed to limit the quality of the lecturer-student interactions which occurred in these groups and it took much longer for the growth of a relationship of trust to develop between lecturer and student.

Student-lecturer intr The scientific investigators consulted us and engaged us in thoughtful conversation; the social investigators did not seem to need to do so. Such interactions which did occur with the social investigators seemed superficial, compared to the prolonged and shared conversations between lecturer and scientifically investigating student.

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In the following extract from a taped conversation with G.S., Jim shows a form of mctacognitivc thinking about how his group's interaction with M.C. eventuated in the group's success and his own joy in discovering how the refrigerator works.

1 respect (that) teaching, that line of questioning and for allowing me to work something out, like it's allowing, you know, me to do my own jigsaw puzzle, you know-its like a jigsaw puzzle, do them for hours, you know, but its an experience that working out for myself, that can never be replaced - its that first time - its like watching a movie for the first time -... I love watching films for the first time 'cos its one of the joys of life, you know, just: What's going to happen? Like a big action film or reading a book for the first time, you know, 'cos you don' t know what's going to happen. Same as this, you don't know what's going to happen, you know a little bit, but you work from there.

This sharing of personal feelings is a way of expressing trust, which we consider to be a critical necessity in the teaching/learning situation for full development of the potential of the learner.

Devr of trust During extensive teacher-student interactions, as a trusting relationship develops, students become willing to ask questions, even at the risk of questions revealing ignorance. An example of this was in a discussion with Mary, one of the scientific investigators, about the purpose of a drying tube in the refrigerant circuit. She asked

If the drying crystals are supposed to pick up the moisture, how come they don't pick up the liquid freon?

Here Mary revealed that she believed that if crystals can absorb water, they ought to absorb other liquids. In the learners' questions approach, teachers can be placed in a privileged and sensitive position to respond to the needs of learners. In responding, we believe that the integrity of the learner must be preserved and that no damage be done to the self-esteem of the learner.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

This study focused on students who had participated in a learning situation which was novel for most of them. Early anxiety (which may have originated in factors related to fear and dislike of independent investigating in a technological context) was ameliorated by removal of the necessity to interact directly with the equipment. This indicated to us that even with this soft approach (Turkle & Papert, 1992), some students were not yet ready for a forthright and direct venture into science and technology learning and that further rehabilitation would be necessary to continue to overcome negative attitudes to science and technology.

Varying attitudes to science as a result of high school experience, seem to have led students to markedly different outcomes. Some students advanced their scientific investigative skills and consequently their confidence in this area; others were not ready or willing to do so and were offered a different pathway to success. We believe that the feeling of achievement experienced by all members of the class was possible, due to the flexibility of our learning model.

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Acknowledgments The writers enjoyed working with the class Science and Technology in Australia, 1991. We thank our colleague, Lynette Schaverien, for her help in shaping our understandings of the interactions in this teaching by her thoughtful and insightful comments in the weekly discussion sessions held after each class and for her suggestions which helped us organise the material in this paper.

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AUTHORS

GILDA SEGAL and ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR MARK COSGROVE, School of Teacher Education, University of Technology, Sydney, Eton Rd., Lindfield, N.S.W., AUSTRALIA 2070. S_oeciolizations: children's learning in science and technology; inclusion; contexts, teaching models.