teachers’ and students’ conceptions of good science teaching
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Teachers’ and Students’ Conceptions ofGood Science TeachingBenny Hin Wai Yung a , Yan Zhu a , Siu Ling Wong a , Man WaiCheng a & Fei Yin Lo aa Faculty of Education , The University of Hong Kong , PokfulamRoad, Hong Kong , SAR, People's Republic of ChinaPublished online: 27 Oct 2011.
To cite this article: Benny Hin Wai Yung , Yan Zhu , Siu Ling Wong , Man Wai Cheng & Fei Yin Lo(2013) Teachers’ and Students’ Conceptions of Good Science Teaching, International Journal ofScience Education, 35:14, 2435-2461, DOI: 10.1080/09500693.2011.629375
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Teachers’ and Students’ Conceptions
of Good Science Teaching
Benny Hin Wai Yung∗, Yan Zhu, Siu Ling Wong,Man Wai Cheng and Fei Yin LoFaculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong,
SAR, People’s Republic of China
Capitalizing on the comments made by teachers on videos of exemplary science teaching, a video-
based survey instrument on the topic of ‘Density’ was developed and used to investigate the
conceptions of good science teaching held by 110 teachers and 4,024 year 7 students in
Hong Kong. Six dimensions of good science teaching are identified from the 55-item
questionnaire, namely, ‘focussing on science learning’, ‘facilitating students’ understanding’,
‘encouraging students’ involvement’, ‘creating conducive environment’, ‘encouraging active
experimentation’ and ‘preparing students for exam (PSE)’. Significant gaps between teachers’
and students’ conceptions on certain dimensions have been revealed. The inconsistency on the
dimension ‘PSE’ is particularly evident and possible reasons for the phenomenon are suggested.
This study raises the important questions of how the gap can be addressed, and who is to change
in order to close the gaps. Answers to these questions have huge implications for teacher
education and teacher professional development.
Keywords: Good Science Teaching; Teacher Conception; Student Conception
Introduction
Over the last few decades, many studies have described the disappointing state of
science teaching at all school levels across many countries (e.g. Brown, 1974;
Goodrum, Hackling, & Rennie, 2001; Harlen, 1998; Tobin & Fraser, 1988; Yager,
Hidayat, & Penick, 1988). It is suggested that one way to improve such situations is
through identifying and describing the behavior of exemplary science teachers
(e.g. Tobin & Fraser, 1988; Treagust, 1991; Tyler, 2003; Waldrip, Fisher, &
International Journal of Science Education, 2013
Vol. 35, No. 14, 2435–2461, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2011.629375
∗Corresponding author: Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road,
Hong Kong, SAR, People’s Republic of China. Email: [email protected]
# 2013 Taylor & Francis
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Dorman, 2009). The descriptions of what such teachers do could provide guidance
for the design of teacher education programs at both pre-service and in-service
levels and will, eventually, lead to enhanced learning of science in school.
With the rise of cognitive psychology in the early 1980s, teacher educators began to
focus more on the ways in which teachers think rather than the ways they behave
(Calderhead, 1996). Research over the last few decades has suggested that teaching
is a process that involves teachers’ cognition instead of teachers’ behaviors alone. In
their influential review of research on teacher thinking, Clark and Peterson (1986,
p. 255) suggested that teachers’ thought processes, theories and beliefs ‘substantially
influenced and even determined’ their classroom practices. Indeed, this realization
has led to increasing interest in studying teacher cognition, in particular, the beliefs
and conceptions underlying their classroom practices (e.g. Mellado, 1998; Yerrick,
Parke, & Nugent, 1997; Yung, 2006).
Early studies in the domain of conceptions of teaching were concerned about teach-
ing in general (Kember, 1997). More recently, on the premise that there are critical
features specific to the teaching of particular disciplines, there have been more
studies of teaching conceptions pertaining to specific disciplines. For instance, in
science education, it is found that the type and amount of inquiry instruction per-
formed by teachers in their classrooms are guided by their core conceptions including:
conceptions of science, their students, effective teaching practices and the purpose of
education (e.g. Lotter, Harwood, & Bonner, 2007; Luft, Roehrig, & Patterson, 2003;
Wallace & Kang, 2004).
However, these and most other studies of conceptions of teaching at school levels
have been conducted in Western cultural contexts (e.g. Boulton-Lewis, Smith,
McCrindle, Burnett, & Campbell, 2001; Porlan & del Pozo, 2004) and very few in
Chinese cultural contexts (see for exception, Gao & Watkins, 2002). Yet, it has
been shown that there are tangible differences both in the practices of teaching
(e.g. Stiger & Hiebert, 1999) and in the notions of ‘good’ teachers and students
(Jin & Cortazzi, 1998). Our study thus attempts to shed light on these issues by
exploring teaching conceptions among Hong Kong teachers, where teachers are
exposed to Western educational philosophies in their professional training while
being required to teach in sociocultural contexts that are overwhelmingly Chinese
in origin. Indeed, Watkins and Biggs (2001) characterize the system as one that is
driven by ‘vernacular Confucianism’, with students (and teachers) under constant
pressure of relentless norm-referenced assessment. These pressures, together with
other deep-rooted cultural beliefs in relation to social status, student ability and
effort, will intuitively have a bearing on Hong Kong teachers’ conceptions of what
exactly is ‘good’ teaching in science.
Previous research in teachers’ conceptions of teaching has focussed on university
lecturers or teachers teaching higher forms (Kember, 1997). This present study,
however, looks at science teachers at the junior secondary level for two reasons.
First, it will provide evidence to support or refute the view that some aspects of teach-
ing conceptions may vary according to subject area or level of schooling (Prosser &
Trigwell, 1998). Second, at this level of schooling, Hong Kong students experience
2436 B. H. W. Yung et al.
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their first formal science curriculum, with the provision of practical work in the
science laboratory. By all accounts, this is a critical stage during which students’ inter-
est in science can be turned on or diminished depending on how science is taught
(Darby, 2005; Logan & Skamp, 2008; Speering & Rennie, 1996); and that, in turn,
may be related to the teaching conceptions possessed by the teachers concerned.
Hence, this study can provide valuable information on how teacher preparation
courses should be structured to take into account these influences on classroom
practices.
Theoretical Underpinnings
Conceptions of Teaching
Despite the widespread acknowledgement of the importance of teachers’ thinking and
their beliefs, confusion exists among researchers about the definitions of beliefs
(Pajares, 1992). On one hand, some researchers, like Ponte (1994), argue that both
beliefs and conceptions are part of knowledge, but they are of different nature: the
former being ‘prepositional’ and the latter ‘metaphorical’ (p. 169). On the other
hand, some researchers consider beliefs as a subclass of conceptions, hence the two
inevitably have an overlapping nature. For example, Lloyd and Wilson (1998)
define conceptions as ‘a person’s general mental structures that encompass knowl-
edge, beliefs, understandings, preferences and views’ (p. 249). In sum, the term
‘beliefs’ is ill defined; and the distinction between beliefs, knowledge and conceptions
remains controversial.
After due consideration, it is decided that the term ‘beliefs’ will not be strictly dis-
tinguished from the term ‘conceptions’ in this study. The two terms will be used inter-
changeably. In particular, the word ‘conceptions’ is preferred, as there is already an
existing body of literature on conceptions of teaching, albeit mostly undertaken in
the context of higher education (e.g. Biggs, 1989; Christensen, Massey, Issac, &
Synott, 1995; Kember & Gow, 1994; Prosser, Trigwell, & Taylor, 1994). This is in
line with Enwistle, Skinner, Enwistle, and Orr (2000) thinking that, in so doing, it
can bring the empirical findings deriving from staff in higher education and those
from school teachers together, and hence paving the way for a more complete
picture of what may underlie the notion of ‘good teaching’.
Broadly speaking, conceptions of teaching can be viewed as the categories of ideas
underlying different people’s descriptions of how they experience the teaching process
(Pratt, 1992). From a detailed analysis of 13 studies, Kember (1997) identified
5 dimensions on which teachers constructed their conceptions of teaching: the essen-
tial features of teaching and learning; the roles of student and teacher; the aims and
expected outcomes of teaching; the content of teaching and the preferred styles and
approaches to teaching. In other words, no matter what kind of teaching conception
a teacher possesses, be it teacher-centered or student-centered, elements correspond-
ing to the five dimensions mentioned above could still be identified. Based on a
holistic assessment of the essential ideas articulated in the five dimensions,
Teachers’ and Students’ CoGST 2437
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Kember classified the different kinds of teaching conceptions into five categories
which he referred to as first-order conceptions, viz, imparting information, transmit-
ting structured knowledge, student teacher interaction/apprenticeship, facilitating
understanding and conceptual change/intellectual development.
Different opinions exist on whether there is a hierarchical relationship between
different categories of teaching conceptions, with the less sophisticated conceptions
subsuming under the most sophisticated conceptions (e.g. Biggs, 1989; Martin &
Balla, 1990). Yet majority in the field prefer arranging the conceptions in a linear
sequence while some have argued that teachers’ views fall into contrasting subsets:
teacher-centered vs. student-centered. This led Kember (1997) to propose two
higher order orientations to complete his model: teacher-centered/content-oriented
and student-centered/learning-oriented. The former focusses on clear presentation
of knowledge by the teacher for transfer to students in an ‘easily digestible’ form.
This is in contrast with the latter orientation where students are expected to
process information actively with the teacher acting as a facilitator of their learning.
In sum, like most researchers, Kember depicts teaching conceptions as lying on a con-
tinuum with two extremes: the most teacher-centered vs. the most student-centered.
Instead of probing participants’ conceptions of teaching, the present study investi-
gates their conceptions of ‘good’ teaching. It builds on an earlier study
(Wong, Yung, Cheng, & Hodson, 2006; Yung, Wong, Cheng, Hui, & Hodson,
2007) in which two videos of exemplary science teaching at the junior secondary
level had proven to be effective in eliciting and tracking student teachers’ conception
of ‘good’ science teaching. It is believed that characteristics of ‘good’ teaching are indi-
cators of the ideal toward which teachers aim and students prefer, albeit implicitly.
Hence it is easier for teachers and students to respond to survey questions pertaining
to ‘good’ teaching rather than teaching in general. In fact, there is no need for total
agreement on whether these recorded lessons demonstrate good teaching or not.
The viewers can identify with the good practices shown in the video or not. In offering
their opinions of whether they think certain teaching practices are good or not, they
are implying in their answers the corresponding conceptions of ‘good’ teaching. In
short, these video excerpts serve as a dynamic stimulus to elicit respondents’ con-
ceptions of ‘good’ teaching, a normally abstract phenomenon (Gao & Watkins, 2002).
In a previous study (Yung et al., 2007), we provided pre-service teachers with a set
of videos of reform-based exemplary science teaching and asked them to review and
reflect on the same set of videos on different occasions during a teacher education
program. The videos were found to serve as an effective probe to elicit student tea-
chers’ conceptions of good science teaching (CoGST). In particular, the instructional
arrangement of asking student teachers to watch the same videos on three separate
occasions at different times of the course was recognized by them as a crucial
element in facilitating their reflection on their changing CoGST. The present study
capitalizes on the potency and strength of these videos in eliciting respondents’ con-
ceptions of ‘good’ teaching to develop a quantitative survey instrument for studies
involving a large population of respondents. This differs from our earlier work
which was a qualitative study involving only a small number of pre-service teachers.
2438 B. H. W. Yung et al.
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In addition, it is argued that, compared with a purely text-based questionnaire, a
video-based survey questionnaire is more likely to elicit more valid responses from
students with respect to their conceptions of ‘good’ teaching.
Hewson and Hewson (1989, p. 194) were among the forerunners who referred to a
conception of teaching science as including ‘the set of ideas, understandings, and
interpretations of experience concerning the teacher and teaching, the nature and
content of science, and the learners and learning that the teacher uses in making
decisions about teaching, both in planning and execution’. Obviously, the national
science education standards of a country/region (e.g. Curriculum Development
Council [CDC], 1998; DfES/QCA, 2004; National Research Council, 1996)
should constitute a common baseline for conceptualizing and defining what good
science teaching should be for science education of that particular place. In line
with international trends, science education in Hong Kong has undergone consider-
able changes in the last decade with increasing emphasis on scientific inquiry, having it
both as part of the curriculum content as well as an approach for teaching and learning
science (Anderson, 2007). It emphasizes giving attention to inquiry as a learning
activity and advocates scientific inquiry as a desired means to learning of scientific
knowledge and training of inquiry and generic skills such as collaboration and
communication skills (CDC, 1998). Though it is probably fair to say that a belief
in the value of inquiry teaching probably carries with it a belief in inquiry learning
(Anderson, 2007), a question remains: How much do teachers subscribe to these
ideas in their CoGST? This line of inquiry is a response to the call for more studies
on science teachers’ beliefs, a better understanding of which may contribute to the
success of curriculum reforms, as argued by Luft and Roehrig (2007) and van
Driel, Bulte, and Verloop (2005).
Students’ Conceptions of Good Teaching
The significance of student involvement in decisions about aspects of school life has
been highly recognized recently. Correspondingly, there have been a number of
broad ranging inquires into students’ views of school (e.g. Rudduck & Flutter,
2004), although studies with a detailed focus on issues about teaching and learning
are relatively rare (e.g. Darby, 2005; Logan & Skamp, 2008; Morgan & Morris,
1999; Whitehead & Clough, 2004). These studies have signaled a greater understand-
ing about students’ perspectives of being learners, which can, in turn, be used to inform
strategies to enhance students’ efforts and attainment as well as to influence classroom
and school cultures (e.g. McIntyre, Pedder, & Rudduck, 2005). Even so, some would
still question whether views gathered from students should be acted upon, particularly
if they are critical of schools and/or teachers and challenge current ways of working.
Underpinning this position are considerations of power and authority.
Our premise is that students’ voices have fore-grounded their rights but are
balanced by recognition of responsibilities. Therefore, the data should not be
treated as a direct mandate for action but rather as a means to inform understanding
and dialogue between teachers and students about future practice. In other words,
Teachers’ and Students’ CoGST 2439
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students’ ideas should not be viewed as the final and conclusive word on how class-
room teaching and learning activities need to change. Alternatively, teachers should
be willing to negotiate with students in response to their expressed views. This is in
line with the call from Osborne, Simon, and Collins (2003, p. 1067) for more research
on ‘what makes for effective teaching of science in the eyes of the pupil’. This also
aligns with the assumption underpinning much of the learning environment research.
That is, ‘defining the classroom or school environment in terms of the shared percep-
tion of the pupils and the teachers has the dual advantage of characterizing the setting
through the eyes of participants themselves and of capturing data, which an external
observer could miss or consider unimportant’ (Fraser, 1998, p. 528). The term learn-
ing environment relates to the psychology, sociology and pedagogy of the contexts in
which learning takes place. The present study focusses more on the pedagogic side as
seen from both the teacher and student perspective.
In sum, we believe that the way teachers think about teaching influences the way
they teach, then the way their students learn, and ultimately students’ learning out-
comes. We also believe that student learning of science could be enhanced if there
is a closer match between teachers’ conceptions about ‘good’ science teaching and
those of their students. Thus, a comparison of teachers’ conceptions with those on
the receiving end of science instruction is an essential starting point. To this end,
we asked the following research questions:
(1) What are the CoGST held by junior secondary science teachers in Hong Kong?
(2) What are the CoGST held by junior secondary science students in Hong Kong?
(3) How do the students’ conceptions compare and contrast with those of their
teachers?
Research Methods
Participants
An invitation to participate in the study was sent to all secondary schools in Hong
Kong. As an incentive, each participating teacher was promised an individual
report, including a detailed comparison of their conceptions about ‘good’ science
teaching with those of their students. Effort was made to include in the final
sample as much variation as possible in terms of student (e.g. gender, academic abil-
ities and school types) and teacher variables (e.g. gender, teaching experience and
academic background). As a result, a total of 110 teachers and 4,024 year 7 students
from 54 schools1 were included in the main study. Table 1 provides the profile of the
participating students and their teachers. It can be seen that students and teachers
were nearly equally distributed on demographic characteristics.
Instruments
One lesson-video-based questionnaire was designed to find out students’ and tea-
chers’ conceptions of ‘good’ science teaching. An exemplary teaching video on the
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topic of ‘density’ was selected for the purpose. As described earlier, the video was
chosen for its potency of serving as a dynamic stimulus for eliciting responses from
the viewers in terms of their CoGST. In particular, it was able to elicit a wide spectrum
of diverse views on teaching shown in the video. In order to produce the video with
sufficient details and representative variety, the video was edited by making reference
to the five domains suggested by Kember’s (1997) theoretical framework: (a) the
essence of learning and teaching, (b) the roles of the student and teacher, (c) the
aims and expected outcome of learning, (d) the content of teaching and (e) the pre-
ferred styles and approaches to teaching. Though it was necessary to limit the total
duration of the video clip to within 20 min so as to ensure a reasonable total
viewing time, strenuous efforts were made to maintain the integrity, flow and
general essence of the lessons.
Two independent science educators2 were asked to validate the content of the video
against Kember’s framework to ensure a range of video snippets covering all the five
domains. In particular, the independent reviewers were reminded to make reference
to the corresponding video episodes in assessing the validity of individual items.
This is because simply reading the item statements without referring to the video
may not provide the respondents with adequate information on what the statements
are about. Such examples include: Item 13—the teacher uses two soluble materials in
the experiment (i.e. sugar and salt), and Item 27—the teacher runs the experiment in
the form of a competition. In the first case (i.e. Item 13), knowing more about the
context of the experiment from watching the video, respondents would be in a
better position to judge whether such an arrangement is an important feature for
good science teaching or not. Similarly, in the second case (i.e. Item 27), simply
Table 1. A profile of participating students and their teachers
Students Teachers
Gendera
Female 2,114 58
Male 1,907 52
School Type
Coed School 2,678 74
Girls School 606 16
Boys School 740 20
School Bandb
Band 1 1,943 49
Band 2 1,116 31
Band 3 965 30
Total no. of participants 4,024 110
aThree students did not provide their gender information in the questionnaire.
bIn Hong Kong, when students are promoted to secondary schools they are allocated to three bands
of schools according to their academic abilities. Band 1 schools admit students with highest abilities
and Band 3 the lowest.
Teachers’ and Students’ CoGST 2441
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reading the item may convey a negative view to the respondents that running the
experiment in the form of a competition is no good for good science teaching.
However, finding out how students in the video are motivated and enjoying the
lesson, respondents may find this a good feature of good science teaching instead.
In sum, it is essential that the video-based instrument be validated in conjunction
with the video which provides contextual information for interpretation of the state-
ments of the questionnaire items. As argued previously, this can reduce the chances
of misinterpreting the items as would be the case in many text-based questionnaire
surveys.
In the validation process, the independent reviewers pointed out that there was very
few video episodes that could be related to domain (c), i.e. the aims and expected
outcome of learning. To fill this gap, some items (which did not feature in the
video) were added to the questionnaire by making reference to the aims and objectives
stated in the official curriculum handbook (e.g. Item 51: the teacher encourages stu-
dents to recognize the relevant social, technological and economical issues). Items 49
and 54 also belong to this category (see Appendix). For a similar reason, four more
items (50, 52, 53 and 55) were added to the questionnaire to represent a set of practice
commonly observed in the local schools but not shown in the video. This includes
situations where the teacher: teaches students how to revise and prepare for tests
and examinations (50), puts the correct answers on the board for students to copy
onto their notebooks/workbooks (52), provides students with notes for their revision
(53) and tells students which is/are the important part(s) of the textbook to underline
for revision (55). Obviously, these are neither exemplary practices cited in the litera-
ture nor what we would want to advocate when we were contacting teachers for
recording their exemplary practices (and these practices were actually absent in our
raw footages). These practices, according to the independent reviewers, are related
to the domain of aims and expected outcome of learning in general and performance
on the tests and examinations in particular.
On the one hand, addition of features not shown in the video could enhance the
representativeness of conceptions elicited by the instrument. On the other hand,
this might be construed as deliberate bias of the researchers on what good science
teaching is about. Readers need to interpret our findings with the inherent limitation
of the instrument. Our view is that students can still rate these ‘added/not shown’ fea-
tures as unimportant in their conception of good science teaching. The important
thing is that they understand what the items mean and how do they match with
their own classroom experiences.
In summary, the conceptualization, design and construction of the video-based
questionnaire was informed by the comments made by (a) the two independent
reviewers, (b) over 100 in-service teachers and 4 teacher educators who participated
in face-to-face lesson studies and/or web-based discussions on the lesson concerned
(Yung, 2003) and (c) over 80 pre-service teachers who had to keep track of and
reflect on their changing perceptions through monitoring their own comments on
the teaching shown in the video at different times during their education course
(Wong et al., 2006; Yung et al., 2007). Due attention was paid to video episodes
2442 B. H. W. Yung et al.
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which had attracted distinctively varied or even opposing views from the respondents.
With reference to the video episodes selected and the associated comments, a ques-
tionnaire entitled Conceptions of Good Science Teaching (CoGST) was devised with a
5-point Likert-type scale ranging from 0 to 4; where ‘0’ stands for ‘not important at
all’, and ‘2’ is the mid-point of the scale and stands for ‘important’, ‘4’ is at the
other end of the scale and stands for ‘very important’.
The instrument was first pilot tested with three classes of students (each with
over 30 students) and their teachers. During the pilot, the video was shown and
stopped at preset intervals of about 5 min. To facilitate viewing, the video was
usually stopped at natural breaks or transition points of the lesson such that
respondents had no difficulty continuing with their viewing of the video and under-
standing the flow of the lesson after completion of the questionnaire. At points
where the video playback was stopped, the respondents were asked to rate the
extent to which they regard each of the features listed in the relevant part of the
questionnaire as an essential feature of ‘good’ science teaching. At the end of
the pilot questionnaire, an open-ended question invited the respondents to
provide any additional feature(s) of good science teaching that is/are not listed in
the questionnaire proper. This information coupled with those collected during
post-survey group interviews were added to the final pool of data from which
the research group drew in finalizing the questionnaire. As a result, 55 items
were included in the final questionnaire with some revisions made to improve
the clarity of items. The Chinese version of the questionnaire was used for both
teachers and students to minimize any possible errors resulting from poor compre-
hension of English. The English version of the finalized questionnaire3 is attached
as an Appendix.
Data Collection
In order to maintain students’ attention on the video replay during data collection, the
survey was conducted before they were taught the topic of density in their normal cur-
riculum. Two researchers brought the video as well as the questionnaires to the
schools and conducted the survey. It took about 40 min to watch the lesson video
and complete the survey. In administering the survey, the video was stopped at
preset intervals, during which the respondents were asked to rate the extent to
which they think each of the features listed in the questionnaire is an essential
feature of ‘good’ science teaching. To avoid unnecessary bias in their views, the
respondents were told that the video was representative of ‘ordinary’ science teaching
currently occurring in mainstream schools. Both students and teachers were assured
that their responses to the questionnaire would be kept confidential and not be used
for other purposes. Moreover, the students were encouraged to ask questions if the
meaning of the items was unclear. They were also asked not to discuss with each
other during survey so as to avoid peer influences. The collection of survey data
achieved a 100% response rate mainly due to the fact that the researchers admini-
strated the survey in person.
Teachers’ and Students’ CoGST 2443
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Data Processing and Analysis
The data from the survey were first randomly split into two subsamples, each of which
comprises nearly 50% of teacher data and 50% of student data. One subsample was
subjected to exploratory factor analysis (EFA), using principal component analysis
(PCA), to identify the underlying dimensions of CoGST. Prior to it, the Kaiser–
Meyer–Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy and the Bartlett test of spheri-
city (BTS) were used to determine the appropriateness of factor analysis. To deter-
mine the number of dimensions to be extracted, the investigation used both
eigenvalues-greater-than-1 rule (Kaiser, 1960) and parallel analysis (Horn, 1965)
by simulating O’Connor’s (2000) parallel analysis program (i.e. SPSS macro).
After determining the number of factors to be retained, an oblique factor rotation
(Promax) was performed to allow for inter-factor correlations.
Next, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using Mplus 4.1 program was under-
taken on the other subsample to validate the structure resulted from the EFA. To
evaluate the fit of the measurement models, three goodness-of-fit indices are used:
comparative fit index (CFI), root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA)
and standardized root mean square residual (SRMR). Values indicative of acceptable
fit were a CFI . 0.90 and RMSEA/SRMR values at or below 0.08. Moreover, the
internal consistency of each dimension in the measures was evaluated via Cronbach’s
alpha statistics.
Subsequently, descriptive statistics was applied in order to get initial insights. For the
teacher and student samples, separate analyses were performed. A one-way repeated
measures of ANOVA were conducted with Bonferroni’s post hoc tests to compare the
relative importance of various dimensions in the respondents’ CoGST. To investigate
whether teachers and students perceive the importance of each CoGST dimension dif-
ferently, a two-way mixed ANOVA was run followed by Bonferroni corrected post hoc
tests, when appropriate. Furthermore, the associations among the various dimensions
of CoGST were examined via correlation analysis for both teachers and students.
Lastly, the effects of gender, school type and school band4 on respondents’ opinions
were also evaluated via two-way mixed ANOVAs. For all the analyses, when significant
differences were detected, their effect sizes were calculated and reported.
Findings of the Study
The main purpose of this study was to investigate both teachers’ and students’
CoGST. The factor structure of the self-developed questionnaire was first identified
based on the EFA and CFA results. For each identified dimension, descriptive stat-
istics were reported followed by the rating comparisons between teachers and stu-
dents. After that, the relative importance of various aspects of CoGST was then
compared for both teachers and students, respectively. Next, the relationships
among the CoGST dimensions were presented. Lastly, the influence of selected
socio-demographic variables of gender, school type and school band on the respon-
dents’ conceptions was reported.
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Factor Structure of the CoGST Questionnaire
Out of 4,022 valid cases, 2,014 were randomly selected for the EFA. The sample was
first assessed for its suitability for factor analysis. The KMO analysis produced an
index of 0.96 and BTS was significant [x2 (1,485) ¼ 28142.54, p , 0.001] indicating
that the data satisfied the psychometric criteria for factor analysis. An initial PCA
revealed 10 eigenvalues exceeding 1, explained 49.1% of the total variance.
However, a follow-up parallel analysis, using an SPSS macro (O’Connor, 2000),
suggested a six-component solution best represented the data when eigenvalues
from the target data set were compared with eigenvalues from randomly generated
data: (a) Component 1: 12.24 vs. 1.34, (b) Component 2: 2.22 vs. 1.31, (c) Com-
ponent 3: 2.08 vs. 1.29, (d) Component 4: 1.66 vs. 1.27, (e) Component 5: 1.32
vs. 1.25 and (f) Component 6: 1.26 vs. 1.23. A second EFA was then conducted
and six factors were retained. The obtained solution accounted for 41.2% of the
total variance and item communalities ranged from 0.24 to 0.60 with a mean of 0.41.
Based on the EFA result, cross-validation on the other remaining half of the partici-
pants retained from the same overall sample was performed via CFA. Due to the low
loading of one item (Item 11: 0.168), it was decided to delete the particular item from
the original measure. As a result, the CFA indicated that a six-factor model provided
(see Table 2), with minor modifications, an overall acceptable fit to the data (CFI ¼
0.89, RMSEA ¼ 0.33, SRMR ¼ 0.04).
Additional analysis using Cronbach’s alpha was utilized to measure reliability in
terms of internal consistency. The reliability of the six dimensions of CoGST is as
follows: focussing on science learning (FSL) (17 items) ¼ 0.89, encouraging active
experimentation (EAE) (6 items) ¼ 0.67, encouraging students’ involvement (ESI)
(13 items) ¼ 0.83, creating conducive learning environment (9 items) ¼ 0.80, facil-
itating students’ understanding (FSU) (5 items) ¼ 0.65, and preparing students for
exam (PSE) (4 items) ¼ 0.71.
Below is a brief description of each of the dimensions illustrated with sample items:
. FSL: The teacher emphasizes aspects related to learning science—for example,
explains to students the importance of science; teaches students the scientific
method, the different steps and techniques involved as well as the way of thinking;
provides students the correct scientific knowledge; stimulates students’ interest in
learning science. In brief, items in this dimension pertain to curriculum goals
laid down in curriculum documents, which span across the knowledge, skills and
affective domains. As such, it is akin to Kember’s dimension of ‘aims and expected
outcome of learning’.
. EAE: The teacher encourages students to play an active role in carrying out exper-
imental work—for example, allows students to change the experimental steps; splits
the class into two groups to do the same experiment by using different materials;
includes some additional substances for students to do the experiment. By and
large, items in this dimension are concerned with involving students as active lear-
ners in carrying out inquiries in the laboratory, not merely following cook-book
style practical work, by provision of more flexibilities and alternatives. As such,
Teachers’ and Students’ CoGST 2445
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Table 2. Completely standardized factor loadings from the CFA
Items
Factor 1
Focus
Factor 2
Experimentation
Factor 3
Involvement
Factor 4
Environment
Factor 5
Understanding
Factor 6
Examination
28 0.50
33 0.46
34 0.56
38 0.56
36 0.57
44 0.51
46 0.56
47 0.61
40 0.57
54 0.51
51 0.51
49 0.56
45 0.57
39 0.55
29 0.52
30 0.56
31 0.48
13 0.52
18 0.43
15 0.44
16 0.46
14 0.51
19 0.45
22 0.46
07 0.42
24 0.52
12 0.45
06 0.34
09 0.39
05 0.45
10 0.47
26 0.56
25 0.57
17 0.48
23 0.51
21 0.51
48 0.59
37 0.60
43 0.54
42 0.56
41 0.53
27 0.50
35 0.51
32 0.51
20 0.48
(Continued)
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this is related to Kember’s dimensions of ‘roles of the student and teacher’ as well as
‘the content of teaching’. The latter is involved as one needs to know about the
content to be taught in order to judge if it is appropriate to allow students with
the flexibilities to alter their experimental design or to provide them with additional
materials to experiment with. For the case in point, in addition to salt, the teacher
also provides students with sugar to test out their ideas so that they will come to
understand that density of water will be increased by dissolving any solutes in it,
be it salt or sugar.
. ESI: The teacher invites students to participate actively in the lesson—for example,
requires students first to work on their own and discuss their result in groups before
having the whole class discussion; instead of responding to students’ question
directly, the teacher sometimes re-directs the question to other students for
answers; encourages students to challenge what he says; brings out the aim of the
experiment through discussion with students; discusses the experimental results
with students. In short, the main focus here is to get as many students involved
in the lesson as possible through various pedagogical means. As such, this dimen-
sion is related to ‘roles of the teacher and student’ and ‘preferred styles and
approaches to teaching’ in Kember’s framework.
. Creating conducive environment (CCE): The teacher creates a motivating learning
environment—for example, the teacher is humorous; praises students for their
good performance; expresses high expectations of his students; runs the experiment
in form of a competition; arranges interesting activities for the lesson. In brief, the
intention is to motivate student learning by various means. A case in point is where
the teacher-in-video turns an investigation of factors affecting buoyancy of a ship
into a competition game—design a ship which can carry the heaviest load. As a
result, as evident from the video, students are highly motivated and engaged in
the activity. As such, this dimension pertains to ‘the preferred styles and approaches
to teaching’ dimension of Kember’s framework.
. FSU: The teacher uses instructional strategies that facilitate students’ understand-
ing—for example, the teacher uses different examples to explain the scientific
Table 2. Continued
Items
Factor 1
Focus
Factor 2
Experimentation
Factor 3
Involvement
Factor 4
Environment
Factor 5
Understanding
Factor 6
Examination
03 0.50
04 0.60
02 0.53
08 0.43
01 0.51
53 0.60
52 0.51
55 0.67
50 0.67
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concepts; uses everyday terms that students know to explain science concepts;
involves students in revising on what was learnt in previous lessons. In brief, this
dimension pertains to Kember’s dimensions of ‘the content of teaching’ and ‘pre-
ferred styles and approaches to teaching’.
. PSE: The teacher focusses on helping students prepare for the examination—for
example, puts the correct answers on the board for students to copy onto their note-
books; tells students which is/are the important part(s) of the textbook to underline
for revision; provides students with notes for their revision; teaches students how to
revise and prepare for tests and examinations. In sum, this dimension cuts across
Kember’s notions of ‘roles of the student and teacher’, ‘the preferred styles and
approaches to teaching’ and ‘aims and expected outcomes of learning’. First, the
practices described are very teacher-centered, hence its association with the first
two notions. Second, the practices are very performance oriented, and hence are
related to ‘aims and expected outcomes of learning’.
To sum up, though the video-based instrument had been constructed based on
Kember’s framework, statistical analysis of the data collected yielded a six-dimension
model of conception of good science teaching, instead. Relationships between
Kember’s model and the empirically derived model are compared and discussed
above.
Teachers’ and Students’ CoGST
Table 3 shows the rankings of the six CoGST dimensions by teachers and students,
respectively. All the six dimensions of CoGST received a mean rating higher than 2
from both the teacher- and student-respondents. With ‘2’ as the mid-point of the
Likert-scale and coded as ‘important’, this means that all the six dimensions of
CoGST were considered ‘important’ in the respondents’ CoGST. Among the six
CoGST dimensions, teachers gave the highest rating to ‘FSU’ (M ¼ 3.35, SD ¼
Table 3. Mean ratings of the six CoGST dimensions by teachers and students
Teachers Students
M (SD) Rank M (SD) Rank
FSU 3.35 (0.48) 1∗ 3.11 (0.59) 2∗
FSL 3.32 (0.42) 2∗ 3.13 (0.54) 1∗
ESI 3.16 (0.44) 3 2.85 (0.58) 5
CCE 3.00 (0.49) 4 2.91 (0.68) 4
EAE 2.69 (0.53) 5 2.65 (0.67) 6
PSE 2.29 (0.69) 6 3.10 (0.74) 3∗
Note: For both teachers and students, they gave significantly different ratings to the six CoGST
dimensions except those marked with an asterisk (∗), for which there are no significant differences in
mean ratings (M).
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0.48) followed by ‘FSL’ (M ¼ 3.32, SD ¼ 0.42) with ‘EAE’ (M ¼ 2.69, SD ¼ 0.53)
and ‘PSE’ (PSE: M ¼ 2.29, SD ¼ 0.69) being rated lowest. A one-way repeated
measures ANOVA found that teachers had statistically significantly different ratings
on the six dimensions, F (3, 280) ¼ 130.02, p , 0.001, hp2 ¼ 0.54. The Bonferroni
multiple comparison post hoc analysis further revealed that the rating differences were
statistically significant among all pairs of comparisons except that between FSL and
FSU.
Similar to their teachers, the students also gave the highest rating to both ‘FSL’ (M
¼ 3.13, SD ¼ 0.54) and ‘FSU’ (M ¼ 3.11, SD ¼ 0.59). However, from students’
perspectives, ‘PSE’ is the third important dimension (M ¼ 3.10, SD ¼ 0.74). Never-
theless, students’ ratings did not show significant differences among the first three
dimensions in Bonferroni tests, while an overall difference on the six dimensions
reached statistical significance at the 0.001 level (F [5, 19,485] ¼ 695.43,
p , ;0.001, h2p = 0.15). The means of the other three dimensions were all below
3.00 with the lowest rating on ‘EAE’ (M ¼ 2.65, SD ¼ 0.67). Furthermore, the
ratings on the three aspects were significantly lower than those on the other three
and they were also significantly different between each other at the 0.001 level.
To investigate whether teachers and students perceive the importance of each
CoGST dimension differently, we used a two-way mixed ANOVA. Correspond-
ingly, the analysis examined the main effects (i.e. CoGST dimensions and role of
participants) and one interaction effect (i.e. GoGST dimension × role of partici-
pants). First, results showed that there was a significant difference among the six
CoGST dimensions, F (5, 20,030) ¼ 124.061, p , 0.001, h2p = 0.03. This indi-
cates that no matter whether the respondents are teachers or students, they gave sig-
nificantly different ratings to the six CoGST dimensions. The follow-up pair-wise
comparisons corrected using a Bonferroni adjustment further show that significant
differences existed among all pairs of dimensions but not among FSL, FSU and
PSE.
Second, no significant main effect of the role of participants (i.e. teachers vs. stu-
dents) was detected on the ratings across the six dimensions, F (1, 4,006) ¼ 0.018,
p ¼ 0.895. It indicates that teachers’ ratings (averaging over the six CoGST dimen-
sions) were basically the same as those of the students. This suggests that both the tea-
chers and their students in general held similar views about good science teaching
when not specifying a particular dimension (i.e. when the lesson is rated as a whole
by averaging the scores of the different dimensions).
Lastly, regarding the interaction effect between the dimensions of CoGST and the
role of the participants, a significant result was obtained, F (5, 20,030) ¼ 90.406,
p , 0.001, hp2 ¼ 0.02. This suggests that the profile of ratings across the CoGST
dimensions (as opposed to the average/overall ratings discussed above) was different
for teachers and students. Figure 1 shows the average teacher ratings of each dimen-
sion (squares) and the students’ ratings are shown as circles. The figure clearly illus-
trates that teacher and student ratings are very similar on five out of the six dimensions
with slightly higher ratings from teachers. However, students rated ‘PSE’ significantly
more highly (M ¼ 3.1) than teachers (M ¼ 2.29).
Teachers’ and Students’ CoGST 2449
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Table 4 lists the correlations among the various dimensions of CoGST for teacher
and student samples, respectively. It is clear that the dimension of ‘PSE’ had the
lowest correlation with all the other dimensions, which is true for both teachers and
students though the relationship is stronger for students. It seems to suggest that in
both teachers’ and students’ views, the importance of ‘PSE’ is somehow an indepen-
dent aspect of science teaching. ‘EAE’ is another dimension which has a relatively
weak association with other dimensions. Compared with students’ rating, the associ-
ations reflected in teachers’ data are in general stronger except on the dimension of
‘PSE’.
Figure 1. Interaction effect between teachers’ and students’ ranking of the CoGST dimensions.
Teachers’ ratings are shown as squares and the students’ as circles
Table 4. Correlations between six dimensions of CoGST by teachers and students
FSL FSU PSE CCE ESI EAE
Teachers
FSL 1 0.72∗∗∗ 0.29∗∗ 0.70∗∗∗ 0.82∗∗∗ 0.53∗∗∗
FSU 1 0.15 0.57∗∗∗ 0.72∗∗∗ 0.47∗∗∗
PSE 1 0.27∗∗ 0.17 0.28∗∗
CCE 1 0.73∗∗∗ 0.69∗∗∗
ESI 1 0.66∗∗∗
EAE 1
Students
FSL 1 0.58∗∗∗ 0.43∗∗∗ 0.61∗∗∗ 0.72∗∗∗ 0.51∗∗∗
FSU 1 0.34∗∗∗ 0.39∗∗∗ 0.57∗∗∗ 0.41∗∗∗
PSE 1 0.34∗∗∗ 0.30∗∗∗ 0.25∗∗∗
CCE 1 0.49∗∗∗ 0.53∗∗∗
ESI 1 0.60∗∗∗
EAE 1
∗∗p , 0.01, ∗∗∗p , 0.001.
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Influence of Selected Socio-Demographic Variables on Teachers’ and Students’ CoGST
Though the main focus of this study is to examine teacher–student differences in their
CoGST, differences between participants with different socio-demographic charac-
teristics are also investigated. However, no or trivial significant differences were
found related to socio-demographics, including gender, school type and school
band for both teachers and students. The results indicated that the respondents’
socio-demographics played a minor role in forming their perspectives of what good
science teaching is about.
Discussions of the Findings
To investigate teachers’ and students’ CoGST, this study developed a video-based-
questionnaire. A lesson video on the topic ‘Density’ was selected for the instrument
construction. More than 4,000 Hong Kong Grade 7 students and their science tea-
chers participated in the survey study. The analysis reveals that there are six dimen-
sions constituting the participants’ CoGST: namely, ‘CCE’, ‘FSU’, ‘PSE’, ‘ESI’,
‘FSL’ and ‘EAE’. Of the dimensions identified, some are obviously related to
science teaching per se (e.g. EAE). This supports the claim for the importance of
extending studies of conceptions of teaching in general to the teaching of particular
subjects—in our case, science.
Among the six dimensions of good science teaching, two are concerned with tea-
chers’ ability to produce a classroom environment that is conducive to learning for stu-
dents and meanwhile students’ active involvement is encouraged. These findings are
consistent with other studies showing that favorable interaction with students is a
characteristic feature of exemplary teachers. For instance, Waldrip and Fisher’s
(2003) study found that exemplary teachers are those who are seen by Australian stu-
dents (Grades 5–9) as very helpful and friendly; who try to interest students in the
learning process; listen to students and do not become angry quickly; and view students
as being capable learners. Based on these, Waldrip and Fisher suggested that it would be
worthwhile and productive to identify exemplary teachers through the use of students’
perceptions of the teachers’ interpersonal behavior with their students (Waldrip et al.,
2009). This concurs with Wong’s (1993, 1996) findings that Hong Kong Grade 9 stu-
dents identified teachers as the most crucial element in a positive classroom learning
environment for learning mathematics. According to the students in Wong’s study, tea-
chers have to be able to keep order and discipline while creating an atmosphere that is
not boring or solemn. They also need to interact with students in ways that are seen as
friendly and showing concern for students. In summary, the affective-related dimen-
sions form an important component of teachers’ and students’ CoGST.
By and large, the findings in this study corroborate with those of Tobin and Fraser
(1988, 1990) as well as those of Yung and Tao (2004), who examined the classroom
practices of exemplary science teachers via in-depth case studies. Based on their class-
room observations, they asserted that exemplary science teachers use management
strategies that facilitate sustained student engagement, use strategies designed to
enhance student understanding of science, utilize strategies to encourage students’
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participation in learning activities and maintain good interactions with their students
through provision of a favorable classroom environment. However, it should be noted
that Tobin and Fraser (1988, 1990) as well as Yung and Tao (2004) put forward their
assertions from the viewpoint of a science educator and researcher, using an interpre-
tive methodology. In other words, their findings represent a ‘top-down’ view of
experts or ‘knowledgeable others’. In contrast, the present study adopts practitioners’
(classroom teachers) and consumers’ (students) points of view, and so represents
‘grass-roots’ opinions from the key players inside classrooms. The convergence of
the views of such different stakeholders in the field is fascinating and encouraging,
and speaks to the educational importance of our findings.
It is also important to note that Tobin and Fraser carried out their studies in
Western Australia, while we conducted ours in Hong Kong. Convergence of data
points to the universality of at least some dimensions of good teaching across different
cultures, albeit differences in the relative importance that different stakeholders may
attach to the different dimensions of good teaching.
‘Focus on Science Learning’ received the highest and second highest rating from the
students (M ¼ 3.13) and teachers (M ¼ 3.32), respectively. This is understandable as
science education does have its own unique set of curriculum goals that are to be
achieved. For instance, the following are items on this dimension extracted from the
CoGST questionnaire—‘teaches students the scientific method, the different steps
and techniques involved as well as the way of thinking’ (Item 47), ‘encourages students
to recognize the relevant social, technological and economical issues’ (Item 51) and
‘stimulates students’ interest in learning science’ (Item 46). Such statements are not
only found in the local science curriculum documents, but also in national science cur-
riculum documents in many other countries (e.g. American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science, 1993; Millar & Osborne, 1998). Thus, one may conclude that teachers’
CoGSTarevery much influenced by the goals of national science curricula. Interestingly,
these curriculum goalswere also subscribed by students in the present study as important
features for good science teaching. This should be good news to the teachers as these
curriculum goals are met with enthusiastic support from students. Such alignment in
teachers’ and students’ views’ would make the goals more attainable.
Empirical work is one of the defining features of science. In common with many
other education systems (e.g. Nott & Wellington, 1997), Hong Kong has devoted sub-
stantial resources to giving science students the opportunity to engage in practical
work (Yip & Yung, 1998). Hence it is understandable that ‘EAE’ constitutes one of
the dimensions in the CoGST from both teachers’ and students’ points of view.
However, it is somehow surprising that this dimension was ranked the lowest (M ¼
2.65) and the second lowest (M ¼ 2.69) by the students and teachers, respectively.
One possibility may be to do with the kind of practical work that is seen in the
video, which is based on textbook experiment, and is not authentic enough though
the teacher is trying his best to create opportunities for them to take up a more
active role in the process of experimentation. Clearly, this is far from satisfactory com-
pared with what the National Science Education Standards advocates, ‘Inquiry into
authentic questions generated from student experiences is the central strategy for
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teaching science’ (National Research Council, 1996, p. 31). Another possible reason
for the low ratings could be that practical work is usually not an assessed component
in the schools. Moreover, the examinations in most cases are mostly about facts and
ideas from the textbook. All these, taken together with the importance attached by
students to the dimension of ‘PSE’ (see below), help to paint a clearer picture of
the situation.
Hong Kong’s educational system is often described as an examination-led system.
In the course of his/her school career, a child could go through as many as eight sets of
selection examinations—from interviews for gaining admission to prestigious kinder-
gartens to the Advanced Level Examination at the end of Secondary 7 (Grade 13) for
gaining a place at a tertiary institution (Yung, 2006). Biggs (1996, p. 5) stated that at
all stages, ‘the curriculum, teaching methods, and student study methods, are focused
on the next major assessment hurdles’. The obsession with testing and examination is
vividly illustrated by many of the dreadful and stressing sentiments expressed in the
experiential accounts of Hong Kong teachers and students concerning their examin-
ation experiences (Pong & Chow, 2002). Hence it is not surprising to find that Hong
Kong students attached great importance to the dimension of ‘PSE’ in their CoGST.
Its rating (M ¼ 3.10) was not significantly different from the first two dimensions
(M ¼ 3.13 and 3.11, respectively). This is in big contrast to their teachers who
ranked the PSE dimension the least important (M ¼ 2.29) among all the six dimen-
sions in CoGST. There are three possible reasons for this disparity in view between
the teachers and the students.
First, we would argue that a teacher’s conception of ‘good’ science teaching may
take the level of schooling into consideration. For instance, what is ideal for lower
form students might not be beneficial to senior form students (Lam & Kember,
2006). Although teachers are aware of the examination-led culture and the impor-
tance of preparing students for the major assessment hurdles in Grades 11 and 13,
they may believe that ‘PSE’ should not be their first priority when teaching Grade 7
students. Rather, it is more important for them to lay a good foundation for students
at this level of schooling via FSL, FSU and CCE. If this interpretation is correct, it
supports our claim of the importance of extending studies of conception of teaching
to specific levels of schooling.
Another possible reason for the mismatch between teachers’ and students’ view on
‘PSE’ may be that some teachers did not express their genuine belief on the issue.
Knowing that this research is carried out by an educational researcher, the teachers
might feel obligated to tell the researcher what they think the researcher wants to
hear. As a matter of fact, the difficulties of teasing out the respondents’ espoused
belief and their belief-in-use has been a persistent problem in studies on teacher
belief (Pajares, 1992). This might have been a particular problem for the present
study which was conducted at a point in time when Hong Kong was launching a
major education reform: trying to de-emphasize testing and examinations and advo-
cating helping students ‘learn to learn’ (CDC, 2001). Under such circumstance, some
teachers could have expressed views that were conforming more to the prevailing sen-
timents rather than their genuine belief.
Teachers’ and Students’ CoGST 2453
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The third reason might be related to the influence of Western educational theories
on Hong Kong teacher education. With progressive ideas such as constructivism,
meta-cognition and self-regulated learners received from teacher education courses,
teachers genuinely believe that compared with other dimensions of good science
teaching, PSE becomes less important. After talking to some of these teachers, we
found that they have come to realize that the goals of helping students ‘learn to
learn’ and prepare for examination are essentially not exclusive of each other. In par-
ticular, helping students ‘learn to learn’ (e.g. through ‘EAE’) and develop cognitively
(e.g. through ‘FSU’ and ‘FSL’) should contribute to the goal of ‘PSE’. Following the
same line of argument, engaging students affectively in their studies (e.g. through
‘CCE’ and ‘ESI’) is also a means of ‘PSE’. As a matter of fact, this is the logic we
use to convince and encourage our student teachers to try more progressive teaching
and learning strategies in their own classrooms. Actually, seeing these strategies
implemented effectively by the teacher in the video have further motivated our
student teachers to try them out via their own practices (Wong et al., 2006;
Yung et al., 2007).
To some extent, all the three reasons may be true though we tend to believe that our
teacher education has been exerting a positive influence in this respect and that tea-
chers were telling us their genuine beliefs. Anyway, the discussion above reveals
that teachers’ and students’ CoGST are context-dependent and culture-dependent.
These conceptions may also change with time, in response to changes in the social
and educational environment. A case in point is the increasing use of testing to
track student performance for accountability purposes in Western societies such as
the USA (DeBoer, 2011). This paper can inform the debate on its impact on students’
expectations of their teachers (as suggested in the discussion above) and how this gap
will be broaden or converge if teachers focus on learning vs. teaching to the test. To
help close the gap implies huge investment in teacher professional development
(TPD), as discussed below.
Implications for TPD
Readers may recall that, as an incentive, each participating teacher was promised an
individual report, including a detailed comparison of their conception of good science
teaching with those of their students. This study suggests that teachers can use the
video-based CoGST questionnaire as a tool to collect feedback from students for
reflection. Through it, teachers can understand what their students expect from
them and develop their pedagogical techniques based on the reflection, which will
in turn enhance the complex process of teaching and learning. However, it should
not be implied that it must be the teacher who has to change in the process in
order to close the gaps. Changes may also be desirable on the part of the student
albeit with help and explanation from the teacher. In other words, teachers may not
know how to utilize the knowledge and skills necessary to respond to the identified
gaps between their CoGST and those of their students. Providing teachers with the
skills and knowledge requires substantial professional development.
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The discrepancy between the conceptions held by the two parties can cause the stu-
dents to resist the teaching methods and approaches used by their teachers and, in
turn, can lead to ineffectiveness in their learning. For instance, the teachers who prior-
itize students learning how to learn over spoon-feeding students with subject content
may be poorly regarded by students who believe in the importance of having ‘the
teacher tells students which is/are the important part(s) of the textbook to underline
for revision’ (D55). Thus, the students’ ill-founded conceptions about good science
teaching should be addressed through discussions of current educational goals, the-
ories and teaching methods. However, it could be worrying that some teachers are
neither aware of the difficulties students encounter in preparation for examinations
nor cognizant of the reasons behind students’ inabilities to do so (Pressley, Yokoi,
van Mater, van Etten, & Freebern, 1997). Even if they know where the disparity in
opinions lies, teachers may not know how to close the gap. This raises the important
questions of how the identified gaps between teachers’ and students’ CoGST can be
addressed. Who is to change, the teacher, the students or both, and how? What are the
underlying rationales? In response to these challenges, a follow-up study is underway
to help some of the participating teachers tackle these problems, which adopts a three-
stage school-based TPD model:
(1) Sensitizing teachers to differences between students’ and their own views of good
science teaching, thus motivating them to subject their practices to constant and
more rigorous scrutiny. Through these comparisons, teachers can identify the
professional development goals that will guide them through the subsequent
stages of the TPD model.
(2) Conducting video workshops (using videos of exemplary science teaching from
an established archive) to equip teachers with the necessary knowledge/skills
and dispositions for conducting effective lesson study.
(3) Undertaking interactive cycles of video-based lesson study of their own teaching
(Lewis, 2002).
A review of the principles that guide effective professional development practices
(e.g. van Driel, Beijaard, & Verloop, 2001; Loucks-Horsley, Love, Stiles, Mundry,
& Hewson, 2003) provide insight into the extent of effort such professional develop-
ment opportunities will require. In sum, the goal of helping teachers to identify and
close the gaps between their CoGST and those of their students entails much effort
and enormous investment. There is simply no easy way to bring about good science
teaching. But certainly, listening to students what they think about good science
teaching is one of the starting points.
Acknowledgements
The work described in this paper was fully supported by a grant from the Research
Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project
No. HKU 7283/04H). The authors are grateful to the students and teachers who
kindly agreed to take part in the study.
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Notes
1. When the study was conducted, there were a total of 503 secondary schools in Hong Kong.
2. They were not co-authors of the paper. They were adjudicators for national awards of exemplary
science teaching and had more than 20 years of teacher training experiences.
3. Interested readers may consult the first author for access of the video-based instrument.
4. In Hong Kong, when students are promoted to secondary schools they are allocated to three
bands of schools according to their academic abilities. Band 1 schools admit students with
highest abilities and Band 3 the lowest.
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Appendix
List of Survey Items in ‘Density’ Lesson Questionnaire
The following 55 questions were on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from 0 to 4; where
‘0’ stands for ‘Not important at all’, and ‘2’ is in the mid-point of the scale and stands
for ‘Important’, ‘4’ is at the other end of the scale and stands for ‘Very important’.
(A) At the beginning of the lesson
1. The teacher involves students in revising on what was learnt in previous lessons.
2. The teacher tells students the aim of the present lesson.
3. The teacher uses everyday terms that students know to explain science concepts.
4. In order to help students understand, the teacher uses different examples to
explain the scientific concepts.
5. The teacher encourages students to challenge what he says.
(B) Introducing the floating egg experiment
6. The teacher asks students to read the experimental procedure by themselves.
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7. The teacher allows students to raise questions before the experiment to clarify
uncertainties instead of telling them the procedure directly.
8. The teacher gives clear instruction on the arrangement of the experiment
(e.g. materials, apparatus and time schedule of the experiment).
9. The teacher encourages students to carry out simple experiment at home.
10. The teacher brings out the aim of the experiment through discussion with
students.
11. The teacher tells students the expected result before they start the experiment.
12. The teacher relates the experiment to students’ daily life experiences.
(C) Does sugar work too?
13. The teacher uses two soluble materials in the experiment (i.e. sugar and salt).
14. The teacher asks the class to put up their hands to show if they agree with a
certain opinion.
15 The teacher includes some insoluble substances (e.g. sand) for students to do
the experiment.
16. The teacher splits the class into two groups to do the same experiment by using
different materials (i.e. some on sugar and some on salt).
17. The teacher asks students to carry out the experiment in a quantitative manner
(e.g. measure the changes in height of the floating egg with the number of
spoons of salt/sugar added).
(D) The floating egg experiment in progress and the post-lab discussion
18. The teacher allows students to change the experimental steps (e.g. using 300 ml
of water instead of 400 ml).
19. The teacher reports the progress of each group to the whole class.
20. The teacher allows students to do another experiment as a bonus.
21. The teacher walks around to see how students are carrying out the experiment.
22. The teacher asks students to answer the questions in complete sentences.
23. The teacher discusses the experimental results with the students.
24. In discussing the results, the teacher requires students first to work on their own
and discuss their results in groups before having the whole class discussion.
25. The teacher emphasizes it is important to ask questions of ‘why’ in learning
science.
26 The teacher collects opinions from all students before drawing a conclusion.
(E) The boat building activity and balloon show
27. The teacher runs the experiment in form of a competition.
28. The teacher gives students some time to have group discussion on how to apply
the concept of density to building a boat.
29. The teacher introduces the concept of a fair test when setting rules for the
competition.
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30. The teacher emphasizes that cooperation among group members is important
in learning science.
31. The teacher asks students to think about the possible reasons for the floating/
sinking of the balloons instead of telling them the theory directly.
32. The teacher invites students to participate in teacher demonstrations (e.g. the
balloon show).
33. The teacher explains how the ‘balloon show’ is related to the rest of the lesson.
34. When the competition is over, the teacher explains how the concept of density
can help in the boat design.
35. The teacher invites students to organize inter-class competitions (e.g. a boat
building competition).
(F) Looking at the lesson as a whole
36. The teacher asks different types of questions (e.g. What? How? and Why?).
37. The teacher praises students for their good performance.
38. Instead of responding to students’ question directly, the teacher sometimes
re-directs the question to other students for answers.
39. The teacher has good time management.
40. The teacher relates today’s lesson to what students have learnt before.
41. The teacher expresses high expectations of his students.
42. The teacher awards bonus marks to students who perform well.
43. The teacher arranges interesting activities for the lesson.
44. The teacher provides students the correct scientific knowledge.
45. The teacher has good control of class discipline.
46. The teacher stimulates students’ interest in learning science.
47. The teacher teaches students the scientific method, the different steps and tech-
niques involved as well as the way of thinking.
48. The teacher is humorous.
(G) Other features not shown in the video
49. The teacher helps students to develop life-long learning abilities/skills (e.g. criti-
cal thinking, creativity, problem-solving ability and communication skills).
50. The teacher teaches students how to revise and prepare for tests and
examinations.
51. The teacher encourages students to recognize the relevant social, technological
and economical issues.
52. The teacher put the correct answers on the board for students to copy onto their
notebooks/workbooks.
53. The teacher provides students with notes for their revision.
54. The teacher explains to students the importance of science.
55. The teacher tells students which is/are the important part(s) of the textbook to
underline for revision.
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