September 08Slide 1

Learning with meaningLearning with meaning

Download P4.2_2.0c Learning with Meaning This document can be freely copied and amended if used for educational purposes. It must not be used for commercial gain. The author and web source must be acknowledged whether used as it stands or whether adapted in any way.

Authored by Keith Ross, University of Gloucestershire accessed from www.scitutors.org.uk date created September 2008

September 08Slide 2

Brenda Grapples with the Properties of a MernBrenda Grapples with the Properties of a Mern

Ross, K. A. (1998) Brenda Grapples with the Properties of a Mern. Chapter 6 in Littledyke, M. and Huxford L., Teaching the Primary Curriculum for Constructive Learning London: David Fulton

September 08Slide 3

Minimum entitlementMinimum entitlement

Brenda and Friends (West 1984) was published several years before the first science National Curriculum, as part of the secondary science curriculum review.

It took a refreshing look at what a child was entitled to after they had followed a course of science in school……

September 08Slide 4

• Here is an extract from ‘Brenda and Friends’ from the section on Energy:

September 08Slide 5

... Rebecca appreciates that the sun is the ultimate source of nearly all the Earth’s energy

and when she visited relatives in Israel she saw that by means of solar cells .... the sun’s radiant energy can be converted into electrical energy for domestic needs.

By experimenting with different conditions in primary school when growing bean shoots in jam jars, Rebecca knows that sunlight is needed to make plants grow

.... (and) that animals cannot make their own food but have to eat other animals or plants for this purpose.

September 08Slide 6

... Rebecca found it very interesting when, in her history studies, the class considered how the energy requirements of the average family home in the Western World in the 1980s compared with 100 years ago,

but she was disturbed at the thought that not only has the energy consumption per person in the home increased but that the world population has increased too

... From Geography lessons Rebecca is aware that not only does energy consumption vary very considerably between nations but that non-renewable energy sources are very varied in their distribution

... she appreciates that, as a citizen of the world, she must exercise responsibility ... (pp. 60-2)

September 08Slide 7

‘Pupils should be taught ...’? ‘Pupils should be taught ...’?

Present national entitlement is a recipe for SATs success but does it lead to understanding?

Children must build the scientific ideas they meet in school into a meaningful, growing and evolving framework.

Try to read the passage and then answer the question that follows:

September 08Slide 8

Markobine gandoMarkobine gando ‘When an orbal of quant undual to the

markobine bosal passes through a dovern mern it is deranted so as to cosat to a bart on the bosal called the markobine gando’

‘What happens to the deranted orbal when it passes through a dovern mern?’

(Note – tutors please read the attached notes which can be accessed in ‘Normal’ view)

September 08Slide 9

Markobine gandoMarkobine gando

‘it cosats to a bart on the bosal called the markobine gando’

‘When an orbal of quant undual to the markobine bosal passes through a dovern mern it is deranted so as to cosat

to a bart on the bosal called the markobine gando’

September 08Slide 10

The misty mountains of scienceThe misty mountains of science

• and the valley where we live with our everyday ideas

I live down there

September 08Slide 11

Telling children scientific ideas. Telling children scientific ideas.

• This is like landing them on a mountain top in the mist, with no idea where they are

• It will be isolated knowledge, and likely to be forgotten in a few years.

September 08Slide 12

Progressive, child-centred or discovery methods Progressive, child-centred or discovery methods

• letting them play in the valleys. They never see the mountain tops which are covered in mist.

September 08Slide 13

Constructivist approaches to learning Constructivist approaches to learning

• take children’s existing ideas into account - their view of their valley of understanding

• children can then be led up the mountain, in sight of the valley below, and now are able to see how the whole landscape links up and how limited their existing view was

September 08Slide 14

Science Science

• Not learnt by heart• A set of ideas and models

which attempt to explain natural phenomena.

September 08Slide 15

A Constructivist ApproachA Constructivist Approach

A constructivist approach to science teaching

• Elicitation - start from the naive conceptions or experiences of learners.

• Intervention• Reformulation• Evaluation.

September 08Slide 16

Constructivist approaches to learning Constructivist approaches to learning

take children’s existing ideas into account - their view of their valley of understanding (Brenda)

children can then be led up the mountain, in sight of the valley below, and now are able to see how the whole landscape links up and how limited their existing view was (Grappling with a mern)