John SirajBlatchford

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Socio-cultural factors in Learning Science

• John Siraj-Blatchford
• Faculty of Education
• Cambridge

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Many adults have turned off science by having an
incorrect stereotypical view of science that
scientists are lonely, serious middle-aged white
men who work in complex laboratories Jarvis
Rennie, 2000
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"Scientific knowledge is the product of a
community, not of an individual. Findings
reported by an individual must survive an
institutional checking and testing mechanism,
before being accepted as knowledge (Driver et
al, 1996, p44).
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"..instead of science as a monolithic smart
system, in which the trick is to learn it and do
it, we get the very different epistemological
model of many smart systems, with their
limitations. Its users who have to be smart they
have to learn when to use one and when to use
another." (Sandra Harding, p18 THES October 11,
1996).
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"With scientific method, we took things apart to
see how they worked. Now with computers we can
put things back together to see how they work,
by modeling complex, interrelated processes,
even life itself. This is a new age of discovery,
and ICT is the gateway. Douglas Adams
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"...we are dominant because we have the power
(industrial, technological, military, moral), and
they don't, because of which they are not
dominant they are inferior, we are
superior...and so on and on."
(Said, 1994, p127)
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• The personalisation of learning, for Hodson,
  would involve the teacher in identifying and
  constructvely engaging with the prior
  knowledge, exerience, needs, interests and
  aspirations of every learner.
• Hodson, D. (1998) Teaching and Learning Science
  Towards a Personalized Approach, OUP
  

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• To be able to distinguish, classify and
  catalogue external things on the basis of a
  secure order already established in the mind,
  this is at once intelligence and culture."
  
• (Maria Montessori 1912, p205)

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Constructivism is the opposite of Inductivism
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Constructivism in Science Education
Piaget took the position that every scheme
(psychologically organised action) has both
cognitive and affective elements and that these
are indissociable.
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• Piaget took the position that every scheme
  (psychologically organised action) has both
  cognitive and affective elements and that these
  are indissociable.
• This is the motor of constructivist cognitive
  developemnt, but the aspect of Piagets theory
  that is often missed is that it cannot run
  without the affective fuel of interest and
  encouragement.
• DeVries, R. (1997) Piagets Social Theory,
  Educational Researcher, Vol. 26, No. 2 March

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• As Hodson suggests the contradiction that is
  often assumed to exist between the need to
  provide an enculturation into established science
  and the development of personal frameworks of
  understanding is a false one.
• As Hodson argues, scientists pusuing different
  purposes tend to work with the same theory but at
  different levels of understanding.

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• The problem is that many teachers assume that the
  business of learning science is entirely rational
  and that faced with the appropriate evidence all
  of those pupils with sufficent intellectual
  capacity to understand the evidence will accept
  the scientific ideas unproblematically.

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"...we are dominant because we have the power
(industrial, technological, military, moral), and
they don't, because of which they are not
dominant they are inferior, we are
superior...and so on and on."
(Said, 1994, p127)
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• It is essential that we recognise that in
  applying constructivism in science we are trying
  to introduce children to established scientific
  ideas and not simply developing their personal
  and/or ideosyncratic framework of
  understandings about the world.

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We are never passive in perception
We can look at things scientifically, or
critically, or with appreciation, we can also
look at things poetically... and we can view
things with indifference or with a view to
remembering them, promoting or even changing them.

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Co-construction as a complex dialogic practice
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Co-constructive Development
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Jamie Why is it the car on that metal
thing? Adult It's not metal, its
concrete. Jamie Why is it on the concrete
thing? Adult Well, when it rains the ground
gets soft and muddy, doesn't it?
Jamie nods, bends down and scratches the dry
earth. Adult So the wheels would sink into the
mud. But the concrete's hard, you see. Jamie
excitedly But the concrete's soft in the mix!
Why is it soft in the mix?
(Donaldson 1992, p44)
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Effective Provision of Pre-School EducationE P P
E (UK) Kathy Sylva University of Oxford Iram
Siraj-Blatchford Institute of Education,
University of London Pam Sammons Institute of
Education, University of London Edward Melhuish
Birkbeck, University of London Brenda Taggart
Institute of Education, University of London For
further information about EPPE visit the EPPE
website at http//www.ioe.ac.uk/projects/epp
e
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Key Findings Home learning environment

• The quality of the learning environment of the
  home (where parents are actively engaged in
  activities with children) promoted intellectual
  and social development in all children.
• Although parents social class and levels of
  education were related to child outcomes the
  quality of the home learning environment was more
  important. The home learning environment is only
  moderately associated with social class. What
  parents do is more important than who they are.
• Children who do not attend pre-school tend to
  have poorer home learning environments

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Aspects of Home Learning Environment Covered
(parents self-report)

• Regular reading to child
• Library visits
• Playing with letters or numbers
• Painting and drawing
• Playing/teaching alphabet or letters
• Playing/teaching with numbers/shapes
• Playing/teaching of songs/nursery rhymes

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• There is only a moderate positive association
  between HLE and parents socio-economic status
  and qualifications (r0.3)
• Some parents with high family SES and
  qualification levels provide a home environment
  low on the HLE index. Conversely there are
  parents low on SES and qualifications that
  provide a home environment high on the HLE index.
• There are significant gender differences in
  reported HLE suggesting that parenting styles can
  differ for boys and girls

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Do parents interact differently with boys and
girls?
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• When children entered primary school there were
  similar effects for the HLE to those seen
  earlier. The analyses looked at the components
  of the HLE and their effects upon the childrens
  current level of cognitive abilities and also
  upon their progress in these abilities over the
  pre-school period.
• The strength of the effect of this variable could
  well be informative to projects and social
  policies targeted on improving the home
  environment of children with regard to reducing
  social exclusion e.g. Sure Start, Health
  Visitors, Early years and Primary practitioners
  working with parents.

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EPPE Case Studies

• The key findings are in the following areas
• Management and staff
• Ethos and climate of the settings
• Adult-child verbal Interactions
• Differentiation and formative assessment
• Discipline and adult support in talking through
  conflicts
• Parental partnership with settings and the home
  education environment
• Pedagogy
• Knowledge of the curriculum and child development

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Science Design and Technology ICT
Integration in Socio-dramatic Play
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What isEmergent Science?- accepts diversity -
the power and importance of play - promotes
an emerging awareness of scientific
investigation- develop confidence in
exploration and investigation- emphasises
modelling - promotes an awareness of
phenomenon
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Scaffolding 1. Where the teacher may direct the
child's attention to different aspects of a
situation. 2. Where the child is helped to break
down a task into a sequence of smaller tasks
which are more manageable. 3. Where the teacher
helps the child to sequence the steps in the
right order. Smith, 1994
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Scaffolding 1. Where the teacher may direct the
child's attention to different aspects of a
situation. 2. Where the child is helped to break
down a task into a sequence of smaller tasks
which are more manageable. 3. Where the teacher
helps the child to sequence the steps in the
right order. Smith, 1994
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Play is a leading activity (Leontiev, 1981,
Oerter, 1993) ...when children consciously
reflect upon the relationship between their
pretend signs and real meanings they are
engaged in a form of semiotic activity that will
provide a valuable precursor to new learning
activities. (van Oers, 1999, p278)
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Analysis and interpretation of data Pupils should
be taught that the practice of science involves
skilful analysis and interpretation of data.
Science and Certainty Pupils should appreciate
why much scientific knowledge, particularly that
taught in school science, is well established and
beyond reasonable doubt, and why other scientific
knowledge is more open to legitimate doubt.
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Understanding the nature of Science They
recognise why it is important to collect data to
answer questions (l3). L4 they recognise that
scientific ideas are based on evidence. L5 they
describe how experimental evidence and creative
thinking have been combined to provide a
scientific explanation. L6 they describe how
new interpretations lead to new scientific
thinking (?)
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Interpretation They provide explanations for
observations and for simple patterns in recorded
measurements (l3). L4 they begin to plot points
to form simple graphs and use these graphs to
point out and interpret patterns in their data. -
they begin to relate their conclusions to these
patterns and to scientific knowledge and
understanding. L5/6 they draw conclusions that
are consistent with the evidence and begin to
relate these to scientific knowledge and
understanding.
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Secondary data They use simple texts to find
information (l3). L4 they select information
from sources provided for them. L5 they select
from a range of sources of information. L6 refer
to established knowledge and understanding in
developing their investigative approach.
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Communication They communicate in a scientific
way what they have found out and suggest
improvements in their work (L3). L4 they
communicate with appropriate scientific
language. L5/6 - use appropriate conventions
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The Myth of the Hero Scientistis not at all
dissimilar to all the other hero myths
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• pupils are often entirely unaware of the learning
  objectives of investigative science.
• respect for evidence cant be taken for granted
• use data sets to provide exemplars at the
  beginning of KS2
• work towards applying them as data to be engaged
  with and accounted for by the end of KS2
• even bad data sets may be used to good advantage
• established scientific knowledge can be usefully
  applied at an early stage and throughout
  investigations