Development of Children's Scientific Skills and Knowledge - Essay Example

Development of Childrens Scientific Skills and Knowledge Glynn et al (1991) that for the of today to become knowledge citizens and toprosper in the 21st century, it is a must that they understand the principles and procedures of science. Science is a subject which requires learning for many years and inculcating the scientific temper amongst the children. In the era of Information Technology when the world is increasingly becoming technical, preparing the children for a better tomorrow becomes all the more crucial. Science teaching forms an important component of this teaching-learning process. Role of the teacher as well as the parents becomes quite crucial in developing the scientific temper in a child. Tsubata (2007) narrates the experience of parents asking, "What can I do to get my child to read or do math, or understand science?" Tsubata states that often parents try to place all the responsibility on the shoulders of the teacher, for making the child a good learner. But parents have a very crucial role is making the child more attentive and responsible towards the studies. Subjects like science and technology require more of such attention from the parents. While stating the world is indeed becoming lot more technical, Glynn et al. (1991) emphasize the need for science teachers to come out with innovative ideas for preparing the child to take on the world in right earnest. There’s a process and knowledge behind any science activity. Glynn et al. (1991) say that students who are able to grasp the process behind any scientific activity are in a better position to understand science. This requires not just rote memorization but conceptual learning with the help of practical exposure. Therefore practical science activities and investigations in the primary classroom are crucial to the development of childrens scientific skills and knowledge. Lot of things keep happening in the world of science, which requires regular updation of this knowledge base. Learning science and investigating the cause and effect of some particular type of happening becomes easier with observing the events, measuring the findings, asking relevant questions, using tools & gadgets, designing some experiments and then making inferences. While emphasizing the need for practical activities Clark (2002) said in his presentation in a seminar that practical activities form the core of science teaching. He classified the roles of practical activities in science teaching basically into the four groups; 1. Acquiring Information, Concepts and Principles: Such information can be acquired from observing the happenings in the surroundings. Since young minds observe the happenings without any bias or presumption therefore they are found to acquire the information more correctly. Children are found to be very much inquisitive while observing the events, they keep asking question after question to know the reason, consequence. This is where the parents’ role becomes very much crucial. In order to develop a scientific temper, parents must satiate their query to the optimum satisfaction of the child and in such a manner that the child actually learns something from the experience. 2. Developing process skills: Once the child acquires the information, he starts to process it, with whatever knowledge s/he has acquired. If the child is not able to decipher the happening, s/he starts looking for a possible answer. This helps the child in correlating similar happenings. So that in future if something of that sort happens, then the child must be able to process the information with the acquired knowledge, reasoning and logic. This further strengthens the knowledge base of the student. Processing skills are required to be developed not only by the teacher, but by the parents as well. Teacher of course gives a direction to the processing skills, by encouraging the student to attempt to answer queries like the ‘why everything keeps falling down on earth while the astronauts up in the space-ships keep floating like birds or fishes?’. The teacher not only provides answers to such queries, but also encourages the student to do his own research. But to make the process of learning more student oriented, the teacher will have to understand the caliber of the student, his/her leanings, the feedback from parents and optimum use of the surroundings. Glynn et al (1991) state that the psychology of learning science holds the response for increasing the student’s understanding of the science. Glynn et al further add that while on the one hand information overload of facts and figures results in decelerating interest, excess of laboratory work also is not an answer to satisfy student’s inquisitiveness. Clark (2006) also emphasizes the need for a balanced approach on theory as well as practical aspects. She finds out that more emphasis on theory-based lessons is deterring bright youngsters from studying science. In order to make the learning process more lively and interactive both the student and the teacher has to put up lot of hard work. Interactive sessions hold the key to increasing the student’s understanding of science. Science a recent research study Clark (2006) argues that young children are being put off science as teachers do not give priority to practical experiments. Baddeley (1990) broadly divides the human memory system in two parts viz. our conscious mind or working memory and our long term memory. Mental work is done in the working memory while the products of learning are stored in long-term memory. This makes a set of human information-processing system. Glynn et al (1991) also argue in support that due to the limitations of the information processing system of the tender minds of students, they cannot process large amount of unfamiliar information. Students are therefore quite selective in their cognitive processing of the information. If somehow the information can be presented in an interesting manner, it arouses the curiosity of the young minds and results in a quick grasp. Learning as such is a process of acquiring new knowledge involving active interaction of key cognitive processes like perception, imagery, organization, and elaboration. These processes help in constructing a conceptual relationship (Glynn, 1991). Science being the study of factual and interrelated concepts requires more such interaction. Teachers can therefore help in the learning process by relating the concepts in the form of organized networks of related information and not as random lists of unrelated facts. Unlike other students a science student learns much more from his/her surroundings, nature and the day to day happenings around him/her. Scientific reasoning, by definition, involves both conceptual understanding and inquiry skills (Zimmerman, 2005). The science student typically responds to a problem-solving environment created either by the student, the teacher, the textbook, the lab manual, or a combination of these sources (Glynn, 1991). Such a cognitive model for science learning can be depicted as in figure-1. Fig-1: Cognitive model of scientific reasoning EDGE, an education foundation working in UK towards popularizing vocational and practical training, found out in a survey conducted in 2006, that; Nearly 60 per cent of 18 – 34 year olds say more hands-on activity in science would inspire them to learn 73 per cent found experiments the most enjoyable part of science lessons 3. Learning about the nature of science: Nature provides the best hunting ground for science enthusiasts. There are questions which curiosity, like why is the sky blue? Why is the sea water saline? Why are leaves of plants green? Such questions help in making science interesting for the young enthusiasts. Zimmerman (2005) states that psychologists who’ve been studying scientific reasoning are found to be influenced by the philosophy of science, particularly by the observable events. Zimmerman further states that with the help of causal mechanism one can determine the correlations between perceptually salient events, as it is a process which helps in identifying the cause and the subsequent effect. Science is one such field which affects almost all aspects of our lives. Events happen because there are reasons for them to happen. Therefore, developing scientific temperament helps in better understanding and correlating the events. For example, whenever there’s lightening in the sky, that signals oncoming rain or bad whether. Student will be thinking about the reason for lightening which helps in concluding that with the movement of oppositely charged clouds, there’s light and sound. Since clouds are up there that means rain is bound to come. Similarly, the student will be curious to know as to where the light, approaching a tall building, disappears all of sudden. Then he can be told about the existence of lightening arresters, which are placed over high rise buildings for this very purpose, otherwise the lightening can destroy the building. While observing the lightening from roof top, the student might be tempted to ask why is it that s/he is able to ‘see’ the lightening before actually ‘hearing’ the sound of it. This will help him in learning about the different speeds of light and sound, and light being faster approaches us earlier than the sound. 4. Improving attitudes to science: Science is known to have both positive as well negative impacts on the lives of human beings. Development of atomic bomb has resulted in widespread destruction of life and property, but at the same time the nuclear science has helped in providing solutions to many types of problems like providing energy for power generation, medical diagnosis and cure etc. This difference helps in shaping the attitude of the student towards science. Similarly, the student may consider science as a complex set of chemical formulas and equations if it is not presented to him as something very natural to the human beings. Student must be taught/ informed about science if such a manner it arouses further curiosity in him/ her, thus shaping the attitudes. References: 1. Baddeley A. (1990). Human memory. Boston: Allyn & Bacon. 2. Clark, Laura (2006), “Why Safety First Lessons Put Children off Science”, The Daily Mail. February 2, 2006. 3. Clark, John Cripps (2002). “What is the role of practical activities in primary science teaching?” Available online at http://www.aare.edu.au/02pap/cri02222.htm (Accessed Apr 13, 2007) 4. Edge (2006). Science at school irrelevant and boring say recent school leavers. Available online at http://www.edgeintospace.com/downloads/YouGovResearch.doc (Accessed Apr 14, 2007) 5. Glynn, Shawn M.; Yeany, Russell H., and Britton, Bruce K. (1991) “The Psychology of Learning Science: A Constructive View of Learning Science”, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ 6. Tsubata, Kate (2007), “Parents, Children Learning Together”. The Washington Times. January 8, 2007. 7. Zimmerman, Corinne (2005), The Development of Scientific Reasoning Skills: What Psychologists Contribute to an Understanding of Elementary Science Learning. Available online at http://www7.nationalacademies.org/bose/Corinne_Zimmerman_Final_Paper.pdf (Accessed Apr 13, 2007) Read More