IBSE Final

58 NaTIoNal SCIENCE TEaChERS aSSoCIaTIoN

Chapter 3 The Science Curriculum and Classroom Instruction

• How can one communicate with the teacher so that the teacher can, in turn,

communicate with the pupils? (Karplus and Thier 1967, p. 11)

With small modifications, these questions set the stage for the following

discussion, in which I provide contemporary answers to the questions.

Creating Learning Experiences

The original question has several components: first, students’ intuitive atti-

tudes; second, a scientific point of view; and third, learning experiences that

connect the first two. I assume that “intuitive attitudes” was Bob Karplus’s

way of indicating that students have views that are inconsistent with—that is,

misconceptions about—scientific concepts. The thrust of this question centers

on the application of learning theory to curriculum and instruction. Here, the

major report How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School (Bransford,

Brown, and Cocking 1999) and other NRC reports (Duschl, Schweingruber,

and Shouse 2007; Michaels, Shouse, and Schweingruber 2008) provide contem-

porary answers. The findings should inform our decisions about curriculum

and instruction.

First, students come to science classrooms with their current conceptions about

how the world works. Early in life, children begin making sense of phenomena in

their world. In some cases, the ideas children develop provide an accurate founda-

tion for continued learning and development. In some cases, however, the current

ideas are misconceptions and hinder learning because the students’ current

conceptions are very powerful and grounded in concrete experiences, even if

they are not correct. If, in contrast, students did not have any ideas about objects,

organisms, or phenomena, it would be relatively easy to tell them or give some

simple experience that would leave an initial understanding. This, however, is not

the case. Achieving sure connections between students’ current conceptions and

science concepts places demands on the curriculum and classroom instruction.

There is a need to draw out students’ current conceptions, show their inadequa-

cies, and provide opportunities for students to construct new ideas.

The implications seem clear. Curriculum materials and instructional strat-

egies should incorporate means to identify students’ current conceptions and

provide time and opportunities for conceptual change. Given the powerful

nature of extant concepts (whether consistent or inconsistent with the scientific

point of view), the process of conceptual change presents a prominent contem-

porary challenge to curriculum developers and science teachers.

Second, for pupils to develop competence in an area of inquiry, students

must (a) have a deep foundation of factual knowledge, (b) understand facts and

ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, and (c) organize knowledge in

ways that facilitate retrieval and application. Experts, regardless of their field,

draw on a deep and richly structured knowledge base. The ability to plan a