Abstract
The perspective of form and function as an objective of primary science
education
Selection of content in primary science education is complicated because of
the following factors: firstly, science educators can choose from an almost
endless amount of possible subjects without a clear conceptual structure,
and secondly, science educators should leave room for students to
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formulate
and investigate their own questions. This leads to the question how students
and teachers can be assisted both in the structuring of content and in the
formulating of their own questions. In this research, the use of
perspectives is proposed as a solution to this problem. Perspectives are
defined as domain-specific thinking and working strategies which experts use
in their practice. Examples of perspectives in biology are the perspective
of form and function and the perspective of unity and diversity.
Perspectives indicate the questions experts ask, as well as the heuristics
that they use to answer them. By teaching perspectives as a metacognitive
strategy, students could learn which questions can be asked of the
phenomena, and where they can start to find an answer. Perspectives could
also provide a conceptual structure which can be used to link and structure
different learning experiences.
The possibility to acquire perspectives as a metacognitive strategy has been
investigated by elaborating the perspective of form and function as an
example. The research question was formulated as follows: How can elementary
school students acquire the perspective of form and function as a
metacognitive strategy? This question has been investigated by developmental
research, in which a learning and teaching strategy was developed and tested
in practice in three primary science classes with students around age 11.
The first step in the development of the learning and teaching strategy was
to investigate and compare the content of the perspective of form and
function in biological research and in technical design. Both biologists and
designers use several - and sometimes similar - ways of reasoning between
form and function, which is indicated as hither and tither thinking . It
proved possible to describe the perspective of form and function for both
biological research and for technical design in one model.
The next step was to translate this model in objectives of science education
and develop a learning and teaching strategy to acquire the perspective of
form and function. This was further elaborated in a scenario which described
in detail the planned learning process. A scheme, based on the perspective
of form and function, was introduced to structure and link the different
experiences in the scenario.
The scenario stimulated students in design activities, both in creating
technical and biological designs. Students were able to defend their
designs, and comment on other designs, during which discourse they showed
several types of the predicted reasoning between form and function. Much
more guidance was needed during discourses on existing designs, especially
when is was not possible to compare the design with real alternatives.
Students had problems discussing existing biological designs, and sometimes
found these discussions useless. The students acquired parts of the
perspective of form and function, but not sufficient to use the perspective
as an instrument to construct new knowledge independently.
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