Learning Theories and Science

Last week, through slides and articles, we learned about the constructivist learning theory. 

This theory has two main points as it relates to the education process. First, that knowledge is constructed through genuine experiences, and second, that prior experience is hugely influential on new interpretations.  

This is highly relevant to Science since it is a domain that is largely based on experiences. Experiencing and observing is central to developing a science mindset and so it stands to reason that adopting a teaching style aligned with the constructivist learning theory, where learning happens through experiences, will be an effective way to engage students in science learning. Also, the notion that experience forms ideas means that students will already have constructed models of understanding for things they have encountered in their lives, even if they have yet to encounter them in school. As we saw in the video A Private Universe from Annenberg Learner, when students encounter a new subject at school, existing mental models may be ripe with errors, and will interfere with them developing accurate models, which can interfere with further science learning. These existing models, or misconceptions, are tenacious. They have to be challenged and discredited in the eyes of the student before they can be replaced with new models. 

With regards to the science and technology curriculum, this approach can be used as a guiding principle for science instruction:  that students will come in with science misconceptions, and that they will learn best by having a direct experience that reveals the information to them.  However, to me the tricky thing is that there is a lot of scientific theory that cannot be observed directly or simply, and therefore giving students an experience that reveals the ideas may be a more nuanced and difficult thing to do.  

As an example, in my practicum I was teaching some grade 7 science classes where I introduced the concept of matter and particles.  I felt it was very important for students to begin to incorporate this idea into their mental models of the world, but that it was a difficult thing for them to comprehend.  I introduced properties of solutions lecture-style, but I felt the students would understand better if they experienced the concepts in a more tangible way. 


So, we did an investigation on solutions that had two parts.  In the first, the students mixed together marbles and sand, comparing the respective volumes to the final volume after the two were added (the final volume being less than the addition of the two volumes, because of how the molecules are rearranged when a solution is created.) The marbles and sand were meant to represent different particles, and the sand went into the spaces between the marbles.  The second part of the investigation had the students adding a specific volume of sugar to a specific volume of water, mixing, and recording the final volume (the final vol = less than the two vols added together.)  My hope was that students would use the sand/marbles model to help create a sugar/water model. 

In the end, I'm not sure how well this approach contributed to their overall understanding, although in consolidation after the investigation, many of them were able to make the connection.