THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Students perception of instructional practice

Transcription

1 STUDENTS PERCEPTION OF THEIR PHYSICS- RELATED INSTRUCTION IN THE TRANSITION FROM PRIMARY TO SECONDARY SCHOOL - A LONGITUDINAL ANALYSIS FROM 4 TH TO 7 TH GRADE IN GERMANY Katharina Pollmeier¹, Kim Lange², Thilo Kleickmann³ and Kornelia Möller¹ ¹ University of Muenster, Germany ² University of Augsburg, Germany ³ Leibniz Institute for Science and Mathematics Education, Kiel, Germany Abstract: Students cognitive and motivational learning outcomes in school are not only determined by the design of instruction but are also mediated by how students perceive and interpret their instruction. Although the mediating students perceptions theoretically take a key role in the effectiveness of instruction, up to now studies assessing students perception of German science instruction in primary school and in the subsequent primary-secondary interface are missing. Following up on this research gap the PLUS-project investigates students perspective of their physicsrelated instruction in the transition from German primary to secondary school 1. Therefore 348 students were questioned once a year in a longitudinal design from fourth to seventh grade. The investigation focuses on aspects of teaching for understanding of physics-related instruction. In accordance with conceptual-change and social constructivist theories regarding teaching and learning in science a questionnaire was designed. The results showed a significant decline with high effect sizes in students perception of the defined aspects from fourth to seventh grade. They also indicate that students perceive a rupture between their instruction in primary and secondary school. So far the question remains open, to what extent students make a correlation between the educational features that promote understanding and their real understanding of the teaching content. To identify educational features which promote the physical understanding from students perspective, qualitative interviews with 20 members of the quantitative sample were conducted additionally. The results of the qualitative study identify experiments, teachers explanations and the clarity of speech as characteristics promoting students understanding in primary and secondary physic instruction. The results provide hints for the improvement of physics-related instruction in the transition from primary to secondary school in order to promote students understanding of physics. Keywords: students perception, physics-related instruction, primary-secondary transition, teaching for understanding, qualitative and quantitative methods THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Students perception of instructional practice In the research of teaching and learning, students perception of instructional practices has become increasingly important since the 1980s: Students cognitive and motivational learning outcomes in school are not only determined by the design of

2 instruction but mediated by how students perceive and interpret their instruction as well as the students individual coping processes (Helmke, 2009; Gruehn, 2000). Meanwhile, the validity of students perspective in regard to the assessment of their instruction could be confirmed by research studies (Kämpfe, 2009).Recent research in education identifies students perceptions of teaching as predicting significantly students achievement (Gates Foundation MET Project, 2010; Gruehn, 2000; Helmke, 2003; Clausen, 2002; Ditton, 2002). Furthermore Gruehn (2000) and Kunter (2005) found that aggregated class means are reliable indicators of the teaching quality and that the validity of students perception could be compared with objective observational data. For the assessment of the instruction and the instructional design students were referred to as experts because they gather various experiences with teaching and instruction in different subjects and with different teachers in the course of their schooling (Clausen, 2002; Kämpfe, 2009). Teaching for understanding in science instruction According to the concept of Scientific Literacy as well as international and national curricula, one of the most important goals of school-based learning in primary and secondary school is the acquisition of scientific understanding (Bybee & Ben-Zvi, 1998; Van den Akker, 1998; Kunter et al., 2005). However, international comparative studies assessed German secondary school students as having a negative performance in conceptual understanding and in applying their knowledge (Prenzel, Geiser, Langeheine, & Lobemeier, 2003; Prenzel et al., 2007). In contrast, German primary school students reached, in relative terms, a better understanding of science, as well as better motivational conditions for the application of science. Although the latter ranked third, they came very far behind the frontrunner (Wittwer, Saß, & Prenzel, 2008; Kleickmann, Brehl, Saß, & Prenzel, 2012). Thus there are more positive findings in the primary school opposite to a problematic situation in the secondary schools. To promote the development of scientific understanding, instruction in primary and secondary school should support an active knowledge construction. In the research of science education especially three theories are discussed which currently have a significant importance for the improvement of teaching: Theories of situated cognition, social-constructivist approaches and conceptual change theories (Treagust, Duit, & Fraser, 1996; Treagust & Duit, 2008). According to these theories, learning is an active, social and situated process (Gerstenmaier & Mandl, 1995; Reinmann- Rothmeier & Mandl, 1998). Therefore, scientific learning which aims to understand and to apply knowledge requires opportunities to reconstruct existing knowledge (Vosniadou, 1994; Treagust & Duit, 2008), the acquisition and application of concepts in everyday-life situations and meaningful contexts (Stark, 2003), a joint exchange and checking of assumptions and explanations through cooperative learning methods and discourses within the learning group (Mietzel, 2007), as well as a clear and understandable communication (Wagenschein, 1992; Sumfleth & Pitton, 1998). With regard to the different performances in the international comparative studies between primary and secondary school students and the importance of students perception for the development of their learning gains, the question arises whether and to what extent students perceive changes in the design of their instruction with regard to the constructivist educational features during the transition from primary to secondary school.

3 Current state of research and research question Australian and American (interview-)studies performed in primary school provide evidence that students describe their science instruction as a student-orientated instruction with practical experiments, hands-on activities and almost no copying from the blackboard (Rennie, Goodrum, & Hackling, 2001; Logan & Skamp, 2008). Furthermore a study conducted by Ferguson and Fraser (1998) indicates that students perceive their primary school classroom environments more favorably than their high school ones, which is at least partly attributable to a fundamental shift in the design of science instruction from the primary to secondary school. In contrast, students from German secondary school describe their instruction as consisting of almost no conversations and discussions in class and as mostly having to explain one s own ideas or having to give one s opinion. In addition, students perceive a lack of transfer of science concepts to everyday-life phenomena, as well as a domination of demonstration experiments, where they have to draw conclusions from (Seidel, Prenzel, Wittwer, & Schwindt, 2007). Regarding the everyday-life reference, a study conducted by Labudde and Pfluger (1999) shows significant gender differences whereby the boys perceive more correlations to their everyday-life than the girls. The same applies to students perception of teaching for understanding in the instruction (Reyer, Trendel, & Fischer, 2004). The listed studies refer to differences in the design of science instruction between primary and secondary school perceived by the students. Although the mediating students perceptions play a key role in the effectiveness of instruction, up to now surveys observing students perception of teaching for understanding in physicsrelated instruction in German primary schools and in the subsequent primarysecondary interface are missing. Therefore, this research project focuses on the following first research question: How do students perceive changes in their physics-related instruction during the transition from German primary to secondary school (4th to 7th grade)? Next to differences in the design of the instruction the question remains open, to what extent students make a correlation between the theoretically assumed educational features promoting students understanding and their real understanding of the teaching content. In order to determine whether and to what extent science instruction changes concerning teaching practices which promote conceptual understanding in the primary and secondary interface the following second research question is additionally pursued: Which of the perceived characteristics of physics-related instruction are described as being conducive to the individual understanding process in the transition phase? RESEARCH METHODS AND DESIGN Regarding the two different research questions formulated in the previous paragraph, quantitative and qualitative research methods are combined in this research project. For that, data from the DFG²-founded research project longitudinal study PLUS were used. The PLUS-Project focusses on the German primary-secondary interface in physics-related instruction. To gather students perception of their physics-related instruction in the school transition (research question 1), 348 students were traced in a longitudinal design from fourth to seventh grade (cf. figure 1). All surveys in primary

4 and secondary school took place once a year after the physics instruction in the entire classes of the 348 students. At the secondary school level, the PLUS-project focused on two different types of schools: The Hauptschule (basic general education) and the Gymnasium (intensified general education). Figure 1. Research design including qualitative and quantitative data collections. Due to the fact that physics is a minor subject in secondary school, it has to be considered, that students are not taught physics in each grade. Finally, it is up to the school to decide when and how often the students are taught in physics. Therefore there are seven different patterns to consider in the analysis of the data, as illustrated in table 1. Table 1 Different patterns of physics instruction (x = with physics-instruction; - = without physics-instruction). Pattern Grade 4 Grade 5 Grade 6 Grade 7 1 x x x x 2 x - x x 3 x x - x 4 x x x - 5 x x x - x - 7 x - - x In order to survey students perception in a longitudinal design, a questionnaire had to be constructed, which considers the specific needs of the target group (A. Ewerhardy and T. Kleickmann had the leading part in the development of the questionnaire). The questionnaire was designed in accordance with the above mentioned moderateconstructivist theories and consists of five scales (cf. table 2): cognitive activating student experiments, practical activity, daily reference, student generated explanations and lack of clarity. Regarding Cronbachs alpha coefficients of the four measurement points all five scales measure the constructs reliable (cf. table 2). Moreover the factorial structure of the students questionnaire could be confirmed by confirmatory factor analyses.

5 Table 2 Scales of the Student Questionnaire Scale Item Examples Cognitive activating students experiments We could often observe something that did surprise us. Students activity We could run many experiences by ourselves. Daily reference Our teacher asks us again and again to give examples of our everyday-life experiences. Student generated explanations Our teacher is interested in our explanations. Lack of clarity Our teacher often explains with foreign words, we do not understand. Items 4 th Grade Cronbach s α 5 th Grade 6 th Grade 7 th Grade To analyze the individual perceived changes in physics-related instruction from the fourth to seventh grade, repeated measurement ANOVAs have been conducted. Students with missing data were excluded from the analyses by listwise deletion. Moreover each pattern provides a minimum sample size of 40 students. The qualitative data of this project was assessed by material based semi-structured interviews at the end of grade six (see figure 1). To understand the effectiveness of the different educational features the students first have to be asked which educational features they perceive in their instruction. On that basis it secondly can be identified which educational features are perceived to be conducive for the understanding process. For the interviews 20 members (9 girls, 11 boys) of the quantitative sample were selected. Each interview consisted of a time frame of 45 minutes. To analyze the first aspect of the interview data, a qualitative content analysis according to Mayring (2010) was performed by using the computer software MAXQDA. Both inter-coder- (85%) and intra-coder-consistency (93%) indicate a satisfying reliability of the coding process. Subsequently, the analysis of the second interview question was made: Therefore the perceived educational features were coded by a zero-one-coding as being conducive or not conducive for the understanding process from students perspective. The quality of the analysis with the interrater-reliability was again satisfying (κ (min) =.792, κ (max) =.955, κ (mean) = 0.899).

6 RESULTS OF THE QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE STUDY The results of the quantitative study show that on average all students, who have been consistently taught in physics from grade four to grade seven perceive a significant decline in the defined educational features, which is associated with strong effects. An equally significant decline with strong effects is also perceived by students, who were taught physics in grade four, six and seven, as well as by students who were taught in grade four, five and seven. The strongest decline is perceived by the students after the transition to secondary school (from grade four to grade five). In contrast, on average the students do not perceive a significant decline between grade five and six. Besides the analysis of the general development of science instruction from grade four to grade seven, the data was also analyzed for the different types of secondary school (Gymnasium and Hauptschule). Due to the different patterns of physics instruction (see table 1) and a confounding of the school form with the patterns, differences on school level can only be analyzed for a particular group of students. This particular group consists of a summary of all students from Pattern 1 to Patten 3. In this summarized pattern, there are approximately the same number of students from the Hauptschule and the Gymnasium. For this group of students a decrease of all constructs means from fourth to seventh grade can also be observed. Both, the students who attend the Gymnasium as well as those students, who visit the Hauptschule perceive significant differences with a high effect size (the scale daily reference only has a small effect) between primary and their secondary school on behalf of the primary school. The scale lack of clarity also differs significantly with regard to the level of the school form. On this scale students from the Gymnasium perceive more clarity than students from the Hauptschule. Interactions between the type of school and the time can be proved for the scales students generated explanations, daily reference and lack of clarity. In these three scales the strongest effect between students from the Hauptschule and the Gymnasium is in grade seven in favor to the Gymnasium. Furthermore, the data of the summarized pattern were also be analyzed on gender differences. For all constructs means significant gender differences could not be confirmed from grade four to grade seven. The results of the qualitative interview study show that students experiments hold a prominent position in students understanding process. According to the findings, the clarity of the speech and the explanations by the teacher are also important features in physics-related instruction in primary and secondary school voted by more than 50% of the students. Features that promote students understanding only in secondary physic instruction are the references to everyday-life experiences as well as explaining one s own ideas. In primary instruction it was important for the students, that they were able to ask questions on their own. Comparing the physics-related instruction in primary school with the physics instruction in secondary school, students describe instruction as more understandable, when they perceive more of the above described educational features that promote their understanding.

7 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION The described results give first answers regarding the development in physics-related instruction throughout the transition from primary to secondary school from students perspective. In this context, decreases in all five indicators of teaching for understanding are perceived by the students. These findings confirm the current results of the primary and secondary school surveys (e.g. Rennie et al., 2001; Seidel et al., 2007; Ferguson & Fraser, 1996). The decline in the five educational features following the transition to secondary school (grade four to grade five) indicates a perceived rupture between physics instruction in primary and secondary school by the students. The non-significant differences between grade five and grade six indicate a stable design of physics instruction in the first two years of secondary school (orientation stage³). After the orientation stage a significant decrease of all defined educational features is following, which is associated with middle and strong effects. With regard to the scales students generated explanations, daily reference and lack of clarity the most significant differences between physics instruction in the Hauptschule and the Gymnasium exist from students perspective in grade seven in behalf of the Gymnasium. In contrast to the current state of research where differences in the perception of instruction between boys and girls were found, the data of the present longitudinal study do not show significant differences between the genders in the perception of physics instruction. These findings indicate that boys and girls perceive their instruction similarly. The results of the student interviews confirm that the theoretically derived features are indeed key in promoting students understanding of physics instruction. A decisive factor for understanding physics is the students experiment. The knowledge about how students perceive their instruction and about features that promote the understanding of physics from the students perspective can be used to attenuate the perceived rupture in the transition phase from primary to secondary school. Therefore, the results of the study could be interesting for teacher training programs as well as considered within curriculum development. END NOTES 1. In Germany, students usually attend primary school for four years. After finishing fourth grade, they transfer according to their prior achievement to one of several different tracks of secondary school. Students with the lowest achievement usually transfer to the Hauptschule, a kind of basic general education. Students with the highest achievement usually transfer to the Gymnasium which provides an intensified general education. 2. DFG = Deutsche Forschungsgesellschaft (German Research Fundation) 3. Irrespective of the type of secondary school the students attend after the transition from primary school, grade five and six constitute a phase of special encouragement, observation and orientation designed to facilitate choices concerning the student s further education. In most of the German states like in North Rhine-Westphalia this orientation stage is structured within the framework of the different types of secondary school.

8 REFERENCES Bybee, R. W. & Ben-Zvi, N. (1998). Science curriculum: Transforming goals to practices. In B. J. Fraser & K. G. Tobin (Eds.), International handbook of science education. Part one (pp ). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Clausen, M. (2002). Unterrichtsqualität. Eine Frage der Perspektive? [Instructional quality. A question of the perspective?]. Münster: Waxmann. Ditton, H. (2002). Unterrichtsqualität Konzeptionen, methodische Überlegungen und Perspektiven [Instructional quality. Concepts, methodological considerations and perspectives]. Unterrichtswissenschaft, Ferguson, P. D., & Fraser, B. J. (1998). Student gender, school size and changing perceptions of sci-ence learning environments during the transition from primary to secondary school. Research in Science Education, 28, Gates Foundation MET Project Research Paper (2010). Learning about teaching: Initial findings form the measures of effective teaching project. Verfügbar unter: Research_Paper.pdf [ ]. Gerstenmaier, J. & Mandl, H. (1995). Wissenserwerb unter konstruktivistischer Perspektive [Knowledge acquisition from constructivists perspective]. Zeitschrift für Pädagogik, 41, Gruehn, S. (2000). Unterricht und schulisches Lernen [Instruction and school learning]. Münster: Waxmann. Helmke, A. (2003). Unterrichtsqualität: erfassen, bewerten, verbessern [Instructional quality. Gather, evaluate, improve]. Seelze: Kallmeyer. Helmke, A. (2009). Unterrichtsqualität und Lehrer Professionalität. Diagnose, Evaluation und Verbesserung des Unterrichts [Instructional quality and teacher professionalism. Diagnosis, evaluation and improvement of instruction]. Seelze: Kallmeyer in Verbindung mit Klett Verlag. Kämpfe, N. (2009). Schülerinnen und Schüler als Experten für Unterricht [Students as experts in instrucion]. Die Deutsche Schule, 101 (2), Kleickmann, T., Brehl, T., Saß, S. & Prenzel, M. (2012). Naturwissenschaftliche Kompetenzen im internationalen Vergleich: Testkonzeption und Ergebnisse [Science competencies in international comparison: Test conception and results]. In W. Bos, H. Wendt, O. Köller & C. Selter (Eds.), Mathematische und naturwissenschaftliche Kompetenzen von Grundschulkindern in Deutschland im internationalen Vergleich (pp ). Münster: Waxmann. Kunter, M. (2005). Multiple Ziele im Mathematikunterricht [Multiple goals in mathematics instruction]. Münster: Waxmann. Kunter, M., Brunner, M., Baumert, J., Klusmann, U., Krauss, S., Blum, W., Jordan, A. & Neubrand, M. (2005). Der Mathematikunterricht der PISA-Schülerinnen und -Schüler. Schulformunterschiede in der Unterrichtsqualität [The mathematic instruction of the PISA-students. School type differences in instructional quality]. Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft, 8,

9 Labudde, P. & Pfluger, D.(1999). Physikunterricht in der Sekundarstufe II: eine empirische Analyse der Lern-Lehr-Kultur aus konstruktivistischer Perspektive [Physic instruction in secondary school. An empirical analysis of the teachinglearning-culture from constructivists perspective]. Zeitschrift für Didaktik der Naturwissenschaften, 2, Logan, M. & Skamp, K. (2008). Engaging students in science across the primary secondary interface: Listening to the students voice. Research in Science Education, 38, Mayring, P. (2010). Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse. Grundlagen und Techniken [Qualitative content analysis. Basics and techniques]. Weinheim und Basel: Beltz. Mietzel, G. (2007). Pädagogische Psychologie des Lernens und Lehrens [Educational psychology of teaching and learning]. Göttingen: Hogrefe. Prenzel, M., Geiser, H., Langeheine, R. & Lobemeier, K. (2003). Das naturwissenschaftliche Verständnis am Ende der Grundschule [The scientific understanding at the end of primary school]. In W. Bos, E.-M. Lankes, M. Prenzel, K. Schwippert, G. Walther & R. Valtin (Eds.), Erste Ergebnisse aus IGLU. Schülerleistungen am Ende der vierten Jahrgangsstufe im internationalen Vergleich (pp ). Münster: Waxmann. Prenzel, M., Schöps, K., Rönnebeck, S., Senkbeil, M., Walter, O., Carstensen, C. H. & Hammann, M. (2007). Naturwissenschaftliche Kompetenz im internationalen Vergleich [Science competencies in international comparison]. In M. Prenzel, C. Artelt, J. Baumert, W. Blum, M. Hammann, E. Klieme & R. Pekrun, (Eds.), PISA Die Ergebnisse der dritten internationalen Vergleichsstudie (pp ). Münster: Waxmann. Reinmann-Rothmeier, G. & Mandl, H. (1998). Wissensvermittlung. Ansätze zur Förderung des Wissenserwerbs [Knowledge transfer. Approaches that promote knowledge transfer]. In F. Klix, H. Spada (Eds.), Wissenspsychologie (pp ). Göttingen: Hogrefe. Reyer, T., Trendel, G. & Fischer, H. E. (2004). Was kommt beim Schüler an? Lehrerintentionen und Schülerlernen im Physikunterricht [What reaches to the students? Teachers intentions and student learning in physics instruction]. In J. Doll & M. Prenzel (Eds.), Bildungsqualität von Schule. Lehrerprofessionalisierung, Unterrichtsentwicklung und Schülerförderung als Strategien der Qualitätsverbesserung (pp ). Münster: Waxmann. Seidel, T., Prenzel, M., Wittwer, J. & Schwindt, K. (2007). Unterricht in den Naturwissenschaften [Instruction in science education]. In PISA-Konsortium Deutschland (Eds.), PISA Die Ergebnisse der dritten internationalen Vergleichsstudie (pp ). Münster: Waxmann. Rennie, L., Goodrum, D. & Hackling, M. (2001). Science Teaching and Learning in Australian Schools: Results of a National Study. Research in Science Education, 31, Stark, R. (2003). Conceptual Change: kognitiv oder situiert? [Conceptual Change: kognitive or situated?]. Zeitschrift für Pädagogische Psychologie, 17,

10 Sumfleth, E. & Pitton, A. (1998). Sprachliche Kommunikation im Chemieunterricht: Schülervorstellungen und ihre Bedeutung im Unterrichtsalltag [Linguistic communication in chemistry instruction: students conceptions and their importance in everyday teaching]. Zeitschrift für Didaktik der Naturwissenschaften, 4 (2), Treagust, D. & Duit, R. (2008). Conceptual change: a discussion of theoretical, methodological and practical challenges for science education. Cultural Studies in Science education, 3, Treagust, D. F., Duit, R. & Fraser, B. J. (1996). Overview: Research on Students' Preinstructional Conceptions The Driving Force for Improving Teaching and Learning in Science and Mathematics. In D.-F. Treagust, R. Duit & B. J. Fraser (Eds.), Improving Teaching and Learning in Science and Mathematics (pp. 1-14). New York: Teachers College Press. Van den Akker, J. (1998). The Science Curriculum: Between Ideals and Outcomes. In B. J. Fraser & K. G. Tobin (Eds.), International Handbook of Science Education. Part one (pp ). Dordrecht: Kluwer Academie Publishers. Vosniadou, S. (1994). Capturing and Modeling the Process of Conceptual Change. Learning and Instruction, 4, Wagenschein, M. (1992). Verstehen lehren. Genetisch sokratisch exemplarisch [Teach understanding. Genetically Socratic - Exemplary] (10 ed.). Weinheim: Beltz. Wittwer, J., Saß, S. & Prenzel, M. (2008). Naturwissenschaftliche Kompetenz im internationalen Vergleich: Testkonzeption und Ergebnisse [Science competencies in international comparison: Test conception and results]. In W. Bos, M. Bonsen, J. Baumert, M. Prenzel, C. Selter, & W. Walther (Eds.), Mathematische und naturwissenschaftliche Kompetenzen von Grundschulkindern in Deutschland im internationalen Vergleich (pp ). Münster: Waxmann.