Showing papers in "Journal of Research in Science Teaching in 1977"

Science teaching and the development of reasoning

Abstract: L'auteur presente une partie de son travail de chercheur qui consiste a expliciter la theorie du developpement de Jean Piaget. Son objectif se limitait dans le cas present a chercher l'application de cette theorie dans le domaine de l'enseignement de la science dans le secondaire. Outre le fait de lancer une recherche sur le raisonnement de l'eleve, il paraissait essentiel a l'auteur de tenter de communiquer les composantes majeures de la theorie de Piaget aux enseignants du secondaire afin qu'ils puissent les appliquer, les mettre en pratique dans leurs classes et produire un eventail de resultats permettant une evaluation plus juste et plus complete de cette theorie dans un contexte donne.

The influence of structured versus unstructured laboratory on students' understanding the process of science

Abstract: At the college level, laboratory teaching has long been considered an integral part of science instruction. There are indeed few introductory physics courses that do not incorporate some type of laboratory experience into their presentations. The instructional objectives for these laboratories may vary somewhat, but nearly all laboratories are intended to provide the student with experiences that will aid him in understanding the process of science as well as the content of science. The present study is concerned with the objective of understanding the process of science. Instructional strategies in laboratory teaching may be separated into two categories: those that place emphasis on verification of physical principles, and those that reqUire inquiry into or discovery of the various physical principles (Nedelsky, 1965). Both strategies emphasize the physical principles being taught, but they require differing student involvements. The first, called a structured laboratory, provides detailed procedures, while the second, called an unstructured laboratory, merely specifies the objective and leaves the procedures to the discretion of the student. Research concerning the merits of these two strategies has dealt with the usefulness of the strategies as methods of teaching concepts (Gunsch, 1972; Murphy, 1967; Tanner, 1969) as aids in the development from concreteto formal-operational thinking (McKinnon & Renner, 1971), and as aids in changing attitudes towards science (Gunsch, 1972; Murphy, 1967). As of yet, however, no studies have attempted to contrast the two strategies with respect to their effectiveness in teaching an understanding of the process of science. This question of the effectiveness of structured and unstructured laboratories has been raised with the increasing popularity of inquiry modes of teaching. It should be noted here, however, that we are dealing specifically with the use of inquiry modes to teach a process rather than a concept. Thus, we are asking whether a student who engages in some degree of scientific activity learns to better understand the process of science as a result of that activity. More specifically, we are asking whether the instructional structure of that activity 'will influence the