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Asia-Pacific Forum on Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 21, Issue 1, Article 1 (Dec., 2021) |
This study was generally embedded in a teacher’s teaching in the midst of a changing curriculum. Thus, the findings were outcomes in the context of a changing curriculum. Specifically, it explored the teacher’s conceptions and practices of the active learning teaching approach. In fact, to some extent, the conceptions and practices represented elements of a teacher’s agency in a changing curriculum context. In the findings for the first question, the researchers discuss the characteristics of components of a conception on an individual basis and conclude that they work collectively as an active learning system. That is, a conception as a system would be constitutive of several diverse and interacting Conceptions would be contextual and dynamic in instances of teaching and learning because they are constantly changing. In fact, they should potentially reflect the context of large-scale curriculum reform in this study. Consequently, the nature and connectedness of the components of a system characterise and determine how it functions (Thompson, 1992). Thus, teachers, in their various settings or instances of activity, would exhibit different conceptions.
Key findings about teachers' conceptions during curriculum reforms are described in the following paragraphs.. First, from a conception as a mental structure or a system, it was found that this teacher’s knowledge was relatively inadequate regarding the active learning conception. This was apparent from inaccuracies and conceptual conflicts in some of the components constituting his active learning. These resulted in contradictory meanings and limitations to generate other and related meanings with associate concepts. Thus, in this context, the teacher’s conception could be inadequate for use in further knowledge construction. Such a conception may not be sufficiently useful when required for optimal interpretation and the subsequent enactment of learning outcomes in active learning-based teaching. However, conceptions at this level of adequacy could still be ‘available, accessed, and organised’ to a limited extent for meaning-making, as was the case in this study (Dochy, 1992).
Inadequacies in or of conceptions have the potential to distort meanings and/or conflate them. According to Vygotsky’s (1978) notion of constructivism, meanings or knowledge are constructed through activity by people using concepts. In other words, the accuracy of the meanings of components of a conception, such as concepts, determines its level of functionality to a large extent. This was evident in this teacher’s version of active learning and its inherent meanings in his science teaching. For example, the teacher refers to active learning as a ‘learning process’. On the contrary, learning is a ‘cognitive process’ whereas “active learning” is a method or approach to teaching. It is used to engage learners and enhance their cognitive processes, leading to learning (Mitchell et.al. 2017). Therefore, the teacher’s constructed conception from the weaving of different components of a conception for particular meanings and/or understandings is insufficient and influenced by a particular social setting or context, hence it is a product of a social construction (Minarni & Napitupulu, 2020). Furthermore, Holland and Lave (2009) emphasise this point when they indicate that one’s thought processes cannot be separated from oneself as a constituent of a context and the physical activities they engage in (p.52).
The teacher’s beliefs were among the highlights of the findings about the components of his conceptions. According to Bahcivan et.al. (2019), beliefs constitute the judgements people hold subjectively about themselves and the environments they inhabit. Beliefs are therefore important for the teachers’ teaching work. For example, they can be both inhibitive and enhance, depending on a teacher’s subjective stance. In this context, some of the teacher’s beliefs were apparently not progressive towards his learners’ role in active learning activities as participants. In essence, his beliefs were incoherent with the principles of active learning teaching, learners’ participation, and his role as a teacher. For example, he apportions blame on his learners for being unresponsive to his active learning teaching approaches. Surprisingly, the teacher seems to abdicate his responsibilities as a facilitator.
A reason for this may be that the teacher is in a state of conceptual transition that may require changes in some of his beliefs. In Holland et.al.’s (1998) idea of figured worlds, the teacher is in “… a realm of interpretation that is socially and culturally constructed…” (p.52). Indeed, there are social changes in the context of curriculum reforms. This includes the teacher’s identity in his teaching work. As a matter of fact, the teacher is still held back by his extant traditional teaching beliefs, especially relating to learners’ roles in their engagements in classroom interactions. As shown, he is in two worlds as he transitions into a new curriculum dispensation.
Notwithstanding the teacher’s conceptual inadequacies, he managed to ‘unconsciously’ engage in teaching activities related to active learning as a teaching approach. His activities depend largely on the context of his work. That is, in the context of a changing curriculum and specifically the use of active learning as a teaching approach. This discussion is borne out of some of the contradictions, inadequacies, and some subsequent incoherencies in his conceptions. Bahcivan et.al. (2020) describe the characterisation of these teachers’ conceptions as a contextual factor. They allude to the fact that different social contexts provide different conceptions of the same teacher. That is, the same teacher in these social contexts may engage in teaching practices that deviate from his conceptions. According to the social practice theory (SPT), people are produced by their historical backgrounds (Holland and Lave, 2009). This is the case for teachers in their different teaching contexts.
First, a teacher is a product of his own history of teaching, using particular methods in a particular context. The effect of this history was apparent when the teacher seemed to struggle with the use of active learning methods. Instead of focusing on learner-centered methods in his activities, he also invoked teacher-centered methods. Subsequently, this led to him combining the two types of teaching methods. As Holland and Lave (2009) further posit, in this context, the teacher struggles with interpretations, meanings of concepts, and, subsequently, the application of teaching methods. This indicates the teacher’s development or lack thereof towards enacting appropriate active learning methods and activities in the teaching of a reformed curriculum in the classroom. Furthermore, it emphasised the fact that teachers are individuals who develop differently from others within the same context. In reality, in their teaching, teachers hold beliefs that vary with contexts (Bahcivan & Cobern, 2016).
Further analysis revealed some associative relationships between elements in and of this teacher’s teaching conceptions and practices. However, the links were not of direct and coherent correlation, but mainly sporadic. As the teacher’s mental structure was continually adapted because of the changing contexts, these links cannot be said, convincingly so, to represent causal-effect relationships (e.g. see [CAL 1-a] v/s [PAT1e-a]). These are incidental rather than causative as the teacher’s knowledge was apparently limited in terms of concepts, meanings, and beliefs, and was organisationally incoherent in their use (Dochy, 1992). Instead, this teacher, also as a learner, needs to gradually adapt his traditional conceptions of teaching and/or practices in his development as a product of history (Holland & Lave, 2009). This adaptation process must persist until the teacher, as a learner, is able to acquire and establish correct, consistent, and coherent knowledge and/or practices of active learning (Davis et.al. 2013). Generally, these traits were apparent with this teacher’s transition into active learning teaching conceptions and practices.
