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Asia-Pacific Forum on
Science Learning and Teaching, Volume 3, Issue 2, Article 2 (Dec.,
2002) Peter AUBUSSON and Kevin WATSON Packaging constructivist Science teaching in a curriculum resource
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Harry felt he might learn something to improve his classroom practices by participating in the project. He wanted to teach well and learn as much as he could to become a good teacher. Harry was determined to implement the BSCS program as intended. This meant he interpreted the teachers' notes carefully so that he 'would not make a mistake'. This he did even when his own view conflicted with the teacher's notes. For example, Harry was not used to his students working in small groups so this was a significant change for him. He rearranged the tables in the room. As recommended by BSCS, he placed the students in structured ability groups based on information obtained from their previous science teacher. Students wanted to work in friendship groups. This generated resentment among students and became an obstacle to their learning.
Harry said 'the students complained about their groups' and 'liked working with their friends'. Harry was determined to have students work in their structured ability groups and would not allow changes. The result was that 'some groups did not work together' and some 'individuals did not pull their weight in their group'. The classroom climate generated meant that 'some students took the opportunity to do very little work'. Harry felt uneasy when he talked to the other teachers in the project because he could see that most of them were positive about and enjoyed using group work. He spoke with a member of the research team, as he was keen to find a solution to the problem in his class. However, he considered it would not be possible to change the groups to friendship groups since this was not what the program required.
Harry 'knew about constructivism but only played it lip service' but now he was 'coming to grips with it'. He considered that the students were learning little. Harry's class was a mixed ability class which while not highly motivated, did not typically experience difficulties with reading materials in science. Yet, one of the reasons for this was the 'trouble the students were having with the language in the textbook'. Harry said it took too long to get through a small amount of work. The students also claimed they had not learnt much in the topic. Harry spent a great deal of class time disciplining students who were misbehaving. This disrupted the class as a whole and decreased the amount of time students were engaged in learning.
Some students said there were more experiments in science throughout the project than they were used to in other science lessons. Other students said there were fewer experiments. All students interviewed said there was a lot more 'theory' than in their last topic. The students said the textbook was good because they did not have to write as much. One of Harry's high achieving students said that 'science was all right if the group felt like working, but this did not happen much'. She said that 'we should have made sure this (the group) was okay before we started (the topic)'. One student summed up the thoughts of many, 'I don't like science. It is boring and I won't use what we learn...I only like working with my friends and the experiments but even they are not going to benefit me when I leave school'.
