Science Teaching

Science Teaching 

When we consider about effective Science teaching it mainly requires three kinds of knowledge Social and Pedagogical Knowledge, Knowledge of Science and Knowledge of Students. (Grossman, Wilson and Shulman, 1989).

By describing this further, the authors say that, first effective science teaching requires Social and pedagogical knowledge that enables a teacher to create and maintain a classroom social environment that encourages sense making behavior on the part of the students as well as appropriate academic tasks and teaching strategies. Secondly, a science teacher needs knowledge of science that they can use to transform complex, technical scientific knowledge into forms accessible to students. In order to do this the teacher must understand how scientific ideas are connected and how they can be used to understand and control the world around us. Third, science teachers need a knowledge of students that includes an understanding of how students’ specific personal knowledge and socially and culturally influenced way of thinking affect their cognitive and affective responses to science. Lee S. Shilman (1986) states that, among those categories Social and Pedagogical Knowledge is of special interest because it identifies distinctive body of knowledge for teaching. Teachers get this knowledge form the proper Science teacher education.

What is Science Education?

Science education

Jonathan Osborne (2007) suggests that “Science education should be to develop scientific literacy and explores what that might consist of and why such an education is necessary in contemporary society. It views emphasize on science education as an essential aspect of what is generally known as modern community learning.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (2012) states that Science education is the field concerned with sharing science content and process with individuals not traditionally considered part of the scientific community. The target individuals may be children, college students, or adults within the general public. The field of science education comprises science content, some social science, and some teaching pedagogy. This definition focuses on two important points namely the process of sharing science content and the learning community. The concept of “sharing science content” exerts a big influence the reason being that it relies on science teaching.  

Science education in Sri Lanka

Science education as a discipline was introduced to the Ceylonese schools by the British rulers. But Science education was formalized in our education system in Sri Lanka in the 1950s with the contribution of Mr. Jinapala Alles in equipping resources and laboratories. In 1963 the Curriculum Development Center (CDR) was established with the objective of developing science education in the country. This center in Sri Lanka has considered the development of many programmes found in the industrial countries in the 1970s, such as Nuffield, Physical Science study committee (PSSC, 1959), Biological science curriculum study (BSCS, 1960), Chemical education Material Study (CHEM study, 1963), and the Earth science curriculum project (ESCP, 1967) in the curriculum development process. During this period more emphasis was given to the development of the cognitive domain where the concern was on learning science facts and building up scientific knowledge under the programme. Science:  Process Approach (SAPA, 1965) was introduced where hands-on science and discovery were the hall marks (Karunaratne, 2011). The present status of science education in Sri Lanka has been molded by the social, political, economical and religious forces that acted on the system of education in general. The educational background of the science teacher is obviously only one of the variables contributing to student achievement in science.

What is Science?

What is Science?

There are many definitions for “Science”, Taking science to school: Learning and teaching science in Grades K-8 “What is science?” (2007) states that, “Science is both a body of knowledge that represents current understanding of natural systems and the process whereby that body of knowledge has been established and is being continually extended, refined, and revised”. This explanation briefly tells us that science is both knowledge and process.

Millar, Leach and Osborne (2000) view science as a practical subject, therefore its must be taught to students so that they can acquire the relevant practical skills needed to work in a scientific manner. According to them, science is a practical subject.

The American Physical Society (1999) explained “Science is the systematic enterprise of gathering knowledge about the universe and organizing and condensing that knowledge into testable laws and theories”. This has relevance to the Sri Lankan classrooms, what is expected is to create a constructive environment for the student to build up theories by gathering information. This constructive idea results in independent thinking of students which plays a very important role in the science teaching - learning process.  

Harlen (1998) points out that Science is essentially about understanding things through interacting with them, finding out by enquiring of the things themselves. This definition seems to be vague, and the term ‘things’ has not been properly defined. 

Karunaratne (2011) Explained, which throughout history terminology of science has been varied and considered as a way of solving problems. “Science” likes any other term, art or creativity is a term that most people assume that they understand. “What is science?” is a difficult question to answer and it is even more difficult to answer, “What should we teach as science in our classroom?” In the teaching learning process it is important to see how the students are progressing and how teachers help the students in their development under Science Education.