Gendered Student Perspectives on KS4 Science Education

Author(s):

Maarten Tas(presenting / submitting)Hugh Busher(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2013

Network:

10. Teacher Education Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

10 SES 07 A, Science and Alterity in Teacher Education

Paper Session

Time:

2013-09-11

17:15-18:45

Room:

A-201

Chair:

Peter Gray

Contribution

In England, an element in the Science curriculum for 14-16 year old students focuses on students developing arguments, using scientific, technical and mathematical language, and considering how and why decisions about science and technology affect social, economic and environmental issues. The study from which this paper comes was carried out in two Secondary schools in the Midlands of England in 2010–2011, one of which (InnerCity) served a multicultural urban area, and one of which, Smalltown, served a rural and largely mono-cultural area. Participants included science teachers and 83 female and male Year Ten (Y10, 14-16 year old) students, who would take their school leaving examinations (GCSEs in England) the following year, who gave their informed consent to participate. This paper reports findings on:

How students in secondary schools perceived the teaching and learning of science
What were the similarities and differences between the perceptions and attitudes of boys and girls

Objectives:

The study investigated students’ and teachers’ views of schooling, science education and science and society to find out what helped students to become engaged and enthusiastic learners of science. In addition teachers were asked about why they liked teaching science, how they thought 14-16 year old students liked being taught, and what had drawn them into being excited by science in the first place.

Theoretical framework:

Listening and talking to students about their perspectives on teaching and learning (Demetriou and Wilson 2010) helps teachers reflect critically on their practice (Rudduck and Flutter, 2004). Students’ voices are conceived as heterogeneous and reflect the rights of students to influence the shaping of their own learning (Fielding, 2004). Accessing students’ perspectives on education was encouraged in England by a former government (DCSF, 2008) because it fosters student engagement in learning and helps to develop a more inclusive school environment (Rudduck and Flutter, 2004). In the UK the majority of pupils do not want to continue studying sciences at KS5 (post-compulsory schooling) or even KS4 because of their perceived difficulty (Spall et al, 2004). In the international comparative research project 'Relevance of Science Education' (ROSE) Schreiner and Sjøberg (2007) noted that the more developed the society the more negative was the response to a questionnaire item ‘I like school science better than most subjects’. Studies reviewed by Osborne et al. (2003) showed there was a decline in students’ views of the importance of science from age 11 years onwards in Europe and beyond. Barmby et al. (2008) found that this decline was more pronounced for female students. However, Reid and Skryabina (2002) reported that students had a more positive view of Physics when following a course based on the application of science and that both female and male students preferred practical activities. Darby (2005) categorised strategies that encouraged students’ engagement with learning science into Instructional pedagogy (constructing learning experiences with students) and Relational pedagogy (the quality of relationships between teachers and students).

Method

The study used a social interactivist ontology (Strauss, 1993) to investigate participants’ views on schooling, science education and the impact of science on their lives. The study used a triangulated mixed methods approach to collect data and construct the internal validity (trustworthiness) of the study and allowed us to have confidence in the rigour of it. The instruments were piloted in one of the schools in the previous academic year (2009/ 2010). Data was collected by online surveys from students, and also by semi-structured face to face interviews from students in pairs (3 boys and 4 girls in Smalltown, 7 girls and 3 boys in InnerCity). Data from the questionnaires was largely qualitative, participants responding to open-ended questions such as, ‘what do you like about your Science lessons’, although many chose not to answer some of the questions. The qualitative data was sorted thematically to discover students’ preferred views using a form of grounded theory. The two researchers separately developed an initial analysis of the qualitative questionnaire data before comparing and combining their ideas to create a grid for analysing all the students’ data.

Expected Outcomes

Initial findings show that students identified four main factors in science education in both schools that inspired enjoyment of learning: having friends and socialising, learning new and interesting things, learning in interesting ways, working with the support of interactive teachers who construct ‘good’ relationships with students. Future job opportunities seemed to have offered extrinsic, if aspirational rewards for engagement with learning as much as did the encouragement of others. The factors can loosely be fitted into two main categories, focused on knowledge and its construction, and focused on relationships, especially with teachers, but also with other students and people outside school. What students dislike about Science Education can be contained within the same two main categories, showing the importance of teacher – student relationships for the successful Science education. This reflects but critiques the categorisation of Darby (2005). Students’ preference for positive relationships with enthusiastic teachers reflect the findings of Reid and Skryabina (2002) but our study found girls seemed to place more emphasis on this than boys, although both seemed equally enthusiastic about teachers using interactive and practical methods for teaching, better helping them to learn Science.

References

Barmby, P., Kind, P.M. and Jones, K. (2008) Examining changing attitudes in secondary school science. International Journal of Science Education, 30 (8) 1075-1093 Busher, H and James, N (2007) Ethics of research in education, in A. Briggs, and M. Coleman (eds) Research Methods in Educational Leadership and Management (2nd edn), London: Sage publications (pp.106-122) DCSF (2008) Working Together: Listening to the voices of children and young people, London: DCSF (http://publications.education.gov.uk/eOrderingDownload/DCSF-00410-2008.pdf) [accessed 27 Jan 2013] Darby, L. (2005) Science students’ perceptions of engaging pedagogy, Research in Science Education, 35: 425-445 Demetriou, H. and Wilson, E. (2010) Children should be seen and heard: The power of student voice in sustaining new teachers, Improving Schools, 13 (1) 54-69 Fielding, M. (2004) Transformative approaches to student voice: Theoretical underpinnings, recalcitrant realities, British Educational Research Journal, 30 (2) 295-310. LCC (2012) The Diversity of Leicester: Summary of Key Facts: 2011 [online] http://www.leicester.gov.uk/EasySiteWeb/GatewayLink.aspx?alId=89093 [accessed 27 Jan 2013] Osborne, J., Simon, S. and Collins, S. (2003) Attitudes towards science: a review of the literature and its implications, International Journal of Science Education, 25 (9) 1049-1079 Reid, N. and Skryabina, E.A. (2002) Attitudes towards physics, International Journal in Science Education, 20(1) 67-81 Rudduck, J. & Flutter, J. (2004) How to improve your school: Giving pupils a voice, London: Continuum Books. Schreiner, C. and Sjøberg, S. (2007) Science education and youth’s identity construction – two incompatible projects? In D. Corrigan, J. Dillon and R. Gunstone (eds), The Re-emergence of Values in the Science Curriculum, Rotterdam: Sense Publishers Spall, K., Stanisstreet, M., Dickson, D. and Boyes, E. (2004) The development of students’ construction of biology and physics, International Journal of Science Education, 26 (7) 787-803 Strauss A.L. (1993) Continual permutations of actions. Hawthorne, New York: Aldine de Gruyter

Author Information

Maarten Tas (presenting / submitting)

University of Leicester

Leicester

Hugh Busher (presenting)

University of Leicester, United Kingdom

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