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Eliciting
children's misconceptions of particle theory
to support their literacy
development in
Science |
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School:
Islington Arts and Media School |
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Fellow: Leyla Di-Bellonia |
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Email: leyladb@fsmail.net |
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Interim report: |
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Aim |
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The aims of the project are
to support pupils’ transition from
KS2 to KS3 through focussing on strategies
that can be used to support literacy and
conceptual understanding of particle theory |
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The intended outcomes for the project
are: |
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To elicit
common misconceptions of particle theory |
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To identify issues when teaching and
learning particle theory |
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To improve terminology used at key stage
2 and 3 |
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To improve understanding of abstract
concepts like dissolving |
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To link terminology to concepts |
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To raise development of teaching styles
and activities for secondary and primary
school teachers |
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Introduction |
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As a teacher I have always been surprised
at the poor motivation of year 7 pupils in
learning science, and how many cannot use
keywords that they have learned in year 6.
Research previously conducted on transition
has found that pupils experience a big change
in their learning environment and teaching
styles, their enjoyment of science lessons
dips, and half the pupils do not appear to
improve their attainment in science in year
7. There are many reasons for this such as
transfer of language and differences in curriculum
structure. |
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I decided to focus on particle theory as
it is a difficult abstract concept that many
students struggle to understand. There
is a big difference in vocabulary in the teaching
and learning of particle theory between key
stage 2 and key stage 3. As pupils cannot see
particles, there are common misconceptions
associated with the topic and there is not
a consistent approach to keywords used at key
2 and key 3. The progression from KS2
to KS3 set out by the QCA in terms of the development
of literacy and skills is clear but unrealistic.
It is questionable whether a level 5 at KS2
is the same as level 5 at KS3 from the analysis
of the descriptors and expectation. I believe
that if pupils are to understand the abstract
concept at key stage 3, their ideas about states
of matter and dissolving must be concrete at
key stage 2 and able to use keywords appropriately
in order to build up a more complex vocabulary. |
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Through this project I hope to highlight
how pupils associate keywords with particles
and attempt to develop their thinking and understanding
of concepts, using appropriate keywords to
explain phenomena. |
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What have I done so far? |
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September - I discussed with
the primary school teacher the issues that
arise when teaching science and the importance
of literacy in science. I handed a questionnaire
to both year 6 classes (despite only one
class taking part in the transition project)
which probed the students’ opinion
of science and what they thought science
would be like at secondary school. |
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November - I gave a
task to the year 6 class involved in the project,
which was designed to highlight misconceptions
about particles and dissolving. The task involved
pupils drawing particles of salt, water and
salt dissolving in water. Eight pupils were
interviewed using other tasks in order to gain
more detailed information about their ideas
about particles. I found it difficult to think
about tasks that I could give the pupils to
highlight misconceptions. I decided that drawings
and explanations of the drawings was the easiest
method to use as it did not guide the pupils
thinking and it revealed how well they used
scientific words in their description of abstract
concepts. |
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October - The primary
school teacher and I observed each other’s
lessons on particles. We both asked pupils
to write their thoughts and answers from various
questions in the lessons on poster paper for
further analysis. |
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December – Analysis
of questionnaire and interview data. |
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What have I found out so far? |
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| 1. |
Data
of the year 6 class |
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There are 30 pupils in the class, 43% EAL
and 2 children Beginner English. The analysis
of their literacy levels in Year 5 shows 43%
of the pupils are not achieving the expected
reading level for year 5 and 31% of the pupils
are not achieving the expected writing level
for year 5. The expected level from DFES for
literacy at year 5 is level 3-4 The Science
levels of the class who completed a mock SATS
paper in September 2007 shows that 20%
of the pupils have achieved a level 4, 46 %
have achieved a level 3 and 29% at a level
2 or below and 1 pupil was absent. The
DFES expects pupils to achieve a level 4 at
the end of key stage 2. |
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| 2. |
SATS question analysis |
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The primary school teacher provided me
with a copy of 7 pupil’s answers to
the particle question in their mock SATS
paper in September. Analysis of their
responses showed that even pupils working
at the expected level can still use keywords
in correctly. Whilst there are many explanations
for this, such as time constraints, absence
etc, there are pupils that are not confidently
applying keywords to concepts. |
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| 3. |
Teachers’ questionnaire |
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The teachers’ responses showed that
the main activities used to teach particles
are experiments, investigation and one teacher
also added modelling (using children).They
both felt that children learned best from
experiments. When asked what difficulties
children have in grasping the conceptthey
reported that children confuse dissolving
with melting or think that a solute had disappeared. They
felt that the aspects of the unit that needed
to be concentrated on were the vocabulary
and defining processes. If they had more
time they would spend it on practical activities,
especially on the factors affecting dissolving. Children
may not be able to use the scientific words
correctly in their explanations, which may
also have an effect on how they understand
the concept. |
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When asked what strategies they found most
successful in raising literacy in science,
one teacher felt that teaching should be focussed
on scientific understanding rather than on
raising literacy. However the same teacher
felt that English SATs level would be a factor
in achieving expectations and outcomes for
the module. The teachers involved in the questionnaire
assess children’s understanding of concepts
and keywords by how children use them in written
analysis and conclusions, and by providing
a key ‘event’ that stimulates
recall of knowledge. Therefore literacy
is an important aspect of understanding concepts
and teachers are using keywords to assess understanding,
but possibly new strategies may need to be
developed to build on this. |
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Pupils were asked 9 questions about how
they felt about science. Most pupils are
positive about science and think it’s
interesting. Most children felt confident
with some aspects of science, and very few
were not confident. Most children said
they were excited about and looking forward
to moving to year 7, but 26% of pupils were
worried and scared. The children said that
they learn best in science by seeing things
happen and when the teacher explains what
they are learning. These were positive
responses from both classes and it seems
that at the pupils are motivated, confident
and interested in science. |
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Seven pupils were interviewed and given
four further tasks. The in-depth interviews
revealed that pupils are confused about particle
theory and hold the misconceptions most commonly
found. All of the pupils correctly stated
that sugar dissolves in tea and could explain
what happens to water when salt water is
heated and why is salt left behind. However,
what happens to the particles when chocolate
melts caused them more difficulty. One pupil
gave a correct response. When they were asked
to explain the effect of heat on the particles,
all pupils were incorrect. The responses
included particles popping, becoming weaker,
disappearing or the particles themselves
were melting. The final task was to
draw and explained what happened to a metal
ball when heated and placed on to a metal
ring. Most pupils arranged particles of the
metal before heating, spaced out or only
in the middle of the ball. After heating
the particles moved to the sides of the ball,
and the ‘pushing’ of the particles
made the ball bigger, or the particles themselves
got bigger. |
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It was clear that the pupils are not confident
in their use of terminology when trying to
describe a concept by drawing and that there
is a weak link between concept and keywords. |
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The year 6 lessons I observed involved
pupils planning an investigation into how
heat affects the rate of sugar dissolving.
One group thought sugar dissolves quicker
in hot water as particles get smaller and
move faster. One group thought the sugar
disappears, but not all of it as if you evaporate
water you will see sugar crystals again.
Two groups predicted sugar will dissolve
quicker in hot water, but could not explain
why. One group correctly predicted with a
good scientific explanation. |
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The year 7 lessons I taught involved pupils
looking at 5 different phenomena that required
them to think about states of matter to explain
them. The lesson I used was the first lesson
from the 7G unit (QCA). The pupil’s ideas
hardly used any keywords linked to particles
and the recall of knowledge from KS2 was weak.
Pupils struggled to explain the abstract concepts. |
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This is interesting as it shows that use
of scientific keywords is paramount in being
able to explain a concept and that some support
is needed as pupils move from KS2 to KS3. |
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What do I intend to do in the
rest of the year? |
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In January there will be discussions between
the year 6 teacher and the literacy consultant,
and I will begin looking into the language
and words used in particle theory. We will
develop strategies that could be used after
primary SATS exam to help children use terminology
in their understandings. Between January
and March activities and lesson order will
be discussed and agreed by the year 6 teacher
and myself. There will be a timeline of when
lessons for the transition project will be
taught. The transition coordinator will assist
at this point. Once the scheme of work is
produced the secondary school staff will
be trained on strategies to be used. The
year 6 teacher will also assist pupils being
taught particle theory and explain methods
that could be used to challenge pupils in
year 6. |
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In April, copies of the booklet and lesson
plan will be provided to staff at IAMS and
to primary school staff. |
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In the second week of May, primary school
children will be invited to IAMS and taught
four 90 minute lessons over 2 weeks. |
