No abstract

Previous research has shown an increased student interest and enhanced learning when the school sciencecontent is related to other familiar contexts. This is particularly evident in intervention studies, whichaim to integrate the school science content with students’ everyday life. In this article, we analyse howteachers, in authentic situations, relate science content presented in lesson introductions to other contextssuch as everyday life or other school subjects. The data consists of observations of lesson introductionsin grade nine, from six different schools, in all eight hours of video recordings. The results point tothat teachers adopt a variety of ways in order to integrate the science content to other contexts, such asrelating to students’ everyday life, to different language perspectives or to other school subjects and therebyinitiate hybrid contexts. However, the results indicate that the teachers in this study initiate hybridcontexts to a low extent and seemingly ad hoc, in the moment. It is likely to believe that if students are tobenefit from contextualization as a means for enhancing interest and learning, learning activities need torelate science content to other relevant contexts in a more comprehensive way.

This study investigated how modelling in chemistry affect second language learners’ descriptions of polymeric concepts. The aim was to investigate how chemistry discussions mediated by representations, contribute to second language students’ development in the language of chemistry. The study took place in three multilingual upper secondary classes. Participating students were (n=16) second language learners and (n=14) first language learners. There were in total eight different first languages represented. Data comprised of polymeric concept descriptions, audio recordings, and photos taken during modelling. The concept descriptions were analysed by an inductive content analysis which was then used for a deductive analysis of the modelling-activity. The results show that 65% of second language learners’ concept descriptions showed an increased clarity, and 45% showed increased use of chemical concepts after the modelling-activity. This study highlights how students in a multilingual context develop their language of chemistry by discussing chemistry scaffolded by representations. The results show that second language learners in a multilingual context benefited from the modelling-activity. As such, the study acknowledges that modelling contexts can be used in teacher education, both in-service and pre-service, to highlight the importance of the role of representations when teaching in the multilingual context.

In this paper we focus on how South African students' ideas about the human body are constituted in their descriptions of three different scenarios involving the pathway of a sandwich, a painkiller and a glass of water through the body. In particular, we have studied the way in which the students transferred ideas between the sandwich and the painkiller compared with the students' ability to explain the water pathway. The study surveyed 161 ninth-grade students in five different schools in South Africa. Data collection methods used were: drawings, written questions (open-ended items) and interviews with selected students. The questions emerged from the three scenarios-what happens in the body when you eat a sandwich, swallow a painkiller and drink a glass of water. We report that it is difficult for the students to transfer knowledge of the digestive system horizontally from the sandwich scenario to descriptions of the painkiller and water scenarios. The integration of three organ systems (digestive, circulatory and excretory) to describe the water scenario was even more difficult for the students than the horizontal transfer from the sandwich scenario. The students also showed a diversity of nonscientific descriptions, especially concerning the water scenario. The paper discusses why a large percentage of the students (∼50%) included non-scientific ideas in their decriptions of the water scenario.

Previous studies have pointed to the benefits of involving students’ everyday life experiences in lessons and in contextualising the science content to enhance learning and positive attitudes towards school science. However, most of these investigations have been conducted as intervention studies. By contrast, the present study explored how teachers, in authentic situations and without interventions, related the school science context to other contexts. We analysed a total of 490 minutes of lesson introductions in Swedish Grade 9 classes. The results revealed that teachers employed contextualisation at the intersection of science content and the everyday life context, the school context, and the language context. Furthermore, it appeared that contextualisation was created in the moment, as a way of explicating the scientific content. Compared to intervention studies, the present study shows that occasions of contextualisation are rare. It is possible to conclude that the use of contextualisation in science learning situations could be viewed as a teacher competence and must be explicit in teacher education and professional development in order to achieve the benefits of enhanced student interest and learning shown in the mentioned intervention studies.