A Study of Teachers’ Views on Practical Work in Secondary Schools in England and Wales

Abrahams, Ian; Sağlam, Murat

doi:10.1080/09500690902777410

Cited by 37 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…In addition, the least important objective in both studies was preparing pupils for practical work that would be assessed. In the age groups 15-16 and 17-18, present-day physics teachers regard objectives related to interest in and the experience of physical phenomena as more important than did teachers 40 years ago [32]. Furthermore, they regarded the preparation of students for assessed practical work as more important for 15-16-year-old students than did the teachers in Kerr's [6] study.…”

Section: Teachers' Objectivesmentioning

confidence: 66%

“…This has meant that the results are typically presented in terms of the perceived order of importance of several predetermined objectives [6,18,32,33]. Because these objective lists and research aims differ, a comparison of the various studies is a demanding task.…”

Section: Teachers' Objectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Abrahams and Saglam [32] were interested in discovering possible changes in teachers' views of objectives or practical work in comparison with the results of the pioneering study made by Kerr in 1963 [6]. They examined science teachers' views (N ¼ 388) on the 10 aims of practical work presented by Kerr in England and Wales at different stages of education (pupils aged 11-14, 15-16, and 17-18).…”

Section: Teachers' Objectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, it seems that the objectives of practical work are generally related to the students' age or school level. Teachers emphasize objectives differently with younger pupils than they do with older ones [18,32]. For instance, making science more interesting is considered one of the most important aims with younger pupils, but it is less heavily emphasized with older pupils or university students [32].…”

Section: Teachers' Objectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Preservice teachers’ objectives and their experience of practical work

Nivalainen

Asikainen

Hirvonen

2013

Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res.

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This study explores third-year preservice physics teachers' (n ¼ 32) views concerning the objectives of practical work at school and university. Content analysis of their essays about practical work revealed not only the objectives of the practical work undertaken but also how they had experienced teaching as school and university students. The objectives most commonly referred to were related to the connections between theory and practice, motivation, understanding phenomena, learning how to observe, and learning how to report. In contrast, some objectives were recognized only rarely, which is an important issue for discussion as a future challenge. Preservice teachers' positive experiences of practical work resulted from the successful implementation of practical work. According to our findings, practical work can in many cases be regarded as successful, especially when the participants understand the objectives of the teaching. In contrast, negative experiences reflected failures or difficulties in implementation. We conclude by suggesting that preservice teachers should be offered opportunities to reflect on their previous experiences and to see and experience in practice the advantages of practical work.

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Section: Teachers' Objectivesmentioning

confidence: 66%

Section: Teachers' Objectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Teachers' Objectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Teachers' Objectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Preservice teachers’ objectives and their experience of practical work

Nivalainen

Asikainen

Hirvonen

2013

Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res.

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“…All of the teachers accepted practical work as an unproblematic feature of their practice as teachers. None of them discussed any criticism of the nature and purpose of practical work along the lines highlighted by Hodson (1990Hodson ( , 1993, Abrahams & Saglam (2010) or Abrahams (2011). Teacher 1 gave the strongest rationale for the use of practical work as an integral part of his practice and a method to allow pupils to engage in their learning and therefore to understand their observations and the related theory.…”

Section: General Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Teaching Physics to Teaching Children: Beginning teachers learning from pupils

Findlay

Bryce

2012

International Journal of Science Education

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This paper discusses the development of beginning physics teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) in the context of teaching basic electricity during a one-year Professional Graduate Diploma in Education course (PGDE) and beyond. This longitudinal study used repeated semi-structured interviews over a period of four-and-a-half years. The interview schedule followed a line of development through the secondary school electrical syllabus in Scotland. Fifteen student teachers were interviewed during the PGDE year. Six of them were followed up at the end of the Induction Year (their first year as a newly qualified teacher), and again two-and-a-half years later. Thematic analysis of the interviews showed that before the beginning teachers had taught any classes, their initial focus was on how to transform their own subject matter knowledge (SMK) about electricity into forms that were accessible to pupils. As the beginning teachers gained experience working with classes, they gave vivid descriptions of interacting with particular pupils when teaching electricity which showed the development of their pedagogical knowledge. This played a significant role in the teachers' change of focus from teaching physics to teaching children as they transformed their SMK into forms that were accessible to pupils and developed their general pedagogical knowledge.

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Practical work: Its effectiveness in primary and secondary schools in England

2012

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We report here on the first of two evaluations of a national project (Getting Practical: Improving Practical Work in Science-IPWiS) designed to improve the effectiveness of practical work in both primary and secondary schools in England. This first baseline evaluation of the effectiveness of practical work is based on a study of a diverse range of 30 practical lessons undertaken in non-selective primary (n = 10) and secondary (n = 20) schools prior to the teachers undertaking a training intervention designed to improve their effective use of practical work. A multi-site case study approach employing a condensed fieldwork strategy was used in which data were collected, using audiotape-recorded discussions, interviews and observational field notes. The analysis, based on work by Millar et al. and Tiberghien, considers what students do and think relative to what their teacher intended them to do and think. In both primary and secondary schools the widespread use of highly structured 'recipe' style tasks meant that practical work was highly effective in enabling students (n = 857) to do what the teacher intended. Whilst tasks in primary schools tended to be shorter than in secondary schools, with more time devoted to helping students understand the meaning of new scientific words, neither primary nor secondary teachers' lesson plans incorporated explicit strategies to assist students in making links between their observations and scientific ideas. As such, tasks were less effective in enabling students to use the intended scientific ideas to understand their actions and reflect upon the data they collected. These findings suggest that practical work might be made more effective, in terms of developing students' conceptual understanding-an aim of the IPWiS project-if teachers adopted a more 'hands-on' and 'minds-on' approach and explicitly planned how students were to link these two essential components of practical work.

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A Study of Teachers’ Views on Practical Work in Secondary Schools in England and Wales

Cited by 37 publications

References 8 publications

Preservice teachers’ objectives and their experience of practical work

Preservice teachers’ objectives and their experience of practical work

From Teaching Physics to Teaching Children: Beginning teachers learning from pupils

Practical work: Its effectiveness in primary and secondary schools in England

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