Science Students' Perceptions of Engaging Pedagogy

Abstract

During their years of schooling, students develop perceptions about learning and teaching, including the ways in which teachers impact on their learning experiences. This paper presents student perceptions of teacher pedagogy as interpreted from a study focusing on students' experience of Year 7 science. A single science class of 11 to 12 year old students and their teacher were monitored for the whole school year, employing participant observation, and interviews with focus groups of students, their teacher and other key members of the school. Analysis focused on how students perceived the role of the teacher's pedagogy in constructing a learning environment that they considered conducive to engagement with science learning. Two areas of the teacher's pedagogy are explored from the student perspective of how these affect their learning: instructional pedagogy and relational pedagogy. Instructional pedagogy captures the way the instructional dialogue developed by the teacher drew the students into the learning process and enabled them to "understand" science. How the teacher developed a relationship with the students is captured as relational pedagogy, where students said that they learned better when teachers were passionate in their approach to teaching, provided a supportive learning environment and made them feel comfortable. The ways in which the findings support the direction for the middle years and science education are considered.

Engaging Science: Pre-Service Primary School Teachers’ Notions of Engaging Science Lessons

“…Of the engaging behaviours described by Darby (2005), these beliefs touch usefully but narrowly on provision for interest and understanding. Both, for instance, seemed to be seen in simple terms but, in reality, they comprise components which may differ in their effect on engagement.…”

“…Students also tend to describe enthusiastic teachers as outstanding (Bauer, 2002). A more recent and comprehensive study of a class of 11 and 12-year-old students in an Australian middle school by Darby (2005) found two areas of teaching behaviour to be important for engagement in science: the nature of instruction and inter-personal relationships. The area of instruction involved generating interest and supporting understanding; that of relationships comprised teacher enthusiasm, providing a supportive learning environment and making the children feel emotionally comfortable or at ease.…”

A percepção dos jovens brasileiros sobre suas aulas de Ciências

“…De fato, diversas pesquisas têm relacionado o baixo interesse dos jovens em seguir as carreiras científicas diretamente às suas aulas de Ciências (AIKENHEAD, 2005;KARDASH;WALLACE, 2001;BERNARDO et al, 2008;BROK et al, 2006;DARBY, 2005). Fensham (2004, p. 2) aponta para três pontos que fazem com que a ciência escolar seja desinteressante para os alunos: "1) transmissão de conhecimentos de respostas certas; 2) conteúdo irrelevante e chato; e 3) dificuldade, em comparação a outras disciplinas".…”

Engagement and Performance in Physics: The Role of Class Instructional Strategies, and Student’s Personal and Situational Interest // Implicación y rendimiento en Física: el papel de las estrategias docentes en el aula, y el interés personal y situacio

“…En el extremo opuesto a la implicación, la desafección académica conductual o desapego se operativiza como falta de esfuerzo, escasa persistencia, reducida atención o múlti-ples aplazamientos en la realización de tareas (Darby, 2005;Skinner et al, 2008Skinner et al, , 2009. Este concepto estaría próximo a los de burnout, pasividad, indiferencia, desmotivación o indefensión (Salanova, Schaufeli, Martínez, y Bresó, 2010).…”