The Expectancy Effect in Secondary School Biology Laboratory Instruction: Issues &amp; Opportunities

McComas, William F.; Moore, Lisa Schulte

doi:10.2307/4451094

Cited by 1 publication

(2 citation statements)

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“…The science education literature contains some references to how experimenters can be biased by their own expectations, though this has always been a neglected area of research (e.g. Allen, 2007;Chinn and Brewer, 1998;Hainsworth, 1956Hainsworth, , 1958McCormas and Moore, 2001;Rigano and Richie, 1995;Watson, Swain and McRobbie;2004;Zimmerman et al, 2003). The authors of one study of experimenter expectancy in school biology pupils aged 14-19 years describe the effect potentially being a universal problem that can apply to almost any kind of scientific measurement in the classroom (McCormas and Moore, 2001).…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Allen, 2007;Chinn and Brewer, 1998;Hainsworth, 1956Hainsworth, , 1958McCormas and Moore, 2001;Rigano and Richie, 1995;Watson, Swain and McRobbie;2004;Zimmerman et al, 2003). The authors of one study of experimenter expectancy in school biology pupils aged 14-19 years describe the effect potentially being a universal problem that can apply to almost any kind of scientific measurement in the classroom (McCormas and Moore, 2001). The current study replicates the principle behind Rosenthal's rat research, with two groups of school pupils being allowed to have different expectations of events that should in fact yield similar results, in an attempt to investigate what happens if theory…”

Section: Theoretical Backgroundmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Experimenter Expectancy Effect: An Inevitable Component of School Science?

Allen¹

2015

Research in Education

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ABSTRACT:A medium-scale quantitative study (n=99) found that 10-11 year-old pupils dealt with theory and evidence in notably different ways, depending on how the same science practical task was delivered. Under the auspices of a part-randomised and part-quasi experimental design, pupils were asked to complete a brief, apparently simple task involving scientific measurement. One half of the sample carried out the task in a naturalistic whole class context; the other half worked as lone experimenters in solitary conditions where accuracy of measurement was promoted. In the whole class setting pupils exposed to an illustrative lesson displayed behaviour indicative of experimenter expectancy, tending to differentiate theory and evidence to a lesser degree than pupils who experienced an enquiry lesson. In addition, during the illustrative lesson many of the pupils were biased towards their theories in ways that lay well beyond those intended by the research design. In the solitary setting pupils performed equally well with both illustrative and enquiry treatments.Implications are discussed in the light of the problems of excessive pupil theory/dataladeness. Finally, the advantages and disadvantages of exposing young learners to more authentic versions of professional science are considered.

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