JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN SCIENCE TEACHING VOL. 23, NO. 3, PP. 201-207(1986)

TRENDS IN TEACHERS’ RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CHANGING

PROGRAMS ELEMENTARY AND JUNIOR-HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCE

DAVID R. STRONCK

California State University, Hayward, California 94542

Abstract

Since 1978 many studies have called for changes in the practices of science teaching. These changes in instruction will occur only when the teachers decide to change their practices. This study uses surveys to consider the question of what were the trends in the teachers’ recommendations for changes in elementary and junior-high school science programs between the years of 1978 and 1982. Large samples of teachers in British Columbia, Canada, responded anonymously to questionnaires in these years: 3040 teachers in 1978 and 1631 in 1982, with return rates ranging from 77.5% to 85%. These teachers described themselves as shifting their classroom practices toward ones that emphasize passive learning and memorization. The British Columbia Science Assessments recommend more inservice programs to stop this trend. There were very few differences in the teachers’ recommendations for changes in the schools. The elementary-school teachers had major changes in their rankings of only two activities: they increased their ranking of “activity-centered learning” and reduced their ranking of “outdoor education.”

Introduction

Since 1978 there have been many studies calling for changes in the practices of science teaching. For example, in December 1978 the National Science Teachers Association published Science Education: Accomplishments and Needs which provides 25 pages of recommendations. In 1981 Kahl and Harms explained that the purpose of Project Synthesis was to examine practices in science education at the precollege level and to make basic recommendations regarding future activities in science edu- cation. The recommendations were organized into four goal clusters with relevance to the individual, societal issues, career choice, and academic preparation. Because most schools seem concerned only with academic preparation, science education needs a major redefinition and reformulation. To introduce the other three goal clusters, the schools should increase alternate programs in science and the integration of science with other subject areas.

DeRose, Lockard and Paldy (1978) explain that the teacher determines the primary mode of instruction in most classrooms. Changes in instruction will occur only when

0 1986 by the National Association for Research in Science Teaching Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. CCC 0022-4308/86/030201-07$04.00

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teachers accept new ideas. Too often educational research has ignored the needs of teachers and practices that pervade the classroom (Eisner, 1984). Educational research should involve an intimate acquaintance with life in the classroom. When researchers recognize what is useful to teachers, they will be able to influence classroom practices (Baker, 1984).

The question of this study is what were the trends in teachers’ recommendations for changing elementary and junior-high school science programs between 1978 and 1982. During those years the literature contains many recommendations. But did classroom teachers respond to these statements with similar recommendations for change?

Procedures

Both in 1978 and in 1982, many Canadian science teachers completed anony- mously questionnaires of the British Columbia Science Assessment (Sieben & Hobbs, 1979; Taylor, 1982). These questionnaires were prepared and distributed through a grant of the Ministry of Education, Province of British Columbia. In 1978, 2108 elementary-school teachers completed a questionnaire at a return rate of 83%. In 1982 a sample of 1322 elementary-school teachers did the same questionnaire at a return rate of 82%. In British Columbia the elementary-school grades are one through seven while the junior-secondary grades are eight, nine, and ten. In 1978, 932 junior- secondary-school teachers completed a questionnaire and provided a return rate of 85%. In 1982 the sample of 309 junior-secondary-school teachers did the same ques- tionnaire with a return rate of 77.5%. The teachers responded well probably because they knew that their opinions will be used to generate provincial recommendations.

The random samples of science teachers were smaller in 1982 than in 1978 because many teachers of British Columbia participated in the 1982 study of the Science Council of Canada. The policy of the provincial Ministry of Education is not to ask teachers to complete more than one questionnaire each year. Teachers generally accept the professional responsibility of spending several hours per year in completing a questionnaire from a governmental agency. The samples in 1982 represented one sixth of the population of teachers of elementary-school science and approximately one third of the population of junior-secondary science teachers.

The questionnaires of the British Columbia Science Assessment contained items asking the teachers to consider 16 aspects of their school’s science program and to classify them according to their desires to see more, the same or less of each in the future. Other items provided a description of the respondent’s teaching practices by recording the frequency of use of 19 different teaching strategies on a six-point scale. This study presents data from these surveys to show trends in the opinions and prac- tices of large numbers of science teachers.

According to administrators interviewed in many school districts of this province, the schools of British Columbia had relatively few changes among their teachers between the years of 1978 and 1982. Both the elementary-school teachers and the junior-secondary-school teachers of science reported an average of eight years of teaching experience in 1978 and ten years of experience in 1982. There was a similar average increase of two years in the ages of the teachers. Many of the respondents of the 1982 questionnaire also completed the 1978 questionnaire.

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TABLE I Frequency of Engaging Pupils in Various Activities by Elementary-School Teachers in 1978

and 1982 (Ranked by Medians)

Activity

~ ~~ ~-

1978 1982 1982 Rank Rank Median”

Describing/reporting observations in their own words Listening to teacher’s explanations Making guesses about the results of an experiment Interpreting or explaining for themselves the results of an

Classifying objects or events Measuring in an experiment Generalizing information to new problem situations Discussing experiment results with other students Answering questions from worksheets or textbooks Carrying out experiments from a set of instructions Reading from textbooks Discussing the possible errors in an experiment that has been

Making a graph from the data students get from an

Doing library research Copying notes from blackboard/overhead projector Doing investigations at home Memorizing scientific information Making up their own experiments

experiment

completed

experiment

”Scale is from 1 (Never) to 6 (Very Frequently).

1 16 4

2 3 6 7 5

14 9 11.5

10

13 8

15 11.5 18 17

1 2 3

4 5 6 7 8 9

10 I1

12

13 14 15 16 17 18

4.05 3.83 3.56

3.48 3.45 3.23 3.19 3.16 3.05 3.04 3.02

3.01

3.00 2.99 2.79 2.69 2.37 2.32

Results and Discussion

Did the elementary-school teachers and the junior-secondary-school teachers of science maintain the same teaching practices between 1978 and 1982? Some infor- mation that may help to answer this question may be derived from comparing items on the two British Columbia Science Assessments. This comparison allows a recog- nition of possible changes in the populations that might impact on their recommen- dations for changes in their school’s science programs.

Table I provides data on the frequency of engaging pupils in various activities by the elementary-school teachers of science. Because of the large sample sizes, relatively small differences in the medians between 1978 and 1982 are statistically significant. A more appropriate interpretation occurs when the rank order of the activities are compared. The Spearman Rank Order method yields a coefficient of correlation of 0.688. This moderately positive correlation is strengthened by 13 of the 18 activities, i.e., by those that have identical rankings or differ by only one or two levels between 1978 and 1982. There were major changes in rankings among four activities: “listen- ing to teacher’s explanations” and “answering questions from worksheets or text- books” greatly increased in use while there were major reductions in the use of “doing library research” and “doing investigations at home. ”

Table I1 gives data on the frequency of engaging pupils in various activities by the junior-secondary-school teachers in science. The Spearman Rank Order method gives a coefficient of correlation of 0.664 between the use of these activities in 1978 and their use in 1982. This moderately positive correlation is supported by 13 of the

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TABLE I1 Frequency of Engaging Pupils in Various Activities by Junior-/Secondary-School Teachers in

1978 and 1982 (Ranked by Medians)

Activity Rank Rank Median” Answering questions from worksheets or textbooks 13 1 4.69 Carrying out experiments from a set of instructions 1 2 4.68 Describing/reporting observations in their own words 2 3 4.51 Measuring in an experiment 3 4 4.48 Interpreting or explaining for themselves the results of an

experiment 4 5 4.22 Listening to teacher’s explanations 14 6 4.02 Discussing the possible errors in an experiment that has been

1978 1982 1982

completed 5 1.5 3.47 Discussing experiment results with other students 6 7.5 3.47 Making guesses about the results of an experiment 9 9 3.26 Reading from textbooks 12 10 3.21 Copying notes from blackboardloverhead projector 11 11 3.19 Generalizing information to new problem situations 10 12 3.16 Memorizing scientific information 17 13 3.06 Solving quantitative problems 8 14 2.98 Classifying objects or events 16 15 2.95 Making a graph from the data students get from an

experiment 15 16 2.82 Doing library research 7 17 2.52 Doing investigations at home 18 18 2.13 Making up their own experiments 19 19 1.84

“Scale is from 1 (Never) to 6 (Very Frequently).

19 activities, i.e., those that have identical rankings or differ by one or two levels between 1978 and 1982. There were major changes in rankings among five activities. The junior-secondary-school teachers followed the same pattern of the elementary- school teachers by greatly increasing the use of “answering questions from worksheets or textbooks” and “listening to teacher’s explanations” while greatly reducing the use of “doing library research.” The junior-secondary-school teachers also greatly increased their use of ‘ ‘memorizing scientific information” while greatly reducing the use of “solving quantitative problems.”

Boyer (1983, p. 144) has described the fact that most teachers, after a few years of experience, fall back on fairly standard procedures: lecturing, question-and-answer, recitation, seat work, and homework. Heavy teaching loads and constraints on time beat down the teachers to eliminate more challenging work. Sirotnik (1981) observed that barely five percent of instructional time in the schools is spent on direct ques- tioning and less than one percent on open questioning that call for higher-level student skills beyond memory. The changing directions of practices among teachers in British Columbia seem to confirm the trends described by other researchers. The changes in practice follow the pattern that teachers’ greater experience leads to less challenging activities for the students.

Table 111 shows data from the elementary-school teachers’ suggestions for changes in the school’s science program. The Spearman Rank Order method gives a coefficient of correlation of 0.931 between the suggestions in 1978 and those in 1982. This very

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TABLE III Elementary-School Teachers’ Suggestions for Changes in the School’s Science Program

(Ranked by Medians)

1978 1982 1982 Suggested Change Rank Rank Median”

Provision of print materials other than textbooks 2 1 2.83 Background information for teachers 1 2 2.80 Activity-centered learning Locally developed programs Environmental education Integration of science with other subject areas Discovery learning Alternate programs in science Outdoor education Teaching of basic science concepts Teacher input into purchase of equipment Teaching science processes Freedom of teacher to define course Definition of core cumculum District learning assessment Provincial learning assessment

7 3 2.61 4 4 2.59 3 5 2.54 6 6.5 2.53 8 6.5 2.53

10 8 2.49 5 9 2.46

11 10.5 2.29 9 10.5 2.29

12 12 2.21 13 13 2.19 14 14 2.18 15 15 2.01 16 16 1.91

a Scale is from I (less) to 3 (more).

high correlation seems to demonstrate a remarkable stability in the attitudes of the teachers. Only two suggested changes had greatly different rankings between the two Assessments: “activity-centered learning” rose from seventh to third rank while ‘ ‘out- door education” fell from fifth to ninth position.

Table IV provides data from the junior-secondary-school teachers’ suggestions for changes in the school’s science program. The Spearman Rank Order method gives

TABLE IV Junior-Secondary-School Teachers’ Suggestions for Changes in the School’s Science Program

(Ranked by Medians)

Suggested Change 1978 1982 1982 Rank Rank Median”

Alternate programs in science 2 Background information for teachers 1 Environmental education 3 Integration of science with other subject areas 6 Locally developed programs 4 Outdoor education 5 Teaching of basic science concepts 7 Teaching of science processes 8 Definition of core curriculum 11 Activity-centered learning 10 Teacher input into purchase of equipment 9 Freedom for teacher to define course 12 District learning assessment 13 Discovery learning 15 Provincial learning assessment 14

a Scale is from 1 (less) to 3 (more).

1.5 2.78 1.5 2.78 3 2.55 4 2.50 5.5 2.45 5.5 2.45 I 2.24 8.5 2.20 8.5 2.20

10 2.19 11 2.15 12 2.08 13 2.03 14 2.00 15 1.97

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a coefficient of correlation of 0.965 between the suggestions in 1978 and those in 1982. The very high correlations between the years for both the elementary and the junior-secondary teachers imply a very high reliability for these questionnaires. The validity of the questionnaires was accepted by the four-person Contract Team, the 13- person Advisory Committee in 1982 and by a similar team and committee in 1978. There were no changes by more than two levels of rankings among the 15 items in the responses of the junior-secondary-school science teachers.

A majority of both the elementary and junior-secondary teachers want more back- ground information for teachers and more environmental education. Certainly this strong demand from the teachers shows a need for inservice programs that will improve their understanding especially of environmental issues. Most of the elementary teach- ers and approximately half of the junior-secondary teachers want more alternate pro- grams in science that will allow greater flexibility in meeting the needs of various students. To meet local needs, the junior-secondary teachers gave the highest rank to the provision of print materials other than textbooks. The majority of these teachers also wanted more activity-centered learning, locally developed programs, the integra- tion of science with other subject areas, and discovery learning.

Recommendations of the Science Assessments

The teachers’ responses to items on the British Columbia Science Assessments have consistently demonstrated that many want inservice programs that will allow them to provide a more relevant and locally adapted program. Apparently most of the science teachers in the province have the potential of becoming excellent teachers if they had a supportive environment. Unfortunately these same teachers have tended toward instructional activities which require the students to memorize more in a pas- sive way and to be increasingly dependent on the use of textbooks. While these teachers have not lost their recognition of appropriate goals and their need for inservice programs to implement these goals, they seem to be drifting in practice toward easier, less challenging methods of instruction. Adler (1982, p. 32) concluded that all genuine learning is active, not passive, i.e., involving the use of the mind in discovery, not just in memorizing.

The simplest explanation for the trend toward emphasizing memorizing is the beating down of teachers as they become more experienced (Boyer, 1983). However, interviews with many teachers offer explanations based on insufficient inservice pro- grams and reductions in other support services and facilities. In the early 1980s the government of British Columbia began reducing its financial support for inservice programs. School districts began reducing their support services in travel to profes- sional meetings, subscriptions to journals, and materials for the laboratories. Facilities became increasingly crowded and inadequate.

Many items on the questionnaires have led to major recommendations from both Science Assessments for increasing inservice programs and for improving facilities, especially to provide greater safety during all science activities. If these recommen- dations of the Science Assessments are not implemented, the trend toward more passive learning in classroom activities may continue. These teachers have not im- plemented the recommendations mentioned in the introduction of this article although they seem eager for inservice programs to begin such changes. The science teachers of British Columbia provide an example of the need for adequate inservice programs to begin changes that will implement recommendations for science education.

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References

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Boyer, E. L. (1983). High school: a report on secondary education in America. New York: Harper & Row.

DeRose, J. V., Lockard, J. D., & Paldy, L. G. (1978). The teacher is the key. In National Science Teachers Association, Science education: accomplishments and needs. Washington, DC: National Science Teachers Association.

Eisner, E. W. (1984). Can educational research inform educational practice? Phi Delta Kappan, 65, 447-452.

Kahl, S . , & Harms, N. (1981). Project synthesis: purpose, organization and procedures. In N. C. Harms & R. E. Yager (Eds.), Volume 3: What research says to the science teacher. Washington, DC: National Science Teachers Association.

National Science Teachers Association. (1 978). Science education: accomplish- ments and needs. Washington, DC: National Science Teachers Association.

Sieben, G . A., & Hobbs, E. D. (1979, January). British Columbia science as- sessment, general report, volume I1 (teacher survey). Victoria, B .C.: Queens Printer for British Columbia, Canada.

Sirotnik, K . A. (1981). What you see is what you get: a summary of observations in over 1000 elementary and secondary classrooms. Arlington, VA: ERIC Document Reproduction Service. (Technical Report Series no. 29, ERIC Doc. no. ED 214-897.)

Taylor, H (Ed.) (1982, September). The 1982 British Columbia science ussess- ment: general report. Victoria, B.C.: Queens Printer for British Columbia, Canada.

Manuscript accepted October 25, 1985