Instructional Designs for Teaching Scientific Practices Based on Literature Review and Textbook Analysis

Abstract

noneAbstract The purpose of this series of studies was to provide insights into instructional design of scientific practices including teaching strategies, learning goals, inquiry skills, understanding about nature of scientific inquiry, nature of science (NOS), and inquiry types for scientific practices through content analysis of literature and textbook analysis. Three studies were conducted to analyze the characteristics of scientific practices in the selected published articles and textbooks. Analyzing published articles can give us knowledge of what teaching strategies have developed and how these strategies have been used to achieve teaching goals for scientific practices. Meanwhile, textbook analysis gives us knowledge of what inquiry skills, nature of scientific inquiry, and nature of science have been addressed in teaching materials. In addition, the inquiry type was identified for each inquiry activity. The findings of this series of studies could be used to improve instructional designs and to support teachers’ science teaching and their adoption of scientific practices.The major findings of study 1 include: (1) student-centered teaching strategies (e.g., experimenting and discussing) were adopted more than teacher-centered strategies, (2) a combination of experimenting and discussing were the most used teaching strategies, and were mostly used to achieve the cognitive and affective teaching goals, and (3) teaching strategies for scientific practice had large positive effects on the cognitive aspect.The usage of teaching strategies for scientific practices to achieve teaching goals was considered as an important aspect of scientific practices to elicit students’ habits of mind and practices. Thus, study 1 suggested paying more attention to the four teaching goals in science education. To support the success of promoting teaching goals for scientific practices, textbooks used in the classroom must design activities for scientific practices by setting teaching goals related to cognitive, affective, epistemic, and sociocultural aspects. Therefore, study 2 analyzed physics textbooks from Indonesia through the lens of inquiry. Study 2 did not just analyze physics activities, but also identified the content in the textbooks. The significant findings include: (1) more physics topics focused on the cognitive than on the epistemic, affective, and sociocultural aspects in these textbooks, (2) nature of science was emphasized in the textbooks, but they were more focused on science as a cognitive-epistemic system, and (3) structured inquiry was more emphasized than confirmed and guided inquiry.In studies 1 and 2, this study found that cognitive aspects were mostly emphasized in the articles and textbooks. This finding led study 3 to focus on these aspects (content knowledge and inquiry skills). In addition to the learning goals, this study analyzed nature of scientific inquiry aspects to examine whether physics activities expectstudents to understand the characteristics of scientific inquiry. Also, inquiry types designed for inquiry activities were analyzed to reveal how the inquiry activities were developed. In study 3, an international comparison study was conducted. Secondary physics textbooks were further analyzed from Singapore and Indonesia to identify how inquiry activities are designed in different countries, and which inquiry activities have positive effects on students’ achievement. The major findings of study 3 include: (1) more activities in both the Singaporean and Indonesian textbooks focused on observing and interpreting skills, (2) few activities emphasizing understanding about nature of scientific inquiry, and (3) more guided inquiry in the Singaporean than in the Indonesian textbooks.