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LSK3701 SUMMARY & NOTES
- Institution
- University Of South Africa (Unisa)
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, LSK3701- LIFE SKILLS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY TEACHING IN FOUNDATION PHASELearning Unit 1
The Nature of Science and Science Learning
1.1 SCIENTIFIC LITERACY
• Scientific literacy refers to four interrelated FEATURES, that is, an individual’s
→ Scientific knowledge and the use of that knowledge to identify questions, acquire new
knowledge, to explain scientific phenomena and to draw evidence-based conclusions about
science-related issues.
→understanding of the characteristic features of science as a form of human knowledge
and inquiry
→awareness of how science and technology shape people’s material, intellectual and
cultural environments
→willingness to engage in science-related issues and with the ideas of science as a
constructive, concerned and reflective citizen
• Influences people’s decisions about personal and societal problems.
• Overall aim of the science curriculum is to develop scientific literacy – May be broken down
into components so that an achievable curriculum and
programme can be planned. What is a scientist to kids:
• To promote this aim, 3 components are distinguished: -White lab coat
→scientific knowledge/concepts
-Spectacles
→scientific process skills
→scientific attitudes -Wild hair
1.2 THE NATURE OF SCIENCE
• Yours & learner’s ideas about science will influence the way you teach and the way they
learn.
• Gender, cultural group, race or age→ You may stereotypically teach by passing on these
ideas that you have regarding a scientist onto the learners that you teach.
• 2 main views that people hold about NOS:
→ TRADITIONAL VIEW: Science is a subject that has rules, laws and theories to be learnt
→MODERN VIEW: Science as a study of natural phenomena, as well as a way of trying to
understand the world and a way of thinking and acting
• Science as way of doing rather than “object” to study = motivated to teach science as a
form of inquiry and not just a subject that involves the study of facts.
, LSK3701- LIFE SKILLS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY TEACHING IN FOUNDATION PHASE
• It is through learner’s enquiry that they develop an understanding of the NOS and become
scientifically literate.
• Teaching science in an integrated way is known as STEAM (science, technology, engineering,
arts and mathematics), IKS (Indigenous knowledge system), or teaching through play.
• The practice of science is understood to have the following nature:
→ Tentative(subject to change), empirically based (observations of natural world), subjective
(theory-laden), partly the product of human interference, imagination and creativity
(invention of explanation), and socially and culturally embedded.
→Distinction between observations and inferences and between functions of and
relationships between scientific theories and laws
• In addition,
→there are various methods of investigation
→current knowledge guides investigations
→assumptions are involved in formulating and conducting scientific inquiries
→there are limitations to data collection and analysis in addressing research questions
→alternative explanations and models are developed from the same data
→there are reasons behind the use of controls and variables in experiments
→there are differences between data and evidence
→logically consistent arguments connect evidence and explanations
→communication plays a role in the development and acceptance of scientific information
• The integration of explicit, reflective instruction about the NOS and scientific inquiry in
science topics promotes the development of scientific literacy
1.3 LEARNING SCIENCE THROUGH ENQUIRY
• Attitudes and thinking in science are the same as those attitudes and thinking in problem
solving.
• The development of thinking (reasoning) and open-mindedness = exploration of science is
enjoyable and supports lifelong learning of science.
• Inquiry-based approach develops scientific thinking.
→promotes the development of scientific thinking
→develops an understanding of “how we know” science
→develops an understanding of the nature of science
→ develops skills of independent inquiry about the natural world
• Inquiry as a teaching approach:
→is opposite to expositor approaches (transition approach which exposes information)
→is constructivist in nature (learn from ongoing mental framework changes to make
meaning of our experiences)
→encourages active learning in children
, LSK3701- LIFE SKILLS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY TEACHING IN FOUNDATION PHASE
→develops an attitude of curiosity (look at something from a new perspective and question
what is being observed)
• Encourage learners to question, wonder and be cautious about accepting things at face
value.
The inquiry-based approach encourages learners to explore new situations in an objective
and open-minded way
• If learners use process skills, they develop a view of science, not as a boy of knowledge,
but as a process of learning about the world and therefore develop an understanding of the
world through their understanding of scientific concepts.
1.4 SCIENCE CONCEPTS
• Connections that are made in the brain lead to learning.
• Concepts are the basic units of knowledge & allow people to organise and categorise
information.
• The ability to organise and categorise information plays an important role in the process by
which scientific concepts are developed in the brain.
• There are different types of concepts that build different bodies of knowledge and that
may contain different kinds of representations of information (or different connections in
the brain) associated with the same concept.
• This figure shows how a concept, X, could be made up of different components (or
representations), namely, prototypical, exemplar and theoretical components.
CONCEPT X
Prototype of X Examples of X Theory of X
• learning takes place when children build up a representation (or connections) in their brain
that is based on examples of a concept.
• By thinking about (or reasoning about) these examples, they develop a theory about the
concept. We will now use the concept “bird” to illustrate how this works.
CONCEPT
“BIRD”
Prototype Examples Theory
chicken Pigeons, doves 2 legs, 2 wings
& hawks & have feathers &
Can fly
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