Tan, Kim Chwee Daniel

Particle nature of matter is one of the most challenging models students encounter in secondary science. Numerous studies have written about the learning impediments and the alternative conceptions that students have while learning to understand and apply the particle nature of matter to explain phenomena such as thermal expansion and phase changes. This article illustrates how some common representations used in science texts and lessons can inadvertently constrain understanding of the particle model and offers suggestions on how students can be better supported in understanding these representations.

Temperature and heat are difficult concepts for children to grasp due to their abstractness. An image-to-writing approach, guided by the visualisation practices of scientists, was designed to engage elementary students with constructing images to represent their ideas about phenomena and translating these images into text using scientific terminologies. Taking a quasi-experimental approach, the experimental group students received inquiry-based instruction based on the image-to-writing approach, while the control group students received a mix of direct instruction and inquiry activities without explicit focus on multimodal representations. An instrument consisting of four free response questions was developed and administered to 129 primary 4 students (aged 9–10) before (pre-test) and after (post-test) instruction to determine their conceptual understanding and representational competences. ANCOVA showed that students in the experimental group perform significantly better than those in the control group in their conceptual understanding. Further analysis revealed that a larger percentage of students in the experimental group demonstrated higher levels of conceptual understanding after instruction, compared to the control group for more complex phenomena, even though both groups showed similar levels of representational competences. The findings suggest that an image-to-writing approach can help students develop deeper conceptual understanding as well as use representations to demonstrate their conceptual understanding. The use of images could have helped students in their thinking and learning of complex phenomena, which allowed them to better convey their understanding of the concepts.

Science teachers often use visual images to help students visualise the abstract concepts of science. Yet, they may not support students in making sense of these visual representations, wrongly assuming that the students can intuitively do it on their own. Pre- and in-service teacher professional development programmes also seldom explicitly teach how visual representations can be purposefully selected and utilised to help students comprehend abstract concepts of science. Thus, the aim of this study is to examine how an elementary science teacher made use of visual representations to realise the meaning of the concept of “heat”, and to identify design considerations when using visual representations for concept teaching. Using multimodal analysis, the findings showed how the teacher orchestrated a sequence of ensembles of visual representations which bore conceptual, pedagogical, and epistemological roles in unpacking the concept of “heat” to facilitate his students’ understanding. The findings indicate the importance of teachers developing representation-content-pedagogical competences in order to select representations apt for the targeted content knowledge, the students’ profile, the learning environment, and the nature of the science.

Categorisation of the entities of the world are important to help one make sense of the world and this process forms an integral part in the development of concepts. Inadequate clarifications and understanding of concepts in science may result in difficulties in the learning of science. In this paper, the authors discuss what the term, 'conceptual understanding', entails in the learning of science, using examples from the topics of 'Acids and Bases' and the 'Particulate Nature of Matter'. The authors also provide suggestions on how teachers can teach for conceptual understanding in the classroom as well as in the laboratory.

Learning scientific concepts is difficult for primary school students because of the highly technical, abstract and lexically dense language used to name and define entities and processes. Understanding scientific concepts entails comprehending how linguistic resources are used to bring across the semantic meanings of scientific concepts. However, this does not mean that science teachers should start teaching grammar. In this chapter, we advocate the transformative use of multimodal resources for making meaning in science. The perspective of multimodality highlights the disciplinary and pedagogical affordances of ‘modes’ which teachers can consider when designing supports for students’ meaning-making. Specifically, we introduce an Image-to-Writing (I2W) approach devised to help teachers think about how they can engage students in the transformation of multimodal resources and socialize students into the language of science. We illustrate its application in teaching the concept of “pollination”. We also extend the notion of pedagogical content knowledge to the types of multimodal-related knowledge that teachers need in order to enact I2W in a science classroom, introduce the concept of pedagogical-representational-content-knowledge (P-R-C-K) and identify components of P-R-C-K by examining a teacher’s enactment of I2W for the concept of “pollination”.

Science education research involves systematic inquiry into the teaching and learning of science. Research can be utilised to solve problems in the science classroom, for example, educational researchers seek to determine how to help students learn difficult concepts or how to facilitate students’ engagement in scientific inquiry and argumentation. Research findings can be disseminated through the publication of books, journal papers and articles for teachers, as well as presentations during conferences, workshops and formal courses. Teachers who have read the publications or attended the presentations may gain new perspectives and understandings, and these may encourage the teachers to examine and rejuvenate their practices. When teachers engage in research themselves or collaborate with educational researchers, they may also gain new experiences and insights which can impact on how they think and act. Thus, the impact of research on science classroom practices can be considerable, especially in Singapore, where there is close collaboration in the research-practice enterprise between the researchers from the National Institute of Education, schools and the Ministry of Education.

As a young and small nation with little else other than human resource, education has played a crucial role in the economic survival, prosperity and progress of Singapore since her independence. Closely aligned with its overall education system, Singapore’s science curriculum aims to help the young develop and realize their potential amidst a flexible, diverse and broad-based educational landscape. Centred on the theme of science as inquiry, the science curriculum, from primary to junior college/preuniversity levels, puts particular emphasis on the knowledge, skills and processes, and ethics and attitudes of science, as well as the understanding of the impact of science in daily life, society and the environment. In this chapter, we discuss the evolution of the science curriculum in Singapore as well as how it supports students in developing the scientific literacy, competencies and values necessary for them to take on challenges and thrive in an ever-changing world.