Colette Murphy and Jim Beggs

Pupils’ attitudes, perceptions and understanding of primary science: comparisons between Northern Irish and English schools.

Colette Murphy is a lecturer in science education at Queen’s University, Belfast. Jim Beggs is Head of Science at St Mary’s University College, Belfast. Both have been working in science education for over fifteen years.

Dr Colette Murphy Dr Jim Beggs Graduate School of Education Head of Science Queen’s University St Mary’s University College 69-71 University Street Falls Road Belfast Belfast BT9 5BZ BT12 6FE

Tel: 0044 028 9033 5953 Tel: 0044 028 9032 7678 Fax: 0044 028 9023 9263 Fax: 0044 028 9033 3719 e-mail: [email protected] e-mail: [email protected]

Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the British Educational Research Association, University of Leeds, England, September 13-15, 2001

Total word length: approx 3700 words (includes tables and references) Pupils’ attitudes, perceptions and understanding of primary science: comparisons between Northern Irish and English schools

Murphy, Colette: Beggs, Jim

Abstract

This paper presents the findings from a study of eight to eleven year old pupils’ attitudes, perceptions and understanding of primary science and whether these differed between younger and older pupils and between girls and boys. Children in Northern Ireland and northern England completed questionnaires in which they recorded science topics they liked and their attitudes to science. In addition, class teachers recorded the verbal responses of children to a series of questions regarding their feelings about science. Younger children from both Northern Irish and English schools had more positive science attitudes than children in the more senior classes. Girls had slightly more positive attitudes towards school science than boys. The Northern Ireland pupils displayed significantly more positive attitudes to school science and its importance than pupils from school in the English sample. The Northern Ireland pupils also seemed to be more confident than the English pupils in their science ability. The paper suggests possible reasons why older pupils in primary schools are less enthusiastic than younger ones about science and considers the difference in attitudes between pupils in Northern Ireland and in England.

Key Words

Pupil attitudes; gender differences; primary science; national testing; key stage two science; assessment in primary science.

Introduction

The purpose of this study was to investigate if the well-documented erosion in pupils’ interest in school science at secondary level had already started in the final years of primary school. We analysed approximately one thousand questionnaires in which children recorded the science topics they liked and their attitudes to science. In addition we gathered evidence from oral discussions between eight to eleven year old children and their class teachers about science.

2 We compared our results from Northern Irish schools with those from a parallel study

(using the same research instruments) carried out in the north of England (Atkinson and Griffith, personal communication, 21st August 2001) to investigate the possible effects of the different curricula and assessment methods on pupil attitudes and perceptions.

This paper reports a summary of the findings and their implications for the teaching of primary science.

Background

There has been concern over the low level of uptake of science by post-sixteen children for nearly half a century. Several researchers have indicated that part of the reason for this is that children are ‘turned off’ science at school when they are quite young. Most agree (for example, Hadden and Johnstone, 1983, and Shibeci, 1984) that the erosion in children’s interest in school science occurs between the ages of nine and fourteen, even though they retain positive attitudes towards science generally and acknowledge its importance in everyday life. The problem of declining interest in school science is international and many reasons have been put forward to explain it, including the transition between primary and post-primary schooling, the content- driven nature of the science curriculum, the perceived difficulty of school science and ineffective science teaching, as well as home-related and social-related factors.

Primary science teaching in the UK has changed dramatically since the introduction of compulsory science for all children between the ages of five and sixteen. The

National Curriculum for England and Wales, 5-14 National Guidelines in Scotland and the Northern Ireland Curriculum were all introduced in the late 1980s and early

1990s. These defined for the first time what aspects of science should be taught at 3 primary level. Decisions regarding the content and pedagogy of primary science were made using evidence from major research projects. The Assessment of Performance

Unit (APU) surveyed children’s science knowledge at the ages of eleven, thirteen and fifteen during the 1970s and 1980s, and outlined what these children should be expected to do in science. Two other projects were influential. The SPACE (Science

Processes and Concepts Exploration) project (1990-98) investigated children’s scientific ideas and the STAR (Science Teaching Action Research) project studied classroom practice in relation to process skills. Harlen (p 25, in Sherrington, 1998) has discussed the impact of these projects. In summary, they - together with other international projects - generated major interest in children’s own scientific ideas, which has given weight to constructivist approaches towards learning in science.

Other research being carried out in the last decade has focused on the role of the primary teacher in science. Many findings, for example Harlen et al (1995) have pointed towards problems linked to primary teachers’ lack of confidence in teaching science and their limited scientific knowledge background. Other studies have criticised the level of the content of some areas of primary science. Murphy, Beggs et al (2001) showed that even third level students, including those who experienced compulsory school science from the ages of eleven to sixteen and some with post- sixteen science qualifications, could not correctly answer questions in some primary science topics in tests which had been written for eleven year olds. These problems, when taken together with the emphasis on national tests, may have resulted in science frequently being taught as facts or as a ‘body of knowledge’ in the final two years of primary school. Teachers feel the need to prepare children for the tests by merely ensuring that they can recall the required content knowledge. Attention to constructivist theories of learning science and to scientific enquiry has diminished by

4 this stage. Ponchaud (2001) indicated further pressures on UK primary teachers that militate against their delivery of good science teaching may include the recent government initiatives in literacy and numeracy, which have resulted in the timetabling of science as short afternoon sessions in many schools.

In Northern Ireland, the situation regarding primary science teaching is made even more difficult by preparation for the Transfer Procedure Test, which is taken in their final year of schooling by those children who wish to attend grammar schools. The selective system is currently being widely debated and recently has been the subject of two major reports (Gardner and Cowan, 2000 and Gallagher and Smith, 2000). The test is a combination of science, mathematics and English elements. The science element requires knowledge of content with very little attention given to the assessment of scientific skills. In preparation for this test, many children in their final years of primary school in Northern Ireland are carrying out repetitive practice tests and are being trained to recall scientific facts and information. Children, therefore, tend to change their views about the science they are learning.

In the light of this background, the specific questions being addressed in this study were:

 How positive are primary children’ attitudes towards science?

 Which science topics do children prefer?

 When given the opportunity to discuss science informally, what are

primary children’s’ views about science?

We were specifically investigating whether children’s perceptions changed as they got older, and if there were clear differences between girls and boys. 5 Method

Approximately 1,000 eight to eleven year old primary school children from forty four schools across Northern Ireland took part in this study to investigate effects of age and gender on children’s attitudes to science. In November 2000, children completed a questionnaire with the help of teachers who read out the questions to them. To supplement the data from the questionnaires, class teachers recorded the verbal responses of a further thirty-two children to a series of questions regarding their feelings about science. These teacher-child discussions were carried out informally during science lessons in February 2001.

Results

Science topics – is popularity related to children’ age or gender?

In the questionnaire, children were asked to indicate whether they liked or disliked each of sixteen different topics commonly encountered in the primary school. These topics were:

ourselves health education animals plants

life cycles materials solids, liquids & gases water cycle

rusting environment recycling forces & friction

electricity energy sound light

All topics except animals were liked more by NI pupils than by English pupils (Table

1). In addition, all topics were liked more by younger children (eight/nine) than by older ones (ten/eleven) in both NI and England. The difference between older and

6 younger was statistically significant (at p < 0.05% or lower) in twelve of the topics in

NI schools and eight in English schools (Table 1).

There were differences between girls and boys in topics liked. In NI, significantly

more girls than boys liked ourselves, healthy living, plants and materials. In England,

the topics liked significantly more by girls were healthy living, plants, environment

and recycling. In both NI and England, significantly more boys than girls liked forces

and electricity (Table 1).

Table 1 Comparison of science topics liked by pupils in Northern Irish (*) and English () schools (see key below table)

Topics NI pupils English Younger Older Girls Boys (N=979) (N=653) (N* = 556) (N* = 419) (N* = 490) (N* = 486) (N=358) (N=276) (N=342) (N=308) Ourselves ** ** Healthy ** ** ** living Animals ** Plants ** ** ** Life cycles ** ** Materials ** ** ** Solids, ** liquids & gases Water cycle ** ** Rusting ** Environment ** **  Recycling ** **  Forces ** ** ** Electricity ** ** Energy ** ** Sound ** ** Light ** **

KEY: the asterisks represent relative agreement with each statement

* or  = difference between groups is significant at p < 0.05 ** or  = difference between groups is significant at p < 0.01

7 Differences between the science attitudes of Northern Irish and English pupils

The attitudes towards science were grouped into three broad categories (on the basis of factor analysis of the pupil responses to the questionnaire): enjoyment of science, importance of science and perceived ability to do science. Pupil responses to attitude items in the questionnaire were analysed using t-tests, analysis of variance and correlation analysis. Table 2 shows significantly different responses between NI and

English pupils using these tests. Asterisks in the columns represent relative agreement with each statement.

Table 2 Items which generated significantly different pupil responses in Northern Irish and English schools (see key below table)

Item English N. Irish (N = 653) (N = 979)

ENJOYMENT OF SCIENCE Science lessons are fun ** I look forward to science lessons ** Solving science problems is enjoyable ** We do too much written work in science ** Doing experiments is fun ** I only enjoy science when I’m doing experiments ** IMPORTANCE OF SCIENCE Science is a very important part of everyday life ** I have become more environmentally friendly because of ** my science lessons Lessons on healthy living make me think more about what I ** eat and how I live Science is about discovering and investigating new things ** PERCEIVED ABILITY IN SCIENCE I find it difficult to understand science results ** I understand fair testing *

KEY: the asterisks represent relative agreement with each statement ** = difference between groups is significant at p < 0.01

8 The NI pupils displayed significantly more positive attitudes to school science and its importance than those from the schools in the English sample. The NI pupils also seemed to be more confident than the English pupils in their science ability (Table 2).

Age and gender differences in children’s attitudes to science

Table 3 shows significantly different responses of younger and older children and of girls and boys in NI and English schools.

Table 3 Items which generated significantly different pupil responses in Northern Irish (*) and English () schools (see key below table)

Item Younger Older Girls Boys (N* = 556) (N* = 419) (N* = 490) (N* = 486) (N=358) (N=276) (N=342) (N=308) ENJOYMENT OF SCIENCE Science lessons are fun ** I look forward to science lessons * * Solving science problems is ** enjoyable We do too much written work in *  science Doing experiments is fun ** * I only enjoy science when I’m doing ** ** experiments IMPORTANCE OF SCIENCE I have become more environmentally ** * friendly because of my science lessons Lessons on healthy living make me ** think more about what I eat and how I live PERCEIVED ABILITY IN SCIENCE Writing about science is easier than **  talking about it I find it difficult to understand ** science results I understand fair testing **

KEY: the asterisks represent relative agreement with each statement

* or  = difference between groups is significant at p < 0.05 ** or  = difference between groups is significant at p < 0.01

9 From Table 3 it can be seen that, regarding ‘enjoyment of science’, eight to nine year olds were more enthusiastic than the older group, particularly with regard to experimental work, although these differences were more pronounced in NI schools.

Older children felt that they did too much written work in science. With respect to gender, only three responses showed significant differences between girls and boys in

NI schools and only one in the English schools. These differences indicated that girls held slightly more positive attitudes to school science.

Younger children from both NI and England were more positive about the impact of science lessons on their attitudes towards the environment. Girls were more positive than boys about the influence of lessons on the environment, and in NI, girls were a lot more positive about the importance of lessons on healthy living.

Younger children from both NI and England were less confident than older ones in their understanding of fair testing and the interpretation of experimental results. The responses of girls and boys to items regarding their perceived ability to do science were similar.

The discussions between children and their teachers illustrated what children enjoyed

(or did not enjoy) about science, why they felt science was important and what they felt was most difficult about science. A summary of some of the questions and responses follows. At the time of writing, only data from NI was available for this section of results, although discussions with Atkinson and Griffith (personal communication, August 21 2001) will be referred to where appropriate.

What do you like best about science?

10 There was a resounding ‘experiments!’ from almost all children, regardless of age, gender or ability. Responses included the following (b = boy; g = girl; 8, 9, 10 or 11

= age; h = higher ability, l = lower ability):

I like doing experiments because it’s fun and you find out things. It encourages your mind. (b,8,h)

I like doing experiments because you are having fun and learning at the same time. (g,9,l)

The experiments, because you get to do the things yourself. This helps me remember new things. Experiments are fun, you can talk and discuss what you are doing. In technology you get to build and take something home that works. (b,11,h)

I like practical science because it’s a better way to understand things rather than just writing them down. (g,11,h)

Is there any part of science you do not like?

Typical responses included:

I don’t like writing pages after we’ve finished testing something. (b,11,l)

I did not like ‘transfer science’ because we kept covering the same topics over and over again – this was repetitive and boring. (g,11,h)

I didn’t like the flower because it has so many parts and their names are very hard to spell. (b,11,l)

What is the hardest thing you have done in science?

A selection of typical responses were:

The flower – remembering parts, like ovule and ovary – I kept getting these terms mixed up. . (g,11,h)

Forces – pushing, colliding, hard to understand where the force is acting from. (b,10,h)

Evaporation – I was confused by all the long words, like evaporation, condensation. (g,11,h)

Electricity – too many big words. (b,10,l)

11 Most of the responses to this question from children in the English schools contained references to the difficulty of having to “remember” words or concepts.

Discussion

The main objective of this study was to investigate what children thought about primary science, and in particular, whether the perceptions differed with age, and if there were differences between girls and boys. We were also interested in comparing the responses of pupils from NI with those from English schools since the assessment arrangements in the two areas are very different. Most children in NI sit the ‘transfer test’, which contains equal numbers of questions relating to English, mathematics and science, whereas pupils in England do the SATs tests, in which there are separate papers for each of the three subjects. It could be argued, therefore, that the children in

English schools are required to recall more science content than those in NI in order to attain higher marks in the science tests taken in their final year at primary school.

The results showed that most of the older children had significantly less positive attitudes than younger ones towards science enjoyment, even though the older children were more confident about their ability to do science. This trend is clearly illustrated in Table 1, which shows the reduced popularity of science topics exhibited by the older children. Furthermore, the data in Table 3 shows that younger children were much more positive in their attitudes towards science. The results in Tables 1-3 indicate that there are also differences between pupils in NI and in England, with NI pupils exhibiting significantly more positive attitudes towards science. What is it about science in the more senior primary years that is putting children off?

12 We obtained a deeper insight into what the children thought about science from the teacher-child discussions. When asked what they liked best about science almost all children replied ‘doing experiments’. The reasons given included that doing experiments was fun, that they found out things and that they were learning whilst enjoying themselves.

Is it the lack of experimental work that is turning them off science? Other workers have reported on the importance of experimental work both for motivating children and enhancing their learning in science. Campbell (2001) and Ponchaud (2001) also found that, when asked about what they liked best in science, primary children most frequently replied ‘doing experiments’ and ‘finding out new things’. Bricheno (2000) cited the importance of small group practical work in promoting positive attitudes to science. Ponchaud (2001) was concerned that scientific enquiry has diminished in many English primary schools. He pointed out that teachers should capitalize on the flexibility of the primary curriculum to carry out longer-term experiments, which would be more difficult to do in the timetable-constrained post-primary school.

Could it be the way children prepare for national tests that is putting them off science?

A child in our study described this preparation as “…covering the same topics over and over again… repetitive and boring”? Ponchaud (2001) reported that anxiety about performance in national tests sometimes leads to excessive routine test preparation in the final years of primary school. In Northern Ireland, the selective system has commonly led to additional ‘coaching’ for the transfer test – many parents employing private tutors for this purpose. It is not surprising, therefore, that children in this study found ‘transfer science’ repetitive and boring.

13 Alternatively, could it be the curriculum content itself that is the main reason for the erosion of interest in primary school science? Is learning about relatively obscure flower parts, evaporation or electric circuits dreary? Is some of the primary science curriculum too hard for teachers, never mind children? Some findings from the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED 1995) were that:

Some teachers’ understanding of particular areas of science, especially the physical sciences, is not sufficiently well developed and this gives rise to unevenness of standards, particularly in years 5 and 6 (age 10 and 11), and

In the upper years of Key Stage 2 (which represents age 7-11 year old children) shortcomings in teachers’ understanding of science are evident in the incorrect use of scientific terminology and an overemphasis on the acquisition of knowledge at the expense of conceptual development.

Gender

There were fewer significant differences between the attitudes of girls and boys than there were between younger and older children. Girls, however, were more positive about their enjoyment of science and about how science lessons impacted upon their environmental awareness and how they kept healthy. There were a few significant differences in the topics liked by girls and boys – generally girls’ favoured topics in the life sciences and boys preferred some of the physical science topics. These results agree with those from many studies, including Johnston et al (1999) who found that girls were significantly more positive than boys about doing science in the classroom,

Woodward and Woodward (1998), who reported that girls showed a higher preference than boys for health education, although the reverse was true for electricity, and

Boone (1997) who carried out a study in China and concluded that girls were more

‘pro-science’ in their attitudes than boys. We feel that teachers need to be aware of and cater for gender differences in their science teaching. 14 Why are pupils in NI more positive towards school science than those in English

schools?

It is difficult to reach conclusions about why NI children in this study held more positive attitudes towards school science than those in the English schools. We could tentatively suggest that, since assessment in science is perhaps the main difference in the systems between the areas, that the greater emphasis on test preparation in English schools might be a factor. Comparative results from schools in the Irish Republic

(currently being analysed) should shed more light on this problem, since there is no external testing of primary science.

We feel that the results from this study reveal an alarming trend towards pupils being

‘put off’ science while they are still at primary school and we would urge that more research into this problem be carried out.

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