An Inquiry Into Inquiry Science Teaching in Colombia
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AN INQUIRY INTO INQUIRY SCIENCE TEACHING IN COLOMBIA A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION AND THE COMMITTEE ON GRADUATE STUDIES OF STANFORD UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Maria Figueroa May 2011 © 2011 by Maria Jose Figueroa Cahn Speyer. All Rights Reserved. Re-distributed by Stanford University under license with the author. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial 3.0 United States License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/us/ This dissertation is online at: http://purl.stanford.edu/wp841zm8200 ii I certify that I have read this dissertation and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Richard Shavelson, Primary Adviser I certify that I have read this dissertation and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Edward Haertel I certify that I have read this dissertation and that, in my opinion, it is fully adequate in scope and quality as a dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Maria Araceli Ruiz-Primo Approved for the Stanford University Committee on Graduate Studies. Patricia J. Gumport, Vice Provost Graduate Education This signature page was generated electronically upon submission of this dissertation in electronic format. An original signed hard copy of the signature page is on file in University Archives. iii ABSTRACT Science education in different parts of the world has focused on teaching facts and concepts transmitted by a teacher in a lecture-style approach. In contrast, some initiatives, such as inquiry-based science teaching, use scientific inquiry—what scientists do to generate new knowledge—as a basis for teaching science to students. That is, inquiry- science teaching focuses on getting students to do what scientists do and how they learn about natural phenomena. This is not to say inquiry-science teaching ignores facts and concepts; it goes beyond transmission. Inquiry-Based Science Education (IBSE) programs have been implemented throughout the world, with the objective of improving science education. Even though IBSE programs have received wide attention and substantial funding, the impact of this approach on students’ learning is unclear. As a small step in clarifying the impact of IBSE on students’ achievement, a quasi-experiment was conducted and reported in this dissertation. More specifically, the study examines achievement differences between inquiry science education and typical science education in five schools in Bogotá, Colombia for overall achievement, achievement by types of knowledge (declarative, procedural, mental model) and proximity of the assessment measure to the curriculum (proximal and distal), and achievement as measured by performance assessments. Inquiry-based science teaching takes many forms. Moreover, even though studies compare inquiry teaching with other approaches, descriptions of this type of inquiry teaching are vague and vary widely as to classroom implementation. Through a review of the literature focused on empirical studies that compare inquiry teaching with other iv approaches, I developed a framework used to define inquiry teaching and assess it using a variety of measurement methods. The framework focuses on three basic elements: 1) teachers, 2) students, and 3) curriculum materials, and how they tap into inquiry facets or domains (conceptual, epistemic, and social). This framework guided my comparative study of an IBSE program in Bogotá, Colombia with a more traditional approach teaching the same unit, Human Body Systems. Three types of assessments measured fifth grade students’ science achievement: paper and pencil tests with (1) multiple-choice and (2) constructed-response questions and (3) performance assessments. The multiple-choice questions were constructed to test the different types of knowledge; test items were written proximal and distal to the curriculum taught. Of the two performance assessments, one was content rich with a direct link to the curriculum, while the other was content lean with an emphasis on science process skills. A total of 365 students from both IBSE and the Control group took the paper and pencil tests and a sub-group of 140 students from both groups took the performance assessments. Data were collected from 5 different schools in Bogotá, three that teach science through an IBSE program and two that use a traditional approach. Data were analyzed using a nested design (classrooms within schools within treatment condition) and allowed for a comparison of the IBSE and the Control group science achievement. The findings were mixed as to the impact of IBSE teaching on achievement. While there was no statistically significant treatment effect as measured by the paper and pencil test including the multiple-choice or constructed response questions, there was a significant treatment effect in the content rich performance assessment as well as in the v content lean. Moreover, even though there was no significant treatment effect on the paper and pencil tests, IBSE students consistently outperformed the Control students on all the different measures of science achievement. This result can be explained by the nature of the nested design, large variation among schools (that served as a significant part of the experimental error term) and consequently low statistical power. The results, then, suggest that students who learn science through inquiry are able to go beyond concepts and apply them in conducting science investigations. Additional studies with more schools in order to better generalize than I could in this study as well as to increase statistical power should be done in Colombia and other countries that are reforming their curriculum through inquiry-based science teaching. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am greatly appreciative of all the teachers and students who were part in this project, who were always willing to help and provide the time, logistics, and feedback that made this study possible. I am also thankful to the school administrators from Alianza Educativa, Colegio Las Mercedes, and Gimnasio Sabio Caldas for granting permission to conduct all the assessments at different times. My heartfelt gratitude also goes out to my advisor Richard Shavelson who is responsible for the successful completion of my dissertation. His untiring and constant effort, commitment, encouragement, guidance and unconditional support helped me greatly in the understanding and writing of the dissertation. A number of experts in different fields have offered useful advice and encouragement. I want to particularly thank Edward Haertel and Maria Araceli Ruiz- Primo for their valuable suggestions and comments at different stages of this process. It is a pleasure to thank those who made this thesis possible. ICFES and Pequeños Científicos provided support in the development of the assessments. The team from Centro de Evaluación of Universidad de los Andes worked non-stop with me in data collection. And last, my colleagues from Universidad de Los Andes provided valuable feedback and guidance during this dissertation. I offer special thanks to my office mates and friends at Stanford, Alice Fu and Jon Shemwell. The whole PhD experience was a great ride with you along. Thanks for the support, patience, and academic growth during these years. To Alice, thank you for the Wednesday meetings and good vibes during this process. vii I am grateful to my family and friends, for their patience and constant words of encouragement. I thank my mother Vivian for her support and admiration. I owe my deepest gratitude to my son Emilio, who never complained and always understood the importance of this work. Finally, it would have been next to impossible to write this thesis without Camilo´s support, patience and love. viii TABLE OF CONTENTS ix x LIST OF TABLES Number Title Page Table 2.1. Characteristics of the Facets of Inquiry that Students Show when 12 Learning Science through an Inquiry Approach (Adapted from Furtak & Siedel, 2008) Table 3.1. Characterization of the Studies that Compare Inquiry with Other 18 Teaching Approaches Table 3.2. Conceptual Approach - Mapping Study’s Inquiry Conception 21 onto the Inquiry Facets Table 3.3. Research designs 24 Table 3.4. Critique and Drawbacks 25 Table 4.1. Examples Types of Assessments Used to Measure Science 28 Achievement Table 4.2. Outcomes used in Studies that Compare Inquiry with other 30 Approaches Table 4.3. Relationship between Types of Knowledge and Types of 34 Assessments Table 5.1. Distribution of Students in Public and Private Schools in Bogotá 39 in 2009 Table 5.2. Managing Institutions of Concession Schools in Bogotá 41 Table 5.3. Schools Participating in the Studies 43 Table 5.4. Schools’ Level According to the Results from the 2010 ICFES 48 Exit Exam. Table 5.5. Schools’ Results in the Science Components of the ICFES Exam 48 (2010). Table 5.6. Schools’ Results in the 2009 SABER Exams. 49 Table 6.1. Teachers’ Classroom Practice as Evidenced from One Lesson 61 Table 6.2. Summary General Information About Each Teacher Based on 64 Interviews xi Number Title Page Table 6.3. Characterization of What Students do in Class Based on Teacher 66 Responses to Adapted TIMSS Questionnaire Table 6.4. Mapping Teachers and Students with the Inquiry Facets 67 Table 6.5. Student Participants in the Study by Group, School and Class 68 (sample sizes). Table 6.6. Assessments related with the Paper and Pencil Tests 73 Table 6.7. Composition of Items in the Human Body System Booklets 74 Table 6.8. Composition of Items in the Human Body Systems Mapped into 74 the Facets of Inquiry Table 6.9. Reliabilities of the Paper and Pencil assessments. 77 Table 6.10. Number of students who participated in the Performance 79 Assessments. Table 6.11. Reliabilities of the Performance Assessments 82 Table 7.1. Descriptive Statistics of the Results of the Pre and Post Multiple- 87 Choice Tests Table 7.2.