i Promotion of Critical Thinking in School Physical Science by Angela Elizabeth Stott Submitted in

310 Pages·2009·2.51 MB·English

i

Promotion of Critical Thinking in School Physical Science

by
Angela Elizabeth Stott

Submitted in fulfilment of the academic
requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy in the
School of Science, Mathematics, and Technology Education
Faculty of Education
University of Kwa-Zulu-Natal

December 2008
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DECLARATION

I, Angela Stott, declare that

(i) The research reported in this thesis, except where otherwise indicated, is my
original work.

(ii) This thesis has not been submitted for any degree or examination at any
other university.

(iii) This thesis does not contain other persons' data, pictures, graphs or other
information, unless specifically acknowledged as being sourced from other
persons.

(iv) This thesis does not contain other persons' writing, unless specifically
acknowledged as being sourced from other researchers. Where other written
sources have been quoted, then:
a) their words have been re-written but the general information attributed to
them has been referenced;
b) where their exact words have been used, their writing has been placed
inside quotation marks, and referenced.

(v) Where I have reproduced a publication of which I am author, co-author or
editor, I have indicated in detail which part of the publication was actually
written by myself alone and have fully referenced such publications.

(vi) This thesis does not contain text, graphics or tables copied and pasted from
the Internet, unless specifically acknowledged, and the source being detailed
in the thesis and in the References sections.

Signed:

As the candidate's Supervisor I, Paul Hobden, agree to the submission of this thesis

Signed:
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ABSTRACT

This dissertation describes an action research study aimed at promoting critical thinking
in learners while learning physical science within the South African national curriculum.
The data were primarily qualitative in nature, and were collected primarily through
participant observation, composed of audio- and video- recorded lessons, interviews,
questionnaires, journal entries and written material. Data collection, analysis and
interpretation were done in the inductive, cyclic manner of action research. This process
was guided by research questions about task characteristics, their position in the teaching
sequence, the role of the learning environment, and the need to adjust tasks to fit the
needs of different learners, so as to effectively promote critical thinking. A pragmatic
approach was used.
It was found that it is possible, using particular strategies and tasks, to promote critical
thinking while meeting the curriculum outcomes, although the intense syllabus pressure
of the curriculum makes this challenging. Task design characteristics and positioning in
the teaching sequence, and conditions of the learning environment, were found to affect
a task’s effectiveness at promoting critical thinking. Various teaching strategies can
improve attainability by a wider range of learners.
An instructional model, The Ladder Approach, emerged as being most likely to promote
success. This was found to be successful when evaluated against criteria of active
engagement and interest by learners, attainability with effort, display of critical thinking
traits, and compatibility with the South African curriculum. In this model, an interesting
problem is posed at the start of a section, after which direct instruction and learner
engagement with the problem run parallel to one another, linked by scaffolding tools
which are engaged in individually and collaboratively.
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PREFACE

The work described in this thesis was carried out in the School of Science, Mathematics
and Technology Education, University of KwaZulu-Natal, from January 2005 to
December 2008 under the supervision of Prof. Paul Hobden (Supervisor). Ethical
clearance was obtained for this study HSS/0152/07D.

This study represents original work by the author and has not otherwise been submitted
in any form for any degree or diploma to any tertiary institution. Where use has been
made of the work of others, it is duly acknowledged in the text.

Angela Stott
December 2008
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION ii
ABSTRACT iii
PREFACE iv
LIST OF TABLES vii
LIST OF FIGURES vii
NOTES ON STYLIST CONVENTIONS ix
ABBREVIATIONS x
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS xi
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1. BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE ............................................ 1
1.2. RESEARCH APPROACH ............................................................. 3
1.3. THEORETICAL REFERENTS .................................................... 6
1.4. STRUCTURE OF DISSERTATION ........................................... 14
CHAPTER 2 WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT TEACHING AND LEARNING
CRITICAL THINKING? 15
2.1. CURRICULUM ........................................................................... 15
2.2. CRITICAL THINKING ............................................................... 24
2.3. LEARNING .................................................................................. 33
2.4. TEACHING ................................................................................. 46
2.5. TASKS ......................................................................................... 60
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2.6. CONCLUSION ........................................................................... 70
CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH DESIGN 71
3.1. FIT OF RESEARCH DESIGN TO RESEARCH QUESTIONS . 72
3.2. DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURES ...................................... 74
3.3. RESEARCH CYCLES AND DATA TRANSFORMATION ........ 78
3.4. VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY ................................................. 81
3.5. LIMITATIONS AND ETHICS IN RESEARCH ACTIVITIES .. 87
3.6. CONCLUSION ........................................................................... 87
CHAPTER 4 DESCRIPTION: MY JOURNEY OF LEARNING 89
4.1. GENERAL CONTEXT ................................................................ 89
4.2. CONTEXT; TEACHING AND COLLABORATING .................. 95
4.3. A CRITICAL EVENT................................................................ 116
4.4. CONCEPTS AND PROCEDURES ........................................... 132
4.5. SCAFFOLDING ........................................................................ 142
4.6. CONCLUSION ......................................................................... 152
CHAPTER 5 ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION 154
5.1. DESIGN CHARACTERISTICS ................................................ 154
5.2. TEACHING-TASK SEQUENCING ......................................... 170
5.3. TEACHING AND LEARNING ENVIRONMENT ................... 180
5.4. TASK ADJUSTMENT FOR INDIVIDUAL LEARNERS’
NEEDS ...................................................................................... 201
5.5. CONCLUSION .......................................................................... 210
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CHAPTER 6 SUMMARY AND IMPLICATIONS FOR RESEARCH AND
PRACTICE 212
6.1. SUMMARY OF KNOWLEDGE CLAIMS ................................ 213
6.2 THE CPAG QUADRANT ........................................................... 215
6.3. THE LADDER APPROACH ..................................................... 218
6.4. LIMITATIONS .......................................................................... 228
6.5. IMPLICATIONS ....................................................................... 230
6.6. CONCLUSION ......................................................................... 233
REFERENCES 236
APPENDIXES 251

LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1: Participants per year and grade. ...................................................................... 74
Table 3.2: Data corpus: summary of sources of data by year. ......................................... 75
Table 3.3: Criteria for evaluation of a task's effectiveness. ............................................. 80
Table 4.1: Time schedule for grade 10 motion, 2007. ................................................... 121

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1: Schematic representation of the human information processing system. ..... 35
Figure 2.2: Relationship between AIME and PSE or PDC. ............................................ 42
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Figure 2.3: Diagrammatic representation of teacher-learner dialogue and the
pedagogical gap. ......................................................................................... 45
Figure 4.1: Section Cycles of action and research ........................................................... 92
Figure 4.2: Theme Cycles A and B.................................................................................. 97
Figure 4.3: Class time usage for grade 10 mechanics and grade 11 motion, 2006. ....... 115
Figure 4.4: Mark distribution for the grade 10 motion task in 2007. ............................ 129
Figure 4.5: Mark distribution for the mechanics section of the final IEB
examination, grade 10, 2007. .................................................................... 130
Figure 4.6: Theme Cycle C: Concepts and Procedures. ................................................ 133
Figure 4.7: 2007 grade 11 performance in the IEB physics November examination,
per question type. ...................................................................................... 135
Figure 4.8: Class and homework time usage for 2007 Grade 11 Mechanics and
Electricity. ................................................................................................. 137
Figure 4.9: Class time usage: Grade 11 mechanics 2007 and 2008 .............................. 139
Figure 4.10: Class time usage for grade 10 waves, 2006, 2007 and 2008. .................... 144
Figure 4.11: Cycle D: Scaffolding ................................................................................. 145
Figure 4.12: Mark distribution for the grade 10 waves task, Tsunami, in 2006, 2007
and 2008. ................................................................................................... 146
Figure 5.1: Comparison of performance of 2007 grade 11 learners in two mechanics
problem tasks: a long motion task and a short task about gravity. ........... 163
Figure 6.1: The CPAG Quadrant: A task classification system. ................................... 216
Figure 6.2: The Ladder Approach.................................................................................. 220
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NOTES ON STYLISTIC CONVENTIONS

Steps have been taken to protect anonymity of those involved. Pseudonyms have been
used for the learners to protect their privacy.
Ellipses … Indicate pauses in the speech, sections omitted, or extract continuation.
Citation: The data source is given, enclosed in brackets, indicating the source, type of
extract and date, e.g. (J: interview: 27/01/07).
Number counts: The number of coding instances found in the data for a particular trait is
often given, enclosed in brackets, after the trait to which it refers, e.g. interest (44),
means 44 counts of interest were found in the data for the section referred to.
Unless otherwise indicated, all quotes and transcripts are speakers’ exact wording.
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ABBREVIATIONS
ANC: African National Congress
AS: Assessment Standard
CCT: Conceptual Change Theory
CO: Critical Outcome
DoE: Department of Education
FET: Further Education and Training
IEB: Independent Examinations Board
IPM: Information Processing Model
LJ: Learner Journal
LO: Learning Outcome
NCS: National Curriculum Statement
OBE: Outcomes Based Education
PBL: Problem Based Learning
PS: Physical Science
SA: South African
RJ: Researcher Journal
ZPD: Zone of Proximal Development