This chapter looks at one suitable theme for planning provision for gifted learners in science lessons: the nature of science. As well as being a central part of the science curriculum ('scientific investigations', 'how science works'), this theme offers a number of avenues for developing activities to challenge the most able learners.
The preceding chapter offered ideas from the literature on approaches to planning teaching and learning for gifted students in science classes. Two particular themes around which gifted science provision may be organised are understanding the nature of science and developing metacognition. These are not the only possible suitable themes, but they provided the basis of the SEP supported ASCEND project that is discussed in chapter 6 (and which led to the development of the teaching resources included with this guidebook). The two themes are the nature of science and metacognition (i.e. thinking about thinking). Metacognition is explored in the next chapter, and the present chapter discusses how the nature of science can provide a basis for challenging the most able in science classes.
The nature of science
One aim of science education is that learners should come to understand something of the nature of science:
"Science educators have realised that major trends in 20th century scholarship on science itself…are important for science education. But much science teaching seems not to have absorbed this lesson."
Appreciating what science is, and in particular how it operates, is important for those students who aspire to work in scientific fields, and is just as important to their peers who do not. Being a responsible citizen in a modern technologically advanced
democracy means having some idea how scientific advice (about global warming, about nuclear power, about genetically modified foods, etc.) is derived. At the minimum, this provides some basis for weighing up information presented in the media, and so informing decisions about lifestyle, voting preferences, making major purchases etc.
As Gilbert has pointed out, the history and philosophy of science offers a rich source of ideas for developing the most able learners in science. There are a number of reasons why we might expect the nature of science to offer a theme for planning gifted science provision:
Logic: one key aspect of scientific activity is the application of logic. Both the design and interpretation of experiments involves the application of logic, and although often in school science this process is presented as simple and straightforward, there is scope for challenging very able students in this area. Epistemology, how we come to knowledge, is a key aspect of the philosophy of science, and offers a useful and engaging context for stretching gifted learners. Appreciating how and why scientific models succeed each other can provide a theme that will fascinate some able students.
Key aspects of how science progresses revolve around the nature of argumentation, and the development of models and explanations. These themes provide excellent foci for engaging gifted learners. A team based at King's College London, have developed approaches to teaching about scientific argumentation based on the analysis of the philosopher of science Stephen Toulmin, and materials based on this work are available in the SEP publication 'Teaching Ideas and Evidence in Science at Key Stage 3' .
Complexity: The logic of scientific discovery is not the only aspect of science that is generally simplified for discussion in school science. Indeed it is quite necessary that current scientific knowledge is transformed into suitable curriculum models (the target knowledge judged to be suitable for the learners), and then transformed again by teachers who use various models, metaphors, analogies etc., to 'make the unfamiliar familiar' and help learners understand new ideas. The detail and sophistication of current scientific knowledge about photosynthesis, or ecosystems, or atomic structure, or polymers, or transformer design, or galactic structures makes that knowledge too difficult and too vast for school students. The process of forming 'curriculum models' sets out simplifications that offer an 'intellectually honest' but attainable understanding of such topics suitable for classroom teaching and learning.
Such simplifications are as necessary for gifted learners as their peers, but the 'optimum level of simplification' will be different: just as we expect different depths of understanding of photosynthesis or polymerisation at different stages of schooling. In some cases, teachers are frustrated because many students struggle to cope with more complex topics (e.g. understanding ionisation energy in A level chemistry ). Many of the topics already met in the school curriculum have the potential to offer gifted learners continuing intellectual challenge as they are understood in increasing degrees of sophistication. For example, ecosystems may be modelled at many levels of complexity, allowing great scope for differentiation and progression.
Integration: A key aspect of science is a set of beliefs about the nature of knowledge and the consequent values that inform scientific work. An assumption that we can model the world in consistent ways underpins any attempt to derive knowledge through logical processes (see above), and a heuristic expectation that simpler explanations are more likely to be 'true' (or reliable, or at least useful) than unnecessarily convoluted ones informs much decision-making in science. Moreover, the expectation of consistency leads to an assumption that ultimately different branches of science should be coherent. Indeed most advanced areas of scientific knowledge are ultimately built upon more basic theories and principles that are shared across much of science (such as conservation of energy, chemical elements, etc.).
Part of the wonder of science is how it is (in principle, if not perfectly in practice) an extended network of interlinking ideas. Perhaps science teachers and other scientists take this for granted, but this is not the case in all academic disciplines. If this interlinking and coherence is a part of the nature of science, then we should aim for conceptual integration as a key outcome of student learning of science. Yet, in practice, much science learning seems to be piecemeal, which not only makes it harder work for learners, but also means these learners are missing one of the most intellectually satisfying aspects of the subject. As Gilbert points out, making connections within and between topics and subjects is something that we should expect of gifted science learners. This is an important part of learning science for all students, but the most able can be set tasks where they explore and discover those links for themselves.
In academic research and in industry, much scientific research is carried out in teams, and increasingly in inter-disciplinary teams where different specialists contribute their own expertise. This team-work is part of the nature of science, and something we would want learners to appreciate. Gifted learners may also be able to appreciate the evolution of the scientific disciplines – for example, that the division between chemistry and physics is historically contingent as much as a reflection of some fundamental distinction in nature.
Science as a human activity: whilst many gifted students may be fascinated by the logical, complex, coherent nature of scientific knowledge, others will be attracted by the personal side of science. This is especially important as it is believed that secondary age girls are often more 'person-oriented' than boys, and may be much more engaged in science when it has a human face. There is no sleight-of-hand in this, of course, as science is a human activity, carried out by people. The history of science offers many examples of scientists and their work, which can act as context for learning about
- how scientific ideas develop as new ideas and evidence become available
as well as providing a basis for appreciating
- the tentative nature of scientific knowledge, and
- the significance and status of scientific laws, principles, theories and explanations.
Science as something communicated: The communication of science is a key aspect of the 'business' of science (as recognised in the revised KS4 curriculum from 2006), as even the most insightful idea only becomes part of science once debated and accepted by other scientists. Communication can take many forms, and involve a range of symbolic tools (modelling through graphs, flow charts etc.). Tasks involving the communication of scientific ideas and findings allow students to develop their communications skills, and provide scope for creativity and imagination (e.g. creating new analogies to explain an idea).
Science as part of society: part of the rationale for studying science in school, especially for the majority who will not become professional scientists, is the important roles that science and technology play in technologically advanced democratic economies. Students need to understand that scientists (per se) can only make decisions about what counts as current scientific knowledge, and that decisions about the application of science are influenced by 'political' processes. Students passing through school will later have roles to play in such processes, by their purchasing decisions as consumers, and through their engagement (or not) in political activity (if only voting in elections). Understanding the relationship between science and society provides further scope for learning about complexity, further linking between domains, and more opportunities to relate the science to people.
Whereas thinking about the logic of scientific knowledge development requires applying (largely) logical considerations, considering socio-scientific questions involves not only weighing the relative merits of inconsistent 'scientific evidence',
but also the application of other types of values (moral, rather than 'logical') to evaluate complex questions.
Science as a collaborative activity: science involves both collaborative and competitive processes, and both are significant in understanding how science progresses. However, the common presentations of scientists in the media have traditionally emphasised the scientist as working alone (or with an assistant who just assists). In practice, most significant scientific work for many decades has been undertaken within research groups where there is extensive sharing and critiquing of ideas even when scientists work on 'individual' projects. (An exception, an independent scientist who has made major contributions, would be James Lovelock who travelled the oceans surveying the spread of atmospheric pollutants.)
School science offers many opportunities for group work, and most of the ASCEND activities were organised around groups. As Gilbert has pointed out, many gifted students should be able to take on roles in groups, offering leadership, evaluation, conciliation etc. There is some evidence that gifted learners often prefer to work alone, unless they reach a point where they 'get stuck'. It is important, therefore, that in group-work, the most able students are given tasks that require them to collaborate: either by having explicit responsibilities within the group itself, or through the level of demand of the task.
If the role of the gifted student is as a tutor for peers, as suggested above, then it is important to ensure that the student is supported in tutoring in ways that provide learning opportunities for both partners.
