PRIMARY SCHOOL EDUCATION AND CHILDREN'S UNDERSTANDING OF SCIENCE CONCEPTS REGARDING MOON PHENOMENON IN THEIR CULTURAL CONTEXT

Abstract

The present research was conducted to explore the understanding of science concepts in the primary school children. The study mainly focused upon the cultural context in the development of concepts. The main objective of this study was to focus its data sources and sample target on primary school education and children studying in primary classes. Two studies were carried out in different phases to explore the children’s understanding about the natural phenomena of the moon. For the purpose of present research, an in-depth interview protocol (Kazemek, Louisell, & Wellik, 2007) was translated into Urdu and used for data collection. In developing the interview schedule, the researchers have used Piagetian (1975) traditions based on his questions about the origins of the moon. The process of translation was completed in the initial phase of the study. For translation, committee approach was adopted. Study I was completed in three phases having different steps. In phase 1, try out study was carried out on three children, in order to pre-test the interview schedule translated in the initial phase of the study to check the suitability of the instrument and to identify different themes of the children’s moon concept for future study. The results revealed that children achieved their knowledge about moon through different sources. The important source was the relevant culture in which they lived. Strong cultural and social factors influenced the children’s conception of the moon. Such concepts may have developed through their interactions with the world, including parents, teachers, and artifacts. Results showed that the respective cultural patterns including the religious rituals played a significant role in the understanding of the natural phenomena of moon. This influence can be positive and negative in terms of learning science concepts in schools, from books, and through parents or elders, etc. The ideas that children developed may or may not be consistent with the social or cultural environment. Phase 2 of the study was completed in four different steps. In step I, pilot study was conducted to interview with the children; step II comprised of interviews with parents and teachers; step III consisted of observation of the T.V programs; and the main objective of step IV was to analyze the contents of the interview schedule, to develop the coding schemes for the analysis and interpretation for further main study, and checking out the appropriateness of the categories of responses as results of the questions asked to the children. So that to figure out any flaws that may interfere in the findings while conducting main study. Some contrasting results have been pointed out in the step II and III of the study which proved not to be much helpful in the main study. Phase 3 had two steps. In step I, content analyses of the two Urdu national dailies was completed. The results showed a very weak link between actual understanding of science concepts and printed science knowledge in the newspapers. Step II had detailed account of multiple analyses of textbooks of class I, III, and V. The results revealed that implicit and explicit science concepts instantiated in the textbooks failed to be helpful in the better understanding of the science concepts of the children. The presented concepts have been discussed in terms of space, volume, illustrations, and pictures in different forms and modalities in the textbooks. Study 2 of the present research was the main study that was carried out on a relatively larger sample to have more authenticity and generalizability of the research. The participants (sample) comprised of 12 boys and 12 girls equally from the different primary schools situated in Islamabad. These schools ranged from main metropolitan areas to the suburbs of the city. All the children belonged to the class I, III, and V. The main study based on the interviews with the children. Analysis procedure was same as adopted in the pilot study. Results showed somewhat similar trends of misconceptions about the natural phenomena of moon among the children. The results indicated that the science concepts are poorly understood and acquired by the children. The results also supported the influence of cultural artifacts and psychological tools in the understanding of concepts. However, the findings showed that social and cultural institutions including school, teachers, parents, media, textbooks, and newspapers, in the transmitting and transferring of the knowledge are contributing at a minimal level in typical Pakistani cultural context. Psychological and educational implications, future directions of the research, and limitations of the study have been discussed.