Researcher Journal: reflection

Where I am in the research process?

This new semester brings me back to the process of sorting out my thoughts, ideas, and plans for conducting a small pilot study in science education. Having been introduced to „qualitative¾ research methods has very much broadened my outlook on what can be accomplished in educational research.

I¼m still a ways away from cogently structuring my approach, however, I do see that an entirely new form of data as „empirical materials¾ (Denzin & Lincoln, 1994) are present where I had not realized there would/could be much useful information. I guess I¼m still shaking off the concept of data as numbers, as measures of the tangible only, from my experience as a research scientist in geology/ oceanography. And yet the new empirical material speaks so holistically of total interactions I am now attempting to interpret, ie. those of attitude and belief in science education. Especially as I begin to see the value and use of narratives, and of coding schemes for organizing and focussing my reflections.

I always knew that the process of experiencing science learning was more than fitting formulas, definitions, facts and theory to some teacher-presented model, but I had little confidence in alternative ways of guiding the learning process. At the same time, when approaching an interpretation of something scientific for a friend or family member with little science training, I instinctively (?) relied on narrative, on broad brushed pictorial, on finding pattern and then focussing observations until some deeper relationship could be glimpsed. This is what science learning is. The process. However couched in formal or informal terminology, it is enthusiastic inquiry.

This I need to focus on: How do we best prepare the next generation of „science educators¾? What are the necessary principles they must be familiar with? What degree of background and in which subjects will they need to be conversant to be able to guide learners. How much of the ever increasing load of new information in the sciences can new teachers assimilate?

These are rhetorical questions. Truly, at least for me, it is not how much to know, but how to know. The process of building/constructing knowledge in the spheres of science is what is important. I would like to apply qualitative techniques to influence teacher¼s attitudes toward science/natural history education and the globe. To help them illuminate for themselves and then with their students, the interrelated web of processes in the physical, biological, and social spheres (sciences).