Researcher Journal: reflection
2/5/97

Update on the
inquiry project

My project of inquiry for qualitative research has been coming into much better focus since the semester break, and particularly since returning to the classroom for another round of guiding preservice teachers in Integrated Science (Inter103).

Integrated Science under the direction of Dr. Bob Kearney has taken a very fortunate turn for me and my own interests in earth science education. With strategies we are piloting in an interstate/international science education collaborative (GLOBE Program) and our own ideas (developed in brainstorming sessions held twice or more per week) we are stretching the boundaries of the traditional science education course for elementary teachers and exploring the possibility of affecting teacher attitude toward science. We hope to affect the way teachers look at the world, as if through a set of lenses which call into view previously unrecognized phenomena, but which rely on us the viewer/interpreter to make sense of. We are exposing students to the personal side of science inquiry and admitting to incomplete knowledge, while focussing on the process of continuing learning and integrating new concepts into a framework of global environmental understanding.

It has been a process of exploring alternatives to integrating themes of the physical sciences that has led Dr. Kearney and myself (in collaboration) to outline the course as an exploration of the spheres and allow/facilitate the „construction¾ of student knowledge in each of the disciplines of chemistry, physics, geology and biology by situating our discussions in terms of real, observable everyday processes taking place in the "atmosphere", the "hydrosphere", the "geosphere" and "biosphere".

Our first exploration and class activity was very revealing and has already launched my own research in a promising new direction.

On day one we asked the students to close their eyes and imagine the earth; to draw a picture of their favorite image of earth (on paper or in their head) and list a few "descriptors". Finally, we asked them to write down some comments about how their picture of earth and the descriptors made them "feel".

After some time we came togehter in groups to compare notes, descriptions and impressions. Group consensus was reached on a number of like-identified descriptors as well as impressions (feelings). These we compiled into a master list on the blackboard. From their own notes and impressions, we nurtured the students through a selection/categorization process and finally arrived and the idea of the four spheres: Atmosphere, Hydrosphere, Geosphere, Biosphere. An additional and important all encompassing sphere of human emotion/perception was identified as well.

With these spheres of process and phenomena in place, we will conduct the remainder of the semester's explorations. Throughout the course I now plan to record student reactions to new concepts as they are introduced and the students find where they act within the spheres. The data of "empirical materials" I will use for analysis will include:
Ä student journals,
Ä interviews,
Ä artifacts (images, sketches),
Ä researcher journal notes,
Ä focussed reflections.

I am still in the throws of polishing a pilot study proposal outline, but expect to begin collecting data immediately anyway. My ideas for what and how to "document" this opportunity (the Integrated Science piloting of GLOBE materials) continue to evolve. I have been recognizing more and more sources of data that will be useful in evaluating this new approach to science education.

My hope is that through qualitative research methods I will be able to add a very valuable and deepening sense of meaning to education in the natural sciences, and that using constructivist approaches and almost Gaian (J. Lovelock) intrpretation of the relationship between aspects of the physical world and our role as inhabitants. This last aspect is treading into difficult ground for me, but I really want to explore teachers¼ attitudes toward environmental science and humans as a part of the ecosystem.

I know my ideas about how to gather data on attitudes will continue to evolve.