Tropical Ecology Through a Modeling-Based Perspective: Lessons From the University Classroom

• In Event: Roundtable Session 37
  In Roundtable Session: Exploring the Role of Modeling in the Science Classroom

Abstract

Learning modeling-based scientific inquiry (MBI) can be a challenge for educators and students alike. University science methods instructors have used various scaffolding tools to aid in teaching future science teachers about MBI; yet the literature lacks reports on specific instructional designs of MBI courses and effectiveness of such courses at the postsecondary level (Windschitl et al., 2008). The purpose of this study was to investigate how university students perceived inquiry-based science after participating in a field-based course on tropical ecology. Our research questions were: How does a short-term modeling-based inquiry course impact prospective educators’ and biology undergraduates’
a. understanding of science inquiry?
b. stance towards implementing inquiry in their future education environments?
We used a constructionist epistemology for this research by acknowledging that meaning is temporally and context-dependent. Thus, meaning emerges from interactions between researchers and study participants, which allows them to construct and share knowledge in a social setting. Through a mixed-methods inquiry approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted and a modified version of the Teaching Science as Inquiry (TSI) instrument (Dira-Smolleck, 2004) was used both before and after the course by a researcher whose role was as a participant observer who has extensive background in teaching through MBI. The interview protocols and survey included questions about participants’ ideas regarding scientific models, inquiry, and doing science. They provided information about participants’ backgrounds in science and insight into their thoughts about scientific inquiry.
Qualitative data from the interviews were coded in NVivo for themes related to participants’ ideas on what it means to teach through inquiry and what they think students are able to learn in an inquiry-based setting. Participants were either undergraduate biology majors or master’s with initial certification (MIC) students and were thus compared as a whole between pre- and post-course ideas on inquiry as well as between groups.
The researchers found that in general, MIC students considered the process skills that students learned through inquiry to be more salient than did the non-MIC students. After the course, both groups (MIC students and biology undergraduates) felt as if they were better able to incorporate inquiry-based teaching into their practice, yet there was remaining confusion about the meaning of a scientific model. Both groups viewed their authentic experience working in the field with real scientists as positively influencing their confidence with the science involved and its connection with the community. Furthermore, two of the five undergraduate students who had not previously thought of teaching as a career reported that they might now consider teaching as a possible option.
MBI is a way for learners to engage with authentic science, however scaffolding the process of teaching with modeling is not as straightforward as it may seem. This study begins to inform those working with science teacher educators about how a modeling-based inquiry course might impact aspiring educators’ understanding of and engagement in MBI. The study also explores the intricacies of working with undergraduate and graduate students in a MBI setting.

Author

• Sarah Jean Adumat, University of Wisconsin - Madison