Using Role Playing as Formative Assessment for Preservice Science Teachers

• In Event: Exploring the Frontiers and Linking Critical Aspects of Assessments in Science

Abstract

In this study, we designed a learning environment that encouraged the participants to use a variety of models including role-playing to learn electric circuit concepts. Specifically, we studied the use of role-playing as formative assessment in modeling-based science instruction. The following questions guided this study:
1. How did the middle school preservice teachers transform different models including role-playing to reason about current electricity?
2. What are the affordances and constraints of the role-playing activities in helping preservice teachers comprehend current electricity?

Our work adopts a modeling-based instruction perspective that encourages students to develop, evaluate, and apply models in learning science concepts (e.g., Hestenes, 1987; White, 1993; Shen & Confrey, 2007). One form of building scientific models is the analogical role-playing: students act out the roles of objects or elements in a scientific inquiry to model a scientific phenomenon, process, or event (McSharry & Jones, 2000). Role-playing provides opportunities for students to demonstrate their understanding by developing their own qualitative models in a kinesiologically active and collaborative manner.
In this design experiment (Cobb et al., 2003), we developed an 8-session, 18-hour electricity unit. In one of the lessons, we employed the role-playing approach to teach parallel and series circuits. The lesson was divided into three activities: First, students in small groups were challenged to act out a sketch of electric flow; Second, three volunteers were asked to play as electron, bulb, and battery to act out a circuit as a whole-class demonstration; Third, students were asked to explain their observations from the physical circuits that they experimented with and come up with a role-play to show their explanation to the class. The participants of this study were 18 undergraduate students who enrolled in an introductory physical science course. Multiple sources of data were collected to triangulate our findings (Patton, 1990).

Our data shows that role-playing has several affordances. First, by allowing students to get involved in physical activities, students were able to draw on their personal experiences to develop and extend explanatory models. Second, role-playing allows students to express their understanding in alternative ways of acting out a scientific phenomenon. This helps teachers identify students’ alternative conceptions in-situ and plan follow-up activities. Third, students’ spontaneous use of props can generate critical teachable moments. Fourth, as there are different roles to take, students are encouraged to collaborate with each other. The following are constraints of role-playing: it requires some prior knowledge on both the analogy being role-played and the rules and structure of the role-playing activity; prior content knowledge of the topic is needed; and role-playing that is based on personal experience may cause the formation of new alternative conceptions.

This design study has shown that the middle school preservice teachers, given proper scaffolding, could transform different models including role-playing to successfully reason about current electricity. It supports the argument that role-playing is a valuable teaching method that science teachers need to incorporate in their instruction.

Authors

• Rutchelle Batan Enriquez, Leyte Normal University

• Ji Shen, University of Miami