Engaging Primary Students in Learning about New Zealand Birds: A socially relevant context

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Engaging Primary Students in Learningabout New Zealand Birds: A sociallyrelevant contextJunjun Chen a & Bronwen Cowie aa Faculty of Education , University of Waikato , Hamilton , NewZealandPublished online: 11 Feb 2013.

To cite this article: Junjun Chen & Bronwen Cowie (2013): Engaging Primary Students in Learningabout New Zealand Birds: A socially relevant context, International Journal of Science Education,35:8, 1344-1366

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Engaging Primary Students in

Learning about New Zealand Birds:

A socially relevant context

Junjun Chen∗ and Bronwen CowieFaculty of Education, University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand

This article reports on a classroom study of a unit on New Zealand birds that focused on adaptation

and conservation in a Year 7 class. The unit used a ‘context as social circumstances’ model. The

researchers observed the nine lessons and interviewed students, the classroom teacher, and three

other teachers who had taught the same unit. The students completed a pre-test and a post-test

for the unit. Findings indicate that the students enjoyed and were interested in the unit, and had

learnt more than usual. The students investigated predators using the tracking tunnel in their

school gully and, of their own volition, in their home gardens. Some students pursued this

interest into the wider community after the completion of the unit. The ‘context as social

circumstances’ unit teachers helped students see the relevance of learning science for their lives,

personally and socially, which opens up the possibility of action outside the classroom. The role

of context, content and activity selection in the design of a unit that has social relevance is discussed.

Keywords: Context-based; Biology; Primary science; Coherence; Pedagogy

Introduction

Internationally, there is abundant evidence of a decline over time of student interest

and engagement in school science in general and in the further study of science sub-

jects in particular (Osborne & Dillon, 2008; Tytler, Symington, & Smith, 2011). Indi-

cations are that science education in New Zealand is experiencing the same challenges

(Bull, Gilbert, Barwick, Hipkins, & Baker, 2010). The programme for International

Student Assessment results from 2006 show that New Zealand students were less

likely than their counterparts from other Organisation for Economic Co-operation

and Development (OECD) countries to believe they are good at science even

International Journal of Science Education, 2013

Vol. 35, No. 8, 1344–1366, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09500693.2012.763194

∗Corresponding author: Faculty of Education, University of Waikato, Private Bag 3105, Hamilton

3240, New Zealand. Email: [email protected]

# 2013 Taylor & Francis

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though they reported high or medium interest in science topics, similar to those in

other OECD countries (OECD, 2007). The National Education Monitoring

Project 2007 findings reveal that there is a noticeable cooling in Year 8 students’

liking for science (Crooks, Smith, & Flockton, 2008).

In thinking about how to increase student engagement in science, Wieringa,

Janssen, and Van Driel (2011) propose that the central question is probably not

whether students should do more science but how teachers can make school

science relevant and coherent so that students have tangible reasons for engaging

in, and then continuing with, lifelong science learning (Jenkins, 2011). Context-

based education is currently a point of interest and innovation for achieving these

goals.

This article provides an empirical evidence-based description of how a ‘context as

social circumstances’ unit (Gilbert, Bulte, & Pilot, 2011) can be designed using web-

based resources, specifically those from the ‘Conserving Native Birds’ story from the

Science Learning Hub (SLH) website.1 Data came from a Year 7 classroom (students

aged 11 years) and from the three other teachers in the same New Zealand primary

school. This study is part of a large ongoing project into New Zealand science

teacher use of the Hub’s materials. The Hub was developed to make the work of

New Zealand scientists accessible to teachers, as part of an initiative to support

New Zealand teachers to make science more relevant and interesting for their stu-

dents. The Hub provides teachers with teaching and learning materials to develop

their own teaching units. The research programme seeks to inform ongoing content

development and to provide examples of how the material might be used.

Context-based Teaching and Learning

Context-based science education has been promulgated since the early 1980s as a

means to address the many challenges facing science education (Aikenhead, 2007;

Gilbert, 2006; Wieringa et al., 2011). Examples include Salters’ Science in the UK,

ChemCom in the USA, PLON in the Netherlands, and Biology in Context in

Germany. The Salters’ material was developed over two decades to contextualise

biology, chemistry, and physics for secondary school age students (11–18 years).

The Salters’ material has been adapted for use in a number of countries across the

world to introduce a context-based teaching approach into school curricula domi-

nated by content-based approaches (Bennett & Lubben, 2006). Context-based

approaches can help shift the emphasis from learning scientific facts to authentic

learning that involves students in scientific activities (Krajcik, McNeill, & Reiser,

2008). They aim to link school science with students’ personal and societal lives

and to help them transfer their learning to other contexts, thereby supporting their

use of, and interest in, science in their everyday lives (Fensham, 2009; Osborne &

Collins, 2000). Research indicates this linkage can help students understand why

they need to learn science in school (Jenkins, 2011). Jones, Cowie, and Buntting

(2009) argued that context-based approaches have the potential to foster curiosity

and intrinsic interest.

Engaging Primary Students in Learning About New Zealand Birds 1345

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Recommendations for the practice of context-based approaches include careful

consideration of the contexts used (Gilbert, 2006; Wieringa et al., 2011). Fensham

(2009) proposed that decisions about science curricula should use personal and

societal interest as a reference point. Harlen (2010) argued that students’ understand-

ing of science concepts is likely to be deepened if they learn them in relevant contexts.

She suggested that this also contributes to an increase in students’ sense of confidence

in and familiarity with the same ideas in everyday events. The selection of curriculum

content to target within a context also needs to be considered. Harlen, along with

Duschl, Schweingruber, and Shouse (2007), has advocated that for primary students,

science teaching needs to focus on ‘big’ ideas. That is, it needs to focus on ideas that

have broad explanatory power, help students to understand the distinctive value of

science, and prepare them for further learning in science. These authors suggest

that ‘big’ ideas need to be constructed from inter-related ‘small’ ideas so that ‘a foun-

dation of understanding can be laid, on which broader ideas are later built’ (Harlen,

2008, p. 13). They have pointed out that ‘big’ ideas are complex, mostly abstract, and

indeed meaningless if they do not evoke real situations. Hence, how to help students

develop connected and coherent understanding of the ideas and tasks (Mercer, 2008;

Millar & Osborne, 1998) embedded in a context needs to be carefully thought

through. In this regard, Scott, Mortimer, and Ametller (2011) make a persuasive

case for pedagogical link-making. They identified three overlapping forms of link-

making actions: support for students making connections between different kinds

of knowledge to promote deep understanding (knowledge building), support for con-

tinuity across tasks and lessons, and encouraging a positive emotional engagement

over time. All these aspects were of interest in this study.

A number of models and criteria exist for the design of context-based units in

science (Aikenhead, 2007; Elster, 2009). For example, Gilbert (2006) identified

four ‘models’ of how ‘context’ can be understood and used: context as the direct

application of concepts; context as reciprocity between concepts and applications;

context as provided by personal mental activity; and ‘context as social circumstances’.

Of the four, Gilbert et al. (2011) state that the ‘context as social circumstances’ model

has the most potential to address the issues facing science education such as relevance,

coherence and transfer of school knowledge to different but related situations, includ-

ing out-of-school settings. Within this model, a context is ‘situated as a cultural entity

in society’ (Gilbert, 2006, p. 969). It relates to topics and activities that are important

to communities within a society such as, for example, matters to do with the global

climate, ‘healthy’ food, and the ‘hydrogen economy’. Gilbert et al. (2011) proposed

four criteria for attaining context-based learning: setting of focal events that link to

an important, typical or topical event/issue and provide a framework for learning

related/ inter-related explanatory concepts (Criterion A); a behavioural environment

that supports discussion (Criterion B); the use of specific (scientific) language (Cri-

terion C), and opportunities to link to and build on extra-situational background

knowledge (Criterion D). They argue that a lesson that meets these criteria effectively

exploits the learning potential of context-based units. In this article, we use the

‘context as social circumstances’ model together with these four criteria to frame

1346 J. Chen and B. Cowie

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the description of a unit on New Zealand birds. The impacts on students of making

science relevant and coherent are also explored. Two research questions were posed:

(1) How did a ‘context as social circumstances’ science unit play out in a primary

classroom?

(2) What impacts did a unit of this kind have on student interest, learning gains,

knowledge transfer, and future interest/actions?

The Research Study

The SLH research team is working with a number of teachers. This article describes

how one Year 7 teacher, Karen (note all names are pseudonyms) and her students

learnt about native birds and also what the three other teachers who taught the

same topic thought about the bird unit. Karen worked for 6 months as a Teacher

Fellow on the SLH content development team and was interested to investigate the

impact of the Hub material she had designed.

The Teachers and Students

Karen is a qualified primary school teacher with a Bachelor of Teaching in primary

education. At the time of the data collection, she had five years’ teaching experience

in primary schools in New Zealand. The study school is a big primary school with

years 1–8 (students aged 5–12 years). Among the 29 students aged 10–11 years in

Karen’s class, 18 were girls and 11 were boys. The majority of them were of European

descent, six were of Asian descent, and one was of Maori descent (Maori are the indi-

genous people of New Zealand). We obtained written informed consent from all

students.

Karen was particularly interested in New Zealand native birds and chose to focus

on them during her fellowship. To develop the Hub story, she worked with New

Zealand scientists, science educators, and the SLH team. She visited various conser-

vation organisations throughout New Zealand and produced a series of articles, multi-

media resources (e.g. PowerPoint, Video, and Animation), teaching activities, and a

unit plan posted on the SLH website. Back at school, Karen introduced the bird

unit to three other teachers and they taught it in the same time period. Interview

data only were collected from these teachers. Classroom observations and student

and teacher interviews were undertaken with Karen and her students.

The Bird Unit

Karen planned the unit using a planner developed by Moreland, Cowie, Otrel-Cass,

and Jones (2010). The planner comprises a first page that prompts teachers to detail

their intended science learning outcomes (conceptual, procedural, and nature of

science). The second page requires teachers to develop a series of nested and

connected tasks that instantiate these outcomes. Karen’s unit consisted of five


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interconnected parts or learning phases (Gilbert et al., 2011): brainstorming students’

prior knowledge, a focus on adaptation and then on conservation with the threatened

status of New Zealand birds acting as a bridge between adaptation and conservation,

and the reading of the New Zealand story Old Blue. These phases are shown in

Figure 1, which emphasises the linked nature of the various phases.

Karen’s plan for the unit met the four criteria for the ‘context as social circum-

stances’ model (Gilbert et al., 2011), with each criterion being represented in each

of five parts in the unit. As noted earlier, the ‘context as social circumstances’

model incorporates focal event(s) that relate to students’ social and personal lives

and provides a framework to support concept development. New Zealand has a

large number of native ground-dwelling birds, many of which are flightless and endan-

gered. New Zealand birds and their conservation are a strong focus of current research

with the Department of Conservation and independent groups in New Zealand. The

school where the study took place had a gully and was part of the New Zealand

Figure 1. The ‘context as social circumstances’ bird unit


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Enviro-school programme, which aims to foster student awareness of, interest in and

action around environmental issues.

The second criterion (Criterion B) for this model is the behavioural environment,

which should include problems that exemplify important concepts and are designed

to support discussion and the social construction of knowledge. The aim is that stu-

dents develop a ‘coherent mental map’ that ties together concepts and activities so

that they come together in a meaningful whole (Gilbert et al., 2011; Harlen, 2010).

For the bird unit, Karen planned tasks that were connected and built on each

other. These activities helped students learn and use the specific scientific language

associated with adaptation and conservation. The development of ‘specific language’

is the third criterion (Criterion C) listed by Gilbert et al. (2011). The last criterion

(Criterion D) is that students connect the focal event to relevant ‘extra-situational

background knowledge’. To meet this criterion, students need to connect their new

learning with prior knowledge and experiences. The unit also included opportunities

for students to transfer their learning from one focal event to the next. For instance,

students needed to use their knowledge of adaptation to understand the nature of the

threats to native birds and how they might be protected.

Multiple Data Sources

The unit comprised nine lessons of 45–90 min over 5 weeks. We collected qualitative

data in the form of videotapes, photographs, audiotapes, observations, field notes, and

copies of teaching materials and student work to thoroughly capture events and

produce rich descriptions of what had happened in the classroom (Fasse & Kolodner,

2000). For the classroom observation, two video cameras, three iPods, and two digital

cameras were used and field notes were made. Two researchers were present at all

teaching sessions.

Karen was invited to a full-day discussion of the unit with two researchers 2 weeks

after the final lesson. This discussion was grounded in the video, audio, and student

interview data. The three other teachers were interviewed as a group for 2 h focusing

on the unit and the impacts of the bird unit on their students.

Semi-structured student interviews were conducted for approximately 30 min the

day after the first lesson (four students), the day following the final lesson (eight stu-

dents), and again 6 months after the unit (six of the previous eight students). Students

were asked by the teacher if they were prepared to be interviewed about their experience

in the unit. Eight students volunteered. These students were characterised by their

enthusiasm for talking about their learning. They spanned the range of achievement

levels in the class. The students were interviewed in two groups of four. The interviews

aimed to learn about students’ thinking, including their enjoyment of the unit and the

extent to which they sustained an interest and took action related to conservation. With

consent, we collected student work and a student end-of-unit evaluation that detailed

what they had learnt, what they had enjoyed, and what they had wanted to learn.

The students completed a pre- and a post-knowledge test about New Zealand birds.

The test, which was designed by Karen, consisted of nine open conceptual questions


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on adaptation, conservation, and island bird sanctuaries, one multiple choice question

on threats to birds, and one yes/no question on conservation. The test was scored out

of 28 points. Pre- and post-means and standard deviations were calculated, and effect

sizes were used to examine the mean difference.

Data Analysis

To address the first research question, data from classroom observations were treated

as a primary data source and data from focus groups and interviews were treated as a

secondary source. The analysis procedure comprised a number of steps. First, each

lesson was summarised in terms of tasks, time, activity, sub-activity, and resources

used (Moreland et al., 2010). These summaries were made immediately after each

lesson, based on researcher field notes and the video clips (please see an example

lesson summary in Table 1). The lessons/events were then grouped into learning

phases that comprised activities with the same learning content (Kelly & Chen,

1999). These phases were: brainstorming student prior ideas, adaptation, transition

activity, conservation, and the Old Blue story. Using the four criteria of the context-

based model by Gilbert et al. (2011), a deductive content analysis (Patton, 2002)

was conducted of the video data from each learning phase. Deductive content analysis

is based on a theory or model and moves from the general to the specific. In this case,

the analysis as based on Gilbert et al.’s (2011) ‘context as social circumstances’ model.

The research team identified and discussed which video sequences were reflective of

each of these criteria along with any sub-categories or themes for the criteria. The

video sequences were then organised into a video log and the researchers selected

representative sequences for verbatim transcription. Other sources of data were also

examined for evidence of Gilbert et al.’s criteria and this was integrated with that

derived from the videos. Searching for convergence among multiple and different

sources of information to form categories enhances the validity of data analysis (Cres-

well & Miller, 2000). Video sequence categorisation was member checked (Guba &

Lincoln, 1985) with Karen to ensure she agreed that the selected video sequences

did, in her view, represent the identified criteria/themes. Representative classroom

episodes along with comments from teachers and students are used to illustrate the

criteria/themes in the article.

To address the second research question, the videos along with the other sources of

data including interviews, student evaluation notes, and student unit test results were

analysed for evidence of the impacts of the unit on student interest, learning gains,

knowledge transfer, and any proposed future actions. This procedure was guided

by deductive content analysis (Patton, 2002).

Results

The findings comprise two main sections that answer the two research questions for

the study. The first section describes the enactment of the bird unit over five learning

phases, and the second details the unit impacts on student learning.


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Table 1. An example: lesson summary

Meso task Micro task Time Planned interactions Criteria by Gilbert et al. (2011) Resources

Understand the

definition of

adaptation and

adaptation occurs

over many

generations. This

can take hundreds

of years and has

an impact on the

organism

(1)

Brainstorm

what they

already know

00:02:20 (1) Questioning: can you

tell me what you knew

about native birds?

Anything you knew

(1) Setting of focal events: knowledge

about native birds;

(1) Non-fiction

books

(2) Behavioural environment: activities

such as brainstorm, reports, and

discussions are embedded in an

environment focusing on native birds;

(2) Internet

access

(3) Specific language: native,

introduced, extinct, offshore island, and

adapted;

(4) Extra-situational background

knowledge: all activities are built on

students’ background knowledge about

birds and native birds

(2) Adaptation 00:26:03 (2) Encourage students

to work in groups and to

locate information on

bird and animal

adaptations in response

to the questions below:

(1) Setting of focal events: knowledge

about adaption of native birds;

(1) Internet

access

† What is adaptation? (2) Behavioural environment: activities

group work, reading, and discussion are

allocated in an environment focusing on

adaptation;

(2) Native bird

adaptations article:

http://www.sciencelearn.

org.nz/Science-Stories/

Conserving-Native-

Birds/Native-bird-

adaptations

† How long does it take

for adaptation to occur?

(3) Specific language: adaptation,

habitat, generation, organism;

† How does adaptation

benefit the organism?

(4) Extra-situational background

knowledge: activate student knowledge

about their own family history to

understand better about adaptation

Enga

ging

Prim

ary

Stu

den

tsin

Lea

rnin

gA

bout

New

Zea

land

Bird

s1351

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http://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/Science-Stories/Conserving-Native-Birds/Native-bird-adaptations





The Coherent Bird Unit

Part A: brainstorming students’ prior knowledge. To begin Lesson 1, Karen surveyed

students’ prior knowledge about native birds and conservation using whole class

brainstorming in conjunction with discussion in pairs. She recorded student responses

about native birds by constructing a web of student contributions on the white board.

Student comments indicated what they already knew about the features, threatened

status, and habitats of native birds. For example, students knew that tui have a

‘white tuft on the throat’, that kakapo, kiwi, and albatross are nearly extinct. If stu-

dents could not elaborate on the meaning of an idea or a word, Karen left a question

mark beside it and signalled that they would explore this during the unit.

Karen making a visual record of student contributions appeared to support students

to search for additional, related ideas, thereby encouraging them to think more deeply as

they were obviously keen to contribute ideas/examples, quietly discussing possibilities

amongst themselves. For example, when a student said that they knew of some native

birds such as the kakapo, takahe, kiwi, and albatross and then moved on to discuss

which were nearly extinct Karen asked, ‘What could we do to help these birds?’ One

student replied that he had read that establishing an offshore island was one way to

protect native birds. Karen probed, ‘How did the birds get to be there?’ and the students

answered, ‘By ships’, ‘planes’, ‘people could take them there’, and so on. Karen took

advantage of this discussion to ask how some of the introduced birds and animals had

entered New Zealand. This led into a discussion about mice coming by way of ships

and the need to ‘pay attention that other predators come through this way’.

After the unit, Karen commented of the brainstorming activity:

As you can see, when they heard my questions, they thought [by themselves], talked with

their neighbours, and reported to the class. Some kids could reflect on other kids’ answers

and extend the discussions. I like doing this in my class. They thought deeply, and did not

just simply answer my questions. They built on each other, and contributed new ideas.

(Video Data, T-Karen, October)

By tapping into what students already knew, Karen established a baseline on which

to build future learning. When a student suggested that native birds were special

because they were ‘adapted to our country’ Karen responded, ‘I’m really glad that

Andy pulled out the term “adapt” with native birds, cause we’re going to learn

about adaptation today’ (Field Notes, October). Through this action, Karen used

the student’s contribution strategically to introduce the first ‘big’ idea of the unit.

Karen explained in an interview,

The reasons I used brainstorming was that I can understand what my kids know about the

birds and native birds, and what they did not know so that I can arrange my teaching to fit

my kids . . . I like doing this in my class, it can activate students’ prior knowledge and link

this to new knowledge. (Video Data, T-Karen, October)

Part B: adaptation. Karen introducedandexampledthe ideaof adaption inLessons1,2,

and 3, which provided students with multiple opportunities to use the language that they

were learning in a number of different but familiar contexts as detailed next. In Lesson 1,


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Karen first introduced the ‘big’ idea of adaptation using the article Native bird adaptations

online. In small groups, the students clustered around wireless laptops to read the article.

Each group was allocated one question to consider. Karen signalled that she expected stu-

dents to synthesise the readingandanswer theirquestionusing theirownwords.Theques-

tions focused on the definition of adaptation, the types of adaptation, the process of

adaptation, and its effect on an organism. Once each group had an agreed answer, they

shared this with a neighbouring group, and then with the whole class. Evidence that the

students were able to summarise the ideas in their own words came from their written

notes and whole class contributions as is illustrated by the following statements:

They [adaptation] occur over many generations. It is definitely not a quick process. (Field

Notes, S18, October)

Behavioural adaptation is getting used to a habitat. (Video Data, S13, October)

This sequence provided students with opportunities and the incentive to explain

and use the science terms they were learning. This kind of purposeful use of

science language was a feature of the unit.

In Lesson 2, Karen revisited the ‘small’ ideas to do with the three types of adap-

tation (behavioural adaptation, physiological adaptation, and structural adaptation),

asking for explanations and examples of each type. The class brainstormed examples

of the different types of adaptations for cats (see Figure 2). Karen’s choice of cats was

deliberate and based on her knowledge that many of her students had cats as pets. For

structural adaptation, the students suggested cats’ eyes can see in the dark and cats use

their tails to keep their balance when jumping. As for behavioural adaptation, the stu-

dents stated that a cat’s fur and tail ‘spring up’ when it is scared and that it purrs when

Figure 2. A map for brainstormed examples of the different adaptations using a cat (photograph by

the author)


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it is happy. For physiological adaptation, the example given was that cats suckle their

young. These examples indicated that the students understood the different types of

adaptation and could apply the ideas to a familiar mammal.

In Lesson 2, Karen created a further opportunity for students to use the science

language and apply their knowledge of the different types of adaptation, this time

to the features of native birds as part of a card sorting activity, Classifying bird adap-

tations. The statements on the cards related to the characteristics of a number of

native birds including the takahe, kereru, tui, and kiwi. In this activity, students in

small groups set up three labelled columns, one for each type of adaptation, and

then sorted and classified the statements as representing a particular adaptation. In

some instances, the groups quickly came to an agreement about the nature of the

adaptation. In other cases, there was considerable debate. For example, the statement

that ‘Tui have hollow bones and no teeth, which makes their body light for flight’

proved problematic. Physiological adaptation is a particularly challenging phenom-

enon for children to understand. Karen initiated a conversation to clarify this idea

by linking it to students’ personal experience:

If we were outside, it was very cold. You just stood there in shorts and a T-shirt, what thing

would start to happen to your body? (Students: start shivering, teeth chattering, fingers

became blue and purple. . .). So all these are things that are happening to your body,

they are physiological adaptations. That’s your body defenses. That’s your body’s way

to help you. (Video Data, T-Karen, October)

Across Lessons 2 and 3, these different activities provided the students with ample

opportunities to use the language of adaptation and to apply the ideas in a range of

contexts. The sustained focus on the rich diversity of New Zealand birds not only

served to deepen students’ appreciation and knowledge of these birds but also

required them to carefully consider and apply their ideas to a range of sophisticated

examples of adaptation, thereby moving beyond discussion of commonplace

examples such as giraffes and zebras.

Part C: transition section—understanding the threats to native birds. Lesson 4, which

focused on the threats to native birds in New Zealand, acted as a transition session

between the ‘big’ idea of adaptation to the to-be-learnt ‘big’ idea of conservation.

Through their reading of the article Predation of native birds and Internet searching,

the students completed the worksheets: What factors have caused birds to lose their

native habitat and Threats to New Zealand native birds. These activities drew students’

attention to the endangered status of native birds, and why it is important to make an

effort to conserve native birds. The students read and were shocked that dogs caused

70% of kiwis’deaths from 1990 to 1995 and that one dog killed 500 of the 900 kiwis in

Waitangi. These worksheet activities, coupled with data from students’ own research,

alerted them to the extent of the problems faced by native birds. They evoked a strong

emotional response that contributed to students’ desire to learn what they could do to

help. As a student said in the post-unit interview, ‘I did not know before this that my

dog, even my cat, could kill kiwis. That really surprised me. They are so cute!’


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Part D: conservation. In the second half of the unit, Karen orchestrated four activities

over five lessons to do with the ‘big’ idea of conservation: learning about native bird

conservation terminologies and methods, constructing and placing a predator track-

ing tunnel in the school gully, and encouraging students to transfer the investigation to

predators into their home gardens. She introduced and focused on the ‘big’ idea of

conservation as a problem that is situated in the wider New Zealand context in the

main but she also made links with the school and student home contexts in a

manner that supported knowledge transfer between the two situations.

In Lesson 5, to introduce the methods used to protect native birds Karen used an

article called Protecting native birds and a PowerPoint called Methods of predator control.

The students read and talked about the different types of predators and techniques

used in New Zealand to protect native birds. In Lesson 6, she guided her students

to read the article Birds’ role in ecosystem and then promoted discussion on the

impact of bird habitat loss. Next, the students worked in small group to draw a

food web of the New Zealand bush ecosystem (see Figure 3). For this, they used

the knowledge they had learnt. These activities were an important precursor to stu-

dents making tracking tunnels2 to check the presence of predators in their school

gully. They used the information to analyse where they should locate their tracking

tunnels (see Figure 4). When the students checked their tunnels the next morning,

not many tracking paper strips had footprints on them. The students concluded

that this was the evidence that their area was reasonably safe for native birds.

After placing the tracking tunnels in the school gully, some students asked to take

them home to place in the gullies near their homes. Some students brought tracking

strips of predators from home back to class. As one girl said, ‘I put the tracking tunnel

in the bush, added milk and things from home, put butter in, and then checked it.

There were footprints, I think it was a hedgehog’ (Follow-up Interview, S6, June).

Figure 3. A food web of New Zealand bush ecosystem (photograph by the author)


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The other three teachers reported that their students took similar actions in using

the tracking tunnels at home.

The sequencing of these activities was important in building a foundation for student

knowledge and interest in the tracking tunnel activity. The tunnel activity required the

students to apply and make connections with what they had learnt, and to think ahead

and beyond their classroom learning. As a hands-on activity, it nurtured students’ sense

of personal worth through a ‘being there’ experience. The teachers did not just tell the

students how the ideas connected with the real world, but provided them with oppor-

tunities to experience these connections in a local context that was familiar and impor-

tant to them (Cook, 2004). The tracking tunnel activity provided a tool for students to

learn more about their surroundings and what threats native birds are facing so that stu-

dents would understand the need to make an effort to manage predators. The activities

helped students to see the personal and social relevance of school science, and provided

students with a stimulus to think about further actions and engage with learning science

lifelong (Elster, 2009; Jenkins, 2011).

Part E: Old Blue story telling. To conclude the unit, Karen used the Old Blue story to

strategically help her students to create a coherent mental image of the unit as a whole

in Lesson 9. Old Blue, by Mary Taylor (1993), is a true story about how New Zealand

Chatham Island black robins were brought back from the edge of extinction through a

breeding programme based on one bird, Old Blue. As she read the book aloud, Karen

asked a number of questions to prompt the students to predict or think about the story

and to recall and make connections with what they had learnt in the previous lessons.

The ideas she focused on were to do with adaptation, the impact of predation, and

methods for conserving native birds.

Figure 4. Placing a tracking tunnel in the school gully (photograph by the author)


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Karen’s reading of Old Blue evoked a strong emotional response and obviously

brought the ideas of the unit to life for the students (Scott et al., 2011). As one

student explained,

The true story of Old Blue happened on an island in New Zealand. It’s close to me. It’s

different from those [stories] of other places. So we know we may also try to protect

our native birds like what was done in Old Blue. (Interview Data, S5, December)

Another student who obviously enjoyed and empathised with Old Blue, noted in

interview,

I was very interested in the story—how we create more robins and how we grow

more of the kinds of plants they like (Interview Data, S7, December).

Two students from the focus group commented that if Karen had read Old

Blue before they had learnt about adaptation and conservation it may not

have had the same impact. One student explained: ‘If Ms Orange [Karen]

read that book in the very beginning, we might not understand what was

going on. Cause we had learnt about adaptation and conservation, we could

understand’ (Follow-up Interview, S8, June). These comments suggest that

Old Blue not only played an important role in helping students develop a coher-

ent overview of the ideas of the bird unit, but also made the ideas of the unit

relevant to their lives out of school, thereby fostering their interest and emotion-

al engagement in school science.

To conclude, the five learning phases of the unit, in different but cumulative ways,

addressed the challenges of lack of relevance (personal and social life and experience),

lack of coherence (coherent unit map and connective instructional strategies), and

lack of transfer (applying and transferring knowledge to new focal events/contexts)

posed at the beginning of the article.

Impacts on Students

Student interest. Three sources of data, student end-of-unit evaluations, and student

and teacher interviews, indicated that students enjoyed the bird unit. These com-

ments signalled that their interest in and knowledge of science had been increased.

The students in the end-of-unit focus group identified that learning about native

birds had been interesting for them because now they better understood the

reasons for the birds’ predicament.

S10: When the people say like. ‘Oh, protect native birds, protect our environment’, but

we actually do not know what and why, cause we don’t know much about them. Now

we know about native things, their habitat, adaptation and so on.

S12: It’s a lot of easier to protect them when you know what you’re going to protect and

how you can protect them.

S7: We always respect our environment, but knowing more about it, you get to respect it

more. (Follow-up Interview, June)

In their end-of-unit evaluation notes, 23 of the 26 students reported that they had

been interested in and enjoyed the unit and the remaining three class members did not


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comment on these aspects. The following statements are representative of student

comments.

I really enjoyed the unit and I liked doing the tracking tunnels. I didn’t know much about

native birds before, but now I want to do my bit to help. I am worried about the native

birds, because it’s so important. (Evaluation Notes, S9, December)

Bird unit was great fun! My favourite part was the tracking tunnel. (Interview Data, S4,

December)

All four teachers reported that their students had enjoyed and learnt from the track-

ing tunnel activity. Ellen, one of these teachers, reported that after her students had

completed the tracking tunnel activity they had gone on to produce a plan for how

they could keep native birds safe in the school grounds, ‘They looked at the school

grounds and the gully for our area and thought about what they could do. They got

into different groups to make their plans and learnt a lot from that’ (Interview

Data, T-Ellen, March).

Student learning gains. If students enjoy a unit does it mean they have learnt any-

thing? Comparison of the pre- and post-unit tests results showed that students’ under-

standing had increased, with a mean difference of 3.1, up from 13 to 16. The strength

of mean difference between the pre- and post-tests was checked using effect size. This

was medium (d ¼ 0.676; p , 0.05) indicating the unit contributed a student outcome

gain of medium effect, (Borenstein, Rothstein, & Cohen, 2001). In other words, the

increase in student knowledge of native birds as a result of the unit was statistically

significant.

All four teachers and the focus group students were of the view that the students

had learnt much more than usual from the bird unit. For example, Ellen agreed the

unit had led to learning gains, ‘Their knowledge grew with the unit. It’s not just

doing experiments, discussion, and writing a report. It’s more specific. They learnt

more about the birds. It was great’ (Interview Data, T-Ellen, March).

In their end-of-unit evaluations, all 26 students reported that they had learnt a lot

about New Zealand birds, 23 stated that they learnt facts relating to native birds, five

stated that their understanding had increased, six stated that the unit had been inter-

esting, and 12 stated that they felt more confident in their knowledge of native birds

and the threats they face. One student commented,

I have improved so much on this subject. I knew almost nothing and now I know a lot! I

will continue to grow in my knowledge of birds. I enjoyed this unit a lot because it made

me understand why birds are so important. (Evaluation Notes, S13, December)

Another student said that she learnt about more than native birds: ‘With this [unit],

you don’t only learn about the birds, but you learn about the environment’ (Interview

Data, S5, December).

Student transfer. Over the course of the unit students transferred their learning in a

number of ways. As Gilbert et al. (2011) defined it, transfer is considered to have


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taken place when learners use concepts or part of concepts ‘derived in relation to one

focal event, meaningfully in another focal event’ (p. 830). The students in the case

study class used their knowledge of bird adaption to discern and explain the adaptive

features of other animals. They used what they had learnt about adaptation to under-

stand the threats to native birds, where to best place tracking tunnels in the school

gully, and to consider potentially productive conservation methods. All four teachers

commented that some students had, at their own initiative, used the tracking tunnels

at home, thereby providing evidence that they had transferred their school experience

into a more distant new context. Nola identified this action as knowledge transfer into

the ‘big picture’ of conservation: ‘They can transfer knowledge and an experience into

a sort of big picture, and think about it in a different way. Why we need do this? Are we

trying to create a conservation area?’ (Interview Data, T-Nola, March).

Students taking responsibility for the environment in this way was a school goal, as

Nancy, explained: ‘We were trying to make the kids really aware of how they need look

after their environment, and how important it is to take care of our gully. We want

them to take ownership of that’ (Interview Data, T-Nancy, March).

The teachers viewed student use of the tracking tunnels in their home gardens and

local environment as indicative of student ownership of the unit ideas. Evidence of

knowledge transfer in this way goes well beyond what the unit test could assess and

lends support to the value of the ‘context as social circumstances’ model when the

goal is knowledge that travels beyond the classroom.

Sustained student interest and/or action. The six focus group students who agreed to be

interviewed 6 months after the bird unit reported that they and their families had fol-

lowed up on the unit ideas. One student had been to Mount Te Aroha for a bush walk

to look for native birds with her mother. Another had been to the park beside his house

to observe wildlife. Yet another student had discussed native birds and environmental

matters with her family. She told us that her father communicated with the owner of a

private property adjacent to a reserve to fix the fence in order to keep predators away

from native birds. One student had visited Tiritiri Matangi, a bird sanctuary, with her

family as a follow-up to the unit. She had researched the birds on the Internet prior to

the visit and used this information to identify them when she was on site:

We went to Tiritiri Matangi, which is like an offshore island with lots of native birds and pen-

guins, and stuff. What I did was I searched what sort of birds lived there before I went. I

could see which one was which when I was there. It’s fun. (Follow-up Interview, S10, June)

In terms of further actions for native birds and conservation, the focus group stu-

dents reported they were more aware of and concerned about these matters as a

result of the unit,

S10: I really like animals and I respected them (before). But the bird unit gave me even

bigger respect for them and our environment.

S11: The bird unit seems more cool now. Everything is so much more interesting since

you know more about it.


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S12: Yes, I do know more about native birds and trees, I definitely know a lot of more

about birds, trees and the environment. (Follow-up Interview, June)

When talking about the difference that they might make in conservation, two girls

talked about action in and by the community,

S8: In the future, probably the biggest difference is in my area, and my surroundings. If

everyone around you does something, that’s a big group.

S4: And it can get bigger and bigger. A big group of people works together. (Follow-up

Interview, June)

These comments clearly signal the wider value of a context-based unit that supports

student to link-making and transfer of their learning into their lives beyond the

classroom.

Discussion and implications

We have set out how a ‘context as social circumstances’ science unit played out in a

primary classroom and documented its positive impact on student interest and learn-

ing in the short and longer term. The students and teachers in the study reported that

students had enjoyed the bird unit. Both groups considered that the students had

learnt more than usual. The 6-month follow-up interview provided evidence that

for some students their learning in the initial context had been substantive and com-

pelling enough for them to transfer this knowledge to a new but related context

(Engle, 2006); some students had continued to explore the ideas with their families

and in the community. Student interest in the ideas of the unit had been sustained,

at least in part, due to the unit’s relevance to students’ personal lives and the local

environment. Thus, the unit met the demands of being interesting, relevant and enga-

ging in the short and longer term. It is not our contention, however, that any unit

based on New Zealand birds would have the same ‘context as social circumstances’

outcomes. Teacher selection of a context, associated content (concepts, skills and atti-

tudes) along with their design and orchestration of activities, each has a role to play in

student engagement and success. Contexts, content and pedagogy need to provide

opportunities and incentives for students to share and develop their ideas and to

take action themselves as they engage in the challenge of science learning.

Designing an Effective Context-based Unit—Selecting a Relevant Context

Context-based units are recommended as one of the ways teachers can provide learn-

ing experiences that stimulate student interest and curiosity, and have relevance

beyond the classroom. However, context selection requires careful consideration of

the opportunities and incentives the context has for students to transfer their learning

and to make connections with their lives out of school (Gilbert et al., 2011; Harlen,

2008). Moreover, these opportunities have to be considered right from the start for

the likelihood of transfer to be optimised (Engle, 2006). In this study, the focus on

native birds—their particular characteristics and the challenges they face—provided


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a context that was of current societal interest in the local region and in New Zealand

more widely (see also Zeidler, Sadler, Simmons, & Howes, 2005). It provided a fra-

mework within which the ‘big’ ideas of adaptation and conservation could be exem-

plified, were naturally inter-related and could be connected to students’ personal

and social lives. Students were able to understand why native birds might face

threats from predators, to assess the presence of predators that might threaten

them, and to use this assessment activity in their home gardens and community.

Moreover, there were a number of sites they could easily visit with their families

to follow up their learning. The unit opened up space and opportunities for

students to engage with others to pursue an interest in birds, thereby increasing the

possibility they might sustain their learning into the future at least in part because

they had come to understand they were part of a wider community of interest (Brans-

ford, Brown, & Cocking, 2000; Engle, 2006; Gilbert, 2006; Nordine, Krajcik, &

Fortus, 2011).

Designing an Effective Context-based Unit—Focusing on ‘Big’ Ideas

Teachers cannot include the full range of possible topics and activities in their class-

room curriculum, so they need to make decision about what content to focus on.

Harlen (2010) and Duschl et al. (2007) argue for a focus on ‘big’ or unifying ideas

that students need to understand to make informed decisions about scientific

aspects of the world around them. Karen’s bird unit was structured around the

‘big’ ideas of adaption and conservation, which are biological understandings that stu-

dents need if they are to be critical, informed, and responsible citizens (Harlen, 2010).

Karen developed and linked these ideas by starting from and interrelating a series of

‘small’ ideas embedded in activities that drew in, built on and extended students’

knowledge of native birds and familiar animals. It is significant that New Zealand

has a large number of endangered native bird species with distinctive adaptive fea-

tures. This diversity provided a rich context for students to engage in an in-depth

examination of the concept of adaptation and to consider implications for conserva-

tion. It is quite possible that in the absence of a clear focus on the ‘big’ ideas of adap-

tation and conservation, Karen’s students would simply have learnt a set of interesting

facts about New Zealand native birds, and missed an opportunity to develop an ela-

borated understanding of adaptation and its with wider applications. Overall, the find-

ings suggest there is merit in teachers beginning their planning by identifying the ‘big’

ideas in a context and working back to identify the ‘small’ ideas, attitudes, and skills

that need to be developed and connected to help students understand and operatio-

nalise these ‘big’ ideas.

Designing an Effective Context-based Unit—Orchestrating Activities

The activities that teachers use shape and frame their students’ opportunities to learn.

The way teachers orchestrate and link these activities shapes student experiences of

school science and their understandings of what science is about. There is, for


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example, ample evidence that students do not always experience their (science)

lessons as connected or coherent (Mercer, 2008). In this regard, Gilbert et al.

(2011) note that it is important, within the ‘context as social circumstances’ model

that students develop a coherent mental map of what they are learning. Karen sup-

ported her students to do this through her focus on two ‘big’ ideas and her articulation

of the links between ideas, tasks and lessons. The ‘big’ ideas provided an anchor-point

that she revisited over time to connect activities and ‘small’ ideas together. Her explicit

pedagogical link-making (Scott et al., 2011) contributed to her students’ experience

of their science learning as connected and cumulative, and helped maintain student

interest and momentum in learning over days and weeks.

Throughout the lessons, Karen explained scientific terms using examples that con-

nected to students’ life experience to encourage them to transfer or connect what they

were learning to other contexts. Gilbert and colleagues advocate this approach as a

way of enabling mental maps to be invoked and extended whilst encouraging students

to perceive the relevance of the current learning. This strategy has been shown to

increase the chances students will develop coherence and depth of understanding

(Mercer, Dawes, & Staarman, 2009). By applying scientific concepts to familiar

real-life scenarios, teachers can stimulate student interest and also help ensure they

come to appreciate the personal and social relevance of school science (Jenkins,

2011; Nordine et al., 2011).

Karen provided students with multiple opportunities to learn and use the language

associated with both ‘small’ and ‘big’ ideas in a manner that supported student experi-

ence of language development and learning as a social process supported by discus-

sion (Gilbert et al., 2011). The students engaged in lively discussions as they

sought to understand and to make personal sense of new terminology and ideas.

Karen used a range of reading strategies, based on her knowledge of teaching

reading per se, to ensure that reading tasks promoted students’ active engagement

with science ideas. As Bulman (1985) explains it, ‘if we wish to give our pupils a

taste of being a real scientist then reading should play an important part in our

science lessons’ (p. 19). Knowledge application and transfer happened explicitly

during the reading/discussion process as students applied their new ideas and ter-

minologies about adaptation to different animals.

Throughout the unit, students were captivated by the large coloured images of New

Zealand native birds that Karen projected on the interactive whiteboard. From

student post-unit interviews, it seemed that the aesthetic appeal of New Zealand

birds added to the charm of the unit. Old Blue served to bring the ideas of the unit

to life through the depiction of a conservation success story. The reading was a mem-

orable event that provoked an emotional and intellectual response from the students.

The story was made more compelling by the scale of the challenge to be overcome and

by evidence of the collective commitment of those involved in the conservation effort.

Karen’s reading of Old Blue as a focal activity fostered student emotional engagement

with the substantive content of a unit, which is an important aspect of pedagogical

link-making (Scott et al., 2011). Pappas and Varelas (2009) found that non-fiction

narratives written as engaging stories help to make ideas coherent, memorable, and


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meaningful. Stories can also portray science as a human activity (Osborne, 2007) that

committed individuals and teams engage in for the benefit of others. As Archer et al.

(2010) point out, it is important that school science fosters students’ affiliation with

science if they are to consider continuing to engage with it.

The students in the focus group indicated they appreciated the way Karen linked

the activities and ideas together into a coherent whole. When asked directly about

the sequencing and linking of activities they agreed that this had helped them under-

stand the ideas better, and more deeply. For instance, speaking 6 months after the

unit, a student asserted that because the activities and ideas of the unit related to

each other, they ‘were really easy to follow’. It appeared, therefore, that Karen had

succeeded in developing and linking a series of ‘small’ ideas into a coherent whole

(a big idea) through her orchestration of a series of connective activities embedded

in an behavioural environment within a context that was of interest to the students

(Harlen, 2010).

Limitations of the Study

This article has provided a rich description of how one teacher implemented a

‘context as social circumstances’ unit with a positive impact on student learning

and engagement. No claim can be made for the representativeness or generalisability

of the case (Flyvbjerg, 2006; Gobo, 2004) even though three other teachers were

interviewed about their classroom experiences of the same unit. It is notable,

however, that, despite using the same unit plan, the four teachers used different

approaches to pursue and achieve these positive science learning outcomes for their

students (see also Squire, MaKinster, Barnett, Luehmann, & Barab, 2003). For

instance, we have seen that Karen used a number of reading activities and integrated

these with hands-on activities. She was interested to show her students that reading is

part of and can be helpful in learning science. She used the Old Blue story to bring the

unit to an evocative conclusion. On the other hand, Nola asked her students to

develop a research project on how the native birds in their local community might

be protected. Nola was interested in providing an opportunity for her students to

apply what they learnt so that they realised science could enable them to take

action in their out-of-school lives. The other two teachers also emphasised action

but to a lesser extent than Nola. These contrasts endorse the value of a rich context

that is strongly grounded in substantive social and science issues. They serve as a

reminder of the value of teachers taking ownership and customising teaching materials

so that they have social meaning and relevance to the learning goals they have for their

students.

In summary, this article reports an example of how a teacher addressed the chal-

lenges to student engagement in science through a ‘context as social circumstances’

model. It is hoped that it will contribute to the improvement of science teacher prac-

tise worldwide since science teachers everywhere face similar challenges with engaging

students. Units grounded in local contexts that include the potential for action along

with a focus on ‘big’ ideas can captivate and engage students in science learning.


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Notes

1. URL: http://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/Science-Stories/Conserving-Native-Birds

2. Tracking tunnels are used to monitor if any unwanted pest species (mammalian predators in this

context) are present in a target area. Animals walk over an ink pad and leave paw prints on a

paper strip.

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Documents

Engaging Primary Students in Learning about New Zealand Birds: A socially relevant context