Novice and experienced science teachers' understanding and uses of practical activities
Keywords: Science teachers
Science, Study and teaching

While practical work has a long and valued tradition in school science programmes, its usefulness and validity of the claims for its value have occasionally come under attack. Nonetheless, school science laboratory activities have managed to remain part of the science curriculum in most schools for the better part of a century. The experiences they can provide students are often highly regarded by teachers, for the following reasons: “to motivate students by stimulating interest and enjoyment, to teach laboratory skills, to enhance the learning of scientific knowledge, to give insight into scientific method and to develop expertise in using it, and to develop certain ‘scientific attitudes’, such as open-mindedness, objectivity and willingness to suspend judgment” (Hodson, 1993b: 90). This investigation is directed at examining differences in understanding and use(s) of practical activities by one experienced grade 11/OAC (senior) and two novice grade 7/8 (intermediate) science teachers. Through the use of classroom observations, as well as teacher and student interviews, teacher questionnaires, and students' work, three separate case studies were conducted into: teachers' overall use(s) of lab work, teachers' views on the nature of science, teachers' sources of knowledge used (in addition to their knowledge of subject matter), and teachers' responses to practical activities not going as planned during lessons. While novice and experienced science educators at the intermediate and senior levels both use practical activities in their teaching, this study aims to explore how lab work is deployed differently by these two different groups of teachers (novice vs. experienced) within these two educational settings (i.e. the grade 7/8 vs. grade 11/OAC science lab/classroom). A sixteen week ‘case study’ was conducted—eight weeks with two grade 7/8 relatively inexperienced science teachers and eight weeks with one grade 11/OAC more experienced science teacher—for the purpose of examining the differences in teachers' understanding and uses of practical activities in school science. Emphasis was placed on exploring the different knowledge sources used by experienced high school and novice elementary level science educators. Each of the participating teachers stated a different ‘main purpose’ for their uses of practical work. And while there were no mismatches among novice teachers' rhetoric and practice, classroom observations suggest incongruity between the more experienced teacher's stated and observed uses of lab activities. In addition, only the more experienced teacher holds a ‘positivist’ view toward the nature of science. There were also differences (between novice and experienced teachers) with respect to the type of knowledge sources teachers used in the classroom. Furthermore, whereas all teachers preferred to use their own method of ‘talking their way out of it’ when practical activities did not go as planned, only the more experienced teacher admits to ‘conjuring’ her school science lab activities. The typical response by all participating teachers, however, was to have students repeat their practical activities. Lastly, results indicate that differences between teachers' understanding and uses of practical work may be linked to the their professional experiences acquired prior to embarking on a teaching career.