The Conflict Between Teaching and Scientific Sense‐Making: The Case of a Curriculum on Seasonal Change

Abstract

When the goal of science instruction is understood as “mastering” scientific theories and concepts, the scientific process of making sense of phenomena can be stifled. Even open‐ended technologies such as simulations and databases can fall into a trap that dissociates theories and data. In the study reported here, we observed the teaching of a sixth‐grade curriculum on seasonal change. Although activities included data collection, modeling, and active student participation, we found that teachers had difficulty engaging students in scientific sense‐making. The teachers’ curriculum goal of mastering the scientific theory of seasonal change consistently militated against the process of coordinating theoretical models with data. We suggest that the coordination of theory and data, the heart of scientific sense‐making, requires fundamental changes in teaching beyond the introduction of hands‐on and other participatory activities. Without such changes, “innovative” technology applications cannot succeed.