| Abstract: | Research shows that students and teachers have a view of the world which affects learning and teaching. World views, or theoretical orientations, have been identified in the areas of both reading and social studies. The purpose of this research was to identify the theoretical orientations of teachers and students to science. The first step in the identification was to determine the definitions of science used by experts in science education and those of authors of eighth grade science texts. The conclusion reached was that no consensus existed among experts and/or authors regarding the definition of science. Further, there was no consensus between teachers and experts, or between teachers and texts. This was also true of comparisons among students, experts, and texts. Identification of theoretical orientations of students and teachers was accomplished through observations, interviews, and administration of questionnaires. Thirty-six students and six teachers participated in the observations and interviews. From these data questionnaires were developed and given to approximately 60 teachers and 580 students. From these data sources it was found that science was not viewed as a single entity, but made up of natural phenomena, facts, problem solving, and experimentation. The majority of students believed that the most important aspect of science was natural phenomena, while teachers felt that experimentation was most important. Further, teachers' articulated theoretical orientations did not match observations, leading the researcher to believe that either teachers did not know how they defined science or that pressures from the administration to complete curriculum mediated their stated definition of science. Neither teachers nor students were fully aware of each others definitions of science, therefore, students were not affected by their teacher's theoretical orientation nor did teachers consider the students' theoretical orientations when they planned their lessons. Other conclusions included: students were not learning what teachers thought they were, students felt that science was not useful, females found science less useful or important than males did, students felt that they learned science in lab but what was to be on a test in lecture, and teachers did not realize that students preferred discovery over verification type labs. |
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