Project helps students think more clearly in maths, science

December 05, 2006

After a 12-month trial, schoolteachers and their students have strongly endorsed the use of visual techniques that promote more systematic thinking in science and mathematics.

Surrounded by the “concept maps” and “vee diagrams” produced by their students, the teachers reported on the success of the project to a meeting of community, school, government and university representatives at The University of New England last month. The classroom trials took place at two Armidale schools – Minimbah Primary School (MPS) and New England Girls’ School (NEGS) – and involved students from Kindergarten to Year 10.

Jenny Brown, a teacher at MPS, was typical of all the participating teachers (two from MPS and six from NEGS) in her response to the project. “It was very successful,” she said. “The children coped with it far better than I thought they would.” She added that her students had understood the process so well that they had been able to teach it to younger children in Kindergarten and Year 1. “That was an outcome we didn’t expect,” she said.

UNE’s Associate Professor Karoline Afamasaga-Fuata’i (pictured here) coordinated the one-year project, which was conducted with Federal Government funding of $48,000. She explained that the visual techniques required the diagrammatic representation of theoretical principles underlying a procedure or experiment (using a “concept map”) or underlying the application of theory in context (using a “vee diagram”), in a way that exposed any gaps or inconsistencies in students’ understanding.

Dr Afamasaga Fuata’i, an international authority on these techniques, was assisted in the project by Dr Greg McPhan, who has extensive experience with concept mapping in science teaching. Dr McPhan is now a Research Fellow in the National Centre of Science, ICT and Mathematics Education for Rural and Regional Australia (SiMERR), which is based at UNE. SiMERR was a partner in the project, along with UNE's School of Education, MPS and NEGS.

Last month’s meeting marked the culmination of the project, and allowed the teachers to discuss – and exhibit – the work of their students. “We’ll definitely be continuing with it,” Ms Brown said. “The children love it. It helps them to order their thinking.”

Her MPS colleague Carolyn Briggs, who teaches Kindergarten and Year 1, was also typical in reporting that children had been able to support each other when creating concept maps in small groups. She said they had “learnt a lot more from each other” – and from their “peer tutors” in Years 5 and 6 – than from formal instruction.

Dr Afamasaga-Fuata’i confirmed that group work was an important part of the process. “They’re constantly communicating: challenging each other and collaborating,” she said. “Through communication they clarify their own thinking."

“These techniques help students to become more independent learners and better problem solvers,” she continued. “And for teachers, they provide a snapshot of what students know. I wish all teachers could be exposed to them.”

Posted by Jim Scanlan at December 5, 2006 05:45 PM