Abstract
The purposes of this study were, based on John Dewey’s ideas on experience, to examine how primary students used their own everyday experience and were affected by own and others’ experience in science discourse, and to illuminate the implications of experience in science education. To do these, science discourses by a group of six fourth-graders were observed, where they talked about their ideas related to thermal concepts. The data was collected through interviews and open-ended questions, analyzed based on Dewey’s perspective, and depicted as the discourse map which was developed to illustrate students’ transaction and changing process of students’ ideas. The results of the analysis showed typical examples of Dewey’s notions of experience, such as the principles of continuity and of transaction and of different types of experience, examples of ‘the expanded continuity and transaction’, and science discourse as inquiry. It was also found that students’ everyday experiences played several roles: as a rebuttal for changing their own ideas or others’, backing for assurance of their own ideas in individual students’ inner changes after discourse with others, and backing for other’s ideas. Based on these observations, this study argues that everyday experience should be considered as a starting point for primary students’ science learning because most of their experience comes from everyday, not school science, contexts. In addition, to evoke educative experience in science education, it is important for teachers to pay more attention to Dewey’s notions of the principles of continuity and of transaction and to their educational implications.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
Citations on Dewey’s works usually refer to the collected works published by Southern Illinois University Press, citing the series (Early Works, Middle Works, Later Works), the volume, and the page number: e.g., LW 13, p. 25.
References
Ainley, M., & Ainley, J. (2011). A cultural perspective on the structure of student interest in science. International Journal of Science Education, 33(1), 51–71.
Alexopoulou, E., & Driver, R. (1996). Small-group discussion in physics: Peer interaction modes in pairs and fours. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 33(10), 1099–1114.
Anderson, C. W. (2007). Perspectives on science learning. In S. K. Abell & N. G. Lederman (Eds.), Handbook of research on science education (pp. 3–30). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
Avraamidou, L., & Osborne, J. (2009). The role of narrative in communicating science. International Journal of Science Education, 31, 1683–1707.
Bernstein, R. J. (1966). John Dewey. New York: Washington Square Press.
Chambers, S. K., & Andre, T. (1997). Gender, prior knowledge, interest, and experience in electricity and conceptual change text manipulations in learning about direct current. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 34(2), 107–123.
Chinn, P. W. C. (2007). Decolonizing methodologies and indigenous knowledge: The role of culture, place and personal experience in professional development. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 44(9), 1247–1268.
Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and education. In J. A. Boydston (Ed.), John Dewey: The middle works, 9. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
Dewey, J. (1925). Experience and Nature. In J. A. Boydston (Ed.), John Dewey: The later works, 1. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
Dewey, J. (1933). How We Think. In J. A. Boydston (Ed.), John Dewey: The later works, 8 (pp. 105–352). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
Dewey, J. (1934). Art as Experience. In J. A. Boydston (Ed.), John Dewey: The later works, 10. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
Dewey, J. (1938a). Logic: The theory of inquiry. In J. A. Boydston (Ed.), John Dewey: The later works, 12. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
Dewey, J. (1938b). Experience and Education. In J. A. Boydston (Ed.), John Dewey: The later works, 13 (pp. 1–62). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
Dewey, J., & Bentley, A. F. (1948). Knowing and the Known. In J. A. Boydston (Ed.), John Dewey: The later works, 16 (pp. 1–294). Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press.
Driver, R., & Easley, J. (1978). Pupils and paradigms: A review of literature related to concept development in adolescent science students. Studies in Science Education, 5, 61–84.
Enghag, M., Gustafsson, P., & Jonsson, G. (2007). From everyday life experiences to physics understanding occurring in small group work with context rich problems during introductory physic work at university. Research in Science Education, 37, 449–467.
Falk, J. H., & Adelman, L. M. (2003). Investigating the impact of prior knowledge and interest on aquarium visitor learning. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 40(2), 163–176.
Gallego, M. A. (2001). Is experience the best teacher? The potential of coupling classroom and community-based field experiences. Journal of Teacher Education, 52(4), 312–325.
Garrison, J. W., & Bentley, M. L. (1990). Science education, conceptual change and breaking with everyday experience. Studies in Philosophy and Education, 10, 19–35.
Glassman, M. (2001). Dewey and Vygotsky: Society, experience, and inquiry in educational practice. Educational Researcher, 30(4), 3–14.
Greene, S., & Hill, M. (2010). Researching children’s experience: Methods and methodological issues. In S. Greene & D. Hogan (Eds.), Researching children’s experience (pp. 1–21). London: SAGE Publications.
Hogan, K., Nastasi, B. K., & Pressley, M. (1999). Discourse patterns and collaborative scientific reasoning in peer and teacher-guided discussions. Cognition and Instruction, 17(4), 379–432.
Johnston, J. S. (2006). Inquiry and education: John Dewey and the quest for democracy. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
Johnston, J. S. (2009). Deweyan inquiry: From education theory to practice. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
Johnston, J. S. (in press). John Dewey and science education. In M. R. Matthews (Ed.), International handbook of research in history, philosophy and science teaching. Amsterdam: Springer.
Koosimile, A. T. (2004). Out-of-school experiences in science classes: Problems, issues and challenges in Botswana. International Journal of Science Education, 26(4), 483–496.
Kruckeberg, R. (2006). A Deweyan perspective on science education: Constructivism, experience, and why we learn science. Science & Education, 15(1), 1–30.
Lemke, J. (1990). Talking science: Language, learning and values. Norwood: Ablex Publishing.
Mason, L., & Santi, M. (1998). Discussing the greenhouse effect: Children’s collaborative discourse reasoning and conceptual change. Environmental Education Research, 4(1), 67–85.
Mayoh, K., & Knutton, S. (1997). Using out-of-school experience in science lessons: Reality or rhetoric? International Journal of Science Education, 19(7), 849–867.
Miles, M. B., & Huberman, A. M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook (2nd ed.). New York: Sage Publications.
Miller, H. (1963). Transaction: Dewey’s last contribution to the theory of learning. Education Theory, 13(1), 13–28.
Mortimer, E. F., Scott, P., & El-Hani, C. N. (2012). The heterogeneity of discourse in science classrooms: The conceptual profile approach. In B. J. Fraser, K. G. Tobin, & C. J. McRobbie (Eds.), Second international handbook of science education (pp. 231–246). Dordrecht: Springer.
Norris, S. P., & Phillips, L. M. (2003). How literacy in its fundamental sense is central to scientific literacy. Science Education, 87(2), 224–240.
Osborne, R. J. (1983). Towards modifying children’s ideas about electric current. Research in Science and Technological Education, 1, 73–82.
Pugh, K. J., & Bergin, D. A. (2010). The effect of schooling on students’ out-of-school experience. Educational Researcher, 34(9), 15–23.
Rivard, L. P., & Straw, S. B. (2000). The effect of talk and writing on learning science: An exploratory study. Science Education, 84(5), 566–593.
Rivet, A. E., & Krajcik, J. S. (2008). Contextualizing instruction: Leveraging students’ prior knowledge and experiences to foster understanding of middle school science. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 45(1), 79–100.
Roth, W.-M., Lucas, K. B., & McRobbie, C. J. (2001). Students’ talk about rotational motion within and across contexts, and implications for future learning. International Journal of Science Education, 23(2), 151–179.
Scott, P., Asoko, H., & Leach, J. (2007). Student conceptions and conceptual learning in science. In S. K. Abell & N. G. Lederman (Eds.), Handbook of research on science education (pp. 31–56). New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
Sharma, A. (2007). Making (electrical) connections: Exploring student agency in a school in India. Science Education, 92(2), 297–319.
Smart, J. B., & Marshall, J. C. (2012). Interactions between classroom discourse, teacher questioning, and student cognitive engagement in middle school science. Journal of Science Teacher Education,. doi:10.1007/s10972-012-9297-9.
Sprod, T. (1997). ‘Nobody really knows’: The structure and analysis of social constructivist whole class discussions. International Journal of Science Education, 19(8), 911–924.
Strike, K. A., & Posner, G. J. (1985). A conceptual change view of learning and understanding. In L. H. T. West & A. L. Pines (Eds.), Cognitive structure and conceptual change (pp. 211–231). Orlando: Academic Press.
Vygotsky, L. S. (1978). Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Warren, B., Ballenger, C., Ogonowski, M., Rosebery, A. S., & Hudicourt-Barnes, J. (2001). Rethinking diversity in learning science: The logic of everyday sense-making. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 38(5), 529–552.
Wong, D., Pugh, K., & The Dewey Ideas Group at Michigan State University. (2001). Learning science: A Deweyan perspective. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 38(3), 317–336.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Na, J., Song, J. Why Everyday Experience? Interpreting Primary Students’ Science Discourse from the Perspective of John Dewey. Sci & Educ 23, 1031–1049 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-013-9637-y
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-013-9637-y