The science classroom can be a special place. It can be one in which students work together in learning teams to answer questions, to inquire, to pose questions, and to learn new ideas about the world. It can be a place in which critical and creative thinking are fostered. In this book we have emphasized the importance---based especially on the work of Piaget and resulting theory of conceptual change teaching---that should be attached to the notion that student knowledge about the world develops as a result of their interaction with physical objects, events and phenomena, and people. We have emphasized the importance of involving students in the process of learning as described by the learning cycle.
The Microcomputer: A Medium for Science Learning
In the last 20 years, the computer has made its way into the educational scene. Can the microcomputer support and enhance the goal of involving students in the learning process, of encouraging inquiry and problem solving, and fostering critical and creative thinking. Or is the computer simply another educational innovation that will have little effect on classroom learning?
On the one hand some reports indicate that computers have not met the expectations that were raised when computers began appearing in classrooms. A report from the National Center for Technology in Education, a federally funded research center at Bank Street College indicates that computers are not an integral part of subject-matter instruction. Although students have more access to computers---125 students for each computer in 1984 vs. 11 students for each computer in 2000---they are not used in ways that are productive (programming, word processing, telecommunications, problem solving). There is evidence that more middle class students have access to computers than poor students, and quite often when these students do have access, the instruction tends to be drill-and-practice software programs.
On the other hand, there is evidence that some schools are using computers in ways that are productive, and enhance high level thinking in students. In some schools students use computers:
These and other applications of the computer represent new ways of thinking about how computers can be used in schools. Instead of using computers to "teach" what is currently in the science curriculum, these applications suggest rethinking what can be taught in the science curriculum.
Seymour Papert, in his book Mindtorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas presents a vision in which students use computers to develop powerful ideas not only about the world, but about their own thinking processes. To Papert, the kind of computer activities that are presented to students will effect profoundly the computer's impact of student learning and thinking. He makes the point that a computer can make a student's experience more like that of people in the real world. For example, if we consider the computer as a writing instrument---which all professionals today who write do---then using the computer as a writing instrument in the science classroom helps students act and behave like real writers.
The computer can also be used as a tool to help "concretize the formal." One of the problems in science education is that students continue to have difficulty understanding science concepts. One difficulty that has perplexed teachers is how to provide students with experiences---activities--which will help students make conceptual changes. Researchers at Harvard's Educational Technology Center have been working for a number of years to develop teaching modules which combine effective hands-on activities with computer-based activities. One approach they have taken is to design activities in which students invent models of phenomena and then use the computer to examine computer-based models. They have found this approach to useful in that it allows students to "see" their ideas and the conceptual relationships.
Papert puts these ideas this way:
"Stated most simply, my conjecture is that the computer can concretize (and personalize) the formal. Seen in this light, it is not just another powerful educational tool. It is unique in providing us with the means for addressing what Piaget and many others see as the obstacle which is overcome in the passage from child to adult thinking. I believe that it can allow us to shift the boundary separating concrete and formal. Knowledge that was accessible only through formal processes can now be approached concretely. And the real magic comes from the fact that this knowledge includes those elements one needs to become a formal thinker."
Another aspect of science education that the computer should be tailored to is inquiry learning. We have shown that inquiry teaching provides the environment in which students can explore new ideas and as well as testing their own ideas. The computer can be used as a vehicle---especially through the use of simulation software---for students to ask questions, to manipulate variables, to examine materials, objects and events in multiple situations. The computer used in this way enables students to utilize the processes of science in the context of computer problem solving.
The possibility of having networked computers in each science classroom is a reality at the present time; the important notion is how computers will be used, and what activities will be provided to augment the role of the student as an active inquirer and learner.
In this section we shall explore how the computer can be used in the science classroom to enhance critical and creative thinking, and support the current consensus on how students learn---through an active involvement in the learning environment.