REFLECTIONS ON A 5TH-GRADE LIFE-SCIENCE LESSON - MAKING SENSE OF CHILDRENS UNDERSTANDING OF SCIENTIFIC MODELS

In this study a teaching/research collaboration between a fifth-grade teacher and a university science educator was implemented to examine c onceptual change teaching and learning. The authors reflected on one c lassroom lesson to better understand their own leaching and student se nse-making about trophic relations in a terrarium community. Many chil dren thought the pyramid model of trophic levels represented space nee ds of the organisms rather than energy relationships. Yet when the aut hors, as teachers, abandoned the scientific model and allowed students to construct their own, it was found that they did have reasonable id eas about number relationships in a community. It was also learned tha t, even with strong philosophical commitments to conceptual change tea ching, teaching behaviours were sometimes in conflict with teachers' b eliefs. The findings have implications for teacher education and indic ate that more work is needed to understand and elucidate conceptual ch ange teaching strategies that will help children see scientific models and concepts as intelligible alternatives to their own ideas.