Chemistry Reference
In-Depth Information
somehow deficit-oriented way so that the reader can understand the change of
behavior before and after the study at hand.
I conducted the case study at a special-needs school for students with the focal
points of supporting “learning” as well as “emotional and social development”. The
atmosphere at this school, where I worked as a student teacher after receiving my
PhD, was remarkably affected by the students
extreme experiences, thereby
leading to little educational stimulation. “This emotional strain was visible in
aggression, anger, conflicts, violence, disrespect and swearwords among the pupils
and more or less overtly towards teachers as well” (Abels,
2012
, p. 169). At that
school, I taught an inter-year class of ten students, six boys and four girls aged 10-
12 (5th and 6th grades), in science. Three students had migration background. The
socioeconomic background of all students was low and most of them suffered from
a difficult family situation as well as unsteady school careers. Reading and writing
skills differed immensely. Some students read and wrote just words, others could
read and write short coherent texts. There was an erratic atmosphere of study in the
class due to the emotional form of the day and social interactions happening. The
students had no strategies to cope with conflicts they were personally involved
in. Peer discussions and group work often led to arguments. Achievement levels,
active participation, and speed of work were diverse. The students were primarily
used to rather traditional classroom practice, with a focus on “lectures, class
reading, completing worksheets” where “students are passive learners” (Hewson,
Kahle, Scantlebury, & Davies,
2001
, p. 1131). The reasons for this form of teaching
were mostly of disciplinary nature. Additionally, the traditional settings were
structured and non-overcharging, which enhanced concentration of the students.
I visualized and documented the individual preconditions of the students
described above based on diagnostic assessment (Watkins,
2007
) like conversations
with the classroom teacher, available files and reports, as well as my own observa-
tions of the students during and outside class. Besides documenting demographic
data, I observed their linguistic and communicative skills, their emotional and
social behavior, their ways of learning and performance, as well as skills
concerning subject matter and methodical and procedural knowledge.
Additionally, I detected that the students were often engaged in activities outside
the subject area, had a high need for movement, were seeking affirmation from
teachers as well as other students, and showed the highest engagement when
collaborating and when they were given credit for something they had done.
Most remarkably, the students of this class not only expressed their values, beliefs,
and emotions clearly and strongly, but they also showed a tremendous sense of
social justice. Furthermore, they often hesitated to embark on new challenges and
used several avoidance strategies expressed in aggressive behavior, defense, dis-
traction, ignorance, anger, etc.
On these grounds I decided to change classroom practice. I was looking for a
teaching approach that would consider the cognitive and affective preconditions
and basically engage the students in chemistry learning which means in this case to
sustain a learning activity by the use of cognitive, affective, and behavioral strat-
egies (cp. Lynch et al.,
2005
). As outlined above, inquiry-based learning is seen as
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