Chinese Journal of Science Education


Vol. 14 No. 1 , Pages 29 - 53 , 2006

Sixth Graders’ Perceptions of Infusing Reading and Writing Activities into Science Learning (Article written in Chinese)

Wei-Chen YANG & Chi-Chin CHIN

Abstract

This study focused on 73 sixth graders to investigate their perceptions of the infusion of reading and writing activities into science learning. Qualitative methods such as worksheets and questionnaires were used for collecting students’ perceptions. Through a sequence of five learning topics, the students provided their responses on the learning activities. These perceptual statements were analyzed by the constant-comparison method. Ten types of perceptions were finally achieved. Among them, five were positively and another five were negatively inclined. The five most frequent types were: 1) to increase knowledge about the subject, 2) to have positive attitudes toward the learning activity, 3) to have learning be difficult through reading and writing activities, 4) to be confident with the learning activities, and 5) to have the activities featured as co-operative learning. Based on these ten types, a Likert-type inventory was developed for investigating students’ occurrence in each perceptual type. The results showed that the high-achieving group in science, Chinese, and total academic achievement had significantly higher frequency in eight, five, and seven perceptual types than the lower-achieving group. Only two perceptual types — “to have problems in reasoning” and “to encounter incidences not expected” — showed significant difference between genders. This study makes suggestions from the perspective of curriculum design for teaching, teachers’ beliefs in teaching science with reading and writing activities, and future research trends.

Keywords: science reading and writing; elementary students; students’ perception; reading and writing activity

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