3. Goals at the Level of the Pedagogical Staff
3.2 Epistemological Attitudes and Beliefs
Yvonne Anders, Ilonca Hardy, & Mirjam Steffensky
Teachers’ attitudes and epistemological beliefs are perceived as central facets of professional competence. At the same time, epistemological beliefs and attitudes are not always easy to distinguish from components of professional knowledge (see Section 3.3). It is assumed that teachers’ epistemological beliefs (e.g., peda-gogical ideas, educational ideals, attitudes with regard to the importance of spe-cific educational content, attitudes to their own role) structure their interactions in teaching and learning settings and influence their perceptions, goals, and be-haviour. Thus, they can influence process quality in educational institutions and, in consequence, influence children’s development and learning processes. Some studies have also shown that teachers’ beliefs about teaching and learning affect the way in which reforms are implemented (Gregoire, 2003).
Epistemological beliefs and attitudes are very broad and comprehensive con-structs, and they are sometimes rather imprecisely defined in the literature. In what follows, we address aspects of these constructs that are relevant for the pro-motion of science competencies at primary level or for the implementation of the
“Haus der kleinen Forscher” initiative by pedagogical staff at after-school centres and in extracurricular afternoon programmes at primary schools, and that must therefore be evaluated as goals of the initiative.
In many studies, epistemological beliefs and attitudes are assessed in a do-main-specific manner in order to obtain more insights into the complex relation-ships between attitudes and beliefs, pedagogical processes, and (domain-spe-cific) child development (see Staub & Stern, 2002; Stipek, Givvin, Salmon, &
MacGyvers, 2001).
Accordingly, when it comes to providing pedagogical support in the science domain, educators’ specific beliefs about science, science learning, or the mean-ing and importance of early science education are more crucial than their gener-al and domain-genergener-al pedagogicgener-al beliefs. It should be noted that comparably few studies have dealt with attitudes towards science or towards imparting knowledge of science, whereas many more studies in this regard have been con-ducted for the domain of mathematics, for example. Nonetheless, the research ap- proaches and theoretical concepts can, at least in part, be applied well to the pro-motion of science competencies at primary level.
The following goal dimensions can be distinguished at the level of the education professionals:
■ epistemological beliefs about the nature of science and the nature of knowing
■ beliefs about science teaching and learning
■ beliefs about the importance and content of science education at after-school centres and primary schools, for example, about the science competencies that primary school children should develop
3.2.1 Epistemological Beliefs About the Nature of Science and Nature of Knowing
Epistemological beliefs about the nature of science can be divided into two cate-gories: traditional beliefs and constructivist beliefs. According to the traditional view, science is a closed system of knowledge that reflects truth. It follows from this that it is theoretically possible to acquire all science knowledge. Constructiv-ist beliefs, by contrast, assume that knowledge of science comes about through engagement with the environment, that science explains relationships and nat-ural phenomena, and that knowledge of science therefore undergoes constant change and further development (e.g., Brickhouse, 1990).
Conceptions of science influence engagement with the subject, and thus teaching behaviour. The static, traditional view suggests that new content should be introduced gradually and transmissively. The modern, constructivist view, on the other hand, allows for children to develop and reflect on knowledge of science themselves, and it challenges them to engage in communicative exchanges. This explains its importance as a goal of science learning.
3.2.2 Beliefs About Science Teaching and Learning
In addition to epistemological beliefs, teachers’ beliefs about how students learn influence instructional quality and children’s learning (see Dubberke et al., 2008;
Staub & Stern, 2002). Behaviourist/transmissive beliefs (children are passive re-cipients in the learning process, and knowledge must therefore be prescribed and received) can be differentiated, in particular, from constructivist beliefs (knowl-edge is actively constructed by the learners themselves) and hands-on beliefs (“hands-on” is the most important principle in elementary science education;
Kleickmann et al., 2016). These beliefs are linked to beliefs about adaptivity that inform the design and implementation of learning processes. Thus, an educator may hold more child-development-oriented beliefs whereby learning processes should be aligned with the individual development of the child. This contrasts with beliefs whereby learning processes should be aligned with specific goals (Renne, 1992).
Several studies show that constructivist beliefs (epistemological beliefs about teaching and learning) are associated with pedagogical content knowledge, instructional quality, and student learning (Voss et al., 2013). Therefore, it would be desirable for the “Haus der kleinen Forscher” programme to support pedagog-ical staff in developing these types of beliefs.
3.2.3 Beliefs About the Importance and Content of Science Education at After-School Centres and Primary Schools
The educational offerings provided by after-school centres and extracurricular afternoon programmes at primary schools can supplement regular classroom instruction. At primary school, science is taught mainly within the framework of Sachunterricht (see Footnote 1). In Germany, as in many other countries, there seems to be a tendency to prioritise biology topics over the physical sciences (Möller, 2004; Einsiedler, 1998; Strunck et al., 1998, Appleton, 2007). The au-thors of this report regard the learning opportunities afforded by the “Haus der kleinen Forscher” initiative as supplements to school instruction. Against this background, it is an aim of the “Haus der kleinen Forscher” programme to foster science learning, with a focus on the physical sciences. Moreover, it is assumed that the pedagogical staff at after-school centres and in extracurricular afternoon programmes at primary schools need adequate knowledge of the primary school science curriculum in the domain of science and of the science competencies to be developed at primary school age (see Section 3.3.3, Pedagogical Content Knowl-edge – KnowlKnowl-edge of School-Based Learning, and Sections 2.2 and 2.3), so that they can design and implement supplementary and more in-depth learning op-portunities.
Measurement
Measurement tools for assessing beliefs are described in Brickhouse (1990), Sti-pek Dubberke et al. (2008), Staub and Stern (2002), Kleickmann et al. (2016), and Möller (2004; see also Liang, Chen, Chen, Kaya, Adams, Macklin, & Ebenezer, 2006).