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Real-life contexts for learning Science: meanings, issues and practice Will we have the Newtons apple fall

l again? (of course if there was an apple) Is it effective to motivate students to study theories and then to study its applications in the real world?

I would like to share with you some ideas about learning science content through real-life contexts integrated in guided discovery where students are Hands-on and Minds-on, and

the role of real-life contexts-based in motivating students.

Once I had grade 7 students outside to conduct an activity, they dropped different sizes of parachutes to study air resistance, they practiced the science processes; i.e. Observing, Classifying, Communicating, Measuring, Predicting/Inferring, Experimenting.. One of the students, who was a low achiever and unmotivated student, commented to his colleagues that this was the best class they ever had in science, mostly, he meant that year. So what distinguished that lesson, I think, it was the guided-inquiry approach using a context-based learning. Firstly: what do we mean by context-based learning. Context-based learning can have several meanings.

At its broadest, it means the social and cultural environment in which the student, teacher and institution are situated. This environment reflects, and is partly formed and connected by, communications media; TV, internet.

A narrower view of context focuses on an application of a Science theory for the purposes of illumination and reinforcement. In this sense, by selecting an application of a principle, almost all teaching is context-based, and this is one of the tools the teacher exploits continually.

Which one is the best? However, part of the practice of science is to test predictions against events in the real world.

Students need a resource of real-world phenomena to hand, if a meaningful classroom discussion is to take place. We cannot deny our students background knowledge and we should respect, exploit and build upon it. This resource can be developed and made common to all members of a class through the supply and use of contexts by both the teacher and students. Brook and Driver wrote that After using ideas in familiar situations and thus consolidating the relationship between science theory and the experiences with which they are familiar, students confidence in theory can be increased by using them to make sense of a wider range of tasks, and

as Vygotsky said a mature concept is achieved when the scientific and everyday versions have merged

This perspective suggests that a learning context requires relating learning to an application in the real world. However, introducing an application of a scientific principle after teaching the theory may not be an effective strategy for all students. It requires that students are sufficiently motivated to study the theory in order to make an effort to understand the application. Unfortunately many students who are interested in where Science is found in the world around them have become confused and have lost interest before they get to the point where the application is introduced and explained.

Research on context-based learning suggests that it has the potential to increase students interests if appropriate contexts are used contexts that students are interested in and relate to their out-of-school activities. People often succeed at problems in everyday life at which they fail in formal settings, and do better at problems couched in everyday or familiar context rather than an overtly scientific one. In the supermarket the world is experienced as out there.

Furthermore, the nature of the learning process becomes less didactic; more negotiated and may meet the students social needs, and promote students self-esteem and prestige (Maslow 1970).

Other curriculum areas, such as the humanities for example, have a ready-made context surrounding the subject. The subject is about society, so students discuss issues that may affect them and are able to have opinions about the topics they are studying.

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