Tinkering with Nature of Science (NOS) learning: The development of an evidence-based coding framework to identify primary pupils’ encounters with NOS when Tinkering
This research aims to initiate an empirical understanding of the experience of primary school pupils participating in ‘Tinkering’ activities. Specifically, it investigates the opportunities for pupils to encounter and acknowledge aspects of the nature of science (NOS). Tinkering is here defined as an approach to inquiry-based learning (IBL) that offers a playful, pupil-led, hands-on approach to investigation and construction, with wide walls, high ceiling, and a low threshold to entry. After investigation into alternative approaches, this study uses the consensus view of NOS as the base for its inquiry and analysis. This thesis takes the first steps towards addressing the central research question – ‘Do primary pupils encounter aspects of NOS through engagement in the process of Tinkering? If so, how?’ – by analysing case study data (nine overlapping but separate sources of video, audio, photo, field notes) collected as participant researcher during 18 units of in-school ‘Scientist-in-Residence’ (SiR) workshops (174 participants) and during pupils’ subsequent reflections on those workshops. Each workshop was an iteration of the same ‘Marble Machines’ activity wherein participants are challenged to create a marble run on pegboards from non-customised materials. Rounds of thematic analysis began with an inductive lens drawn from the literature and shifted to deductive coding to capture the full range of NOS-related encounters. Recursive analysis resulted in the refinement of the full data corpus to a data set of three workshops (one from each year: Y3, Y4, Y5) and the eventual refinement of 46 operationally defined primary pupil ‘encounters’ with NOS, and the Primary Pupil NOS Framework. The findings indicate opportunities for facilitating NOS learning in Tinkering. The study also suggests that pupil acknowledgement of NOS requires facilitated reflection. This dissertation proposes an explicit-reflective contextualisation approach to facilitation for NOS learning in Tinkering. It is hoped that this research will support Tinkering’s deployment in formal learning environments, given its potential as a platform for NOS learning, and thus contribute to an increase in the epistemologically-critical learning of NOS by primary pupils.
Tinkering, Making, Inquiry, Play, Primary Learning, Education, Primary Education, Primary Pupils, NOS, Nature of Science, Thematic Analysis, Video Transcription
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