A Study Of Storyline Approach To Promote Coherent Science Learning Among Middle School Students

The current wave of international science education reform suggests that meaningful science learning should be promoted,while the real need for disconnected students in the learning environment calls for a focus on the students’ agency and a new view of learning coherence from the student’s perspective.In this context,the Storyline Approach has been proposed as a new solution to promote students’ learning coherence.This study adopts the proposition for learning coherence that students’ science learning is not motivated by teacher or textbook requirements;coherent science learning for students should be such that when a classroom community engages in meaningful science practices,students are positioned as learning facilitators and managers of knowledge construction trajectories.The story line approach,however,provides opportunities to promote coherent student learning as an instructional model that uses student-asked questions as a guide and encourages students to co-manage science practices as collaborators in knowledge construction.In this study,students in two seventh grade classes of Shanghai Y Junior High School were used as the subjects."In class A,the story line was taught before the iteration,and in class B,the story line was taught after the iteration.At the end of the regular instruction and at the beginning and end of the story line unit,students were given a "science exit ticket" questionnaire to measure their perceived level of learning coherence during the learning process,and the data were compared before and after the story line instruction,at the beginning and end of the story line instruction,and before and after the iteration of the story line unit.The results of the study showed that: first,comparing the data before and after story line instruction revealed that students perceived higher levels of learning coherence in all three dimensions in the context of story line instruction compared to regular instruction;second,comparing the data at the beginning and end of story line instruction revealed that as the story line progressed,students had a clearer sense and grasp of the science learning process and a clear understanding of the science learning trajectory in the classroom Third,before and after the iterations of the story line unit,students’ levels of learning relevance and learning contribution in the learning coherence dimension increased.Based on the aforementioned findings,this study proposes the following two recommendations for research and teaching of middle school science in China: first,teachers should pay attention to students’ feelings in the learning process,and improving science teaching based on students’ perceived level of learning coherence will be more relevant and directed;second,teachers can appropriately let go of their obsession with implementing teaching goals and give students the opportunity to promote science learning.