Perspectives of Hands-On
Science Teaching

David L. Haury and Peter Rillero, 1994
3. How does a hands-on science approach fit into a textbook-centered science program?

Many schools and advocates of hands-on learning seek to do away with textbooks or downplay their value, particularly in the elementary grades. The forces for keeping textbooks are undoubtedly strong; the dominance of the textbook in defining the curriculum has marked American education since its inception. Some schools have decided to keep textbooks and use hands-on science activities to supplement a text-based approach to teaching science. The following responses address the issue of how teachers can use hands-on activities along with a textbook in science teaching and learning.

Teacher Responses

• The science textbook serves as a springboard for instruction and learning in my sixth grade classroom. Hands-on learning activities are used to reinforce and extend what my students have read in the text and what they have learned through class discussions. To foster curiosity and create motivation I might introduce a new unit by using a hands-on learning activity. At the completion of a chapter or unit these activities are useful in helping students establish the relationship of concepts and synthesize their knowledge. The teaching of lab skills, problem- solving strategies and group learning skills can be easily incorporated into the learning activity.

Hands-on learning activities offer opportunities for active participation and concrete learning experiences which support the learning styles of early adolescents. The enthusiasm for lab days in my classroom has a positive effect on the attitudes my students have for science. The ability for me to interact with individual students during the hands-on learning activity enhances my effectiveness as a teacher. I feel using the textbook in conjunction with the hands-on learning approach provides a successful learning environment in my classroom. Lynn Reid, 6th grade science teacher, Sells Middle School, Dublin, OH

• Hands-on science may allow a child to network many possibilities, while the text can anchor an experiment in theory or provide a reference for a different strand of thought. At the start of a unit, an activity related to the topic in the text acts as a catalyst setting the mind and the body into the inquiry mode. Linda Lash, Grade 5 Classroom Teacher, Butler School, Lowell, MA
• Science textbooks (including workbooks) are basically worthless unless they are used in conjunction with hands-on activities. Teachers who use only textbooks often wonder why their students lack the motivation to learn, as well as why their students often have difficulty learning facts for chapter tests. Teachers who provide appropriate materials for children to interact within the discovery process find their students have a much higher level of both motivation and understanding. Lou Ann Anderson, The Ohio State University Lima branch, Lima,OH

Developer Thoughts

• Hands-on science activities should be used in at least three different ways if used in conjunction with a textbook program. Firstly, materials should be supplied to students before they begin a new topic. Students should be given the opportunity to explore freely activities and materials to generate interest and prompt questions related to the topic. Secondly, hands-on activities should be used to enable students to observe directly phenomena that are presented in their textbooks. Finally, students should be given an opportunity to design new experiments based on the knowledge they have acquired. Furthermore, separate hands-on units can be developed, or existing hands-on science programs purchased, to complement a textbook-centered program. Mathew Bacon, Delta Education (publisher of SCIS 3, Delta Science Modules, ESS, OBIS), Hudson, NH
• A major issue here, and perhaps the most important issue, is not about the compatibility of hands-on- and textbook-centered curricula; but the compatibility of resources with teachers' paradigms, especially student- and subject-centered paradigms, which guild the establishment of learning environments. Contemporary education is structured primarily from a history of valuing subject-centered, transmission of knowledge approaches. As a result textbooks are the dominant learning resources and hands-on science curricula have often been used to do textbook science, only with materials. This simply does not produce significant results in learning.

When we value and incorporate student-centered, constructivist perspectives into our thinking, a larger understanding of what learning should be about emerges; and also a better understanding of the different and unique roles of hand-on materials and textbooks in learning. If a teacher's learning paradigms are constructivist and student-centered, a hands-on curricula will be one important element for learning. Other resources will take on new meanings such as textbooks becoming sources for interesting ideas and reference, rather than words to be memorized. Hands-on curricula will be used to put students more in control of their learning by encouraging individual student inquiry into a thinking about relevant phenomena. This can lead to students more effectively incorporating new ideas into their existing knowledge. Additionally learning resources will be utilized to help remove teachers from transfer of information approaches to becoming effective "learning coaches" for creative and critical thinking. This can reduce the often felt teacher's need to impose specific thoughts and ways of thinking on students. The results should be to better help students' thinking grow in very unique ways, often with very unexpected, yet profound, results.

Thus, since the teacher is the most significant influence for establishing the classroom learning environment, I believe that ultimately, the compatibility of resources for learning will be controlled by the compatibility of resources with the learning paradigms of the individual teacher. To most effectively utilize resources, teachers must continually evaluate and grow their paradigms for learning based on experience as reflective practitioners and review of current learning research. They should recognize that their values enable reform of teaching practice. Are your primary values textbook-centered, subject-centered, material- centered, teacher-centered, student-centered, or what? Bill Schmitt, Content Director, Galaxy Classroom, Los Angeles, CA

• Hands-on science, when defined as inquiry, cannot easily fit into a textbook-centered science program. At best, textbook programs incorporate some activities with materials as supplements to or illustrations of material covered in a particular chapter. These activities tend to be very directed, "cookbook" in nature, and children do them to confirm what they've been told, not inquire into the materials or phenomena. Textbooks also cover a great deal of content, leaving little time for in-depth hands-on experiences.

Fundamentally, textbook programs and hands-on programs represent very different beliefs about how children learn, what is important to learn, and how learning should take place in the classrooms. They are, therefore, incompatible as programs.

There are, however, ways in which texts can be used in a hands-on program. Textbook material, if accurate, can serve as reference for students. Having engaged in a hands-on study, chapters in a textbook may be useful to read as summaries. At times, given time constraints, a hands-on program might include (along with a series of in-depth studies) brief reading on a topic that can't be studied in depth or for which a hands-on approach is not possible.

As students become older - middle and high school level - texts can play a larger role. However, they must be balanced with significant inquiry, laboratory experience and the use of a wide array of resources must become less encyclopedic and deeper in what they include, and must be written from a conceptual perspective rather than an informational one. Karen Worth, Education Development Center, Inc. (Developers of Insights: A1), Newton, MA

• The text exists to provide background information for use before and after hands-on activities .... The good teacher seeks out activities to complement the text and more fully illustrate the concepts, to give local examples of the big picture, and to keep students interested in the subject. Text teaching is easy, organized, and disciplined, with predictable results (boredom and test anxiety). Teaching with hands-on activities is demanding, hectic, noisy, and sometimes unpredictable, but everyone is involved, eager, and active, and participants remember what they have done. Activities energize, localize, and dramatize science. I never saw a textbook do that. Rosanne W. Fortner, The Ohio State University School of Natural Resources, producer of Ohio Sea Grant Education materials and Project JASON curriculum activities
• The SWOOPE (Students Watching Over Our Planet Earth) Program is based on the discovery and exploration approach to learning. Students take measurements on the environment and send data to a database. Textbooks can be used for reference along with other materials. Dianne K. Hyer and Roger C. Eckhardt, Students Watching Over Our Planet (SWOOPE ), Los Alamos National Laboratory

Notes from the literature

• Over 80% of first through sixth grade elementary teachers from a national sample reported using hands-on instruction in their classrooms. Ninety percent of teachers in grades 4, 5, and 6 reported using a textbook for science instruction. For grades 1 to 3 the average approximate percentage of teachers who used a textbook ranged from 45 to 79 (Teters & Gabel, 1984). Clearly there is a large percentage of teachers who use a textbook and a hands-on approach together.
• Science instruction in grades 6-8 have been strongly influenced by the high school textbook approach (Padilla, 1981). However, "traditional textbook science programs must not be the only source of classroom learning. For a good balance between structure and flexibility, reading and doing, discussing and experimenting, teachers must identify appropriate activities and integrate them into the textbook" (Padilla, 1981, p. 38). Teachers should list the objectives of a unit and look for activities that correspond to the content and objectives. If there are no activities or very few for a particular unit, Padilla advises that the teacher should question the appropriateness of the unit for middle/junior high school students.
• A textbook-centered program can be augmented with a hands-on component to integrate right brain and left brain functioning in improving achievement and attitude (Hider & Rice, 1986).
• Lack of time to teach hands-on science is a frequently mentioned obstacle (Morey, 1990; Tilgner, 1990). This is compounded by the tendency for teachers to want to "cover the textbook." According to a district science supervisor, "In all elementary schools, once you buy a text, it doesn't matter what the state or the district says" about what is actually required; teachers try to cover the entire book (Martens, 1992, p. 154). To create time for hands-on instruction it is important for teachers to decide the major concepts to be taught and use hands-on activities to help achieve these goals.
• Penick and Yager (1993) observed that exemplary elementary school science programs, almost without exception, "have developed their own curricula, usually based on ESS materials or the Science Curriculum Improvement Study (SCIS). In almost all instances, textbooks were not in a central position. Teachers saw the locally developed curriculum as more appropriate cognitively, relevant, responsive, and reliable. In fact, many teachers spoke of textbooks as 'supplementing the curriculum.' When asked, 'What would cause your program to fail?', the most common answer was, 'adopting a textbook for science.' This doesn't mean they use no printed materials. Instead, they either wrote their own or used carefully selected portions of commercial materials" (p. 4-5).
• Stefanich (1992) sees a trend to increase the use of textbooks. "There is a growing concern on the part of some educators and citizens that knowledge objectives have been deemphasized too much. As a result, the trend is toward more content through utilization of textbook-based materials. Elementary teachers appreciate the clarity of content and convenience for yearly planning afforded by the scope and sequence outlines offered in the textbook series. They feel greater confidence that students are acquiring a core of essential knowledge and appreciate the clarity of content and convenience for yearly planning afforded by the scope and sequence outlines offered in the textbook series" (p. 14).
• In order to adopt more of a hands-on approach, teachers need to be free of influences that promote the exclusive use of the textbook. "If a school district is promoting hands-on science but has always required the use of a textbook, textbook use must become optional so that participants do not face contradictions between what they are being asked to do and school district policies. In addition, teachers must not be held accountable for test score results during the change from traditional to hands-on science. Scores are likely to fall during the transition period" (Foster & Dirks, 1993, p. 15).
• "Most school districts simply adopt a textbook series, provide three and a half hours of inservice education, and call the result a science program. Needless to say, this strategy does not serve the best interests of our nation or provide the best education for our children. Science educators should not assume that a textbook series or a packaged program will be the solution to their school district's needs. Rather, textbooks and other programs must serve as points at which to begin the process of developing science programs" (Orlich, 1983, p. 10).
• Textbooks may be improving their incorporation of hands-on science learning. During the 1970s several publishers produced "hybrid" materials which combined textbooks with aspects of hands- on learning. These hybrid materials were closer in emphasis to the NSF project materials than to textbooks of the 1950s (Helgeson, Blosser, & Howe, 1977). The emphasis on process skill objectives and the resultant materials-centered activities (also called manipulative, practical, or hands-on) were extended with many textbook series and textbook/kit programs. Pratt (1981) prepared the elementary school report in Project Synthesis. He analyzed three groups of textbooks: four popular textbooks that were used by an estimated 22% of elementary classrooms; three texts associated with ESS, SCIS, and SAPA (8% of classrooms); and four "new generation" textbooks. The frequently used textbooks were rated poorly for "First Hand Experience" and "Involved in Data Gathering." The NSF and new generation texts were rated high to good for these categories. From responses to a survey asking how much hands-on materials or models influence their textbook selection, 69% of grades K-2 teachers and 72% of grades 3-5 teachers indicated that this was considered often, considered extensively, or it was the main factor in their textbook selection (Harty, Kloosterman, & Matkin, 1989).
• "No other subject area has a set of programs for which student performance is so demonstrably superior to traditional programs. Textbook publishers have borrowed many of the ideas from these investigative curricula [ESS, SAPA, and SCIS], but have not adopted the instructional philosophy that is key to their success" (Atwood & Howard, 1990, p. 858).
• In an analysis of science textbooks for junior high/middle school students, Shepardson (1993) found the activities tended to stress lower level skills such as information gathering, remembering, and organizing rather than higher level skills such as classifying, inferring, theorizing, generalizing, hypothesizing, and predicting.
• "A hands-on methodology elicits a 'minds-on' response from students. The relevance of the topics, the students' understanding of and interest in science, and reading skills can all be increased with the introduction of tradebooks. Tradebooks are commercially available publications that can be uses as supplements to your classroom text" (Kralina, 1993).
• Charron and De Onis (1993) describe the approach of two elementary school teachers, Tess and Maria, in combining reading and science. Tess used a reading strategy with her students that consisted of four steps.

Step One: Students brainstorm and record what the already know about a topic.

Step Two: Students list what they want to learn.

Step Three: Students investigate the topic by reading about it.

Step Four: Students summarize what was learned.

Tess and Maria then decided to adapt the approach for science instruction by adding hands-on activities to the reading activity in step three" (Charron & De Onis, 1993, p. 15). After reviewing the district science framework, they found activities from sourcebooks and Maria's files. The entire unit, incorporating textbook, tradebooks, and hands-on science activities, took two weeks. "The teaching of science in the elementary classroom is sometimes characterized as either 'reading about science' or 'doing science.' Elementary students may benefit most, however, when curricular areas are combined. By gauging what their third graders already know about plant growth and what they would like to explore further, then developing a lesson series that combined reading, discussion, and laboratory activities, Tess and Maria provided their students with an understanding of both plant growth and scientific process that is superior to that acquired from either a textbook or a hands-on activity alone" (Charron & De Onis, 1993, p. 17).

Summary

The cry to "throw the textbooks away" is in part a backlash against the dominating influence of textbooks on science curricula and instruction. However, the textbook has withstood the test of time in conveying basic information, outlasting even the use of chalk and chalkboards. A large percentage of teachers are able to combine hands-on learning and text-based instruction. The responses of teachers presented in this section indicate that hands-on learning and science textbooks need not be incompatible. Textbooks can provide springboards to discussion or instruction, serve as references for students, provide background information, or supply examples and applications of key ideas in science.

It seems critical, however, that the goals of instruction be clear and that learning be based squarely on direct experiences when inquiry is the focus. We hope that textbook publishers and curriculum specialists will consider the importance of providing quality hands-on activities to enrich textbook programs. Even better would be an orientation that views textbooks as useful supplements to hands-on learning, providing information and resources to extend learning beyond what has been constructed from direct experience.

Posted to the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory's
Pathways to School Improvement Internet server on June 30, 1995.

Contact: info@ncrel.org