Pariksha SaathiLesson 8 of 8 · Science and its Pedagogy (Paper II)
Evaluation, Text Materials and Remedial Teaching in Science
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CCE in science
The RTE Act 2009, in Section 29(2)(h), requires comprehensive and continuous evaluation of a child's understanding of knowledge and ability to apply it. Continuous means assessment runs through the year as part of teaching: formative assessment is assessment for learning, giving feedback while learning goes on, and summative assessment is assessment of learning at the end of a term; assessment as learning means children monitor their own learning through self- and peer-assessment. Comprehensive means it covers scholastic and co-scholastic areas: knowledge, process skills, attitudes, values and practical work. NEP 2020 asks for regular, formative, competency-based assessment that tests higher-order skills rather than rote memory.
Tools of assessment
Paper-pencil tests capture only part of science learning. Teachers also use oral questioning, observation during activities, anecdotal records (brief notes on significant incidents), checklists (yes or no for listed behaviours), rating scales (the degree of a quality), rubrics (criteria with performance levels, shared in advance), portfolios (collected work showing growth over time), concept maps and open-ended questions with more than one acceptable answer. Feedback should be descriptive, telling the child what was done well and how to improve, rather than only a mark.
Assessing the three domains
Bloom's taxonomy of the cognitive domain (1956) was revised in 2001 by Anderson and Krathwohl as Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyse, Evaluate, Create. Krathwohl's affective domain runs from receiving and responding to valuing, organisation and characterisation, and R.H. Dave's psychomotor levels are imitation, manipulation, precision, articulation and naturalisation. Process skills are assessed through performance: to test controlling variables, show a set-up and ask which factor must be kept the same; to test recording, ask children to enter readings in a table. A task such as 'Design a way to find whether a ball bounces higher on a hard or a soft floor' assesses planning an investigation, a Create-level skill.
Practical work
Practical work is assessed for planning, handling apparatus correctly and safely, observing and recording honestly, interpreting results and communicating them, through observation of performance, laboratory records and short oral questions. Safety is part of it: never taste chemicals, waft vapours towards the nose instead of smelling directly, point a heated test tube away from people and add acid to water slowly. Where laboratories are lacking, kits and improvised apparatus let every child handle materials, and rotating roles in a group stops a few children, often boys, from doing the experiment while the rest watch.
Text materials and aids
NCF 2005 treats the textbook as one resource among many, not the whole curriculum; the teacher also uses the local environment, the community and children's own experience. NCERT's upper primary science books based on NCF 2005 are built around activities, with the characters Paheli and Boojho voicing children's questions; a good science textbook is accurate, age-appropriate, activity-based, gender-fair, linked to the environment and written in simple language. Edgar Dale's Cone of Experience (1946) places direct, purposeful experience at the base and verbal symbols at the top: the more concrete the experience, the more lasting the learning.
Misconceptions
Children bring their own ideas, called alternative conceptions or misconceptions, formed from daily experience and language: plants get their food from the soil, heavier objects fall faster, the Moon makes its own light, the phases of the Moon are caused by the Earth's shadow (that is an eclipse), seasons depend on distance from the Sun, a bat is a bird, a spider is an insect, a mushroom is a plant, and heat and temperature are the same. Such ideas persist and are not removed by simply telling. The constructivist sequence is to elicit the idea through a diagnostic question or concept cartoon, create cognitive conflict with an activity whose result contradicts it, help children restructure it through discussion, and apply it to new cases. Posner and colleagues (1982) said conceptual change needs dissatisfaction with the old idea and a new one that is intelligible, plausible and fruitful.
Diagnosis and remedial teaching
A diagnostic test locates the specific difficulty behind errors, for example whether a child who fails circuit questions does not know that a circuit must be closed or confuses conductors with insulators; it is not meant for grading. Remedial teaching follows, with a method different from the first one: concrete materials, small groups, peer tutoring, more examples and individual attention, then a re-test. Errors are windows into children's thinking, not occasions for punishment. Quick learners need enrichment, such as projects and challenging problems, rather than more of the same exercises.
Problems of teaching science
Common problems are rote learning driven by examinations, a lack of laboratories and equipment, large classes, an overloaded syllabus, science taught in a language the child does not speak at home, teachers untrained in activity-based methods, gender stereotypes about who can do science, and science cut off from daily life. Remedies follow NCF 2005 and NEP 2020: use the home language alongside the textbook language (NEP 2020 wants the home language, mother tongue or local language as the medium of instruction wherever possible until at least Grade 5, preferably till Grade 8 and beyond), improvise apparatus, use the community and the environment as resources, plan group work, and assess understanding rather than recall.
Key facts
- RTE Act 2009, Section 29(2)(h): comprehensive and continuous evaluation of the child's understanding of knowledge and ability to apply it.
- Formative = assessment for learning (during teaching); summative = assessment of learning (end of term); assessment as learning = self- and peer-monitoring.
- Tools: anecdotal record (significant incidents), checklist (yes or no), rating scale (degree of a quality), rubric (criteria and levels), portfolio (growth over time).
- Revised Bloom (2001, Anderson and Krathwohl): Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyse, Evaluate, Create; affective domain: receiving to characterisation; psychomotor (Dave): imitation to naturalisation.
- Laboratory safety: never taste chemicals; waft vapours; point test tubes away from people; add acid to water, slowly; keep sand, water and first aid ready.
- Edgar Dale's Cone of Experience (1946): direct, purposeful experience at the base, verbal symbols at the top.
- NCF 2005: the textbook is one resource, not the only one; NCERT's science books based on NCF 2005 use Paheli and Boojho to voice children's questions.
- Misconception route: elicit, create cognitive conflict, restructure, apply; Posner and colleagues (1982): dissatisfaction, intelligible, plausible, fruitful.
- A diagnostic test finds the specific difficulty; remedial teaching re-teaches with a different method; quick learners get enrichment, not more of the same.
- NEP 2020: wherever possible, the home language, mother tongue or local language as the medium of instruction until at least Grade 5, preferably till Grade 8 and beyond.
Quick revision
CCE = RTE Act 2009, Section 29(2)(h); formative is assessment for learning, summative of learning; anecdotal record, checklist, rating scale, rubric, portfolio; revised Bloom 2001; affective - Krathwohl; psychomotor - Dave; assess process skills by performance; textbook is one resource; Dale's cone runs from concrete to abstract; misconceptions need cognitive conflict, not telling; diagnostic test then remedial teaching; enrichment for quick learners; home language helps science learning.