CHILDREN'S MODELLING SKILLS DURING PRACTICAL SCIENCE ACTIVITIES

Baldeh's exploration of children's modelling skills offers a wide-ranging analysis of the complex relations between modelling skills of pupils and the teaching/learning of Science. The age group 11- 16years envelops Piaget's cognitive development stages and so offers unique opportunities of diagnosing challenges pupils face. A smart intervention to boast the children's learning abilities for science and mathematics education is best done at this age, hence my choice to study them.Piaget's pre/formal operational cognitive development stages concisely delimited what children of this age can learn. Hence I felt it necessary to study their modeling and problem- solving skills, if any, during practical science activities. The study was conducted in one of UK's Science High Schools at Macclesfield, comprising of mixed-abilities pupils. Although the nature-nurture effect on teaching and learning cannot be ignored, the lessons drawn by this work will serve a useful guide for science teachers in their efforts to transform pupils' predominant intuitive models to the desired academic models of scientific knowledge in their various pedagogic environments across the globe.