Case studies of student research projects in school science

These case studies offer strong support for the notion that learning occurs naturally and inevitably when it flows out of a student's desire to extend her own interests and experiences. This view was expressed strongly by the progressives (Dewey [1963], and Kilpatrick [1928, 1952:315] ) and more recently by Wilson (1971). They also represent "instances of autonomy" that challenge our normal assumptions of student behaviour. There are, of course, matters of the transmission of those "storehouses of knowledge" that represent the disciplines, and matters of practicality in motivating and managing a class of students pursuing their own interests (Tytler 1983), that would make it impractical to centre all teaching around the IRP or its equivalent. The need to include IRP's at a significant place within the curriculum, however, is indicated not only by the student outcomes that have emerged in this study, but from the fact that an increasing number of teachers have found it to be a satisfying method, involving a more powerful and natural view of the student in relation to the educational process (Tytler, ibid). The case studies have something to say about all such activities (other possibilities are described in Boomer [1983]) that invite students to take responsibility for the serious development of their interests. They stand as examples of the way students work outside the classroom, but also as celebrations of student independence and autonomy. Too often the schooling practices we subscribe to tend to invalidate students' own life experiences. These case studies provide a challenge to us to find educative ways that can match the range of abilities and dispositions that students bring with then to school. © 1988 Australian Science Education Research Association.