Chapter 5: How Students Learn Science

Syllabus Helpers

This chapter organizes ideas about learning into two key topics, theories of learning and learning styles. You will find the learning theories divided into three categories: constructivist, sociocultural, and behavioral. You can have your students look at any one of these three approaches

Pedagogical Tool	Highlights/Content	Notes
Initial Case Study	A New Approach to Learning, p.167	How should a teacher deal with a parent who objects to a new approach to teaching being used by a 2nd year teacher in high school biology? This is a great case to introduce the epistimology of constructivism, and to find out what your students' pre-conceptions are on this important idea.
Invitations to Inquiry	Focus question for the chapter on p. 168	Key invitations include how important is it to secondary science teachers to know about learning theory? and what is constructivism, and why has it emerged as one of the most significant explanations of student learning?
Inquiry Activities	Inquiry Activity 5.1: How Do Students Learn Science? p. 168 Inquiry Activity 5.2: Piagetian Concrete Learning Patterns p. 183 Inquiry Activity 5.3: The Mealworm and Mr. Short p. 186 Inquiry Activity 5.4: Concepts versus Big Ideas: A Deweyan Experience p.193 Inquiry Activity 5.5: Meeting of the Minds p.197 Inquiry Activity 5.6: Ideas about Student Learning Styles p. 198	Interview a science teacher to find out about how students learn Five tasks your students can use with elemenary students Puzzles to differentiate between concrete & formal thinking Find out what Dewey meant by a "big idea" and how it is different than a concept A constructivist, behaviorist, and other theorists meet Use concepts maps to explore student learning styles
Science Teachers Talk	Teachers discuss: How do you accommodate students' varying learning styles in your classroom.	Hear from Anna Morton, Ginny Almeder, John Ricciardi, Anita Bergman and Barry Plant on this question.
Case Studies	Theory of Science Teaching, p. 205 The Student Who Thought He Failed, p. 205	A teacher wonders how theory can help in the classroom After a demo used to detect student prior experiences, a student feels inferior
Think Pieces	Sample think piece: How do constructivists and sociocultural theorists explain student learning in science? What motivational strategies help students learn science concepts? pp. 204-205	This question and others helps students think about how students learn, and how theory plays a role in the science teaching profession.
Problems and Extensions	Sample problem and extension: Select a chapter from a secondary science textbook. Examine the chapter in light of the theories of learning that you studied in the chapter. Is there any evidence of constructivist theory in the chapter? Cognitive learning theory? Social learning theory? p. 207	The P & E can be used to create interesting activities either in your class or on the web.
Readings	p. 209	You'll find interesting papers and books on science teaching and learning theory. A great book to look at is Duckworth's The Having of Wonderful Ideas and Other Essays on Teaching and Learning.
On the Web	p. 209	Key web sites on science learning.