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SECTION 1: THINKING IN THE SCIENCE CLASSROOM Three major ideas are developed in this chapter: strategies for interactive teaching, strategies for establishing a culture of learning, and strategies fostering independent and collaborative thinking. Teachers will be able to implement many of these strategies into the classroom and consequently you will want to return to this chapter from time to time. The chapter also includes a section on language and learning science, with specific strategiies on talking about, reading, and writing about science. The last section explores the importance of problem solving in the context of independent and collaborative thinking. Initial Case Study: The Learning Log Should writing play a prominent role in science teaching? In this case, your students are asked to try and develop a convincing argument to support this approach. This is a good lead into the chapter, especially with regard to a later section in the chapter entitled: "Establishing a Culture of Learning: Language and Vygotsky" (p.341). Strategies Fostering Critical and Creative Thinking I've put together a collection of teaching strategies that will help you reach the goal of encouraging your students to think critically and creatively. Thinking is a holistic process, and although I have identified "thinking processes" that might be characteristic of critical thinking and creative thinking (see Figure 9.1, p. 332), each contributes to human thinking. Interactive Teaching Strategies I've gone into some detail about several "interactive" teaching strategies that you many want to introduce to your students. You can model any of these yourself, and then integrate them into the microteaching inquiry (Inquiry Activity 9.1) in which your students plan and teach mini-lessons to their peers. Students can then teach a lesson and "practice" one of the "interactive" strategies as a function of the lesson. For example, a student might choose "advance organizers" and then plan a lesson that showcases how they use this particular strategy. I recommend that they not try and use more than one at any time in the microteaching enivonment.
Inquiry Activity 9.1: Microteaching: Practicing Science Teaching Skills In this inquiry, students prepare a science lesson (micro-lesson) that can be taught in 5 minutes (of course, you can change the time allotment as you deem). The lesson should be used to "practice" the interactive teaching skills shown in Figure 9.6, or one of the science teaching skills presented in this section, e.g. Advance Organizers, Creating a Stimulating Classroom Environment, The Art of Questioning, Using Examples to help Students Understand Science Concepts, Positive Learning Environment, and Closure and Making Transitions. Assign students to small teams (about 5 per team), and tell all students that they should be prepared to teach their lesson at the next class sesson. Within each small group, students can teach their micro-lesson to the remaining 4 students (one of whom has been identified as the coach. Prior to the lesson, the designated teacher should meet with the coach to identify the goals of the lesson, and what to look for. The pair should meet after the lesson is taught to review the video of the lesson. If you choose to do a "re-teach" sesson, you will have to re-group students so that they have different "learners" to teach. Establishing a Culture of Learning: Language and Vygotsky According to researchers, bringing a variety of language (or linguistic) modes is fundamental to helping students construct ideas: listening and talking; reading and writing; discussing and arguing; narrating and describing; using actions, images, and symbols.
This section emphasizes the importance of the work of the Russian psychologist, Lev Vygotsky. To Vygotsky and his propents, the social context and language are the essence of learning. You should have your students read the section (p. 341) on Vygotsky and go to a Vygotsky web site. Three language modes are emphasized. You will note that I've included practical activities that your students can use with middle and high school students: talking science, reading science, and writing science. I hope you will find this section also practical for your own college level or seminar classroom.
A reference that I found useful in putting this section together is Jones, Carys, 2000, "The Role of Language in the Learning and Teaching of Science," in Martin Monk and Jonathan Osborne (eds). Good Practice in Science Teaching: What Research Has to Say. Buckingham, UK: Open University Press, pp. 88-103. Talking Science Talking is as essential to learning as making observations is to the process of science. However, as cited in this section, talking by students in infrequent, and often the response to a question by the teacher. Talking is important because it enables teachers to find out about student prior knowledge, and world view. I've outlined several strategies you might use with your own students so that they can see how these strategies work among themselves. These include structured controversy, open-ended questions, think-aloud pair problem solving, and using science stories.
Here is a graphic that you might use to introduce structured contoversy---a strategy that encourages academic conflict and discussion. The strategy involves developing materials on a controversial issue (see the listing of issues below), and then conducting the "debates" as small group discussion sessions. See pp. 242-343 for details.
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Reading Science One of the challenges for science teachers is to make reading an active process, rather than the prevailing passive nature of reading, especially when textbooks are the main sources of reading. This section (p.344-350) highlights an active approach, and includes several strategies including: listening, coming to terms---the vocabulary problem, reading for meaning and understanding (K-W-L strategy), and semantic mapping. To provide practical examples, I've included a few sample lessons in this section, and in the next on "writing science." Sample Lesson 8.1: Earthquakes This lesson, about earthquakes, using the K-W-L strategy, and can be used a model for other content lessons using the strategy.
Writing Science Writing helps students reconstruct knowledge and ideas, and is a powerful tool in the classroom. Again, the problem is designing interesting writing activities. Several practical strategies, as well as sample lessons are included in this section (pp.350-354). I've suggested several strategies you might want to use: writing to learn (see sample lesson 8-2), web-writing (email projects, bulletin board discussions, and web page design), science logs (see sample lesson 8.3), science newspapers, and storywriting.
In this lesson, science observations and notes are used to encourage the students to write a poem about rocks.
Perhaps one of the most powerful writing tools is the use of the learning log or science journal. Logs can be used as a note taking devise, as a record of experiements and activities, as a vehicle to write dailing reflections, and as a learning tool. Sample lesson 8.3 shows one way to use a log.
In this activity, the learning log is used as a tool to record, and reflect on a science demonstration or discrepent event. Strategies That Foster Independent and Collaborative Thinking I've highlighted two strategies here, problem solving and science fairs. Problem Solving
I recommend that you take a look at Joseph Polman's book on project-based science teaching (Polman, Joseph L., 2000, Designing Project-Based Science. New York: Teachers College Press). You can also obtain resources on project-based science teaching at this web site. In the text you will find a collection of science projects (view on the web) in each of the categories. These are practical examples of problem solving, and should be of value to your students in the development of lessons and units of teaching (see pp. 357-359)
Science Fairs Science fairs can be a powerful way to involve some of your students in science. You might scale the model down to the classroom level, and use it with various units of teaching, or as a major "project" for a semester course. Send you students to Science Fair Central for information and ideas. SECTION 2: SCIENCE TEACHER GAZETTE Think Pieces There are several interesting think pieces that should help your students reflect on the key topics discussed in the chapter. If you use an Internet Case Study: Questioning--Inquiry or the Inquisition? How should teachers ask questions? Is it a good practice to ask students who you know won't be able to answer? This case brings this issue to the table. The Research Matters article by Patricia Blosser, Using Questions in Science Classrooms (pp. 361-363) might be used in conjuction with this case study. Science Teachers Talk: What strategy of instruction do you find to be the most effective with your students? Tom Brown, Rachel Zgonc, John Riciardi, and Mary Wilde discuss this question. You might want to ask your students at the beginning and the end of this chapter to discuss this question. Research Matters: Using Questions in Science Classrooms by Patricia E. Blosser This is a classic piece written by Patricia Blosser who contributed many research papers during her work at The Ohio State University. Research Matters: When are Science Projects Learning Opportunities by Marcia C. Linn and Helen C. Clark This is a key piece of research written by two outstanding researchers on the value and criteria for science projects. Problems and Extensions I've included a wide range of P & E's focusing on strategies of science teaching that you can use as classroom activities, online discussion starters, or individual project work. Readings There are several articles that provide practical examples of using innovative strategies in the science classroom. On the Web A collection of websites that should enhance your students' work with outstdanding strategies of science teaching. |
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