The field of education has been becoming quite diverse and expanding with students, technology, and teaching techniques. In Secondary Education, there are content areas such as English, Science, and Social Studies, and an educator that teaches any of these content areas and more, must be able to utilize varied techniques or practices in order to meet students’ needs and learning styles. In regards to Science teaching in particular, not only does the teacher must be able to know and teach the concepts of the content area effectively, but he/she must be able to convey to the students the applications and vocabulary with those scientific concepts. Although there is an abundant of array of effective practices in Science teaching available for a teacher to use in his/her instruction, there are three strategies that are well-known and greatly documented to have improved student learning, vocabulary, and developing student-to-student and student-to-teacher interactions. These effective practices are: Cooperative Learning, Word Games (Vocabulary Strategies), and Graphic Organizers.
Cooperative learning involves the students to work together in order to accomplish a goal or task. The students rely more on each other and less on the teacher (Alvermann, D. E., Gillis, V. R., & Phelps, S. F., 2013). Such practice is beneficial in Science especially in regards to the laboratory setting. With experiments, the students have to be able to work with their lab partner or groups in order to obtain accurate results. It has been shown that “humans learn best when they collaborate with others and actively process personally meaningful information” (Lin, Emily 2006). An example of a well-known cooperative learning technique that can be utilize...
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...the outcome of the students learning, recall of the material, and social interactions as they move further in their education. Although these practices have been known to work well in the classroom, a teacher should still assess each practice as they are being utilized in order to know which practices benefited the students greatly and which practices did not help the students or may need improvements since every student does learn and retain information on a different level. These effective practices along with numerous other practices are important for incorporating a diverse learning environment, positive interactions, and lifelong learning, but it is how the teacher implements each practice that makes the difference in obtaining the results needed and making such practices effective and useful in not just the Science classroom, but any content area classroom.
Teachers and students provide the following feedback to the Secondary Science Education Department at the University of Nebraska:
Stiggins, R., & Chappuis, J. (2008). Enhancing Student Learning. Retrieved from July 2009 from, http://www.districtadministration.com/viewarticlepf.aspx?articleid=1362.
This project focused on one first grade classroom. It was selected because the science teacher also acts as the homeroom teacher. As the homeroom teacher, the teacher spends an additional thirty minutes with this first grade class. Students see the science teacher during breakfast and morning meeting. The class then was able to have more time to discuss and review homework expectations. This homeroom has three Latin American students, one of which is an English Language Learner, and twenty African American students.
By incorporating NOS in science textbooks, not only we will be addressing the problem suggested by Sutton (1998), but, also, as teachers, we will be reinforcing scientific expertise needed in to develop active citizens while attaining two roles in scientific understandings that are “knowing how” science was established and “knowing that” which is constituted of facts and scientific knowledge (Bellous &Siegel, 1991). Finally, Sutton’s chapter provides a concise framework for teachers and research scholars to view science teaching and scientific knowledge from a different perspective. Such that the science content and teaching should be viewed from the scientists’ perspective to the extent that collaboration between scientific community is needed to reach such
On my journey to become a science teacher, the development of my personal philosophy of teaching has provided me with the foundation that structures my teaching vision and values. I am committed to create a learning environment that models democratic values and embraces diversity to educate students to become responsible, productive and lifelong learners in a multicultural society. Furthermore, I am dedicated to develop my students’ language, literacy and numeracy using a wide range of teaching strategies and resources across all phases of learning, but, particularly, in the context of the science and technology. My teaching principles include my life time
Research provided in the literature was done mostly with primary school aged children and completed using different areas of the curriculum. The research placed interactive whiteboards in a classroom with a projector and computer with the location being that of a typical whiteboard in the front of the classroom. The interactive whiteboards provide the opportunity to provide the curriculum to the student while interacting with the material and the teacher. Additional research from the literature was completed with pre-service teachers in Australia. They were pre-service primary education teachers studying the area of science education.
Collaborative learning is an educational approach that involves groups of learners working together to reach a consensus through negotiation to solve a problem, complete a task, or create a product (Bruffee, 1993). Learning occurs through active engagement among peers, wherein the main characteristics of collaborative learning are: a common task or activity; small group learning, co-operative behaviour; interdependence; and individual responsibility and accountability (Lejeune, 2003).
Scarnati, J. T. (2001). Cooperative learning: make groupwork work. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 67(Fall), 71-82.
My teaching career has been spent learning how to provide appropriate support, guidance, patience, & understanding, as well as to enhance academic growth & success, for all students. My purpose as a teacher is to enrich and inspire the lives of young students with moderate/intensive needs by providing access to information instead of functioning as the primary source of information for students to flourish. My teaching methods will be to create an environment ripe with opportunities for discovery and exploration which will allow all students to learn at their own pace, generate questions and construct knowledge, while providing hands-on practice of skills in authentic situations as well as to make learning intriguing and meaningful to all students. Carefully planned and constructed learning environment will also allow the teacher more time to meet the individual needs of each student. Another important factor to a well-prepared learning environment is to facilitate learning, and providing students with balance and consistency (2004). Young students require a balance between various classroom dimensions, including activities guided by the teacher and independent work, quiet work and active work, gross motor and fine motor activities, and open and closed aspects to the curriculum and classroom materials (2004). Consistency is also a required condition for learner success. Schedules (daily and weekly), the enforcement of classroom rules, and student expectations should not be in flux but remain consistent. Without a sense of consistency in the classroom, school life would lack the necessary feeling of safety and reliability young children need to focus, to take risks, and to t...
Teachers will become familiar with the ways in which students learn best, allowing them to create a classroom that
When integrating Nature of Science into curriculum, assumptions are made about students and instructors. These assumptions include that students are all at the same level in terms of science understanding and concepts as the rest of their classmates, and also assumes that the students learn at the same rates (NGSS: Appendix A). These assumptions are detrimental to science education when focus needs to be on the content being taught rather than teaching background of science as a standalone. Teaching NOS explicitly becomes increasingly difficult when students aren’t given access to proper science learning environments. As mentioned in the High Hopes – Few Opportunities reading, it is stated that, “California students do no typically experience high-quality science learning opportunities[.]” (Dorph et al., 2011). When students don’t have a basis for scientific concepts, it becomes increasingly difficult to teach NOS. America’s Lab Report further expands on the idea that this style of learning is not likely achievable, as “[N]o single […] experience is likely to achieve all of these learning goals.” (Schweingruber et al., 2005) where learning goals is referencing the goals of laboratory experiences that include understanding Nature of Science. Again, when a lack of understanding for general science exists, its arguably much more difficult to teach
Indeed, involving the students in the learning process can only enhance learning and self-development. Infusing the love of learning within the students may encourage them to become lifelong learners, always striving to become better knowledgeable citizens, long after compulsory schooling. I find teaching to be an ongoing, continuous yet challenging process that is rewarding in return. I see no end for improvement. I want to be a teacher who even after years of teaching, still strives to make each lesson better than the previous one, with my mind set on engaging my students to love Physics and Science as much as I do.
The application of collaborative learning strategies is a process in which two or more students work together. Collaborative strategies will be used in planning, translating and reviewing the education process to form student learning through group-oriented activities. This source will also be useful in lesson planning to help explain how collaborative learning strategies in the classroom will help students in the learning process improve by interaction; how positive interdependence of collaborative learning leads to common responsibility; how collaborative learning builds students’ self-esteem, and confidence in students. This application recommends that collaborative learning strategies can be implemented with Jig-saw technique as well as in learning technology which can be accessible to all participants working in cooperative groups (Iqbal, Kousar, and Ajmal, 2011).
In Science, teachers serve as the facilitator of learning, guiding them through the inquiry process. Teachers must ask open-ended questions, allow time for the students to answer, avoid telling students what to do, avoid discouraging students’ ideas or behaviors, encourage to find solutions on their own, encourage collaboration, maintain high standards and order, develop inquiry-based assessments to monitor students’ progress, and know that inquiry may be challenging for some students so be prepared to provide more guidance. There are three types of Science inquiry: structured, guided, and open. Structured is the most teacher-centered form of inquiry. This type of inquiry is mainly seen in laboratory exercises where the teacher needs to provide structure, however the students are the ones who conduct the experiment and find conclusions. Guided inquiry is where the students are given tools to develop a process and find the results. As an example, the teacher would instruct the students to build a rocket, but not tell them how to design it. This leaves creativity and uniqueness for the students to be able to apply their knowledge and skills. Open inquiry is when students determine the problem, i...
The purpose of teaching is to provide appropriate and effective instruction to students. As Science teacher we are responsible to develop and provide the necessary visual aids use in science classes (Dy 2011). Teaching physical sciences is more productive when there is an availability of the materials suited to the level of students. The use of an effective instructional material plays an important role during the teaching-learning process. There is a relationship between the utilization of an effective instructional material with the performance level of secondary students as cited in