Teaching Science as Practice

First section, typical instruction in the United States K-8 science classrooms.

Second section, the contrasting view of science as practice

Third section◦ common forms of scientific practice ◦ the different types of instruction design◦ the challenges students encounter

Fourth section, strategies that teachers and curriculum developers can use to promote students learning of science through practice.

Covers Four Sections

The dynamics of the discipline:◦ asking questions, ◦ finding ways to explore them empirically, ◦ Investigating◦ evaluating challenging alternative models, ◦ arguing

severely lacking :◦The U.S. curriculum and classrooms.◦Most importantly, in the expectations the

students have about science and what it means to learn and do science in schools.

Current Instructional Practice

Activities offered everyday in class only cover a narrow portion of Science, so this practice is leaving students with limited sense of science and what it means to understand and use science.

Current Instructional Practice

What can be done to structure, support, and develop student’s knowledge, and use and understanding of science?

Provide students with the opportunity to: learn topics in depth to use science in meaningful contexts

to engage in scientific practices

Instructional programs that scaffold science as practice.

Students:◦ develop scientific explanations and models ◦ Participate in scientific argumentation◦ Design and conduct scientific investigations◦ work on Meaningful problems◦ learn the skills in the context of their application

Approaches to Science and Practice in Research-Based Instructional Design

Designing and conducting empirical investigations

argumentation, explanation, and model building

Interacting with textsEvidence of student learning

How science as practice can be supported?

Designing and conducting Empirical Investigations:

Appropriate Instruction

With appropriate instruction students can engage in making hypotheses, gathering evidence, designing investigations, evaluating hypotheses in light of evidence and build their understanding of the phenomenon they are investigating.

Current practice, provides students with narrowly conceived, misleading opportunities to “do science”

Focusing exclusively in validating theories by following routine laboratory experiments or doing activities with no clear intellectual goal.

Current Practices

Argumentation, Explanation, and Model Building

Explanation Model Building

Representing patterns in data.

Generating general models to explain topics.

Produce supporting evidence

Convincing peers of the explanation

Responding to critiques Reaching consensus

Students conduct investigations to develop and apply explanations to observable facts, they develop claims, defend them with evidence, and explain them using scientific principles.

Argumentation

Reading and texts are an important part of science practice and plays an important role in science classrooms.

Students are allowed to:◦select a topic in a domain.◦Select a book to read related to that topic.

Innovative books:◦offer a combination of exposition, narration,

description, and argumentation. ◦offer support for the development of scientific

knowledge and reasoning.

Interacting with Texts

Evidence of students Learning:

Elementary grades Middle grades:

One common approach to engage students is problem based or project based science.

A research question about a problem can provide the context for extended investigations

Characteristics:◦ Understanding◦ Real world application◦ Apply findings◦ Concentrate on the

original problem◦ Include a culminating

activity

students acquire inquiry skills:◦ Develop questions◦ Discuss ways to

organize their questions in observations

◦ Collect data◦ Interpret data◦ Debate conclusions

Elements of Practice. Social interactions

◦will help students understand better and get different points of view.

Appropriating the language of science ◦ to understand the terms.

representations and tools ◦ to get a hands-on and visual experience while

learning.

These elements will ensure learning and adeeper understanding of the subject.

Science in Social Interactions. Science is better understood when it is

presented and examined in social interactions.

Social interactions:◦seeing everyone's point of view◦seeing everyone's opinions ◦Having discussions to get ideas and

thoughts running

The Specialized Language of Science. Science terms tend to throw students off

track due to the lack of usage. Words like “variable” and “hypothesis” are

not used in their daily life so students don’t recognize them.

Once the teacher explains the meaning of these words get a better understanding of the concepts.

Work with Scientific Representation and Tools. Scientific representations like diagrams

and charts show how things are done or how they work.

Some of these give real life examples, to which students can relate to.

Actual science equipment can be helpful since the student is experiencing what they are studying using hands-on activities.

Supporting the Learning of Science as Practice.

There are many methods for learning, as well as learning aids.

However, the teacher has to contribute in order for the student to learn successfully.

The students still needs assistance from the teacher at some points.

Teachers also have to adjust the learning tools so that students can learn little by little instead of having everything thrown at them at once.

Sequencing Units of Study

Sequencing down or breaking down units of study is very helpful for learning better.

Students cant do everything at once since the beginning, so the teacher breaks down their unit of study into little parts.

As the student goes through all the small parts of learning, the students fits them all together like a puzzle.

This provides the students with a more meaningful experience.

Instructional Guidance in Students Performance of Scientific Tasks.

Science is in students daily lives, but not strictly as to the point where their life revolves around science.

However, when learning about science, students sometimes get confused during the process.

An actual scientific task or experience can change a students initial thoughts about science.

Scaffolding Scaffolding is used to facilitate learning for

students. Scaffolding goes in a process:

◦ first the teacher explains the objective to the whole class.

◦Next, the whole class works on it together,

◦Then, the class is broken down into groups so that students can help each other out

◦Finally the students work on their own.

Scaffolding Scientific Process Students can become puzzled when

learning about science. Students tend to have doubts in science,

questioning its principles. Teachers break down the scientific

processes and the reasons why things happen with science so that in the end they can fit it all together.

Scaffolding Social Interaction basically students working together. Students are often placed in teams by the

teacher or they pick their own team. This can be effective if:

◦Students can help each other◦Some students understand better the

topic◦Teacher provides one- on- one assistance

Scaffolding Conceptual Methods Methods and tools:

Technology for example can make learning a lot simpler. Computer programs and websites with educational resources for example, can show how things are done.

Your students can see patterns and trends by using these tools and get a better understanding of the concepts.

Supporting Articulation and Reflection

Articulation is helpful in science when you have an idea and need to put it into the appropriate terms for your assignment. It is also helpful for saying things clearly and in a way that everyone will understand.

Reflections in science help students track what is going on in an experiment and how it changes.

Formative Assessment. Formative Assessment helps both the

teacher and the student improve their learning as they move through their content of instruction.

The fact that the teacher knows what their doing can give a student confidence that their work is right and has a purpose.

Classroom-Based Assessment Practices and Student Learning Outcomes.

Practices prepare students for an assessment.

Practices might help teachers to improve the outcomes in the future.

With more practice students get better results

Practice assessments prepare the teacher and the students for the real assessments.