Final Vision Statement
As a
pre-service teacher, I have a vision of how my classroom will be. I have the details in my head of exactly how
my dream classroom will look, with me at the front teaching young minds. My first classes in the College of Education,
helped shape this vision of my ideal classroom.
The walls will be covered with encouraging banners, classroom management
boards, pictures, science gadgets, fish tanks and maybe an amphibian of some
sort. The desks would be placed in
groups to encourage collaborative learning.
My perfect classroom. What I
hadn’t quite been introduced to at that point was, how and what exactly I would
be doing. What precisely did I see
myself doing and saying? What kind of
teacher will I be?
In a mere four months, in my Science Methods course, all
I thought and knew about science education was turned upside down. Before taking
that course, I knew science needed to be taught by using inquiry, but I had
absolutely no idea what inquiry really meant.
I knew that assessment is key, but what is assessment and how do I
assess student understanding? I knew how
to write a lesson plan; well at least I thought I had it under control. So many things that I thought I knew, barely reached
the brim of what I needed to know. I had
to fight my misconceptions of what science teaching is about.
First
Revelation: Misconceptions
The first influence on my vision was the idea of
formative assessment. To teach students science, or any subject for that
matter, we have to build upon their knowledge.
If we don’t know where they are to begin with, then how will we get them
where they need to be? This was my first revelation. Misconceptions guide students in their
learning science. It is the ultimate
tool.
In the article titled, “Misconceptions Die Hard” this
very idea is discussed. The article
outlines the idea that students are taught the same things over and over again
throughout grade school, and often times allow their misconceptions to get in
the way. “Some students simply reject explanations that are in conflict with
their beliefs or that they do not understand.” (Stepands, et. al.) This is
because we aren’t taking the time to allow the students to fight their
misconceptions. Too many times teachers, plan and teach entire units and are
shocked when they find 50% of their students not getting it. What’s worse is the teachers continue to move
on. They have deadlines and have to keep
moving so 50% of the class is left in the dark, holding on to their
misconceptions.
To address these misconceptions as a teacher, I first
have to know what misconceptions are present.
To know the misconceptions, we have to formatively assess the students,
by using probes. In my science practicum
experience, we had to teach a lesson on surface tension, two different
times. The first time was to a group of
8th graders, visiting the University of Iowa. Before we began the lesson we asked a single
question. How is this bug staying on top
of the water? Based off the responses we
received, we preceded to continue the lesson.
If they knew a lot about it, we needed to know, so that we could make
the lesson a little more advanced. If
they knew little to nothing we could precede with the lesson as planned. We gave the same probe to a group of 6th
graders and taught the same lesson. What
amazed me the most is how beneficial it was to have those probes. The conversation with the 6th
grade students were completely different then the conversation with the 8th
graders. Had we jumped into the lesson,
many of those students would have been lost on understanding the whole lesson,
thus causing more misconceptions.
My vision of science education is a constructivist
vision. We will build off existing
knowledge and fight our misconceptions as a class. We will be a team, ideally leaving no one
behind. In order for students to fight these misconceptions we will use
inquiry, which brings me to the second influence to my vision.
Second
Revelation: Inquiry based learning
The second influence on my vision is the true meaning of
inquiry. I began knowing that inquiry
was essential. Students need to have a question. What I missed was the whole picture. There is much more to inquiry then just
asking questions. This was my second
revelation.
When I first decided to become a science teacher, I
thought back on how my science teachers taught me. Most of my science
memories come from cookie cutter experiments, except for my chemistry class.
There were very few labs where we started out knowing the results or even
how we were going to get where we needed to be. If teachers
continue to do cookie cutter experiments like activitymania then students will
never really learn and be engaged in science, therefore end up not liking
science. This goes against everything we need in today’s science
classrooms.
I understand why teachers like activitymania. Like
the article states, the teacher is in control and everything is neat and tidy
and organized. Of course teachers would prefer that to the alternative.
Part of the reason for this is that teachers seem to think they have to
know everything before they can teach the kids, when in reality teachers should
learn with the kids instead of making sure we know all the answers before
hand. This is what separates activitymania from inquiry-based
learning. We are not required to know it
all. We just have to know how to find
the answers, and that is by using the inquiry method.
Inquiry will take away some of the control but add higher
order of cognitive thinking. I learned that students must be engaged with a
scientifically oriented question, and give priority to evidence, which allows
them to develop and evaluate explanations that address scientifically oriented
questions. Students will formulate
explanations from evidence to address scientifically oriented questions,
evaluate their explanations in light of alternative explanations, and be able
to communicate and justify their proposed explanations. My vision of my science
classroom incorporates all the features of inquiry.
Third
Revelation: Learning Continuum-opportunities for all
My third influence to my vision happened after
understanding the five features of inquiry.
At first, it seemed pretty basic.
In order for it to be inquiry all of these features must happen. What I didn’t realize right away, was that
not all of these features absolutely have to be student directed. Unlike activitymania, where everything is
teacher directed, inquiry can be combinations of student lead experiences and
teacher lead experiences, as long as the five features are present. This brought me to my third revelation, the
learning continuum.
The learning continuum depicts a sort of scale that
allows us to see whether an activity is more teacher-directed or student-directed. What makes this tool great is that it can be
used to help develop lessons for more advanced students, or for students that
need a little more guidance. For
example, in the article, “Moving Beyond
the Science Kit: Exploration of Electricity and Atoms,” it describes two
extremes of teaching. One extreme teacher uses the science kit, exactly how it
was given to her. The other teacher
basically uses the materials and allows the students to explore on their
own. In our science methods class we had
a chance to examine this very idea. Each
group was given two different lab instructions. One instruction was pretty
basic. It described step by step how to do the experiment. The other sheet gave us a few ideas and told
us to figure out how to make the light bulb light up. What I found with this experience is that
this is exactly how you would accommodate students that need a little guidance
or those that are more advanced and need more of a challenge.
|
Essential Feature
|
Variations
|
|||
|
1. Learner
engages in scientifically oriented questions
|
Learner poses a
question
|
Learner selects
among questions, poses new questions
|
Learner sharpens or
clarifies question provided by teacher, materials, or other source
|
Learner engages in
question provided by teacher, materials, or other source
|
|
2. Learner
gives priority to evidence in responding to questions
|
Learner determines
what constitutes evidence and collects it
|
Learner directed to
collect certain data
|
Learner given data
and asked to analyze
|
Learner given data
and told how to analyze
|
|
3. Learner
formulates explanations from evidence
|
Learner formulates
explanations after summarizing evidence
|
Learner guided in
process of formulating explanations from evidence
|
Learner given
possible ways to use evidence to formulate explanation
|
Learner provided
with evidence
|
|
4. Learner
compares explanations to other explanations
|
Learner
independently examines other resources and forms the links to explanations
|
Learner directed
toward areas and sources of other explanations
|
Learner given other
possible explanations
|
Learner given all
other explanations
|
|
5. Learner
communicates and justifies explanations
|
Learner forms
reasonable and logical argument to communicate explanations
|
Learner coached in
development of communication
|
Learner provided
broad guidelines to use sharpen communication
|
Learner given steps
and procedures for communication
|
|
|
More
|
<== Amount of Learner
Self-Direction ==>
|
Less
|
|
|
|
Less
|
<== Amount of Direction from
Teacher or Material ==>
|
More
|
|
The learning continuum will help decide when something
should be teacher- directed or student-directed based on the student
needs. Maybe some groups are given the
scientific question and others have to develop their own questions. Some students may be more guided in the
experiment, while others are left to explore.
Forth
Revelation: Assessment
Finally, my vision cannot be complete with out knowing
how to assess. A teacher can do
everything to the best of their ability, follow all they have learned, but
without assessing their students properly, how will we know if students have
learned? Assessment is something that I
never really paid much attention to starting out in the College of
Education. I figured it was a basic
concept. I wasn’t too worried. Which lead me to my forth, major revelation of
the semester, and that is assessment is the single most important aspect of
teaching.
The article, “How is Student Understanding Assessed?”
discusses the many different varieties of assessment. It is surprising how many
forms there are. My favorite form is concept
mapping. Students can begin with
everything they know about a topic, and as they grow and learn more about that
topic they can add to the map. This not
only can be used to pre-assess students, but gives students ownership to their
learning. My second favorite is
observational assessment. We are
constantly assessing students on what they are learning simply by what we see
them do in the classroom. Having a way
to record the assessment will make it easier.
I can use a checklist or anecdotal records. This can be accomplished by taking a few
minutes everyday and writing notes about what a particular student achieved
that day. My third favorite from of
assessment is the formal and informal interviews with the students. What better
way to not only get to know your students, but find our what they know. The downfall of this particular assessment is
that it requires a lot of time.
My vision will include all of these forms of assessment,
but the importance is to make it meaningful.
My students will be assessed on what they have learned in science. They will be assessed based off the learning
performances and standards. Have they
met the overall objective of the lesson?
Science
Vision
I have come a long way from my initial thoughts about
science education. It started out with
simple minded ideas of my classroom set up, and now has transformed into a much
more meaningful vision. My classroom
will not only have all the awesome science gadgets and the cool class animals,
but it will also be an environment that promotes learning for all students.
Students that come through my doors will be encouraged to
fight their misconceptions, learn how to be scientist by using inquiry based
learning, and will be motivated to learn about science. My goal is to stop the
cookie cutter lessons that allow students to advance through school without
having to think for themselves, so that one day they can be more productive
members of our scientifically advancing society.
Misconceptions Die Hard
Shifting from Activitymania
Bulbs, Batteries, and Wires:
Moving Beyond the Science Kit
Assessment: How is Student
Understanding Assessed? Chapter 9 By Krajcik
No comments:
Post a Comment