The Nature of Science and Learning
Our first day of class provided a solid foundation of what science is what science means in an elementary school setting. The major takeaway from this class was that science is a way of knowing. To me, this means that science is not just your stereotypical beakers and white lab coats; science is a way of thinking about and discovering the world around us. Thinking scientifically means that we question both knowledge that we already hold and new knowledge that we encounter. Often it is the new knowledge that causes us to question what we already know. This concept was described by Posner’s Conceptual Change Theory, which states that the way that we think about a concept will change over the course of time due to the introduction of new experiences and knowledge about that concept. The theory can be described in three stages.
First, we encounter a discrepant event that causes us to question what we already know about a particular concept. This is the second stage known as disequilibrium, when what we believe to be true is challenged by the discrepant event. Lastly, through investigating the new knowledge and applying it to what we already know, we develop conceptual change. An example that was provided in class of ways to demonstrate this to students included how balloons filled with helium shrink faster than balloons filled with carbon dioxide. The difference in rate of change would be the event that leads to a disequilibrium, causing students to question why they are different. Overall, I think that this theory is important because it is the basis of how science works and directly relates to the definition of science as a way of knowing. When teaching science in an elementary setting, I believe that every lesson should be developed and executed in this way to not only get the students engaged but to allow them to be investigative of the world around them.
Misconceptions in Science
In class 2, we were introduced to two major ideas, the first being deductive versus inductive learning. The old way of teaching is that of deductive learning, in which the lesson begins with the teacher’s understanding on the concept, followed by problems, examples, and activities. While this is still a valid way to teach, it lacks giving the students the opportunity to pull from their prior knowledge and fully investigate the problem to draw their own conclusions. On the other hand, we have inductive learning, which begins with the activities, problems, and examples that help to guide the student to make discoveries and develop their own understanding of a concept. I believe that this is a more beneficial way to learn science as science is about discovering new concepts, questioning these concepts, and developing ideas about what we knew before and know now. I believe that the best way to do this is to use inductive learning, where students are given the opportunity to discover, question, and develop ideas as a blank slate without being given the concept beforehand by their teacher. I think that this creates inquisitive minds which is not only important in science but in every other subject area, and also in areas of life outside of school.
The second major takeaway from this class was the idea of “Minute for Management”. Minute for Management allows for flow within a lesson. This includes everything from smooth transitions to behaviour management. Personally, this is something that I feel I may struggle with as a new teacher, so it was very beneficial for me to learn about some ways to effectively execute a lesson while avoiding as many disruptions and distractions as possible. I have learned that it is essential to just focus on what is important, not to dwell on mistakes, and to ensure that each student is benefitting as much as possible from the lessons.
A Constructivist Model
In class 3 we were introduced to the constructivist model and what that looks like in terms of teaching and lesson planning. The concept of a constructivist model comes from Rosalind Driver, who has published many books about children and how they interact with and perceive science. There are five main principles of constructivism and are as follows:
1. We begin with knowledge that the students already hold. This knowledge comes from past experiences.
2. Giving our knowledge meaning is an on-going process.
3. It is necessary to create a sense of disequilibrium in our students in order for their knowledge to grow.
4. It is important to address any possible misconceptions that students may have about the newly acquired knowledge.
5. Finally, it is important for teachers to ensure that the knowledge is introduced in a way that has meaning and builds upon previous knowledge.
These principles are linked to the theories developed by Posner (Conceptual Change Theory & Accommodation vs Assimilation), Piaget (Cognitive Development Theory), Vygotsky (Social Development Theory), and Ausubel (Theory of Meaningful Learning). Driver’s constructivist model concept follows an inductive method where examples and problems are presented to the students and they must use their prior knowledge and investigative and experimental skills to build upon what they know in order to solve the problem and create new knowledge.
Building upon Driver’s constructivist model, we spent a lot of time focusing on how to build a lesson plan using this model. Taking it for face value, I felt that this model was logical and very useful for a science classroom. However, when it came to actually creating the lesson plan, I found it to be difficult. I think that with time and practice, creating constructivist lesson plans will become easier, just as is the case with any lesson plan. What has not changed, however, is the value that I see in forming a science lesson this way. It is clear, as the model draws upon the work of other theorists, that this way of thinking and delivering science is effective and important for our students’ learning.
Graphic Organizers
Next, we were introduced to graphic organizers and how both students and teachers can take advantage of these tools. For students, graphic organizers are fantastic tools to use to organize information and knowledge, both that is previously known and that is learned along the way during a lesson. For teachers, graphic organizers can be used to create lesson plans and to keep track of student assessment, for example.
The thing that I found to be most useful was the Venn diagram that our class created using hula hoops and placed ourselves within the hoops depending on the given criteria. I thought that this was such a fun and interesting way to get students to interactively create a “live” Venn diagram together. In this activity, we had to work together to find our place in the diagram. I think that this activity would be useful in all subject areas, not just science. For example, students could create a live Venn diagram comparing characters from two books as part of a language arts lesson. I think what is most important here is that diagrams and graphic organizers do not solely need to be made through pen and paper or on a computer screen. There are engaging and interesting ways in which we can get our students more actively participating and interacting with each other and the material that they are given.
Role Plays and Analogies in Science Education
Continuing on the theme of interactivity and enhanced student engagement in science, we explored the use of role playing and analogies in science. In class, we used the example of how laundry detergent and washing machines remove dirt and impurities from clothing to make them clean, and also had a mock interview role play addressing the various potential citizen concerns about the construction of a pulp mill. Additionally, we were also shown a puppet play to show how caterpillars turn into butterflies. I think that these are fantastic ways to teach science lessons to students, because, like the Venn diagram, students are engaged and interactive with the material. Students also have some control over the material when they are given the opportunity to create their own role plays. For students that are not as extroverted and do not feel comfortable acting in front of their peers, they still have the opportunity to participate through writing scripts or designing a set, for example. For most students, when they are able to directly interact with the material and subject matter that they are learning, they are going to remember what they learned much easier than if the teacher is just verbally relaying the information.
In terms of analogies, these are also very useful tools to teach students. In my own experiences, when a concept was foreign to me or difficult to understand in the way that it was being taught, I tried to create an analogy and relate it to something that I was more familiar with. Not only did this help me to understand the new concept, but the analogy was something that was easy to remember that often stuck with me for longer than just the information from the textbook or a lecture.
Process Skills
Next, we focused on the importance of process skills. This was done through a series of experiments that we cycled through during our class that caused us to think and process information from the experiments in various ways in order to create an understanding of what we were observing. Some examples of process skills include: observing, measuring, communicating, predicting, and hypothesizing. These are skills that students will, to some level, already be familiar with regardless if they realise that they are using these skills. I think that providing students with a variety of experiments, just like we did in our class, helps students to build upon all of these skills as some experiments will involve multiple process skills. Similar to integrating a lesson that caters to as many types of learning styles or intelligences, using a variety of process skills will help reach as many students as possible.
Open and Closed-Ended Activities/Language & Music in Science Education
Throughout my more recent years of schooling, I have always been taught and believed that open-ended questions were the most important and we should generally stay away from closed-ended questions. This is so that our students are given the chance to develop and explain answers and their thought processes, instead of just providing an answer and being told that they are right or wrong. However, I have now learned that it is important to provide a mix of open and closed-ended questions so that the majority of students will feel confident and comfortable providing answers. Again, tying this to Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences, open-ended questions and activities will benefit those who have interpersonal intelligence while closed-ended questions may benefit those who have intrapersonal intelligence. What is fundamentally important in any lesson is providing as many students as possible the opportunity to showcase their own intelligences and make them feel confident and comfortable in what they are doing.
During this class we also discussed how to integrate science in language arts and music. I think that these two subjects are the easiest to integrate with others because of the amount of creativity in both allows for a wide variety of lesson and activity possibilities. For example, during a unit on the water cycle, students could be asked to write a song describing the stages. Creative writing, along with use of proper grammar and sentence structure calls to the language arts side, while creating a beat or applying the lyrics to music that already exists integrates the music side. In my own experiences, I found that creating rhymes or music out of something that I am learning helps me to remember the concept much easier and for a longer period of time. Also, using language arts and music in science helps to cater to those students who have linguistic and musical intelligences according to Gardner.
The STS Approach/Technology in the Elementary Curriculum
The STS approach stands for Science-Technology-Society. One way to create a better conceptual understanding is to address a current or relevant situation in society and determine the science behind that issue. For example, a current issue could be environmentally friendly ways of generating electricity. In Nova Scotia, the majority of electricity is generated by coal, which is a highly un-environmentally friendly fuel. Once discussing this issue, students can be asked about ways to generate cleaner energy, such as with hydro dams or wind turbines. From there, the students can discuss the science behind these technologies. As I have mentioned previously in this essay, creating a real-life connection to the science learned in the classroom will help the students to better understand what they are learning. Also, we live in a highly technological age where our technologies are constantly trying to make our lives better in one way or another. In other words, while science is what we do when we want to know how things work, technology is what we use when we want to solve a problem in how things work. It is greatly important for us as teachers to discuss these technologies in our classrooms, but also address the science behind them and the impacts on society.
In Closing
Overall, I did not only learn effective strategies of how to teach science, but also how students learn about science. Learning about Vygotsky’s theory that social interaction is essential to cognitive development, Posner’s theory that we must experience disequilibrium in order to have a conceptual change, and Piaget’s theory that our cognition and intelligence change over time due to our experiences, have helped me to better understand the idea of constructivism as described by Driver. On the other hand, Gardner and Sternberg’s theories have taught me that each person has their own strengths and weaknesses when it comes to certain areas of intelligences, and that one of the best ways to be an effective teacher is to cater to as many of those intelligences as possible. Alongside the understandings of these theories, the science that I learned and ideas that I have gained have all been put together in such a way that I now feel more confident in myself teaching science to elementary students. Ultimately, I have learned that each of these topics and theories that we covered in class are all interconnected and are all the essential building blocks to being an effective science teacher as well as developing science-minded students.