Turning Teachers and Students onto Science
Turning Teachers and Students
onto
Science
Developed for the Bucks County Science Teachers,
October 22, 2008
G. Kip Bollinger, Ed.D.
(Good speeches are like good pies. Both are improved by shortening)
Haim Ginott, Teacher and Child (1972): “I’ve come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom. It’s my personal approach that creates the climate. It’s my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher, I possess a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated and a child is humanized or dehumanized.”
In this talk I hope to remind you of important reasons you became a science teacher and how important that job is today! My concerns are strategic and not to just improve test scores! I will touch on leadership, instructional strategies that matter and PMA (positive mental attitude)
Leadership: Strategic vs. tactical vs. crisis
In military lingo: strategic plans win the war, tactical plans win the battle, crisis plans keeps a soldier alive now. Or strategic=vision, tactical= foresight/insight, crisis=sight!
So how is your vision? Are you 20/20 or are you 2014? (The year that NCLB requires that 100% be proficient... To its credit, NCLB has defined a target and established benchmarks. States have been involved in defining those benchmarks. Unfortunately, some districts still take a Machiavellian approach to PSSA (the end justifies the means) and they lose an important vision for school improvement and replace it with a mechanical, reactionary crisis mentality.
Bernard Baroque, an oil baron said that when short term goals and long term goals clash, always go with the long term goals. It is refreshing that so many school districts are developing strategies that are long term and informed by PSSA and other assessments.
Steve Covey 7 Habits of success: Begin with the end in mind, be proactive, put first things first, think win-win, seek first to understand, then to be understood, synergize, sharpen the saw
Deming: 14 principles here are two that really speak to me as a science teacher:
6. Break down barriers between departments. Abolish competition and build a win-win system of cooperation within the organization. People in research, design, sales, and production must work as a team to foresee problems of production and use that might be encountered with the product or service.
10. Eliminate slogans, exhortations, and targets asking for zero defects or new levels of productivity. Such exhortations only create adversarial relationships, as the bulk of the causes of low quality and low productivity belong to the system and thus lie beyond the power of the work force.
Deming argues that you don’t get quality by testing at the end of the production line; quality needs to be built in every step. He would not like just final exams to measure quality and he would not like just one type of measure. It’s the system, not the people!
What teaching strategies have been shown to improve student achievement in science?
Research on Instructional Strategies from a Meta-cognitive study at Texas Science Initiative, Timothy P. Scott, Ph.D. Carolyn Schroeder, Homer Tolson, Ph.D
Strategies / Effect Size / RankEnhanced Context Strategies / 1.4783 / 1
Collaborative Learning Strategies / .9580 / 2
Questioning Strategies / .7395 / 3
Inquiry Strategies / .6546 / 4
Manipulation Strategies / .5729 / 5
Testing Strategies / .5052 / 6
Instructional Technology Strategies / .4840 / 7
Enhanced Material Strategies / .2908 / 8
These strategies continue to show the role of the teacher as quide on the side and not the sage on the stage.
Harry Wong: First Days of School 3 characteristics of effective teachers:
The effective teacher has positive expectations for student success
The effective teacher is an extremely good classroom manager.
The effective teacher knows how to design lessons to help students reach mastery. (Needs to know her/his subject.)
A case study on using data to effect instructional improvement. This short case study shows leadership in practice
Frank’s Case
Frank, the earth science teacher from across the hall, walked into Judy’s room and asked “Did you have a chance to analyze the state exam?” Without waiting for a reply, he continued, “Our students did a terrible job answering the questions related to wind and ocean current, once again this year. For example, only 50% of our students answered a question about the difference among air current, ocean current, and sea breeze correctly. The stronger students seemed to do just as poorly as the weaker students. I just don’t understand it. These students have been exposed to the topic since middle school. During the unit, we used videos, diagrams, as well as hands-on labs on the causes of wind and ocean current; I just don’t know what more I can do.” Judy thought that the issue might be of interest to other teachers and suggested that they schedule an end of the year science department meeting.
At the meeting, Frank raised his concern about students consistently performing poorly on some topics. Some teachers found the issue to be interesting as they had never examined students’ performance by topics or questions. It hadn’t occurred to them that test results could be used for improving instruction. A chemistry teacher suggested that Frank read an article about students’ misconceptions and how students’ misconceptions could be resistant to change unless they were explicitly challenged. The physics teacher commented that students seemed to be weak overall in interpreting graphs as he assumed that questions related to wind and ocean current involved complex graphs. Many other observations and suggestions were also made. At the end of the meeting everyone felt the discussion was useful because they developed some specific ideas to try next year.
Frank read some of the research articles on student misconceptions and strategies to change students’ misconceptions. Based on suggestions from research, he decided to teach the unit on wind and ocean current differently from previous years. Before he started the unit, he spent one class period soliciting students’ preconceptions and recording them on a chart paper displayed in the front of the room. He also used on-line computer simulations to specifically address students’ misconceptions on ocean current. Frank’s efforts were rewarded. On the next state test, over 80% of his students answered questions related to the topic correctly.
(Source: Using Data to Reform Science Instruction
Xiufeng Liu, State University of New York at Buffalo
Joseph Zawicki, State University College at Buffalo
Jeff Arnold, Daemen College, undated)
Tie this to benchmarking (Foresight test), Chester County IU and Mont. Co IU tests, district developed testing. Analysis of results – not the score but the concepts!
Needs district and building leadership. Teachers can’t do this alone. Requires a culture of inquiry into our professional work and collaboration in a non defensive manner.
Teachers need to teach and test at or above the level of the standard. Consider Webb’s work which is used by Data Recognition Corp. in aligning standards and assessments in the states it works with:
Norman Webb’s levels: 1 2 3 4 DOK Depth of Knowledge
Tie to teaching and questioning. Tie to Flanders and Amidon research. Relate to Benjamin Bloom’s work.
1 Recall And Reproduction: recognize a fact or term, perform a routine procedure (one step), rote learning, describe and explain, answer is known or not.
2 Skills and Concepts: decision, more than one step, apply, organize, estimate, compare. Interpret a simple graph (making decisions on a simple graph is level 3)
3 Strategic Thinking: reasoning, planning, using evidence. Complex and abstract thinking. Multi-step. Justify an answer. E.g. identify a research question, design an investigation for a scientific problem, solve a non-routine problem, develop a model for a complex situation, from conclusions from experimental data
4 Extended Thinking: make several connections within and among content areas. Select one approach from many to solve a problem. Over time. “Develop generalizations of the results obtained and the strategies used and apply them to new problem situations = grade 8 level 4 objective. Performance assessments and open-ended assessment activities requiring significant though will be level 4.
What types of questions typify your classroom? Levels 3 and 4 promote extended student discussion. Level 1 and 2 promote short answers (relate to Flanders and Amidon) Verbal analysis shows that effective teachers have students talking (engaged) 50% of the time.
5E s (from BSCS): engage (excite), explore, explain, elaborate, evaluate--- a way to develop independent thinkers! Requires critical thinking, reflection and communication via speaking, writing and reading.
Marzano: strategies to improve achievement
n Identifying Similarities and Differences
n Summarizing and Note Taking
n Reinforcing Effort and Providing Recognition
n Homework and Practice
n Nonlinguistic Representations
n Cooperative Learning
n Setting Objectives and Providing Feedback
n Generating and Testing Hypotheses
n Cues, Questions, and Advance Organizers
Seismic Shift needed in science:
Jobs of the future are not yet named – how to be ready for the unknown e.g. biotechnology. Discoveries seem to be at the fringe of traditional content areas. E.g. cell membrane physiology advances came from biophysics and mechanics, not anatomists.
Science Literacy (Chemical Week, September 15, 2008) by Esther D’Amico
- US talent shortages “are having a widespread impact on manufacturers’ abilities to achieve production levels, increase productivity and meet customer demands.” National Association of Manufacturers
- TAP (Tapping Americas Potential) a consortia of businesses says “By 2010, if current trends continue, more than 90 percent of all scientists and engineers in the world be living in Asia.”
- This is not just due to huge populations: in the USA only 15% of undergraduates receive degrees in natural science or engineering. In South Korea – 38%, in France – 47%, in China 50%, in Singapore – 67%
BSCS: Why Does Inquiry Matter: Essential features of inquiry
Learner engages in scientifically oriented questions
Learner gives priority to evidence in responding to questions
Learner formulates explanations form evidence.
Learner connects explanations to scientific knowledge.
Learner communicates and justifies explanations.
One graphic on the scientific method… or how to do a science fair project
(From the Internet)
Add STEM thinking here!
Fish Market in Seattle – Have fun with your work!
Attitude is everything:
Two frogs fell into a deep cream bowl,
One was an optimistic soul;
But the other took the gloomy view,
“I shall drown,” he cried, “and so will you.”
So with a last despairing cry,
He closed his eyes and said, “Good-bye.”
But the other frog, with a merry grin
Said, “I can’t get out, but I won’t give in!
I’ll swim around till my strength is spent.
For having tried, I’ll die content.”
Bravely he swam until it would seem
His struggles began to churn the cream.
On the top of the butter at last he stopped
And out of the bowl he happily hopped.
What is the moral? It’s easily found.
If you can’t get out—keep swimming around!
(From God’s Little Devotional Book, 1998, Honor Books, Tulsa, Oklahoma)
Expectation theory -- the Rosenthal Effect!
NEVER, NEVER, NEVER….. give up- Sir Winston Churchill
Affirmation and SLOP test Ray Wlodkowski, Un. Of Wisconsin Motivation and Learning.
(These materials were assembled for an oral presentation not a paper. You are welcome to use or share as appropriate.)
G. K. Bollinger, Ed.D. Page 1