Improving Teaching with Research and Theory–Part 1
On Friday morning Karen Johnson, an eighth-grade science teacher, walks into the teachers' workroom with a disgusted look on her face.
"What's happening?" Ken, one of her colleagues, asks.
"I just had the most frustrating class," Karen replies. "You know how I told you the other day that my third-period students really struggle with basic science concepts. Well, today we were working on density. They memorize the formula and try to solve problems but don't really get it. They are confused about basic concepts such as mass, weight, volume–everything. To them, mass, weight, and density are all the same. If it's bigger, it's more dense. The class was a disaster."
"You know how these kids are; they just aren't used to thinking on their own," Ken responds.
"That's part of the problem, but there's more." Karen says, shaking her head.
"They've never really done anything other than memorize some definitions and formulas. So what do we expect? . . . I have class tomorrow, and I'm going to ask my instructor and see what he thinks about this problem." (Karen is working on an advanced degree, and she takes a class in teaching and learning that meets every other Saturday as part of her program.)
Discussion:
In the discussion with Ken, Karen laments in reference to her students, "They are confused about basic concepts such as mass, weight, volume–everything. To them, mass, weight, and density are all the same. If it's bigger, it's more dense. . . ." and, "They've never really done anything other than memorize some definitions and formulas. So what do we expect?"
What form of teacher knowledge is essential for helping students acquire a meaningful understanding of a concept, such as density?
Improving Teaching with Theory and Research–Part 2
"Good morning, Dr. Ramirez," Karen says to Cedro Ramirez as she walks into the classroom. "I have a problem with my students, and I wonder if you might help me."
"Of course, I'll be happy to try," Cedro responds. "Let's talk about it after class."
At the end of the day, Karen explains the problem, describing it in much the same way as she had described it to Ken in their conversation the day before. "What can I do?" she asks.
"Good question," Cedro responds. "Yes, I think I can help you. . . . This actually relates to theories of cognitive development–the development of students' thinking–which is our topic for the next class. . . . You're describing a problem that is common in students.
"Here are some of the issues. First, cognitive development theory tells us that students need concrete and real-world experiences in order to learn to think in the abstract. The concept density is quite abstract, and even though your students are eighth-graders, the concept won't make sense to them if they haven't had some concrete experiences with the concept. Since it doesn't make sense, they simply try to memorize the formula and solve problems with it, even though the formula doesn't really make sense to them either."
"So, what do I do?"
"Very simply, you must provide the experiences for them. . . . So, what, for example, can you show your students, or what can you have them do, that will concretely illustrate the concept density in such a way that it will make sense to them."
He continues, "Studies showing that students' understanding dramatically increases when they work with clear, concrete examples and have plenty of class discussion with them have been some of the most influential in my career."
"In fact, in one study researchers had one group of teachers carefully explain a topic, and they had another group show a series of examples and asked the students to look for patterns in the examples. The students taught by the second group of teachers showed much deeper understanding. . . . You're going to hear a lot about that as our class goes along." Cedro laughs.
"Thank you so much, Dr. Ramirez." Karen smiles as she leaves. "You've been very helpful. I'll let you know how I make out when we have our next class."
Discussion:
Identify two types of research that Dr. Ramirez described in his conversation with Karen. Provide evidence taken directly from the case study in your description. How do research and theory contribute to making teachers more effective? Provide a specific example from the discussion between Karen and Dr. Ramirez.
Improving Teaching with Research and Theory–Part 3
"What's that for?" Ken asks, seeing Karen walking into the teachers' lounge with a plastic cup filled with cotton balls.
"I just had the greatest class," Karen replies. "You remember how frustrated I was on Friday when the kids didn't understand basic concepts like mass and density, and all they wanted to do was memorize a formula. . . . I talked to Dr. Ramirez about it in class on Saturday, and he gave me some great ideas. So, I thought about it over the weekend, and decided to try something different, even if it seemed sort of elementary."
"See," she goes on, compressing the cotton in the cup. "Now the cotton is more dense. And now it's less dense," she points out, releasing the cotton.
"Then, I made some different-sized blocks out of the same type of wood. Some of the kids believed the density of the big block was greater. But then we weighed the blocks, measured their volumes, and computed their densities, and the kids saw they were the same. They gradually began to understand that size is only one factor influencing density.
"This morning," she continues with increasing animation, "I had them put equal volumes of water and vegetable oil on our balances, and when the balance tipped down on the water side, they saw that the mass of the water was greater, so water is more dense. I had asked them to predict which was more dense before we did the activity, and most of them said oil. We talked about that, and they concluded the reason they predicted oil is the fact that it's thicker.
"Here's the good part," she continues, "Calvin, he hates science, remembered that oil floats on water, so it made sense to him that oil is less dense. He actually got excited about what we were doing and came up with the idea that less dense materials float on more dense materials.
"You could almost see the wheels turning. We even got into population density and compared a door screen with the wires close together to one with the wires farther apart, and how that related to what we were studying. The kids were really into it. A day like that now and then keeps you going."
(To see visual representations of the examples Karen discusses, look on pages 36 and 42 of your text.)
Discussion:
The theory and research that Dr. Ramirez described for Karen most strongly affected which kind of professional knowledge for her?
In his conversation with Karen, Dr. Ramirez also commented that students need "plenty of class discussion" as they work with the examples. To which kind of professional knowledge does the ability to conduct orderly class discussions most closely relate?