Sarah Michaels, Andrew W. Shouse, Heidi A.
This chapter from "Ready, Set, Science" makes clear what is important in terms of science learning. Many of the stated strands in the article are not present in my classroom. Although not comforting, this article does state that some of the strands are often missing from classrooms, and this can be detrimental to students understanding of science. "Strand 4 is often completely overlooked by educators, yet research indicates that it is a critical component of science learning, particularly for students from populations that are underrepresented in science." (pg6) Students need to be involved science, not just learn about it.
Unfortunately, students are "doing" very little science in my classroom, and only being told about it. Therefor strand 3 is also missing from the classroom. Strand 3 is explained in the article as bringing "the nature of science into practice, encouraging students to learn what it feels like to do science as well as to understand what the game of science is all about." (pg 5) Both strand 3 and 4 are imperative to student understanding and retention of scientific principals.
I think, at least based on the small conversation we all had in the beginning of class while introducing ourselves, that there isn't a whole lot of strand 3 in any of our classrooms. In my experiences, I know that the students have time to do the skills they are "taught" but I don't know for sure how often these skills are reintroduced. Clearly, something is missing from all of our classrooms...but the question is, how can we fix it?
ReplyDelete