"Where did they come
from?" "How old are they?" "Where did you get
them?" "Are they all the
same?" "What are they used
for?"
Questions asked by the the teacher? No! These are questions asked by students in a ninth grade teacher's physical science class at Southside High School in the Atlanta Public Schools. The teacher, one of thousands of new science teachers in the United States, began the first day of school with a very brief activity. He gave each student a fossil crinoid stem, placing one in each students' hand, and telling them they could not look at the object until he said they could. The students were instructed to explore the object without looking, and to write down observations of the object, and to make a small drawing of it as well. Still without looking, the teacher asked the students to call out some of the observations (hard, breaks easily, gritty, grainy, cylindrical, about 2 cm in diameter, grooves along the side, a hole in the center). Then the teacher provided each student will play doe, and asked each student to make a replica of the crinoid (still without looking).
Finally the teacher asked the students to guess what they thought it was (rock, bone, dog biscuit, pottery) and then to look at the object. Without telling the students very much, he asked the students if they had any questions about the object. Their curiosity led to several questions as shown above, and then to a discussion of these 400 million year old fossils from Silurian rock beds of North Georgia. The next day, the teacher divided his students into groups and assigned a different task to each group. Later in the lesson a student from each group reported their results to the class.
The teacher began his class by actively engaging his students with natural materials, having them work in groups, and encouraging them to use their observation skills and creative abilities to solve problems and participate in interesting tasks.
However, this lesson and the way hiw students feel about science is in stark contrast with what is known about science teaching in the United States and other countries around the world. In general, students see science class as dull, no fun, and a place where they do not wish to be. Students do not like the typical or traditional science classroom. Although studies about science teaching reveal that there are many factors that seem to make science teaching more interesting and result in high achievement (these will be discussed in the next chapter), one factor that seems to be very important is engagement. What this refers to is the active involvement of students in the learning process. Students were engaged in handling, operating or practicing on or with physical objects as part of the lesson.
Perhaps the one metaphor about science teaching that has become a password for "good science teaching" is that science teaching should be hands-on. In recent years, however, this metaphor has been enriched and expanded with the use of the phrase "minds on science". These metaphors seems like a simple and logical step in the teaching process, but the evidence from science education research studies is quite the contrary.:
1. The predominant method of teaching in science is recitation (discussion), with the teacher in control. We will call this the delivery mode of teaching, contrasting it from the engagement mode described above.2. The secondary science curriculum is usually organized with the textbook at the core, and the main goal of the teacher is to cover (or deliver) all the content in the book.
3. The science demonstration ranks second as the most frequently observed science "activity." Two out of five classes perform demonstrations once a week. And, please note, that in most demonstration, students are typically passive observers.
4. Student reports and projects are used about only once a month or more in half the classes.
5. Because of the anxiety to cover the text, the use of inquiry techniques is discouraged, and is rarely observed. Instead activities are generally workbook exercises in following directions and verifying information given by the textbook or teacher.
A great controversy exists in the field of science education surrounding the issue of engagement versus delivery. Which model is more effective? Which is more efficient? How do students react to these models? Which model helps most students understand science? Which model do you prefer?
Let's explore the differences between the delivery and engagement models of science teaching in order to develop a better notion of the nature of science teaching. To do this you will plan and teach two lessons using a microteaching format. Microteaching is a scaled down version of teaching in which you present a short lesson (usually 5 - 15 minutes in length) to small group (5-7) of peers or secondary students, video tape the episode, and evaluate the lesson, and then make recommendations for possible changes. You will find more details on microteaching in Chapter 9.