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Volume 1 |
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A Reconnaissance |
The Case. A high school physics teacher typically asks students an open ended evaluation question on each unit exam. On the first exam, the teacher receives this comment from one of the students: "Last year I related to biology so well. I saw things all around me. I just can't relate to this physics stuff. Pushes and pulls; how objects bounce off each other. So it does! So what?"
The Problem: Is this students' "complaint" about physics legitimate? Is relevancy to the students everyday world something the science teacher should be concerned about? If you were the physics teacher how would you handle this situation? What would you say to the student?
The Case. Northside High School is a technology magnet school (grades 9-12) in a large metropolitian community. The science department is comprised of fifteen teachers, three of whom are first year teachers. Each of the three first-year teachers have been assigned to teach two sections of introductory physical science, and three sections of survey biology. The veteran faculty in the science department are very committed to an inquiry approach to science teaching. Mr. Thomas, the science head, at the opening science department meeting reaffirmed this by saying that instruction should be based on the assumption that "kids are like scientists." He went on to point out that students should be taught to think like scientists, that the laboratory experiments should reinforce the way scientists do their work, thereby developing in students the same skills that scientists use. One of the first year teachers (Miss Jameson) , in a private conversation with the other two first year teachers, disagrees with this philosophy. She claims that some kids simply don't think the way the scientific community thinks, and shouldn't be penalized because of it. She says that other approaches should be considered in formulating the underlying philosophy of instruction. One of her ideas is that science instuction should be more application oriented; that science instruction should show students how science relates to their own lives. She wants to discuss these ideas with the department head. One of the other beginning teachers suggests that she bring it up at the next department meeting in a week.
At the next meeting the department head reacts negatively to Ms. Jamison's ideas, and says that the kids he teaches are quite capable of scientific thinking, and therefore he can't understand why students in her classes wouldn't be capable as well.
The Problem. You are the beginning teacher. What would you do in this situation? How do you respond to Mr. Thomas.