My philosophy of effective science teaching includes using numerous ways of teaching in order to reach the diverse group of learners that I will have in my future classroom. I believe that everybody learns differently, so in order to help reach all of my future students, I want to provide them with both hands on and minds on activities. I believe that providing students with different methods of inquiry, and providing numerous experiences for students are essential to giving them an enthusiastic and meaningful science education. In my kindergarten field placement, students were given these kinds of meaningful science experiences, and I believe that these experiences in combination with my cooperating teacher’s enthusiasm provided the students with a good base for the rest of their science education. In my future classroom I hope to offer my students meaningful science experiences through inquiry in a way that engages the students and allows them to apply what they learned to their everyday lives.
I really like the idea of the Inquiry and Application Instructional Model (I-AIM) because I think it offers students necessary experiences and thinking processes that can be applied to all disciplines of science. Inquiry through experiences, patterns and explanations (EPE) is a broad process that does three important things. Experiences in the material world allow students to make observations and gather data that can later help them find patterns. Once patterns are found as a result of experiences, scientific laws and generalizations are formed that later leads to explanations that help students make sense and understand what they experienced. Teachers can help further the EPE framework through the five E’s which include engaging students, having them explore, explaining, elaborating and evaluating. Although it was not explicitly said, this instructional model is something that I saw being used in my field placement.
My cooperating teacher gave her students many experiences, allowed them to look for patterns and found explanations with her students. She would engage the students by getting their attention by either creating new experiences for them, or by asking the students about their prior experiences. I will use a lesson that she taught about recycling to demonstrate how my cooperating teacher used the I-AIM model in her classroom. When she taught this lesson, she first engaged the students by asking them about their prior experiences. Do they recycle at home? She also drew upon prior experiences that she knew they had about sorting. Sorting is necessary in order to be able to recycle, and the students had talked about sorting the previous week in class. So, from the beginning, all of the students had some prior experience to relate to because as a class they had already talked about ways to sort. From the beginning of this lesson, the students were engaged. She provided the students with the problem/question of what would happen if we ran out of resources? Through this she explained that it is important not to waste, and to recycle so that we can reuse some of the things that we have. Next, she briefly lectured about the differences in the recycling symbols, and passed around different containers for the students to look at. They were able to find the recycling symbols and know what to look for when they are at home. Through this exploration of looking at the symbols, they were able to see the evidence that these symbols exist, and see how easy it is to look for these symbols and recycle at their own homes. My cooperating teacher explained why it is important to recycle, and was able to relate this lesson to the student’s own lives. This was relateable to their own lives because they can recycle both at home and at school by recycle paper and plastics. This was something that the students could actually apply to their own lives, and continue to explore and ask questions about outside of the lesson that was taught. This is a simple example of how even at the young kindergarten level; teachers can get students excited about science. This is something that I hope to do for my future students. I want to give them plenty of opportunity to explore through hands on experiences and show them how they can connect science to their everyday lives and the world around them.
Something that I think is important to consider when teaching science is that all students have different ways of learning. Due to this, I want to provide my students with different ways of exploring, and I want to use different forms of assessment. I do think that there are times when a more lecture-based, didactic approach is necessary to reach students, or to at least give them some of the scientific generalizations that they need. I believe that this is more important at an older level, probably starting in upper elementary school. I believe that students do need some sort of structured, lectured based learning so that they can make sense of future explorations and hands on experiences that they may have. Students can apply what they learned from a lecture to what they are doing in an experiment. However, I realize that some students might learn better through their hands on experiences, which is why I want to be able to give my students both hands on and minds on experiences through both lecture and hands on activities. I think that hands on activities are especially important for ESL students, and as a teacher I want to always provide my ESL students, and students with special needs, with the same amount of quality education that non ESL students receive. I also think that it is important to be diverse when assessing students. For example, teachers can assess students in different ways ranging from discussion, having them draw pictures, sometimes having them create a project, or sometimes having them write an explanation. Students learn and express what they know differently, so in my future classroom I want to provide all my students with different options for expressing what they know.
Other things to consider besides special needs and language when thinking about diverse groups of learners are their conceptions, their cultural resources. When thinking about how to go about teaching a lesson, consider what your students already know about a topic, their general conceptions or notions about science, and how they tend to express their knowledge. Another source is their cultural resources. What funds of knowledge do they already have from their home life? What skills, abilities, ideas and practices do students bring from home that you can apply to the classroom? Also, what kinds of youth genres do students have? What do children do to explore in their own unique way? How do all young students, regardless of background, like to explore in the same kinds of ways? To answer these questions teachers can observe students and how they interact together during “free time,” have class discussions where teachers learn about student’s experiences and ideas, interview students and even go on home visits or participate in community events when possible.
Another issue that teachers face when it comes to teaching science is the fear that they, as the teacher do not know enough about science, or a specific topic that they are going to be teaching. Yes, I do think that this can be scary, but it is also something that I think is very manageable. I think that it is important, like Anderson suggests, to first clarify your own understanding, describe knowledge and practices at the student’s level, and to describe your purposes as a teacher in terms of student’s learning. Teachers can educate themselves before teaching a lesson, but if questions arise that you as a teacher to do have an answer to, I think this is a great learner opportunity for both students and teacher. Together, students and teachers can go through the inquiry process and try to come up with explanations to questions. Another thing that I think is important for teachers to consider for both themselves and for students is the anti-deficit perspective. I think it is important to try and understand student learning and achievement in science from the strengths students bring to the classroom. This can also be true for teachers and how they teach science. If you can understand your own strengths as a teacher and as a science learner, you will more successfully teach your students to do the same. As a teacher, I think that it will be important to recognize strengths that my students have, and then try to tailor science lessons to encourage those strengths.
Science can be a fun and exciting subject to teach, where students discover things about themselves, how they learn, and how the world around them functions. In order to give students the best science education possible, what I think is most important is giving them opportunities, and encouraging them to inquire. Have students ask questions. These questions can be questions for themselves, their classmates or for the teacher. Then inquire and try to find explanations to these questions through gathering data. A great way to do this is to have students keep journals. Journals can be individual, or group journals, but nonetheless, journals should be a place where students keep their ideas and ask questions about the world around them. Journals are a place for students to keep their data and then later try to make sense of that data. As a teacher, I want to use inquiry as the basis for my science teaching. I want my student to wonder. Wonder about the world around them and then try and gather data, and then use that data to try and answer their questions. I want to engage my students by inviting them to express themselves, having them share their ideas and sparking a curiosity so that they want to learn. I want to have my students explore and “mess around” with hands on materials and with their ideas. I want them to have different ways to go about solving a problem and I want them to do this through observation, recording, comparing, and sharing. I want my students to be able to explain concepts and findings in their own words so that I know these findings make sense to them. I want my students to be able to elaborate on their ideas and experiences by using scientific terms and by making connections to former and future experiences. Through evaluation I want my students to demonstrate what they understand, share with others, ask new questions, and most of all apply what they have learned, discovered and wondered about to their everyday lives. Overall, I hope to provide my future students with inquiry based science learning in a fun and exciting environment where they are comfortable asking questions and then trying to answer those questions.