Final Vision Statement

Final Vision Statement

I believe science education is a difficult task to teach.  I believe for science education to be the most successful, an inquiry-based environment is necessary.  I believe for science education to be the most successful, the learning environment needs to become more student-directed and less teacher-directed.  As I have learned throughout the semester, science education needs to begin with probing students for misconceptions before and during activities.  For science lessons to be impactful, all five features of inquiry need to be included- engage, evidence, explanation, evaluate and communicate.  I have learned that it is vital to be able to teach to a diverse group of learners and the importance of formative assessment.

My current vision statement has varied from my initial vision statement at the beginning of the semester.  I believe I have matured my ideas regarding science education.  I now believe that before any science education can begin, teachers need to probe their students to determine student misconceptions.  A misconception is a model or theory that a student develops as a means to make sense of events in the world around him or her.  The student’s theory may cause him or her to make inaccurate predictions and can be very channeling to dislodge. Misconceptions can be troublesome for students because they can prevent students from understanding and making sense of new material.  I want to implement labs into my future science education in order to dislodge misconceptions.  As Richard Borst states, “labs are another way to prevent misconceptions” (The Science Teacher, page 68).  This is true because teachers can maintain close contact with their students during the lab activities.  Teachers can ask probing questions while students are exploring the lab activity, which acts as a tool for continually assessing students’ knowledge.

I anticipate teaching students science education with great enthusiasm.  I do not want students to feel overwhelmed by science material and want to be sure to teach science to all learning styles.  I want to have science lessons that accommodate all of my students’ learning styles.  As I teach to a diverse classroom I want to provide visual, auditory, and interactive activities to accommodate all students learning styles.  During my science practicum experience I was able to observe a diverse group of learners.  As I observed the students, I quickly noticed the more interactive the portion of the lesson was, the more the students were engaged and ultimately learned.  I also learned that classroom management issues disappeared when the students were involved in the lesson.  The more student-centered the lesson was, the more the students were engaged and enjoyed the lesson.

I believe connecting science material to students’ lives is essential to science education.  Students are much more concerned with concepts that they are able to relate to.  A great way to incorporate student’s lives into science education is by allowing students to explore and learn about their environment.  Braus and Wood state, “Getting students out into the environment on a regular basis is an important part of a comprehensive environmental education program.  Nothing can replace first-hand experiences to help students understand their community, natural systems and environmental issues” (Environmental Education in the Schools, page 9).  By allowing students to learn about their environments, they are able to make connections with other science related concepts.

Tell me, and I forget, Show me, and I remember, involve me, and I understand. I believe this statement perfectly describes how science education should be taught.  For students to become involved, students need to be in an inquiry-based setting where they are free to explore and develop new ideas.  The first feature of inquiry is engage.  Students need to engage in scientifically oriented questions for meaningful science lessons to be successful.  Students should be exploring questions that interest them. 

The second feature of inquiry is evidence.  The learner gives priority to the evidence they collect.   Students need to understand the data they are collecting and why it is meaningful and helpful to their education.  The students should be in charge of collecting their data and should be able to collect their data however they decide. The third feature of inquiry is explanation.  The learner will formulate explanations based on their data and create an explanation from that evidence.  Students should analyze their data and create an explanation for their findings.  Before any outside knowledge is provided, students will make meaning of their collected evidence.  The fourth feature of inquiry is to evaluate.  The learner compares their explanations to other explanations.  It is vital for students to have access to a variety of different materials.  Krajcik states, “learning is a continuous process that requires many new experiences in which students can construct and reconstruct knowledge by interacting with others and materials”.  This statement accurately describes the benefits of having the ability to interact with a variety of materials. The final feature of inquiry is to communicate.  Students will communicate and justify their explanations.  By communicating their information the student is displaying their knowledge.  This final feature of inquiry can also be used for assessment that is another extremely important aspect in science education. 

Keely states, “Classroom assessment serves multiple purposes, including diagnosing, monitoring, providing feedback, and measuring” (Uncovering Student Ideas in Science, page 1).  Classroom assessment should be a continuous process. Allowing assessment to become formative will greatly benefit the students and teacher.  With formative assessment, students are given feedback that allows them to determine areas of improvement.  Teachers are also able to assess their teaching and determine areas for improvement within their instruction.  Very rarely should assessment be summative.  Summative assessment provides feedback to students and the teacher; however, the feedback is somewhat meaningless because the material is already concluded when the feedback is provided.

I believe for science education to be meaningful to students, inquiry-based instruction is necessary.  Students should work through each stage of inquiry as they conduct science experiments.  Although teaching to a diverse group of learners can be challenging, with multiple forms of representation and activities, it can be done successfully.  It is also essential to relate science education to students’ lives.  Finally, formative assessment needs to be continuously implemented throughout the course of the year.  

Reflection for Team Teaching

Team Teaching Reflection- Part 2A

Kailey, Kelsey and I worked with a group of 5^h and 6^th grade students at Lucas Elementary school.  We taught the students a lesson about mysterious powders.  It went great! I was extremely pleased with our lessons.  The parts of the lessons that went the best were the sections that were the most interactive.  I also learned that behavior issues in the classroom were eliminated when students were engaged in the learning.  The changes we made after our feedback was extremely beneficial to our group.  After our peer teaching our peers recommended us to find a different way to distribute our materials because with all of the liquids and powders on the table at the same time- it was very confusing and overwhelming.  For our lesson, we chose to distribute the liquids one a time.  And then when the table was done with the particular liquid, they would raise their hand and a teacher would provide them with the next liquid to test. 

On the second lesson we asked student volunteers to read our crime scene information, the suspect bios and the breaking news aloud to the class.  Because the students were so excited about the crime scene and the information, they weren’t listening to their classmates that we reading the information.  If I were to teach the second lesson again I would have each table read their information aloud to just their table members.  This could even be made into a competition with the other tables. 

The students met and some exceeded our learning performances.  On the first lesson when the students were filling out their data collection sheet they were using their prior knowledge about powders and when they have seen them before.  By the end of the lesson, the student’s descriptions of the reactions excelled.  In fact, about 5 of the students went home after the first lesson and did some of the experiments we did in class! That was so exciting to hear and I was thrilled when the students told us the next morning. The students exceeded our learning performances on the second day.  Many of the students were able to identify the mysterious powder just by doing one reaction with the liquid.  Many of the students already had educated guesses about the powder just by looking at it, which really showed their progression from the first lesson.

For the most part, our lessons went according to plan.  On the first lesson we did not get through all we had planned. The students took more time to experiment with the different powders which we did not anticipate for.  The first lesson we finished with some students who just started the powder identification sheet and others who were close to being finished.  Then, our group meet again after our lesson to discuss any revisions we thought needed to be made to our second lesson.  We started off the second lesson by finishing our first lesson, which ended up working great because it allowed the students to revisit some of the ideas we explored on the first lesson. 

I learned how much fun it is to actually be teaching lessons in the classroom instead of just creating lesson plans for classes.  I also learned that behavior issues in the classroom truthfully disappear when the lesson is inquiry-based.  By observing our classroom prior to our lesson, I had a general idea of students who I knew were going to finish early, students who would have a challenging time staying on task and others that would finish last.  During the portions of the lessons that were less hands on, such as reviewing over descriptions and explanations of the powders, is when we had very minor behavioral issues.  I quickly learned that almost immediately when the students bored, that was when there was issues in behavior.  There was one student in particular that just needed some extra guidance to stay on task, but during the experimental and crime scene portion of the lessons, he was great. I also learned that when teaching inquiry there are issues that come up on the fly.  This was a bit challenging to do while teaching with two other members because it was difficult to make a quick decision and inform the other teachers.  I learned that inquiry based lessons need to be thoroughly thought out prior to teaching.

I honestly would not change much to our lessons.  The lessons went great and the students were for the most part, always engaged and seemed to enjoy the lesson.  The only thing I might to differently is choose another indicator such as iodine that has more reactions with powders.  Some of the reactions were not as obvious as I would have liked them to which made it a little difficult for students to use the flow chart.