INSES Chapters 1 & 2

Chapter 1: I thought the story scared by Mrs. Graham's class was very touching and truthfully portrayed the benefits of having inquiry based learning in the classroom.  However, the amount of time that is required for inquiry based learning is worry-some to me.  This worries me that students will be limited in the amount of information they will learn.  Although I believe the students who comprehend the material better and remember it longer, I believe the subject area will be extremely limited.  This purposes the question: is it better to have students learn material throughly and make potential life long connections or is it better for students to have a general knowledge and kind of understand many different lessons and topics?

Chapter 2: Wow! I can't believe inquiry based learning is so new.  In this chapter the amount of teacher guidance is discusses.  How do teachers know how much to intervene in inquiry based learning? This chapter states that a key element in answering this question is the intended learning outcomes.  Depending on what the teacher wants to come from the lesson will affect the amount of inquiry provided to the student.

A myth that is discusses that I am guilty of is that all science subject matter should be taught through inquiry.  This chapter discusses that teaching science effectively should include a variety of different approaches and strategies.  This makes a lot more sense to me because it allows for this type of learning to be more practical.

Activity mania

I love the name of this concept. I believe that if a classroom is limited and not able to use inquiry-based learning, this would be the next best thing.  Activity mania seems to be less time consuming although I prefer the structure of inquiry-based learning.  I think the hands-on activities of activity mania is extremely beneficial however I do not believe the learned material will be as affective as inquiry-based learning.  Although students are participating in the activities, it is more structured so students are not able to have as much control as they would in inquiry-based learning.  I do not like how activity mania provides students with a hypothesis and as a result there is only one right answer.  Activity mania places the teacher with more control that the inquiry-based instruction would.  I prefer a classroom setting where the students are given the most responsibility as possible and are in control of their own learning.

Iowa Core

After exploring the website of the Iowa Core, I left with mixed feelings.  Although the web casts sound like great ideas, it makes me think about the reality of these goals.  In my opinion, the Iowa Core combines all students into the same category, with the same expectations and goals.  Although this would be ideal, I do not believe it is realistic.  I believe a more realistic approach, but more time consuming, would be for each student to have their own academic goals.  All students come from very diverse backgrounds, some may have little to no education motivation at home, while others have parent assistance on their homework.  Some students' family may have finical limitations, or come from a very different culture than the rest of the class.  All of these influences are factors of education for the student.  I believe it is vital for teachers to see each student as their own unique individual.  With that said, I believe Iowa Core is important for teachers to have so they have a general guideline of what their students should be learning and gathering from the lessons.  However, although there are listed concepts and skills, how many students in the classroom need to obtain these concepts and skills before the class is ready to move on to the next lesson? 50%, 70%, 100%?

Mosart

Misconception
Oriented
Standards-based
Assessment
Resources for
Teachers


After reviewing through some of the tests provided after the tutorials I realized the truth to the variety of questions within the tests. I believe these questions are appropriate for all children within the classroom, regardless of the level of the child.  I also now realize the importance of assessment to understand children's misconceptions.  It is very unlikely that without knowing a child's misconception a teacher would be able to get through and teach that student.  Learning about misconceptions I almost picture a wall and depending on how deep and stubborn the child might be they do not want to let go of their misconceptions that are preventing them from learning.  I think teachers need to implement these assessment exercises in their classroom to teach students to the best of their ability.  It is unfair to the students if this is not done.  

The Sweater Article

I really enjoyed and agreed with this reading.  I believe it is so important for teachers to incorporate information that is relevant to students' lives and they can relate to.  When students show passion about a topic, it is vital for teachers to strive to teach about that topic.  When students are interested in topics that can be taught on a academic level, teachers should prioritize teaching about that topic.  It was so exciting for me to read how excited the students were about heat.  I believe when situations like this happen teachers should run with the idea and expand it into multiple subject areas.  I enjoyed reading this article because I could relate to the students about how excited they were about this idea.  I have felt like that in some of my classes when we have done community service projects.  It is a great feeling to have a connection with something that you are learning about and I believe will leave have a greater impact on the students.

Keeley, Formative Assessment Probes

I believe Keeley's idea of formative assessment probes can be extremely useful in elementary science education.  Keeley recognizes the importance for teachers to be aware of students' prior education and knowledge of science.  Understanding misconceptions students might have and previous science education will allow teachers to teach students to the best of their ability.  It is extremely difficult for a student to learn complex concepts without being taught a basic level of understanding.  Keeley believes that formative assessment probes can discover the students' knowledge of science education so the teacher can adjust the curriculum accordingly.

Assessment is an extremely important aspect of all education.  Assessment allows teachers to monitor students' progress and understand their previous knowledge.  In the classroom, assessment happens almost everyday.  Although as a future teacher I believe assessment is important to education, as a student I dislike assessment.  I believe through my years of elementary school, I was assessed in the same way every time which was tedious and I do not believed I performed to the best of my ability.  I have always been a student who can verbally express my thoughts or respond in short answer questions much more successfully that multiple choice questions.  Having a class with only multiple choice assessment options was and is extremely challenging for me, even when I know the material I am being assessed on.

Krajcik

Tell me, and I forget
Show me, and I remember
Involve me, and I understand.

I believe there is a lot of substance and truth in this statement.  As a teacher, it is vital to teach to all learner styles.  Being able to teach to a variety of learner styles is beneficial to the teacher and the students.  Allowing students to manipulate objects and make connections will allow students to remember concepts better.  This article discusses many suggestions for teachers to better their teaching abilities.  One of these suggestions is to understand and use students' prior knowledge.  As we discusses in class, it is extremely important for teachers to understand students' prior knowledge so they can aid the students to add to their previous knowledge.  As discusses in previous articles, I think it is vital for students' to build connections with their schema and develop new and more complex understandings.  On the retention scale provided by the article, it displays that students learn best when they have direct and purposeful experiences.  This can be very useful when teaching science education because students are able to practice experiments and learn why things work the way they do.