Approaches to Inquiry-Based Science Teaching

1. Approaches to Inquiry-Based Science Teaching Reading Assignment Chapter 4 Teaching Science to Every Child: Using Culture as a Starting Point

2. Discovery Approach to Teaching Science • Teacher provides materials and time to explore those materials. • Oldest of three approaches that began just after the Russians launched Sputnik. • Bruner’s The Process of Education summarized the Woods Hole Conference and “captured the appeal of discovery learning” and the structure of the discipline approach to teaching science. • Discovery learning was viewed as a way to make students excited and curious about science. Problems with this Approach – unrealistic expectation that students would learn science just by “messing about with materials.”

3. Inquiry Approach to Teaching Science Inquiry can be thought of as guided discovery. Schwab, an educational theorist, was key in developing inquiry curriculum in the 1960s and 1970s. Schwab proposed that the teacher should use activities and discussions to emphasize • posing questions • gathering data, and • interpreting results. Inquiry was translated into different levels depending on the level of teacher guidance.

4. Two Categories of Inquiry 1) Inquiry as performed by scientists • Scientific inquiry – diverse ways in which scientists study the natural world and propose explanations based on the evidence derived from their work (NRC, 1996, p. 23). 2) Inquiry students perform as they learn science • Inquiry – activities of students in which they develop knowledge and understanding of scientific ideas, as well as an understanding of how scientists study the natural world. (NRC, 1996, p. 23).

5. Levels of Inquiry (Colburn, 2000) Structured Inquiry (Level 0) - students investigate a teacher-presented question through a prescribed procedure. Guided Inquiry (Level 1 & 2) - students investigate a teacher-presented question using student designed/selected procedures. Open Inquiry (Level 3) - students investigate topic-related questions that are student formulated through student designed/selected procedures Information Given to the Students

6. The Five Essential Features of Inquiry Instruction • Learners are engaged by scientific questions. • Learners give priority to evidence as they plan and conduct investigations. • Learners develop descriptions, explanations, and predictions using evidence. • Learners connect evidence and explanations to developing scientific knowledge. • Learners engage in critical discourse with others about procedures, evidence, and explanations See Table 4.3 for a summary of how the levels of student self-direction and teacher-guidance vary for each of the essential features of inquiry.

7. Conceptual Change Approach to Teaching Science Goal is to have “students discard or reshape their nonscientific explanations of natural phenomena in favor of explanations accepted within the scientific community.” Steps - Students first become clear about their own ideas on a scientific topic. Students then participate in an activity in which their current ideas are not adequate to explain Students explore the strength of the new idea Student compare the new idea with their original idea.

8. Basic Framework for Conceptual Change

9. Children's Ideas • are personal, diverse, and constructed from direct experiences with objects and through social interaction • may seem contradictory, inconsistent, and incoherent to an adult • are persistent,resistantto change and durable

10. What Ideas Influence Children’s Learning? • Preconceptions • Misconceptions • Conceptions

11. Preconceptions are ... • ideas that children bring with them from prior experiences • often incomplete preliminaryunderstandings of fundamental science concepts • children’s attempts to explain their natural world • influenced by hands-on, minds-on experiences, including the physical, emotional, social • thoughtful efforts to make (construct) sense • influenced by bias and culture

12. Misconceptions • Are common and represent explanations of phenomena constructed by a student as a response to a prior experience • Are linked to incorrect learning, myths, and imprecise uses of language arising from the child’s trusted informal everyday structure of play and social interaction • Are alternative understandingsthat are scientifically incorrect and may be based on simple inaccurate comprehension of an event, reason, or explanation (see Table 2.1) • May take a long time to correct, but can be avoided when concepts are constructed carefully from experiences • Can be revealed through specific science experiences that are accompanied by spoken and written interaction

13. Categories of Misconceptions • Conceptual misunderstandings: when learners are not encouraged to examine differences between their own beliefs and “real science.” EX: The sun rises and sets. • Vernacular misconceptions: word choices confuse learners. EX: glaciers “retreat” • Factual misconceptions: building understanding on false statements. EX: “lightning never strikes place twice in the same place.”

14. 4 Basic Science Questions  Answer the following on a piece of paper. • A little seed weighs next to nothing, but a tree weighs a lot. From where does the tree get the stuff that makes up a wooden desk? • Can you light a flashlight bulb with a battery, bulb, and a wire? • Why is it hotter in summer than in winter? • Draw a diagram showing the solar system and the planets’orbits.

15. Science Misconceptions Website Common Misconceptions http://homepage.mac.com/vtalsma/syllabi/2943/handouts/misconcept.html A Video on Common Misconceptions: http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/jonathan_drori_on_what_we_think_we_know.html

16. Discrepant Events Occur when there is a discrepancy in what is observed and what the observer thinks should happen. Discrepant events can be used to • engage students in learning about a concept or issue. • create an opportunity to correct a misconception. Invitations to Science Inquiry (Tik Liem) is an excellent resource and there are many video clips of discrepant events online. See your related assignment.

17. Discrepant Events: An Example Watch this video on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpC5zlmtm-g A Twist to the Classic Egg in the Bottle http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BofIBaYk5e0&NR=1 Steve Spangler’s Website is an excellent source of video clips of experiments. http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/experiments/