WELCOME TO TEACHING PEDAGOGY

1. WELCOME TO TEACHING PEDAGOGY Issam Abi-El-Mona, PhD Rowan University ECT Workshops July 14, 2009

2. Purpose • A brief introduction to teaching pedagogies with a focus on inquiry based model teaching emphasis is on science. • What makes an effective lesson? • How do you integrate what you have and will be experiencing into your everyday life and/ or your classroom?

3. What is Science? What is Inquiry? • Science, unfortunately, is often presented in textbooks as "problem-free." That is, the content of science is arranged in a very neat and tidy way. The truth of the matter is that science is often messy and cluttered, and full of problems

4. The King & The Dragon? • Would you call what the king did inquiry? Why? • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jev-YI0MJcw&feature=related • What is the common component that gets one to start to inquire into an issue?

5. To Understand Inquiry… • You need to transition your WAY of THINKING • You need to transition your WAY of TEACHING

6. What Happened Here?

7. Significance of inquiry as a student centered approach “Teaching …using inquiry (AAAS, 1993), involves engaging… in the kinds of cognitive processes used by scientists when asking questions, making hypotheses, designing investigations, grappling with data, drawing inferences, redesigning investigations, and building theories and revising theories.” (Crawford, 2000, p. 934)

8. Traditional vs. Reform

9. Modern-Inquiry Based Style Transitioning The Classroom Student passive Power is primarily with teacher Power is primarily with student Student active Traditional- Lecture Style

10. Inquiry Approaches • Structured Inquiry:Teacher gives students hands-on problems to investigate as well as the procedures, and materials. Teacher guides students with questions. Students are not informed of expected outcomes. (Teacher role- Supervisor )-Ex: Learning Cycle • Guided Inquiry:The teacher provides only the materials and problem to investigate.  Students devisetheir own procedure to solve the problem.(Teacher role- Facilitator )- Ex: Project Based Approach • Open (student initiated) Inquiry:This is similar to guided inquiry, but studentsalso formulate their own problem to investigate.  Open inquiry is very similar to doing real science. (Teacher role- non participant team player) Ex: Problem Based Learning

11. Student-Centered Approach –Sample p.5 in handout Investigate Problem: designing or doing experiments etc… Making Meaningful Connections: how the concept is connected to real life Explaining Possible Solutions to Problem: whole class discussion/presentations Introduce Problem: Interesting event

12. Science is…. • A human endeavor • A way of thinking that requires • Knowledge • Skills • Presenting claims • Seeking evidence • Offering explanations • Evaluating evidence and explanations • Discipline and continuous effort

13. Science is about • Developing understanding and knowledge by: • Building on what you already know • Engaging yourself in the aspects of science (such as problem solving, questioning, observations, making hypotheses, data collection, analysis etc…) • Learning to do science so that you can learn science Don't you think Engineering is the same?

14. Galway Bay, Ireland • http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Ibm-NYSE-IBM-961321.html • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2XakurQCgU

15. Mussels • Sensors monitored mussel movement in order to monitor pollutants in the bay as part of the SmartBay project initiated by IBM in March 2009 (originally initiated by Mussel Watch Program –EPA in 1976) http://www.seagrantfish.lsu.edu/pdfs/lagniappe/2008/06-01-2008.pdf

16. Image of water strider/ pond skater Available at:http://home.earthlink.net/~dmocarski/chapters/chapter7/graphics/strider.gif

17. Water Striders’ Microsetae-microscopic hairs- on each leg of Water Strider scored with grooves . This allows the trapping of air bubbles and promotes the “lift” force needed to stay afloat. End shape of legs similar to oars this reduces the penetration of the water surface tension- thus allowing for more buoyancy(courtesy of LiveScience, 2008)

18. Can’t these all be taught in the classroom?

19. What are characteristics of an effective lesson? • Take some time individually to fill out the handout • Discuss this with the colleague closest to you: • Commonalities? • Discrepancies?

20. Components relevant to designing effective lessons • Teacher • Content knowledge • Dispositions/ Attitudes • Pedagogy • Learner • Type/ age group • Dispositions/ Attitudes • Prior content knowledge • Background (culture, ethnicity, values …)

21. Characteristics of Effective Lessons… • Provide meaningful experiences • Simplify conceptual connections by making connections to life experiences • Use visuals to describe abstract ideas • Engaging- provides students chances to discuss their views • Hands on and minds on- promotes students to question the data and structure evidence based claims • Target objectives • Clear in what is to be learned • Use varied forms of assessments centered on student outcomes (objectives accomplished as opposed to those not accomplished)

22. What Does Research Tell Us? • Much debate over what constitutes effective instruction. • Current learning theory focuses on students’ conceptual change, and does not imply that one pedagogy is necessarily better than another. • National Research Council: Elements of effective instruction: [How People Learn (2003) and How Students Learn: Science in the Classroom (2005)]. • Motivation (Instigating interest and curiosity) • Eliciting Student’s Prior Knowledge (What do they already know?) • Intellectual Engagement (Meaningful experiences/ activities that engage students intellectually hands on and minds on where students think about what the data means) • Use of Evidence to Make and Critique Claims (Nature of science- questioning ) • Sense Making (Making connections)

23. Outstanding Elements • Learning must be active • Learning must be visual- hands on AND minds on • Relates to learner real life experiences- hence becomes meaningful • Learning must entice curiosity: • Promoting challenges- in the form of real life problem based experiences

24. Facts You Face • Standards: The National Science Education Standards (NSES) and Benchmarks for Science Literacy from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) define the content of instruction by outlining what a student should know and be able to do. • Accountability System: It is the district curriculum, usually guided by state science standards, that provides a road map of what content will be taught at which grade level, and how it will be aligned throughout the grade levels. • How this content is organized, presented, and assessed is the backbone of classroom science instruction. In other words, classroom science instruction is driven, for the most part, by the curriculum map(if existent) the district lays out for teachers.

25. Incorporating Engineering into the classroom;Some ideas • Choose meaningful themes within the context of a problem. For example: • Theme: Bridges; Kites; Parachutes • Problem: (a) What type of materials create the strongest type of bridge; (b) What bridge structure would be the most stable? (c) Can you fly a kite on a windless day? • Focus on concepts involved. For example: • Types of Forces; Newton's’ laws of motion • Research, research and research: • Learn about the history of the theme- provides interesting facts • Learn more about the use of this theme in the “real” world • Research your standards and make connections to generate the objectives you need to use to teach the theme; In doing so, focus on concepts so you can better generate the problem

26. Finally • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZKKrUXjzDY how an engineer folds a shirt

27. Relevant Online Resources • http://www.nsf.gov/news/classroom/engineering.jsp National Science Foundation - engineering classroom resources • www.nsdl.org National Science Digital Library • http://teachengineering.org/ Samples • http://blogs.asee.org/goengineering/engineering-in-the-classroom/ making cars K-2 • http://science- ed.pnl.gov/teachers/fossils.stm department of energy- Fossils 4-8 • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oaIhzlpENY – Engineering education in the 21st century