Evaluation, Assessment, and the Future of Education

The opening vignette of Ch. 4 Inquiry and Assessment, describes an elementary teacher who utilizes portfolios and interviewing in her classroom as a tool of assessment.  According to Mrs. Christine Peters, this way of assessment helps both teachers and students.  "Portfolio assessment teaches students how to learn and teaches teachers how to slow down, get to know each student and his or her strengths and needs, and develop a curriculum that appeals to each student's multiple talents." (Pg. 60)

I find this form of assessment extremely powerful in today's classroom, especially considering how society is changing to into a global marketplace that requires inquiry skills in all forms of work.  Using assessments, such as portfolios, provides a track and allows for a more accurate and personal form of grading for each student.  In the future, I would greatly consider using science portfolios and the use of interviewing in my classroom as alternative assessments to the standardized tests most utilized today. 

Through the use of alternative assessments, one can work with the Backward Design model that begins with a learning objective and assessment in mind.  Teachers using this design establish a specific meaning for an activity.  The reason I believe in this part of the Backward Design is because a teacher can utilize inquiry, cover a topic completely, allow students to individualize activities based on personal interest, and create a deep understanding for themselves.  With authentic assessment, the inquiry that students have used in the Backward Design model shows clearly what they have learned and creates open communication for their learning.

Science as Practice

As I read Ch. 5 in Science Elementary Education, I was intrigued by the main idea of "science as practice" originally presented by John Dewey.  As stated in the very beginning of this chapter, science should be practice in order for students to actively engage in science in order to build skills that will allow them to compete in the modern marketplace.  Personally, I believe the idea of using skills in school to create humans who will work to change the world should be a goal for all teachers.  With this being said, I was excited that even science could be taught as practice with the goal of bettering the future in mind.

Furthermore, as I was reflecting on the material, I began to understand how "science as practice" can not only develop better science-related skills for the United States but also engage a variety of students to learn science through inquiry.  The four strands of science in the chapter on pg. 92 demonstrate a model for science as practice.  In strand 1, students are taught to not only learn the facts, theories, and laws of science but also learn to develop connections between concepts in order to develop a higher order of thinking.  Students will become more critical thinkers and apply these skills to other subjects, and eventually life outside of the classroom.  Though this strand sounds somewhat obvious, I think the connections made to science and non-science concepts is sometimes hard for teachers to remember to do with the requirements of the curriculum.  Interdisciplinary work can be done in science, and should be to develop stronger students.  In strand 2, students are supposed to generate scientific evidence through investigations.  Investigations and inquiry go hand-in-hand when considering a science inquiry classroom, and students taught to create their own investigations will have a much deeper engagement with the subject matter.  When students are actively working on experiments and observations, they learn self-direction and the understanding of pulling information from the data collected.  In strand 3, the idea of scientific knowledge is discussed.  Students must be provided with interdisciplinary work, but must also know specific subject language, behavior, models, examples, etc.  Students must learn to develop a scientific schema for their science work.  When students create this schema, they are able to explain their findings in a more accurate way, and truly work "as a scientist".  Lastly, strand 4 mentions science as a club, similarly to other theories that state a classroom as an "exclusive club".  A teacher must teach the rules of the "club" and engage his or her students in the activities of the "club".  Particularly in science lessons, students should learn how to construct and present personal viewpoints in science to others, be willing to ask and answer questions, and stay skeptical so investigations are done objectively. (Pg. 93)  Much of the idea of science as practice is identified in these four strands, as they can be used as a template for a teacher looking to engage, manage, and create an interesting scientific environment.

The chapter goes on to discuss particular scientific skills that support and add to the idea of "science as practice" in the classroom.  As I was reading, I found that many of these skills and attitudes are not only mentioned in our own Science Methods classroom, but also put to use during our in-class activities.  Some skills include observing, classifying, measuring, communicating, inferring, predicting, experimenting, etc.  All of the skills mentioned above have been a topic of our in-class discussions and provide useful examples of how these skills must be developed in our future classrooms.  One interesting note regarding these scientific skills is that many of them may be applied to various other classroom subjects and activities.  Observing, classifying, measuring, and predicting are useful in mathematics instruction while inferring, communicating, predicting, and observing are useful for social studies activities.  These skills are useful in many areas in an elementary classroom and are also great life skills that return to the idea of educating for students to become beneficial citizens of the world.

Lemon In-Class Activity - Light Bulb Moment!

In class, we did an activity involving lemons that furthered my understanding of observations and questioning, and the relationship that they have to my science notebook. One could say it was sort of a "light-bulb" moment, and I am excited something things finally clicked.

We began the activity by receiving one lemon per person.  We were told to observe anything we possible could about our individual lemons in our science notebooks.  The initial instructions engaged all of us, and we were curious as to why we had to intently observe these lemons.  Also, lemons have differences but are generally similar color and shape, making the task of observation much more detailed.  I drew a picture of the lemon, including labels and color with colored pencils.  I wrote a bullet point list of observations that I initially was drawn to including color, ends, indents, shape, size, etc. 

After being given time to record the observations that I noticed as important, we were told to discuss the elements of our individual observations with our table groups.  Immediately, we looked at each others' notebooks and discussed how we differed in our observations.  Then we noticed the tools made available to us, including a magnifying glass and a ruler.  Hearing everyone's observations was my light bulb moment.  Sharing what each person recorded allowed me to pick and choose how and what I chose to record.  We were given additional time to continue with our observations, and I utilized many of the techniques that our group discussed.

 I could definitely see the effectiveness when using this strategy in the classroom, especially when initially trying to teach students how critical observations are when experimenting like a true scientist.  Students can share ideas and tips for recording observations, just as scientists share information in the real world when experimenting and researching.

Finally, we were told to place our lemons back into a mutual bowl.  Sarah passed the lemons out again to each person, however everyone received a different lemon.  We were told to only use our recorded observations in our science notebook to discover where our lemon was.  Just as scientists do, we questioned our observations and compared the lemon to them.  This task was somewhat difficult, as we truly had to question which characteristics were important and which observations matched which lemon.  Eventually, my classmates and I all discovered our original lemons.

This short activity provided me with many future ideas for my science classroom.  Students will automatically be engaged when given an item and told to observe it.  With a reasonable time constraint, I believe classroom management will be fairly simple because students will want to record as much information as possible in their notebooks.  In terms of questioning, students will discuss their observations to discover whether their observations are sufficient and find new ideas on observing in general.  Lastly, utilizing observations to actually make a discovery was a rewarding feeling.  As a student myself, I felt that I had done a quality job of recording observations and was comfortable with the amount of information recorded in my science notebook.  The process was filled with inquiry, excitement, real-world connections, questioning, and observations.  All of these items created a "light-bulb" moment that I will take with me when teaching science in the future.

Elements for Teaching Science in the Future

As I wrote about in the previous post, much of the information from Ch. 2, I can see myself utilizing as a future elementary teacher during science lessons.  After further reading more into Science Notebooks, including Ch. 3 regarding "Signs of Student Progress", I continue to recognize the importance of using a science notebook in the classroom.

Not only do science notebooks provide useful organizational skills for students, but also a good progression marker for both students and teachers.  I like the idea of using the notebooks as a discussion starter between teachers and students, in addition to discussions between students.  The more I continue to discover on the use of notebooks, the further I can see myself using them in the classroom throughout every science unit.  I believe the skills developed are invaluable.  As a younger student, I can imagine myself becoming much more captivated than I originally was with science if offered the choice to keep a science notebook in school.

Ch. 2 - Discovering Science through Inquiry

9/6/12

Ch. 2 – Discovering Science through Inquiry

Prompt: Construct a view of how you want to teach science in the future.

            While reading this chapter, I began to realize a few finite ways in which I would like to teach science in the future.  I agree with the focus on student inquiry, as this often replicates what scientists do in the real world.  Furthermore, student inquiry must be individualized and not standardized.  In my future instruction, I hope to constantly change the way I teach and interact with science in order to provide the best education possible for my students.  A quote on pg. 26 struck me as particularly accurate to my future approach with science, "the teacher's purpose is to provide the best materials and learning situations to make learning individually meaningful for each student."

            Encouraging students to inquire about the world around them through open thinking and communication in the classroom was an idea suggested in the 5E instructional model.  I hope to have materials and boards available in the classroom where students and even teachers can inquiry about certain science topics.  Using this instructional model to guide scientific thinking is not only individualized but also exciting and replicates real world science.  When considering my own past classroom experience with science, I often felt the way this chapter describes as "authoritative and impersonal" in classrooms today.  I want to excite my students about the world around them and constantly persuade them to ask questions. 

            I plan on utilizing the "science notebook" concept for any age in my future classrooms.  The science notebook allows for individual note-taking skills to develop, as well as organizational skills that can be applicable in numerous other subjects.  I feel that the science notebook allows students to see their own progress, and instills a certain pride in the fact that they have completed work just as real scientists do.  The science notebook can be used in groups, partnerships, and individually, allowing for multiple uses in the classroom. 

            As the chapter mentioned, I obviously plan on using the ZPD and scaffolding to aid students in thinking independently and striving to obtain outside knowledge.  I believe using scientific vocabulary or the "language of science" in the classroom helps students to appropriately describe what they are learning.  Much like an inquiry board, a vocabulary board would be infinitely helpful when dealing with science language.  My goal in the classroom is to allow for individualization while having students excited about science in their own forms of self inquiry.