When you begin a new unit and discover that some students don't understand an important concept, do you just correct the error and give them the answer? If so, you run the risk that students will memorise what you say without changing their core misconceptions. This book explores how to identify such moments through 'responsive listening' and turn them into opportunities to build students' science literacy.
2018 Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Ambitious Science Teaching outlines a powerful framework for science teaching to ensure that instruction is rigorous and equitable for students from all backgrounds. The practices presented in the book are being used in schools and districts that seek to improve science teaching at scale, and a wide range of science subjects and grade levels are represented. The book is organized around four sets of core teaching practices: planning for engagement with big ideas; eliciting student thinking; supporting changes in students’ thinking; and drawing together evidence-based explanations. Discussion of each practice includes tools and routines that teachers can use to support students’ participation, transcripts of actual student-teacher dialogue and descriptions of teachers’ thinking as it unfolds, and examples of student work. The book also provides explicit guidance for “opportunity to learn” strategies that can help scaffold the participation of diverse students. Since the success of these practices depends so heavily on discourse among students, Ambitious Science Teaching includes chapters on productive classroom talk. Science-specific skills such as modeling and scientific argument are also covered. Drawing on the emerging research on core teaching practices and their extensive work with preservice and in-service teachers, Ambitious Science Teaching presents a coherent and aligned set of resources for educators striving to meet the considerable challenges that have been set for them.
Currently, many states are adopting the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) or are revising their own state standards in ways that reflect the NGSS. For students and schools, the implementation of any science standards rests with teachers. For those teachers, an evolving understanding about how best to teach science represents a significant transition in the way science is currently taught in most classrooms and it will require most science teachers to change how they teach. That change will require learning opportunities for teachers that reinforce and expand their knowledge of the major ideas and concepts in science, their familiarity with a range of instructional strategies, and the skills to implement those strategies in the classroom. Providing these kinds of learning opportunities in turn will require profound changes to current approaches to supporting teachers' learning across their careers, from their initial training to continuing professional development. A teacher's capability to improve students' scientific understanding is heavily influenced by the school and district in which they work, the community in which the school is located, and the larger professional communities to which they belong. Science Teachers' Learning provides guidance for schools and districts on how best to support teachers' learning and how to implement successful programs for professional development. This report makes actionable recommendations for science teachers' learning that take a broad view of what is known about science education, how and when teachers learn, and education policies that directly and indirectly shape what teachers are able to learn and teach. The challenge of developing the expertise teachers need to implement the NGSS presents an opportunity to rethink professional learning for science teachers. Science Teachers' Learning will be a valuable resource for classrooms, departments, schools, districts, and professional organizations as they move to new ways to teach science.
Your Science Classroom: Becoming an Elementary / Middle School Science Teacher, by authors M. Jenice "Dee" Goldston and Laura Downey, is a core teaching methods textbook for use in elementary and middle school science methods courses. Designed around a practical, "practice-what-you-teach" approach to methods instruction, the text is based on current constructivist philosophy, organized around 5E inquiry, and guided by the National Science Education Teaching Standards.
Being taught by a great teacher is one of the great privileges of life. Teach Now! is an exciting new series that opens up the secrets of great teachers and, step-by-step, helps trainees to build the skills and confidence they need to become first-rate classroom practitioners. Written by a highly-skilled practitioner, this practical, classroom-focused guide contains all the support you need to become a great science teacher. Combining a grounded, modern rationale for learning and teaching with highly practical training approaches, the book guides you through all the different aspects of science teaching offering clear, straightforward advice on classroom practice, lesson planning and working in schools. Teaching and learning, planning, assessment and behaviour management are all covered in detail, with a host of carefully chosen examples used to demonstrate good practice. There are also chapters on organising practical work, the science curriculum, key ideas that underpin science as a subject and finding the right job. Throughout the book, there is a wide selection of ready-to-use activities, strategies and techniques to help you bring science alive in all three main disciplines, including common experiments and demonstrations from biology, physics and chemistry to engage and inspire you and your students. Celebrating the whole process of engaging young people with the awe and wonder of science, this book is your essential guide as you start your exciting and rewarding career as an outstanding science teacher.
Effective science teaching requires creativity, imagination, and innovation. In light of concerns about American science literacy, scientists and educators have struggled to teach this discipline more effectively. Science Teaching Reconsidered provides undergraduate science educators with a path to understanding students, accommodating their individual differences, and helping them grasp the methodsâ€"and the wonderâ€"of science. What impact does teaching style have? How do I plan a course curriculum? How do I make lectures, classes, and laboratories more effective? How can I tell what students are thinking? Why don't they understand? This handbook provides productive approaches to these and other questions. Written by scientists who are also educators, the handbook offers suggestions for having a greater impact in the classroom and provides resources for further research.
To most of us, learning something "the hard way" implies wasted time and effort. Good teaching, we believe, should be creatively tailored to the different learning styles of students and should use strategies that make learning easier. Make It Stick turns fashionable ideas like these on their head. Drawing on recent discoveries in cognitive psychology and other disciplines, the authors offer concrete techniques for becoming more productive learners. Memory plays a central role in our ability to carry out complex cognitive tasks, such as applying knowledge to problems never before encountered and drawing inferences from facts already known. New insights into how memory is encoded, consolidated, and later retrieved have led to a better understanding of how we learn. Grappling with the impediments that make learning challenging leads both to more complex mastery and better retention of what was learned. Many common study habits and practice routines turn out to be counterproductive. Underlining and highlighting, rereading, cramming, and single-minded repetition of new skills create the illusion of mastery, but gains fade quickly. More complex and durable learning come from self-testing, introducing certain difficulties in practice, waiting to re-study new material until a little forgetting has set in, and interleaving the practice of one skill or topic with another. Speaking most urgently to students, teachers, trainers, and athletes, Make It Stick will appeal to all those interested in the challenge of lifelong learning and self-improvement.
The Teaching of Psychology is centered around the masterful work of two champions of the teaching of psychology, Wilbert J. McKeachie and Charles L. Brewer, in order to recognize their seminal contributions to the teaching of the discipline. The book's main goal is to provide comprehensive coverage and analysis of the basic philosophies, current issues, and the basic skills related to effective teaching in psychology. It transcends the typical "nuts and bolts" type books and includes such topics as teaching at small colleges versus a major university, teaching and course portfolios, the scholarship of teaching, what to expect early in a teaching career, and lifelong learning. The Teaching of Psychology also features: Biographies of Bill McKeachie and Charles L. Brewer Fourteen chapters written by leading authorities in the teaching of psychology, which provide overviews of the latest psychological research and theories in effective college and university teaching. These chapters cover lecturing, classroom presence, using humor in teaching, pedagogy, advising, teaching critical thinking, writing, and technology, and training graduate students to teach Useful advice to new teachers and seasoned veterans, including qualities of master teachers, understanding the many facets of working within the academy, and teaching with technology Insights into teaching specific courses within the psychology curriculum, including the history of psychology, biological psychology, statistics and research methods, learning, social psychology, personality, psychology of women, cross-cultural psychology, industrial/organizational psychology, psychology of religion, and environmental psychology A closing section containing Bill McKeachie's and Charles L. Brewer's perspectives into the teaching of psychology and its history, highlights, and future. This book is intended for academic psychologists who teach and/or train graduate assistants to teach at the college and university level. All royalities from this book will be donated to the Society for the Teaching of Psychology (Division 2 of the American Psychological Association), which each year sponsors many activities across the country to promote the teaching of psychology.
"The book has wide appeal in that the issues investigated - for example, the nature of science, practical work, the role of language, of technology and formative and summative assessment - are relevant and pertinent to science teachers' work in all school systems." Professor David F Treagust, Curtin University of Technology, Australia This new edition of Good Practice in Science Teaching offers a comprehensive overview of the major areas of research and scholarship in science education. Each chapter summarizes the research work and evidence in the field, and discusses its significance, reliability and implications for the practice of science teaching. Thoroughly revised throughout, the new edition includes: Three new chapters covering: the learning of science in informal contexts; teacher professional development; and technology-mediated learning Updates to every chapter, reflecting the changes and developments in science education Further reading sections at the end of each chapter Each chapter has been written by science education researchers with national or international reputations. Each topic is approached in a straight-forward manner and is written in a concise and readable style. This invaluable guide is ideal for science teachers of children of all ages, and others who work in teaching and related fields. It is an essential text for teachers in training and those studying for higher degrees. Contributors: Philip Adey, Paul Black, Maria Evagorou, John Gilbert, Melissa Glackin, Christine Harrison, Jill Hohenstein, Heather King, Alex Manning, Robin Millar, Natasha Serret, Shirley Simon, Julian Swain, Mary Webb.
This book provides a comprehensive survey of strategies developed to promote authentic, meaningful science learning. The book includes a wide-ranging review of educational theories and practices as well as many useful science lessons and assessment strategies.
