Final Vision Statement

          Open exploration of the world around us begins the process of learning. When a student of any age wonders about the inner workings of the world, they are creating questions to further their construction of knowledge. Socrates once stated, “Wisdom begins in wonder.” The student is in charge of their learning and will take on a series of steps to create a deeper understanding. Along with the student-driven learning approach, educators are in charge of finding out what their students previously know, letting students explore their questions and having them negotiate their understandings with voice. A positive environment for the exploration of questions will foster the motivation to learn.

            Self-motivated learning is a major connection between the constructivist learning theory and the inquiry approach. In the Krajcik article discussing the constructivist learning theory, it expresses that when a student has the passion or curiosity to learn something, it reflects authenticity and is more deeply ingrained. It also mentions the main components such as active engagement, use and application of knowledge, multiple representations, and use of learning communities. It was Vygotsky who believed that learning as leading development, as stated in the “Theoretical Foundations for Constructivist Teaching” article. This means that a student will develop quicker and greater once they have learned about the world around them. It also mentions the importance to incorporate the subject of language when exploring science. Inquiry is driven by this learning theory and touches on the integration of language.

          Science is most effectively learned through the inquiry-based approach. The inquiry-based approach for science includes the five essential features of engaging in scientifically based questions, gathering evidence, formulating explanations, evaluating explanations and communicating and justifying these explanations. Each step is equally important and creates the foundation for all conceptual knowledge. This approach was created for students to learn just as real scientists do. Inquiry is the process a student takes in order to construct deeper understanding, however the teacher must typically initiate the process.

The initial step for a teacher in a science-based classroom to take is probing the students for their current knowledge. At times, their ideas may be off the mark or otherwise known as misconceptions. Probing for these misconceptions if the formative assessment that a teacher must take in order to know where to go with a lesson. It is effective for the teacher to use the questions and answers provided by the students to create a pathway for the students to explore. An example of this could be through the use of concept maps, which can be altered throughout the learning process. Concept maps help create focus on the “big ideas” which drive the scientific approach. Here they would present any misconceptions or questions they have regarding the overall topic.

The “Misconceptions Die Hard” article expresses the importance for addressing misconceptions prematurely in order to redirect students towards properly conceived knowledge. Throughout the students’ learning process, it is also important to evaluate their understanding through a variety of assessments whether through self-evaluations or teacher and student conferences. It also mentions the significance of applying knowledge gained to the student’s real lives in order to continue passion about the topic. In addition to “Misconceptions Die Hard,” the “Teaching for Conceptual Change: Confronting Children’s Experience” article mentions working with student misconceptions. The following quote grasped my attention right away, “"For nine winters, experience has been the children's teacher." I have and still truthfully believe that students need to experience the world around them and take note of their observations in order to really learn. Whether the students are experiencing science within nature or through hands on experiments regarding physics, their authentic tasks create a deeper connection of science to self.

One of the major advantages about the inquiry-based approach is the fact that it leaves flexibility for where the students are on academic and skill levels. The big ideas are the initial building block for each student but how each student arrives there is dependent on their individual approach. This suitably supports differentiation because the learner must pose a question of their choice, explore and create explanations from their own gathered data and in the end must negotiate their claim. If a student seems to be moving faster through the process, it would be useful to mix in other factors or areas to explore while the another student may gradually approach the process one careful step at a time. Regardless of where students are within the process, students must be able to wrestle with their ideas with themselves as well as using their resources to negotiate their ideas. This will solidify their understanding long-term.  

Exploration has always come very natural to me. In the beginning of learning about the scientific-based approach of teaching and learning, I felt that I knew everything about it since I was so passionate about the subject of science and exploring the world around me. However, I have learned that there is much more than just observing, experimenting and discussing. I have learned that incorporating language within science helps to solidify the students’ understanding through their voice on paper. The “5 Good Reasons to Use Science Notebooks” was one of the first articles that put into perspective the importance of integrating the two subjects. While enhancing literary skills, science notebooks can be used for ongoing assessment as well as a template for student thought. This relates to the overall umbrella of communication.

Communication through written language is just as important as oral language within the classroom. Students must be able to negotiate their ideas with themselves, either in their head or on paper, but maybe more importantly with their peers. This allows for practice and the emphasis on justification. Explanations come from the initial exploration of questions. The students will then pay attention to other discoveries to challenge proposed ideas. My personal discovery about teaching science was to allow for student negotiation and not feeding student understanding with “correct answers.” Through my experience at Wickham Elementary in a 3-4 classroom, negotiation showed to be a vital method for the students when they were deciding which type of rock was which in a variety of instances. Without the direct instruction of my partner and I, we were able to challenge the students’ misconceptions as well as their correct answers in order for them to evaluate their explanations.

Learning of the inquiry-based approach of science as well as practicing it within a practicum experience has truly brought life to my ongoing passion of science. I believe that even though I was confident in understanding certain processes and important features unique to science, I have still grown in understanding how to apply such concepts. I now can relate to a variety of assessment strategies, classroom experiments, questioning strategies and relatable science topics such as those from School of the Wild or the peer teaching lessons. I still believe that enthusiasm and passion drive the efforts of productive learning, so those will be present in my future classroom.

As a teacher, it is important to foster an environment that allows for open negotiation of ideas whether it is reflectively or with peers and/or outside resources. This environment will remain positive and with the reminder that ideas are challenged, not people. Questions are the leading force to exploration, either presented by the teacher to initiate thinking or by the students to further and deepen understanding. Constant motivation to learn about the inner workings of science in the world will be maintained through the relation of big ideas to the students’ real lives. It is important for the students to be in charge of their own learning when constructing knowledge around a big idea. In order for teachers and students to assess their learning and show value to student voice, the use of writing in many forms will be applied to solidify their ideas. Day by day and moment by moment, inquiry-based science classrooms resort to the flexibility of big idea concepts to cultivate confidently engaged learners in the process of building their conceptual framework.

SLPE Reflection

            Learning about teaching is a long enduring process that involves a variety of practices to be used within the classroom. However, the list seems to be infinite and not relatable until the time has come to actually use them in the real world. This science lesson planning and enactment project was a perfect way for me to implement some of the practices for a run of trial and error. Although I have learned in great deal about the inquiry process, it was not until this project that I got firsthand experience to seeing how the process can be done.

            The first day came with a belly full of butterflies but heart full of excitement. My partner and I had met many of times to perfect how we wanted to introduce the different rock types to a 3-4 Wickham Elementary classroom. With anticipations of covering research, presentations and modeling all in the first day, we jumped right into the mix with lots of student discussion. Questions and initial claims were thrown out there with some uncertainty, so the students were very eager to begin researching their specified content. The students showed a great deal of communication throughout the whole process, whether through writing on sticky notes or discussing with their group members. Once the groups shifted from small group to large group, the class got a little more rowdy because the tasks were not as challenging or individualized. It was good to see which students knew how to delegate who does what but there were also signs of a few students who liked to sit along the sidelines and let everyone else take action.

            Overall, I would say the first day went very smoothly. The only real issue that arose was the fact that we weren’t able to get to all of the things we had originally planned on getting to in the first day. We only really got to half! This showed to us the high amount of student interaction and discussion going on. There really was not enough time and all of the kids were fully engaged up until the last minute. This taught us to be flexible and plan day by day for the next lesson.

            Our next lesson was three days later. My partner and I decided to alter some of the preconceived plans in order to get everything in. Instead of having the students begin day 2 with discussing which rock was which from the original hand out and then creating them out of clay first then edible material, we had to begin day 2 with the presenting of group posters. We had made layered Jell-O the night before to symbolize sedimentary rocks, got junior mints for igneous rocks and still had the taffy for metamorphic rocks. After the kids presented and we discussed some of their thoughts about which rocks were which, we went into the students getting the edible “rocks” and observing them. The students used their senses to observe the materials and referred to the posters made to decide which edible rocks represented which type of rock. This ran to the very last minute as well, so thank goodness we were prepared for a change!

            The second day was a Friday so I feel that it contributed to why the kids were extra energetic. It was a great thing when we wanted them to do the activities, however it was hard for them to sit still and be polite when the other groups were presenting. Also, we weren’t given their expectations for presenting so the teacher had to stop the class and review that with them, versus us. As for them meeting our stated learning performances, the students did a GREAT job! Through the process, the students conducted research and became experts on specific rock types, worked in groups to create posters, created visual representations in which were the pictures drawn for the poster versus the clay because we weren’t able to get to that and they created the metamorphic edible rock while tasting the representations we brought for the others in order to classify these rock types in the end. Our last few minutes of the lesson were devoted to classifying the edible rocks into their types and then addressing any final theories or questions the students had. Many students were eager to share their voice in front of the classroom so I was thrilled to see that we conducted a positive open forum environment for the students to feel comfortable enough to express themselves.

            From this experience, I learned a great deal about planning for science lessons. I was able to finally go through the process of defining a big idea and creating certain outlets for which the students will go to make meaning of the big idea. Also, I learned that it is imperative to be flexible and that making changes every day is a realistic occurrence for teachers. I also learned that students really enjoy talking so giving them the time to express their thoughts and opinions will allow students to negotiate their understanding. I also learned that students really like to take ownership of what they have learned, especially through visual representations. The kids enjoyed making the posters and were very prompt to sharing which part they added to the whole. This taught me to incorporate student-made work around the classroom as much as possible so that students feel valued and can track their understanding.

            As I mentioned earlier, the biggest struggle with this lesson was timing. We foresaw the students breezing through all of the activities so we did not want to be underprepared. However, the opposite occurred and there were too many planned activities and things had to be removed. I think that it was a good idea to be prepared for more because deleting is easier to do on the spot than adding. As for modifications of the current lesson, I would like to have seen more writing used. The only time that the students wrote in any form, was when creating the visual poster. Half of the group wrote the interesting facts while the others drew illustrations about their expert rock. I like the idea of incorporating a chart that asks for beginning thoughts, thoughts during the process and then final thoughts/how have thoughts changed. Having this in writing can help deepen meaning as well as gives the students and teacher a way to assess understanding. Otherwise, I thought the lesson was actually very engaging and the students left the classroom with a new understanding of the types of rock. Of course, there is so much more for them to learn; especially only touching on the topic in two 45 minute periods! A quote that I feel symbolizes this experience for me is by Paulo Freire, “Whoever teaches learns in the act of teaching, and whoever learns teaches in the act of learning.”