I found collaborative learning to be a major idea of teaching within science. This is approached a little differently than in mathematics, though I think they could apply in this area as well. According to BLOOP, a key idea of teaching in science is to facilitate learning in regards to being able to present claims, to argue them, and to collaborate with others by allowing findings to be assessed by peers, as well as assessing the findings of peers. This idea creates students who have been given opportunities, and indeed been presented with the necessity, to develop skills in academic language, and present scientific language instead of what the National Academic Press (2007) calls “talk;” mostly-prescribed answers from students who have taken turns interacting almost solely with the teacher. Students who are able to argue effectively are able to synthesize solutions and beliefs which could provide insight towards behaviors that would progress and enrich the scientific process. This is why students who are competent in argument fulfill behaviors desired by SEPS (California State Board of Education, 2016).
An organization called Teaching Channel explored this topic, presenting lesson objectives for what they referred to as “Engaging in Argument from Evidence” (Teaching Channel, 2019). This site recommended a teacher-made tool which they called an Argument Tool. This is a document on which students record their findings and impressions of lessons in their science classrooms. The document is meant to be a graph which allows students to engage in a process of finding their root claim about the findings they present to the teacher, and the rest of the class. The video included shows students not only presenting their arguments with the teacher, but also debating and discussing their claims with each other.
The Science Teacher, an Indiana State University-based periodical, referred to this major idea as “Scientific Argumentation.” An online landing page of the periodical provided lesson plans from other teachers about how to teach scientific argumentation in the classroom.
One of these lessons uses gummy bears. I couldn’t find the exact lesson, but the use of gummy bears does give an idea about how to teach data-gathering within a social context. An example of this would be a lesson that displayed the facts that all subjects are gummy bears; however some are red, some are green, some are yellow, etc. In this way, students can be introduced to “ways in which scientific research is conducted, how social forces influence scientific priorities, and how basic scientific research may, or may not, support medical applications for human health” (The Science Teacher, 2013). Since social forces are elements to which every person can relate, it becomes a very organic way of introducing these types of discussions in the classroom.
What stuck out to me a lot within this framework is the emphasis on communication. I have worked a lot with first graders, and for them I know it is important to teach the difference between fact and opinion. In both examples of teaching approaches to science, I could see then how I could begin incorporating these ideas in my future classroom, even if I am in the very early grades.
One thing I would like to explore more is the chart for developing and refining claims and arguments. I think it would merit more research to try and find forms like this at every level of learning, using a simplified version for the lower grades. For example, the first graders whom I mentioned earlier could be ready for a form which utilizes plenty of visuals or even simplified language, and this could be implemented within the classroom as soon as first grade students were almost proficient at distinguishing fact from opinion.
References:
California State Board of Education. (2016). Science Framework For California Public Schools: Kindergarten Through Grade Twelve. PDF. Retrieved from: https://www.cde.ca.gov/ci/sc/cf/documents/scifwchapter1.pdf
Indiana State University. (2013). “Scientific Argumentation.” The Science Teacher, (5)80. Retrieved from: http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/Sci.Argumentation.html
Teaching Channel. (2019). “Engaging in Argument Through Evidence.” Retrieved from: https://www.teachingchannel.org/video/engaging-argument-evidence-ngss
The National Academies Press. (2007). Taking science to school (Teaching science as practice pp. 186 – 210): Participation in ScientificPractices and Discourse. Retrieved from: https://www.nap.edu/read/11625/chapter/1
Winburg, K., Chamberlain, B., Valdez, A., Trujillo, K., & Stanford, T. (2016). Impact of Math Snacks Games on Students’ Conceptual Understanding. Journal of Computers in Mathematics and Science Teaching, 35(2), 173–193.
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