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[Physltest] [Phys-L] Re: "Effective" teaching methods



These messages are coming quite fast, so I can't keep up with them. So
I'll start with this one.

There are indeed research based, hands on, minds on curricula which can
be used to create an entire year of science in the elementary classroom.
As a result of leadership by the AAAS and the National Academy of
Science, several groups have created these science curricula and they
are being published. Vicki mentioned one FOSS. The other bigs ones are
Science and Techonology for Children, and Insights. These programs have
strong connections to earlier hands on/minds on curricula like PSSC,
IPS, ESS and others.
These materials are quite comprehensive. They include materials,
workbooks, teacher manuals, assessment guides and suggestions for
classroom management. The approach is guided inquiry. The trick is to
get elementary teachers to lighten up and guide the exploration
developed in the workbooks. It is very similar to what I do with my
pre-service teachers using the McDermott curriculum. My task is to
manage, discuss and ask good questions. The curricular plan is done for
me.
For this reason I want to argue that a McDermott curriculum is ideal for
elementary teachers who will be using this research based, standards
based elementary and middle school curricula.

cheers,

joe

On Wed, 17 Nov 2004, Frohne,
Vickie wrote:

I second what Joe says, in that inquiry methods are very effective at getting students to stop taking everything they have been told for granted, and to start believing what's in front of their eyes. And to respond to his most recent post of thirty seconds ago about K-12 curricula, there are some excellent research-based materials for K-8, but most that I've seen only cover single topics (I'm thinking about the excellent FOSS kits, for example) and are not integrated, research-based year-long science curricula satisfying all state standards & etc. If anyone knows differently, please clue me in. At the 9-12 level, my impression (gleaned from my admittedly excellent undergrads) is that many high schools have adopted college-level introductory physics texts, such as Hewitt's Conceptual Physics (college edition), or standard texts used for algebra-based physics.

I strongly agree that the key to improving physics (physical science) education at K-8 is to produce a solid-research-based curriculum with all the ancillary materials that the teachers (who are experts in kids, but not science) absolutely rely on. I am appalled that NSTA is now marketing a series of books on physics topics entitled "Stop Faking It!" Not that they're marketing the books...I'm appalled that such books are necessary. Teachers *want* to teach science better, but it's hard for them to find supplimentary materials that don't present physics as a series of craft projects or magic tricks.

Joe's post leads me to some additional (general) questions about assumptions used when working with pre-service teachers:

Other than that the students with the most flawed models are often the most vocal students, why do we so often automatically assume that most of our students are using a "flawed" model when they come into the course? Many students come to the course with a correct model and are justifiably insulted by this assumption. Other students arrive with no model at all. And those who do have flawed models have often been exposed to efforts to "debunk" a "popular" misconception, which only served to perpetuate it.

(new thread idea) What model in physics isn't flawed (meaning approximate) at some level?

Vickie Frohne

-----Original Message-----
From: Forum for Physics Educators [mailto:PHYS-L@list1.ucc.nau.edu]On
Behalf Of Joseph Bellina
Sent: Wednesday, November 17, 2004 9:55 AM
To: PHYS-L@LISTS.NAU.EDU
Subject: Re: "Effective" teaching methods


Isn't this saying about educators what the research shows about
students, telling them to change their model of how the world works does
very little. That is why we designed a workshop to help elementary
teachers experience guided inquiry as students, and in so doing confront
their own flawed model of electric circuits and their own flawed model
of how it is that they learn. In other words we use guided inquiry to
teach them the power of guided inquiry.

Anecdotely it is most effective with K-5 teachers and less so with 6-8.

O


Joseph J. Bellina, Jr. 574-284-4662
Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN 46556
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