Introduction and Welcome
The Art of Teaching Science
Welcome to The Art of
Teaching Science. We hope you
will find this book to be a
valuable resource for your
professional development and
creative expression as a middle
and high school science
teacher.
Our approach is humanistic in
our concern for the interests,
needs, and welfare of people
and our belief in the capacity of
science education to enrich
human life.
Jack Hassard & Michael Dias
Chapter Slide Shows
• There are 12 slide shows, one for each
chapter. They are designed to be used by
students and instructors. For students, the
slides give a multimedia overview for each
chapter. For the instructor, the slide shows
can be used in whole or part to augment
course syllabi, and online experiences for
students.
Philosophy
• The Art of Teaching Science is • These tools involve:
rooted in the philosophy that – Inquiry and experimentation
initial and continuing preparation – Reflection through writing and
of science teachers should discussions
develop professional artistry. – Experiences with students,
• In this view, the learning to science curriculum and pedagogy
teach process involves • Becoming a science teacher is a
encounters with peers, creative process. In the view
professional teachers, and espoused here, you will be
science teacher educators. encouraged to "invent" and
• A number of pedagogical "construct" ideas about science
learning tools have been teaching through your interaction
integrated into the Art of with your peers, teachers and
Teaching Science. your instructors.
The Art of Teaching Science
Inquiry and Innovation in Middle School and High School
Part Chapters
Part 1 The Art of Science Teaching Chapter 1 The Art of Science: A Reconnaissance
Chapter 2 Science for All
Chapter 3 Facilitating Science Learning
Part 2 The Goals and the Curriculum of School Science Chapter 4 On the History of Science Education
Chapter 5 Science in the School Curriculum
Chapter 6 Science, Technology and Society in the Science
Classroom
Part 3 Connecting Theory and Practice in Science Teaching Chapter 7 How Adolescents Learn Science
Chapter 8 Models of Science Teaching
Chapter 9 Designs for Learning
Part 4 Strategies of Science Teaching Chapter 10 Assessing Active Science Learning
Chapter 11 Strategies Fostering Thinking in the Science
Classroom
Chapter 12: The Internet: Learning Science with Online
Resources
Pedagogical Learning Tools in
The Art of Teaching Science
• Inquiry Activities • Problems and
• How to Read This Chapter Extensions
• Invitations to Inquiry • Reflective Teaching
• Cases to Consider
• Microteaching
• Science Teachers Talk
• International
• Research Matters Column
Connections
• Science Teaching
Literature • On the Web
• Readings
Pedagogical Tools
Inquiry Activities
• Inquiry Activities are designed to engage teachers in a
variety of learningtoteach conducted individually and in
collaboration with teaching colleagues in middle and high
schools as well as at the university.
• The inquiry activities are based on a constructivist learning
model and
– enable students to use their existing conceptions in problem
solving situations;
– enable students to design a plan to investigate a problem for a
particular context and situation;
– can be solved in many ways thereby resulting in multiple solutions;
– engage students in reflective and high level cognitive thinking;
– engage students in cooperative learning groups
Inquiry Activity 12.1: Exploring
InternetBased Pedagogies
• In this inquiry you will become
familiar with 6 Internetbased
pedagogies, anyone of which
you can used to design a web
based science activity.
• Read through the innovations
that are listed in Table 12.1.
• Identify an STS or science
inquiry goal and design a web
based activity using one or
more of the Webbased tools.
How to Read This Chapter
• This chapter is a reconnaissance of the profession of science teaching,
and also a place to begin the learningtoteach process. There are
some activities that are designed to help you explore some of your
prior conceptions about science teaching (Inquiry Activity 1.1), and
other activities designed to have you investigate the ideas that
experienced teachers hold about teaching, and students about science.
All of these are here to help you build upon your prior knowledge and
to help you in the construction of your ideas about teaching. You
might get the most out of this chapter by skimming the main sections,
and then coming back to deliberately move though the chapter.
Invitations to Inquiry
• How important is it to the secondary science teacher to know about learning theory?
• What is constructivism, and why has it emerged as one of the most significant
explanations of student learning?
• How do cognitive psychologists explain student learning?
• How do social psychologist explain student learning?
• How do behavioral theories explain student learning in science?
• What was the contribution of theorists like Skinner, Bruner, Piaget, Vygotsky, and von
Glasersfeld to secondary science teaching?
• What is meant by multiple intelligences and how does it impact student learning?
• How do learning styles of students influence learning in the classroom?
• What is metacognition, and how can metacognition help students learn science?
Chapter 7 Concept Map
Cases to Consider
Cases are problem solving dilemmas based on actual and fictional
events of science teaching. The professions of law, business, and
medicine have long used the case method which has been more
recently applied to teacher education.
Cases in The Art of Teaching Science consist of a brief presentation of
the case followed by a dilemma statement. Cases can be explored in a
variety of ways: role playing, cooperative problem solving, written
responses followed by group discussions, and debates. Case
enactments can also be video taped for replay and analysis. After some
work in schools, students can write their own case and respond to
those of their colleagues.
Each chapter begins with a Case to Consider.
• The Case
Cases Approach
• Ruth Wilson, a second year high school biology teacher
in a community that has only one high school, took a
graduate course in the summer at the local university. In
• The Problem
the course, she became extremely interested in a theory
of learning, called "constructivism” proposed by several
• How would you deal with this
theorists. Constructivism, as she understood it, provided situation? What would you say to
a framework to understand how students acquired
knowledge. One of the basic notions underlying the the parent? Is Ms. Wilson on
theory was that students “constructed and made
meaning” of their experiences. The theory provides more sound footing regarding her theory
freedom for the students in terms of their own thinking
processes. Ms. Wilson feels strongly that this of teaching? How do explain your
“constructivist” framework supported her teaching
philosophy better than the more structured approach she
teaching theory to your principal?
was using during her first year of teaching. Prior to the What is your personal view on this
opening of school, Ms. Wilson changed her curriculum
plans to reflect the constructivist theory. She spent the approach to teaching and learning?
first two weeks of school helping the students become
skilled and familiar with handson learning. For many of
her students, this was a new venture. She planned
activities where students had to make choices among
objectives, or activities, or content. Knowing that
students like to work together, she decided to place
students in small teams. At the end of the two weeks,
she instructed the teams to decide and select the
activities and content in the first part of the text that
would interest them. They should formulate a plan, and
carry it out for the remainder of the grading period. A
few weeks later, a rather irate parent called Mr.. Brady,
the principal of the school, complaining that her son is
wasting his time in Ms. Wilson's class. The parent
complained that her son was not learning anything, and
she demanded a conference with Ms. Wilson.
Reflective Teaching
• The Art of Teaching Science provides teaching strategies that facilitate
the development of reflective thought. Inquiry Activity 1.2, entitled
Microteach: Reflective Teaching invites you to select an
instructional objective (see Table 1.2) for which you will plan 20
minutes of teaching that will help the learners begin to meet this
objective.
• A powerful aspect of Reflective Teaching is that it "teaches" teachers a
metacognitve tool for thinking about their teaching, and once they
understand the process, teachers can apply the approach in any
teaching situation.
Inquiry 1.2: Reflective Teaching
• In this inquiry you’ll teach a science
lesson to a small group using any of the
models in the chapter using a three
stage experience:
– Prepare
– Teach
– Reflect
• You’ll use the experience to find out
how successful you were. Details of the
Reflective Teaching experience are
outlined in Inquiry 1.2.
Microteaching
Microteaching is a laboratory approach to teaching developed some years
ago, and used quite effectively first by the Peace Corps, and then by
colleges of education in initial and continuing teacher education programs.
Although microteaching is used initially in Inquiry 1.2, it is detailed in
Chapter 11, and used in the context of helping teachers develop a model
for practicing and receiving feedback about teaching strategies.
Since microteaching is scaled down teaching, it works very well in small
cooperative groups of peers, as well as with students in a school context.
You will find the approach to microteaching detailed in Inquiry Activity
11.1. Students can prepare brief lessons, teach them to a small group of
peers or students, meet with a peer coach, and then reteach the lesson
based on suggestions made in the peer coaching conference.
Inquiry 11.1: Microteaching
• Microteaching is scaled down teaching.
You will use it to explore the interactive
teaching strategies in chapter 11.
• Prepare a 58 minute lesson and use it
to focus on one or more of the teaching
strategies (advance organizers,
questioning, using examples, etc.).
• Teach the lesson to a small group of
peers; use the video tape to reflect and
make changes in the lesson for a re
teach episode.
• How successful were you?
Science Teachers Talk
• Interviews with several practicing middle school and high school
science teachers from several countries were conducted to create the
Science Teachers Talk column of the Science Teaching Gazette. The
teachers were asked to respond to a questionnaire on science teaching.
The questions corresponded to the text chapters, and can be used as a
stimulus for discussion, and problem solving.
• Readers of The Art of Teaching Science may be asked to respond to
the interview questions before reading the teachers' responses, and
afterwards, compare their approaches and opinions. These crafttalk
columns are rich with the wisdomofpractice that is an integral part of
the knowledge of science teaching.
Science Teachers Talk
• How do you use technology
(including the Internet) in your
science lessons? Why do you, and
what do you see as the benefits for
your students?
• Find out what the following
teachers say about these questions.
How does it compare with your
thinking:
– Ben Boza (Botswana)
– Brian Davis (Mentor teacher)
– April McDurmond (New teacher)
– Carol Myronuk (Canada)
– Michael O’Brien (Chinese Taipei) A webbased activity in
– Barry Plant (Australia) action
Research Matters
• There is a growing emphasis on the importance of
involving practicing science teachers not only in
applying science education research, but also in
conducting action research and sharing their
practical knowledge.
• The Science Teaching Gazette includes Research
Matters articles written by members of the
National Association for Research in Science
Teaching (NARST).
Science Education Literature
Some of the volumes of the Science Teaching
Gazette includes excerpts from the literature of
science teaching. The literature pieces have been
included to enrich the investigation of science
teaching, to extend the context of learning to
include the work of the science and science
education community, and to introduce teachers to
journals and books in the field.
Science is Not Words*
• Read Dr. George Feynman’s
article, “Science is not words.”
• How does Feynman’s view of
science stack up with yours?
How might this be applied to
teaching?
• Followup with a visit to a
Feynman Site:
http://www.amasci.com/feynma
n.html
On the Web
• A collection of websites that relate to the
chapter.
• They are located in the Gazette, and they
are also linked in this website for easy
access to these resources
Websites
• Routledge Companion
Website
– Student Resources
– Instructor Resources
• Art of Teaching Scien
ce Weblog
– Interactive Discussions
– Resources for
Teaching
Readings
• A collection of readings, for each chapter,
including books and journal articles
• designed to help you go further in your
exploration of science teaching.
Problems and Extension
• Prepare a Webbased lesson using one of the
following Webbased tools: key pals, online
discussions, chat, telementoring, pooled data
analysis, talefield trip or social action
project. Include the goals for the lesson, and
how students would be active learners in the
lesson.
• Discuss the implications of using the Web to
make your teaching environment a “global
classroom”. What do you think will be the
outcomes and benefits for your students, and
colleagues?
• Locate a science museum on the Web, and
design a telefield trip using the museum as
the basis for your project.
• Design a pooled data analysis project for a
group of middle or high school students in
any content area of science. Visit some of
the examples of pooled data analysis projects
identified in the chapter. After studying
these projects, outline a new project by
working with a group of peers. Share the
project by putting it on the Web, and
presenting it to a group of peers.
International Connections
Colleagues from other countries wrote brief
descriptions of the curriculum and teaching issues
in Australia, Chile, China, Ghana, Japan, Russia,
Turkey. As science educators, we are members of
a community of practice that is worldwide.
What are the issues in other countries, and what do
these teach us about our own issues? These
science educators have based their writing on
personal experiences with the culture, and in most
cases the authors were born, educated and taught
in the country they described.
Science in…
• Australia
• Chile
• China
• Ghana
• Japan
• Russia
• Turkey