The last 9 weeks

1. The last 9 weeks Principles of Learning and Teaching – Math/Science EDU312

2. Yes, it’s been 9 weeks! • The first thing you did was teach math. Seems like a lifetime ago, but you’ve changed a lot since then. • Then we started thinking about Science • And then we had spring break. • Next was science pedagogy – This is the focus of this presentation • Finally, you probably remember the last 2 weeks.

3. SO what did we talk about • We discussed reasons to teach science: • Democracy • Economic – career • Motivation • Foundation for learning and logic • Improving quality of life • We thought a bit about standards and the relationship between NCES and National Standards.

4. What is Inquiry? • We also talked about the Nature of Science and Scientific Inquiry • Remember drops on a penny • We briefly discussed the scientific method • Observations, Patterns, and Explanations OR Claims, Evidence, & Reasoning • Science is about explaining phenomena in the natural world. • Included literacy as an important practice in science learning

5. Conceptual Change, ZPD, & student-centered teaching • Conceptual change is the idea that we all come to learning things with prior experiences that affect our understandings. • ZPD – that learning is facilitated when working at our edge with support (sounds like cognitively demanding) • Student-centered teaching involves thinking about students’ conceptions and what is in their ZPD and planning to challenge conceptions through ZPD appropriate actions.

6. I do and I learn? • We discussed the role of activities and hands on learning in science teaching (though we also considered whether this was broadly applicable). • What are your thoughts about the role of activities now?

7. Curriculum Integration • I gave you a short-hand version of curriculum integration: • Thematic – Based on a theme (e.g. bears) • Conceptual – Based on a concept (e.g. change over time) • What kind of thinking would you do to develop a conceptually integrated unit? • Complexity • Storylines • Big Ideas

8. Reasoning • The reading made a big deal about evidence and reasoning. In addition, they included that we can use the same process in rebutting claims. Why is this important? • This replicates scientific thinking and activity. • Reveals our prior conceptions – we have to make them explicit. • Reasoning is at the core of conceptual change

9. UDL and RTI • Leigh gave us a brief, but useful description of RTI. • Uses diagnostic assessment on student’s abilities • Requires use of research based interventions • Direct instruction on skills • Identifies a process for remediation of student limitations • UDL • suggests that we can modify instruction to meet needs of all students • these modifications are good pedagogy • Not focused on diagnostic • Not necessarily focuses on skills

10. Culturally Responsive Teaching A brief overview – Culturally Responsive Teachers focus on: • Students whose educational, economic, social, political, and cultural futures are most tenuous are helped to become intellectual leaders in the classroom. • Students are apprenticed in a learning community rather than taught in an isolated and unrelated way. • Students’ real-life experiences are legitimized as they become part of the official curriculum. • Teachers and students participate in a broad conception of literacy that incorporates bother literature and oratory. • Teachers and students engage in collective struggle against the status quo. • Teachers are cognizant of themselves as political beings.

11. Literacy Integration A few tips that I shared: • implicit main idea—that there is an idea that is implicit throughout non-fiction texts • questions matter—why questions ask for explanations, what counts as an explanation varies depending on context • nominalization—nouns becoming verbs. Think Google something • features of texts—it can be important to teach features of texts (e.g. table of contents, index, headings, etc.) • embedded definitions—a common feature in non-fiction texts that terms are defined (usually set off by commas) within a text.