Practical Investigation: Using Log-books and Rubrics to Scaffold Inquiry

1. Practical Investigation: Using Log-books and Rubrics to Scaffold Inquiry Dino Cevolatti & Stuart Bird, Castlemaine Secondary College & QATs Session B3 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm Session C3 3:15 pm – 4:15 pm

2. Learning Intention The focus of this session will be on, how structured Log-books, Rubrics, and similar tools, can be used in the classroom to support students in engaging effectively in the inquiry process. We will begin with a presentation of the commercially available (QATs) structured Log-book and accompanying Rubric for the Unit 4 Outcome 3 Practical Investigation. This will include details about how and why they were constructed in the way that they were. The session will end with a workshop exploring strategies to address the obstacles to inquiry learning in VCE Physics.

3. Overview • Practical Investigation (7 minutes) • Unit 4 Outcome 3 (2 minute) • Unit 2 Outcome 3 (2 minute) • Challenges (3 minutes) • Inquiry-based Learning (8 minutes) • Characteristics (2 minute) • Benefits (3 minutes) • Scaffolding (3 minutes) • Log-Book (20 minutes) • Structure/Construction (3 minutes) • Use Before/During/After (3 minutes) • Details of Sections of the Log-book with Samples (12 minutes) • Poster Template Features and Use (2minutes) • Rubric (10 minutes) • Structure/Construction (5 minutes) • Use Before/During/After (5 minutes) • Workshop / Q&A (15 minutes) • Obstacles and Strategies (15 minutes)

4. Practical Investigation: Unit 4 Outcome 3 • Key knowledge: • physics concepts specific to the investigation • evidence supports or refutes a hypothesis • independent, dependent and controlled variables • scientific research methodologies and techniques • health and safety guidelines • organising, analysing and evaluating primary data • models and theories • key findings • conventions of scientific report writing

5. Practical Investigation: Unit 2 Outcome 3 Unit 4 Outcome 3 key Knowledge same as Unit 2 Outcome 3, except: • Removed: • independent, dependent and controlled variables • Changed: • chose from (thermodynamics, construction of electric circuits, mechanics) • instead of (gravity, magnetism, electricity, Newton’s laws of motion, waves) • Removed: • “construction” from and/or “construction and evaluation of device” • Changed: • focus on “observations and experiments that are consistent with, or challenge, current physics models or theories” • instead of “models and theories, and their use in organising and understanding observed phenomena and physics concepts including their limitations”

6. Practical Investigation: Challenges What issues did you face – or might you face (if you haven’t done it yet)?

7. Practical Investigation: Challenges What issues did you face – or might you face (if you haven’t done it yet)? • Selecting interesting and relevant research topics for individual students • Managing multiple independent projects (timing, techniques & equipment) • Providing instruction about research methods and concepts while doing it! • Generating a score for an Outcome while focusing on educational goals

8. Inquiry-Based Learning: Characteristics A form of active learning that starts by posing questions, problems or scenarios — rather than simply presenting established facts or portraying a smooth path to knowledge • Students create questions of their own • Students obtaining supporting evidence to answer question • Students explain the evidence they have collected • Students connect their knowledge to the investigative process it came from • Students create an argument and justification for their explanation SOURCE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inquiry-based_learning

9. Inquiry-Based Learning: Benefits • Hattie (2017) suggests that “Inquiry Teaching” (d= 0.40 previously 0.31) has impact “within the typical range of improvement” • However, Inquiry-Based Learning can have further benefits: • It is in fact the content of senior sciences (i.e., the Scientific Method) • It provides the context for otherwise disparate content and a framework for several much higher impact teaching strategies, such as; • Scaffolding (d= 0.82), • Planning and prediction (d= 0.76), • Feedback (d=0.70), • Problem-solving Teaching (d= 0.68), • Setting standards for self-judgement (d= 0.62) SOURCE: http://www.evidencebasedteaching.org.au/hatties-2017-updated-list/

10. Inquiry-Based Learning: Scaffolding • Scaffolding Requires: A Teacher-Task-Learner Relationship • Collaboration between the teacher and learner • Task structured to be within the learner's Zone of Proximal Development • Gradual Release of Responsibility • Scaffolding Intentions: Maintaining Direction, Structuring Thinking, Reducing Complexity, Engaging Interest and Managing Emotions • Metacognitive (Process & Attention) • Cognitive (Narrative & Simplification) • Affective (Interest & Resilience) • Scaffolding Means/Strategies: Feeding back, Hinting, Instructing, Explaining, Modelling, Questioning*\ SOURCE: van de Pol, Janneke, Volman, Monique, & Beishuizen, Jos. (2010). Scaffolding in Teacher–Student Interaction: A Decade of Research. Educational Psychology Review, 22:271–296 DOI 10.1007/s10648-010-9127-6

11. Inquiry-Based Learning: Relevance, Characteristics, Benefits, Scaffolding • Questions, Comments, Concerns, Suggestions?

12. Log-Book: Structure Logbook Contents: • Instructions and Overview • Practical Investigation Brainstorm Sheet • Practical Investigation Research Outline • Reference Record Sheet • Practical Investigation Research Proposal • Practical Investigation Materials Record Sheet • Practical Investigation Prototyping • Data Table Construction • Results Data Table • Practical Investigation Draft Procedure • Experimental Log • Practical Investigation Calculations: • Graph Construction • Results Graph • Discussion - Analysis & Limitations • Discussion - Conclusion & Recommendations

13. Log Book Uses: Before/During/After Before • Pre-loading Inquiry Skills and Scaffolding the Process before it happens • Setting work as Designated Learning Activity expectations During • Just-in-time teaching with explicit scaffolding on stage-specific skills • Differentiating and Personalising as you go using students samples After • Review, reflect, refine (add any non-poster details as per rubric requirements) • Copy-and-paste and edit directly into poster template

26. Poster Template Features • Students download word/google docs version saves time and stress • All sections identified with place-holder text (remove ‘design’ distraction) • Instructions for each section provided at point of need • Highest-level descriptor included for each section to encourage refinement • Gives indication of word-count expectation without needing to be explicit

29. Log-Book: Structure, Details, Examples, Uses • Questions, Comments, Concerns, Suggestions?

30. Rubric: Structure • Construction • Structure • Use Before/During/After

31. Rubric: Construction Identify all essential elements of a fluent performance or an effective product Describe entry level performance and/or characterise features of a prototype Describe exemplary performance and/or specify features of a exemplar product Identify properties of each element that vary qualitatively with refinement Allocate and highlight increments of qualitative refinement to levels of the rubric Try to use quantitative measures only when they correlate with qualitative factors

32. SOLO Taxonomy (Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes) Source: e.g., http://www.johnbiggs.com.au/academic/solo-taxonomy/http://pamhook.com

34. Rubric: Structure Overview

35. Rubric: Structure Detail

36. Rubric: Use Before: Highlighting “Beginning” and “Exemplary” Levels and steps Use the rubric to evaluate a “prior sample” poster/log-book During: Introduce each section with the relevant Log-book section Support self and teacher feedback (Feed Up, Back & Forward) After: Support refinement when transferring from Log-Book to Poster Support ease and reliability of differential assessment for teachers

37. Rubric: Construction, Structure, Uses • Questions, Comments, Concerns, Suggestions?

38. Workshop: Obstacles and Strategies What further obstacles may be encountered during the Practical Investigation? What possible strategies may be effectively used to address these obstacles?