Major Ideas of Teaching Science Essay (Critical Writing)

In teaching science, teachers should always ensure that science programs

1. are based on standards and employ standards-based instructional materials,
2. have the capacity to develop students’ command of the academic language of science used in the content standards,
3. reflect a balanced, comprehensive approach that includes the teaching of investigation and experimentation skills along with direct instruction and reading,
4. employ multiple instructional strategies and provide students with multiple opportunities to master the content standards,
5. include continual assessment of students’ knowledge and comprehension, with appropriate adjustments been made during the academic year,
6. continually engage all students in learning and prepare and motivate learners for further instruction in science,
7. use technology to teach students, assess their knowledge, and develop information resources,
8. have adequate instructional resources as well as library-media and administrative support,
9. use standards-based connections with other core subjects to reinforce science teaching and learning (California Department of Education, 2004).

Teaching Strategies

The framework is clear that the content standards for grade six students primarily focus on earth science; hence the adopted teaching strategies at this grade level should demonstrate the capacity to stimulate intellectual curiosity in earth sciences (California Department of Education, 2004).

In teaching science, “direct instruction and investigative activities need to be mutually supportive and synergistic” (California Department of Education, 2004 p. 6). In direct instruction, the teacher takes control of the classroom and delivers skills-oriented instruction by breaking down the topic into smaller units, which are then deliberately sequenced and explicitly taught to the classroom.

In teaching earth science to grade six students, for example, the teacher can break down the topic of plate tectonics into smaller units and then decide to provide skills oriented instruction on the process of continental drift by not only providing readings and notes to students, but also leading them “to model the process by cutting out continental shapes from a map of the earth and treating these continents as movable jigsaw puzzle pieces” (California Department of Education, 2004 p. 85).

The other teaching strategy focuses on investigative activities. This strategy entails an instructor playing an active role in not only assisting students to identify a topic of interest and exploring current knowledge on the topic, but also in framing the topic into manageable questions, collecting appropriate information, analyzing and synthesizing the collected information to come up with objective findings, and reflecting on the outcomes found.

During a session on mineral identification, for example, a teacher may lead students to develop a hypothesis, select and use suitable tools for fieldwork, gather appropriate data from the field regarding the relationships between variables, analyze data, and present results from the investigation in written reports and oral presentations (California Department of Education, 2004).

Reflection

Upon sufficient reflection, I have learnt that

1. long-term planning of a science curriculum over a span of grades is needed to assist students learn new things and develop new skills each year,
2. instructional programs in science need the content standards to be incorporated at each grade level and should be comprehensive and coherent over a span of grade levels,
3. students should be active participants in science instruction and should also be actively engaged in thinking about science,
4. science must be taught in a way that is scholarly yet engaging,
5. assessments need to reflect the wealth of the science standards and, in the elementary and middle grade levels, to cover all the threads (life, physical, and earth sciences) and the investigation and experimentation standards (California Department of Education, 2004).

These learning outcomes can be implemented in the classroom through careful planning, setting of clear objectives, and providing an enabling environment through which students ask meaningful questions and conduct careful investigations.

Reference

California Department of Education. (2004). Science framework for California public schools: Kindergarten through grade twelve. Retrieved from https://www.cde.ca.gov/