WRITING IN AND WRITING TO LEARN SCIENCE IN SECONDARY METHODS
COURSES
Kathie M. Black, Ph.D.,
Abstract
Personal development of
science teaching begins as preservice teachers contemplate their own learning
situation during a science methods course.
Perhaps students have thought of how they want to teach or know
inherently strategies they want to incorporate, but when asked to write and
analyze their learning process through journaling with directed focus question,
this process becomes clearer (Klentschy & Molina-de La Torre, 2004). This section of the workshop focused on
reincorporating writing to learn in science methods courses through journaling
using instructor given focus questions.
Participants worked through the enterprise of developing appropriate
journal focus questions and analyses of student answers.
Learning any new subject is challenging,
often frustrating, but usually rewarding.
Pre-service education students come to the science methods classroom
with a myriad of experiences and understandings of the world around them. They’ve studied science content previously,
to what extent largely dependent upon personal choice and degree programme, and
they’re looking toward learning to teach science. Many of them are nervous about their teaching
abilities and personal knowledge of science and carry a trepidation of how
content and pedagogy come together successfully in the science classroom. Pre-service teachers are bombarded with a
plethora of new terms and ideas related to inquiry based science,
hands-on/minds-on activities, assessment in science, the nature of science,
scientific literacy, current reform suggestions, and standards based
instruction. Pulling together and making
sense of the knowledge swirling around them and putting that knowledge into
practice becomes their ultimate objective in science methods. However, pre-service students often tend to
be resistant to new ideas, preferring rather to pull together their existing
previous knowledge and experience, but these beliefs can change as a result of
instruction and experience that helps students meld old ideas with new ones
being presented (Bryan & Tippins, 2005).
One of the most effective strategies at helping students meld new
understanding with old is through the science-literacy connection. Linking literacy skills to learning how to
teach science content helps pre-service teachers have practical and personal
motivation to use language in helping them make the connections between content
knowledge and teaching pedagogy (Klentschy & Molina-De La Torre,
2004). According to Klentschy &
Molina-De La Torre (2004), communication through language is vital in the
process of learning and conducting science.
Words help us frame our understanding and give us a space to reflect on
these ideas through writing. Writing
helps us to attach a personal response to our experiences, clarifies our ideas,
and helps us construct our knowledge. In
practice of the science structured inquiry based classroom that uses a five “E”
structure, writing becomes a natural foundation for the extend and evaluation
phase of our lessons (Black, 2005).
Writing in the science classroom
takes on many forms from research reports, lab reports, science notebooks, and
reflective journaling. The term ‘science
notebook’ and ‘science journal’ are often used interconnectivily in the
research. Some authors refer to ‘science
notebooks’ as lab notebooks in which students write their findings of
experimentations and ‘journals’ to places where students write their
reflections of their experiences.
Science notebooks have become more then just lab reporting notebooks in
most science research forums, they have become the place where students can not
only record data from experiences, but also reflect on their own learning,
answer questions, formulate ideas, generate new questions, and dialogue with
the teacher (Akerson & Young, 2005; Fulton & Campbell, 2004; Klentschy
& Molina-De La Torre, 2004).
Just asking students to write and reflect
in their journals is about as effective as asking “yes” “no” questions during a
science class or simply stating to students, “are there any questions” (Olson
& Clough, 2004). Questioning
techniques in teaching remain a strong focus in all our teaching efforts from the
first establishment of the ‘three second wait’ rule in giving students time to
formulate their verbal answers to higher level questioning in class
discussions. Journaling in science is
most effective when developed around effective prompts and questions. Helping students formulate their answers
through guiding their writing and giving them a ‘start’ point enhances
knowledge construction and connections between their existing knowledge and new
information (Klentschy, 2005). Miller
& Calfee (2004) suggest six suggestions of writing prompts for guiding
student writing. The first involves a
focus statement that serves the purposes of activating student prior knowledge
and draws students into critically thinking about what they are about to
write. A second is to ask students to
consider their audience, in journaling the audience is either the teacher or
the students’ own personal voice, and a third is the type of form the writing
takes, such as essay, letter, or narrative.
Two more suggestions are to be specific and simple with instructions
regarding students writing and encourage students to support their written
statements with details from their experiences.
Finally, writing needs space – time and physical space – within which to
develop.
After establishing effective parameters
for student reflective writing, it is up to the instructor to develop focus
questions to help students ponder while writing. These questions help create the dialogue
between student and teacher by exploring issues involved in the learning
situation, defining evidence found, or exploring new avenues for thought. Effective focus questions ask students to
give evidence for their claims, encourage them to offer other explanations for
what they experienced, or ask them to elaborate on a particular event or
subject discussed or explored in the science classroom (Klentschy &
Molina-De La Torre, 2004).
The following are sample focus questions:
·
Write
for one minute in your journal about everything you experienced in today’s
class. After the one-minute, discuss how
you might like to introduce/remind your own students of the science process
skills.
·
Compare
& contrast the learning cycle teaching strategy with the way you’ve learned
science. Discuss your feelings of
teaching in this manner.
·
Looking back at your own education, what
has been the major form of assessment?
How do you think you could incorporate more effective assessment
techniques into your own planning?
Workshop Activity –
Designing Focus Questions
1.
Establish
for yourself the most important ‘need to know’ aspect from the learning
situation (whether it be science or methods – perhaps both if your students are
uncomfortable with science content);
2.
Write
several higher order level questions that you might ask during a discussion.
3.
From
these questions, determine one or two that might be best explored through
writing.
4.
Consider
your audience – do you want to change this for individual journal explorations
or simply have it be a dialogue between student and instructor?
5.
Encourage
students give support for their claims.
Responding to Answers
1.
Responding
to reflective answers is tricky. Do not
be judgmental.
2.
Look
to see if answers are knowledge ‘telling’ or knowledge ‘developing’.
3.
Respond
to questions with a question. Such as,
“this is interesting, have you thought of…” or “you claim to be ineffective at…
please give an example of a situation where you’ve felt this and one where
you’ve succeeded”. Etc.
Akerson, V.L. and Young, T.A. (2005).
“Science the “Write” Way”. Science and Children, NSTA, Vol. 43,
Number 3: 38-41.
Black, K.M.
(2005). Strengthening pre-service
student understanding and application of writing to learn in science through
sequenced writing tasks. Conference
paper presentation at ASTE,
Bryan,
Fulton, L. and Campbell, B.
(2004). “Student-Centered
Notebooks”. Science and Children, NSTA Vol. 42, Number 3; 26-29.
Klentschy, M.P. (2005).
Science Notebook Essentials. Science and Children, Vol. 43, Number 3:
24-27.
Klentschy, M.P. and Molina-De La Torre,
E. (2004). Student’s Science Notebooks and the Inquiry
Process. Crossing borders in literacy and
science instruction: Perspectives on theory and practice.
Miller, R.G. and Calfee, R.C. (2004).
Making Thinking Visible. Science and Children, Vol. 42, Number 3:
20-25.
Olson, J.K. and Clough, M.P. (2004).
What Questions Do You Have? In Defense of General Questions: A Response to Croom. Teachers College Record, http://www.tcrecord.org, ID Number 11366.
Contact information:
Dr. Kathie M. Black
(250) 240-7488 (cell)
kblack@uvic.ca