PROMOTING EFFECTIVE SCIENCE
TEACHER EDUCATION AND SCIENCE TEACHING: A VISUAL FRAMEWORK FOR TEACHER
DECISION-MAKING
Michael P. Clough,
Craig
A Berg, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Abstract
Learning and effective teaching are both complicated acts. However, teachers and key stakeholders appear not to recognize those complexities and their significance for practice. Fueling this perception, recommendations from isolated research findings often neglect the complexities in learning and teaching and when implemented in classrooms have little or no effect. Consequently, education research is generally ignored, and the resulting research-practice gap raises issues regarding the utility of university-based teacher education. However, the strength of education research resides in the synergy resulting from its integration into a unifying system that guides, but does not determine, decision-making. This paper proposes a Visual Framework to help beginning and experienced teachers come to understand crucial teacher decisions and how those decisions interact to affect student learning. The proposed Visual Framework has significant utility in the design of science methods courses, science teacher education programs, effective student teacher supervision experiences, and professional development workshops.
Introduction
Learning and
effective teaching are both highly complex acts. Leinhardt and Greeno (1986, p.
75) write that, “the task of teaching occurs in a relatively ill-structured,
dynamic environment.” Classroom conditions change in unpredictable ways, and
information arises during the act of teaching that by necessity must inform
performance as it occurs. Reflecting these complexities, classroom teachers
make hundreds of non-trivial decisions each day working with children (Good and
Brophy, 1994; Jackson, 1990, MacKay and Marland, 1978). However, the general
public, policy makers, and even many teachers appear not to recognize these
complexities. This is evident in widely held beliefs such as: 1) command of
subject matter is sufficient for effective teaching; 2) effective pedagogical
practices develop naturally through teaching experience; 3) teaching is simply
a matter of personal style; and 4) teaching is essentially the passing of
information from teacher to students. These beliefs manifest themselves in shallow traditional and alternative teacher
licensure programs, back-to-basics fads, high stakes testing that reflects
trivial knowledge, and simplistic business-model approaches to education.
Apparently
teacher educators and teachers have poorly communicated the intricacies of
effective teaching to key stakeholders. Fullan (1996) argued that one of the
main reasons that teachers seem to be constantly defending themselves from
external critics is that they cannot explain themselves adequately. He writes
that:
Critics are increasingly using clear language and
specific examples in their charges, while educators are responding with
philosophical rationales (e.g. we are engaged in active learning). Abstract
responses to specific complaints are not credible. …What does it mean to say that educators
cannot explain themselves adequately? Perhaps teachers do not fully understand
what they are doing, or perhaps they are simply unable to articulate it. (p.
423)
The capacious and enduring
research-practice gap in teaching reflects complex tensions and dilemmas
(Anderson, 2002; Windschitl, 2002) within and between conceptual, pedagogical,
cultural and political realms. However, this alone is an insufficient
explanation as tensions and dilemmas exist in many fields where the disparity
between research and practice is less pronounced. To make matters worse,
oftentimes, the most vocal critics of education research are teachers themselves! That large numbers of teachers don’t see the
value of education research raises questions regarding what goes on in teacher
education program. Perhaps as Berliner (1985) suggests, because teacher
educators come from the ranks of teaching they:
“. . . see themselves as practical people, hired from or strongly identified with the world of practice. They believe in experience and apprenticeship as the major ways of learning to teach. This commitment has resulted in timidity about reading, critiquing, or using the scientific literature about teaching.” (p. 130)
Clough (2003) argues that the utility
of education research is either muted or insignificant for understanding
learning and teaching, unless it is collected into a coherent whole—into a
research-based framework (RBF) for teaching science. He writes:
The research-practice gap exists to a large extent because, beginning in their teacher preparation programs, teachers quickly find that recommendations from isolated research findings have little or no effect in their classrooms. The linear thinking of elementary and secondary preservice science teacher education students is illustrated in their believing that the value of multiple behaviors and strategies is that if one doesn’t work, then they have others to try (Clough and Olson, 2003; Olson, In Press). (p. 16)
The fault for this general dissatisfaction with education
research lies to some extent with education researchers and teacher educators
who neglect to make clear that the complexities of teaching are not reflected
in isolated research findings or even isolated lines of research. While
research is often done in authentic classroom settings, when presented in the
literature it is frequently disconnected from other research, thus not
reflecting the complex interactions that are ever present in classrooms.
Teacher Decisions
What are some
of the non-trivial decisions that teachers need to understand, how do these
decisions interact with one another, and how can teachers be helped to
understand these decisions and their complexities? Understandably, foremost in
teachers’ minds is having something for students to do, preferably a task that
students find interesting and will complete with little resistance. The very
real need to have something for students to do often interferes with teachers
thinking about the goals they have for students and how people learn. Duschl
and Gitomer (1997, p. 65) noted that teachers see teaching as “dominated by
tasks and activities rather than conceptual structures and scientific reasoning.”
However, while teachers may focus on tasks and activities, in making those
decisions they have also tacitly, and often unknowingly, made decisions
regarding the developmental appropriateness of content (Bransford, Brown &
Cocking, 2000) and materials (Olson & Clough, 2001). Decisions regarding
what science content to teach and tasks and materials that will help students
make desired meaning are interrelated and should be thoughtfully made in light
of desired goals for students and how people learn.
Ensuring that students’ classroom
experiences are aligned with how people learn and desired goals also demands
that teachers explicitly consider decisions regarding teaching models and
strategies. Teaching models that reflect how students learn and promote desired
goals include, but are not limited to, the learning cycle (Karplus, 1977;
Schneider and Renner, 1980), the generative learning model (Osborne and
Freyberg, 1985), the 5-E model (Bybee, 1997), search, solve, create, and share
(Pizzini et al., 1989), and the science writing heuristic (Keys et al., 1999).
Teaching strategies like Predict-observe-explain (POE), think-pair-share (TPS),
and HRASE (Penick, Crow & Bonnstetter, 1996) should be chosen in concert
with other teacher decisions for optimal impact on student learning. However,
even if content, tasks, materials, teaching models and strategies are wisely
chosen, desired ends are severely curtailed or thwarted without appropriate
teacher interaction with students.
While
interesting and developmentally appropriate content, tasks, and materials spark
students’ curiosity and set a stage for learning, what teachers do during those
tasks is crucial. Effective teaching is a highly interactive activity, but too
often teachers have only vague ideas about how to create and maintain that kind
of environment (Gallimore & Tharp, 1990). Several research-based teacher
behaviors implemented in concert are needed to establish meaningful interactive
environments to help students make desired connections. The questions teachers
ask, the wait I & II they provide, the non-verbal behaviors they exhibit,
and how they respond to students’ ideas together have an enormous impact on
classroom environment, determining what students think, and helping students
make desired connections (Clough 2002 & 2003, Southerland,
Kittleson, Settlage, & Lanier, 2005). Yet teachers are largely unaware of their personal
behaviors while teaching and the impact they have on students. For instance,
teachers can, and often unknowingly do, convey the message that they do not
value students’ ideas in a number of ways―by the kinds of questions they
ask, the little time they provide students to think and formulate answers,
their unintentional negative body language, ignoring unwanted student
responses, and only acknowledging or using desired answers.
All the above teacher
decisions interact with one another to create the learning environment.
Moreover, teacher decision-making should reflect an incessant feedback
loop—that is, content, tasks, materials, models and strategies, along with
critical teacher behaviors and interaction patters are selected to move
students forward while also assessing their thinking so that more-informed
decisions may be made. However, Duschl and Gitomer (1997) note that teachers
are rarely prepared to use student information in guiding and revising
instructional decision making.
Figure 1
provides an overarching visual representation to help preservice and inservice
science teachers conceptualize these many teacher decisions, and understand
their importance and interactions. First generated by Clough and Berg in 1988,
the Visual Framework has since undergone several iterations (Clough, 1992;
Clough and Berg, 1995; Clough and Kauffman, 1999; Clough, 2003) leading to what
is presented here. The Visual Framework makes explicit the crucial and incessant
role of assessment in teacher decision-making. While the Visual Framework
certainly does not capture all that goes into learning and teaching, it must be
seen in its purpose of assisting novice and experienced teachers to make sense
of the complex decisions they often unknowingly make moment to moment in the
classroom.
Figure
1 Visual Framework Illustrating Teacher
Decision-Making and Their Interactions
Student Goals
consistent
with
Student Actions
selected to promote informs decisions regarding
selected to understand informs decisions
regarding
The Learner Student’s Thinking Student’s Self-efficacy Student’s Prior Knowledge Student’s Developmental Differences Student’s Zone of Proximal Development
Understandably,
attention immediately is drawn to the broad categories. However, of greater
importance are the arrows conveying the importance of teacher decisions and
their interactions. The overarching intent of the Visual Framework is to
illustrate that all teacher decisions regarding science content, tasks,
activities, materials, models, strategies, and teacher behaviors should be made
in light of desired goals for students and how
students learn. Clough (2003) provides extensive elaboration of each
broad category, teacher decision-making, and the interaction among those teacher
decisions.
Utility
of the Visual Framework
Illustrating how pedagogical research best informs
practice when it comes as a coherent package
All
beginning teachers and many experienced teachers struggle to understand how all
the decisions displayed in the Visual Framework coalesce to define the
educational process. Attention is easily drawn to the more discernible polar
extremes of more obvious decisions, rather than to subtlety, interaction and
complexity. The problem is magnified with novices who, lacking automated
routines for many teaching tasks, quickly find their working memory
overwhelmed. In wrestling with the complexities of learning and teaching and
the cognitive overload that often results, teachers’ thinking becomes piecemeal
and black-or-white in nature. Teachers tend to view suggested ideas as either
“working” or “not working,” and often fail to see how the success of a changed
practice depends upon the simultaneous effective use of myriad other practices.
Many experienced teachers face the same problem but for different reasons.
The following example illustrates the complex and subtle interplay of decisions and teaching practices. Beginning and experienced teachers often complain that students rarely become engaged in discussions. Several research-based teacher behaviors implemented in concert are needed to establish meaningful interactive environments. Teachers who improve their questioning are often frustrated when student interaction does not immediately increase. While questions set an academic mood, they alone do not encourage students to ponder and respond. Even effective questioning and appropriate wait-time are often insufficient for enticing many students to “risk” responding.
Answering a teacher’s questions, particularly in front of peers, can be a terribly intimidating experience for many students. An intellectually safe environment must be promoted, in part by exhibiting a number of encouraging non-verbal behaviors alongside appropriate questions and wait-time. Body language and how long a teacher waits for an answer communicates how open a teacher is to student responses. Teachers who genuinely want student interaction will appropriately incorporate encouraging and expectant non-verbal behaviors such as smiling, proper eye-contact with students all around the classroom, movement around the room and among students, leaning forward when students are speaking, raising eyebrows to show interest, inviting hand-gestures (Bavelas et al., 1995; Roth, 2001), positioning themselves to be at similar physical levels as students, and wait-time I and II (Rowe, 1974a & 1974b).
However, even
more is required for promoting and maintaining student interaction. Carefully
listening to students and sensitively responding to what they say is imperative
for creating an intellectually safe environment that encourages students to
bare their thinking. Rather than immediately evaluating student responses,
teachers should encourage interaction by acknowledging student ideas, writing
students’ ideas on the board, using student ideas as a focus for further
instruction, asking students to elaborate, and asking for the implications of
proposed ideas. This does not mean that all student answers are accepted as
correct. Instead, by using student ideas for further thinking and discussion,
the focus of the discussion moves from a sole concern for right answers to
reasoning and justification for ideas (correct or incorrect), and in the
process, students often find errors in substance and logic that lead them to
revise their own thinking.
Clough (2003) refers to the synergy that results from effective questioning, positive non-verbals, listening, wait-time, and responding that further engages students as the central core of effective teaching practices. The importance of these behaviors is that they are the essential “tools” teachers always have at that their disposal for understanding students’ thinking, promoting student understanding of content, and advancing student learning. Moreover, it emphasizes that teaching is, above all else, an activity centered on human interaction that requires simultaneous attention to several crucial teacher behaviors.
But
even if when a teacher’s interaction pattern reflects all the above, student
discussion may be muted if the science content chosen is not developmentally
appropriate, if the task is not somewhat meaningful, if needed experiences were
not previously available for students to draw from, if helpful concrete
materials are not available during the discussion, and/or if materials are
developmentally inappropriate.
The crux of
the matter is that “practical suggestions from research, when implemented in
isolation, often result in effects that are either muted or non-existent”
(Clough & Kauffman, 1999, p. 532.). The power of what we know about
teaching and learning is in the synergy that results when research findings are
collected into a coherent whole. The Visual Framework in figure 1 illustrates
how many decisions must be made in concert to achieve desired ends, and that
particular pedagogical research findings must be integrated and judged
alongside other pedagogical decisions.
Illustrating how
perceived contradictions and dilemmas in education research may be resolved
Teachers often complain that disparate education research findings appear to provide an array of seemingly conflicting implications for practice. This is nicely illustrated in a conversation that Bruce Joyce recounts having with Herbert Thelan regarding discomfort and learning. He writes:
At the
This is indeed a puzzling situation, but one that illustrates well the
complexities in teaching, the inadequacies of education research when
considered separately, and the power of it when brought together into a
coherent whole. A solution to this apparent contradiction is reflected in
Contradictions
and dilemmas are part of any complex activity such as teaching. The Visual
Framework illustrates that effective teacher decision-making must weigh many
factors including desired student goals, how people learn, and the interaction
among pedagogical practices. In doing so, perceived inconsistencies in
education research findings can often be resolved.
Planning Lessons
Teachers’ lesson planning decisions are made sometimes with deliberate thought and sometimes haphazardly. Personal beliefs, the adopted textbook, colleagues and the institutional setting are major factors in planning and carrying out lessons. The consistent findings from studies of science teaching practices reveal a generally inadequate consideration of how people learn (Bransford et al., 2000) and classroom practices that fail to engage children in meaningful learning (Weiss, et al., 2003). Sadly, What Goodlad (1983) wrote nearly twenty years ago would fit verbatim in any contemporary science education reform document:
One would expect the teaching of social studies and
science in schools to provide ample opportunities for the development of
reasoning: deriving concepts from related events, testing in a new situation
hypotheses derived from examining other circumstances, drawing conclusions from
an array of data, and so on. Teachers listed those skills and more as intended
learnings. We observed little of the activities that their lists implied, and
teachers' tests reflected quite different priorities—mainly the recall of
information. The topics that come to
mind as representing the natural and social sciences appear to be of great
human interest. But on the way to the classroom they are apparently transformed
and homogenized into something of limited appeal. (Alfred North Whitehead's
words on the uselessness of inert knowledge come to mind.) (p. 468)
When planning lessons, teachers often struggle when asked to express how they decide what science content within a discipline is worth teaching. Rationales are post-hoc and rarely reflect deep thinking about the structure of the discipline, how students learn, and other important factors. Too often the selected textbook defines the course scope, sequence, and depth implying that a textbook's inclusion of information, in part, legitimizes teaching that content (Weiss, 1993; Weiss et al., 2003). Textbooks also exert a significant influence on how content is taught—from the sequence of material to the manner in which it is presented (Weiss, et al., 2003).
The Visual
Framework reminds teachers that deciding what content to teach in a lesson, as
well as decisions regarding tasks, activities and materials should reflect how
people learn and promote desired student goals. Using the Visual Framework as
an organizer for planning lessons emphasizes the need to coordinate one’s
thoughts and decisions through careful consideration of all parts of the
framework, to use educational research as a filter, and to consider the
synergistic and compounding relationships between parts of the framework. The
Visual Framework is helpful for keeping in mind key decisions in planning and
preparing to teach lessons and units, and that the crucial role of the teacher
is foremost in that thinking.
Emphasizing
the Crucial Role of the Teacher
Effective
teaching promotes a highly interactive environment. While interesting and
developmentally appropriate content, tasks, activities and materials spark
students’ curiosity and set a stage for learning, what teachers do during a
lesson is crucial. Teachers exert the greatest influence in the classroom
through the way they mentally engage students in a lesson. However, the
overwhelming layered complexities of learning and teaching often cloud the
value of important findings regarding the teacher’s role in creating powerful
learning experiences for children. Too often teachers ignore or downplay their
own behaviors and interaction patterns and how those significantly influence
the education experience (Olson et al., 2004). Whether or not a teacher
is consciously aware of their classroom behavior, they develop quite consistent
interaction patterns that change surprisingly little from one classroom context
to another. Understanding the learner and promoting desired goals depends a
great deal on how teachers interact with students (Shymansky & Penick,
1981; Tobin and Garnett, 1988; Weiss et
al., 2003). The Visual Framework illustrates that a teacher’s behaviors and
the resulting interaction pattern will interact with other decisions and
significantly influence the teaching and learning process.
Guiding
Self-Reflection On and In Action
The Visual
Framework may also serve a useful role for assessing and improving one’s own
practice. The Visual Framework helps make explicit many important decisions
teachers must consider in planning and conducting effective lessons. Making
these decisions explicit is important for understanding why a lesson went well
and providing a basis for trouble-shooting when things don’t work (Schon, 1983,
pp. 60-61). Greater work, concentration and responsibility are demanded of
teachers moving from common didactic practices to more interactive ones (Cohen,
1988), and the Visual Framework helps teachers identify at what they must work
harder, on what they must concentrate, and what precisely are the larger
pedagogical responsibilities demanded. In doing so, the Visual Framework
presents a natural mechanism for self-reflection—both on action and in action.
Reflection on-action entails analyzing practice after teaching a lesson. For
instance, when reviewing audio and videotapes of practice, the Visual Framework
helps teachers see events and complex interactions that would otherwise go
unnoticed.
Reflection
in-action, during the act of teaching, is extremely difficult because it
requires a teacher to quickly process both what they are doing and what
students are doing and immediately use both in making pedagogical decisions. Schon (1983, p. 164) refers to a practitioner’s ability to
both shape a situation while taking in information that will influence further
decision-making as “double vision” and this depends on “certain relatively
constant elements brought to a situation otherwise in flux.” For
instance, as noted earlier in this paper, lack of student participation in a
class discussion may be due to a multitude of factors that include, but are not
limited to, the following:
·
Content that is beyond
students’ development level
·
Lack of concrete
materials or inappropriate materials that confuse students
·
Poorly asked teacher
questions
·
Inappropriate
wait-time I and/or II
·
Passive teacher
non-verbal behaviors
·
Inappropriate teacher
responses to previous student comments
·
Students needing more
time to process information.
Keeping the Visual Framework in mind
during the act of teaching can help teachers keep in mind the multiple factors
they should consider when making pedagogical decisions in action. For instance,
in the above example if a teacher has good reason to think students need more
time to process information, then implementing a think-pair-share strategy might
be the appropriate decision to make.
Accurate
and effective reflection in-action requires that teachers understand how
multiple factors coalesce to define the education process. Inherent in this is
an incessant feedback loop—activities, materials, and even content, along with
critical teacher behaviors and strategies are selected to move students forward
while also assessing their thinking so that more-informed decisions are made
that repeat the cycle. The Visual Framework has utility in helping address a
crucial problem noted by Duschl and Gitomer (1997) that teachers are rarely
prepared to use student information in guiding and revising instructional
decision making. This requires much effort, time, and experience, but from rich
reflection-on-action episodes come more meaningful and productive action plans
for improvement that, in time, make for better reflection-in-action. The “small
wins” (Wieck, 1983; Rhatigan & Schuh, 2003) that follow can be placed
within the overarching Visual Framework and, over time, are more likely to
accumulate in a way that makes effective teaching a reality.
Helping Teachers
Explain Themselves
Even the most well educated and determined teachers will face a number of institutional constraints during their teaching career. These institutional constraints may simply be a lack of support for particular practices, but may entail formidable barriers or fierce attacks by certain stakeholders. Early in this paper we quoted Fullan (1996) who argued that teachers seem to be constantly defending themselves, in part, because they cannot explain themselves adequately. Echoing this same perspective, Windschitl (2002), in addressing the political dilemmas teachers face in moving from didactic to highly interactive practices, writes, “Without conceptual grounding, reform-minded teachers can generate neither coherent instructional strategies nor arguments to advance their aspirations past conservative gatekeepers in the school community” (p. 160). Some potential constraints that teachers face are:
·
Colleagues
and administrators who attempt to mold new teachers into archaic practices.
·
Students
who see current views of learning/teaching as foreign and resist such
practices.
·
Parents
who challenge a science teacher's classroom practices.
·
Archaic
curriculum.
·
Required
assessment practices that reflect archaic curricula, and views of learning.
Teachers
cannot avoid the necessity of persuasively communicating the complexities of
learning and teaching to others. Science teachers unable to articulate such a
framework are open to many attacks for which they will have no convincing
defense. This increases the likelihood they will return to archaic practices.
The Visual Framework is useful in helping teachers understand the complexities
of learning and teaching and frame their responses to stakeholders who are
questioning their practices. That so many prospective and experienced teachers
can at best only vaguely communicate the complex nature of learning and
teaching degrades public confidence in schools, adds to the perception that
teaching is not quite a profession, calls into question the utility of
education research, and rightfully leads to a skeptical view toward teacher
education.
Structuring
Science Methods Courses and Programs
The Visual Framework plays a central role in our respective secondary science teacher education programs. Early in the program emphasis is primarily placed on understanding the persistent problems in science education and understanding how people learn. This provides a basis for developing a list of goals for students that has much in common with those appearing in Table 1. The chasm existing between the desired and actual state of science teaching exists for many reasons, but is due at least in part to the abstract nature of many student goals listed in Table 1. In making sense of education research, planning lessons, and reflecting in and on-action, teachers must have more concrete descriptors of student activity in mind. The importance of this is illustrated in the difficulties prospective and experienced science teachers often have when attempting to articulate what students ought to be observed doing that would be consistent with the goals advocated in Table 1.
Table 1. Common Science Education Goals for Students
Students will:
1. Demonstrate
deep robust understanding of fundamental science concepts rather than covering
many insignificant/isolated facts.
2. Use
critical thinking skills.
3. Convey
an accurate understanding of the nature(s) of science.
4. Identify
and solve problems effectively.
5. Use
communication and cooperative skills effectively.
6. Actively
participate in working towards solutions to local, national, and global
problems.
7. Be
creative and curious.
8. Set
goals, make decisions, and self-evaluate.
9. Convey
a positive attitude about science.
10. Access,
retrieve, and use the existing body of scientific knowledge in the process of
investigating phenomena.
11. Convey
self-confidence and a positive self-image.
12. Demonstrate
an awareness of the importance of science in many careers.
At
least two very important insights emerge from articulating student actions
consistent with each goal. First, student actions for various science education
goals have much in common, making apparent the interconnectedness of student
goals. This is critical in persuading teachers that promoting deep
understanding of science content is linked to promoting other goals as well.
That is, a deep understanding of fundamental science ideas requires attention
to other science education goals such as creativity, critical thinking, problem
solving, communication skills, the nature of science and others that are often
slighted. The overlap in student actions is also a blessing because promoting
multiple goals does not require disparate pedagogical approaches.
Second,
a clear vision of congruent student actions raises practical questions
regarding how to engage students in the complex cognitive tasks described by
those actions. In Alice in Wonderland,
·
What
content to teach
·
What
tasks and activities to implement
·
What
materials to use
·
What
teaching models and strategies to consider
·
What
teacher behaviors and interaction pattern to exhibit
While student actions may serve as
one important means to assess students’ progress, their role for teacher
decision-making is more important. That is, at all times noting what students
are (and are not) doing and saying, and what this conveys about the learner,
provides cues that ought to immediately inform teacher decision-making. Again,
the Visual Framework makes apparent that effective teacher decisions requires
what Schon refers to as “double vision” ― attending to both the learner
and desired ends in making pedagogical decisions.
From
this a more clear and relevant role for education research emerges. Much of the
difficulty in making sense of education research lies in a failure to consider
how it is or is not relevant to particular desired ends and how people learn. A
vision of desired goals for students and an understanding of how people learn
are both needed for selecting and making sense out of the vast educational
literature. Different views of learning and/or different desired outcomes may
call for different or more complex orchestration of practices. Without guidance
regarding both the goals of education and how students learn, little basis
exists to make sense of education research and to inform classroom practice. We
use the Visual Framework as a focal point throughout our science education
courses to introduce and revisit the complexities inherent in learning and
effective teaching, and to provide organization to this complex and often
chaotic environment. For example, the following are some ways we use the Visual
Framework in our respective science teacher education programs:
- Process
all methods activities using the Visual Framework. When modeling effective
and ineffective practices we explicitly draw students’ attention to the
layered complexities of teaching represented in the Visual Framework.
- Link
readings to the components of the Visual Framework. For instance, readings
regarding questioning, wait-time and non-verbal behaviors are linked to
understanding the learner and promoting desired goals.
- Have
students use the Visual Framework to plan and critique lesson plans.
- Have
students use the Visual Framework to analyze videotape of experienced
teachers and understand and gain insight into their decisions in-action.
- Have
students use the Visual Framework to analyze the layered complexities in
their own classroom teaching practices.
Supervision
Cooperating teachers sometimes struggle to clearly identify
and communicate a student teacher’s shortcomings and how improvement is to be
accomplished. Too often student teaching
and accompanying supervision experiences are poorly linked to what students
learned in their preservice program. The Visual Framework can be useful in
guiding cooperating teachers’ and university supervisors’ coaching of student
teachers to address these and other issues that occur during student teaching. For example, when student teachers
face the inevitable classroom management issues and other instructional
struggles, they often seek to blame the learner or seek quick fixes such as
entertaining activities. Cooperating teachers and university supervisors can
use the Visual Framework to pose questions that remind a student teacher to
consider decisions made in the lesson that may account for undesirable student
behaviors and lesson outcomes.
For
instance, students’ lack of engagement and resulting management issues may
partly result from cognitive challenges in a lesson being too far above or
below students’ development level. Or
perhaps the cognitive challenges do not permit entry points for the variety of
developmental levels existing among the many students in the class. What
strategies (e.g. predict-observe-explain or think-pair-share) did the student
teacher utilize to encourage all students to be mentally engaged? During
periods of wait-time I and II, what non-verbal behaviors did the student
teacher exhibit to maintain student engagement? When students are well behaved,
what goals were promoted and what did the student teacher consciously do to
promote those goals? How well did the student teacher probe students thinking
and use that knowledge to promote desired understandings? All teachers, but
particularly novices, must always be on guard not to equate quiet and compliant
students with good teaching (Slater, 2003; Stofflett & Stefanon, 1996).
Directing student teachers’ thoughts and reflections to the Visual Framework is
an extension of efforts in the teacher education program to develop habits of
thought and reflection on key decisions necessary for effective teaching.
Avoiding Fads
in Education
Disconnected
research, as well as perceived and real conflicting implications for practice
from isolated research findings, sends practitioners the message that anything
goes when teaching. Effective use of the Visual Framework helps elicit
conflicting beliefs, address contradictory recommendations from research, and
reconsider research-based recommendations that “don’t work” in isolation. In
making sense of learning and teaching, the Visual Framework helps classroom
teachers and teacher educators identify early, and thus be less susceptible to,
education fads (Slavin, 1989) and reforms that Cuban (1990) writes “return
again, again and again” (p. 11). Keeping in mind enduring science education
goals, how students learn, and the coherence of effective pedagogy provides a
means to assess the latest “innovation” for its merits, and stay the proper
course during recurring waves of ill-conceived school reform.
Conclusion
Effective
teaching is not simply a matter of subject matter content knowledge, personal
style and experience, nor can it be codified into a list of “What Works”as put
forth by Marzano et al. (2000). The
research-practice gap exists to a large extent because, beginning in their
teacher preparation programs, teachers quickly find that recommendations from
isolated research findings have little or no meaningful effect in their
classrooms. For example, the positive effects of the well-supported learning
cycle approach can easily be negated by myriad variables including, but not
limited to, the selection of developmentally inappropriate content, materials
that interfere in learning, and/or teacher behaviors that do not encourage
students to express their ideas and make the desired connections.
The Visual Framework in Figure 1 is
useful for making apparent and managing the layers of complexity that exist in
learning and teaching. The Visual Framework is not intended to comprehensively
address all that is required for effective teaching and learning. Even if such
a framework could be created, it would be far too complex for organizing
reflection prior to, during and after teaching. The Visual Framework serves as
a useful and comprehensible starting point for discussions and reflections of
teaching. The Visual Framework illustrates that the strength of education
research resides in the synergy resulting from the integration of disparate
research findings into a unifying system. Without some organizing framework,
the enormous complexities of learning and effective teaching can easily
overwhelm educators. Darling-Hammond (1996) writes that teachers and
administrators have difficulty creating both learning-centered and
learner-centered environments because in emphasizing subject matter content,
they lose cite of students, and in emphasizing learners they lose cite of
curriculum goals and the teacher’s’ critical role.
it is possible to change “on the surface” by endorsing
certain goals, using specific materials, and even imitating the behavior without specifically understanding the
principles and rationale of the change. Moreover, with reference to beliefs, it
is possible to value and even be articulate about the goals of the change
without understanding their implications for practices. (pp. 42-43, italics in
original)
Some may dismiss the Visual
Framework, believing it reflects a bygone era of technical rationality in
professional knowledge (Schon, 1983). The current academic climate in education
research demands one to be almost apologetic when suggesting that at least some
rational causal relationships exist in teaching. In the first chapter of the
most recent Handbook of Research On
Teaching (
We are using the Visual Framework to challenge simplistic notions of learning and teaching, and narrow the research-practice gap. Using the Visual Framework to promote effective teacher decision-making is a moderate position between prevalent unproductive extremes. It recognizes the fallacy of teacher training and invariant cause-effect relationships in teaching, while maintaining that learning and characteristics of effective teaching are not as much a mystery as radical critics of rationality claim. This approach also recognizes the importance of personal experience while being keenly aware of its limitations (Kindsvetter, et al., 1989). It eschews using research findings as prescriptions for practice, what Fenstermacher (1983) calls “structural elaboration,” in favor of decision-making or “personal elaboration.” The proposed Visual Framework has significant utility in teaching, the design of science methods courses, science teacher education programs, effective student teacher supervision experiences, and professional development workshops.
References
Annenberg/CPB
(1997). Minds of Our Own VideotapeProgram One: Can We Believe Our Eyes,
Math and Science Collection,
Bavelas, J.B., Chovil, N., Coates, L., & Roe, L.
(1995). Gestures specialized for dialogue. Personality
and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21, 394-405.
Berliner,
D.C. (1985) Reform in Education: The Case for Pedagogy. Presentation Before the
Deans of
Bransford, J.D., Brown, A.L. & Cocking, R.R. (Eds.)
(2000). How people learn: Brain, mind,
experience, and school.
Bybee, R. (1997). Achieving scientific literacy: From purposes to
practices.
Clough,
M.P. (2003). Understanding the Complexities in Learning and Teaching Science:
The Value of a Research-Based Framework. Association for the Education of
Teachers in Science (AETS) International Conference,
Clough, M.P. (2002). Using The Laboratory To Enhance
Student Learning. In Bybee, Rodger W. (Ed.) Learning
Science and the Science of Learning, 2002 NSTA Yearbook. National Science
Teachers Association,
Clough, M.P. (1992).
Research is Required Reading: Keeping Up With Your Profession. The Science Teacher, 59(7), 36-39.
Clough, M.P. and
Clough, M.P. and Kauffman, K.J. (1999). Improving Engineering Education: A Research- Based Framework for Teaching. Journal of Engineering Education, 88(4), 527-534.
Clough,
M.P. and Olson, J.K. (2003). Unpublished Work. Center for Excellence in Science
and Mathematics Education.
Cohen, D.K. (1988). Educational technology and school
organization. In R.S. Nickerson & P.P. Zodhiates (Eds.) Technology in education: Looking toward 2020,:
Cuban, L. (1990) Reforming again, again, and again. Educational Researcher, 19, 3-13.
Darling-Hammond, L. (1996). The right to learn and the
advancement of teaching: Research, policy, and practice for democratic
education. Educational Researcher,
25, 5-17.
Duschl, R.A. & Gitomer, D.H. (1997). Strategies and
Challenges to Changing the Focus of Assessment and Instruction in Science
Classrooms. Educational Assessment,
4, 37-73.
Fenstermacher, G. (1983). How should implications of
research on teaching be used? Elementary
School Journal, 83, 496-499.
Floden, R.E. (2001). Research on effects of teaching: A
continuing model for research on teaching. Chapter 1 in V. Richardson (Ed.)
(2001). Handbook Of Research On Teaching,
4th Edition. American Educational Research Association (AERA):
Fullan, Michael (2001). The
new meaning of educational change. Third Edition.
Fullan, M.G. (1996). Turning Systemic Thinking On Its Head. Phi Delta Kappan, 77(6), 420-423.
Gallimore, R. & Tharp, R. (1990). Teaching mind in
society: Teaching, schooling, and literate discourse. In L. Moll (Ed.), Vygotsky and education: Instructional
implications and applications of sociohistorical psychology (pp. 175-205).
Good,
T.L. and Brophy, J.E. (1994). Looking in Classrooms, 6th
Edition. HarperCollins:
Goodlad, J.I. (1983). A summary of a study of schooling:
Some findings and hypotheses. Phi Delta
Kappan, 64, 465-470.
Jones, M.G., Rua, M.J., Carter, G. (1998). Science
teachers’ conceptual growth withing Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development. Journal of Research in Science Teaching,
35, 967-985.
Joyce, B. & Weil, M. (1996). Models of teaching, 5th Edition.
Karplus, R. (1977). Science Teaching and the Development of Reasoning. Journal of Research in Science Teaching
14 (2), 169-175.
Keys, C.W., Hand, B.M., Prain, V.R. & Sellers, S. (1999). Rethinking
the laboratory report: Writing to learn from investigations. Journal of Research in Science Teaching,
36, 1065-1084.
Kindsvetter, R., Wilen, W., & Ishler, M. (1989). Dynamics of effective teaching.
Leinhardt, G. and Greeno, J.G. (1986). The Cognitive Skill of Teaching. Journal of Educational Psychology, 78(2), 75-95.
MacKay,
D.A. and Marland, P. (1978). Thought Processes of Teachers. Paper presented at
the American Educational Research Association (AERA),
Marzano, R.J., Gaddy, B.B., & Dean, C. (2000). What works in classroom instruction.
Olson, J.K. (In Press). Preservice Teachers’ Thinking
within a Research-Based Framework: What Informs Decisions? International Journal of Science and
Mathematics Education.
Olson, J.K., Bruxvoort, C.N., Madsen, A.J., & Clough,
M.P. (2004). The effect of problem-based learning video case content on
preservice elementary teachers’ conceptions of teaching. National Association
of Research in Science Teaching International Conference, Vancouver, Canada,
March 31 – April 3.
Olson, J.K. & Clough, M. P. (2001). Technology’s Tendency to Undermine Serious
Study: A Cautionary Note. The Clearing
House, 75(1), 8-13.
Osborne, R. & Freyberg, P. (1985). Learning in science:
The implications of children’s science. Heinemann,
Penick, J.E., Crow, L.W. & Bonnstetter, R.J. (1996).
Questions are the Answer: A Logical Questioning Strategy for Any Topic. The Science Teacher, 63(1), 27-29.
Pizzini, E.L., Shepardson, D.P. & Abell, S.K. (1989). A
rationale for and the development of a problem solving model of instruction in
science education. Science Education,
73, 523-534.
Rhatigan,
J.J. & Schuh, J.H. (2003). Small wins. About
Campus, 8, 17-22.
Roth, W.M. (2001). Gestures: Their role in teaching and
learning. Review of Educational Research,
71, 365-392.
Rowe, M.B.
(1974a). Wait-time and rewards as
instructional variables, their influence on language, logic, and fate control:
Part I—wait-time. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 11, 81-94.
Rowe, M.B. (1974b).
Relation of wait-time and rewards to the development of language, logic,
and fate control: Part II—rewards. Journal
of Research in Science Teaching, 11, 291-308.
Sanford, J.P. (1987). Management of science classroom tasks
and effects on students’ learning opportunities. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 24, 249-265.
Schneider, L.S. & Renner, J.W.
(1980). Concrete and formal teaching. Journal of Research in Science Teaching,
17, 503-517.
Schon, D.A. (1983). The
reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action.
Shymansky, J.A. & Penick, J.E. (1981). Teacher behavior does make a difference in
hands-on science classrooms. School Science and Mathematics, 81,
412-422.
Slater,
T.F. (2003). When Is a Good Day Teaching a Bad Thing? The Physics Teacher, 41(7), 437-438.
Slavin, RE. (1989).
PET and the pendulum: Faddism in education and how to stop it. Phi
Delta Kappan, 70, 752-758.
Southerland,
S. A., Kittleson, J., Settlage, J., & Lanier, K. (2005). Individual and
group meaning-making in an urban third grade classroom: Red fog, cold cans, and
seeping vapor. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 42, 1032-1061.
Stofflett,
R.T. & Stefanon, L. (1996). Elementary teacher candidates’ conceptions of
successful conceptual change teaching, Journal
of Elementary Science Education, 8(2), 1-20.
Tobin, K., & Garnett, P. (1988). Exemplary practice in
science classrooms. Science Education, 72, 197-208.
Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind
in Society: The development of higher psychological processes. (M. Cole, V
John-Steiner, S. Scribner & E. Souberman, eds.),
Vygotsky, L.S. (1986).
Thought and language (A. Kozulin, ed.).
Weick, K.E. (1984). Small wins: Redefining the scale of
social problems. American Psychologist,
39, 40-49.
Weiss, I.R. (1993).
Science teachers rely on the textbook.
In Yager, R.E. (Ed.) What research
says to the science teacher, volume seven: The science, technology, society
movement.
Weiss, I.R., Pasley, J.D., Smith, P.S., Banilower, E.R.,
& Heck, D.J. (2003). Looking inside the classroom: A study of K-12
mathematics and science education in the
Windschitl,
M. (2002). Framing Constructivism in Practice as the Negotiation of Dilemmas:
An Analysis of the Conceptual, Pedagogical, Cultural, and Political Challenges
Facing Teachers. Review of Educational Research, 72(2), 131-175.