AIOU Assignment BEd 1.5 Year 8638 General Science in Schools Assignment 2

AIOU Assignment BEd 1.5 Year 8638 General Science in Schools Assignment 2

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Q.1 How strategies serve as guidelines for teaching science? Explain some thoughts of scientists on inquiry.
Answer:

Research on effective learning reveals that an awful lot of what goes on in the classroom simply doesn’t matter. There are many pointless activities that take up valuable time in the name of engagement, merely demonstrating progress as opposed to actually making progress. Often, these approaches not only have limited impact on student learning but can have a hugely detrimental impact on teacher workload and well being.

There is significant evidence to suggest that teachers should prune back what they do and focus on a more streamlined approach in the classroom. So it’s less about spending hours cutting things up and putting them in envelopes, and more about creating conditions in which students can gain long-lasting knowledge that can be applied in a range of situations. The following six principles are a distillation of key research on what really matters in the classroom. Revisit previous learning.

A core element of effective learning is that a class is exposed to new information a number of times. For education researcher Graham Nuthall, students should encounter a new concept on at least three separate occasions in order to learn it properly.

The most effective teachers in the studies of classroom instruction understood the importance of practice, and they began their lessons with a five- to eight-minute review of previously covered material. Some teachers reviewed vocabulary, formulae, events, or previously learned concepts. These teachers provided additional practice on facts and skills that were needed for recall to become automatic. Check for understanding.

This is a deft skill that needs both a strong knowledge of your students and an understanding of common misconceptions. Various techniques can achieve this, but probably the most useful tool in the box will be judicious questioning that is both open and closed in nature and, crucially, informs what you will do next. Firstly, it should take no longer than two minutes, and ideally less than one minute, for all students to respond to the questions; the idea is that the hinge-point question is a quick check on understanding, rather than a new piece of work in itself. Second, it must be possible for the teacher to view and interpret the responses from the class in 30 seconds.

Marking student work is another good way of checking understanding – but doesn’t need to be an onerous task. Some marking should simply function as a quick signpost to the teacher of how they could adapt their teaching in response to what students have or have not learned.

Give feedback on students, not work
Once a teacher gets into the habit of regularly checking for understanding, they are in a position to provide meaningful feedback. But marking and feedback are not the same thing. A key aspect of a successful classroom is that feedback is given to improve the student rather than the work, as Wiliam points out:

Too many teachers focus on the purpose of feedback as changing or improving the work, whereas the major purpose of feedback should be to improve the student. If the feedback isn’t helping the student to do a better task and a better job the next time they are doing a similar task, then it is probably going to be ineffective.

Affording students the opportunity to consider their own progress against their peers through the evaluation of exemplar work is another way to conceptualize improvement: it’s very hard to be excellent if you don’t know what excellent looks like. For students, feedback should be more of a mirror than a painted picture.

Create a positive classroom climate
Designing and communicating clear, concrete routines to the class long in advance of any misbehavior will minimize misbehavior, because students will be aware of the classroom cultural norms. Driven home often enough, it can create tramlines for behavior to default to. Instead of leaving behavioral choices to chance, the best strategy is for teachers to draw up exactly what is expected of their students from the beginning of the relationship.

Forging strong relationships where students have respect for not just the sanctity of the classroom but the privilege of learning is possibly the most important thing a teacher can do for better teaching.

Offer plenty of guidance
The limitations of working memory can be particularly problematic for novice learners.
In one study, the more successful teachers of mathematics spent more time presenting new material and guiding practice. The more successful teachers used this extra time to provide additional explanations, give many examples, check for student understanding, and provide sufficient instruction so that the students could learn to work independently without difficulty. In contrast, the least successful teachers gave much shorter presentations and explanations, and then they passed out worksheets and told the students to work on the problems. Under these conditions the students made too many errors and had to be retaught the lesson.

What every teacher should know about ... memory
 Getting students to a place where they can work independently is a hugely desired outcome, but perhaps not the best vehicle to get there. Providing worked examples and scaffolding in the short-term is a vital part of enabling students to succeed in the long-term.

Reduce cognitive load
Cognitive load theory has been described by Wiliam as“the single most important thing for teachers to know”.Reducing the level of information to an optimal amount, which avoids overloading or boring students, is crucial to effective learning. Once learners have built up schemas of knowledge that allow them to work on problems without exceeding their cognitive bandwidth, then they can work independently.

Part b: Imagine science classrooms in which:

• The teacher pushes a steel needle through a balloon and the balloon does not burst. The teacher asks the students to find out why the balloon didn't burst.
• Students are dropping objects into jars containing liquids with different densities and recording the time it takes each object to reach the bottom of the jar. They are trying to find out about viscosity.
• Students are using probes connected to a microcomputer to measure the heart rates of students before and after doing five minutes of exercise. They are investigating the effect of exercise on pulse rate.
• Students are reading newspaper articles on the topic "toxic waste dumps" in order to form opinions about a proposed dump being established in their community.

In each case students are actively involved in measuring, recording data, and proposing alternative ideas in order to solve problems, find meaning, and acquire information. In these situations students were involved in the process of inquiry. The greatest challenge to those who advocate inquiry teaching is the threat to the traditional and dominant role of the teacher in secondary education. I am going to discuss inquiry teaching first because of its relationship to the essence of science, but also because of the philosophical implications siding with an inquiry approach implies. By taking a stand in favor of inquiry teaching, the teacher is saying, "I believe students are capable of learning how to learn; they have within their repotoire the abilities as well as the motivation to question, to find out about and seek knowledge; they are persons, and therefore learners in their own right, not incomplete adults." The philosophy of inquiry implies that the teacher views the learner as a thinking, acting, responsible person.

Characteristics of Inquiry
Inquiry is a term used in science teaching that refers to a way of questioning, seeking knowledge or information, or finding out about phenomena. Many science educators have advocated that science teaching should emphasize inquiry. Wayne Welch, a science educator at the University of Minnesota argues the techniques needed for effective science teaching are the same as those used for effective scientific investigation. Thus the methods used by scientists should be an integral part of the methods used in science classrooms. We might think of the method of scientific investigation as the inquiry process. Welch identifies five characteristics of the inquiry process as follows:

• Observation: Science begins with the observation of matter or phenomena. It is is the starting place for inquiry. However, as Welch points out, asking the right questions that will guide the observer is a crucial aspect of the process of observation.
• Measurement: Quantitative description of objects and phenomena is an accepted practice of science, and desirable because of the value in science on precision and accurate description.
• Experimentation: Experiments are designed to test questions and ideas, and as such are the cornerstone of science. Experiments involve questions, observations and measurements.
• Communication: Communicating results to the scientific community and the public is an obligation of the scientist, and is an essential part of the inquiry process. The values of independent thinking and truthfulness in reporting the results of observations and measurements are essential in this regard. As pointed out earlier in the section on the nature of science, the "republic of science" is dependent on the communication of all its members. Generally is this done by articles published in journals, and discussions at professional meetings and seminars.
• Mental Processes: Welch describes several thinking processes that are integral to scientific inquiry: inductive reasoning, formulating hypotheses and theories, deductive reasoning, as well as analogy, extrapolation, synthesis and evaluation. The mental processes of scientific inquiry may also include other processes such as the use of imagination and intuition.

Inquiry teaching is a method of instruction, yet not the only method that secondary science teachers employ. However, because of the philosophical orientation of this book towards an inquiry approach to teaching, I will explore it first, but also highlight three other methods (direct/interactive teaching, cooperative learning, and conceptual change teaching) that contemporary science teachers use in their classrooms.

Inquiry in the Science Classroom.
Secondary science classrooms should involve students in a wide range of inquiry activities. The description of "scientific inquiry" is a general description of the inquiry model of teaching. The inquiry model of teaching presented in this book includes guided and unguided inductive inquiry, deductive inquiry and problem solving. Students engaged in a variety of inquiry activities will be able to apply the general model of inquiry to a wide range of problems. Thus the biology teacher who takes the students outside and asks them to determine where the greatest number of wild flowers grow in a field is engaging the students in guided inquiry. The students would be encouraged to make observations, and measurements of the flowers and the field, perhaps create a map of the field, and then draw conclusions based on these observations. In an earth science class, a teacher has been using inductive inquiry to help students learn about how rocks are formed, and now wants the students to devise their own projects and phenomena to study about rocks. Inductive inquiry is a teacher centered form of instruction.

On the other hand, unguided inductive inquiry is student centered inquiry, in that the student will select the phenomena and the method of investigation, not the teacher. However, this does not mean that the teacher is not involved. The teacher may gather the class together for a brainstorming session to discuss potential phenomena to explore and study, based on the class's work to date. Small teams of students are then organized. The teams discuss the list of topics and phenomena generated in the brainstorming session, and then proceed to devise a project of their own.

In both forms of inductive inquiry, students are engaged in learning about concepts and phenomena by using observations, measurements and data to develop conclusions. We might say the student is moving from specific cases to the general concept. In deductive inquiry the student starts with the big idea, conclusion, or general concept and moves to specific cases

Environments That Foster Inquiry
The classroom environment has psychological, sociological, philosophical and physical dimensions affected by the curriculum, students, teachers, school, community and the nation. Yet in much of the research investigating classroom environments, the teacher's role is often seen as a powerful determinant of the classroom climate. In his book Teaching Science As Inquiry, Steven Rakow points out that behaviors and attitudes of the teacher play an essential role in inquiry teaching, and he identifies the following as characteristic of successful inquiry teachers:

1. They model scientific attitudes.
2. They are creative.
3. They are flexible.
4. They use effective questioning strategies.
5. They are concerned both with thinking skills and with science content.

Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards.
The National Science Education Standards place science inquiry at the top of the list of standards. In this view, science inquiry goes beyond the teaching of science process skills (e.g. observing, classifying, inferring, etc.) and requires students to integrate process and science content to develop an understanding of science.
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Q.2 What are different laboratory activities? Discuss internet as a source of science skills and processes.
Answer:

 Assessing Laboratory Activities
Laboratory settings can provide students with the opportunity to apply their content understandings in new situations and apply the skills that geo-scientists use when working with Earth materials, images and data sets. Laboratory work usually entails an element of group work, so let's begin with some of the differences between individual and group assessment. Usually laboratory settings are favorable for small group, collaborative work. This work increases communication and application of content knowledge to the task at hand. Before planning an assessment strategy decide if roles in the group are going to be interchangeable, that is, will each student be expected to know every role, or will you ask students to become "experts" in one facet of the group effort. Assessment of the content element can either be performed individually for each group member and the group process grade factored in or alternately, the instructor may assess both content and process for each group as a whole. For more insight into the assessment process for group projects, view "Assessment of Cooperative Learning".

Assessing a Group Activity Using Global Carbon Dioxide Data
The activity Carbon Dioxide Exercise introduces students to the process of plotting and interpreting graphs. The exercise has several learning objectives. These are:

• Estimate changes in global carbon dioxide concentrations over a 5-year span
• Learn about variation in the carbon cycle driven by photosynthesis
• Understand how important sampling interval can be when studying changes over time
• Practice basic quantitative skills

Individual Assessment of the Short Report The instructions given to the students need not be complicated or time consuming, but should be detail ed
enough to provide everyone with the ground rules for good writing. Here is an example: The summary report you are preparing this evening should be at least a paragraph in length and include the stimulated changes in global carbon dioxide concentrations over a 5-year span; the reason for the variation we see in the annual carbon cycle driven by photosynthesis; and the how important sampling interval can be when studying changes over time. Each assertion you make must be explained by supporting evidence. Cite the source of all supporting evidence (your group graph, your lecture notes or any additional sources). In this way assessment serves as a model for scientific writing as well at the vehicle through which student attainment of the activities learning objectives is measured. For additional ways of assessing laboratory activities see the resources below.

• A Hands-On Approach to Understanding Topographic Maps and Their Construction. Students are taught the basic principles of topographic map construction and are then required to make a map of a section of campus. The author claims that this approach has improved student test performance and resulted in a better understanding of topographic maps.
• The Laboratory in Science Education: Foundations for the Twenty-First Century. [Hofstein and Lunetta, 2004] This article from Science Education is an analysis of previous scholarship on contemporary goals for science learning, current models of how students construct knowledge, and information about how teachers and students engage in science laboratory activities.Map and Compass Lab. [Koons, 1997] This article in Science Scope presents an activity that is part of a unit on topography and land masses. It helps students learn about scientific inquiry by comparing model representations with actual topographic features. Students also practice making and interpreting scale drawings and learning about computation, estimation and new instrumentation. =
• Development of an Assessment of Student Conception of the Nature of Science. Results from 991 students permitted a statistical analysis of this instrument's validity and reliability. Examples from two courses, one laboratory-based and the other grounded in collaborative learning, are provided to demonstrate the utility of these types of scales in assessing both prior knowledge and course outcomes.(citation and description)
• An Earthquake Lab for Physical Geology. [Lumsden, 1990] This article from the Journal of Geological Education describes an activity in which students locate the epicenter of several earthquakes, plot the trends of the two faults involved, and determine the sense of motion along the plane of the two faults. The article provides objectives, background information, procedures, and data necessary for the activity.
• Active Learning in Secondary and College Science Classrooms: A Working Model for Helping the Learner to Learn. [Michael and Modell, 2003] This book by Joel Michael and Harold Modell is designed for professionals interested an active learning approach to teaching students. The main topics covered in this book are how to build the foundation for active learning, roles for the teacher in creating an active learning environment and creating active learning environments. =
• Design and Assessment of an Interactive Digital Tutorial for Undergraduate-Level Sandstone

Include: the internet, newspapers, journals, transcripts from radio or TV programmes, leaflets, photographs and other artefacts (man-made objects).

Within the category of books there are many different types and genres, for example: fiction and non-fiction, including dictionaries, encyclopaedias, biographies, almanacs, archives, yearbooks and atlases, to name just a few. There are even more categories of websites and other internet resources. All sources of information can be of relevance depending on the subject matter of the research or project you’re working on.

Internet: Being able to research and use materials which back up your study or offer different interpretations of your study area is an essential aspect of studying and learning. Primarily you need to be aware of where to look for information, how to access it and how to use it. You must also be able to scrutinize your sources to check that they are relevant and of a suitable nature to be included within your work. Finding Information

You may assume, automatically, that academic text books are the primary source of information when you are engaged in a formal study programme. This may be true, to a degree, usually there is little need to question the credibility of such texts – they have probably been recommended by a tutor There are, however, many other sources of information which should not be overlooked. Such sources

It is important to understand that all information will have a certain degree of validity or otherwise. A document can be easily forged or altered, especially on the internet where anybody can publish anything. It is therefore necessary to use judgement when deciding which documents to use in the context of your study.

Internet Sources
There is a phenomenal amount of information available online, via web-pages, blogs, forums, social media, catalogs and so on. As there is so much information available and because such information can be published quickly and easily by anybody and at any time, it is important that you are vigilant in choosing reliable sources.

For many subjects the internet can be a very important place to research. In some disciplines the internet may be the most appropriate - or only - way of gathering information. This can be particularly true of subjects related to technology or current affairs. Whenever you use the internet for research, remember that the authorship, credibility and authenticity of internet documents is often difficult to establish. For this reason you need to be vigilant and take care when using the internet for academic research. If you are studying formally, in a school, college or university, you should check what your institution’s guidelines are for using internet sources in your work. Some institutions may penalize you, by marking down your work, if your references are mainly from online sources – especially sources that have not been specifically ‘approved’ by your tutor.

Use good judgement and common sense when researching online. Whether or not a source is appropriate or useful will largely depend on your area of study. Some quick tips for general internet research:

• Check the domain name of the site. Generally domain names that include .ac. or .edu. are educational establishments. Domain names ending in .gov are reserved for government purposes. In the UK the .gov.uk and .ac.uk domain names are subject to strict eligibility rules set by UKERNA (United Kingdom Education and Research Networking Association). This means that they can only be used by educational or government institutions. There are usually no such rules for registering .com, .org, .net or many of the other common and regional domain name types. You don’t have to be in the UK or meet any specific criteria to register a .co.uk domain name, for example. This is not to say that .com (or others) are not good, reliable sources of information, just be wary of quality and bias. Of course SkillsYouNeed.com is fine. :)
• How did you arrive at the source? If you followed a link from your college or university then the chances are you are being encouraged to read the online article. If you found the resource via a search engine or a link on another website then you may need to scrutinize it more carefully.

Social networking, funny videos and instant messaging may be tempting distractions from schoolwork, but the Internet still offers a variety of benefits in the educational sphere. As classroom technology and online courses become more prevalent and advanced, teachers and students alike have new ways to study, plan class activities, and present information. Online classes, interactive teaching, and streamlined research methods are just a few advantages of the Internet's educational growth.

Going the Distance
Hectic work schedules, family responsibilities, and commuting challenges no longer have to keep people from seeking a college degree. In 2012, a US News and World Report survey showed that roughly 62 percent of colleges offer online degree programs. Participants in a 2012 Ball State University study stated that flexible scheduling, affordability, and the ability to work at their own pace were key to their decision to take online courses. Internet classes don't just benefit college students, though. Many colleges, such as Liberty University, offer online programs to prepare high schoolers for advanced university work.

Energizing Education
Using the Internet in the classroom actually gets students more excited about learning, states the National Math and Science Initiative. Because Internet activities are often hands-on and interactive, students get the chance to directly engage with information rather than passively listen to lectures. The National Math and Science Initiative states that this is especially true for subjects like math and science, as many students find them challenging to learn and relate to. Internet activities can make these subjects easier to understand, and can present them in unique ways that fit students' affinity for technology.

Research and Reasoning
Once upon a time, students used library card catalogs, encyclopedias and magazines to find information for projects. Today, the Internet streamlines academic research through online databases and search engines, allowing students to view the full text of scholarly publications, of research studies, and even of books right from their computers. Doing this online research also lets them sharpen their critical thinking skills by evaluating Internet sources for credibility, bias and usefulness. Knowing how to determine a source's trustworthiness can help students evaluate online sources they come across both in and out of the classroom, making them smarter consumers of information.

Bridging Communication Gaps
Classroom Internet use can also help teachers say goodbye to communication mishaps such as lost assignment sheets and misplaced memos home to parents. Internet communication can make distribution of information easier, as well as increase class community and motivation, states University of Baltimore professor Hossein Arsham. For example, having a class blog or website can open up dialogue between teachers and students outside of school rather than confining their interactions to the classroom. Students can download course materials and readings, chat with other students, and share their work, while parents can receive reminders about upcoming due dates and events.
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Q.3 Write techniques and methods of development of assessment in science education.
Answer:

 Assessment Techniques for Assessing Course-Related Knowledge and Skills
Assessing Prior Knowledge, Recall, and Understanding
Background Knowledge Probe - Short, simple questionnaires prepared by instructors for use at the beginning of a course, at the start of a new unit or lesson, or prior to introducing an important new topic. Used to help teachers determine the most effective starting point for a given lesson and the most appropriate level at which to begin new instruction.

Focused Listing - Focuses students' attention on a single important term, name , or concept from a particular lesson or class session and directs them to list several ideas that are closely related to that "focus point." Used to determine what learners recall as the most important points related to a particular topic. Misconception/Preconception Check - Technique used for gathering information on prior knowledge or beliefs that may hinder or block further learning.

Empty Outlines - The instructor provides students with an empty or partially completed outline of an in class presentation or homework assignment and gives them a limited amount of time to fill in the blank spaces. Used to help faculty find out how well students have "caught" the important points of a lecture, reading, or audiovisual presentation.

Memory Matrix - A simple two-dimensional diagram, a rectangle divided into rows and columns used to organize information and illustrate relationships. Assesses students' recall of important course content and their skill at quickly organizing that information into categories provided by the instructor.

Minute Paper - Instructor asks students to respond in two or three minutes to either of the following questions: "What was the most important thing you learned during this class? or "What important questions remains unanswered?" Used to provide a quick and extremely simple way to collect written feedback on student learning.

Muddiest Point - Technique consists of asking students to jot down a quick response to one question: "What was the muddiest point in ?" with the focus on the lecture, a discussion, a homework assignment, a play, or a film. Used to provide information on what students find least clear or most confusing about a particular lesson or topic.

Assessing Skill in Analysis and Critical Thinking
Categorizing Grid - Students sort information into appropriate conceptual categories. This provides faculty with feedback to determine quickly whether, how, and how well students understand "what goes with what." Defining Features Matrix - Students are required to categorize concepts according to the presence (+) or absence (-) of important defining features. This provides data on their analytic reading and thinking skills. Pro and Con Grid - Students list pros and cons of an issue. This provides information on the depth and breadth of a student's ability to analyze and on their capacity for objectivity.

Content, Form, and Function Outlines - Students analyze the "what" (content), "how" (form), and "why" (function) of a particular message. This technique elicits information on the students' skills at separating and analyzing the informational content, the form, and the communicative function of a lesson or message. Analytic Memos - Students write a one- or two-page analysis of a specific problem or issue. Used to assess students' skill at communicating their analyses in a clear and concise manner.

Assessing Skill in Syntheses and Critical Thinking
One-Sentence Summary - Students answer the questions "Who does what to whom, when, where, how , and why?" about a given topic, and then synthesize those answers into a single informative, grammatical, and long summary sentence.

Word Journal - Students first summarize a short text in a single word, and second, the student writes a paragraph or two explaining why he chose that particular word to summarize the text. This technique helps faculty assess and improve the students' ability to read carefully and deeply and the students' skill at explaining and defending, in just a few more words, their choice for a single summary word.

Approximate Analogies - Students complete the second half of an analogy for which the instructor has supplied the first half. This allows teachers to find out whether their students understand the relationship between the two concepts or terms given as the first part of the analogy.

Concept Maps - Drawings or diagrams showing the mental connections that students make between a major concept the instructor focuses on and other concepts they have learned. This provides an observable and assessable record of the students' conceptual schema-the patterns of associations they make in relation to a given focal concept.

Invented Dialogues - Students synthesize their knowledge of issues, personalities, and historical periods into the form of a carefully structured, illustrative conversation. This provides information on students' ability to capture the essence of other people's personalities and styles of expression - as well as on their understanding of theories, controversies, and the opinions of others.
Annotated Portfolios - Contain a very limited number of selected examples of a student's creative work, supplemented by the student's own commentary on the significance of those examples.

Assessing Skill in Problem Solving
and are asked to recognize and identify the particular type of problem each example represents. Faculty are able to assess how well students can recognize various problem types, the first step in matching problem type to solution method.

What's the Principle? - Students are provided with a few problems and are asked to state the principle that best applies to each problem. Instructors assess students' ability to associate specific problems with the general principles used to solve them.

Documented Problem Solutions - Prompts students to keep track of the steps they take in solving a problem. This assesses how students solve problems and how well students understand and can describe their problem-solving methods.

Audio- and Videotaped Protocols - Students are recorded talking and working through the process of solving a problem. Faculty assess in detail how and how well students solve problems.
Assessing Skill in Application and Performance

Directed Paraphrasing - Students paraphrase part of a lesson for a specific audience and purpose, using their own words. Feedback is provided on students' ability to summarize and restate important information or concepts in their own words; it allows faculty to assess how well students have understood and internalized that learning.

Applications Cards - Students write down at least one possible, real-world application for an important principle, generalization, theory, or procedure that they just learned. This lets faculty know how well students understand the possible applications of what students have learned.

Student-Generated Test Questions - Students are asked to develop test questions from material they have been taught. Teachers see what their students consider the most important or memorable content, what they understand as fair and useful test questions, and how well they can answer the questions they have posed.

Techniques for Assessing Learner Attitudes, Values, and Self-Awareness
Assessing Students' Awareness of Their Attitudes and Values

Classroom Opinion Polls - Students are asked to raise their hands to indicate agreement or disagreement with a particular statement. Faculty discover student opinions about course-related issues. Double-Entry Journals - Students begin by noting the ideas, assertions, and arguments in their assigned course readings they find most meaningful and/or controversial. The second entry explains the personal significance of the passage selected and responds to that passage. Detailed feedback is provided on how students read, analyze, and respond to assigned texts.

Profiles of Admirable Individuals - Students are required to write a brief, focused profile of an individual - in a field related to the course - whose values, skills, or actions they greatly admire. This technique helps faculty understand the images and values students associate with the best practice and practitioners in the discipline under study.

Everyday Ethical Dilemmas - Students are presented with an abbreviated case study that poses an ethical problem related to the discipline or profession they are studying and must respond briefly and anonymously to these cases. Students identify, clarify, and connect their values by responding to course related issues and problems that they are likely to encounter.

Assessing Students' Self-Awareness as Learners
Focused Autobiographical Sketches - Students are directed to write a one- or two- page autobiographical sketch focused on a single successful learning experience in their past - an experience relevant to learning in the particular course in which the assessment technique is used. This provides information the the students' self-concept and self- awareness as learners within a specific field.

Interest/Knowledge/Skills Checklist - Students rate their interest in various topics, and assess their levels of skill or knowledge in those topics, by indicating the appropriate responses on a checklist which has been created by the teacher. These checklists inform teachers of their students' level of interest in course topics and their assessment of the skills and knowledge needed for and/or developed through the course.

Goal Ranking and Matching - Students list a few learning goals they hope to achieve through the course and rank the relative importance of those goals.. This assesses the "degree of fit" between the students' personal learning goals and teachers' course-specific instructional goals, and between the teachers' and students' ranking of the relative importance and difficulty of the goals.

Assessing Course-Related Learning and Study Skills, Strategies, and Behaviors

Productive Study-Time Logs - Students keep a record of how much time they spend studying for a particular class, when they study, and how productively they study at various times of the day or night. This allows faculty to assess the amount and quality of out-of-class time all their students are spending preparing for class, and to share that information with students.

Punctuated Lectures - Students and teachers go through five steps: listen, stop, reflect, write, and give feedback. Students listen to lecture. The teacher stops the action and students reflect on what they were doing during the presentation and how their behavior while listening may have helped or hindered their understanding of that information. They then write down any insights they have gained and they give feedback to the teacher in the form of short, anonymous notes. This technique provides immediate, on-the spot feedback on how students are learning from a lecture or demonstration and lets teachers and students know what may be distracting. And students are encouraged to become self-monitoring listeners, and in the process, more aware and more effective learners.

Process Analysis - Students keep records of the actual steps they take in carrying out a representative assignment and comment on the conclusions they draw about their approaches to that assignment. This technique gives students and teachers explicit, detailed information on the ways in which students carry out assignments and shows faculty which elements of the process are most difficult for students and, consequently, where teachers need to offer more instruction and direction.

Diagnostic Learning Logs - Students keep records of each class or assignment and write one list of the main points covered that they understood and a second list of points that were unclear. Faculty are provided with information and insight into their students' awareness of and skill at identifying their own strengths and weaknesses as learners.

Techniques for Assessing Learner Reactions for Instruction
Assessing Learner Reactions to Teachers and Teaching

Chain Notes - Students write immediate, spontaneous reactions to questions given by the teacher while the class is in progress. This feedback gives the teacher a "sounding" of the students' level of engagement and involvement during lecture.

Email Feedback - Students respond anonymously by email to a question posed by the teacher to the class. This provides a simple, immediate channel through which faculty can pose questions about the class and students can respond to them.

Teacher-Designed Feedback Forms - Students answer questions on feedback forms which contain anywhere from three to seven questions in multiple-choice, Likert-scale, or short fill-in answer formats. These forms allow faculty to quickly and easily analyze data and use the results to make informed and timely adjustments in their teaching.

Problem-Solving Skills
One of the things that employers often identify as being an important quality when hiring college graduates is their problem-solving skills. Students need to develop the ability to apply problem-solving skills when faced with issues or problems that are new to them. The development and use of problem-solving skills also improves learning. Rossman (1993) suggests that when students use problem-solving skills, "The role of the student changes from a passive recipient of information to a participant in the creation of understanding.

Having a process for solving problems helps to keep efforts focused and eliminate becoming stalled. Problems solving usually involved the following steps

• Identify the problem
• Analyze the problem and gather information
• Generate potential solutions
• Select and test the solution
• Analyze/Evaluate the results

Some of the tools used in problem-solving include:

• Brainstorming. This technique is used to encourage participation from each member of the team. Brainstorming helps to break people out of the typical mode of approaching things to produce new and creative ideas. It creates a climate of freedom and openness, which encourages an increased quantity of ideas.
• Root Cause Analysis (AKA as the "Five Why's."). The objective of Root Cause Analysis is to find the fundamental cause for a problem. One way is to ask "Why?" five times or more to really get at the root of the problem.
• Cause and Effect Diagrams. This diagram is drawn to represent the relationship between an effect (the problem) and its potential causes. The diagram helps to sort-out and relate the interactions among the factors affecting a process.
• Pareto Charts. A Pareto Chart shows a frequency distribution where each bar on the chart show the relative contribution of contributing problems to the larger problem. It help to identify where to focus energy to obtain the most positive impact.
• Flowcharting. A Flowchart is a map that shows all the steps in a process. It helps in understanding the process and making sure all steps in the process are addressed.
• Decision Matrix. A Decision Matrix is useful when faced with making a difficult decision. The options or alternatives are listed in the left-hand column and the selection criteria is listed across the top row. Each of the options are rated against the selection criteria to arrive at the best logical decision.

Assessing critical thinking: The purpose of assessment in instruction is improvement. The purpose of assessing instruction for critical thinking is improving the teaching of discipline based thinking (historical, biological, sociological, mathematical thinking Q). It is to improve students’ abilities to think their way.

Through content, using disciplined skill in reasoning. The more particular we can be about what we want students to learn about critical thinking, the better can we devise instruction with that particular end in view. For deeper understanding of the relationship between critical thinking assessment and instruction, read the white paper on consequential validity by Richard Paul and Linda Elder:

•  Consequential Validity: Using Assessment to Drive Instruction

The Foundation for Critical Thinking offers assessment instruments which share in the same general goal: to enable educators to gather evidence relevant to determining the extent to which instruction is teaching students to think critically (in the process of learning content).

To this end, the fellows of the Foundation recommend:

1. That academic institutions and units establish an oversight committee for critical thinking
2. That this oversight committee utilize a combination of assessment instruments (the more the better) to generate incentives for faculty (by providing the faculty with as much evidence as feasible of the actual state of instruction for critical thinking).

The following instruments are available to generate evidence relevant to critical thinking teaching and learning:

1. Course Evaluation Form: provides evidence of whether, and to what extent, students perceive faculty as fostering critical thinking in instruction (course by course). Machine scoreable. 
2. Critical Thinking Subtest: Analytic Reasoning: provides evidence of whether, and to what extent, students are able to reason analytically. Machine scoreable (currently being developed).
3. Critical Thinking: Concepts and Understandings: provides evidence of whether, and to what extent, students understand the fundamental concepts embedded in critical thinking (and hence tests student readiness to think critically). Machine scoreable
4. Fair-mindedness Test: provides evidence of whether, and to what extent, students can reason effectively between conflicting view points (and hence tests student ability to identify strong and weak arguments for conflicting positions in reasoning). Machine scoreable. (currently being developed).
5. Critical Thinking Reading and Writing Test: Provides evidence of whether, and to what extent, students can read closely and write substantively (and hence tests student ability to read and write critically). Short Answer.
6. International Critical Thinking Test: provides evidence of whether, and to what extent, students are able to analyze and assess excerpts from textbooks or professional writing. Short Answer.
7. Commission Study Protocol for Interviewing Faculty Regarding Critical Thinking: provides evidence of whether, and to what extent, critical thinking is being taught at a college or university (Can be adapted for High School). Based on the California Commission Study. Short Answer.
8. Foundation for Critical Thinking Protocol for Interviewing Faculty Regarding Critical Thinking: provides evidence of whether, and to what extent, critical thinking is being taught at a college or university (Can be adapted for High School). Short Answer
9. Foundation for Critical Thinking Protocol for Interviewing Students Regarding Critical Thinking: provides evidence of whether, and to what extent, students are learning to think critically at a college or university (Can be adapted for High School). Short Answer.
10. Criteria for critical thinking assignments. Can be used by faculty in designing classroom assignments or by administrators in assessing the extent to which faculty are fostering critical thinking.
11. Rubrics for assessing student reasoning abilities. A useful tool in assessing the extent to which students are reasoning well through course content

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Q.4 Design a draft of lesson plan. How lesson plan is helpful for effective teaching?

Answer:

5E Lesson Plan

The 5 E lesson supports inquire-based instruction. It allows children to make discoveries and to process new skills in an engaging way. Teachers can also adequately plan power objectives more effectively by using the 5E process. Children are not just learning with this method, they are more knowledgeable about their own meta cognition because they are coached along and not dictated by teachers merely lecturing. The role of the teacher is to facilitate and support students as they use prior knowledge to build new knowledge.

The 5 Es are:

• Engage
• Explore
• Explain
• Elaborate
• Evaluate

When planning a lesson each of these areas should be completed. Often times these lessons may take a few days to complete.

1. Engage
To engage means to excite and to draw your child or student's curiosity. It means to wow them in a way that catches their attention. It is not forcing children to learn but inviting them to do so. This is how lessons are introduce. It does not have to be difficult or overly detailed just interesting enough to open students minds for the learning process to begin. Using technology to engage student learning makes planning very easy for teachers in today's classrooms. Using Smart board technology, videos, illustrations, asking questions, KWL charts, reading a great book, acting out a character or even introducing a game are ways to engage students at the beginning of a lesson.

2. Explore
Once students are fully in grossed in the lesson, intrigued by a video or maybe a book, now it is time to allow them to explore the concept. Lets say I do a lesson on Camouflage, first I would engage them with an informative video, explaining camouflage with animation. Now in the explore they will play lets say a game where they will go out side and break up into teams. Each team will be given a minute to find as many various colored strings scattered in the grass. The idea with exploring is to give the learner the opportunity to practice or work with their new knowledge in some way. The most effective explorations allow for mistakes or trial and error. Its is looking at a concept before discussing all the details, with hopes that students will discover answers to possible questions through exploration.

3. Explain
Students now have an opportunity to hear from their educator. The teacher's role so far has been to mainly facilitate learning, now they can use their expertise to answer questions students may have about what they are learning. They also may pose questions to the student to see what they are able to explain what they have learned. Checking for misunderstandings helps the teacher to observe what objectives need to be clarified or taught. So for example, with the Camouflage Lesson, once the students have picked as many strings as possible, they should count each color that they picked. Which color did they pick up the most, which color did they pick the least amount of? Have them make a chart, so they can look at their findings and compare as a group. Students should notice that they picked less green strings because the green was blending in with the grass. They have more of a different color like purple because of its contrast in color. This explaining is done without the teacher having to do much lecturing. The lesson is reinforced by what the students have seen from their exploring.

4. Elaborate
Here the students can participate in an extension or a different activity that either re-teaches an objective or teaches more details about the concept being taught. Here differentiation can be used. A student above level will need an elaboration that extends or enriches the lesson. A student below level will need perhaps a repeat of the same explore activity with more teacher input to guide students through again to correct misunderstandings. Again with the camouflage, elaboration may be discussing what other animals besides say frogs use camouflage? What elements in their habitat allow them to do so? Or the teacher might say let's look at our charts again from the results of our game. Doing so will allow him or her to re-teach or elaborate on what was misunderstood.

5. Evaluate
Finally, after the objectives are taught, it is time to assess. What have students effectively learned? What do they not understand? What should be done to help them? Assessments do not have to be the traditional quiz or essay. It can be a reflection, a project, book report, or a model. Like with the camouflage lesson, the evaluation could an assignment where students come up with 5 facts about camouflage and illustrate each in their own unique way. They might make a model, paint a picture, or make a mini book with drawings and facts to illustrate what they learned. Using a rubric the teacher or parent can now easily grade or make note of what is learned and of what needs to be ret aught 5 E Lesson Plan Science.

Introduction to Lesson Plan 
Subject: Science
Standards
Recognize daily changes in weather, including clouds, precipitation, and temperature.
Describe evaporation, condensation, and precipitation in the water cycle.

Activities
Objectives
The students will learn about evaporation and how it works. They will have an activity to participate in that covers several days. They will watch first hand how evaporation works and by the end of the lesson th e students will understand what evaporation is. Engage (Initiate)

I will start this lesson off with a book about weather and the different types of weather. We will th en gradually go straight to evaporation. We will start talking about it and I will see who knows about it and understands the process and who doesn't. Explore (Question)

I will question and pass out a worksheet to see who understands the process of evaporation and who doesn't. This worksheet will not be a grade, it will be for me to see where each student is and which student knows what. There will be a place on the worksheet for the students to ask any questions they have toward the process and later on in the lesson I will be sure to hit on those certain questions that each student has asked.

Explain (Clarify/Develop)
I will explain and cover every question that each child asked on their worksheet I passed out the fir st day of this lesson. We will cover everything that happens in the process of evaporation. If students still do not understand something, this would be the time that I explain it to them before we do our activity.

Extend (Apply)
A fun activity that the students can participate in is watching the process of evaporation for themselves. I will divide the students up into groups and each group will have a clear, plastic cup with water in it . The cups will be placed in the window where the sun can shine on them and make the water evaporate. The students will have a worksheet that they will fill in everyday when they check the level of the water. Once all of the water has evaporated, then the students will write on the another worksheet why the water evaporated and what the process was. They will then turn in both worksheets for a grade.

Evaluate
I will able to evaluate and give each student a grade at the end of this assignment by each student turning in their worksheet. They should have the evaporation worksheet completed.
Alternate Activities
Materials
I will provide black markers and plastic cups. I will get water from the water fountain
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Q.5 How teaching of physics is different from teaching of Chemistry. Give examples to support your answer.
Answer:

Teaching methods in chemistry : Secondary chemistry teachers face a host of challenges as they are given the responsibility of deciding how they will deliver assigned curriculum. Much like a complex equation, teachers must factor in numerous variables that will change every semester or year depending on student loads, student needs, grade levels, maturity, development, resources, as well as environmental factors outside the school. These intricate variables play a crucial role in developing a solution to this complex equation. Once the educator has determined those unknown variables, a decision can be made as to which pedagogical and technological methods to apply. A central theme herein is the “Social Constructivist Learning Theory.” The “Social Constructivist Learning Theory” implies that students learn better through active interactions with their peers rather than listening to lectures [=Social constructivist’s reason that through peer interactions, students are able to process new information in a way that’s understandable to them, therefore leading to higher order thinking [=Science-based pedagogies that support the “Social Constructivist Learning Theory” are problem-based learning (PBL), process-oriented guided inquiry (POGIL), and project-based learning (PjBL) =Educational technology is one of the greatest resources we have to help our students learn. While chemistry is a part of our everyday lives, students have found that chemistry can be difficult to understand [8]. If a student is found to be weak in one area, additional support should be given to help that student strengthen their weak area so that they too can have an opportunity to realize their full potential.

For teachers, finding time to provide additional support to help students overcome weak areas can be very difficult. Using technology as a way for students to build skills in weak subject areas will make difficult times of learning fun and enjoyable, but most importantly it will help students build the confidence they need to succeed. Technology is not only beneficial to struggling students; rather, it is beneficial to all students. By using technology, teachers can bring chemistry to life and students will be able to visualize abstract concepts and test new learned concepts in chemistry. For 21st century learners, incorporating technology into the classroom is critical (Saba). Exposing students to technology while teaching chemistry will increase their knowledge and help them build skills that will make them competitive in the STEM workforce (Strengthen Science Education and the Scientific Workforce - American Chemical Society). Active learning is facilitated through students’ activities and by promoting student engagement. Redish et al. demonstrated in a study with their students, that achieving significant gains is possible, using active learning as opposed to didactic lectures enhances student learning continuously after missing fundamental concepts. Science pedagogies discussed in this paper facilitate active learning and student engagement, through an inquiry based problem approach. Pedagogical strategies reviewed in this article can be implemented independently of each other or in conjunction within an instructional setting. Problem-Based Learning is a science based pedagogy that was first implemented inmedical schools during the seventies to help students retain large amounts of information through open-ended questions.

Incorporating the use of student smart phones in the classroom has proven to be a useful instructional tool, especially for teachers who have limited technology resources. Web browsers, applications (apps), and 2D barcodes to create smart objects, can all serve as learning tools that facilitate independent learning Video tutorials and quizzes can serve as differential methods of instruction for chemistry teachers inside and outside of the classroom. For example, Khan Academy is a popular site for chemistry teachers and teachers of other various content areas as well. Instructional methods for which Khan Academy can be utilized include, blended learning, one-to-one classrooms, and online classes Khan Academy provides data for teachers to see where they need to help their students who are struggling Branded by older generations as the “gamer generation” chemistry teachers are now using online games as a way to actively engage students in learning chemistry concepts of all levels.

A simple google search of chemistry video games will put students in a virtual world of molecules, molar masses, and complex equations. Virtual labs are one of the most effective ways for chemistry teachers to engage their students with active learning Virtual labs allow students to experience what it is like to experience a chemistry job in a stem field. This is an excellent way for students to realize their own potential by getting to think like they are working in a field. Students become actively engaged when they are able to see concepts being studied, applied to real life. Going from teacher-centered learning to student-centered learning can be a little nerve racking initially, for both the teacher and the student. Student-centered learning gives students the ability to actively learn and engage with their peers without depending on the teacher for answers. Of the three pedagogies discussed, problem based learning is one of the easiest teaching methods to implement due to minimal preparation time. It is important for problem based questions to be relevant to real life so that students can identify with the problem, making it become personal. Case studies, vignettes, and open-ended task completion problems are the most common used.

Problem-Based Learning can be incorporated into the POGIL method during the application phase to test the new knowledge learned. The Process-Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning (POGIL) method is the newest and most challenging methodology to implement of the three methods. Teachers face a learning curve with initial implementation of POGIL; however, student success with this method in general chemistry classes is well documented.

When needed, teachers can provide mini lectures in between phases, as tier 2 instruction for students struggling. Project Based Learning (PjBL) is a very popular and effective method to teach chemistry. Its growing popularity in recent years can be credited to the shift from teacher centered learning, to student centered learning. In the past, PjBL, was an independent learning strategy, where students carried home and completed an assigned project, then returned back to school. Many students lack adequate support at home to complete these types of assignments, resulting in an overall negative impact on the students. Chemistry teachers, implementing project based learning inside of the classroom, can design projects to specifically meet the learning needs of students in their classroom An invaluable component that should be incorporated into each of these pedagogies is the use of 21st century technology. For chemistry teachers who use lecture and textbooks as their primary instructional tool, incorporating technology into instruction is imperative to the success of struggling chemistry students. Pressure to strengthen writing skills, has fallen on all content teachers. Chemistry teachers must look for creative ways to build their students writing skills. Incorporating online blogging, discussion boards, or constructing wiki pages allows students to build online literacy skills, which is a critical asset in today’s workforce. Smartphones are one of the simplest ways of implementing technology in the classroom, however, it should be noted that implementing smartphones into lessons, without adequate preparation by the teacher, can result in unwarranted classroom behavior. Smart phones give students access to videos, tutorials, quizzes, smart objects, and apps specific to content needs. Smartphones facilitate self-guided learning, when additional resources are needed, to understand or expand on chemistry concepts.

Taken together, these capabilities are creating a world of mobile computing that may have an impact on society, including chemical education that may be even greater than the changes brought about by the personal computer Careful attention should be given to students presenting difficulty mastering chemistry concepts before assigning supplemental instructions. Differentiation between students, who are weak in one or more subject areas versus students struggling with a concept, should be identified. Chemistry teachers can help students struggling in other subject areas by assigning lessons on Khan Academy to help strengthen weak skills. Students, who struggle with abstract concepts, greatly benefit from online simulations. Laboratory instruction is and should be a central component to every chemistry class. Laboratory instruction allow students to actively learn and engage with their peers. Laboratory prep times, limited supplies, or no access to a laboratory, leaves many chemistry students in secondary schools, shorthanded. Utilizing technology in the classroom, affords the once shorthanded chemistry students, with a virtual chemistry lab. Virtual chemistry, cannot fully replace students skills built during lab but it does give students a realistic idea of how labs work, with the application of newly learned chemistry concepts.Chemistry students, in today’s secondary education schools, need instruction that fosters active learning and student-peer engagement, while building 21st century workforce skills. Chemistry instruction, best effective for student learning and building 21st century skills, incorporates social constructivist inquiry, based pedagogies with technology Chemistry teachers should provide students, who are weak in one or more subject areas, resources to build skills. Material should be presented in a way that is relevant to the student’s life It should be critically noted and addressed that during the process of reviewing literature for this research study, published demographics of underrepresented groups in the field of chemistry is the suggestive reason for employment gaps in chemistry and STEM fields [Secondary education chemistry teachers must realize that the outcomes of their instructional methods directly impacts the chemistry workforce.

Teaching in Physics : Instead of writing and solving equations, the students engage in a more intuitive discussion of the main concepts and their relevance to natural phenomena and the applications and devices that we use regularly. Here are the main points of how I teach by the Socratic method:1 • Start the class with an interesting, relatable, and answerable question.

• List all the students’ answers and discuss them broadly for a few minutes. If students have missed a crucial answer, give them hints that lead to it.
• From the list of answers, pick those directly related to the particular topic and continue the discussion.
• Gradually introduce concepts by asking thought-provoking but not difficult questions. If necessary, give the students additional clues. If the method is done well, students will pose questions, other students will answer them, and the teacher effectively becomes a moderator in a panel discussion.
• Do not try to finish a set amount of material during each class. Discuss only as much as the students can understand.

The approach also fosters a deep sense of connectivity between scientific concepts and our own perception of reality. I urge all physics teachers to give the method serious consideration

How Teachers Teach: Specific Methods

• Teach scientific ways of thinking.
• Actively involve students in their own learning.
• Help students to develop a conceptual framework as well as to develop problem solving skills.
• Promote student discussion and group activities.
• Help students experience science in varied, interesting, and enjoyable ways.
• Assess student understanding at frequent intervals throughout the learning process.

LECTURES
Evidence from a number of disciplines suggests that oral presentations to large groups of passive students contribute very little to real learning. In physics, standard lectures do not help most students develop conceptual understanding of fundamental processes in electricity and in mechanics (Arons, 1983; McDermott and Shaffer, 1992; McDermott et al., 1994). Similarly, student grades in a large general chemistry lecture course do not correlate with the lecturing skills and experience of the instructor (Birk and Foster, 1993).

Enhancing Learning in Large Classes
Despite the limitations of traditional lectures, many institutions are forced to offer high-enrollment introductory science courses. Many professors who teach these courses feel that lecturing is their only option, and can only dream of what they could accomplish in smaller classes. However, there is a small but growing group of science faculty members who have developed ways to engage students in the process of thinking, questioning, and problem solving despite the large class size. Strategies in use in introductory courses in biology and geology are described in the sidebars.

Although many of the methods described in these sidebars are consistent with what experts know about how students learn they may not be welcomed by all of the students in a class. There are several ways to help students make the transition from passive listeners to active participants in their own learning (Orzechowksi, 1995):

• Start off slowly; students may not have much experience in active learning.
• Introduce change at the beginning of a course, rather than midway through.
• Avoid giving students the impression that you are "experimenting" with them.

Biochemistry, Genetics, and Molecular Biology at Stanford University
Professor: Sharon Long
Enrollment: 400 students

For these, I walk up the side of the auditorium and designate even and odd rows. Then I say that the even people should turn around and face the odd people and do the exercise together. This generates groups of 2-6 people. They all put their names onto the single sheet they are to turn in.

Then the students work together on a question for 3-4 minutes. I walk around the room, answering their questions.

When time is up, the TA stands at the overhead projector, and I walk through the crowd (I have a lapel mike so they can hear me), collecting their answers for each question. Then we talk about solutions. Usually the time runs out, and the students turn their papers. Of course, they get credit for their participation, and that provides some motivation, but I am sure students understand the concepts better than if they were presented only in my lecture.

This process engages the students. Of course the hub-bub grows as the students move from the assigned topic to other conversations, but they come back fairly quickly. It is a bit unnerving because there is the potential for loss of control in the class, but the students seem to either like it or are indifferent, but certainly aren't quite as passive as they are while being lectured at.

• Don't give up lectures completely. 
• Anticipate students' anxiety, and be prepared to provide support and encouragement as they adapt to your expectations. 
• Discuss your approach with colleagues, especially if you are teaching a well-established course in a pre professional curriculum. 

Hints for More Effective Lecturing 
When lecturing is the chosen or necessary teaching method, one way to keep students engaged is to pause periodically to assess student understanding or to initiate short student discussions (see sidebars). Calling on individual students to answer questions or offer comments can also hold student attention; however, some students prefer a feedback method with more anonymity. If they have an opportunity to discuss a question in small groups, the group can offer an answer, which removes any one student from the spotlight. Another option is to have students write their answer on an index card, and pass the card to the end of the row; the student seated there can select one answer to present, without disclosing whose it is.
The literature on teaching and learning contains other examples of techniques to maintain students' attention in a lecture setting (Eble, 1988; Davis, 1993; Lowman, 1995; McKeachie, 1994):

•  Avoid direct repetition of material in a textbook so that it remains a useful alternative resource.

Who doesn’t have the experience of having the coiled headset cord of a telephone show super coils (twists around itself)? This presents the students with the chance to play at home, where they can convince themselves that the direction (handedness) of the super coils depends on the direction of the original helix, and on whether the cord was under wound or over wound before the headset was replaced (constraining the ends). Students learn both an important principle for understanding nucleic acids and a handy practical tip that lets them predict the easiest way to get the kinks out of the phone cord! They get the chance to test their understanding by making predictions and doing trials-exactly what one hopes for in active scientific learning.

A professor’s questions should build confidence rather than induce fear. One technique is to encourage the student to propose several different answers to the question. The student can then be encouraged to step outside the answers and begin to develop the skills necessary to assess the answers. Some questions seek facts and simply measure student recall; others demand higher reasoning skills such as elaborating on or explaining a concept, comparing and contrasting several possibilities, speculating about an outcome, and speculating about cause and effect. The type of question asked and the response given to students’ initial answers are crucial to the types of reasoning processes the students are encouraged to use. Several aspects of questions to formulate them, what reasoning or knowledge is tested or encouraged, how to deal with answers-similar for dialogue and for testing. Chapters 5 and 6 contain more information on questions as part of assessment, testing, and grading.

Demonstrations
Demonstrations can be very effective for illustrating concepts in class, but can result in passive learning without careful attention to engaging students. They can provoke students to think for themselves and are especially helpful if the demonstration has a surprise, challenges an assumption, or illustrates an otherwise abstract concept or mechanism. Demonstrations that use everyday objects are especially effective and require little preparation on the part of faculty (see sidebar). Students’ interest is peaked if they are asked to make predictions and vote on the most probable outcome. There are numerous resources available to help faculty design and conduct demonstrations. Many science education periodicals contain one or more demonstrations in each issue. The ‘’Tested Demonstrations” column in the Journal of Chemical Education and the “Favorite Demonstration” column in the Journal of College Science Teaching are but two of the many examples. The American Chemical Society and the University of Wisconsin Press have published excellent books on chemical demonstrations (Shakhashiri, 1983, 1985, 1989, 1992; Summerlin and Ealy, 1985; Summerlin et al., 1987). Similar volumes of physics demonstrations have been published by the American Association of Physics Teachers (Freier and Anderson, 1981; Berry, 1987). You should consider a number of issues when planning a demonstration (O’Brien, 1990):

• What concepts do you want the demonstration to illustrate?
• Which of the many demonstrations on the selected topic will generate the greatest enhancement in student learning?
• Where in the class would it be most effective?
• What prior knowledge should be reviewed before the demonstration?
• What design would be most effective, given the materials at hand and the target audience?
• Which steps in the demonstration procedure should be carried out ahead of time?

DISCUSSIONS
Small group discussion sections often are used in large-enrollment courses to complement the lectures. In courses with small enrollments, they can substitute for the lecture, or both lecture and discussion formats can be used in the same class period.

Why Discussion?
Focused discussion is an effective way for many students to develop their conceptual frameworks and to learn problem solving skills as they try out their own ideas on other students and the instructor. The give and take of technical discussion also sharpens critical and quantitative thinking skills.

Planning and Guiding Discussions
Probably the best overall advice is to be bold but flexible and willing to adjust your strategies to fit the character of your class. If you want to experiment with using discussions in your class, here are some things to consider:

• Decide on the goals of your class discussion. What is it that you want the students to get from each class session? Concepts? Problem solving skills? Decision-making skills? The ability to make connections to other disciplines or to technology? Broader perspective? Keep in mind that the goals may change as you progress through the material during the quarter or semester.
• Explain to the students how discussions will be structured. Will the discussion involve the whole class or will students work in smaller groups? Make clear what you expect them to do before coming to each class session: read the chapter, think about the questions at the end of the chapter, seriously try to do the first five problems, etc. Let students see you take attendance. Students who do not come to class may not be studying.

LABORATORIES
It is hard to imagine learning to do science, or learning about science, without doing laboratory or field work. Experimentation underlies all scientific knowledge and understanding. Laboratories are wonderful settings for teaching and learning science. They provide students with opportunities to think about, discuss, and solve real problems. Developing and teaching an effective laboratory requires as much skill, creativity, and hard work as proposing and executing a first-rate research project.

it is common practice because it is efficient. Laboratories are costly and time consuming, and pred

Developing Effective Laboratories
Improving undergraduate laboratory instruction has become a priority in many institutions, driven, in part, by the exciting program being developed at a wide range of institutions. Some labs encourage critical and quantitative thinking, some emphasize demonstration of principles or development of lab techniques, and some help students deepen their understanding of fundamental concepts (Hake, 1992). Where possible, the lab should be coincident with the lecture or discussion. Before you begin to develop a laboratory program, it is important to think about its goals. Here are a number of possibilities:

• Develop intuition and deepen understanding of concepts.
• Apply concepts learned in class to new situations.
• Experience basic phenomena.
• Develop critical, quantitative thinking. .
• Exercise curiosity and creativity by designing a procedure to test a hypothesis.
• Better appreciate the role of experimentation in science.
• Test important laws and rules.

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