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Thinking About Teaching
Student Thinking Lens
Students build their own explanations of how the world works based on their everyday observations and
experiences. This process begins long before students enter school. They bring these ideas to their science
classes and make sense of instruction through these private lenses on the world.
Many students observe science phenomena and hear about scientific explanations of those phenomena in science
classes but interpret them through their own private theories. At the end of the unit of instruction, they may
be able to define a few new terms but-when asked to apply that knowledge to real-world situations-they revert
to their more comfortable and personally meaningful private explanations. For many students, science
instruction does not help them change how they understand and make sense of the world around them.
When science instruction takes students' entering ideas and private theories seriously, students can be
supported in changing their private theories and coming to understand key concepts developed by scientists.
There are a variety of ways that a teacher can find out about students' entering ideas, make student thinking
more visible and prominent in a science lesson, and support students in understanding science.
Pearson Achievement Solutions Science modules will introduce teachers to video examples of some of these
strategies and help them learn how to use a student thinking lens for examining science teaching. This lens
acts as a conceptual tool that will help teachers select activities and strategies that will support students
in changing their initial ideas into deeper conceptual understandings.
Science Content Lens
Generally speaking, science textbooks are packed with a wealth of science content. At times they can be so
loaded with information that it is difficult to unearth and understand the big ideas of science. As far back as
the 1960s, there have been efforts to move away from a textbook-focused, knowledge-based approach to science
teaching and to focus on a more hands-on approach to science teaching. Although many believe that hands-on
activities assure that students are learning by doing, research challenges this belief.
For example, the TIMSS 1999 Video Study of science teaching in five countries found that U.S. eighth-grade
science lessons engaged students in carrying out a variety of types of activities. However, in contrast with
other countries where students scored higher on science achievement tests, science activities in U.S. lessons
were often used without clear links to the ideas that they illustrate or support. In fact, many science lessons
were almost entirely activity-focused, with students simply following directions and carrying out activities
without being required to think at all about scientific explanations and reasoning.
Other research studies support these findings, showing that hands-on doing does not automatically lead to
minds-on learning. Instead, students need support and guidance to help them think about the activities in ways
that will challenge their personal theories and lead to real understandings (not just memorized words) of
science concepts and ways of knowing.
Pearson Achievement Solutions Science modules will engage teachers in using a science content lens to examine
the links between activities and science content in lessons. In this process, they will learn about strategies
that make science content and scientific ways of knowing more visible and meaningful to students.
Request more information for your school today on
Pearson Achievement Solutions' Science professional development program.
Or call 800-348-4474 and select option 4.
English Language Learners
Mathematics
Reading & Literacy
Science
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