Exemplary College Science Teaching

“Since K–12 students taught using the new [Next Generation Science Standards]will be arriving in college classrooms prepared in a different way from those in our classrooms currently, it would behoove college teachers to be prepared to alter their teaching methods ... or be perceived to be dinosaurs using the older teaching methods.” — From Exemplary College Science Teaching If you’re looking for inspiration to alter your teaching methods to match new standards and new times, this book is for you. As the first in the Exemplary Science series to focus exclusively on college science teaching, this book offers 16 examples of college teaching that builds on what students learned in high school. Understanding that college does not exist in a vacuum, the chapter authors demonstrate how to adapt the methods and frameworks under which secondary students have been working and make them their own for the college classroom, adding new technologies when appropriate and letting the students take an active role in their learning. Among the innovative topics and techniques the essays in this book explore are • Lecture-free college science teaching • Peer-led study groups as learning communities • Jigsaw techniques that enhance learning • Inquiry incorporated into large-group settings • Interactive video conferences for assessing student attitudes and behaviors The clichéd image of the professor droning on before a packed lecture hall is a thing of the past. The essays in this book explain why—and offer the promise of a better future.

"I read lots of books in which science education researchers tell science teachers how to teach. This book, refreshingly, is written the other way round.We read a number of accounts by outstanding science and technology teachers of how they use new approaches to teaching to motivate their students and maximise their learning. These accounts are then followed by some excellentanalyses from leading academics. I learnt a lot from reading this book." Professor Michael Reiss, Institute of Education, University of London "Provides an important new twist on one of the enduring problems of case-based learning... This is a book that deserves careful reading and re-reading, threading back and forwards from the immediate and practical images of excellence in the teachers’ cases to the comprehensive andscholarly analyses in the researchers’ thematic chapters." Professor William Louden, Edith Cowan University, Australia Through a celebration of teaching and research, this book explores exemplary practice in science education and fuses educational theory and classroom practice inunique ways. Analysing Exemplary Science Teaching brings together twelve academics, ten innovativeteachers and three exceptional students in a conversation about teaching and learning.Teachers and students describe some of their most noteworthy classroom practice,whilst scholars of international standing use educational theory to discuss, define andanalyse the documented classroom practice. Classroom experiences are directly linked with theory by a series of annotatedcomments. This distinctive web-like structure enables the reader to actively movebetween practice and theory, reading about classroom innovation and then theorizingabout the basis and potential of this teaching approach. Providing an international perspective, the special lessons described and analysed aredrawn from middle and secondary schools in the UK, Canada and Australia. This bookis an invaluable resource for preservice and inservice teacher education, as well as forgraduate studies. It is of interest to a broad spectrum of individuals, including trainingteachers, teachers, researchers, administrators and curriculum coordinators in scienceand technology education.

Are you still using 20th century techniques to teach science to 21st century students? Update your practices as you learn about current theory and research with the authoritative Handbook of College Science Teaching. The Handbook offers models of teaching and learning that go beyond the typical lecture-laboratory format and provides rationales for updated practices in the college classroom. The 38 chapters, each written by experienced, award-wining science faculty, are organized into eight sections: attitudes and motivations; active learning; factors affecting learning; innovative teaching approaches; use for technology, for both teaching and student research; special challenges, such as teaching effectively to culturally diverse or learning disabled students; pre-college science instruction; and improving instruction. No other book fills the Handbook's unique niche as a definitive guide for science professors in all content areas. It even includes special help for those who teach non-science majors at the freshman and sophomore levels. The Handbook is ideal for graduate teaching assistants in need of a solid introduction, senior faculty and graduate cooridinators in charge of training new faculty and grad students, and mid-career professors in search of invigoration.

This collection of 16 essays is ideal for staff development providers, as well as preservice science methods instructors. Each essay describes a specific program designed to train current or future teachers to carry out the constructivist, inquiry-based approach of the Standards. Each essay also provides evidence of effectiveness on how teachers grow more confident using inquiry approaches,

This book explores evidence-based practice in college science teaching. It is grounded in disciplinary education research by practicing scientists who have chosen to take Wieman’s (2014) challenge seriously, and to investigate claims about the efficacy of alternative strategies in college science teaching. In editing this book, we have chosen to showcase outstanding cases of exemplary practice supported by solid evidence, and to include practitioners who offer models of teaching and learning that meet the high standards of the scientific disciplines. Our intention is to let these distinguished scientists speak for themselves and to offer authentic guidance to those who seek models of excellence. Our primary audience consists of the thousands of dedicated faculty and graduate students who teach undergraduate science at community and technical colleges, 4-year liberal arts institutions, comprehensive regional campuses, and flagship research universities. In keeping with Wieman’s challenge, our primary focus has been on identifying classroom practices that encourage and support meaningful learning and conceptual understanding in the natural sciences. The content is structured as follows: after an Introduction based on Constructivist Learning Theory (Section I), the practices we explore are Eliciting Ideas and Encouraging Reflection (Section II); Using Clickers to Engage Students (Section III); Supporting Peer Interaction through Small Group Activities (Section IV); Restructuring Curriculum and Instruction (Section V); Rethinking the Physical Environment (Section VI); Enhancing Understanding with Technology (Section VII), and Assessing Understanding (Section VIII). The book’s final section (IX) is devoted to Professional Issues facing college and university faculty who choose to adopt active learning in their courses. The common feature underlying all of the strategies described in this book is their emphasis on actively engaging students who seek to make sense of natural objects and events. Many of the strategies we highlight emerge from a constructivist view of learning that has gained widespread acceptance in recent years. In this view, learners make sense of the world by forging connections between new ideas and those that are part of their existing knowledge base. For most students, that knowledge base is riddled with a host of naïve notions, misconceptions and alternative conceptions they have acquired throughout their lives. To a considerable extent, the job of the teacher is to coax out these ideas; to help students understand how their ideas differ from the scientifically accepted view; to assist as students restructure and reconcile their newly acquired knowledge; and to provide opportunities for students to evaluate what they have learned and apply it in novel circumstances. Clearly, this prescription demands far more than most college and university scientists have been prepared for.

Do the Standards really matter in middle school? Nine years after the National Science Education Standards' release, just how well do science teachers in grades 5 to 8 actually use them to plan content, define improved teaching, and assess real learning? Find out the answers to these key quesitons in this groundbreaking collection of 15 essays by teachers, researchers, and professors whose specialty is middle school. Nine years after the release of the Standards, these educators describe what they're doing to achieve the visions for the reform of teaching, assessment, professionaldevelopment, and content. All the visions correspond to the Less Emphasis and More Emphasis conditions that conclude each section of the Standards, characterizing what most teachers and programs should do less of as well as decribing the changes needed if real reform is to occur. Among this collection's wide-ranging essay topics: "Teaching Science With Student Thinking in Mind," "The Relationship Between a Professional Devleopment Model and Student Achievement," "Creating a Classroom Culture of Scientific Practices," "Traveling the Inquiry Continuum: Learning Through Teacher Action Research," "What Do We Get to Do Today? The Middle School Full Option Science System Program," and "Teach Them to Fish." This volume is the third in NSTA Press's Exemplary Science monograph series, which provides the results of an unprecedented national search to assess how well the Standards' vision has been realized.

Provides a quick reference for promoting student reflection after exams, encouraging student-led teaching models, and looking at exam corrections from both instructor and student perspectives. This guide is divided into four sections comprising 28 peer-reviewed chapters. It covers general assessment topics and traditional and alternative assessment techniques. A series of how-to assessment practices utilized in the field and practical tips to enhance assessment in the college science classroom are included.