Learning Science Teaching

Now fully updated in its fourth edition, Science Learning, Science Teaching offers an accessible, practical guide to creative classroom teaching and a comprehensive introduction to contemporary issues in science education. Aiming to encourage and assist professionals with the process of reflection in the science classroom, the new edition re-examines the latest advances in the field and changes to the curriculum, and explores the use of mobile technology and coding, and its impact on ICT in science education. With extra tasks integrated throughout the book and a brand new chapter, ‘Working scientifically’, to help develop learners’ investigative skills, key topics include: • The art and craft of science teaching. • The science curriculum and science in the curriculum. • Planning and managing learning. • Inclusive science education. • Laboratory safety in science learning and teaching. • Language and numeracy in science teaching and learning. • Computers and computing in science education. • Citizenship and sustainability in science education. Including points for reflection and useful information about further reading and recommended websites, Science Learning, Science Teaching is an essential source of support, guidance and inspiration for all students, teachers, mentors and those involved in science education wishing to reflect upon, improve and enrich their practice.

"This compilation aims to analyse students' learning during STEM activities in the following categories: real-world problem solving and knowledge about the topic under discussion. This study is part of a larger project that comprises five school clusters and involves students from several grades. Next, the authors develop, validate and apply an attitude and learning environment questionnaire for gifted female students to evaluate technology-based science instruction by comparing regular and technology-based science classrooms. Additionally, Science Teaching and Learning: Practices, Implementation and Challenges reports the methods and outcomes of a study that explored the impact of a six-month school-scientist partnership involving a New Zealand science research institute and a group of 164 9-10 year olds. The authors investigate the effects of learning boxes on 5th grade students' academic achievement and retention in science classes. In order to realize this goal, a quantitative research method including an experimental design was used. The concluding study considers Kuhn's concept of how scientific revolution takes place based on individual elements or tenets of the nature of science, and explores the interrelationships within the individual elements or tenets of the nature of science"--

Currently, many states are adopting the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) or are revising their own state standards in ways that reflect the NGSS. For students and schools, the implementation of any science standards rests with teachers. For those teachers, an evolving understanding about how best to teach science represents a significant transition in the way science is currently taught in most classrooms and it will require most science teachers to change how they teach. That change will require learning opportunities for teachers that reinforce and expand their knowledge of the major ideas and concepts in science, their familiarity with a range of instructional strategies, and the skills to implement those strategies in the classroom. Providing these kinds of learning opportunities in turn will require profound changes to current approaches to supporting teachers' learning across their careers, from their initial training to continuing professional development. A teacher's capability to improve students' scientific understanding is heavily influenced by the school and district in which they work, the community in which the school is located, and the larger professional communities to which they belong. Science Teachers' Learning provides guidance for schools and districts on how best to support teachers' learning and how to implement successful programs for professional development. This report makes actionable recommendations for science teachers' learning that take a broad view of what is known about science education, how and when teachers learn, and education policies that directly and indirectly shape what teachers are able to learn and teach. The challenge of developing the expertise teachers need to implement the NGSS presents an opportunity to rethink professional learning for science teachers. Science Teachers' Learning will be a valuable resource for classrooms, departments, schools, districts, and professional organizations as they move to new ways to teach science.

In the best science classrooms, teachers see learning through the eyes of their students, and students view themselves as explorers. But with so many instructional approaches to choose from—inquiry, laboratory, project-based learning, discovery learning—which is most effective for student success? In Visible Learning for Science, the authors reveal that it’s not which strategy, but when, and plot a vital K-12 framework for choosing the right approach at the right time, depending on where students are within the three phases of learning: surface, deep, and transfer. Synthesizing state-of-the-art science instruction and assessment with over fifteen years of John Hattie’s cornerstone educational research, this framework for maximum learning spans the range of topics in the life and physical sciences. Employing classroom examples from all grade levels, the authors empower teachers to plan, develop, and implement high-impact instruction for each phase of the learning cycle: Surface learning: when, through precise approaches, students explore science concepts and skills that give way to a deeper exploration of scientific inquiry. Deep learning: when students engage with data and evidence to uncover relationships between concepts—students think metacognitively, and use knowledge to plan, investigate, and articulate generalizations about scientific connections. Transfer learning: when students apply knowledge of scientific principles, processes, and relationships to novel contexts, and are able to discern and innovate to solve complex problems. Visible Learning for Science opens the door to maximum-impact science teaching, so that students demonstrate more than a year’s worth of learning for a year spent in school.

2018 Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Ambitious Science Teaching outlines a powerful framework for science teaching to ensure that instruction is rigorous and equitable for students from all backgrounds. The practices presented in the book are being used in schools and districts that seek to improve science teaching at scale, and a wide range of science subjects and grade levels are represented. The book is organized around four sets of core teaching practices: planning for engagement with big ideas; eliciting student thinking; supporting changes in students’ thinking; and drawing together evidence-based explanations. Discussion of each practice includes tools and routines that teachers can use to support students’ participation, transcripts of actual student-teacher dialogue and descriptions of teachers’ thinking as it unfolds, and examples of student work. The book also provides explicit guidance for “opportunity to learn” strategies that can help scaffold the participation of diverse students. Since the success of these practices depends so heavily on discourse among students, Ambitious Science Teaching includes chapters on productive classroom talk. Science-specific skills such as modeling and scientific argument are also covered. Drawing on the emerging research on core teaching practices and their extensive work with preservice and in-service teachers, Ambitious Science Teaching presents a coherent and aligned set of resources for educators striving to meet the considerable challenges that have been set for them.

​This book examines the implementation of inquiry-based approaches in science teaching and learning. It explores the ways that those approaches could be promoted across various contexts in Europe through initial teacher preparation, induction programmes and professional development activities. It illustrates connections between scientific knowledge deriving from the science education research community, teaching practices deriving from the science teachers’ community, and educational innovation. Inquiry-Based Science Teaching and Learning (IBST/L) has been promoted as a policy response to pressing educational challenges, including disengagement from science learning and the need for citizens to be in a position to evaluate evidence on pressing socio-scientific issues. Effective IBST/L requires well-prepared and skilful teachers, who can act as facilitators of student learning and who are able to adapt inquiry-based activity sequences to their everyday teaching practice. Teachers also need to engage creatively with the process of nurturing student abilities and to acquire new assessment competences. The task of preparing teachers for IBST/L is a challenging one. This book is a resource for the implementation of inquiry-oriented approaches in science education and illustrates ways of promoting IBST/L through initial teacher preparation, induction and professional development programmes.

Sure, you teach science. But do your students really learn it? Students of all ages will absorb more if you adapt the way you teach to the way they learn. That's the message of this thoughtful collection of 12 essays by noted science teachers. Based on the latest research, this is definitely a scholarly book. But to bring theories to life, it includes realistic scenarios featuring classrooms where students are encouraged to construct their own science learning. These scenarios will give you specific ideas on how to help your students become more reflective about their learning process, including what they know, what their stumbling blocks are, and how to overcome them. You'll also examine how to use formative assessment to gauge student learning during the course of a lesson, not just at the end.

This book extends and unifies recent debate and research about science education in several disparate fields, including philosophy of science, cognitive psychology and motivation theory. Through an approach based on the personalization of learning and the politicization of the curriculum and classroom, it shows how the complex goal of critical scientific literacy can be achieved by all students, including those who traditionally underachieve in science or opt out of science education at the earliest opportunity. Current thinking in situated cognition and learning through apprenticeship are employed to build a sociocultural learning model based on a vigorous learning community, in which the teacher acts as facilitator, co-learner and anthropologist. Later chapters describe how these theoretical arguments can be translated into effective classroom practice through a coherent inquiry-oriented pedagogy, involving a much more critical and wide-ranging use of hands-on and language-based learning than is usual in science education.