EFFECTIVE SCIENCE INSTRUCTION: WHAT DOES …

1 EFFECTIVE SCIENCE INSTRUCTION: what does RESEARCH tell US?Second EditionEric BanilowerKim CohenJoan PasleyIris WeissHorizon Research, SCIENCE INSTRUCTION: what does RESEARCH tell US?Second EditionThis publication was created for the Center on Instruction byHorizon Research, Inc. The Center on Instruction is operated by RMC ResearchCorporation in partnership with the Florida Center for ReadingResearch at Florida State University; Instructional ResearchGroup; the Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation, andStatistics at the University of Houston; and The MeadowsCenter for Preventing Educational Risk at The University ofTexas at contents of this document were developed undercooperative agreement S283B050034 with the of Education. However, these contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department ofEducation, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal , design, and production services provided by RMC Research citationBanilower, E., Cohen, K.

2 , Pasley, J. & Weiss, I. (2010). Effectivescience instruction: what does research tell us? , NH: RMC Research Corporation, Center on Center on Instruction at RMC Research Corporation;Horizon Research, Inc.; and the U. S. Department of Educationretain sole copyright and ownership of this product. However,the product may be downloaded for free from the Center swebsite. It may also be reproduced and distributed with twostipulations: (1) the preferred citation, noted on this page,must be included in all reproductions and (2) no profit may bemade in the reproduction and/or distribution of the charges to cover printing, photocopying, or mailingare 2010To download a copy of this document, visit OF EFFECTIVE INSTRUCTION4 The research base on elements of EFFECTIVE instruction5 Motivation7 Eliciting students prior knowledge9 Intellectual engagement with relevant phenomena11 Use of evidence to critique claims13 Sense-making15 PREVALENCE OF THE ELEMENTS OF EFFECTIVE SCIENCE INSTRUCTIONIN THE UNITED STATES16 Motivation18 Eliciting students prior knowledge19 Intellectual engagement with relevant phenomena21 Use of evidence to critique claims23 Sense-making26 SAMPLE LESSONS31 IMPLICATIONS FOR POLICY MAKERS AND PRACTITIONERS34 APPENDIX38 REFERENCESINTRODUCTIONS cience education has received renewed attention in the United States in thelast several decades, with calls for a scientifically literate citizenry in thisincreasingly technological society.

3 SCIENCE for All Americans(AmericanAssociation for the Advancement of SCIENCE , 1989) laid out a vision describingthe knowledge a scientifically literate person would have. This vision wasfurther elucidated in Benchmarks for SCIENCE Literacy(American Association forthe Advancement of SCIENCE , 1993) and National SCIENCE Education Standards(National Research Council, 1996). These documents reflect a fairly broadconsensus within the SCIENCE education community of what scientificknowledge students should be expected to learn as they progress throughgrades K example, Benchmarks for SCIENCE Literacydescribes a progression ofideas that will help students understand DNA and principles of inheritance: Offspring are very much, but not exactly like, their parents and [they are]like one another. (Grades K 2 Benchmark) Some likenesses between children and parents, such as eye color inhuman beings, or fruit or flower colors in plants, are inherited. Otherlikenesses, such as people s table manners or carpentry skills, are learned.

4 (Grades 3 5 Benchmark) In some kinds of organisms, all the genes come from a single parent,whereas in organisms that have sexes, typically half of the genes comefrom each parent. (Grades 6 8 Benchmark) The information passed from parents to offspring is coded in DNAmolecules. (Grades 9 12 Benchmark)National SCIENCE Education Standardsdescribes a similar progression: Plants and animals closely resemble their parents. Many characteristics ofan organism are inherited from the parents of the organism, but othercharacteristics result from an individual s interactions with theenvironment. Inherited characteristics include the color of flowers and thenumber of limbs of an animal. Other features, such as the ability to ride abicycle, are learned through interactions with the environment and cannotbe passed on to the next generation. (Grades K 4 Standard)1 In many species, including humans, females produce eggs and malesproduce sperm. Plants also reproduce sexually the egg and the spermare produced in the flowers of flowering plants.

5 An egg and sperm unite to begin development of a new new individual receivedgenetic information from its mother (via the egg) and its father (via thesperm). (Grades 5 8 Standard) In all organisms, the instructions for specifying the characteristics of theorganism are carried in DNA, a large polymer formed from subunits of fourkinds (A, G, C, and T)..(Grades 9 12 Standard)These documents also emphasize that students should understand the natureof scientific knowledge how it is generated, modified, and, in some casesultimately rejected. According to the National SCIENCE Education Standards(NSES): Scientific literacy means that a person can ask, find, or determine answersto questions derived from curiosity about everyday experiences. It meansthat a person has the ability to describe, explain, and predict naturalphenomena. Scientific literacy entails being able to read withunderstanding articles about SCIENCE in the popular press and to engage in social conversation about the validity of conclusions.

6 Scientific literacyimplies that a person can identify scientific issues underlying national and local decisions and express positions that are scientifically andtechnologically informed. A literate citizen should be able to evaluate thequality of scientific information on the basis of its source and the methodsused to generate it. Scientific literacy also implies the capacity to pose andevaluate arguments based on evidence and to apply conclusions fromsuch arguments appropriately (National Research Council, 1996, p. 22).In addition to delineating the important knowledge, the national standards painta picture of what EFFECTIVE SCIENCE instruction might look like to accomplish thegoal of producing a scientifically literate citizenry. Moreover, since the standardswere published, research in the cognitive sciences has provided much newknowledge about the mechanisms by which people learn. This research and its implications for SCIENCE education have been summarized in the NationalResearch Council s How People Learn(National Research Council, 2003) and How Students Learn: SCIENCE in the Classroom(National Research Council, 2005).

7 2 This brief distills the research on SCIENCE learning to inform a commonvision of SCIENCE instruction and to describe the extent to which K 12 scienceeducation currently reflects this vision. A final section on implications for policymakers and SCIENCE education practitioners describes actions that couldintegrate the findings from research into SCIENCE OF EFFECTIVE SCIENCE INSTRUCTIONA debate continues over what constitutes EFFECTIVE SCIENCE instruction. Theopposing views are often labeled, somewhat simplistically, as reform versus traditional SCIENCE instruction. Reform instruction is often characterized asstudents working in small groups and participating in hands-on activities withstudents, in some cases, selecting the topics. Traditional instruction is oftencharacterized as teachers delivering information to students in lectures andreadings, and students working independently on practice problems andworksheets. Often, traditional instruction includes a weekly laboratory activity in which students work to reinforce what has been taught in a prior the mode of instruction misses the point, however, as currentlearning theory focuses on students conceptual change, and does not implythat one pedagogy is necessarily better than another.

8 For example, studentsmay be intellectually engaged with important content in a dynamic, teacher-directed lecture, or they may simply sit passively through a didactic lectureunrelated to their personal experience. Similarly, a hands-on lesson may providestudents with opportunities to confront their preconceptions about scientificphenomena, or it may simply be an activity for activity s sake, stimulatingstudents interest but not relating to important learning goals. Lessons thatengage students in scientific inquiry can be EFFECTIVE whether they arestructured by the teacher or instructional materials, or very open, withstudents pursuing answers to their own questions. Whatever the mode ofinstruction, the research suggests that students are most likely to learn ifteachers encourage them to think about ideas aligned to concrete learninggoals and relate those ideas to real-life research base on elements of EFFECTIVE instructionThe SCIENCE instruction model presented in this brief derives largely from thelearning theory described in the National Research Council s volumes HowPeople Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School (2003) and How StudentsLearn: SCIENCE in the Classroom (2005).

9 This framework views students asactive processors of information. It places heavy emphasis on the ideas andunderstandings that students bring to the classroom and how they construct4new knowledge. Their initial concepts and skills affect how they processcontent and how they view the nature of SCIENCE . For students to learn sciencecontent, learning theory posits that they must be motivated to learn andintellectually engaged in activities and/or discussions focusing on what theyalready know. Further, learning theory suggests that students will bestunderstand SCIENCE content and the scientific process if teachers encouragethem to use evidence to support their claims and help them make sense ofnew, developmentally appropriate ideas in the context of their prior thinking and their understanding of related course, EFFECTIVE instruction requires skilled and knowledgeable teachersand research supports the idea that teacher understanding of content isimportant. Teachers with stronger content knowledge are more likely to teachin ways that help students construct knowledge, posing appropriate questions,suggest alternative explanations, and propose additional inquiries (Alonzo, 2002;Brickhouse, 1990; Cunningham, 1998; Gess-Newsome & Lederman, 1995;Lederman, 1999; Roehrig & Luft, 2004; Sanders, Borko, & Lockard, 1993).

10 Also,studies have shown a relationship between teacher content knowledge andstudent learning (Magnusson, Borko, Krajcik, & Layman, 1992).The next part of this brief expands upon each element of effectiveinstruction and provides classroom-based examples of well-designed the instruction, students are unlikely to learn if they are not motivated to learn. Lessons should hook students by addressingsomething they have wondered about, or can be induced to wonder about,possibly, but not necessarily, in a real-world context. In their analysis of middleschool SCIENCE programs, Kesidou and Roseman (2002) cited research supportfor the idea that if students are to derive the intended learning benefits fromengaging in an activity, their interest in or recognition of the value of the activityneeds to be motivated (p. 530). It is important to note that motivation needsto be maintained throughout instruction on a concept, as opposed to just thebeginning; hooking students initially will have little impact if they quickly loseinterest in the motivation may be either extrinsic or intrinsic.