Sunday, February 22, 2015
2/23 Dan - Pedagogical Resources
Harlow’s paper focused on outlining the application four resources in a modeling-based physics course. These four resources were developed and addressed in the context of the concerns of science and mathematics teachers-in-training. The issues and concerns raised in this paper have strong connections to A Framework for K-12 Science Education and the work of diSessa, as specifically mentioned by Harlow. By stating that there is a real need to shift modeling to the center of science classroom instruction, his work reinforces diSessa’s claim that computational literacy is a topic that should also be shifting to the core of academic standards. The NGSS Framework also reinforces many of Harlow’s claims. Several of the practices for K-12 science classrooms deal with using models to explain and predict, as well as thinking creatively to construct explanations and evaluating information. The issue of students being creative thinkers, as outlined in Harlow’s 4th resource, is one that is prominent in our work with NetLogo. In order to create a model from the ground up, it requires a great deal of creativity and patience. There must be edits, testing, re-edits, and even more testing. As we have already seen, even just with OneTurtle, there can be several different ways to explain the same phenomenon with modeling software. Exposing students to each others ideas and engaging in discussion about the strengths and weaknesses of different models is an integral part of the scientific process. This also draws heavily on the 2nd resource that Harlow outlines, that “guiding students is less certain than telling them”. While I have shared similar concerns, it seems that Harlow, and many of the authors we have read, are arguing that the process of grappling with the concepts and conflicting ideas is just as important, if not more so, than arriving at the “right answer”. In my own class, I think my biggest concerns would be on what level, or to what extent, do I use the students thinking to determine lesson plans and find the right guiding questions to prompt student thinking? I have read that it takes three to five years of teaching a subject to develop the pedagogical content knowledge necessary to create the appropriate questions that engage students in meaningful discussion. What can we do to help prepare teachers to be ready to engage in the type of practice when they enter the profession?
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I share your concern about being ready with enough experience to ask the right questions. I think one answer is to lean heavily on the experience of others until we are experienced enough. Finding good activities/lesson resources is not easy but they are out there and probably just reading other teachers' lesson plans for different subject would help new teachers see examples of good questions to ask their classes to promote thinking.
ReplyDeleteDan, I struggled with this question as well. I think it is especially challenging to come up with the right guiding questions when engaging in the modeling process. Since the modeling process depends on the student driven inquiry, I feel like the content range will be very fluid. I definitely agree with Steve, that we can gain a lot of insight from experienced teachers. Even though through observation (video or in person) we can gain some insight into what this looks like, there is still more to consider. Since the student questions we might receive are very uncertain (we can’t always predict what questions students might or might not ask), other teachers are of less help because they will not be in the classroom with us. Hopefully three to five years is exaggerated, but in some cases there is little substitution for experience. I also hope experiencing the modeling process ourselves in class will help give us some more understanding of what questions we might come across and how we would approach them if we were the teacher. Great question though, I think this would be an interesting discussion to have.
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