This
week I read through an EOC practice test in Biology and the 7th
grade TCAP science test. On both
exams, I was impressed by the emphasis on crosscutting concepts like cause and
effect and practices like plotting and interpreting data and the limited number
of purely recall questions (what I expected to see exclusively), though I felt that
the level of language used for each question would require a significant amount
of study/memorization across a broad array of topics instead of the depth I
would hope to achieve in my classroom.
Netlogo can be readily applied to helping students understand thematic
elements like cause and effect and skills like graphing, through the deep
exploration of a few topics and the opportunity to see how the same themes and
skills can apply to other situations.
For example, by working with and adapting the wolf/sheep model, students
can learn about interconnectivity, energy flow, and carrying capacity, and
practice each step of the modeling cycle.
These skills can then be applied to questions like number 6, “A forest
fire adds ash minerals to the soil.
The thick cover of tree leaves is reduced to scattered bare trunks and
stumps. Which response to this
ecosystem change is most likely?”, where the student can use their understanding
of cause and effect to find the answer without having studied fire
ecology.
My
two largest concerns with the standardized tests I read were the use of
potentially exclusionary scientific language and the limits to students’ and
teachers’ ownership in its specificity.
I think that scientific literacy is a very valuable goal for all
students, however this level of language use from such a broad array of topics
takes many years to understand fluently and could inhibit students from
understanding a question to which they may actually know the answer. Because students are expected to know
the specific language of so many biological systems, there is a constraint
placed on the potential exploration during the school year and could inhibit the
potential for ownership which diSessa champions.
Questions:
How
can we encourage student and teacher ownership and personalization within the
context of standardized curriculum and testing?
How
can we optimally (and naturally) incorporate such a broad array of complex
scientific terms into a thematic/modeling driven classroom?
What
do y’all think of diSessa’s distinction between students feeling in control and
actually being in control (p 50)?
This seems to contradict the theories of scaffolding we’ve studied
elsewhere, do you think its possible to achieve a teacher’s content goal when students
are actually in control? Or is the goal in these moments more practice
oriented?
I think that ownership and personalization may come from a relationship with our students. By finding interests of students, we as teachers may be able to give a personal feel to lessons and labs. While ownership won't come easy for students, it is more likely to be found when a relationship is established. As for vocabulary, I'm wondering if this can be incorporated during revision/explanation and argumentation of models. Our students will spend a great time using models but then we must bring students together either in groups or as a whole to discuss what we learned. This may be a great opportunity to incorporate vocabulary into our discussions with students. As for goals, I still think it's possible to achieve content goals when a student is in control. However, it should be realized that over the course of a semester when using the modeling pedagogy, less content goals will be reached. I think the ownership given to students is worthwhile though.
ReplyDeleteI understand your concern over the language that is used in the sample and practice tests. I felt that it slightly too sophisticated, and I wasn't just thinking scientific language but in general, for a middle school test, but maybe that was how the tests were written when I had to take them in middle school. Maybe your ownership question and the scientific terminology question can go hand-in-hand. A science classroom can try to incorporate a class goal to study and use more scientific terms in class. It would be even better if the whole school had that as a goal. This might have to include more reading and writing in courses, but hopefully also more discussion between students, teachers, and classes.
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