role of teacher in laboratory role of teacher in laboratory

Teachers need to use data drawn from conversations, observations, and previous student work to make informed decisions about how to help them move toward desired goals. This body of knowledge addressed the kind of laboratory instruction given to students, consideration of students with special needs, supportive teaching behaviors, models to engage students working in small groups, the sequencing of instruction, and modes of assessment (p. 121). Pedagogical content knowledge may include knowing what theories of natural phenomena students may hold and how their ideas may differ from scientific explanations, knowledge of the ideas appropriate for children to explore at different ages, and knowledge of ideas that are prerequisites for their understanding of target concepts. Reporting on a post-institute survey, McComas and Colburn note that a surprising number of teachers felt that the safety sessions were most important (p. 121) (no numbers were reported). light, such as reflection, transmission, and absorption. Shulman (1986, p. 8) has defined pedagogical content knowledge as: [A] special amalgam of content and pedagogy that is uniquely the province of teachers, their own form of professional understanding. Hammer, D. (1997). Some school and school district officials may be reluctant to invest in sustained professional development for science teachers because they fear losing their investments if trained teachers leave for other jobs. Linn, M.C. In this section, we describe the types of teacher knowledge and skills that may be required to lead a range of laboratory experiences aligned with our design principles, comparing the required skills with evidence about the current state of teachers knowledge and skills. While teachers play an active role in lecture-based teaching methods, the students' role is usually reduced to sitting at their desks and listening passively to their teachers, to all. This chapter describes some of the factors contributing to the weakness of current laboratory experiences. Some individual teachers told our committee that they did not have adequate preparation and cleanup time. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 31, 621-637. Available at: http://www7.nationalacademies.org/bose/March_29-30_2004_High_School_Labs_Meeting_Agenda.html [accessed Oct. 2005]. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Value-Added Research and Assessment Center. Hirsch, E., Koppich, J.E., and Knapp, M.S. Effects of professional development on teachers instruction: Results from a three-year longitudinal study. They felt confident to guide their students through the same process, where there is no right answer.. In contrast, a physicist might use mathematics to describe or represent the reflection, transmission, and absorption of light. The degree to which teachers themselves have attained the goals we speak of in this report is likely to influence their laboratory teaching and the extent to which their students progress toward these goals. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 39(3), 205-236. Teachers also need to know how to judge the quality of students oral presentations. Arlington, VA: National Science Teachers Association. Science Educator, 12(1), 1-9. Internet environments for science education. Is there a shortage among mathematics and science teachers? For example, among high school teachers who had participated in professional development aimed at learning to use inquiry-oriented teaching strategies, 25 percent indicated that this professional development had little or no impact, and 48 percent reported that the professional development merely confirmed what they were already doing. The. ), Faculty development for improving teacher preparation (pp. (Working Paper No. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. A Japanese high school language lab shows students' positions ), Knowledge base for the beginning teacher. In these discussions, the teacher helps students to resolve dissonances between the way they initially understood a phenomenon and the new evidence. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching, April, St. Louis, MO. In addition, they found that commercially available laboratory manuals failed to provide cognitively challenging activities that might help to bridge the gap between teachers lack of knowledge and improved laboratory experiences (McComas and Colburn, 1995, p. 120). Teachers require several types of knowledge to succeed in these multiple activities, including (1) science content knowledge, (2) pedagogical content knowledge, (3) general pedagogical knowledge, and (4) knowledge of appropriate assessment techniques to measure student learning in laboratory education. (2004). A student lab assistant ensures that students do not practice any unsafe behaviors in the lab. It examined the role of laboratory method of teaching in improving the quality of education, strategies for effective use of laboratory method and the problems facing the effective use of laboratory method in teaching science. The guidelines also call on administrators to schedule no more than 125 students per teacher per day, if the teacher is teaching only physics (the same laboratory activity taught several times may not require preparation) and no more than 100 students per teacher per day if the. Finally, an . (2004). In reviewing the state of biology education in 1990, an NRC committee concluded that few teachers had the knowledge or skill to lead effective laboratory experiences and recommended that major new programs should be developed for providing in-service education on laboratory activities (National Research Council, 1990, p. 34). During the school year, teachers may access kits of materials supporting laboratory experiences that use biomedical research tools. National Center for Education Statistics. Lunetta, V.N. As students analyze observations from the laboratory in search of patterns or explanations, develop and revise conjectures, and build lines of reasoning about why their proposed claims or explanations are or are not true, the teacher supports their learning by conducting sense-making discussions (Mortimer and Scott, 2003; van Zee and Minstrell, 1997; Hammer, 1997; Windschitl, 2004; Bell, 2004; Brown and Campione, 1998; Bruner, 1996; Linn, 1995; Lunetta, 1998; Clark, Clough, and Berg, 2000; Millar and Driver, 1987). Preordained science and student autonomy: The nature of laboratory tasks in physics classrooms. However, many high school teachers currently lack strong academic preparation in a science discipline. Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email. Presentation to the Committee on High School Science Laboratories: Role and Vision, June 3-4, National Research Council, Washington, DC. In M.D. The design of this professional development program incorporated the principle of integrating laboratory experiences into the stream of instruction and the goal of providing a full range of laboratory experiences, including opportunities for students to participate in developing research questions and procedures. thus expanding the teaching or training role; sometimes they are excluded purposely, such as in the case of France, where teachers are only responsible for the actual instruction and the remainder of . (2002). Paper prepared for the Committee on High School Science Laboratories: Role and Vision, July 12-13, National Research Council, Washington, DC. Deng (2001) describes pedagogical content knowledge for science teachers as an understanding of key scientific concepts that is somewhat different from that of a scientist. The purpose of this paper is to explore and discuss the role of practical work in the teaching and learning of science at school level. Supporting classroom discussions may be particularly challenging for teachers who work with a very diverse student population in a single classroom, or those who have a different cultural background from their students (see Tobin, 2004). The teaching communities that developed, with their new leaders, succeeded in obtaining additional resources (such as shared teacher planning time) from within the schools and districts (Gamoran et al., 2003) and also from outside of them. In addition, there is little research on whether use of block scheduling influences teachers instruction or enhances student learning. Lab's History Department, which is responsible for educating students in grades 9-12, seeks a teacher with expertise and experience teaching Modern Global or Modern World History coursework. The Biological Sciences Curriculum Study. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. One study found that, when laboratories were easily accessible, 14- and 15-year-old students who used the facilities during their free time reported increased interest in academics and took advanced science courses (Henderson and Mapp, 2002). Pedagogical content knowledge can help teachers and curriculum developers identify attainable science learning goals, an essential step toward designing laboratory experiences with clear learning goals in mind. Designing computer learning environments for engineering and computer science: The scaffolded knowledge integration framework. How can school organization contribute to effective laboratory teaching. Professional Development Partnerships with the Scientific Community. The role of the laboratory in science teaching: Neglected aspects of research. Science teachers behavior in the classroom is influenced by the science curriculum, educational standards, and other factors, such as time constraints and the availability of facilities and supplies. Science Education, 77(1), 25-46. Wojnowski, and S.K. Education Next, 2(1), 50-55. Properly designed laboratory investigations should: have a definite purpose that is communicated clearly to students; focus on the processes of science as a way to convey content; incorporate ongoing student reflection and discussion; and enable students to develop safe and conscientious lab habits and procedures (NRC 2006, p. 101-102). Deep disciplinary expertise is necessary to help students learn to use laboratory tools and procedures and to make observations and gather data. Since the 19th century, when schools began to teach science systematically, the laboratory has become a distinctive feature of chemistry learning. Teachers require a deep understanding of scientific processes in order to guide students procedures and formulation of research questions, as well as deep understanding of science concepts in order to guide them toward subject matter understanding and other learning goals. The research team focused the curriculum on helping students understand these principles, including flow principles, rate principles, total heat flow principles, and an integration principle. Journal of Research in Science Teaching. These strategies included arranging seating to facilitate student discussion, requiring students to supply evidence to support their claims, encouraging students to explain concepts to one another, and having students work in cooperative groups. Knowledge of childrens mental and emotional development, of teaching methods, and how best to communicate with children of different ages is essential for teachers to help students build meaning based on their laboratory experiences. ), Proceedings of the Conference on K-12 Outreach from University Science Departments. Although the time frame of the study prevented analysis of whether the teacher communities were sustained over time, the results suggest that school districts can use focused professional development as a way to create strong teaching communities with the potential to support continued improvement in laboratory teaching and learning. A supportive school administration could help teachers overcome their isolation and learn from each other by providing time and space to reflect on their laboratory teaching and on student learning in the company of colleagues (Gamoran, 2004). Windschitl, M. (2004). It will show you how laboratory sessions can differ with respect to their aim and expected learning . It may also be because teachers lack the content knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, general pedagogical knowledge, and knowledge of assessment required to lead such discussions (Maienschein, 2004; Windschitl, 2004). Zahopoulos, C. (2003). Available at: http://www7.nationalacademies.org/bose/July_1213_2004_High_School_Labs_Meeting_Agenda.html. Chapel Hill, NC: Horizon Research. We then go on to describe approaches to supporting teachers and improving their capacity to lead laboratory experiences through improvements in professional development and use of time. CrossRef Google Scholar Johnstone, A. H., & Al-Shuaili, A. Tobin (Eds. However, compared with other types of professionals, a higher proportion of teachers leave their positions each year. Improving high school science teachers capacity to lead laboratory experiences effectively is critical to advancing the educational goals of these experiences. Atkin and J.E. Teachers play a critical role in leading laboratory experiences in ways that support student learning. London, England: Kluwer Academic. In this approach, school administrators recognize that leadership for improved teaching and learning is distributed throughout the school and district and does not rest on traditional hierarchies. To date, however, few high schools have adopted such research-based science curricula, and many teachers and school administrators are unaware of them (Tushnet et al., 2000; Baumgartner, 2004). ), International handbook of science education (pp. Guiding students through the complexity and ambiguity of empirical. (2004). Laboratory activities have long had a distinct and central role in the science curriculum as a means of making sense of the natural world. Literature review: The role of the teacher in inquiry-based education. The teachers ability to use sophisticated questioning techniques to bring about productive student-student and student-teacher discussions in all phases of the laboratory activity is a key factor in the extent to which the activity attains its goals (Minstrell and Van Zee, 2003). Google Scholar Chapel Hill, NC : Horizon Research. (1996). Ferguson, R. (1998). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum. What do they contribute to science learning? What types of knowledge do teachers use to engage learners in doing science? Among the volunteers, 97 percent said they would recommend RE-SEED to a colleague, and most said that the training, placement in schools, and support from staff had made their time well spent (Zahopoulos, 2003). They found that a heat-flow model was better able to connect to middle school students knowledge about heat and temperature than a molecular-kinetic model (Linn, Davis, and Bell, 2004). However, experts do not agree on which aspects of teacher qualitysuch as having an academic major in the subject taught, holding a state teaching certificate, having a certain number of years of teaching experience, or other unknown factorscontribute to their students academic achievement (Darling-Hammond, Berry, and Thoreson, 2001; Goldhaber and Brewer, 2001). Minstrell, J., and van Zee, E.H. (2003). Hein, G.E., and Price, S. (1994). This timely book investigates factors that influence a high school laboratory experience, looking closely at what currently takes place and what the goals of those experiences are and should be. All of these factors indirectly affect the academic achievement of the students. Engaging students in analysis of data gathered in the laboratory and in developing and revising explanatory models for those data requires teachers to be familiar with students practical equipment skills and science content knowledge and be able to engage in sophisticated scientific reasoning themselves. Professional development opportunities for science teachers are limited in quality, availability, and scope and place little emphasis on laboratory instruction. Laboratories in science education: Understanding the history and nature of science. Lynch, S., Kuipers, J., Pike, C., and Szeze, M. (in press). Earn CE Get Involved Advocate/Support Your Profession Designing a community of young learners: Theoretical and practical lessons. U.S. Department of Education. Respecting childrens own ideas. Active learning opportunities focused on analysis of teaching and learning. 249-262). Washington, DC: Author. (2002). National Research Council. The role of teacher in the acquisition of scientific knowledge in Secondary School Science class cannot be underestimated. ASCP understands your role in the medical laboratory and has developed cost effective learning products, tools to manage your re-certification, and opportunities for you to grow as a leader in the laboratory. A teacher knows how to work well as part of a team. The laboratory in science education: Foundations for the twenty-first century. National Center for Family and Community Connections with Schools. Laboratory experiences and their role in science education. Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. ), The black-white test score gap. Professional development and preservice programs that combined laboratory experiences with instruction about the key concepts of the nature of science and engaged teachers in reflecting on their experiences in light of those concepts were more successful in developing improved understanding (Khalic and Lederman, 2000). Lee, O. can be sequenced into a flow of science instruction in order to integrate student learning of science content and science processes. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 29, 51-61. They must address the challenge of helping students to simultaneously develop scientific reasoning, master science subject matter and progress toward the other goals of laboratory experiences. The laboratory has been given a central and distinctive role in science education, and science educators have suggested that there are rich benefits in learning from using laboratory activities. When asked whether they had time during the regular school week to work with colleagues on the curriculum and teaching, 69 percent of high school teachers disagreed and 4 percent had no opinion, leaving only 28 percent who agreed. Bayer Corporation. They also spend a week doing laboratory research with a scientist mentor at the Fred Hutchinson Center or one of several other participating public and private research institutions in Seattle. However, several types of inflexible scheduling may discourage effective laboratory experiences, including (a) limits on teacher planning time, (b) limits on teacher setup and cleanup time, and (c) limits on time for laboratory experiences. The role of practical work in the teaching and learning of science. Science Education, 88, 28-54. Available at: http://www.educationnext.org/20021/50.html [accessed Feb. 2005]. Final report on the evaluation of the National Science Foundations Instructional Materials Development Program. London, England: Kluwer Academic. Given the vast array of possible courses led by Teaching Assistants at UWM, their individual roles will vary considerably. Zip. To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter. American Educational Research Journal 35(3), 477-496. Improving teachers in-service professional development in mathematics and science: The role of postsecondary institutions. Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available. Welcome to the Science Education Partnership. Research conducted in teacher education programs provides some evidence of the quality of preservice science education (Windschitl, 2004). Harlen, W. (2000). The teaching profession is evolving on a regular basis, with new technology being incorporated into teaching methods and information updated regularly. Pre-service biology teachers knowledge structures as a function of professional teacher education: A year-long assessment. Available at: http://www7.nationalacademies.org/bose/June_3-4_2004_High_School_Labs_Meeting_Agenda.html [accessed May 2005]. It was implemented over four day-long Saturday sessions spread over a semester. The poor quality of laboratory experiences of most high school students today results partly from the challenges that laboratory teaching and learning pose to school administrators. Lederman, N.G. Understanding cellular respiration: An analysis of conceptual change in college biology. Presentation to the NRC Committee on High School Science Laboratories, March 29, Washington, DC. of habitual errors aids pupil in understanding nature of satisfactory performance Managing Practice Effectively laboratory and clinical experiences not merely repeating same exercise essential to goal attainment in psycho-motor and cognitive areas a teacher can manipulate whole-part approaches Helping Students . develop and implement comprehensive safety policies with clear procedures for engaging in lab activities; ensure that these policies comply with all applicable local, state, and federal health and safety codes, regulations, ordinances, and other rules established by the applicable oversight organization, including the Occupational Safety & Health Introduction The laboratory in the school has been defined by several authors in different ways. NSTA position statement: Laboratory science. TA may not leave the lab unattended while students are in the room. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 30, 919-934. The school science laboratory: Historical perspectives and contexts for contemporary teaching. Paper prepared for the Committee on High School Science Laboratories: Role and Vision, July 12-13, National Research Council, Washington, DC. Available at: http://www7.nationalacademies.org/bose/July_12-13_2004_High_School_Labs_Meeting_Agenda.html [accessed May 2005]. These workshops include microteaching (peer presentation) sessions. van Zee, E., and Minstrell, J. The impact of longer term intervention on reforming the approaches to instructions in chemistry by urban teachers of physical and life sciences at the secondary school level. These school-based teacher communities, in turn, not only supported teachers in improving their teaching practices, but also helped them create new resources, such as new curricula. Primary science: Taking the plunge. The teachers skills in posing questions and leading discussions also help students to effectively and accurately communicate their laboratory activities and the science sense they make from them, using appropriate language, scientific knowledge, mathematics, and other intellectual modes of communication associated with a particular science discipline. McComas, W.F., and Colburn, A.I. Revisiting what states are doing to improve the quality of teaching: An update on patterns and trends. Mathematics and science teachers reported more frequently than other teachers that job dissatisfaction was the reason they left their jobs. 7082.) When one college physics professor taught a high school physics class, he struggled with uncertainty about how to respond to students ideas about the phenomena they encountered, particularly when their findings contradicted accepted scientific principles (Hammer, 1997). A focus on deepening teachers knowledge of science or mathematics. It means focusing the students own questions. The laboratory science teacher professional development program. More than 90 percent of the class indicated that the experiment was highly effective in demonstrating the difficulty of scientific investigations and the possibility of failure in science (Glagovich and Swierczynski, 2004). Once on the job, science teachers have few opportunities to improve their laboratory teaching. Hegarty-Hazel, E. (1990). However, a review of the literature five years later revealed no widespread efforts to improve laboratory education for either preservice or in-service teachers (McComas and Colburn, 1995). However, the undergraduate education of future science teachers does not currently prepare them for effective laboratory teaching. In addition, few high school teachers have access to curricula that integrate laboratory experiences into the stream of instruction. This book looks at a range of questions about how laboratory experiences fit into U.S. high schools: With increased attention to the U.S. education system and student outcomes, no part of the high school curriculum should escape scrutiny. Loucks-Horsley, Love, Stiles, Mundry, and Hewson (2003) provide a detailed design framework for professional development and descriptions of case studies, identifying strategies for improving science teaching that may be applicable to improving laboratory teaching. Many preservice teachers hold serious misconceptions about science that are similar to those held by their students (Anderson, Sheldon, and Dubay, 1990; Sanders, 1993; Songer and Mintzes, 1994; Westbrook and Marek, 1992, all cited in Windschitl, 2004). Examining the effects of a highly rated curriculum unit on diverse students: Results from a planning grant. The research described above indicates that undergraduate laboratory experiences do not integrate learning of science content and science processes in ways that lead to deep conceptual understanding of science subject matter. Science Teacher Responsibilities: Designing, developing, and delivering quality lesson plans and curricula that adhere to national and school guidelines. (1997). Many schools schedule eight 40- to 55-minute class periods, so that following the AAPT guidelines would allow physics teachers two preparation periods. Student outcomes and the professional preparation of eighth-grade teachers in science and mathematics: NSF/NELS. 1 Introduction, History, and Definition of Laboratories, 3 Laboratory Experiences and Student Learning, 5 Teacher and School Readiness for Laboratory Experiences, 7 Laboratory Experiences for the 21st Century, APPENDIX A Agendas of Fact-Finding Meetings, APPENDIX B Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff. Constructivist approaches to science teaching. After completion of the course, teachers classroom behaviors were videotaped and analyzed against traditional and reformed instructional strategies. These studies confirm earlier research findings that even the best science curriculum cannot teach itself and that the teachers role is central in helping students build understanding from laboratory experiences and other science learning activities (Driver, 1995). At Vanderbilt University, Catley conducts a summer-long course on research in organismal biology. Catley, K. (2004). A professor engaged upper level chemistry majors in trying to create a foolproof laboratory activity to illustrate the chemistry of amines for introductory students. A research agenda. National Research Council. The web-based inquiry science environment (WISE): Scaffolding knowledge integration in the science classroom. The role of the laboratory in science teaching: Neglected aspects of research. Currently, few teachers lead this type of sense-making discussion (Smith, Banilower, McMahon, and Weiss, 2002). In C. Jencks and M. Phillips (Eds. Hilosky, A., Sutman, F., and Schmuckler, J. Classroom and field-based "lab work" is conceptualized as central components of Available at: http://www.nsta.org/positionstatementandpsid=16 [accessed Oct. 2004]. Teachers help their colleagues by sharing instructional resources. People working in the clinical laboratory are responsible for conducting tests that provide crucial information for detecting, diagnosing, treating, and monitoring disease. Do higher salaries buy better teachers? Few professional development programs for science teachers emphasize laboratory instruction. (1998).