Compare and contrast a science teaching methodology that is largely teacher- directed and one largely student-directed. Provide examples. What are the most important elements of a process-oriented inquiry science lesson plan? Compare and contrast inductive and deductive teaching.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The teacher-directed and student-directed methodologies are at opposite ends of the Expository-Discovery Continuum. Teacher-directed, or expository methodology, is centered on the teacher as the owner and imparter of knowledge, whereas in the student-directed, or free-discovery methodology, the students decide what is important to learn and set up their own individual and unique learning activities. An example of a teacher-directed lesson may include a lecture, a demonstration, a story reading, or sample problem solving done by the teacher. In a student-centered lesson, the children are given a main topic and given complete freedom as to what they want to learn about it and how they will go about doing so. Student-centered activities include experimenting, reading, writing, and discussing by the children. In this model, the teacher is a resource among many others, such as the internet, books, parent, friends, etc., for the students to utilize in their exploration.
ReplyDeleteBoth teacher-oriented and student-oriented methodologies have their place in the science classroom. The teacher-oriented methodology is a reliable way to present uniform background knowledge, useful for demonstrating an activity before letting the students attempt it, safe for activities that include dangerous or expensive materials, and helpful for providing summaries, closures, and clear topic development. The student-centered methodology offers the hands-on activities that are indispensible for science learning. It ensures that all students are cognitively engaged, develop processing skills, and that the material learned is meaningful, relatable, and interesting. It teaches children that they can solve problems by themselves through exploration and guessing and testing.
However, both methodologies have disadvantages. In a purely teacher-centered lesson, all the students may not be involved cognitively, and the teacher has no way of knowing unless they stop and ask to assess understanding. These lessons cannot be tailored to address individual students’ learning needs, styles and speeds, and require the attention of all students. The material may lack relevance, and students are passive and may be overly dependent on the teacher. Additionally, the children learn only what is presented, can fail to make meaningful connections, and may be unable to apply the knowledge outside the classroom. The student-centered methodology poses several different problems. The teacher has less control over the content, and, without sufficient structure, students may wander off topic or work on something entirely unrelated. Any type of unforeseen additional materials could be required in order for the students to carry out their proposed activities. Stress on both the teacher and students can also occur, with students becoming frustrated as they wean themselves off from dependence, and teachers anxious at the thought of giving up control.
Guided inquiry methodology falls somewhere in between a teacher-directed and a student-directed methodology. The teacher establishes a topic and initial activity, with the children embarking on their own endeavors within that structure in a typically hands-on classroom. The teacher acts as a guide, co-inquirer, and resource for the children to utilize in their exploration, asking questions, listening to the children to understand their thinking process, and redirecting them if need be. This method eliminates the off-topic wandering students may do in a student-centered methodology. Guided inquiry focuses on using scientific content as a means to teach mastery of scientific processes, or teaching students how to “do” science, and can therefore be termed the process-oriented inquiry methodology.
ReplyDeleteThe most important aspects of a well made process-oriented inquiry lesson plan include the inclusion of both content and process objectives, the use of an advance organizer, progressive differentiation, and integrative reconciliation. A process-oriented lesson plan must be extensively planned, as the teacher has to anticipate unknown questions that will arise from the various thought processes and inquiry routes children will embark on. By using an advance organizer, the teacher ensures the students have the adequate background knowledge and know that their products in the lesson should be connected to a bigger picture. Progressive differentiation is the careful and logical explanation of every step in a process to prevent confusion. The lesson should also include integrative reconciliation, where the teacher monitors the students’ products to ensure meaningful connections are made and to correct any inconsistencies in the students’ thinking processes. A student should be able to relate the lesson to a wider theme and recognize it’s real-life applications. Process-oriented inquiry lesson plans, which are structured and include a set scientific process and scientific content but also give the students the freedom to choose experimental methods that are exciting, relatable, and expose children to scientific processes and the thrill of discovery.
Inductive teaching and deductive teaching are teaching styles that move in opposite directions between general and more specific information. In deductive teaching a student is taught a general principle first, followed by more specific concepts and examples. Inductive teaching begins by exposing students to specific information and allows them to use their knowledge to infer generalizations. Through inductive teaching, students are able to better internalize information and meaning, and truly become owners of knowledge. This type of teaching supports Bloom’s taxonomy of the cognitive domain, as students move from knowing facts, understanding them and applying them to larger principles, analyzing, evaluating, and, ultimately, utilizing this evidence to create their own ideas.
Expository Teaching would be largely teacher-directed and free discovery would be more student-directed. With expository teaching, the teacher decides what is going to be taught and is the dominating factor inside the classroom. The teacher lectures, provides notes, shows videos, explains charts, solves sample problems, shows material on the internet, provides powerpoint presentations, demonstrates laboratory exercises, reads stories, and so on. All of the activities are focused on the teacher. The teacher is the source and the owner of the knowledge. The students could or could not be cognitively involved and the only way for the teacher to really know this is to stop and ask students to summarize the lesson.
ReplyDeleteOn the other spectrum is free discovery. With free discovery, the students decide what they think is most important for them to learn. They set up their own unique and individual learning activities to explore topics that they have chosen to do. The teacher acts as a resource, not the commander like in expository teaching.
Naturally there are advantages and disadvantages to both of these teaching styles. The advantage of expository teaching is that the teacher has a command on the class and the class is very structured. The disadvantage is that the students may become over-dependant on the teacher, students only learn what the teacher presents, there are less materials being used, and the use of the thinking process outside of the classroom is less. The advantages to using free discovery are that all students cognitive engagement is greater, the students won’t be studying something that doesn’t interest them, and the students learn process skills and the meaning of the skills learned. Disadvantages include not enough structure, can lead to student frustration in the beginning, reduces teachers control of content, and requires additional equipment and materials.
In-between these two teaching approaches is something called guided inquiry methodology. This approach uses the concept of both expository teaching and free discovery by taking the teacher focus on expository methodology and the student focus of free discovery and combining the two together. With guided inquiry, the teacher serves as a guide or resource for his or her students. The students are encouraged to construct their own concepts while they are exposed to content that is age and grade level appropriate. The teacher assigns the topic and sets the directions. The students then ask questions which then leads to setting new directions. The teacher gives the student open ended activities to work on and the students are able to find out what they can, inquire what they don’t understand, and develop their own conclusions.
The disadvantages of using the guided inquiry methodology is that is it is very time consuming, the student’s questions may not be relevant or relate to the required curriculum, teachers may feel uncomfortable responding to all of the student’s questions, teachers may feel unprepared to help with difficult questions because of the students lack of background knowledge, and lastly the teacher may feel more comfortable with greater classroom structure than the freedom of open ended activities.
There are many important elements to keep in mind when using a process-oriented inquiry science lesson plan. These elements include:
ReplyDelete1. Targeted age or grade level
2. 2. Scientific processes addressed
3. 3. Science topic addressed
4. Process-oriented objective
5. What I want children to discover
6. Description of introductory activity and initial discussion
7. Materials needed
8. Description of activities
9. Typical discussion questions
10. How children will be encouraged to investigate on their own in the classroom
11. Expected conclusions
12. Assessment
13. Applications to real-life situations
Inductive teaching is a teaching approach where the lesson moves from more specific knowledge to the most general. For example, the children may go outdoors looking for insects but have a difficult time observing different kinds of insects because of the background color of their natural habitat. Because of this, the students could be forced to form a generalization about camouflage. On the other end of the spectrum is Deductive teaching. Deductive teaching is the opposite of inductive teaching in that the children learn starting with the most general knowledge and work their way up to more specific knowledge. For example, a teacher may be teaching about the general concept of living things. In order to teach this, the teacher may start with specific concepts of animals to specific varieties of animals as examples of living things.
Guided inquiry methodology appears to be an excellent means to teach science along with the general developmental skills one needs to learn at a young age. It is a good arena for moving from teacher directed to student directed methodology with the teacher judging how much freedom to give to students based on previous approaches and their results. I see the possible benefits of student centered inquiry activities as great, but it should be something that is felt out first to determine what will work.
ReplyDeleteThe student directed methodology seems to be the answer to the disadvantages of teacher directed lessons that are not engaging or creating personal meaning for the students. I feel this can be done best with the teacher based in the constructivist methodology, or somewhere in between teacher/student directed lessons. At all times the teacher must be available to let the students know the point of the lesson so the students know where to aim their creations, watch the progress of groups or individuals to redirect those who are moving off topic or struggling, and be able to reinforce the main points again at the conclusion. I agree whole-heartedly with Maria and Erin that one would have to be very prepared for any lesson where the students are given control. However, with the teacher there to correct deviation in student ideas that move away from the goal of the lesson, I think it would be a very rewarding and educational experience for the students. This is especially true in comparison to lecturing young students which I think is ridiculous and probably fruitless.
I feel similar in the case of the deductive versus inductive teaching methods. I believe inductive teaching would lend itself well to the methods of guided inquiry or student directed learning. It may be my limited experience but I would like to see how a class reacts to a general trend moving towards guided inquiry and inductive teaching so that I could see how students learn best individually and who is ready for autonomy at the elementary level.
Chapter 5 comments:
ReplyDeleteGreat Post Maria. Good point about teacher and student orientated methodologies having their place in the science classroom. Unfortunately, many teacher get into the habit of using only one- teacher directed. Nice description of guided inquiry and the teacher as co-inquirer by asking questions, listening and guiding students’ logic and rationale. The importance of process is also noted to ensure connections and real world applications. In science there is a great deal of discussions about having students complete the laboratory investigations first and then concentrating on the concepts or learning the concepts prior to performing the lab.
Erin also provides various teacher driven strategies such as notes, videos, charts, problem solving, etc. She also makes the point that students often become dependent on the teacher for learning. Whereas student orientated methodologies would promote unique, individualized learning with the caution that students are often frustrated in the beginning. Having experienced this in many settings from children to adults, this is absolutely true. We fall into the patter of expecting learning to be something done to us based on the way we learned in the past. Colin points out that guided inquiry may be a good bridge between the two methodologies. Likewise, preparation is the main ingredient for success.
~Rosalie