Teaching for Conceptual Change: Confronting Children's Experience

The authors of this article state that is very difficult for children to change their thinking in understanding scientific concepts even in the face of different evidence that challenges their thinking. Children simply trust their lifelong convictions since they have limited experience with scientific methods. Children in the middle elementary grades are beginning to use concrete operations. When confronted with new evidence children in these grades tend to revert to previous developmental stage thinking. Children in concrete operations perceive and interpret the world through their feelings rather than reasoning and logic. They usually modify  their experiments to  accommodate their beliefs rather than change their beliefs to fit the  evidence.
That is why children in  Mrs. O'Brien classroom cannot believe and accept the evidence of their experiment, namely that the temperature of the sweaters, hats and rugs, which they always associated in their lifelong experience  with heat, did not raise when they measured it.
Authors suggest several barriers to conceptual change in children.  One of them is stubbornness as children refuse to admit errors in their thinking. Teachers should be very cautious with new terminology as it may be difficult for children to master these new scientific terms  in addition to a new way of thinking.
The other obstacles to conceptual change is children's own perception. They believe more to what they see and hear, which in science does not always work.
In order to achieve conceptual change in children's thinking about scientific concepts teachers should stress relevance to children's everyday life outside of school when explaining scientific phenomena. They should allow children to make predictions when conducting experiments and encourage children to be consistent in their thinking when facing new patterns of thought.
This strategy this teacher applied in the classroom really helped me understand better what is means to confront children's preconceptions and use the probes to support science learning in the classroom.

Uncovering Student Ideas in Science-25 Formative Assessment Probes

The authors of the introduction to the book " Uncovering Student Ideas in Science -25 Formative Assessment Probes provide a lot of ideas for the science teachers how to test students previous knowledge and misconceptions they bring to the science classroom.  Testing previous knowledge and conceptions is done through the formative assessments.  What most of us associate with assessments is summative assassessments, something teachers use in the midterm or the end of course.  Summative assessments the ones that  measure the extent to which students achieved proficiency in the subject.  Formative assessments are continues and are used very often throughout the course of a unit or lesson and they provide the teacher with the set of data about student learning. This data teachers then use to modify their  instruction and curriculum and to provide feedback to the students. Teachers can use various formats to conduct formative assessments: individual, small group or whole group elicitation questions, student interviews, observations, informal conversations, journaling, performance tasks, traditional assessments as quizzes or tests during or after lesson.
The authors provide a lot of formative assessments in the book which they call probes. These probes serve to reveal the types of conceptions students have about common science topics before and throughout instruction.  Because students enter the study of science with many misconceptions, preconceived notions of scientific phenomena based on their everyday experiences.  The formation of  students own conceptions, which maybe correct, partially correct or incorrect continues throughout K-12 school years regardless of whether or not these concepts are taught in the science class.
For real learning to happen teachers should address these preconceptions and then modify their instructions and curriculum based on them.  Otherwise, students will graduate high school and go into college and still continue to hold those same misconceptions because they make sense to them and they were never challenged to test their thinking.
Before reading this  the article " Misconceptions Die Hard" and this introduction to the book " Uncovering Student Ideas in Science -25 Formative Assessment Probes I was completely unaware of such practices that can actually help learning in the classroom.  I think of my science education as a typical one where we were expected to repeat the information teacher provided. I never taught that learning can be improved by considering and exploring students ideas.  I was exposed to the old ways of teaching too long to know any different.  This introduction opens up my eyes to various possibilities of teaching students science.  What is the purpose of science education if it is not going to really help students understands scientific phenomena and objects.  And they can only truly understand it if we as teachers find out what they think and how they understand those.  Once we know their ideas about scientific concepts we can slowly build on their previous knowledge, and provide experiences that support the development of correct conceptual understanding.

Line of Learning continued

As I keep reading our assigned articles, I have to say that my ideas of  learning and teaching have significantly expanded.  Even though I have heard of constructivist theory in Educational Psychology class and teachings of Vygotsky, I really did not have clear understanding what application of that theory represents in the classroom.  Looking at my previous educational experiences, I was completely unfamiliar with different and new learning and teaching strategies. I knew that teaching strategies in the US were different to the ones in Bosnia or the whole of  the Balkans but I did not know how exactly.
While I still lived in Bosnia I talked to some of people that studied at American and Canadian universities. I always asked: " Well, what is it like to study there?" One guy that studied in Canada and came back to Bosnia was a short period told me that it is easier than in Bosnia, less stressful, but they teach you what you need.  I don't think I ever really understood what he meant by that, I just taught it is easier but never knew why.  I did not even know that different teaching practices exist and they they are continually developed and refined by research.  My only notion of American public education was that children were allowed to wander around the classroom and that there was less discipline. I never explored  what was the reason behind such instruction and classroom management.  
The insight that makes me particularly happy is that teachers use various methods of assessment to guide their instruction and that students are assessed in various ways not only the two typical ones.
Also feedback was not very common or familiar notion in my public education. Not that I can recall.
I only remember once in the Shakespeare class at the college, that professor, gave written explanation on the final written exam, where he pointed out the things I did well and the things I should have addressed.  That information gave me more insight into my further studying in preparation for the oral exam. ( in the ex- Yugoslavia countries, all final exams are comprised  of written exam and oral exam for each course ). Even now I think we should have had more assessments prior to the final exam on Shakespeare. In that way if we were on the wrong track or if we missed something, we could have improved that.  That is why I think final exams at the College of Liberal Arts, at  the department of English Language and Literature  in Banja Luka, Bosnia did not necessarily showed real potential and knowledge students could develop in their majors.

Misconceptions Die Hard

The authors of the article conducted a study with students at various academic levels to determine their understanding of concept of floating and sinking of objects.  The results showed that a lot of students had misconceptions about these concepts and that there was little difference between the college students and elementary school children. Study showed that as students got older they used more sophisticated science vocabulary  but at the same time their understanding of the scientific concepts did not increase.
The outcome of this study perhaps show us that education of children in elementary and high school  science classes emphasized more terminology and less understanding of the concepts.  Or perhaps that the teaching methods did not address more real understanding of scientific concepts.
Students come to classroom with misconceptions and some simply reject explanations that are in conflict with their beliefs or that don't make sense to them.  Having that in mind, teachers should find out their students misconceptions before they teach new scientific concepts.  What can teachers do address students misconceptions in science classroom?  We should take into consideration ideas from socialist constructivist theory  which asserts that children cannot learn by passively absorbing knowledge but by being engaged in activities and then constructing meaning There should be a lot of hand-on inquiry based activities in the science classroom to challenge students preconceptions and to develop accurate understanding of the same.  Through hands- on activities and experiments students will gain some experience about scientific concepts are teaching. Then these concepts  will make sense to them.  This could enable students to adopt new concepts and change their own misconceptions or beliefs  they brought into classroom.  Some textbooks and teachers present scientific concepts too fast to students to develop understanding. So teacher should try to choose textbook  that presents the scientific concepts in very clear and extensive way with  lots of  examples how the concepts are applied   and explained in words and pictures.  Teachers could keep a track of misconceptions.  When teachers observe students during lab activities, they can ask probing questions as they encounter students' misconceptions. Teachers can use  formal and informal interviewing to  evaluate student progress and  find out about their possible misconceptions that can later be addressed individually.
When I return to the main features of  social constructivist model of teaching as described by Joseph S. Krajcik in the second chapter of his book " Teaching Children Science; A Project- Based Approach"  I realize that  constructivist classroom is the best model of teaching to address students misconceptions in science classroom.

A Social Constructivist model of teaching

The way our students learn can inform our teaching practice.  According to social constructivist theory children learn by taking an active role in constructing meaning. Knowledge resides in the individuals and it is not transferred from teachers to students.  The students try to make sense of what is taught by trying to fit it with their experience.  Using this perspective science is taught not as the search for truth but by actively engaging children in the social process of making sense of experiences.
Main features of this model of teaching are:
1.Students construct understanding in science by actively engaging with the phenomena. They ask and refine questions, they predict and explain phenomena.

2.To develop their understanding students need to use and apply their knowledge.  Teachers have to consider students' prior knowledge. Teacher help students identify and use multiple resources.

3.  Learning involves developing multiple representations of ideas  that integrate understanding.  Multiple representations are varied evaluation techniques used by teachers and students products and artifacts.
4. Students learn in social context.  They use language to express knowledge, debate and come to resolution regarding ideas, concepts and theories they are taught.   They get help from knowledgeable others in learning new ideas and skills they could not learn on their own.
5. Students  must learn by addressing problems that are authentic, relate to real situations, relevant to students outside of school.

Teacher is scaffolding student's learning by  proving support in problem solving activities that are beyond the capacity of the learner.  Scaffolding can be provided by other knowledgeable peers, parents and community members.  The instructor and the student co-construct the solution to the problem.  Scaffolding is used selectively when needed and it should correspond to the level of help needed by student to provide understanding and learning.

As a teacher I should be aware of the ways students learn.  I should consider their prior knowledge and experiences students bring to the classroom.  I should plan activities in the classroom that would actively involve students, activities that are related to their life out of the classroom.   Students would be making inquiries, exploring the topics by questioning,  refining their questions, making predictions and offering explanations.   Students should feel free to express their opinions, to engage in discussions and group work.   Students will control their own learning by reflection on their experiences.  I would encourage team work and collaboration between students. Different learners will respond in a different way to various assessment techniques so if I want to evaluate students appropriately  I would have to use various forms of assessments.

Theoretical Foundations for Constructivist Teaching

Constructivism is a theory of knowledge that explain how people learn.  People learn when they construct their own knowledge and understanding of the world.  They generate knowledge from the interaction of their experiences and their ideas. Learners are actively engaged with the information.
Constructivist theory today is broad- based and incorporates  cognitive constructivism of Jean Piaget and social constructivism  of Lev Vygotsky.
Piaget's theory of cognitive development is based on assumption that people try to make sense of the world and actively create knowledge through direct experiences with objects, people and ideas.  Maturation, activity and social experiences affect changes in our thinking. People tend to  organize their thinking processes into psychological structures. Piaget calls these psychological structures schemes. Schemes are organized systems of actions or thought that allows us to mentally represent or think about object and events in our world.
In addition to organizing their mental images, people  tend to adapt to their environment.  They do so by either assimilation or accommodation.   Assimilation happens when people trying to understand something new, fit this new information into what they already know ( their existing schemes).
If new information cannot fit existing schemes, we adjust our thinking to fit the new information.
The actual changes in thinking take place through equilibration, act of searching for balance between  cognitive schemes and information from the environment. 
Piaget believed that  all people pass through the same four stages of cognitive development in the same order. As the author of the text emphasizes the three stages of cognitive development that are important for teachers are: preoperational stage ( 2-7 years old), concrete operations stage ( 7-12) and the formal operations stage ( 12 years old and beyond).
Knowing the characteristics of these stages helps teacher understand how children think and learn and it guides to teacher how to plan instruction for different ages of children. So if we know that children 4-7 years of age, in the later part of preoprational stage, use intuitive thinking we  know that they use typially  their sense impressions instead of  logic in forming judgements.  In concrete operational stage children are logical thinkers but they need firsthand experience  with the materials to understand the ideas we are teaching them.  In the later stage of formal operations children can think abstractly.  They don't need concrete objects, they use symbols related to abstract concepts.
Piaget believed that mind models the external world.  Humans make sense of their world by means of their mental structures.  Piaget sees development as leading learning.  Vygotsky saw learning as leading development.  He places more emphasis on the culture and society in affecting and shaping cognitive development.  While Piaget emphasized self-initiated discovery, Vygotsky believed that much important learning occurs through social interaction  with more knowledgeable members of society. 
Knowing how children learn through constructivist theory, I would have to bear in mind that my role as educator would be to prompt and facilitate discussion by modeling, coaching and scaffolding.
The activities in the classroom should be interactive and student- centered.  I would need to keep students involved in the lesson  through the use of challenging and open-ended activities that foster discussion.  Students would primarily work in groups as they can exchange ideas.

Have you ever been in a class where you really had to think?

As I read about social constructivist model of teaching I realize that throughout my public education teachers stressed rote learning.  There were situations when  teachers made us think on our own and develop understanding for ourselves.  It looks like that , simply by growing up and being educated in the 80's and 90's in ex Yugoslavia I could not have had different experience. I am not that certain about it. Perhaps students that attended Grammer School  ( German traditional high school, gymnasium) with mathematics emphasis were taught better.  Yes we did experiments in chemistry and biology classes.  I would say that it was mathematics class where one really had to understand principles and theories fully in order to solve problems.

How does a teacher teach a student how to think?

According to social constructivist theory, children  are not passively absorbing knowledge  transmitted by teacher.  They  take an active role in constructing meaning.  If we go from that proposition, then teachers should actively engage students with the phenomena they are learning. Teachers create learning environment where students ask questions, discuss with their classmates, refine their questions, make predictions and explain phenomena.  Teacher should organize activities where students interact with concrete materials.
Teacher should help students use and apply their knowledge and in order to do that he/she must consider what the students already know. Teacher should enable students to plan and carry investigations analyze the data and make conclusions. 
When students apply their  knowledge to new situations they develop rich meaningful understanding, and form new connections with old ideas.  Students also learn through multiple representations of ideas that integrate understanding.  When teacher and classmates give feedback on the products or artifacts students made to represent their understanding ( models, reports, videos, computer programs ) students  revise their artifacts to represent their new understanding.

What does it mean when someone knows how to think?

 According to Swiss psychologist, Jean Piaget, people are born with tendency to organize their thinking processes into psychological structures. Piaget calls these psychological structures schemes. Schemes are our system for understanding and interacting with the world. Schemes are organized system of actions or thought that allow us to mentally represent or think about objects in our world. As schemes become more organized and new schemes develop, human behavior becomes more sophisticated and better suited to the environment.
In addition to organizing  their thinking processes people also inherit the tendency to  adapt to their environment.  Two types of processes can develop when people  adapt to their environment.  When people try to understand something new by fitting it into what they already know, into their existing schemes, assimilation happens.  When people  have to change their existing schemes to respond to new information that does not fit existing schemes then they accommodate.  They adjust their thinking to fit the new information, instead of adjusting the information to fit their thinking.
So these actual changes in thinking take place through what Piaget calls equilibration.  Equilibration is our search for balance  between cognitive schemes and the information from the environment.
Lev Vygotsky explains in his social constructivist theory that our cognitive structures and thinking processes  are affected by our social interactions with others.
Thinking involves reasoning and problem solving. Vygotsky believed that these higher order mental processes are mediated, accomplished through and with the help of  psychological tools such as language, signs and symbols.  So different types of language serve as mediators between our minds and the environments.

Line of Learning

I think that students should learn science through experiments, observations, and guided discovery.
For teachers to design and foster effective elementary science learning environments they should be familiar with the theories of how people learn and to apply that knowledge in their instruction and lessons plans in science.  At this point I really don't know for sure what are the best ways to teach science and what are the best ways humans learn. I am guessing it is through observation, hands-on activity, and drawing their own conclusions by inquiry. 
It is not enough to learn the conclusions of what scientists have learned over decades. This will not bring change in their existing preconceptions about scientific phenomena. We as teachers have to have in mind that students often bring to classroom preconceptions of everyday phenomena that are scientifically limited or incorrect.  Children should critically approach any investigation and to search for supporting and conflicting evidence when trying to explain certain phenomena.
Classroom environments that facilitate elementary students science learning should be with lots of innovative technology and resources that support learning science with understanding. Science learning should also be extended to outdoors.

Five Good Reasons to Use Science Notebooks

Tuscon Unified School District implemented the use of notebooks in science classes. Teachers coordinated their efforts and formed study groups that met every other week to learn more effective uses of notebooks in science classes and to share their experiences and strategies they implemented.
During the study groups meetings teachers discovered the benefits of using the notebooks in science classes.  The benefits teachers considered most important were:

-Notebooks proved to be a good tool for students to write about ideas and principles they have observed and learned in the science class.  Students would write about their observations and  introduce questions about subject matter to construct their own understanding.  As they wrote and drew in their notebooks they were interacting more deeply with the subject matter.

-Notebooks provide an insight into student's learning and guide teacher instruction.
In order to communicate certain information teachers included visual representation, graphs, charts, tables and diagrams and taught students how to create these visuals to represent scientific investigation. In that sense notebooks can serve windows into students' thinking to show how students understand certain concepts and what kind of misconceptions they might have.  Then the notebook can serve as a guide to plan further instruction.

While the notebooks in science class helped student develop in writing their understanding of ideas taught in class, they also helped  enhance literacy skills.
Teachers noted that writing frequently in science notebooks helped students feel more comfortable with the writing process. The students language skills have developed, they talked more about science and used academic language.

Notebooks were also useful to provide differentiated learning to all students. Students who did not have strong writing skills were able to use observational drawings and graphs  to indicate their learning.  Teachers often provided individualized feedback on sticky notes next to students writing. As a result the students who were less skilled writers often improved their explanations and descriptions.
Also  higher- level students and English learning students benefited from individualized feedback.
English-learning students  could draw and write in their primary language and as their English language developed they were able to write their explanations in English.

Notebooks fostered teacher collaboration in this school-wide effort.  During study group sessions teachers shared quality student notebooks, shared strategies that helped them how to increase students' understanding of science concepts.

I have to say I was impressed with this strategy to teach science.  I have never experienced something like that.  Yes we did use notebooks in science class, to write down teacher's lectures and draw diagrams and charts. We however did not use it to explain processes and natural phenomena to express our own understanding and learning.  Throughout elementary and high school we had to demonstrate our knowledge either through oral assessment where teacher would call the name of the individual student and ask him/her to talk about certain topic or our knowledge would be tested through written tests.
But the idea to use notebooks in science class to practice students writing skills and develop their language is completely  new to me and opens up my mind to new teaching possibilities in my future classroom.
 I especially like the opportunities that use of notebooks in science class can provide. One of them is opportunity for teachers to guide their further instruction  based on what students know and don't know.  Providing individualized feedback to students in their notebooks seems to be very good tool for improving their writing skills, language expression and learning of the subject.

Rising to Greatness; An Imperative for Improving Iowa's Schools Report

On Iowa Education Summit  hosted by governor Terry Branstand last year in Des Moines, State Director of Iowa Department of Education presented a report that presented the challenges Iowa Education System is facing and possible measures to take to improve Iowa's standing as a national leader  in the public education.
Findings of the report showed that Iowa results in NAEP ( National Assessment of Educational Progress) test have deteriorated and that in 2009 13 states  were scoring significantly higher than Iowa. In 1992 Iowa was at the top on NAEP results for the fourth grade reading.
The eight grade mathematics results in NEAP in the same time period from 1992 to 2009 showed  a similar trend.  Iowa's eight grade mathematics scores fell  from the top of the nation to average.
These results do not show that Iowa's performance diminished. The scores  have stayed stagnant while other states and countries have made efforts to dramatically improve their achievement results.

Even though  Iowa demographics has changed in the past ten years ( increase in minority student population  from 10% to now 18% and in the number of students who are English Language Learners) results from NAEP  assessment  in 2009 show  that Iowa's majority white students are underperforming and are significantly below the national avarage for white poor and non-poor students.  Other states that surpassed Iowa in NAEP assessments have also experienced demographic changes in more diversity in student population, economically and ethnically but they have made efforts to improve their education systems and achievements.

I did not get a clear understanding  into possible reasons for this stagnation and slide in Iowa Educational results from the report.  Author mentioned the demographic changes Iowa has experienced in the past ten years, but other states that have surpassed Iowa in NAEP assessments  have experienced similar changes.  I was expecting more complex analysis of factors that contributed to Iowa students underperforming.
With this document governor Branstand and Raynolds released their recommendations for educational reform that would restore Iowa's standing as a leader in our nation's education and  prepare all students to compete for jobs in global economy.  The recommendations that are outlined include:

1. Iowa must have clear standards and high expectations for all students with fair measures for results

2. Iowa should build and support highly effective educators
3. a fair and aligned system  which supports feedback at all levels;
4. innovation should boosts learning;  we should have innovative learning environments in our classrooms  enriched by technology

In order for Iowa to compete internationally in quality of education, I believe that we should examine the educational systems and methods of teaching in industrially developed countries whose students perform so well on PISA ( Programme for International Student Assessment).  Surely we can learn something from them.  William Mathis,  managing director of the National Education Policy Center and former Vermont superintendent states that the reasons for not so good performance of our students in PISA assessments is that Federal and state policy makers continue to embrace reforms that have little positive effect while ignoring reforms that make a difference.

http://beyondthebricksproject.com/blog/what-international-test-scores-really-tell-us-lessons-buried-pisa-report

Michael Davidson, principal analyst for OECD ( Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development ) that coordinates PISA assessments,  based in Paris commented on National Public Radio that one of the striking things is the impact the social background has on US education success.
Twenty percent  of US. performance on PISA tests was attributed to  social background which is much higher than in other nations.  Davidson went on to point out that US just does not distribute financial resources and quality teachers equally.
Finance studies show that funding across our schools  is inequitable and inadequate.

I believe that to improve our educational system not only on the level of Iowa but also on the level of United States,  the federal government should invest more money in public education and teaching professionals.  Perhaps we should look at Finland as a role model for the reform of educational system.  Finland have made teaching profession desirable and respectable. They have made demanding and strict criteria for teaching education requirements.  Finish teachers earn very competitive salaries. Finish school system rejected the standardized testing. The Finish  National Board of Education concluded that such tests would consume too much instructional time and generate undue stress.  The only time that Finish students take standardized tests is as high school seniors if they wish go to university. ( "The New Republic: The US Could  Learn from Finland" by Samuel E. Abrahms)

http://www.npr.org/2011/01/28/133301331/the-new-republic-the-u-s-could-learn-from-finland


In the age of neoliberalism that is so prevalent in our country, politicians and education policy makers should demonstrate that not everything in society should be run for profit and that we need to invest in public education adequately and equally from both federal and state levels.