Final Vision Statement

After reviewing my initial vision statement I have discovered that my ideas for how to teach science in the classroom wasn’t that far off.  I had the idea that the students should have many hands on activities the only part that was missing is that it should be inquiry based.  Classrooms usually support the activity or kit portion of the science experience.  Though during this experience students are told the hypothesis where in inquiry based the hypothesis comes from the students questions (Shifting pg. 15).

Through this inquiry based classroom the learner should be fully engaged by the scientific questions.  These scientific questions can be generated by the teacher or by the students.  While the students are doing the tests they are making observations and gathering evidence to use to develop their explanations to the questions. Students then evaluate their explanations by comparing them to other outcomes that occurred in similar labs.  The students then communicate their answers to their peers.  In the communicate portion the students must use logic and reasoning to back up their explanations. 

I also believe that for the students to thrive in the classroom they need to know that they are safe to share their ideas with confidence and without ridicule.  The students need to view themselves as a community of learners working for the answers and not just as individuals trying to pass a class.  This environment starts on day one where the class starts to work as a community instead of individuals.

I believe that the students need a place to write down their explanations and observations and science notebooks are the place for that writing.  “Various forms of expository writing—procedural writing, narrative writing, descriptive writing, labeling, and other styles” occur in the science notebooks (Gilbert 30).  These notebooks help students with their writing skills in many different areas.  It is an outlet that has many purposes and one that I will use in my classroom.

I believe that teacher must discover the prior knowledge and misconceptions that the students have about the topic being discussed.  The teacher must break down the misconceptions to be able to provide the students with accurate knowledge (Stepans).   If the teacher does not break down the misconceptions the student may file the new knowledge in with the previous misconceptions and come out with a false account of the concept (Watson). 

I believe that students learn best in an inquiry based classroom, where they are engaged in the topic.  I would make my classroom inquiry based and have the students use the science notebooks to help aid in their learning process.  I will discover their misconceptions and bring them to the student’s attention to be able to convey the accurate information.

Quotes:

“Various forms of expository writing—procedural writing, narrative writing, descriptive writing, labeling, and other styles…”  Gilbert, Joan and Marleen Kotelma. “Five good Reasons to Use Science notebooks in the classroom.”

“Teachers can take steps to prove misconceptions or to break them down after they have formed.”  Stepans, Beiswenger, and Dyche. Misconceptions Die Hard. 

“If alternative views of scientific principles are not addressed, they can coexist with “what the teacher told us” and crease a mishmash of fact and fiction.”  Watson and Konicek.  (Sweater Article). Teaching for Conceptual Change: Confronting Children’s Experience.

“…the working hypothesis is clearly defined by the teacher prior to experimentation while in inquiry, it arises from the student’s questions and is based on their experiences.” Moscovici and Nelson. “Shifting from Activitymania to Inquiry.” 1998.