1. January 2009RMC Research Corp. 1 Effective Science Instruction: What Does Research Tell Us? Dave Weaver RMC Research Corporation

2. RMC Research Corp.2 January 2009 Research Results Converge: Reading Reading—50 years of research Effective reading instruction requires a balanced blend of: Phonemic awareness Decoding Vocabulary development Reading fluency, including oral reading skills Reading comprehension strategies Any single approach is inadequate

3. RMC Research Corp.3 January 2009 Research Results Converge: Mathematics National Math Panel Report Effective mathematics instruction requires a balanced blend of: Computational fluency Conceptual understanding Problem solving Any single approach is inadequate

4. January 2009RMC Research Corp. 4 What About Science?

5. RMC Research Corp.5 January 2009 Science Is Different From Language Arts and Math Language Arts (& Reading) and Math  Are skills created by people  Involves learning established conventions Science  Understanding how the world works  How to create new knowledge  Life in the world creates a working understanding

6. RMC Research Corp.6 January 2009 Importance of The Learning Theory in Science Working knowledge is entrenched and difficult to overcome Sometimes called “Private Universe” Key concepts must be internalized  Sometimes called “Big Ideas” or “Enduring Understandings” Requires greater attention to the learning theory embodied in the instructional materials

7. RMC Research Corp.7 January 2009 Most Current Publication Banilower, E., Cohen, K., Pasley, J., & Weiss, I. (2008). Effective science instruction: What does research tell us? Portsmouth, NH: RMC Research Corporation, Center on Instruction. Posted in documents section of the OEL website

8. January 2009RMC Research Corp. 8 Key Points from: Effective Science Instruction: What Does Research Tell Us?

9. RMC Research Corp.9 January 2009 Reform vs. Traditional Traditional instruction  Teacher delivered information and independent student work Reformed instruction  Small groups of students participating in hands-on activities

10. RMC Research Corp.10 January 2009 Debating Which Is Best Misses The Point! “Current learning theory focuses on students’ conceptual change, and does not imply that one pedagogy is necessarily better than another.”

11. RMC Research Corp.11 January 2009 Elements of Effective Science Instruction Eliciting Prior Understanding Intellectual Engagement Use of Evidence Sense-Making Motivation

12. RMC Research Corp.12 January 2009 Eliciting Students’ Prior Understanding Students come with ideas and beliefs that can either facilitate or impede learning  Their Private Universe Instruction is most effective when it:  Elicits students’ initial ideas,  Provides them with opportunities to confront those ideas in light of new evidence,  Helps them formulate new ideas based on the evidence, and  Encourages students to reflect upon how their ideas have evolved.

13. RMC Research Corp.13 January 2009 Intellectual Engagement Students must do the intellectual work and the thinking Must involve meaningful experience that engage students intellectually with important science content Activities must be explicitly linked to learning goals Students must understand the purpose of the instruction Must engage with ideas, not just the materials

14. RMC Research Corp.14 January 2009 Use of Evidence Lessons must provide multiple opportunities for students to:  Make claims and conjectures  Back up their claims with evidence  Use evidence to critique claims made by other students Science discourse

15. RMC Research Corp.15 January 2009 Sense-Making Lesson must provide opportunities for students to make sense of the ideas with which they have been engaged in order to draw appropriate conclusions  Closure  Reflection  Meta-cognition  Application to new situations

16. RMC Research Corp.16 January 2009 Motivation Types of Motivation  Extrinsic Motivation (Accountability) Deadlines, competition, tests, grades May actually be detrimental  Intrinsic Motivation Stems from intellectual curiosity, personal interest or experiences, desire to resolve discrepant events or cognitive dissonance Appropriate blend is needed

17. RMC Research Corp.17 January 2009 Research On Effective Science Instruction is Also Converging Considerable evidence from research shows that instruction is most effective when it elicits students’ initial ideas, provides them with opportunities to confront those ideas, helps them formulate new ideas based on evidence, and encourages students to reflect upon how their ideas have evolved.  (Horizon Research, 2008)

18. RMC Research Corp.18 January 2009 Untrenching Their Private Universe Without these opportunities, students “may fail to grasp the new concepts and information that are taught, or they may learn them for purposes of a test but revert to their preconceptions outside the classroom”  (National Research Council, 2003, p. 14)

19. RMC Research Corp.19 January 2009 Motivation is the Driving Force Effective Science Instruction Elicit Prior Understanding Identify Initial Ideas Sense-Making Reflect Upon How Ideas Have Evolved Use of Evidence Formulate New Ideas Based on Evidence Intellectual Engagement Experience to Confront Initial Ideas

20. January 2009RMC Research Corp. 20 The new OEL observation rubric was designed to address this vision of effective science instruction.

21. RMC Research Corp.21 January 2009 Reference Banilower, E., Cohen, K., Pasley, J., & Weiss, I. (2008). Effective science instruction: What does research tell us? Portsmouth, NH: RMC Research Corporation, Center on Instruction. National Research Council. (2003). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school. J. D. Bransford, A. L. Brown, & R. R. Cocking (Eds.). Washington, DC: National Academy Press.