October 2008RMC Research Corp.1 Effective Science Instruction: What does Research Tell Us? Horizon Research, Inc. Center on Instruction, RMC Research

October 2008RMC Research Corp.2 Reform vs. Traditional Traditional instruction –Teacher delivered information and independent student work Reformed instruction –Small groups of students participating in hands-on activities

October 2008RMC Research Corp.3 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.” “Research suggests that students are most likely to learn if teachers encourage them to think about ideas aligned to concrete learning goals and relate those ideas to real-life phenomena.”

October 2008RMC Research Corp.4 Elements of Effective Instruction Motivation Eliciting Prior Knowledge Intellectual Engagement Use of Evidence Sense-Making

October 2008RMC Research Corp.5 Motivation Extrinsic Motivation –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

October 2008RMC Research Corp.6 Eliciting Students’ Prior Knowledge Students come with ideas and beliefs that can either facilitate or impede learning 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

October 2008RMC Research Corp.7 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

October 2008RMC Research Corp.8 Use of Evidence Lessons must provide multiple opportunities (discourse) for students to: –Make claims and conjectures –Back up their claims with evidence –Use evidence to critique claims made by other students

October 2008RMC Research Corp.9 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

October 2008RMC Research Corp.10 Conclusion 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. 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)

October 2008RMC Research Corp.11 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.