America's Lab Report Investigations in High School Science (2006) / Chapter Skim
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4 Current Laboratory Experiences
4 Current Laboratory Experiences
Pages 116-137
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From page 116... ...
· Most high school students participate in typical laboratory experiences that are isolated from the flow of science instruction and do not follow the other design principles outlined by the committee. xx The previous chapter reviewed research on the outcomes of different types of laboratory experiences and outlined principles of instructional de sign to guide development of more effective laboratory experiences.
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From page 117... ...
The chapter concludes that most laboratory experiences today are "typical" laboratory experiences, isolated from the flow of science instruction. Because these typical laboratory experiences do not follow the design principles we have outlined, they are unlikely to help students attain the science learning goals identified in Chapter 3: · Enhancing mastery of subject matter.
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From page 118... ...
Science Courses and Laboratory Experiences Science Course-Taking Over the past 20 years, the percentage of high school graduates taking more than two years of science classes has grown. In 1982, high school gradu
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From page 119... ...
. Features of Current Laboratory Experiences The available data indicate that the average high school student takes science classes during three of the four years of high school and participates in laboratory activities approximately once a week during these science classes.
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From page 120... ...
Disparities in Laboratory Experiences Variation in Course-Taking There are racial/ethnic differences in enrollment in the advanced sci ence courses that include more minutes of laboratory instruction. A study of student participation in science courses between 1982 and 1992 found that, at both points in time, black and Hispanic students took fewer science courses than white or Asian students (Quinn, 1996)
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From page 121... ...
Science Course Offerings Variations in patterns of course-taking, especially among poor and minority students, may reflect differences in the kinds of courses offered in schools with different populations of students. For example, one study found that black students enroll in fewer physical science courses, and schools with larger black student populations are likely to offer fewer physical science course opportunities (Norman et al., 2001)
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From page 122... ...
. Disparities in Laboratory Experiences Several sources of evidence indicate that the amount of time students spend in laboratory experiences varies based on their ethnicity and level of science courses taken.
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From page 123... ...
Comparison with Instructional Design Principles Research indicates that laboratory experiences are more likely to help students attain learning goals if they are: · designed with clear outcomes in mind, · sequenced into the flow of classroom science instruction, · designed to integrate learning of science content and process, and · incorporated for ongoing student reflection and discussion. Lack of Focus on Clear Learning Goals Today's high school laboratory experiences are not always designed with clear learning outcomes in mind.
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From page 124... ...
. Even when laboratory activities are designed in ways that integrate at least partially into the stream of instruction and with clear learning goals in mind, they are not always implemented as planned.
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From page 125... ...
If the first laboratory activity is carried out in isolation from the sequence of other laboratory activities and in isolation from lectures, discussion, and other modes of learning, it may not help students progress in attaining laboratory learning goals (see Box 4-1)
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From page 126... ...
In practice, this laboratory experience is unlikely to help students attain educational goals unless the teacher can integrate it into the stream of in struction. If the teacher embeds the experiment in instruction on selectively permeable membranes and cells, then it is more likely to help students master this subject matter.
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From page 127... ...
The second approach is designed to achieve these science process goals in the context of an activity that verifies a known scientific principle, so that it may help students to simultaneously master science subject matter. Lack of Reflection and Discussion There is evidence that current laboratory activities rarely incorporate ongoing reflection and discussion, although such discussion can enhance the effectiveness of laboratory learning.
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From page 128... ...
Through discussion, the science can be enhanced when laboratory experiences provide opportuni ties to: · pose a research question, · use laboratory tools and procedures, · make observations, gather, and analyze data, · verify, test, or evaluate explanatory models (including verifying known scientific theories and laws) , · formulate alternative hypotheses, · design investigations, and · build or revise explanatory models.
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From page 129... ...
. percent of high school teachers indicated that they engaged students in hands-on or laboratory science activities once or twice a week, and nearly the same fraction of teachers (59 percent)
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From page 130... ...
In comparison to students of the other two teachers, stu dents of Teacher 3 were more frequently engaged in discussions related to their laboratory investigations and were less often unengaged in the laboratory activities. The researchers found that none of the chemistry teachers ever asked questions aimed at encouraging students to think about what they were doing, even though all three had indicated that they did so frequently.
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From page 131... ...
Another 41 percent of teachers said students were asked to design or implement their own investigation once or twice a month; 42 percent of teachers indicated students were asked to design or implement their own investigation a few times a month. As a result, current laboratory experiences may provide few opportunities for students to make progress toward such goals as developing scientific reasoning abilities, understanding the complexity and ambiguity of empirical work, and understanding the nature of science.
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From page 132... ...
On the basis of these and other studies, Tobin speculated, "It is entirely likely that high achieving students engage to a greater extent than low achieving students in laboratory activities" (Tobin, 1990, p.
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From page 133... ...
Lacking a focus on learning goals related to the subject matter being addressed in the science class, current laboratory experiences often fail to integrate student learning about the processes of science with learning about science content. Few current laboratory experiences incorporate ongoing reflection and discussion between and among the teacher and the students, although there is
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From page 134... ...
Students in schools with higher concentrations of non-Asian minorities spend less time in laboratory instruction than students in other schools, and students in lower level science classes spend less time in laboratory instruc tion than those enrolled in more advanced science classes. In addition, most high school students participate in a limited range of laboratory activities that do not fully reflect the range of scientists' activities, limiting opportuni ties for them to gain understanding of the processes of science.
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From page 135... ...
. Professional development of science teachers.
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From page 136... ...
Washing ton, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. Available at: http:// www.nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?
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From page 137... ...
. Research on science laboratory activities: In pursuit of better ques tions and answers to improve learning.
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