Teaching K-12 Science and Engineering During a Crisis (2020) / Chapter Skim
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4 Adjusting Instruction in Changing Environments
4 Adjusting Instruction in Changing Environments
Pages 35-58
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From page 35... ...
Classroom environments themselves are also changing due to the need for social distancing and other safety measures. Some education communities are choosing to initially keep physical classrooms closed for some or all students and finding alternate environments for learning and teaching.
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From page 36... ...
In addition, remote learning is generally more flexible in terms of schedules, workspaces, and routines.1 School systems that choose a blended model, having students spend some time in classrooms and some time in home or other remote environments, could take advantage of the strengths of each. For example, when in remote environ ments, students could gather information about a phenomenon and take the time they need to think through their initial models for how the phenomenon works.
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From page 37... ...
Including a large amount of asynchronous time in the class schedule can also be helpful to support learners who do not have continuous access to devices or broadband, who have other obligations for their time, or who benefit from more time to process ideas. It is important to note that there are grade band considerations for planning synchronous and asynchronous time: students in middle and high school are likely to be better at self-regulating their remote schoolwork than are elementary school students, who are more likely to need adult support for remote learning.
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From page 38... ...
Asynchronous work gives students time to thoughtfully develop their models, designs, and explanations, to think of new questions based on their prior experiences, and to gather informa tion and ideas from people around them. Synchronous whole-class time is a great opportunity for student discussion and exchange of ideas and feedback, and for sharing student models, designs, and explanations.
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From page 39... ...
SOURCE: Adapted from Staying Grounded When Teaching Remote.4 How can remote instruction support student sense-making and problem solving? With a shift to remote learning in many places, it can be tempting to focus on finding technological tools that can make class time fun for students.
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From page 40... ...
Helping students have these kinds of coherent experiences does not mean that instruction should go in whatever direction students are curious about:10 6For more information, see Science and Engineering for Grades 6–12: Investigation and Design at the Center. Available: https://www.nap.edu/read/25216/chapter/6#95.
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From page 41... ...
3. FIGURE 4-1 Sense-making sheet that is a part of the Rate of Chemical Reaction unit curriculum materials.
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From page 42... ...
How can educators support student collaboration and discussion in remote environments? In order to support coherent instruction that is focused on sense-making and problem solving, students need opportunities to work together: brainstorm ing about possible ways to solve problems, collaborating to develop investigation plans, discussing data interpretations, and engaging in argument about how well the evidence supports an explanation for a phenomenon.11 The exchange of ideas helps students reflect on their own thinking and builds connections between their different ideas.12 This kind of dialog among students is a central mechanism for student learning,13 whether students are working remotely or in person, but it presents additional challenges for remote learning.
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From page 43... ...
Interestingly, Miriam had a clear view of students' work habits within the distance learning format. continued Adjusting Instruction in Changing Environments 43
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From page 44... ...
She wondered aloud how she could get the students to collaborate better. During each lesson, Miriam tried a new technique to get the students talking and figuring out part of the answer. Some of the attempts did not work, such as having all the students drawing on the same white board at the same time.
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From page 45... ...
She said she believed that students appreciated that she used science to extend responsibility for collaborative learning and maintain high expectations for learning. The online context continued Adjusting Instruction in Changing Environments 45
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From page 46... ...
The teacher, and the class as a whole, may need to learn how to recognize and support diverse patterns of discourse.16 These kinds of shifts in class norms and procedures -- especially in remote environments where it may be more difficult to gauge all students' involvement -- will require ongoing professional learning for teachers and opportunities to try strategies little by little over time.17 This might include strategies for facilitating student-to-student discourse through digital platforms using video, audio, text, and drawings. Teachers may need support for finding new ways to encourage students to share ideas in pairs, small groups, or with the whole class, as well as 14For more information, see How People Learn II: Learners, Contexts, and Cultures.
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From page 47... ...
While establishing deeper relationships and new instructional routines, educators have an opportunity to support students in building agency and self-reflection skills that will help set them up for success in later schooling, careers, and their daily lives. As discussed in the foundational principles in Chapter 1, instructional routines that focus on student sense-making of phenomena or problem solving help build student agency by engaging them in thinking through and planning instructional sequences.
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From page 48... ...
BOX 4-2 GIVING STUDENTS CHOICES IN THEIR WORK Alex was a first-year teacher in a rural school district in the 2019–2020 school year. She had learned in her pre-service program how important it is to support students' sense of agency to help motivate them, and she therefore tried as much as possible to give students choices, such as letting them decide what sources of energy they were going to research.
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From page 49... ...
Adjusting Instruction in Changing Environments 49
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From page 50... ...
When students engage in science investigation and engineering design, they are able to engage deeply with phenomena as they ask questions, collect and analyze data, generate and utilize evidence, and develop models to support explanations and solutions. Research studies demonstrate that deeper engagement leads to stronger conceptual understandings of science content than what is demonstrated through more traditional, memorization-intensive approaches.
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From page 51... ...
Box 4-3 describes how educators collaborated with families and caretakers to creatively figure out what kinds of materials could be used to support students in their engineering investigations. BOX 4-3 IDENTIFYING MATERIALS FOR INVESTIGATIONS The American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE)
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From page 52... ...
Students may need extra support to see how the data fit together with the phenomenon or prob lem being addressed when they are not able to collect their own data.28 Most importantly, activities that involve handling any potentially toxic chemicals or dangerous maneuvers should not be used in remote environments, so this constraint will limit the scope of some investigations. When instructional units rely on student engagement in such activities, it could be helpful to move these instructional units to later in the school year or to a different school year, or to set up laboratory access for rotating small groups of students in a classroom or community partner location, such as a museum.
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From page 53... ...
The challenges related to conducting investigations in remote environments may provide educators with a new opportunity to reconsider the purpose of each investigation used in instructional units. If an investigation had been previously included for the purpose of giving students "hands-on" experience with materials and helping them confirm conclusions, that investigation does not need to be incorporated into remote instruction.
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From page 54... ...
Once educators have chosen their approach to effective remote instruction -- including how students will be sense-making or problem solving, how the experience will be coherent and collaborative, and how student agency will be supported -- technological tools to support this approach can be chosen. A wide variety of apps are available to support research-based science and engineering learning and teaching, including using discourse-driven sense-making of phenomena.39 Some districts and states are sharing lists of suggested tools with teachers.40 When choosing tools to support instructional routines, it is important to keep instructional goals in mind and to select tools and uses that will best support students even if those tools are not the newest or flashiest available.
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From page 55... ...
For example, students could take pictures of their engineering designs to communicate their initial ideas about how to solve a problem and share those pictures with the class and the teacher. The use of video cameras could also improve remote communication during both synchronous and asynchronous exchanges because they allow students and teachers to attend to nonverbal cues such as gestures and facial expressions.51 47For more information, see Science and Engineering for Grades 6–12: Investigation and Design at the Cen ter.
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From page 56... ...
Asynchronous sections of a class can allow students time to think and reflect before contributing ideas or to work in small groups in their native language before translating to English. Working in breakout rooms can allow students to share their ideas in small groups in a low-pressure situation before sharing them with the whole class.52 Similarly, some accommodations for students with visual and mobil ity impairments,53 such as using a camera to capture and then broadcast what a teacher sees through a microscope, are supportive of all students' learning in remote environments as well.
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From page 57... ...
As the tools and routines selected may be new to many teachers, professional learning opportunities could be provided to enable teachers to have firsthand experience with the tools and routines as a learner, allowing them to develop new strategies for use with their students and to plan for remote classroom management.58 Such opportunities could support innovation, allowing educators the flexibility to think creatively and apply what they learn to effectively support the individual needs of their students. 55For more information, see Science and Engineering for Grades 6–12: Investigation and Design at the Center.
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From page 58... ...
• Provide examples and templates to teachers for using student curiosity about sense-making and problem solving to drive instruction. • Find ways to reduce the number of different technological tools students have to use for their different classes, for example, by providing common tools or encouraging teachers to share resources with each other.
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