Research and Product-based research

So many of the programs/products I am accustomed to using as a teacher and instructional coach are products created by individuals, and then tested for their effectiveness. Marzano's best practices and vocabulary process, Stephanie Harvey's Comprehension Toolkit, Lucy Calkins writing lessons, Thinking Maps, etc.

 In my opinion many of the practices demanded in the use of these products in the classroom are good/effective for helping students deepen their thinking.  Not having had much time to read research outside of my job, I have not considered the difference between these 'for-profit' companies who have 'research' and what I suppose I view as 'pure' research.  This also brings up how to translate research into practice.  In my experience teachers are willing to try anything if it's good for their students, and especially so if it's not a lot of extra work for themselves.  So I can see why there is a market for these products.... my only question is when will text book companies begin to incorporate research on how children learn and best teaching practices.

Brain overload - Summary of conference

This conference was a very welcome reality check for me.  I now have more of a grasp on the magnitude of what I don't know.  I will try to find links for the items I wish to read further.  After about 4 full days of pretty intense discussions and readings my brain is in a fog. Example: I left a bottle of water in my purse and forgot to take off my shoes through security at the airport...TSA asked if I was testing them.

Things to read later:
How People Learn, National Research Council (2000)
How Students Learn, National Research Council (2005)
Knowing What Students Know, National Research Council (2001)
The Opportunity Equation (2009)
Teaching Scientific Inquiry, Richard Duschl, NSF Conference, Sense Publishers (2005)
The Psychology of Learning: A Brief History, (Bruner, 2004)
Scientific Inquiry Practices (Abd-el-Khalick, et al. 2004 and  Grandy & Duschl, 2007)
SENCERizing Preservice K-8 Teacher Education: The Role of Scientific Practices
Science Education in 3-Part Harmony

I will add to the list later, this was just from my Monday/Tuesday notes.

Wednesday conference

I know it's Thursday morning and I would have preferred to do this last night, but the fabulous presentation at dinner went over (but it was well worth it!) and I was tired.

Summary of Wednesday:

Richard Duschl - "Diagnostic Assessments & Assessment Conversations"

Encouraging 3-part harmony of conceptual, epistemic, and social components are all crucial for creating a community of collaborative thinkers who understand and apply science concepts.

• Science is a group and social task, not individual task (social)
• Two most powerful interventions: adaptive instruction (conceptual) and dialogic teaching with student groupings (social)
• Good teachers are teachers who give good feedback; students should give feedback, too! (can be conceptual, epistemic, and social)
• Questioning cycle: Making students’ thinking explicit
• assessments to capture performance, gauge progress: embedded, benchmark, performance 
• evidence centered design for those creating assessment

o   What are the skills and understandings to be assessed? – domain model

o   What is the evidence that would justify particular inferences about a student? Student model

o   How could that evidence be generated? (task design)

o   How would the evidence be evaluated? (scoring

o   Gitomer & Duschl, NSSE, 2007

o   Developing Learning Performances (IQWST) Joe Krajcik University of Michigan

I was again impressed with my own lack of understanding of the powerful role of allowing students to be in control of data, analysis, and feedback.  This is a level of teaching mastery which I have only personally observed in 2 classrooms and not even at the level discussed today.  What is preventing that level of 

teaching/learning?

Doug Clark, Vanderbilt University

“Digital Games, Simulations, and Science Learning: What Does Research Demonstrate Across NRC Strands of Science Proficiency?”

 Go to sites.google.com/site/nsela2011 to see a list of numerous sites that have FANTASTIC simulations.  Again, it highlighted all that I haven't learned about science education - this time through argument driven inquiry.

Tuesday conference

Today featured two great scholars.  Richard Duschl focused on reforming how we view science education and also intro'ed our two day look at Ready, Set, Science!  Richard Lehrer presented how students can and should be active in inventing and critiquing methods of data collection and presentation.

Richard Duschl, "Overview of NRC Synthesis Reports Taking Science to School and Ready, Set, Science!"

·         Game changing in assessment – students now just held accountable for knowing/identifying anymore, now it is reasoning and application

·         Reforming how we view science education – vertical pathways from middle to high school to use higher level reasoning and critical thinking can’t just happen in one year; need science discourse/argumentation from students over years of education

·        need for core standards so there is a global, cohesive, vertically aligned science education 

·     not all students need to do the same activity in the same way to get the same data and express it in the same way – scientists don't do this, so why do we do it cookie cutter in "perfect" scenarios?

We also spent time with a book study of Ready, Set, Science! and looked at analyzing samples of student work for the level of their understanding.

And there are always the references made during the lecture to follow up on later, such as the work of:

      Mark Wilson and Construct Maps
Richard Lehrer (next presenter) and the Vanderbilt Project

Richard Lehrer, "Data Modeling"

   ·         contexts for statistical investigations

o   repeated measures

o   manufactured objects

o   natural objects

·         process of students taking time to invent and share displays for data and observations (size, shape, what is misleading? Pros? Cons?)

·         “display board reasoning” – what do you get from data that you can’t get from simple observations (trends, patterns, predictions, outliers)

·         Tinkerplots – easily manipulated software for creating various plots of data

·         Lessons will be posted on data modeling website:           

o   www.modelingdata.org username: guest / password: modeling

Team time: We also had some valuable team time to discuss the conference so far and listen to other people's reactions, responses, and their situations in their districts.  I'm looking forward to more of that tomorrow as well.  I want to know if they have similar issues in their district as we do.

Time for homework, reading a few chapters from Ready, Set, Science!  Tomorrow's going to be a long day 7am -8 pm.

Monday conference

Today was a morning of great ideas and information on innovation/creativity and on PLCs.  The afternoon was free to explore the surrounding areas.  I went a bit far away but now I can check touring the Biltmore estate off my list of architectural sites.

From this morning I have more things to read and research that what I will post here.  Here are just some nuggets that were of interest for me.

Alan McCormack “Developing Imagination: A Key Ingredient at All Levels of Course Reform” - spoke about the key role of developing imagination and creativity in order to solve scientific and engineering problems.  The following ideas are to foster creativity and innovations:

• Visual-Spatial Thinking in the Science Classroom
• Droodles by Roger Price - TV series clip - oodles of droodles
• Fleamarket Finds - Find the weirdest items at a flea market that you have no idea the purpose and have students make guesses which they justify with the properties of the item.  Example: What is this?
• Invention Dissections - Collect old, broken appliances and allow students to deconstruct them and discuss how they think it works.  Make up new inventions to solve problems (learning station.)

Joyce Tugel "The Role of Leaders in Professional Learning: Practical Strategies and Approaches for Science Teaching” 

• "Make Thinking Visible" - emphasize this in science (perfect for notebooks, also a strategy reading teachers use)
• effective professional development -  Teachers need understanding of content they teach: “Adult literacy” and also focus on building teachers’ understanding of how students learn content  
• PLC book study
• Windows of Intentionality - teaching intentionally matrix

  	Don’t know why	Know why
  Can’t teach it	Miracle	Theory
  Can teach it	Magic	Intentionality

• Additive professional development (just one more thing to do) vs transformative professional development (changing teaching methods, integrating) – time and structure built in to engage with each other as a professional community. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

1st evening of NSELA 2011

This is my first time attending NSELA's annual summer leadership conference and I feel right at home!  Everyone that I spoke with tonight was so interesting.  It's a small-ish group of passionate science leaders, whether they are teachers, instructional coaches, supervisors/coordinators, professors, etc.  Unlike CAST, it is nice that the size is not thousands of teachers but only about a hundred.  I'm looking forward to the week, but I can't imagine the ideas, information, and questions I will leave with.  Just from a 2 hour cocktail reception, I already have several things to research.   And here is one thing that was new to me.  For the high school biology teacher/leader, this is pretty cool.  article pdf

using student drawings

Interesting site.http://www.picturingtolearn.org/index.html  Wish it had elementary understandings. I like the idea though for sure.  Easy to do if teachers faithfully use science interactive notebook reflections.