We present and compare `inquiry' and `direct' instructional designs for teaching physics ... more We present and compare `inquiry' and `direct' instructional designs for teaching physics topics. A scientific inquiry process approach develops physics concepts and laws as `science-in-the-making', rather than presenting them directly as `already-made-science'. The contrasting designs reflect different views of' `what is science' and `what shall we teach'. We also distinguish the guided scientific inquiry approach from `discovery learning' and from
A critical aspect of teacher education is gaining pedagogical content knowledge of how to teach s... more A critical aspect of teacher education is gaining pedagogical content knowledge of how to teach science for conceptual understanding. Given the time limitations of college methods courses, it is difficult to touch on more than a fraction of the science topics potentially taught across grades K-8, particularly in the context of relevant pedagogies. This research and development work centers on constructing a formative assessment resource to help expose pre-service teachers to a greater number of science topics within teaching episodes using various modes of instruction. To this end, 100 problem-based, science pedagogy assessment items were developed via expert group discussions and pilot testing. Each item contains a classroom vignette followed by response choices carefully crafted to include four basic pedagogies (didactic direct, active direct, guided inquiry, and open inquiry). The brief but numerous items allow a substantial increase in the number of science topics that pre-service students may consider. The intention is that students and teachers will be able to share and discuss particular responses to individual items, or else record their responses to collections of items and thereby create a snapshot profile of their teaching orientations. Subsets of items were piloted with students in pre-service science methods courses, and the quantitative results of student responses were spread sufficiently to suggest that the items can be effective for their intended purpose.
Research in Science & Technological Education, 2010
There are continuing educational and political debates about ‘inquiry’ versus ‘direct’ teaching o... more There are continuing educational and political debates about ‘inquiry’ versus ‘direct’ teaching of science. Traditional science instruction has been largely direct but in the US, recent national and state science education standards advocate inquiry throughout K‐12 education. While inquiry‐based instruction has the advantage of modelling aspects of the nature of real scientific inquiry, there is little unconfounded comparative research into the effectiveness and efficiency of the two instructional modes for developing science conceptual understanding. This research undertook a controlled experimental study comparing the efficacy of carefully designed inquiry instruction and equally carefully designed direct instruction in realistic science classroom situations at the middle school grades. The research design addressed common threats to validity. We report on the nature of the instructional units in each mode, research design, methods, classroom implementations, monitoring, assessments, analysis and project findings.
Motion is a topic that is taught from elementary grades through to university at various levels o... more Motion is a topic that is taught from elementary grades through to university at various levels of sophistication. It is an area that can be challenging for learning in a conceptually meaningful way, and formal kinematics instruction can sometimes seem dry and boring. Thus, the ...
Problem-solving is an important part of physics teaching, learning and assessment. It is widely a... more Problem-solving is an important part of physics teaching, learning and assessment. It is widely assumed that the way that experts solve problems, and students should, is by systematic application of basic physics principles. Model solutions are laid out this way, and teaching of problem-solving usually consists of `going over' such solutions step by step. However, while this does represent the physics structure of the final solution, it does not adequately reflect how people actually think when tackling problems. Real cognition is complex. This study was prompted by students trying to `map across' result features recalled from previous cases instead of working from basics. Since our instruction emphasizes the power and generality of basic principles, our first response was to re-emphasize principles, but we found that experts in fact draw extensively and effectively on rich compiled case knowledge. We investigated cognition in detail for geometrical optics. Research methods included analysis of written solutions, reflections on thinking, and interviews. Cognitive modes emerged from the initial research stages, and were then used to code individuals' problem-solving pathways. Learners and experts alike used multiple modes of cognition, significantly principle-based reasoning, case-based reasoning and experiential-intuitive reasoning. Case-based reasoning using pre-compiled knowledge played a pervasive role in conjunction with, and sometimes in conflict with, principle-based reasoning. The implications for instruction are that it should reflect what we know about cognition and expertise, and hence include teaching case-based as well as principle-based reasoning. We are doing this in optics, by using cases and variations, identifying topic knowledge schema `sub-assemblies', and modeling their use in problems.
We present and compare `inquiry' and `direct' instructional designs for teaching physics ... more We present and compare `inquiry' and `direct' instructional designs for teaching physics topics. A scientific inquiry process approach develops physics concepts and laws as `science-in-the-making', rather than presenting them directly as `already-made-science'. The contrasting designs reflect different views of' `what is science' and `what shall we teach'. We also distinguish the guided scientific inquiry approach from `discovery learning' and from
A critical aspect of teacher education is gaining pedagogical content knowledge of how to teach s... more A critical aspect of teacher education is gaining pedagogical content knowledge of how to teach science for conceptual understanding. Given the time limitations of college methods courses, it is difficult to touch on more than a fraction of the science topics potentially taught across grades K-8, particularly in the context of relevant pedagogies. This research and development work centers on constructing a formative assessment resource to help expose pre-service teachers to a greater number of science topics within teaching episodes using various modes of instruction. To this end, 100 problem-based, science pedagogy assessment items were developed via expert group discussions and pilot testing. Each item contains a classroom vignette followed by response choices carefully crafted to include four basic pedagogies (didactic direct, active direct, guided inquiry, and open inquiry). The brief but numerous items allow a substantial increase in the number of science topics that pre-service students may consider. The intention is that students and teachers will be able to share and discuss particular responses to individual items, or else record their responses to collections of items and thereby create a snapshot profile of their teaching orientations. Subsets of items were piloted with students in pre-service science methods courses, and the quantitative results of student responses were spread sufficiently to suggest that the items can be effective for their intended purpose.
Research in Science & Technological Education, 2010
There are continuing educational and political debates about ‘inquiry’ versus ‘direct’ teaching o... more There are continuing educational and political debates about ‘inquiry’ versus ‘direct’ teaching of science. Traditional science instruction has been largely direct but in the US, recent national and state science education standards advocate inquiry throughout K‐12 education. While inquiry‐based instruction has the advantage of modelling aspects of the nature of real scientific inquiry, there is little unconfounded comparative research into the effectiveness and efficiency of the two instructional modes for developing science conceptual understanding. This research undertook a controlled experimental study comparing the efficacy of carefully designed inquiry instruction and equally carefully designed direct instruction in realistic science classroom situations at the middle school grades. The research design addressed common threats to validity. We report on the nature of the instructional units in each mode, research design, methods, classroom implementations, monitoring, assessments, analysis and project findings.
Motion is a topic that is taught from elementary grades through to university at various levels o... more Motion is a topic that is taught from elementary grades through to university at various levels of sophistication. It is an area that can be challenging for learning in a conceptually meaningful way, and formal kinematics instruction can sometimes seem dry and boring. Thus, the ...
Problem-solving is an important part of physics teaching, learning and assessment. It is widely a... more Problem-solving is an important part of physics teaching, learning and assessment. It is widely assumed that the way that experts solve problems, and students should, is by systematic application of basic physics principles. Model solutions are laid out this way, and teaching of problem-solving usually consists of `going over' such solutions step by step. However, while this does represent the physics structure of the final solution, it does not adequately reflect how people actually think when tackling problems. Real cognition is complex. This study was prompted by students trying to `map across' result features recalled from previous cases instead of working from basics. Since our instruction emphasizes the power and generality of basic principles, our first response was to re-emphasize principles, but we found that experts in fact draw extensively and effectively on rich compiled case knowledge. We investigated cognition in detail for geometrical optics. Research methods included analysis of written solutions, reflections on thinking, and interviews. Cognitive modes emerged from the initial research stages, and were then used to code individuals' problem-solving pathways. Learners and experts alike used multiple modes of cognition, significantly principle-based reasoning, case-based reasoning and experiential-intuitive reasoning. Case-based reasoning using pre-compiled knowledge played a pervasive role in conjunction with, and sometimes in conflict with, principle-based reasoning. The implications for instruction are that it should reflect what we know about cognition and expertise, and hence include teaching case-based as well as principle-based reasoning. We are doing this in optics, by using cases and variations, identifying topic knowledge schema `sub-assemblies', and modeling their use in problems.
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Papers by Betty Adams