SLO #1
Student Learning Objective: Reflective Practice
Purpose
Candidates will develop as professional educators who demonstrate reflective practice by
critically examining subject knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and pedagogical skills
to improve their diverse students’ learning.
Assignment Selected
To demonstrate attainment of a reflective practice I have selected the laboratory and field
work assignments as completed for S ED 695B Advanced Laboratory Curriculum Development
(Fall 2007, Dr. Herr). Assignments completed for this class all demonstrate a reflective practice;
they include the use of demonstration equipment (Crooke’s radiometer and the thermal
conductometer), a longitudinal research study (osmosis through egg membranes), a field trip to
the Los Angeles Zoological and Botanical Garden (studying ecology and biomes), an economical
alternative to a lab kit (DNA extraction) and discrepant events (two-point touch discrimination
and surface tension of water).
Rationale for Assignment Selection
In designing all the labs developed and fine-tuned for S ED 695B Advanced Laboratory
Curriculum Development, I was required to critically examine and reflect on my teaching
practices and consider my knowledge of content material as well as how content material can be
presented in a variety of ways to the students in my classroom. I will discuss only one of the
assignments here, the field work assignment, because I think it best demonstrates all of the parts
of the objective in a single assignment.
The field work assignment allowed me to critically analyze my own content knowledge
as it pulls together many of the concepts taught in biology. The connection between ecology,
SLO #1
evolution and genetics, three of the major state standards are represented in this single
assignment. This assignment stretches the students’ knowledge and understanding of the
connectivity of the concepts which can be a useful part of the teaching pedagogy because
students have a tendency to see topics in the “chunks” we, as educators, prepare for them to
assist their learning. Unfortunately, they continue with the idea that the topics are completely
separated with little to no connection from one unit of study to the next. Using an assignment
such as this, students can be asked to bring the three ideas back together in a presentation or
project linking the major ideas of the all the units of study.
This assignment also allows the student to practice science in a manner that is more
consistent with that of the scientist and addresses many of the levels of understanding in Bloom’s
taxonomy. The first part of the assignment asks students to research the factual knowledge
pertaining to their biome or ecological study area, this part is completed prior to the field trip and
could either be assigned as a homework activity or could be completed in class through research
on the internet or in references from the library or the textbook itself. While on the field trip
students are asked to find organisms (both plants and animals) that are from their biome and
record some information about the organisms. Students are asked to use their powers of
observation to make an assessment of the organism’s habitat and whether it is representative of
what their biome should look like from their research. This allows students to analyze and
evaluate the information they have researched.
Reflection
As an educator, it is important to remember that not all students are the same and meeting
the needs of all students should be a major goal of the teacher. Through the use of many
activities, such as labs, we can generate interest and make science real for our students while
SLO #1
meeting their diverse learning needs. It is also important to allow students the consider
information at many levels of Bloom’s taxonomy and to evaluate information as a scientist
would. Through activities such as this field study, students are given the opportunity to gain
information, study the world as a scientist, practice their understanding of material at several
Bloom levels and make the connection between many different areas of information in the
standards in a manner that is motivating and interesting.