SLO #1 – Issue Paper
REFLECTIVE PRACTICE by critically examining their subject knowledge, pedagogical
content knowledge, and pedagogical skills to improve their diverse students’ learning.
My research on exemplary teaching practices in science enabled me to reflect upon and
enhance my own teaching methods. My aim was to examine my everyday teaching routines and
to improve upon my existing instructional techniques. By investigating expert approaches, I
aspired to emulate the best practices of other skilled teachers. It is not every day that one gets an
exclusive glimpse into how an exceptionally effective classroom functions. By studying the
methods of highly-skilled educators, I was able to discover valuable, authentic teaching
techniques that could be applied in my own classroom.
One of the methods that exemplified model teaching included instructing students
through the use of inquiry-based lessons. Preceding my research on exemplary teaching
practices, I found myself too concerned with structuring my curriculum around the textbook. As
a result, I was failing to connect science to the world outside of the classroom. I realized that
learning science was more than gaining content knowledge; it was about helping the student to
identify with science. As a result, I created lessons in which children collected data through
investigation activities and used the evidence from that data to answer their own questions.
Children not only constructed science knowledge, but they also learned how to investigate and
solve problems. I recognized that science was not just about learning facts; it was about
encouraging active engagement and higher order thinking skills.
I started providing numerous occasions for students to be mentally active and to assume
responsibility for their own learning. Learning in my classroom became more student-centered
as peers interacted to solve problems. I designed lessons which enabled students to construct
their own knowledge through real world investigations. Students were actively involved in
measuring, recording data, and acquiring information. My ultimate goal was to inspire students’
innate curiosity about the world surrounding them and to teach them how to use their
imagination to solve problems creatively.
While teaching the 4th grade students about magnets, I arranged students into cooperative
learning groups and gave each group sets of materials consisting of magnets and an assortment
of metal and nonmetal objects. I challenged the students to find out how the magnets interacted
with each other and with the various objects and to sort the objects in some way based on how
they interacted with the magnets. Driven by their curiosity, the children eagerly explored the
materials. Holding up two magnets, one child said, “Look, Ms. Asherson, these are pushing
apart and they are not even touching!” Another child noticed, “Put them like this and they come
together.” Accessing their prior knowledge and familiar experiences, a third child reported, “We
have some of these at home on the refrigerator.” I circulated among the groups, asking and
answering questions, supplying terms, and suggesting some procedures. As I went around the
room, I asked each group to explain how they had sorted the objects. Some children had
grouped the objects by color or size. After some prompting, the children began to understand
how to group the objects, not by their more obvious attributes, but by the ways the objects
interacted with the magnets. Most children ended up with two piles: things that were attracted to
magnets and things that were not attracted to magnets. Then, I brought the children back
together as a whole class and asked them to talk about what they had done and what they had
learned. Through discussion and writing ideas on the board, I helped the students verbalize some
principles of magnetism and used them to summarize their activities. In application of their new
knowledge, the students went around the room, excitedly testing to see how the magnets
interacted with additional objects. In addition to gaining new knowledge about how the world
works, the children had opportunities to improve essential inquiry skills as they investigated and
gathered evidence to answer questions that had been posed. Through engaging in inquiry, the
students were learning useful approaches to problem solving that would serve them well in future
investigations.
Throughout this research, I was reminded that being a science teacher is a creative
process. I learned how to invent hands-on, experiential activities for my students. I helped
students develop cognitively and assisted them in constructing their own concepts and
understanding. I will keep honing my questioning skills to better guide children’s inquiry. I aim
to sustain the curiosity of my students so that they maintain their motivation for learning not only
during their school years, but throughout life.