Portraits of science
What image of science is portrayed by your teaching? If you were to ask your
students what science is, what would they tell you? Would they say that science is
about learning the facts in order to pass the test? Would they tell you that they can
use science to help make sense of the world? Might they even tell you that science
is the process of constructing explanations based on evidence and agreed upon by
the community?
Your students learn what science is through the learning activities you do together.
If students read science textbooks and answer questions from a book, they begin to
think that science is about learning the facts and then displaying their knowledge
on a test. If students engage in activities that require them to use scientific
concepts to explain everyday (and unusual) phenomena, they learn that science
knowledge is useful for understanding their world. If students conduct inquiry,
develop arguments based on data, and defend their arguments to their classmates,
they may begin to understand how science knowledge is constructed.
Use the questions below to consider what portrait of science your students are
seeing in your classroom.
Portrait #1: Science as facts and concepts
Check below if
you answer yes to
the question.
1. Do you present science ideas, facts, or concepts and then
have students watch a demonstration or do an activity that
confirms that concept?
2. Do your students spend more time learning explanations
than engaging in experiences?
3. Do your students learn only the conclusions of major
scientific studies, rather than also learning about the
experiences, patterns, pitfalls, and arguments that led to
those conclusions?
4. Do you teach students problem-solving procedures rather
than allowing students opportunities to develop their own
problem-solving strategies?
5. Do you rely on appeals to the authority of science to
persuade your students that scientific explanations are
correct?
Total number of ‘Yes’ answers to this section:
_____
Portrait #2: Science for understanding phenomena
Check below if
you answer yes to
the question.
1. Do you engage your students with relevant phenomena
(either first hand or vicariously)?
2. Do you try to elicit your students’ ideas about phenomena
and try to understand their thinking?
3. Do you challenge your students’ ideas, help them test their
ideas, or otherwise create dissatisfaction with ideas that are
not scientifically based?
4. Do you offer students new, scientifically-based ideas in
ways that help them see how the science ideas are plausible
and useful (fruitful)?
5. Do you provide your students with opportunities to reason
scientifically about phenomena and use scientific ideas to
explain other similar phenomena?
Total number of ‘Yes’ answers to this section:
Portrait #3: Science as the social construction of
knowledge
_____
Check below if
you answer yes to
the question.
1. Do you engage students in wondering and questioning
about the world?
2. Do you engage your students in activities to find out what
happens and/or carefully and systematically record what
they see?
3. Do your students learn the whole story behind the
development of scientific concepts, including the data,
methods, patterns, pitfalls, arguments, and counterarguments?
4. Do your students develop techniques, gather data, and build
arguments from their own experiences?
5. Do you engage students in opportunities to present their
own arguments or explanations, challenge others' ideas,
develop replies, and reach a community consensus about
data and claims, based on empirical evidence?
Total number of ‘Yes’ answers to this section:
_____
Questions to discuss together:
1. Based on your answers to the above questions, which portrait(s) of science do
you think your students see the most in your classroom?
2. Which portrait(s) of science would you like your students to see in your
classroom?
3. You will not want to try to change the portrait(s) of science your students see
overnight. However, you can begin to take some small steps towards changing
the portraits. What three steps do you think you could begin to take to help
your students see the portrait(s) you would like them to see?