Science Laboratory Instruction: Summary of Findings and Implications from Four Companion Studies...continued:

Why do teachers use "cookbook" methods?

Why would teachers who defend inquiry as important to student development not allow students to explore more on their own? Of course, there is a myriad of reasons for such teacher behavior, not the least of which is time. It takes time for students to research, locate, and perform a protocol; it takes more time to collect and analyze data; and it takes still more time to engage in meaningful post-laboratory discussion. A complete explanation of the reasons for the amount of non-inquiry that occurs in classrooms is beyond the scope of this document. The scary part of this study is that the teachers involved in the inservice class began the inservice class at below the "2" level!

"The Priestley's studies concluded that instructors of life and physical science need to learn how to revise their instructional approaches to emphasize facilitation of learning by their students; not through verbally unfolding procedures but instead through longer term interventions preparing teachers to be facilitators of moving at least to the first and second levels of Sutman's Revised Inquiry Scale… In addition, laboratory instructors must learn to follow the data collection activity with ample opportunities for interpretation and explanations based on scientific theory." [p3-4]

Notice that the "longer term interventions," in this case the 13-week course, are supposed to prepare "teachers to be facilitators of moving at least to the first and second levels [emphasis mine] of Sutman's Revised Inquiry Scale." This means another scary thing: "Short term interventions," like one-day inservice meetings or reading this article, may not even be effective at moving teachers beyond "0," if that is where the inservice participants (or readers of this abstract) begin.

The studies referred to in this article included life science and physical science teachers. While there was no significant difference between teaching behaviors of life or physical science teachers, physical science teachers did differ significantly from life science teachers "in the amount of time used in conduction of post-laboratory sessions." [p4] To correct this discrepancy, the authors recommend life science teachers consider changing the nature of data collected to a more numeric format. Apparently, manipulating numeric data requires more, or at least longer, inquiry behavior.

There is good news in the article.

The authors found that the inservice "experience resulted in significant changes in their [inserviced teachers] course organization and [in] teacher strategies used in the pre- and post-sessions… at least during treatment and immediately following it." [p4] Of course, without some form of longitudinal follow-up, no one will ever know whether the change in behavior was permanent.

The authors provide a series of recommendations at the end of the article. I have selected some to share with you.

"1. Professional development experiences for inservice science teachers need to extend over longer periods of time to allow for modeling, practice, critiquing, mentoring , and developing a continuing sense of support." Seriously consider taking this recommendation to your district administration.

"2. In order to increase the importance of the laboratory component of instruction, at least 50% of the final grade should be based on the learning that takes place as a direct result of laboratory based experiences." This does not mean one assignment is 50% of the course grade. At least half the content and student learning should come from inquiry-based pre-lab, in-lab, and post-lab activities.

"6. The use of a laboratory activity content analysis scheme, such as the example proposed by Schwab (1962) should be a component of each of these course experiences. This type of analysis scheme should serve to complement the present course efforts in assisting students (teachers) to reflect on the extent to which they use inquiry-oriented experiences in their approach to instruction thus leading to an increased level of inquiry." Try using Table 1 to assess yourself and your program. Then print out the page "How Open Are Your Activities" found after this abstract. Do what it says as a check on your evaluation.

"7. Sessions of the course, designed to address assessment of student learning strategies, need to be expanded to induce experiences with strategies for assessing learning that develops directly from the reformed approach to utilizing laboratory experiences and that involve the enrolled teachers in developing, under supervision, direct laboratory-based assessment practices. The implementation of effective assessment procedures related to laboratory experiences can strengthen overall instructional reform." [p5-6] Included also after the abstract is the page "Assessment Table." Rank each of your assessment pieces as instructed.

You may be thinking: So what?

I mean what does this have to do with me? I'm a good teacher, and I think my kids are learning a lot of science in my classes.

I hope you are a good teacher and your kids are learning a lot of science. However, I am concerned about inquiry and thinking. Today's high school students have grown up with color television, a plethora of movies, and video games. What they have not had to do in large part is think. Television, movies, and video games all provide the pre-processed images for the viewer.

Do you remember when you went to see a movie after you read the book? What did you think about the cast selected by the director? I know when I see a movie based on a book I have read, I'm usually disappointed by the way the characters (which I have developed in my own mind) are depicted on the screen. You see, I thought about them while I was reading.

Most of your students do not read for pleasure. They rarely think abstractly-in their life-style, they don't have to. How will you help your students enter the world as thinking adults? The two evaluation pieces which follow were developed for the Los Angeles Unified School District. LAUSD is one of the National Science Foundation's Urban Systemic Initiative sites. As such, they are investing much time and energy in reforming their science classes. These evaluations are one small part of that effort.

Science Education Reform Index

Let's Collaborate Index