11 October 2017

Teaching for Conceptual Change: Confronting Children’s Experience

By: Elizabeth Davis

During this article I appreciated that it addressed the thought process of the teacher, because I was thinking the same things the entire time I was reading. I think the idea is solid, but how long do you let students lead out their thoughts and ideas and what does that look like, etc? I really liked how then she provided two options for students to work with. I do wonder though, is the point for it to hopefully be clear which is “right,” or no? I wonder if few students are always on the “wrong” side then it is obvious and discouraging. I wonder if it would be smart to try and create four options? Then have students use those groups to find ways to defend their claims? This makes it less obvious which aligns most with the ‘correct’ idea. I would also have students write down their letter ahead of time by themselves, then have them hold it up and go to their corner in the room. Otherwise, I think a lot of kiddos would follow their friends. I wonder what it would be like if groups were pretty equal in size, to have one from each opinion in a group for them to work together and come to a common consensus? I think that would be very interesting and most likely difficult for the kids, but very cool in the end. I think that would probably work best for older students. Using consistent language during conceptual learning, especially if ideas are previously formed is something I can relate too and agree with. In Math Methods with Robert, we already have our thoughts on how to do math, then he changes our conceptual understanding. He strongly emphasizes consistent language and from experience, it does make it easier to learn/understand. I wonder if it would be helpful or harmful to have like words that we use in talk about a topic, then words we come across as we learn, and to make posters with connections between words and then circling the language we will use? This takes their preconceived language and shows its relation to our current language? At the end of the day, I like the process this class took for their scientific learning and think the most important thing for me as a teacher will be one of the bullets at the end: What content should teachers know in order to be able to recognize and then challenge children’s naive conceptions? This is the most important aspect for me, to be able to implement this learning process into my future classroom

.A Private Universe:

YouTube video

This video reflects well what we have discussed in class. I was in the same boat as all of the students in my educational backgrounds, process, and knowledge. It shows me that these concepts are important ones to cover with kids and address their misconceptions. It also shows me how important it is to go over things at each grade level to know where your students are at, like the end of the video talked about with the classroom teachers assumptions of her students knowledge base. I do know even know what topics to cover for Earth Science and am hoping this course models them.