tHe ExpErimEnt

Today, we have to conduct experiments. 1 is done. Fun. I’ve left lab world for about 2 years I guess. At first, a little bit awkward. Then, everything changed. Acting like a great scientist while looking for sand by the roadside. 😉

 

17 FEBRUARY 2011

MASTERY LEARNING

1. ensures all students are able to acquire and master the intended learning objectives.
2. Based on the principle that students are able to learn.

 

Today, we have discuss about this:

WHAT IS LABORATORY WORK?

 

Approaches to Laboratory Work:

1. Science Process Skill Laboratory
2. Deductive Laboratory
3. Inductive Laboratory
4. Technical Skill Laboratory
5. Problem-Solving Laboratory

CompiLatiOn

It’s been a while I didn’t update this blog. So, here I’ve compile all the previous things that have been taught in class.

4th week

SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE

Facts – foundation for concepts, principles, and theories. What truth is defined.

• Eg. “wires of different thickness have different electrical resistance”

Concepts – an abstraction of events, objects, or phenomena that seem to have certain properties or attributes in common

• Eg. A force is given to an object in motion because force is determined by the mass of the object and the acceleration (speed and direction) with which it moves

Principles and Laws – composed of concepts and facts and related to observable phenomena

Theories – explain why phenomena occur as they do

 

TEACHING CONCEPTS

• Giving examples and non-examples
• The use of advance organizer such as concept maps
• The use of images and analogies
• The use of various presentation such as models and symbols
• The use of experiments

 

5th week

THINKING SKILLS

• Mental process that requires an individual to integrate knowledge, skills and attitudes
• Foundation for thoughtful learning
• Thoughtful learning is achieved when students are actively involved
• Categorized into

—> critical thinking skills and

—> creative thinking skills

 

 

 

TEACHING OR INSTRUCTION

 

• Approach
• Strategies
• Techniques

INQUIRY-DISCOVERY APPROACH

• Why inquiry?
• active participation
• develop scientific and thinking skills
• provide opportunity for students to ask   questions and present ideas

CONSTRUCTIVISM

CONTEXTUAL LEARNING

SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY & SOCIETY

• Relate to students’ daily experiences
• Investigate issues / problems through discussion
• Similar to CT

MASTERY LEARNING will be continued next week 😉

Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory

Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory is the work of Russian psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934), who lived during Russian Revolution. Vygotsky’s work was largely unkown to the West until it was published in 1962.

 

Vygotsky’s theory is one of the foundations of constructivism. It asserts three major themes:

Major themes:

1. Social interaction plays a fundamental role in the process of cognitive development. In contrast to Jean Piaget’s understanding of child development (in which development necessarily precedes learning), Vygotsky felt social learning precedes development. He states: “Every function in the child’s cultural development appears twice: first, on the social level, and later, on the individual level; first, between people (interpsychological) and then inside the child (intrapsychological).” (Vygotsky, 1978).
2. The More Knowledgeable Other (MKO). The MKO refers to anyone who has a better understanding or a higher ability level than the learner, with respect to a particular task, process, or concept. The MKO is normally thought of as being a teacher, coach, or older adult, but the MKO could also be peers, a younger person, or even computers.
3. The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). The ZPD is the distance between a student’s ability to perform a task under adult guidance and/or with peer collaboration and the student’s ability solving the problem independently. According to Vygotsky, learning occurred in this zone.

Vygotsky focused on the connections between people and the sociocultural context in which they act and interact in shared experiences (Crawford, 1996). According to Vygotsky, humans use tools that develop from a culture, such as speech and writing, to mediate their social environments. Initially children develop these tools to serve solely as social functions, ways to communicate needs. Vygotsky believed that the internalization of these tools led to higher thinking skills.

Applications of the Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory

Many schools have traditionally held a transmissionist or instructionist model in which a teacher or lecturer ‘transmits’ information to students. In contrast, Vygotsky’s theory promotes learning contexts in which students play an active role in learning. Roles of the teacher and student are therefore shifted, as a teacher should collaborate with his or her students in order to help facilitate meaning construction in students. Learning therefore becomes a reciprocal experience for the students and teacher.

wHat iS sCieNcE ?

This is a reasonable question, but it isn’t easy to provide a simple, definitive answer. There is no entity with the authority to define science. Coming up with a proper definition of science is not unlike coming up with a proper definition of other human institutions, like religion or family: there is so much going on that long, complex books are written to explain it all – and still people disagree. In a real sense, science is what scientists do. There are disagreements among scientists and philosophers of science on the finer points, but many of the broader issues are usually agreed upon.

The classical definition of science is simply the state of “knowing” — specifically theoretical knowledge as opposed the practical knowledge. In the Middle Ages the term “science” came to be used interchangeably with “arts,” the word for such practical knowledge. Thus, “liberal arts” and “liberal sciences” meant basically the same thing.

Modern dictionaries are a bit more specific than that and offer a number of different ways in which the term science can be defined:

The observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of phenomena. Methodological activity, discipline, or study An activity that appears to require study and method

For many purposes, these definitions can be adequate, but like so many other dictionary definitions of complex subjects they are ultimately superficial and misleading. They only provide the barest minimum of information about the nature of science. As a consequence, the above definitions can be used to argue that even astrology or dowsing qualify as “science” and that’s simply not right.

 

tHis iS a bLoG ! ! !

This blog has been created for the course SXEP3207 METHOD OF TEACHING SCIENCE  that I’m taking this sem.