Austin, TX: Southwest Educational Development Laboratory. Hirsch, E., Koppich, J.E., and Knapp, M.S. During the school year, teachers may access kits of materials supporting laboratory experiences that use biomedical research tools. Reporting on a post-institute survey, McComas and Colburn note that a surprising number of teachers felt that the safety sessions were most important (p. 121) (no numbers were reported). Catley, K. (2004). Fraser and K.G. Seeking more effective outcomes from science laboratory experiences (Grades 7-14): Six companion studies. Available at: http://www7.nationalacademies.org/bose/March_29-30_2004_High_School_Labs_Meeting_Agenda.html [accessed Oct. 2005]. Teachers may help children become more confident and proficient readers by breaking down the reading comprehension process into discrete subtasks and offering targeted teaching and feedback on each one. Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Henderson, A.T., and Mapp, K.L. (2002). The limited evidence available indicates that some undergraduate science programs do not help future teachers develop full mastery of science subject matter. As teachers move beyond laboratory experiences focusing on tools, procedures, and observations to those that engage students in posing a research question or in building and revising models to explain their observations, they require still deeper levels of science content knowledge (Windschitl, 2004; Catley, 2004). Professional development opportunities for science teachers are limited in quality, availability, and scope and place little emphasis on laboratory instruction. Ready to take your reading offline? As students analyze observations from the laboratory in search of patterns or explanations, develop and revise conjectures, and build lines of reasoning about why their proposed claims or explanations are or are not true, the teacher supports their learning by conducting sense-making discussions (Mortimer and Scott, 2003; van Zee and Minstrell, 1997; Hammer, 1997; Windschitl, 2004; Bell, 2004; Brown and Campione, 1998; Bruner, 1996; Linn, 1995; Lunetta, 1998; Clark, Clough, and Berg, 2000; Millar and Driver, 1987). Linn, E.A. Not a MyNAP member yet? Their previous, closely prescribed laboratory experiences had not helped them to understand that there are many different ways to effect a particular chemical transformation. They need to carefully consider written work and what they observe while students engage in projects and investigations. These limits, in turn, could contribute to lower science achievement, especially among poor and minority students. Designing computer learning environments for engineering and computer science: The scaffolded knowledge integration framework. Lee, O., and Fradd, S.H. The contents of the institute were developed on the basis of in-depth field interviews and literature reviews to tap the practical knowledge of experienced science teachers. 1 Introduction, History, and Definition of Laboratories, 3 Laboratory Experiences and Student Learning, 5 Teacher and School Readiness for Laboratory Experiences, 7 Laboratory Experiences for the 21st Century, APPENDIX A Agendas of Fact-Finding Meetings, APPENDIX B Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Staff. Teachers who had engaged in even more intensive professional development, lasting at least 160 hours, were most likely to employ several teaching strategies aligned with the design principles for effective laboratory experiences identified in the research. 61-74). Professional Development Partnerships with the Scientific Community. Playing this critical role requires that teachers know much more than how to set up equipment, carry out procedures, and manage students physical activities. Teachers must consider how to select curriculum that integrates laboratory experiences into the stream of instruction and how to select individual laboratory activities that will fit most appropriately into their science classes. Summer research experiences that may enhance science teachers laboratory teaching need not take place in a laboratory facility. Bayer Corporation. McComs (Eds. Tushnet, N.C., Millsap, M.A., Noraini, A., Brigham, N., Cooley, E., Elliott, J., Johnston, K., Martinez, A., Nierenberg, M., and Rosenblum, S. (2000). People working in the clinical laboratory are responsible for conducting tests that provide crucial information for detecting, diagnosing, treating, and monitoring disease. Linn, M.C. Preordained science and student autonomy: The nature of laboratory tasks in physics classrooms. Once on the job, science teachers have few opportunities to improve their laboratory teaching. Further research is needed to inform design of professional development that can effectively support improvements in teachers laboratory instruction. They appeared to have little understanding of the field writ large. Teaching for understanding was defined as including a focus on student thinking, attention to powerful scientific ideas, and the development of equitable classroom learning communities. This would require both a major changes in undergraduate science education, including provision of a range of effective laboratory experiences for future teachers, and developing more comprehensive systems of support for teachers. Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education, 11(1), 57-67. This paper explores the role of laboratory and field-based research experiences in secondary science education by summarizing research documenting how such activities promote science learning. It is unclear whether these and other ad hoc efforts to provide summer research experiences reach the majority of high school science teachers. At this time, however, some educators have begun to question seriously the effectiveness and the role of laboratory work, and the case for laboratory . New York: Pergamon. They also spend a week doing laboratory research with a scientist mentor at the Fred Hutchinson Center or one of several other participating public and private research institutions in Seattle. (2004). Educating teachers of science, mathematics, and technology. The following 10 roles are a sampling of the many ways teachers can contribute to their schools' success. (2001). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Duration (total contact hours, span of time). Knoxville: University of Tennessee Value-Added Research and Assessment Center. School administrators play a critical role in supporting the successful integration of laboratory experiences in high school science by providing improved approaches to professional development and adequate time for teacher planning and implementation of laboratory experiences. It is ultimately the role of Laboratory Assistant to facilitate the safe and efficient delivery of the curriculum designed by the teacher. When students have more freedom to pose questions or to identify and carry out procedures, they require greater guidance to ensure that their laboratory activities help them to master science subject matter and progress toward the other goals of laboratory experiences. For example, Western science promotes a critical and questioning stance, and these values and attitudes may be discontinuous with the norms of cultures that favor cooperation, social and emotional support, consensus building, and acceptance of the authority (p. 470). Boys and girls in the performance-based classroom: Whos doing the performing? Laboratory work also gives the students the opportunity to experience science by using scientific research procedures. They also concluded that longer term interventions13 weeks in this caseresult in some change in the instructional strategies teachers use. For example, the teacher might use descriptive or qualitative language or images to convey concepts related to. The program was designed in part to address weakness in science teachers understanding of the nature of science, which was documented in earlier research (Khalic and Lederman, 2000; Schwartz and Lederman, 2002). Laboratory experiences and their role in science education. thus expanding the teaching or training role; sometimes they are excluded purposely, such as in the case of France, where teachers are only responsible for the actual instruction and the remainder of . Administrators allocate time, like other resources, as a way to support teachers in carrying out these routines. AAPT guidelines for high school physics programs. Perhaps this is because, among scientists, decisions about the kinds of questions to be asked and the kinds of answers to be sought are often developed by the scientific community rather than by an isolated individual (Millar, 2004). Seattle: University of Washington, Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy. It means figuring out what students comprehend by listening to them during their discussions about science. Teachers require a deep understanding of scientific processes in order to guide students procedures and formulation of research questions, as well as deep understanding of science concepts in order to guide them toward subject matter understanding and other learning goals. In this section, we describe the types of teacher knowledge and skills that may be required to lead a range of laboratory experiences aligned with our design principles, comparing the required skills with evidence about the current state of teachers knowledge and skills. In response to surveys conducted in the mid-1990s, teachers indicated that, among the reasons they left their positionsincluding retirement, layoffs, and family reasonsdissatisfaction was one of the most important. The Higher Education Chemistry (RSC), 5 (2), 42-51. Journal of Research in Science Teaching. Maduabum (1992) sees a laboratory as a place where scientific exercises are conducted by the science teachers for the benefit of the students (learners). Laboratory learning: Addressing a neglected dimension of science teacher education. Program faculty report that many teachers tend to dwell on hands-on activities with their students at the expense of linking them with the nature of science and with abilities associated with scientific inquiry. Science Education, 77(3), 301-317. American Association of Physics Teachers. Gamoran, A. School administrators have a strong influence on whether high school science teachers receive the professional development opportunities needed to develop the knowledge and skills we have identified. To lead laboratory experiences that incorporate ongoing student discussion and reflection and that focus on clear, attainable learning goals, teachers require pedagogical content knowledge. Despite the weakness of current professional development for laboratory teaching, a growing body of research indicates that it is possible to develop and implement professional development that would support improved laboratory teaching and learning. The study examined the relationship between professional development and teaching practice in terms of three specific instructional practices: (1) the use of technology, (2) the use of higher order instructional methods, and (3) the use of alternative assessment. They lock up all the reagents and unplug all electrical equipment to minimize the chances of accidents and fires. Davis, and P. Bell (Eds. To determine the current role of laboratory schools in the United States, the 123 existing laboratory schools were surveyed. Properly designed laboratory investigations should: have a definite purpose that is communicated clearly to students; focus on the processes of science as a way to convey content; incorporate ongoing student reflection and discussion; and enable students to develop safe and conscientious lab habits and procedures (NRC 2006, p. 101-102). Hudson, S.B., McMahon, K.C., and Overstreet, C.M. Goldhaber, D.D., and Brewer, D.J. All rights reserved. Many schools schedule eight 40- to 55-minute class periods, so that following the AAPT guidelines would allow physics teachers two preparation periods. While teachers play an active role in lecture-based teaching methods, the students' role is usually reduced to sitting at their desks and listening passively to their teachers, to all. Washington, DC: Author. However, the undergraduate education of future science teachers does not currently prepare them for effective laboratory teaching. Among the volunteers, 97 percent said they would recommend RE-SEED to a colleague, and most said that the training, placement in schools, and support from staff had made their time well spent (Zahopoulos, 2003). Available at: http://www.nsta.org/positionstatementandpsid=16 [accessed Oct. 2004]. to the content of textbooks, to visual aids, or to laboratory equipment. The investigators found that professional development focused. Cumulative and residual effects of teachers on future student academic achievement. All of these factors indirectly affect the academic achievement of the students. Presentation to the Committee on High School Science Laboratories: Role and Vision, June 3-4, National Research Council, Washington, DC. Responsibilities of Teachers Clinical Supervision of Medical Students Resident, Fellow and Graduate Teaching Assistant as Teacher Policy Responsibilities of Learners Course Directors' Expectations of Students The teacher-learner relationship confers rights and responsibilities on both parties. Educational Researcher, 15, 4-14. Chapel Hill, NC: Horizon Research. One study illustrates undergraduate students lack of exposure to the full range of scientists activities, and the potential benefits of engaging them in a broader range of experiences. National Research Council. But those connections are not enough: science sense-making discourse must also help students to develop understanding of a given science concept and create links between theory and observable phenomena. It was also clear that teachers enhanced their understanding of science subject matter specific to the lab they experienced. the photo below). (2001b). National Center for Family and Community Connections with Schools. In K. Howey and N. Zimpher (Eds. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 24(2), 81-112. Davis, and P. Bell (Eds. Laboratory activities have long had a distinct and central role in the science curriculum as a means of making sense of the natural world. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Earlbaum. The available evidence indicates that the current science teaching workforce lacks the knowledge and skills required to lead a range of effective laboratory experiences. The guidelines also call on administrators to schedule no more than 125 students per teacher per day, if the teacher is teaching only physics (the same laboratory activity taught several times may not require preparation) and no more than 100 students per teacher per day if the. The teaching communities that developed, with their new leaders, succeeded in obtaining additional resources (such as shared teacher planning time) from within the schools and districts (Gamoran et al., 2003) and also from outside of them. Schulze (Eds. The guidelines note that simply maintaining the laboratory requires at least one class period per day, and, if schools will not provide teachers with that time, they suggest that those schools either employ laboratory technicians or obtain student help. The National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education: Trends from 1977 to 2000. Periodic checks indicated that the science internship helped teachers improve their understanding of [the nature of science] and [science inquiry]. In many cases teachers ranked in-service training as their least effective source of learning (Windschitl, 2004, p. 16; emphasis in original). It may be useful, however, to begin . Slotta, J.D. School administrators can take several approaches to providing time for this type of ongoing discussion and reflection that supports student learning during laboratory experiences. Formative assessment, that is, continually assessing student progress in order to guide further instruction, appears to enhance student attainment of the goals of laboratory education. Journal of Research on Science Teaching, 37, 963-980. Generally, the body of research is weak, and the effects of teacher quality on student outcomes are small and specific to certain contexts. Presentation to the Committee on High School Science Laboratories: Role and Vision, July 12-13, National Research Council, Washington, DC. In addition, few high school teachers have access to curricula that integrate laboratory experiences into the stream of instruction. Research conducted in teacher education programs provides some evidence of the quality of preservice science education (Windschitl, 2004). He suggests that a high school physics teacher should know concepts or principles to emphasize when introducing high school students to a particular topic (p. 264). Sutman, F.X., Schmuckler, J.S., Hilosky, A.B., Priestly, H.S., and Priestly, W.J. They found a large number of preparations, tried each one out, and identified one method as most likely to succeed with the introductory students. Center for Education. Internet environments for science education.