SED 573 Science Pedagogy I Fall 2009 Oregon State University Instructor: Larry Flick, Ph.D.

Concept Case Study

The purpose of this assignment is to develop skills in leading instruction that emphasizes (a) science inquiry, (b) math problem solving, and/or (c) engineering design. These three skill areas imply instruction that promotes higher order thinking in students and refer to the main threads of Association for the Advancement of Science, Project 2061 Benchmarks for Scientific Literacy (AAAS, 1993). To facilitate discussion, the term inquiry will be used to mean instruction for higher order thinking in science, math, and engineering design. To achieve our purpose, this assignment will introduce the various ways that standards- based concepts and related instructional tasks are interpreted by students. This assignment will give you practice with following the thinking of another person while simultaneously guiding them through an educational activity. Following student thinking is an important skill for teaching inquiry and a fundamental area of knowledge about learners. This assignment will be used as a framework for thinking about the TSPC required work sample and to provide a vehicle for developing elements of this work sample. The work sample elements developed within the context of this assignment are: Rationale, Unit Goals, Enduring Understandings and Essential Questions, (part of the) Pre-Assessment, and two (out of approximately five required) Lesson Plans.

What to do Select a target concept. An example in math would be 'central tendency.' An example in science would be 'force'. You should select concepts that you know very well and one that you can discuss comfortably with your students. This must be a concept that will be part of your work sample. Conduct semi-structured, audio-taped interviews with three people. The term "semi- structured interview" means that even though you have structured the interview around the target concept with planned questions, you are allowing the interviewees, who I will call "students," to lead the interview in directions that help them express their own point-of-view. Although your sessions with students may at first feel like an interview, the context should be more like a guided discussion. You are developing skills in how to ask questions that result in the student doing most of the talking. Helping students articulate explanations is an important teaching skill for promoting inquiry-oriented thinking. The length of the sessions and the questions are up to you, but there must be enough continuity across discussions with different students that you can clearly focus on the target concept. During the interviews, use activities, demonstrations, and/or pictures to help students focus their thoughts. Describe these supports in your report. You may also want to take notes during the interviews to capture impressions or ideas. Choose three students. The selection is up to you, but you should be able to identify clear differences among the students. Select students from your classroom site that differ in some interesting ways. Explain the differences in your report. [We will discuss options for the selection of “students” if logistics or other constraints make this difficult to do. For example, one subject could be a neighbor or friend of the age of student for your first work sample (e.g. Concept Case Study 2 high school), one could be older (e.g. college age or older), and one could be younger (e.g. elementary age).]

What to Observe and Report Make a verbatim transcript of one meaningful segment from each of the three interviews. "Meaningful segment" is operationally defined as: the student is doing a significant amount of the talking and expressing their thoughts about the target concept. Capture as much of the student's meaning as is practical. Each segment should be one single-spaced page minimum. Leave out uninformative discussion, sounds, and extraneous comments. Transcribing takes time but is an extremely important part of this assignment. Interpreting student discourse is an important teaching skill for promoting inquiry-oriented thinking (see Marzano, et al., 2001). Mark wait-time I and II on each transcript. Code each statement according to Rowe's "Game Model of Instruction" (Structuring, Soliciting, Responding, Reacting). Code each question and each response according to a modified Bloom's Taxonomy, i.e. Knowledge, Comprehension, & Higher Levels. Research has shown wait-time to be an important variable in teaching practice for promoting extended, substantive discourse in classrooms. Create a graphic representation or "concept map" to show your own understanding of the target concept. Create a concept map for each of the three students representing each, idiosyncratic point of view. Discuss the similarities and differences across people in your report. Graphic representation of ideas has been effectively used in research and teaching practice to help students reflect on complex knowledge (“non-linguistic representations”, Marzano, et al., 2001).

Written Synthesis Write a synthesis of the study in a maximum of 10 pages (single-spaced with font size similar to what is on this page - 12 point Arial), excluding the concept maps and transcripts. The report must be clearly organized in the following way:

A. Rationale and Goals [These are elements of your work sample]: Include a brief discussion of the target concept(s) and their educational significance and relationship to relevant state and national standards for the level you intend to teach. Integrate the content of at least three educational research articles that deal with student conceptions in your area of interest. See the list of attached periodicals for good sources. (about 500 words or 1 page)

B. Your Concept: Put your graphic organizer into words. Discuss the major ideas and their relationships in your own words. This should not read like a textbook. Include original examples of how this concept is experienced in everyday life. (about 1/2 page)

C. Developing Probing Tools [This is part of the pre-assessment of your work sample]: Develop a probing tools that will help you elicit students’ ideas about the concept. At minimum, you are to develop a structured set of questions designed to elicit student discourse about the target concept(s) and at least one activity that supports the overall purpose of this investigation. Test the tools with at least one other person to adjust wording and/or delivery in order to assess Concept Case Study 3

validity and reliability. Report on this process and any adjustments you made. Submit the tools and discussion of validation (1/2 page) with the report.

D. Student Ideas: Describe characteristics of each subject such as age or grade, gender, their prior experiences with the phenomena related to the target science concept, and other factors relevant to learning. Analyze each subject's thinking as expressed in the interviews. If this section reads like a text description, then listen to your audio records again. For example, this section could reflect attention to comparisons, examples, analogies, and key terms the student used to construct explanations. (about 3 pages)

E. Implications for Teaching: Discuss your analysis of the pattern of dialogue and activity revealed in this study with respect to implications for teaching. Cite readings from this class and other sources as appropriate in support of the implications. Examples of implications would be (a) teaching for long-term retention, (b) effective classroom patterns base on Rowe's game-model of instruction, (c) effect of wait-time on student expression, (d) focusing on student thinking during the school day, or (e) designing instruction to promote thinking. (about 2 pages)

F. Personal Observations: Evaluate this project in personal terms. For example, what did the experience mean to you? What did you learn about yourself as a teacher? What did you learn about your understanding of the concepts in the study? About your ability to listen to and discuss science, math, and engineering topics with students? About your attitude towards math/science? What part does "student thinking" play in the school context? What part should it play? (about 1/2 page)

G. Reference List: Include a full reference to research articles and any other readings cited in the paper. The text references in the syllabus for this course are in the format of the American Psychological Association, Fifth Edition (1994), the standard for scholarly work in the field of education. See http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01 for examples.

H. Transcripts and Concept Maps: For each student you will submit at least the following data: audio record (not submitted); partial transcript coded for wait-time, game model of instruction, and Bloom's Taxonomy; and concept map.

Evaluation Criteria: When taken as a whole, this study addresses the listed learning outcomes [see Syllabus: 1, 2, 4, 5, 10]. The parts of the study should be clearly linked with purpose (Rationale), procedures (probing tools), results and analysis, and implications for teaching closely linked. Evidence from the study must drive the analysis and implications sections.