Lectures
Prof. Helen R. Quinn
The Challenges of Implementing 3d Science Learning
In “A Framework for k-12 Science Education” (NRC, 2012) we introduced the terminology of three dimensions of science learning. This document forms the basis of science standards now adopted by over 30 states in the US and has had major influence internationally. I will describe the elements of the three dimensions and how they combine to support students in achieving learning that is “knowledge for use”, and why we chose this framing. I will discuss the critical role for science learning of building student understanding across all three dimensions: science and engineering practices; crosscutting concepts; and disciplinary core ideas. I will briefly discuss the challenges for teacher education, ongoing professional development, curriculum development and assessment raised by this vision for science education.
A well-designed curriculum unit and the embedded assessment tasks introduce students to carefully selected phenomena and problems, chosen to be interesting and relevant to the students, but most particularly chosen such that the science to be learned is needed to achieve a satisfactory explanation or design. The phenomena and engineering problems frame and motivate the learning and its assessment. I will talk about the role of teachers in supporting students to undertake the sense-making work to develop explanations for phenomena or designs to solve engineering (or applied science) problems. Teachers need both pre- and in-service professional development and well-designed curriculum resources to shift their teaching practice and provide this support.
Finally I will briefly address the role and limitations of external assessments and the challenges of the dual role to both monitor classroom effectiveness and measure individual student learning.
Prof. Joseph Krajcik
Designing Science Education Learning Environment to Engage Students in Developing Useable Knowledge
How should science learning environments be designed to focus on knowledge-in-use standards where learners use the big ideas of science and scientific practices to make sense of phenomena, solve problems and learn more when needed? Investigating questions that students find meaningful has long been supported as a viable learning structure. Project-based Learning (PBL) structures science learning environments around questions that engage students in collaborative inquiry. In the process of finding solution to the questions, students learn important scientific ideas and practices, and 21st century skills. Because PBL focuses on students and their interests, it is sensitive to the varied needs of diverse students with respect to culture, race, and gender. Project-based learning supports students in developing useable knowledge to solve problems, makes decision, explain phenomena and innovate when needed. In his presentation, Professor Krajcik will explain the features of project-based learning, show how the various features of PBL are anchored in what is known about how students learn and present data from recent studies to support his claims.
Project-based learning uses a question anchored in phenomena or problems that are meaningful to learners. This question drives student exploration and learning. Establishing the driving question sets the stage for meeting all of the other key features of PBL. The driving question focuses students planning and carrying out collaborative investigations and guides the development of artifacts, concrete representations of the results of students’ investigations. Throughout PBL students collaborate and use cognitive tools in their investigations and in building artifacts. As students collaboratively pursue solutions to the driving question, they develop useable knowledge and 21st century skills necessary to solve problem, make sense of phenomena and learn more when needed. Project-based learning is align with recommendations from the National Academy of Science in the US to support all learners in developing knowledge-in-use.
Prof. Alan H. Schoenfeld
Powerful Learning Environments, In Theory and Practice: An R&D Agenda for the Next 50 years
We all want our students to become knowledgeable and resourceful thinkers and problem solvers, to develop productive dispositions and habits of mind, and to contribute meaningfully to their classroom communities and beyond.
I will argue that achieving these goals calls for reframing how we think about teaching, teacher knowledge, and learning environments. To begin, I want to refocus the way we typically look at classrooms. Rather than the starting point being a focus on the teacher, I propose we begin by focusing on the learner. The first question then becomes: What are the attributes of learning environments that support students in becoming powerful thinkers and problem solvers? And, how can such environments be characterized in ways that are “actionable,” so we can help teachers create them?
We have made significant progress in addressing this question. The Teaching for Robust Understanding (TRU) Framework identifies five key dimensions of practice: (i) the subject matter, including both content and disciplinary practices; (ii) opportunities for sense making and productive struggle; (iii) equitable access to core ideas for all students; (iv) fostering student agency, ownership of ideas, and identity; and (v) formative assessment as the glue that holds these together. Evidence indicates that if these five dimensions of classroom practice go well, students will emerge from the classroom as powerful thinkers and problem solvers; if any are problematic, they will not.
In typical hydra-like fashion, however, solving one problem creates more. The next set of questions then becomes: What kinds understandings enable teachers to craft powerful learning environments, and what kinds of tools and professional development will support teachers in developing such Teacher Knowledge? Note the capital T and K. Successful teaching rests on a foundation of personal, social, and institutional perceptions, understandings, skills and proficiencies that we have barely begun to understand and theorize, and classical conceptions of (small k) knowledge are not up to the task. We need to reconceptualize knowledge and work to support teachers’ development of this reconceptualized version of the underlying proficiencies for teaching. This is a massive R&D project.
I very much look forward to exploring these issues with you, in my Jubilee presentation and over the years to come.
Registration Deadline:
December 31, 2018
Organizing committee
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Anat Yarden
Ronnie Karsenty
Bat-Shahar Dorfman
Shani Partush
Weizmann Institute of Science
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Academic Committee
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Anat Yarden
Avi Hofstein
Abraham Arcavi
David Fortus
Nir Orion
Ronnie Karsenty
Bat-Shahar Dorfman
Weizmann Institute of Science
Conference Coordinator
Inbal Azoulay
inbal.azoulay@weizmann.ac.il