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Statement of Educational Beliefs and Values My own personal experiences as a learner of science have significantly shaped my point of view regarding the immeasurable value of a quality science education. As a child, I quickly developed an interest in nature and a love for being outdoors. Some of my fondest memories of childhood involve the times that my older brother and I spent exploring the creek and open field near our home. Whether we were collecting earthworms from the sidewalk after a sudden downpour or raising tadpoles in a makeshift pond, it seemed that the summers were never long enough for our outdoor adventures. Even after all of these years, I still possess a sense of excitement and childlike wonder about nature. In fact, I believe it was my love for nature that led me to pursue a career as a science teacher. When I entered college, I knew that I wanted to do something related to science. I also knew that I wanted to have the opportunity to positively affect the lives of others. After a semester of chemical engineering classes, I realized that the prospect of a substantial salary was not enough to suppress my desire to share my passion for science with others. I switched my major to education and have been a science education "nut" ever since. Though I always had an interest in scientific topics and an appreciation for scientific knowledge, I was never able to clearly explain what it was about science that was so attractive to me. The eventual solution to my dilemma was prompted by a very unlikely source, the Kansas State Board of Education. In August 1999, the Board voted to de-emphasize biological evolution, the geologic timescale, and the big bang in the state science standards. This action, along with the subsequent exposure of the poorly concealed influence of a Creation Science organization on the final draft of the standards, aroused in me a desire to learn more about the true nature of scientific knowledge and the scientific enterprise. What I have learned has changed the way I look at my role as a science educator. I now understand what it is about science that has led me to this point in the journey. I have identified the valuable role that science plays in the overall human endeavor. Science allows us to investigate, evaluate, and understand the world around us. By providing us with a means of objectively exploring our universe, science supplies us with the most reliable knowledge we can have about the how the natural world works and how it got to be the way that it is. It was this realization that caused me to refocus my thinking about what is most important for students to learn in my science classes. While I still recognize that a basic knowledge of science content is necessary for all students to become scientifically literate, I feel that it is most important for students to leave my classroom with an appreciation for lifelong learning and an understanding of the role of science in our society. My ultimate goal would be for each and every one of my students to become responsible and informed members of society who are able to use critical thinking to make decisions and solve problems in their lives. I believe that students best learn science when they are directly involved in scientific activities. This means that students must routinely be faced with hands-on challenges that involve a real chance for success and a real chance for failure. I see my role as a science teacher as that of a facilitator of student learning. I will strive to create a learning environment with appropriate learning activities, sufficient support, and multiple avenues for success, but the students must be accountable for their own learning for the success to be personally meaningful and real. I also believe in a mastery learning approach. The value of mastery learning is the removal of the threat of absolute failure by allowing students to have the opportunity to make improvements and succeed if they are willing to put forth the effort. My greatest thrill in teaching is to be there when a student has a personal breakthrough in understanding. I enjoy seeing the look on their faces as they realize that they finally "get it." I have heard such events described as "teachable moments." Certain instructional methods, like the constructivist model and hands-on inquiry activities, allow for moments like these to happen on a regular basis. Constructivism is an instructional approach that requires teachers to take into account what students know and then build upon and modify this knowledge so that it agrees with current scientific views. Constructivist teaching involves negotiations that take place between the teacher and the students in which the teacher helps the students to gain a deeper understanding of reality. Teachers must provide structure and guidance for learning and constructing knowledge through their interactions with students. By using constructivism in my classroom, I hope to strengthen students' conceptual understandings by helping them to construct their own personal meanings. When students are personally involved in scientific investigations that have uncertain beginnings and ends, they develop a deeper appreciation for the nature of the scientific enterprise. By participating in inquiry activities, I want my students to learn how to conduct scientific investigations in situations that have personal meaning to them and in ways that help them to understand the value of scientific knowledge. Inquiry investigations also require students to apply the evidence gained through experimentation to develop and revise their own explanations for scientific phenomena. In assessing student learning in my science classes, I believe it is important to use a wide variety of assessment procedures. First, I believe in the use of formal examinations made up of open-ended, short-answer, and essay questions that require students to use higher levels of thinking than objective multiple-choice tests. Student-generated projects and presentations are another effective way to assess student learning. I also believe in assessing students' laboratory and measurement skills through the use of performance assessment measures. Because of my emphasis on inquiry, much of my assessment of student learning will be based on the conclusions that students draw from the observations they make during inquiry lab activities. This focus on student-generated conclusions will allow me to accurately assess the current levels of understanding in my class. Finally, student-generated portfolios allow students to reflect on their learning as the year progresses and come to a better understanding of their strengths and difficulties in science. I truly believe that for science to be fairly represented in our society, as many people as possible must understand the nature of science and appreciate the usefulness of scientific knowledge. This means that all students must leave our science classrooms with the ability to recognize the validity and utility of scientific explanations. For this to happen, teachers must seriously consider the nature of science and examine their teaching practices to determine if their classroom representations of the scientific enterprise are accurately conveying the true nature of science. Without this analysis of teaching practices, our society will have difficulty achieving the goal of scientific literacy for all. |
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