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Education professor Sarah Michaels is pioneering ways to improve the teaching of science to "at risk" students. She is assisted by several students in her course "Transformative Schooling," who have helped her film interaction in the classroom. |
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Everykid a scientist
Professor Sarah Michael's research
Middle school students who are performing poorly in school often perceive the study of science as especially intimidating. For them, science class is just another place to feel stupid. Scientific inquiry seems irrelevant to their daily experiences and requires an alien vocabulary and way of thinking. In effect, the personal identities of "at risk" students are at odds with their perceptions of the Scientist.
- Read below about the Investigator's Club, an after school activity developed by Sarah Michaels and her colleagues to teach at risk students about science and watch a Real Player video.
- Go to online interviews with Professor Michaels, Matt LeBlanc '04, and Jasen Boyle '99, and with Tim Dzurilla '05
- View videos (Real Player format) in which Michaels discusses the three aspects of Accountable Talk:
(Courtesy of the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh*)
The Investigators' Club
For six years, education professor Sarah Michaels, colleague Richard Sohmer, and Clark education students have been implementing and evaluating the Investigators' Club, an approach designed to engage at-risk middle school students in the study of physics. Based on assessment results, the researchers have now concluded that "at risk" middle school students who participate in the I-Club
- Can better understand difficult problems in physics and demonstrate that understanding to others
- Become more motivated in school
- Receive better evaluations from their teachers in a number of subjects, not just science.
What's different about the way physics is taught in the I-Club?
Teachers leading the I-Club use several different tools designed to engage students and help them think like scientists:
- Position driven discussion
- Accountable TalkSM
- The narrative
Position driven discussion
During an I-Club meeting, a teacher leads the club members in a "position-driven discussion." The discussion focuses on a demonstration that uses familiar, everyday objects to illustrate a physics principle. Before beginning the demo, the teacher might ask, "what would happen if?" After the demo, the teacher might ask, "why did a particular outcome occur?" Students are encouraged to suggest possible answers and to argue their positions in a group forum. The teacher is responsible for clarifying positions, moderating the discussion and insuring that all students feel a stake in the outcome.
Accountable TalkSM
When moderating the discussion, the teacher can use a technique called Accountable TalkSM. The purpose of this technique is to insure that the talk occurring within the Club is productive of learning. Accountable TalkSM is characterized by three components
- Accountability to the learning community. Accountable TalkSM encourages students to build on the comments of their peers in a respectful and inclusive manner.
- Accountability to accurate knowledge. Students are educated in the importance of making sure the facts they use to support an argument are accurate.
- Accountability to rigorous thinking. Students are expected to use methods of reasoning appropriate to the discipline, in this case, science.
The use of narrative as a metaphor
After the demonstration and discussion, the teacher can introduce explanatory information by framing it in a student-friendly context. For example, instead of describing air pressure as a phenomenon characterized by the behavior of molecules in an enclosed space, the teacher might tell a story about mythical creatures called "air puppies". The "air puppies" float and bumble mindlessly in a confined space, exhibiting properties both of real puppies and air molecules. The story is a narrative tool that acts as a metaphor, bridging the gap between the everyday world of the students and the theoretical scenario being studied. Unlike molecules, puppies are phenomena that most students can eagerly relate to and visualize!
Michaels and her colleagues maintain that exposure to this form of demonstration, discussion and explanation helps students bridge the gap between their personal identities and that of the Scientist. By posing questions for subsequent debate, the teacher casts the students as investigators-in effect, apprentice scientists. By featuring demonstrations using common objects, the principles of physics are reframed as something relevant to everyday life. In the course of discussion, students are able to introduce knowledge acquired from their everyday lives, countering their perceptions of themselves as ignorant.
Who was in the I-Club study?
I-Club members are a diverse group of "at risk" 7th graders who volunteered to participate. They met after school three times per week for 15 weeks during the school year. The study compares their progress with another group of 7th graders matched for ethnicity, gender, science grades and attendance who also volunteered for the Club. The control group participated in a different set of activities from those used in the I-Club.
*Copyright 2002 by the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photo-copying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing by the publisher. For further information please email nisrael@pitt.edu.
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Additional Resources
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Above photos. I-Club students illustrating the "air puppies" narrative.
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An I-Club student presents her explanation of air pressure in the context of an air gun. Real player video.
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| Teacher Richard Sohmer moderates the I-Club discussion. |
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