ALL PARTICIPANTS PLEASE READ THE NOTE BELOW!!!
Although your course packet asks you to post to blog for parts A, B, C, and D…we are asking that you only post part D to the blog. We’re trying to make the blog more user-friendly and easier to read. Thanks!
A. Self Assessment of Current Beliefs and Practices: This component asks you to reflect on how and why you currently use the instructional strategies of Generating and Testing Hypotheses in your classroom. The intent of this is to activate your prior knowledge of your strategy use so that you can make comparisons as you read the chapter.
B. Read & Reflect “Research & Theory”: This portion of the assignment asks you to read chapter 9 and reflect briefly on your thinking after reading the “Research and Theory” section of Generating and Testing Hypotheses.
C. Practice: Choose one of the specific “classroom practice” strategies or techniques shared in this chapter to teach to your students (If you are not currently teaching, you should reflect upon how you would use this strategy in your classroom.)
D. Final Strategy Reflection: A sequence of questions posted below asks you to reflect on what you’ve learned about both the strategies presented in the chapter and what you’ve learned about yourself as both a teacher and a learner. Please post a brief reflection of how this went to the posting labeled Week Nine: Generating and Testing Hypotheses.
How has the information you read in this chapter on Generating and Testing Hypotheses effected your thinking about teaching and learning? What have you learned about yourself as a teacher and learner? Use the following questions to assist you in writing a brief strategy reflection:
• How might I change how use Generating and Testing Hypotheses in my classroom?
• What is something you now understand better about Generating and Testing Hypotheses?
How has the information you read in this chapter on Generating and Testing Hypotheses effected your thinking about teaching and learning? What have you learned about yourself as a teacher and learner? Use the following questions to assist you in writing a brief strategy reflection:
• How might I change how use Generating and Testing Hypotheses in my classroom?
• What is something you now understand better about Generating and Testing Hypotheses?
3 comments:
Chapter 9: Generating and testing hypotheses
As I was reading this chapter I was reflecting about the opportunities in which I engage my students in making and testing hypotheses and I felt that I could incorporate more of these in my regular teaching. In general, students generate a hypothesis in my classroom mostly during science class or calendar time. Everyday, as part of our schedule, students gather together for calendar time. Besides of providing students with diverse opportunities and tasks to develop their math skills, calendar time helps them develop their science skills. Everyday, as part of the routine we follow, students report the weather for that day as well as making predictions/hypotheses about the next day’s weather. Students make their predictions based on the patterns they have observed that day and their knowledge about weather. We write the hypothesis on a poster paper to be checked the next day. For first grade students, hypotheses have to be very simple yet challenging for their expanding minds. At a young age, students are developing and acquiring ideas about life and the world in general. Hypotheses have to be not only relevant to their lives but also valid in order for them to be engaged in formulating and testing them.
Students have also formulated hypotheses about plants. When studying the germination process for a plant; students generate hypotheses about the number of days and conditions a seed will take/need in order to germinate. Students write their predictions and ideas on their journal which is later used to corroborate their hypotheses.
After reading this chapter I would like to try out other strategies to generate hypotheses. I believe that they are a very important and functional tool and students should manipulate them in order to test their own knowledge and reinforce/change the concepts they already know. I also realized with this chapter that while I was a student I was not given many opportunities to formulate or test hypotheses. Teachers, solely, provided the knowledge and we as students did not have the opportunities or we lack the awareness to request the generation and testing of hypotheses as part of our learning process. However, I want to be aware of this as a teacher; I do not want to make the same mistake. I want my students to play an active role in their learning process and I need to provide the opportunities they require to achieve this.
Generating and Testing Hypotheses: Reading this chapter was perfect because I read it a few days before I started an experiment with my students. They were so excited about doing an experiment and get to see the outcome. We took white carnations and placed them in colored water to see how plants carry water all the way to the petals. I loved their excitement when they returned to school the next day and the flowers had changed color. On the first day I introduced what a hypothesis was. From there students had to predict if the flowers would change color or not. This allowed the students to know what might happen and come to their own conclusions of the outcome. After we have done this I believe that students will be able to create their own hypothesis when given a proper amount of information. My hope is to give them a box of items and then from that create a hypothesis and then test it out themselves. I was reminded that you can use hypothesizes for more than just science. Usually the first thing that comes to mind when you think about a hypothesis is science. I would like to give information about a certain topic and then have students create a hypothesis about what they think. Afterwards they would research the topic more and see if their prediction was correct.
As a teacher I would like to give my students the opportunities to know what the scientific method is and how they can use it in many areas of life. If we began to teach them these kinds of information at younger ages then once they get to high school or even middle school they would already have a grasp on what this would look like. I would like to make this a part of our daily learning. I believe that students need to be better taught have to use inductive thinking. Students are too often simply given an answer instead of shown how to examine the information and think critically for themselves. As I teach my group of third graders I want to help them be able to know why something works and not just the surface level of information. This chapter reminded me of that and has good information that I will use in my classroom this year.
Liliana, you summarized it nicely at the end of your post. "I want my students to play an active role in their learning process and I need to provide the opportunities they require to achieve this."
Well stated!
Post a Comment