The science of teaching

The
science of teaching
………………………………………

CBEN
and the Center for Education help urban teachers learn to
engage students in scientific concepts

BY LINDSEY FIELDER
Rice News Staff

Through the slender
glass windows of a classroom door, students can be seen
sitting in neat rows, taking notes. The class seems to be
in order and under control, so these kids must really be
learning. But take a closer look and not all of these students
are learning. Most are merely retaining the information
for the teacher’s test and then forgetting it soon
after.

To address low
test scores and high drop-out rates in the Houston Independent
School District, the Center for Education and the Center
for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology joined efforts
to develop a training program for HISD’s ninth-grade
science teachers.

Elnora Harcombe,
associate director of the Center for Education, said the
program targets these teachers because of the nature of
the ninth-grade integrated physics and chemistry (IPC) class.
In this class, students learn basic concepts that higher
science classes build upon. However, there is a high failure
rate in this course due to the assignment of new teachers
who do not have the experience they need to properly engage
students in the material.

One component
of the training program is the pH Model Science Lab at Lee
High School. In its second year at the high school level,
the pH Lab takes teachers out of their home high school
for one year and teaches them new ways to convey information
to students while improving their own science knowledge.

“The main
goal of this program is to convert teachers from lectures
and canned labs and show them how to help students truly
understand the material,” Harcombe said. “They
learn new ways to get students involved and new ways to
prove the material they’re teaching.”

Harcombe said
the program shows participating teachers various teaching
models so they can see how their traditional teaching methods
are ineffective. They observe other teachers, sit in on
classes at Rice and go on field trips. “Teachers begin
to pay attention to other ways to engage their students
in the material,” she said. “They see that what
they’ve been doing all along hasn’t been working
as well as they thought.”

Debbie Cobb,
a teacher from Sam Houston High School, said after teaching
for 25 years, she realized for the first time that students
come to class with preconceived notions of the scientific
concepts she’s trying to teach.

“It was
‘rhema’ — a divine revelation,” she
said. “This is what has been missing. Kids don’t
care about our ideas or what the book tells them. They just
learn what we tell them for the test and they never really
believe it to be true.”

Harcombe said
the pH Lab gives these teachers the opportunity to try new
ways to impart information in an engaging way. They start
by asking the students what their thoughts are on a particular
scientific concept. By allowing these students to talk about
what they think, it gives them ownership over the information,
she said.

Harcombe said
it can be hard for most teachers at first. Things will get
a little disorderly — students might even argue —
so teachers have to let go of the idea that a quiet class
is best. “They have to subtly lead the discussion,”
she said. “Teachers have to give their input at the
right time so students come to a conclusion” they can
back up by evidence collected through their own investigations.

When these conclusions
are compared to scientifically accepted explanations, students
then take ownership over the concepts they’ve learned
and proven right or wrong, Harcombe said.

Rhoniese Simpson,
from Westside High School, said this method of teaching
differs from traditional teaching by finding out students’
ideas and making them the starting point, rather than books
and notes.

“Looking
at my students’ faces, I could see something was missing,”
Simpson said. “I came here so I could be a better teacher.”

Upon observation,
it would seem this type of teaching would be much harder.
But Simpson said it actually makes class time easier on
the teacher. “It takes more effort and thought outside
of the classroom to come up with ideas that will get the
kids excited about the subject,” she said. “It’s
harder in class for the students — not necessarily
the teacher — because [the students are] the ones coming
up with opinions and ways to back them up.”

Talina Grimes,
a teacher from Westbury High School, said before attending
the development program, she was considering returning to
work in the chemical industry. “It increases your job
satisfaction when you see kids actually learning and caring
about the material,” she said. “It changes the
way you approach teaching, and now I’m excited about
[teaching] again.”

Harcombe said
these sentiments are true from almost all teachers who have
been through the training program. The program started 13
years ago at the middle school level and has had an almost
perfect teacher retention rate — 95 percent. “Teachers
stay in education because they have a new way to receive
feedback on their teaching,” she said.