Many teachers shudder at the thought of implementing an inquiry curriculum. Perhaps they envision a rowdy classroom with little learning. Maybe they wonder,  How will this connect to all the standards?  Fortunately, these legitimate concerns can be addressed, and all students can engage in thoughtfully constructed inquiry science experiences. In this article, we outline five strategies that we have used with elementary school teachers as they moved from a  cookbook  approach in science to an approach that is inquiry-based. Having presented these five strategies in a linear format, we know that on the surface this may seem close to the slippery slope of cookbook science teaching, but we also know that thoughtful practitioners working in classrooms across the country will see these strategies as interactive, overlapping, and nonsequential

Flessner, Ryan

Magee, Paula A.

English

Digital Commons @ Butler University

Butler University Digital Commons @ Butler University Scholarship and Professional Work – Education College of Education 2011 Five Strategies to Support all Teachers: Suggestions to Get Off the Slippery Slope of "Cookbook" Science Teaching Paula A. Magee Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis Ryan Flessner Butler University, rflessne@butler.edu Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/coe_papers  Part of the Educational Assessment, Evaluation, and Research Commons, Educational Methods Commons, Elementary Education and Teaching Commons, and the Science and Mathematics Education Commons Recommended Citation Magee, Paula A. and Flessner, Ryan, "Five Strategies to Support all Teachers: Suggestions to Get Off the Slippery Slope of "Cookbook" Science Teaching" (2011). Scholarship and Professional Work – Education. 46. https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/coe_papers/46 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Education at Digital Commons @ Butler University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Scholarship and Professional Work – Education by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Butler University. For more information, please contact digitalscholarship@butler.edu. Science and Children, March 2011[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]Many teachers shudder at the thought of implementing an inquiry curriculum. Perhaps they envision arowdy classroom with little learning. Maybe they wonder, "How will this connect to all the standards?"Fortunately, these legitimate concerns can be addressed, and all students can engage in thoughtfullyconstructed inquiry science experiences. In this article, we outline five strategies that we have used withelementary school teachers as they moved from a "cookbook" approach in science to an approach that isinquiry-based. Having presented these five strategies in a linear format, we know that on the surface thismay seem close to the slippery slope of cookbook science teaching, but we also know that thoughtfulpractitioners working in classrooms across the country will see these strategies as interactive, overlapping,and nonsequential.What Is Inquiry?As teacher educators who consistently work with pre-service and inservice elementary teachers, we havefound that it helps to clarify inquiry before looking more closely at specific cases of inquiry-based teaching.Because inquiry has been defined in many different ways (e.g., Banchi and Bell 2008; Martin-Hansen 2002;Settlage 2007), teachers can quickly become overwhelmed and frustrated. We use the National ScienceEducation Standards as a guide (NRC 1996). The NRC describes inquiry "as a step beyond the processskills," (p. 105) in which content, process, and reasoning are synthesized as a way for students to learn.Although this definition can be helpful, it does not offer concrete suggestions for how to engage students inthese kinds of experiences--let alone how to make the jump to open inquiry.Because of this, we align ourselves closely with those who write about an inquiry continuum (e.g., Ansberryand Morgan 2007; Banchi and Bell 2008). An inquiry continuum assists teachers in envisioning the manytypes of experiences they can provide for their students. Typically, the continuum consists of three levels ofinquiry: structured inquiry, guided inquiry, and open inquiry. Structured inquiry consists of teacher-generatedquestions that students explore through predefined procedures. This type of inquiry is typically used as atransition for teachers and students as they begin to move away from more traditional forms of teaching andlearning in the science classroom. As they become more comfortable with inquiry-based teaching andlearning, teachers and students engage in more collaborative inquiry processes. Guided inquiry providesteachers and students with opportunities to work together to define questions for study and the proceduresfor exploring those questions. In open inquiry situations, the learners typically formulate their own questions,develop the procedures for collecting evidence, and define the ways in which the data will be analyzed toanswer the questions under study. We have seen each type of inquiry in the classrooms we have visited,and we believe that teachers all over the country are effectively using each type of inquiry in theirclassrooms (see Figure 1 in the Guest Editorial on p. 9).To investigate quality teaching practices, we started by asking some general questions: What kinds ofStudent Resources in Context- Print http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/suic/AcademicJournalsDetailsPage/Academic...1 of 7 6/15/2015 4:50 PMactivities encourage reasoning and synthesizing? How do we include process skills and content? In ourwork with elementary teachers we have tried to answer these questions by identifying strategies thatsupport learning while considering student choice and decision making, each a central tenet ofinquiry-based teaching. For us, inquiry experiences allow students to develop rich questions, to take leadroles in decision making, and offer opportunities for physical and mental messing around (Hawkins 1965),all as a way of making sense of the natural world.Strategy 1: Use "Thinking Starters"In some cases it is feasible for teachers to solicit topics for investigations from students at the beginning of aunit of study. However, in most cases, teachers are asked to teach certain standards as part of theirrequired curriculum. This requirement need not force a teacher to abandon an inquiry approach. Asdescribed, a structured inquiry approach is often a feasible starting point for many teachers and theirstudents. The first strategy we recommend encourages students to ask questions, work with physicalmaterials, and become devoted to an investigation in order to collect evidence that will allow them to reasonthrough the possible answers to the questions they are pursuing. Although a more traditional activity maycarefully list steps to follow, a thinking starter activity should be intentionally open-ended and encouragestudents to generate questions about the topic under study. In this way, even if the teacher has preselectedthe topic, then students are given an opportunity to share ideas, generate questions, and developownership in the investigations to come.Strategy 2: Listen to Children's IdeasTo facilitate inquiry, it is critical to identify children's thinking and encourage them to share their ideas. Whena teacher better understands her students' thinking and ideas, she is better able to develop experiencesthat will resonate with the children. We suggest two highly successful ways for teachers to hear children'sideas. One is through listening in on small-group discussions. The other is by recording whole-classdiscussions in which students share ideas from the work in which they have been engaged. Although it maytake time for children to get the hang of a whole-class discussion, it has been our experience that once theybecome comfortable, they relish the opportunity to share. Obviously, it will take time to build this culture ofsharing, but teachers with whom we have worked have shown great persistence. In doing so, they havebeen able to dismantle some of the children's beliefs about "how we do school." When possible, a circularsitting arrangement--with the teacher as part of the circle--works well.A first-grade teacher that we worked with routinely used the science circle to listen to her students discusstheir ideas. During one robust discussion the class was wondering how the pond behind its school wasformed. Students had already made many observations at the pond. They had generated topics of interestbased on these observations and researched to find out more information. As a result of theseinvestigations, the question "Where did the pond come from?" emerged. The children brainstormed ideas tofind out. These ideas included: researching text sources, making more observations, and asking experts.Ultimately, the children asked the principal (an "expert" who the children viewed as knowing the history ofthe school well) to share his expertise about the history of the pond. By listening to her students' questionsand thoughts, and by providing a space for those discussions to occur, the teacher was able to successfullysupport her children.Strategy 3: Use Standards as a GuideTeachers, often under intense pressure to cover the standards, can get trapped in a mentality of squeezingStudent Resources in Context- Print http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/suic/AcademicJournalsDetailsPage/Academic...2 of 7 6/15/2015 4:50 PMin content. This can result in step-by-step activities that often lack student input and leave little space forstudent reasoning and questioning. We have found that children's ideas often connect to big ideas that arepart of most state standards.For example, an inquiry investigation using worms as a thinking starter encouraged students to generatemany complex questions (see Thinking Starters on p. 36) that connected with the state standard ofinterdependence. Keeping an expert ear open to the questions that students were developing, the teacherwas able to connect strongly to the standards without sacrificing student input or reasoning. Supported bythe strategies, students developed questions such as, "How does the anatomy of a worm affect soil?" and"How are other animals living in the soil impacted by the worms?"Strategy 4: Develop Complex QuestionsIn one classroom that we visited, students were asked to examine Pop Rocks candy and to documentthings that they noticed that were interesting to them. At first the questions that the students developedwere pretty basic, such as "Who invented them?" and "What year did they come out?" But after mixing thePop Rocks with water, students began to notice additional things and generated questions such as: "Whydo they pop?" "Do they pop in other liquids?" and "Why do they sound like Rice Krispies?" These questionsprompted the teacher to focus on the popping component of the candy and the students began an inquirythat helped them make sense of the carbon dioxide in the candy (by investigating the packaging in moredetail and generating even more questions) and the pressure necessary to create the candy in the firstplace. If the teacher had stopped the children after the first round of questions were developed, the inquirywould not have become as complex. Instead the teacher continued to supply materials for furtherinvestigation (water, oil, Rice Krispies) and the students were able to develop questions around thechemistry of the candy.Strategy 5: Document and ReflectWhen teachers want to engage students in thinking beyond the facts, they often struggle. It is all too easy tofall back on predetermined lessons that ask students to fill in the blank. Even when thinking starters areused, teachers and students can get stuck determining how to make sense of all the different ideas thatstudents might have. Teachers may wonder, "How do these seemingly disconnected ideas come together tohelp a child understand?" We have found that documentation (using science notebooks or specific prompts)and reflection (through writing, talking, and drawing) are critical. Most important, documentation honors theideas that children have and allows them to return to these ideas over again. Strong documentation skillsteach children to listen carefully and to find multiple ways to capture ideas that they and others put forth.Reflection further supports learning as teachers revisit students' ideas and ask them to think deeply aboutthem as they work to identify connections that make sense.In another classroom we visited, the teacher engaged his fifth graders in a unit on oceans--a state standardhe was expected to cover as a fifth-grade science teacher. Because no oceans were readily available forthe students to explore, the teacher encouraged the children to examine the school's pond. The classdevised a tool to measure the depth of the pond. The classroom teacher collected the measurement datafor the students using the student-designed tool. Using this data, students created 2-D and 3-Drepresentations of the pond. Intrigued by their documentation, the teacher in charge of maintaining theschool's outdoor lab (where the pond was located) alerted the class that they had "rescued the fish." Thewinter months were approaching. Based on the children's measurements, the water was not deep enoughto sustain life underneath the sheet of ice. Because of their documentation, students and teachers wereStudent Resources in Context- Print http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/suic/AcademicJournalsDetailsPage/Academic...3 of 7 6/15/2015 4:50 PMable to reflect on the situation, devise a solution, and continue the inquiry cycle.ConclusionIt is our hope that teachers will see these five strategies not as a recipe to be followed, but rather, assuggestions to explore, discuss with colleagues, and inspire experimentation. This flexibility requiresteachers to know their students, understand the broader ideas within the field of science, and to constantlyassess the teaching and learning taking place in the classroom.Teachers who engage their students in successful inquiry projects are deliberate in their planning, in theirlistening and questioning, and in the pursuit of resources that will support their children's inquiry projects.We look forward to the day when the cookbooks are replaced by the ideas, questions, and inquiries of thecreative individuals in classrooms across the country.Thinking StartersIn one fourth-grade classroom the teacher wanted to start an inquiry unit on composting. As a way togenerate questions, she developed a thinking starter that asked the children to make observations whilelooking at a small teacher-created compost bin. The children generated many questions and were able todevelop a two-month-long study that far exceeded the teacher's expectations. In this case, thinking starterswere further supported by supplying the children with written or oral prompts that always includedstatements such as: What do you wonder about? What would you like to understand better about this?What would you do next if you could choose?Connecting to the StandardsThis article relates to the following National Science Education Standards (NRC 1996):Teaching StandardsStandard A:Teachers of science plan an inquiry-based science program for their students.Standard B:Teachers of science guide and facilitate learning.Content StandardsGrades K-8Standard A: Science as Inquiry* Abilities necessary to do scientific inquiryStudent Resources in Context- Print http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/suic/AcademicJournalsDetailsPage/Academic...4 of 7 6/15/2015 4:50 PM* Understanding about scientific inquiryNational Research Council (NRC). 1996. National science education standards. Washington, DC: NationalAcademies Press.ReferencesAnsberry, K.R., and E.R. Morgan. 2007. More picture-perfect science lessons: Using children's books toguide inquiry, grades K-4. Arlington, VA: National Science Teachers Association.Banchi, H., and R. Bell. 2008. The many levels of inquiry. Science and Children 46 (2): 26-29.Hawkins, D. 1965. Messing about in science. Science and Children 2 (5): 5-9.Martin-Hansen, L. 2002. Defining inquiry. The Science Teacher 69 (2): 34-37.Settlage, J. 2007. Demythologizing science teacher education: Conquering the false idea of open inquiry.Journal of Science Teacher Education 18 (4): 461-468.Internet ResourceLearning Science Through Inquirywww.learner.org/resources/series129.htmlPaula A. Magee (pamagee@iupui.edu) is a Clinical Associate Professor at Indiana University-PurdueUniversity Indianapolis in Indianapolis, Indiana. Ryan Flessner is an Assistant Professor at Butler Universityin Indianapolis, Indiana.Magee, Paula A.^Flessner, RyanFull Text: COPYRIGHT 2011 National Science Teachers Association.http://www.nsta.org/Source CitationFlessner, Ryan, and Paula A. Magee. "5 strategies to support all teachers: suggestions toget off the slippery slope of 'cookbook' science teaching." Science and Children Mar.2011: 34. Student Resources in Context. Web. 15 June 2015.URLhttps://ezproxy.butler.edu/login?url=http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/suic/AcademicJournalsDetailsPage/AcademicJournalsDetailsWindow?failOverType=&query=&prodId=SUIC&windowstate=normal&contentModules=&display-query=&mode=view&displayGroupName=Journals&limiter=&currPage=&disableHighlighting=false&displayGroups=&sortBy=&search_within_results=&p=SUIC&action=e&catId=&activityType=&scanId=&Student Resources in Context- Print http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/suic/AcademicJournalsDetailsPage/Academic...5 of 7 6/15/2015 4:50 PMStudent Resources in Context- Print http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/suic/AcademicJournalsDetailsPage/Academic...6 of 7 6/15/2015 4:50 PMStudent Resources in Context- Print http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/suic/AcademicJournalsDetailsPage/Academic...7 of 7 6/15/2015 4:50 PM

Five Strategies to Support all Teachers: Suggestions to Get Off the Slippery Slope of  Cookbook  Science Teaching

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Five Strategies to Support all Teachers: Suggestions to Get Off the Slippery Slope of Cookbook Science Teaching

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