Science teaching has come a long way since the days of "lecture and lab". Advances in both brain science and educational psychology have led to innovative instructional methods the increase the student's depth of understanding in a broader range of topics.
The teaching methods used in our Chemistry classroom build on three important trends in the understanding of the process of teaching and learning. They are:
In all these regards, it is the teacher's role to design, facilitate and guide the students' educational experiences rather than act as a central authority figure dispensing knowledge to be consumed by the student.
Consistent with these three trends, the instruction in our classroom is an adaptation of Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning or POGIL. (http://pogil.org/). This is NOT a "self teaching class"! POGIL is a student-centered method that emphasizes student activities over teacher lecture. Some time is devoted to whole class instruction, including teacher-led sample problems, instructional videos, class discussions, etc., but the majority of class time is spent in lab and group activities.
For a typical topic, students are asked to make observations, compare models, and perform experiments. From these observations, students are guided through the concepts that they need to learn. Students then have several types of activities where they apply theory to analyze and interpret data, make and test predictions, solve hypothetical problems, etc. During activities students can ask the teacher questions and they will be given hints and re-direction, but rarely a simple answer that does not require any thought. While students work on their POGILs, the teacher is actively interating with individuals and groups. This enables the teacher to engage the student in higher order thinking, clear up any misconceptions, and verbally assess understanding. This approach enables the teacher to speak to the students individually and in small groups MUCH more often than under the traditional lecture system and encourages students to become active participants in the learning process. Practice of learned information comes in the form of teacher graded task cards, computer graded online assignments, "active study" sessions, practice quizzes/exams, and inquiry based labs.
Some students take a few weeks to adjust to this method as well as to the abstract nature of Chemistry itself. This is especially so if they have become reliant on the traditional lecture approach to instruction. However, once the adjustment period is over POGIL methods have been found to give students a deeper understanding of the content, build analytic problem solving skills, and improve both cooperative and independent learning.
The teaching methods used in our Chemistry classroom build on three important trends in the understanding of the process of teaching and learning. They are:
- Constructivism, where students construct their knowledge from their educational experiences
- Situationism, where students place and interpret their knowledge in context with their own perspective on their educational experiences
- Collaborative Learning, where students gather and deepen their knowledge through the process of cooperation and communication with their peers during their educational experiences
In all these regards, it is the teacher's role to design, facilitate and guide the students' educational experiences rather than act as a central authority figure dispensing knowledge to be consumed by the student.
Consistent with these three trends, the instruction in our classroom is an adaptation of Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning or POGIL. (http://pogil.org/). This is NOT a "self teaching class"! POGIL is a student-centered method that emphasizes student activities over teacher lecture. Some time is devoted to whole class instruction, including teacher-led sample problems, instructional videos, class discussions, etc., but the majority of class time is spent in lab and group activities.
For a typical topic, students are asked to make observations, compare models, and perform experiments. From these observations, students are guided through the concepts that they need to learn. Students then have several types of activities where they apply theory to analyze and interpret data, make and test predictions, solve hypothetical problems, etc. During activities students can ask the teacher questions and they will be given hints and re-direction, but rarely a simple answer that does not require any thought. While students work on their POGILs, the teacher is actively interating with individuals and groups. This enables the teacher to engage the student in higher order thinking, clear up any misconceptions, and verbally assess understanding. This approach enables the teacher to speak to the students individually and in small groups MUCH more often than under the traditional lecture system and encourages students to become active participants in the learning process. Practice of learned information comes in the form of teacher graded task cards, computer graded online assignments, "active study" sessions, practice quizzes/exams, and inquiry based labs.
Some students take a few weeks to adjust to this method as well as to the abstract nature of Chemistry itself. This is especially so if they have become reliant on the traditional lecture approach to instruction. However, once the adjustment period is over POGIL methods have been found to give students a deeper understanding of the content, build analytic problem solving skills, and improve both cooperative and independent learning.