Strategies
My classroom is based on positive self-image and mutual respect for anyone that steps through the door. Many of the children come into school with negativism and issues that affect not only their education but all of their peers' education as well. The environment must be such that the children focus these energies into their education.
Strategies that will be used throughout this unit will be active learning through exploration, hands-on activity, think-pair-share and active learning. We will also study the scientific method. Institutions of higher learning across the nation are responding to political, economic, social and technological pressures to be more responsive to students' needs and more concerned about how well students are prepared to assume future societal roles. Faculty are already feeling the pressure to lecture less, to make learning environments more interactive, to integrate technology into the learning experience, and to use collaborative learning strategies when appropriate. 5
Exploration takes advantage of the desire to "discover" things. There are several types of exploration that can be targeted during this unit. The first is the guided exploration in which some limitations are placed on the problems and the responses. This can be used if limited time is available for the lessons. This type of learning gives the learner a choice of responses to a problem presented by the teacher. It can also be used with primary level students who haven't had enough experience to be successful with free exploration. Free exploration is the final type of exploration. In this type of teaching the teacher designs a task that allows the learner to work any way they wish and encourages a variety of responses.
Hands-on learning is learning by doing. It enables students to become critical thinkers, it makes them able to apply not only what they have learned, but more importantly, develops their process of learning, to various life situations. The importance of student investigation of basic scientific principles cannot be overstated. Hands-on learning is the only way students can directly observe and understand math. As students develop effective techniques for observing and testing everything around them, they learn the what, how, when, and why, of things with which they interact.
Think-Pair-Share is a strategy designed to provide students with "food for thought" on a given topics enabling them to formulate individual ideas and share these ideas with another student. It is a learning strategy to encourage student classroom participation. Think-Pair-Share encourages a high degree of pupil response and can help keep students on task.
Meyers and Jones (1993) define active learning as learning environments that allow "students to talk and listen, read, write, and reflect as they approach course content through problem-solving exercises, informal small groups, simulations, case studies, role playing, and other activities — all of which require students to apply what they are learning" Many studies show that learning is enhanced when students become actively involved in the learning process. Instructional strategies that engage students in the learning process stimulate critical thinking and a greater awareness of other perspectives. Although there are times when lecturing is the most appropriate method for disseminating information, current thinking in college teaching and learning suggests that the use of a variety of instructional strategies can positively enhance student learning. Obviously, teaching strategies should be carefully matched to the teaching objectives of a particular lesson. 6
The scientific method is a process for experimentation that is used to explore observations and answer questions. Scientists use the scientific method to search for cause and effect relationships in nature. In other words, they design an experiment so that they can prove or disprove their hypothesis. Just as it does for a professional scientist, the scientific method will help the students to ask the question, construct a hypothesis, design, execute, and evaluate their experiment. Learning about the scientific method is almost like saying that you are learning how to learn. You see, the scientific method is the way scientists learn and study the world around them. It can be used to study anything from a leaf to a dog to the entire universe. The basis of the scientific method is asking questions and then trying to come up with the answers. The steps we will use are: Question, Hypothesis, Experiment, Analyze data, Conclusions, and Discussion.
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