Transcript Document

Effective Instruction in Science
for Middle School Students
with Behavior Disorders
Paul Mooney, Ph.D.
Louisiana State University
Overview
• Context for science education
• Effective instruction
• Research on interventions in science for
students with disabilities, with a focus on
students with emotional and behavioral
disorders (EBD)
• What’s next?
Global Academic Context
• IDEA
– Access to the general education curriculum
– Annual yearly progress
• No Child Left Behind
– High stakes testing in science
– Highly qualified teacher status
– Scientifically based research
Global Context cont.
• Scant research on academics and EBD
• Student characteristics
– Reading difficulties
– Difficulties in inclusive classrooms
– Introductory transition concerns
Global Context cont.
• School factors
– Expectation mismatches
– Teachers who do not feel qualified
– Science and social studies subject matter that
gets overlooked
Science Education Context
• “The terms and circumstances of human existence
can be expected to change radically during the
next human lifetime. Science, math, and
technology will be at the center of that change –
causing it, shaping it, responding to it. Therefore,
they will be essential to the education of today’s
children for tomorrow’s world.”
– American Association for the Advancement of Science
(AAAS; 1993), p. xi.
Science Education Context cont.
• “Science for all”
– Project 2061 (of AAAS)
– National Committee on Science Education Standards
and Assessment (of National Research Council)
• Contemporary reform
– More rigorous content
– Higher standards
– Teaching for deeper understanding
• Inclusion
– Ensuring access to and progress in the general
education curriculum
Science Context cont.
• Appropriate instructional adaptations must
reflect the approach to instruction being
used in the class
– Textbook- vs. activities-oriented
– Emphasis on inquiry
Why Focus on Science Education?
• Potential to impact change
• Concerned with concepts and knowledge of
the physical world around and within us
• Job opportunities
Effective Instruction
• Important evidence supports the
incorporation of these principles
– Teacher effects literature
• (Ex., Rosenshine, 1997; Rosenshine & Stevens,
1986)
– Curriculum design principles
• (Ex., Grossen, Carnine, Romance, & Vitale, 2002)
Teacher Effects
Effective teacher behavior included the following:
• Beginning a lesson with a short review of
previous, prerequisite learning.
• Beginning a lesson with a short statement of goals.
• Presenting new material in small steps, with
student practice following each step.
• Giving clear and detailed instructions and
explanations.
• Providing a high level of active practice for all
students.
Teacher Effects cont.
• Asking a large number of questions, checked for
student understanding, and obtained responses
from all students.
• Guiding students during initial practice.
• Providing systematic feedback and corrections.
• Providing explicit instruction and practice for
seatwork exercises, and where necessary,
monitoring students during seatwork.
Curriculum Design
• Characteristics of high-quality educational tools
include:
– Big ideas, which are the fundamental concepts and
principles that facilitate efficient acquisition of
knowledge in a content area.
– Mediated scaffolding, which refers to the personal
guidance, assistance, and support that teachers,
materials, or tasks provide a learner early in the content
learning process.
– Conspicuous strategies, which are a series of steps that
proficient learners purposely follow in solving a
problem or achieving an outcome.
Curriculum Design cont.
• Characteristics continued:
– Strategic integration, which is the combining of essential
information in meaningful ways that results in new and more
complex learner understanding of a topic.
– Primed background knowledge, which involves providing learners
a brief reminder that acts as a memory trigger and allows the
learner to remember what it is that needs to be done in order to
solve a task or retrieve pertinent information.
– Judicious review, which involves practice of previously learned
information that is sufficient enough so that the learner performs
the task or recalls the information without hesitation, distributed
over time, cumulative, and varied in such a way that the
knowledge is applied to a wide variety of situations and settings.
Effective Practices for EBD
Academic Intervention Research
in EBD
• 60 studies since passage of EHA in 1975
• Less than 400 participants
• Majority of studies incorporating single-subject
designs
• Intervention types
– Teacher
– Peer
– Child
Intervention Research cont.
• Outcomes positive
– Teacher-mediated
• 18 studies, Mean ES = 1.05 (range -0.48 to 3.0)
– Peer-mediated
• 7 studies, Mean ES = 1.88 (range -0.60 to 3.0)
– Child-mediated
• 22 studies, Mean ES = 1.24 (range -0.46 to 2.73)
Science Research and EBD
• Mnemonics
– 7 boys & 1 girl, 7-11 years, ES = 1.30
• (Mastropieri, Emerick, & Scruggs, 1988)
• Test-taking strategies
– 34 7th-8th graders, ES = 1.03
Effective Teaching
in Textbook-Oriented Classes
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SCREAM
Graphic organizers
Semantic feature analysis
Mnemonics
Modified text notes
Strategy instruction
Group work
Teacher Presentation cont.
• SCREAM variables
– A mnemonic for effective teacher behaviors
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Structure
Clarity
Redundancy
Enthusiasm
Appropriate rate
Maximized engagement
SCREAM
• Structure
– Including overviews, explaining objectives, providing
outlines of lesson materials, indicating transition points,
emphasizing critical points, and summarizing and
reviewing regularly
• Clarity
– Including speaking clearly and directly on point and
providing concrete examples
• Redundancy
– Including repeating key elements
SCREAM cont.
• Enthusiasm
– Including body movement, gestures, facial
expressiveness, vocal inflections, and openness to
student ideas
• Appropriate pace
– Generally rapidly, but adjusted based on content and
students’ prior knowledge
• Maximized engagement
– Including active participation
Mnemonics
• Mnemonic strategies
– Keyword
• Create a concrete, acoustically similar keyword for the
unfamiliar word to be learned, something that’s easy to picture
• Make the keyword interact visually with the definition
• Tell the students that when they hear a vocabulary word, think
of the keyword and then the picture, and retrieve the definition
from the keyword/picture combination
Effective Teaching
in Activities-Oriented Classes
• Develop laboratory procedures
• Make participation in desirable activities
contingent upon appropriate behavior
• Ensure safety
• Incorporate cooperative learning activities
and choose group members carefully
Guided Inquiry
Effective Teaching
in Inquiry-Oriented Classes
• Monitor and facilitate student thinking
– Student interviews
– “Rehearsals”
• Support print literacy
– Glossaries
– Peer/paraprofessional transcription
• Improve behavior in groups
– Teach social skills
Adventure Engineering
• www.adventureengineering.org
• Mission is to improve elementary and middle school
student attitudes towards science, math and engineering by
developing and offering fun, effective team-oriented
curricula. We hope that the Adventure Engineering
curricula inspires and builds confidence in students who
wouldn't otherwise pursue science and engineering futures.
• Adventure Engineering curricula is being implemented in
central Oklahoma public schools with the help of
engineering students at the University of Oklahoma and in
Denver public schools with the help of engineering
students at the Colorado School of Mines.
Adventure Engineering cont.
• Adventure Engineering curricula units
require 1-2 weeks of math or science class
time. Each unit is scenario-based and filled
with inquiry-driven hands-on lessons and
activities. Engineering analysis and design
are embedded in each unit.
Adventure Engineering cont.
• Lost in the Amazon
• Volcano Engineering
• Surviving the
Biosphere
• Asteroid Impact
• Engineering the
Congo
• Water Wonderland
Asteroid Impact
• Imagine that a giant asteroid is headed straight for the
earth. Scientists from NASA have discovered that it may
hit somewhere in the United States. This asteroid is large
enough to cause a world wide winter for a year from the
dust cloud that it will create upon impact. The inhabitants
of earth have no choice but to move underground for
safety. Your class has the incredible responsibility of being
on an engineering team that will design underground
caverns for the inhabitants of “Bothilian” and submit your
results to the governor.
Asteroid Impact cont.
• Premise:
– Students will discover, learn and apply mineral and rock properties, rock
identification and classification through use of physical properties. They
will also study features and structures of the earth through geological
maps, and the effects of natural and cataclysmic events on humans.
– The investigative, exploratory and problem solving nature of Asteroid
Impact is closely aligned with Science and Math Standards. Student teams
investigate concepts through hands-on experiments and design effective
solutions through minds-on, team-based activities. They utilize skills such
as reading graphs and maps, applying formulas, and performing unit
conversions.
– The Asteroid Impact scenario directly connects these scientific and
mathematic concepts to a pseudo real world situation with social
consequences geared to excite and enthuse the student’s interest in
science, math and engineering.
What’s Next?
• Increase the evidence base.
• Improve professional development efforts.
• Communicate findings to other school-based
personnel so that the “science minutes” that are
allocated aren’t co-opted by other needs that are
perceived to be more important.
• Investigate web-based activities and technologies
that may allow for greater access to and progress
in the general curriculum
What’s Next? cont.
• Identify the “Big Ideas”
– Atlas of Science Literacy (2003) of the AAAS
– www.project2061.org