1、 1 原文 题目： Using “What if.” questions to teach science Abstract With the widening knowledge base students will need to be more flexible in their learning habits. Traditionally, teaching school science often involves teacher-centred methods like lectures, experimental demonstration or guided inquiry.
2、Plain knowledge dissemination will not adequately prepare students to cope with the changing world. Hence, schools need to train students to be reflective in their learning habits that is, getting students to be observant, to generate relevant alternatives and to make sense of these ideas. This arti
3、cle discusses a well-documented reflective learning strategy - the use of “what if” questions, to help students extend their learning beyond curricular requirements. Students are introduced to a distillation set up and then asked to pose “what if” questions about it. Their questions and the correspo
4、nding peer responses are a wealth of information for teachers to explore how science may be taught differently and with a greater impact on their students learning experience. Introduction The present science curriculum includes a range of student learning outcomes covering laboratory and experiment
5、al science (MOE, 2007). Researchers and scholars had argued that the roles of experiments and practical work in schools should allow students to practice laboratory skills, learn the various investigative processes and acquire first hand experiences in dealing with materials and laboratory wares (Bo
6、ud, Dunn and Hegarty-Hazel, 1986； Doran et al, 2002； Hegarty-Hazel, 1986； Josephsen, 2003； Woolnough, 1990).Besides these cognitive and psychomotor objectives of school laboratory courses, there are also suggestions that lessons should be made more attractive through more intellectually demanding co
7、urses and new teaching techniques that can motivate students to learn (Schmidt, 2000).This paper discusses a well-documented reflective learning strategy - the use of questions posed by students to help them extend their learning beyond curricular requirements (Chin and Chia, 2 2004； Walsh and Satte
8、s, 2005).Specifically, it discusses the use of what if questions posed by students (Fogarty, 1994). Students are introduced to a distillation set up and then asked to pose what if questions about it. Their questions and the corresponding peer responses provide teachers with a good insight on how stu
9、dents contribute to knowledge building through self-created learning opportunities.The entire experience may also help to create a classroom teaching-learning culture in which the teacher takes on the role of the advanced learner among novice learners. Conducting the lesson Traditionally a lesson on
10、 experimental science would commence with teacher talk, student evaluation and then possibly, a confirmatory experimental experience in the laboratory.Inquiry-based lessons may tweak the lesson structure a bit, with the teacher starting a learning task by asking a question.For example, “If you are s
11、tranded in the open sea on a small boat, how would you go about making some fresh water to drink from the sea water around you?(Assuming you have the essential laboratory wares with you.)” The teacher may then follow up by facilitating a class discussion and end with the teacher summarizing and cont
12、extualizing the discussion to fit the curricular requirements. Mortimer and Scott (2003) in their book, Making Meaning in Secondary School Science, suggested that students should engage in some form of dialogic activity if they are to develop an understanding of a science topic.In this respect, clas
13、sroom talk, learning and meaning making would not make strange bedfellows but are essential features in the science classroom that would ensure students gain some impactful learning experiences. The lesson, which the present discussion is based on, involved both the traditional classroom lesson deli
14、very and the engagement of student dialogic process. It was conducted for a group of ten secondary three express students (equivalent to 3 grade 8). The students, four girls and six boys, were selected by their Chemistry teacher to attend a remedial lesson on the topic of “Separation Techniques”.The
15、y came from two different classes taught by the same teacher.The separation technique to be revised in the 40-minute lesson was on “Simple Distillation”.The author of this paper was requested by their teacher to teach this remedial lesson.The author (referred to as the remedial teacher in this paper
16、) is also a qualified and experienced school science teacher of over 16 years. The proceedings of the lesson are summarized in Table 1. Approximate Time frame Learning/teaching events Pedagogical approach 10 minutes - Introduction - Importance of separation techniques in chemistry - Example of a tec
17、hnique: Simple Distillation Teacher talk 10 minutes - Activity: Students to pose questions - First attempt: Invitation to verbalise the questions (nostudents volunteered) - Second attempt: Invitation to write down the questions starting with the words “ What if.” (Students were observed to be active
18、ly on task.) Reflective learning strategy: Use of “ what if” questions to get students to observe the learning task and generate responses (in this case posed questions) 20 minutes - Activity: Teacher-facilitated the discussion on the what if questions posed and written by the students on slips of p
19、aper. - The slips of paper were collected and each students written questions were projected on visualiser and openly discussed by the students with comments and evaluative remarks made by the teacher.Students were instructed not to write their names on the paper. Reflective learning strategy: stude
20、nts engaged in meaning making (that is, attempting to answer, critique and perhaps re-phrase the questions so that some relationships can be established among the ideas generated). 5 minutes - Summary: teacher summarised students responses to the learning tasks - Conclusion: teacher concluded lesson with a review of the distillation method Teacher talk Table 1: Lesson Proceedings After the formal greetings and a simple self-introduction, the remedial teacher proceeded to explain the importance of separation techniques in chemistry. He cited
