Science Curriculum Topic Study

NCOSP Learning Community Forum February 27-28, 2007

Science Curriculum Topic StudyScience Curriculum Topic Study

Collaborative Inquiry

into Examining Student

Thinking (CIEST)


Black and Wiliam “Standards are raised only by changes that are put into direct effect by teachers and students in classrooms. There is a firm body of evidence that formative assessment is an essential feature of classroom work and that development of it can raise standards. We know of no other way of raising standards for which such a strong prima facie case can be made on the basis of evidence of such large learning gains.”

From Inside the Black Box, 1998http://www.pdkintl.org/kappan/kbla9810.htm


Three Goals

• (Learn) To learn about a professional development strategy for collaboratively examining student thinking.

• (Practice) To practice using the CIEST protocol with a sample of student work.

• (Apply) To consider how you might use the CIEST strategy to examine student thinking in your context.


Balanced Assessment

Formative Assessment

Summative Assessment

CIEST- Examining students’ thinking for the purpose of informing instruction


Collaborative Inquiry

…is a process by which all relevant groups construct their understanding of important problems and potential solutions through asking questions, carefully analyzing all relevant data, and engaging in constructive dialogue with colleagues.

Wagner, 1998


Data: The Heart of Inquiry

“ Data enable us to be educational detectives. We are ‘Columbos.’ We get clues as to how students are doing. We look at how to improve.”

Joe O’Reilly, Mesa Unified School District


Data Driven Dialogue

ASSESSMENT

PROBES

CURRICULUM TOPIC STUDY

CIEST

CIEST PROTOCOL


CIEST Tools and Resources

• Curriculum Topic Study Guide (CTS)

• National and State Standards and Research on Student Learning

• Two-tiered Diagnostic Probes (ready made probes or teacher-developed probes)

• Student Work


CIEST DATA-DRIVEN DIALOGUE- 3 Phases

Phase 1

Activating & EngagingSurfacing assumptions, makingpredictions, asking questions

Phase 2

Exploring & Discovering

Organizing & analyzing the data

Phase 3

Organizing & Integrating

Generating inferences, hypotheses, explanations

Adapted from Nancy Love’s Using Data, Getting Results and The Adaptive School, Laura Lipton and Bruce Wellman


Establish Group Norms- Step 1

Generate “ground rules” for conducting the CIEST protocol

* Include sticking to the protocol!



Examine and Complete the Probe- Step 2

Jot down any notes about: Your own thinking as you completed the probe

Prior knowledge you accessed (e.g. formal or informal learning, intuitive rules, topic study, etc.)

Any difficulties you encountered or content you are unsure of

How and when your students might have encountered (or will encounter) the idea(s) targeted in this probe?


Probe Clarification Using CTS - Step 3

What is the “best response” and scientific explanation?

What CTS Guide will you use?

What specific idea(s) from the standards are targeted by the probe or may contribute to the scientific knowledge used to respond to the probe ? (CTS Section III)

What other learning goals are related to this probe? (CTS Section III)

How do students typically encounter the idea targeted by this probe? (CTS Section II)


Example: The Mitten Problem- Probe Clarification

The best response is “C”- Both thermometers will have the same temperature reading.

See scientific explanation handout.

CTS Guide: Energy Transformation


Specific Ideas from the Mitten Problem (CTS Section III)

Heat Production: Heat can be produced in many ways, such as burning, rubbing, or mixing one substance with another (NSES K-4). Heat is produced by mechanical and electrical machines and any time one thing rubs up against another (BSL 3-5).

Conductors and Insulators: Heat can move from one object to another by conduction (NSES K-4). Some materials conduct heat better than others. Poor conductors can reduce heat loss (BSL 3-5).

Energy Transfer: When warmer things are put with cooler ones, the warm ones lose heat and the cool ones gain it until they are all at the same temperature (BSL 3-5). Energy is transferred in many ways (BSL 6-8). Heat moves in predictable ways, flowing from warmer objects to cooler ones, until both reach the same temperature (NSES 5-8).


Other related learning goals (CTS Section III)

Energy is a property of many substances and is associated with heat, light, electricity, mechanical motion, sound, nuclei, and the nature of a chemical (NSES 5-8).

Energy cannot be created or destroyed, but only changed from one form into another (BSL 6-8).


CTS Section III Discussion

Examine the middle school learning goals and the elementary prerequisite ideas identified through CTS Section III.

How does the knowledge in the learning goals contribute to middle school students’ understanding of the Mitten Problem?


How do the national standards describe ways in which students encounter the ideas related to the Mitten Problem?

(CTS Section II Essays)


Grades 3-5 BSL and Grades K-4 NSES Essay Excerpts

Children cannot distinguish between heat and temperature at this age; therefore, investigating heat necessarily must focus on changes in temperature (NSES K-4 Essay).

The one aspect of the energy story in which students of this age can make some headway is heat. In their activities during these years, students should be alerted to look for things and processes that give off heat and then for those that seem not to give off heat. Also, the time is appropriate to explore how heat spreads from one place to another and what can be done to contain it or shield things from it. Students' ideas of heat have many wrinkles. Some materials may be thought to be intrinsically warm (blankets) or cold (metals). Objects that keep things warm-such as a sweater or mittens-may be thought to be sources of heat. Only a continuing mix of experiment and discussion is likely to dispel these ideas (BSL 3-5 Essay).


Benchmarks Grades 6-8 Essay

• At this level, students should be introduced to energy primarily through energy transformations.

• At this early stage, there may be some confusion in students' minds between energy and energy sources.

• The most primitive idea is that the energy needed for an event must come from somewhere. That should trigger children's interest in asking, for any situation, where the energy comes from and (later) asking where it goes. Where it comes from is usually much more evident than where it goes, because some usually diffuses away as radiation and random molecular motion.


NSES Grades 5-8 Essay

The understanding of energy in grades 5-8 will build on the K-4 experiences with light, heat, sound, electricity, magnetism, and the motion of objects. In 5-8, students begin to see the connections among those phenomena and to become familiar with the idea that energy is an important property of substances and that most change involves energy transfer. Students might have some of the same views of energy as they do of force—that it is associated with animate objects and is linked to motion. In addition, students view energy as a fuel or something that is stored, ready to use, and gets used up. The intent at this level is for students to improve their understanding of energy by experiencing many kinds of energy transfer.


CTS Section II Discussion

How does CTS Section II help us understand the instructional implications related to The Mitten Problem?


CIEST Data-Driven Dialogue Approach

Phase 1Activating & Engaging

Surfacing assumptions, makingpredictions, asking questions

Phase 2Exploring & Discovering


Phase 3Organizing & Integrating


Adapted by Nancy Love for Using Data, Getting Results from The Adaptive School, Laura Lipton and Bruce Wellman


Data Dialogue Phase 1: Activating and Engaging

What assumptions do you have about how grade 8 students might respond to the Mitten Problem ? Each group member share one individual assumption

What group “quantitative” predictions can you make? Each group make and share 1 quantitative prediction about what they expect to see in the student work (e.g. %’s of responses)

What does your group want to find out? Each group frame and share one question


Quick Scan of Student Work- STEP 4

Quickly scan through the student work and select 1 sample of student thinking that interests you.

What was interesting or surprised you about the student’s thinking?

Briefly have each member of your small group share 1 or 2 things (caution- no analysis yet! Just the facts!)

As each member shares, look for commonalities











Sorting and Organizing Data- STEP 5

Phase 2: Part I

Tally Tier 1 responses

Go Visual! Create bar graph of the Tier I responses (A, B or C responses).

Now, make a list of general categories of reasoning used in the Tier 2 explanations (student justification for selection of A, B, or C).


STEP 5 (Cont’d)

Phase 2- Part II

Select 4-6 common categories of “rules” or reasoning to focus on (one of the categories should include a correct reason)

Cross match your selected categories to the Tier 1 responses (may have overlap in some responses)

• Go Visual!- Post your data on large wall graph or chart


Analyzing the Data- Step 6 What prevalent student ideas

pop out at you from looking at the data?

What patterns or trends seem to emerge from the data?

What are some surprising or interesting findings?

Do correct Tier 1 responses always have correct reasoning?

“Just the Facts, Ma’am”, Jack Webb


Read through selected research summaries from Section IV in CTS.

Jot down notes or highlight sections of the research that are related to students’ thinking in the work you analyzed.

Share research findings that appear to match findings from your data.

Were there any common ideas not described in the research that you found in your student work?

Analyze CTS Research Findings- Step 7


CTS Section IV Discussion

How did CTS Section IV, Research on Student Learning, help you understand the examples of 8th grade student thinking from The Mitten Problem?


Analyzing Learning Goals Across a K-12 Continuum- Step 8

Examine Section V of CTS or your state standards or curriculum materials (Section VI)

Are there any ideas in the “steps along the way” that your students’ may have missed?

What implications does this have for your curriculum and instruction?











Organizing and Integrating- Step 9

Phase 3- Organizing and Integrating

Our Learning about Student Thinking

What inferences, explanations, or conclusions can we draw from the data?

What else do we want to find out and how could we do that?

What hypotheses might we test?


Next Steps and Reflection- STEP 10

What else do we, as a group, want to learn from the data we have collected?

Do we need to disaggregate the data? How? What additional data should we collect? What other

information from CTS or other resources would be useful to us?

What will we do (group action steps) as a result of what we have learned?

What are the implications of our findings for ensuring all our students achieve state and national standards for science literacy?


Reflection

Individual Reflection Look back on your initial notes. How has your thinking

about teaching and learning related to the probe changed or been enhanced by the CIEST experience?

What would you do with the information you gained?

What did you gain by interacting with your colleagues?

What would you like to try differently in your classroom or in your professional learning communities as a result of this experience?

How will you use the CIEST protocol in your work?


CIEST Is a PD Strategy that...

• Deepens teachers’ science or mathematics content and pedagogical content knowledge

• Links standards and research to classroom context• Engages teachers in evidence-based dialogue

about student learning and teaching practice• Uses a structured data collection, organization, and

analysis approach• Encourages reflection and promotes action• Places high value on formative assessment• Can be used with a variety of PD structures (e.g.

study groups, co-mentoring, action research)

Science Curriculum Topic Study

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