Friday, March 4, 2011

PRACTICAL WORK IN SCIENCE

Involved 3 phases,
  • Pre-laboratory
  • Laboratory work
  • Post-laboratory
•Enhance scientific and thinking skills
 
•Through practical work:
-  enhance scientific, manipulative and thinking   skills
-  positive attitude towards science
-  development of scientific concepts

•Approaches:
deductive / verification
inductive
problem solving

Thursday, February 17, 2011

TEACHING APPROACHES II

Science, Technology and Society

Science is defined as knowledge of general truths.

Technology is the application or usage of knowledge in a particular area.

Society is a collection of relationships between individuals, including different economic, cultural, or political properties with a common end or goal; it can be a community and also a social group or organization.

When these three things are combined, it is learned that science technology and society is the application of a skilled technique or a general truth and how it affects our society and vice versa. 

Science and technology has impacted our society in such a large number of ways that its evidence is everywhere. 


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Mastery  learning
 
•An approach that ensures all learners are able to acquire and master the intended learning outcomes
•Based on the principle that learners are able to learn
•Learners learn on their own pace
•Elements of remedial and enrichment activities
'The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.' 
(Isaac Asimov)

Thursday, February 10, 2011

TEACHING APPROACHES

Teaching of science can be divided to two basic approaches
  • inductive
  • deductive

 Inductive
-experiences with instances of a concept or principles.


Deductive
-receiving ideas and explanation of a concept or principle.


  1. Inquiry learning
  • Teaching science using inquiry method implies the need to shift from‘ teachers presenting information’   to ‘ students learning science themselves’ through active involvement. 

      2. Constructivism
  • Knowledge is constructed by learners through an active, mental process of development; learners are the builders and creators of meaning and knowledge. 

      3. Contextual learning
  • reality-based, outside-of-the-classroom experience, within a specific context which serves as a catalyst for students to utilize their disciplinary knowledge, and which presents a forum for further formation of their personal values, faith, and professional development. 




    'Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.'
    (William Butler Yeats)

    Monday, February 7, 2011

    THINKING SKILLS

    Mental process that requires an individual to integrate knowledge, skills and attitudes.






    'Nothing is good or bad, but thinking makes it so.'
    (Willian Shakespeare)


    Friday, January 28, 2011

    SCIENCE PROCESS SKILLS II


    Measuring and Using Numbers
    • A quantitative observation using equipment.

    Classifying
    • Grouping or ordering objects or events according to a classification scheme or patterns.

    Inferring
    • Ideas developed or explanation made based on observations.

    Predicting
    • Forming an idea or making a forecast based on a certain set of data.

    Using Space-Time Relationship
    • Describing changes in parameter with time. Examples of parameters are location, direction, shape, size, volume, weight and mass.

    Interpreting Data
    • Giving rationale explanations about an object, event or pattern obtained from the collected data.

    Defining Operationally
    • Defining terms within the context of one’s own experiences; stating a definition in terms of “what you do” and “what you observe”.

    Controlling Variables
    • A variable is something that varies or changes. Controlling variables is manipulating one variable or factor that may affect the outcome of an event while other variables or factors are held constant.

    Hypothesising
    • Stating a problem to be solved as a question that can be tested by an experiment. Hypotheses are intellectual guesses about the relationships between variables.

    Experimenting
    • Setting up a planned situation and using most of the science process skills to collect and analyze data to draw conclusions in order to test the hypothesis or to solve a problem.


    'Observation is a passive science, experimentation an active science.'
    (Claude Bernard)

    Tuesday, January 25, 2011

    SCIENCE PROCESS SKILLS


    • Involves in scientific investigation
    • As ways in producing and arranging information about our world
    • Basic – basic & provide foundation
    • Integrated Skills – complex skills

    Basic Skills
    • Observing
    • Classifying
    • Measuring and Using Numbers
    • Inferring
    • Predicting
    • Communicating
    • Using Space-Time Relationship

    Integrated Science Process Skills
    • Interpreting Data
    • Defining Operationally
    • Controlling Variables
    • Hypothesising
    • Experimenting


    'A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for learning how to grow in rows.'
    (Doug Larson)

    Tuesday, January 18, 2011

    TEACHING CONCEPTS



    • Giving examples and non-examples


    • The use of advance organizer such as concept maps


    • The use of images and analogies

    • The use of various presentation such as models and symbols


    • The use of experiments


    'One good analogy is worth three hours discussion.'

    Thursday, January 13, 2011

    THEORIES OF LEARNING

     








               'Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.'
                                                                                                          (Albert Einstein)


    Wednesday, January 12, 2011

    SCIENCE EDUCATION


    Science education empowers students to be questioning, reflective and critical thinkers. 
    It does this by giving them particular ways of looking at the world and by emphasizing the importance of evidence in forming conclusions. 
    Science education develops students’ confidence to initiate and manage change to meet personal, vocational and societal needs. 
    Science education assissts students to be active citizens by providing and understandings they need to be informed contributors to debates about sensitive, moral ethical and environmental issues. 
    An appreciation of scientific knowledge, processes and values has the potential to help students appreciate and ecologically-sustainable environment. 
    It is important that the students appreciate and understand how the study of science presents them with opportunities for responsible decision making in their local, national and global communities.

    “Education in Malaysia is an on-going efforts towards further developing the potential of individuals in a holistic and integrated manner, so as to produce individuals who are intellectually, spiritually, emotionally and physically balanced and harmonic, based on a firm belief in and devotion to God. Such an effort is designed to produce Malaysian citizens who are knowledgeable and competent, who possess high moral standards and who are responsible and capable of achieving high level of personal well-being as well as being able to contribute to the harmony and betterment of the family, the society and the nation at large.”
                                                                                   (National Philosophy of Education)

    In consonance with the National Education Philosophy, science education in Malaysia nurtures a Science and Technology Culture by focusing on the development of individuals who are competitive, dynamic, robust and resilient and able to master scientific knowledge and technological competency.
                                                                           (National Science Education Philosophy)








    'The principal goal of education is to create men who are capable of doing new things, not simply of repeating what other generations have done'.

                                                                                                                  (Jean Piaget)

    Friday, January 7, 2011

    WHAT IS SCIENCE?

    Dr. Rohaida: What is science?

    Student1: Science is organized knowledge.

    Student2: Science is the knowledge of consequences, and dependence of one  
                  fact upon another.

    Student3: Science is the desire to know causes.


    Science in School

    Science involved 3 main things. Knowledge, skills and attitude.

    As we know science knowledge is dynamic as new discovery and research may replace or explain the same theory in a boarder manner. 

    So, as a teacher, we can’t teach students everything during the school time. 

    Instead, what should teacher do is to inculcate experimental skill and manipulative skill to students. 

    This is crucial as students will have inner motivation to find out more about development in science.





                        'Science is what you know. Philosophy is what you don't know.'                  

                                                                           (Bertrand Russell, 1872)




    Tuesday, January 4, 2011

    1st Class: Expectation and Opinion

    Dr. Rohaida: What you expect from this class (method of teaching science)?

    Student1: Learn how to handle students in classroom.
    Student2: Learn proper and the best approaches and techniques when teaching science.
    Student3: Learn how to handle situation in class when there are some problems occur eg. 
                   in the lab.


    "High achievement always takes place in the framework of high expectation"
                                                                                    (Charles F. Kettering)