TEACHING STANDARDS

    KNOWLEDGE OF PEDAGOGY

    Effective mathematics and science teachers are knowledgeable of the current pedagogy for teaching and learning mathematics and science. They use a variety of teaching strategies that enable students to construct meaning.

    Pedagogy is the art and science of teaching and involves many activities that are associated with being a teacher. In addition to focusing on specific teaching methods, pedagogy includes the planning and goal setting teachers do, the way they organize the classroom, and the ongoing decisions they make as a result of what happens in the classroom.

    Current pedagogy in education is based on a student-centered curriculum. Such curriculum takes into account the previous knowledge students bring to the lessons and ways by which they use new learning experiences to build and refine their understanding of the concepts and develop the skills associated with those concepts. Through their involvement with the activities and tasks, students construct their own meaning and understanding of concepts. This is a change from a traditional view of teaching where the teacher tells the students what to do and how to do it.

    To be effective, teachers must remain current on effective teaching strategies, keeping in mind the developmental levels of students. Teachers, as facilitators, design, implement, and make decisions about the curriculum and teaching strategies to promote development and growth of all students' learning over time. Effective mathematics and science teachers facilitate learning so that students can:

    • integrate new information and ideas into existing knowledge,
    • share ideas to validate or refute current understandings or beliefs,
    • pursue their own inquiries,
    • use a variety of materials and resources,
    • solve problems,
    • collaborate with each other,
    • form connections within and outside the disciplines of mathematics and science.

    Students construct meaning by engaging in inquiry. Student inquiry takes a variety of forms and occurs at different levels of depth and complexity. It ranges from concrete activities (such as taking a survey) which provide a basis for reflection and analysis to inquiry within the realm of abstractions and theories; from direct hands-on activities to the use of literature and other media and technology. In classrooms in which student inquiry provides the basis for learning, students:

    • participate fully in and quite often initiate activities related to their own learning,
    • collaborate with their teachers and other students in the pursuit of ideas,
    • formulate questions that can be answered through planned investigation,
    • devise ways of answering questions, collect data, decide how to represent it, decide how to explain and justify their work to one another, learn to cope with shortcomings of equipment, and consider the challenges of others,
    • assess the effectiveness of their efforts and make generalizations of their findings.

    Highly effective teachers know that, as important as it is for students to acquire understanding of content, they must also learn the strategies and procedures for approaching problems mathematically and scientifically. A basic goal is to help students build the mental operations, habits of mind, and attitudes that characterize inquiry including:

    • recognizing problems,
    • asking questions about natural phenomena,
    • formulating working hypotheses,
    • observing phenomena,
    • recording data accurately,
    • reaching tentative conclusions consistent with data,
    • expressing themselves clearly about the significance of findings,
    • reflecting on the quality and completeness of their findings and conclusions.

    Teachers know that students learn best by actively engaging in the tasks and events that make up the curriculum. Accordingly, teachers:

    • organize their classrooms around frequent, hands-on explorations of natural phenomena,
    • engage students as active investigators,
    • arrange for a variety of activities and multiple opportunities to learn,
    • help students construct their own understandings by interacting with other students and the teacher, applying ideas to the everyday world, and thinking and writing about their developing ideas,
    • select age-appropriate activities that are likely to raise interesting, worthwhile questions, are relevant to students' lives, and flexible in allowing active participation of learners,
    • help develop habits of mind such as curiosity, openness to new ideas, skepticism, demand for evidence, respect for reason, honesty and objectivity, acceptance of ambiguity, persistence, willingness to modify explanations in light of new evidence, and teamwork,
    • use a variety of teaching strategies to acquaint their students with the major ideas of mathematics and science. Through experiments, field investigations, physical models, simulations, reading, videotapes, discussion, role playing, and other activities, they involve their students actively in making sense of new ideas.