Archived Information

State of the Art: Science - September 1993

image omitted The teacher's role is changing to facilitate student learning, while the student becomes a more active learner.

The role of the teacher...requires much skill and effort. The teacher needs to identify projects that will interest students, monitor their work by asking questions that will further the work, help them learn how to work together. We need to allow students to be the children they are, to allow them to play and explore phenomena of interest. We need to avoid or reduce a fear of being "wrong," and encourage their delight at the unexpected. Children's curiosity, whetted by the clever teacher, needs to become the impetus for much of their work on science projects. 
                                                 (Trumbull, 1990)
The role of the teacher is being transformed from one of primary dispenser of knowledge to one of being a facilitator of learning. This is a more demanding role in many ways. The teacher provides information in the context of a rich learning environment, in which the student is an active learner. Rather than the teacher telling the students what they are to learn, the teacher sets up an environment where the student can be active in acquiring knowledge, mainly through the process of experimentation and discourse.

The teacher engages students in problem solving by asking probing questions, promoting inquiry, and guiding discussion with use of hands-on materials. Facilitation also takes being well acquainted with resources-whether they be curriculum materials, technology, community members or professional colleagues with special expertise, or institutional resources such as museums or science centers, and a capacity to draw on these resources as the need develops. "When students' investigations lead them down an exciting but unexpected path, having experimental materials or reference tools at hand or having a knowledgable colleague to call on can turn a `teachable moment' into a lifetime of understanding. Good teachers are accustomed to responding to children's short- and long-term intellectual and emotional needs, but to do so in the context of scientific inquiry requires a special kind of preparedness and sensitivity" (Bird, 1992). It takes a deep understanding of basic science concepts and a willingness to not always be the "authority" to be comfortable teaching science in an experimental mode.

For teachers to be successful facilitators of children's science learning, a great deal of support must be made available to them both within the school and from the broader professional community. They cannot do this without support from professional colleagues. They must have opportunities to exchange ideas and experiences with other teachers and with colleagues from the science and education community, to reflect on their teaching, to read research and contribute to it as part of a research team.
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[Instruction should focus on the essential key concepts or ideas of science in the overfull science curriculum and on teaching them more effectively.] [Table of Contents] [Appropriate staff development brings lasting improvements in science teaching.]