More suggestions from my New Framework for Science in the Classroom for both Girls and Boys

More suggestions from my New Framework for Science in the Classroom for both Girls and Boys continues with 3 additional ideas.

3. Delegate More Authority to Students - To engage in making their own scientific knowledge, our students must learn to make decisions; ranging from interpreting a step in procedures to deciding how to design an experiment in order to answer a question – and we must give them the authority to do so.

1. What Should a Teacher Do to Delegate More Authority to Students?
1. Give students open-ended tasks for challenges that have a variety of solutions.
2. Assign and maintain procedural roles. Well-structured group work utilizes differentiated procedural roles for group members: task manager, summarizer, technology expert, materials manager, etc.
3. Keep your hands behind your back; refrain from jumping in and solving problems for your students.

Myra and David Sadker documented that we as adults can contribute to girls’ lack of confidence by stepping in and doing tasks for them, reinforcing that we do not believe they can do it on their own (Sadker & Sadker, 1994). These rescuing behaviors by adults or more confident peers translate into fewer opportunities for some girls to explore, thereby diminishing their capacity to develop the confidence to be successful in science.

Lowered confidence can lead to a set of behaviors collectively referred to as learned helplessness. If confidence is key in science, then these self-reinforcing recurring behaviors by adults in the classroom can result in learned helplessness that have academic consequences that are particular concern for girls in science.

4. Building Confidence - Having the confidence to explore allows us to reinterpret evidence and contribute our own voice and vision to a problem or explanation

2. What Should a Teacher Do to Build Confidence?
1. Offer plenty of opportunities for girls to investigate freely while pursuing science ideas. In other words, allow girls to explore their interests; not something that is teacher driven.
2. Use open-ended questions when responding to student questions: How could you figure this out? What do you think?
3. Encourage and promote girl’s beliefs that their efforts will result in increased skill and understanding. Give positive feedback on the strategies they are trying out. Remind the girls that what they are doing is what scientists do as well.

5. Developing Resiliency to Failure - Internalization of failure can affect a girl’s willingness to engage in scientific investigations where experiments need to be repeated, where they involve uncertainty, and where she could be perceived as “failing”. The notion of failure is critical in science, and it is critical for girls because girls, more than boys, tend to believe intelligence is innate and fixed over time. Girls tend to choose tasks that present little challenge, and tend to internalize failure (Dweck and Leggett, 1988).

3. What Should a Teacher Do to Unfold the Question of Equity?
1. Consider using a different term, other than “failure” when running an investigation or experiment. Instead use the term  “unanticipated results”.
2. Provide opportunities for analysis of why unexpected results occur sometimes in science and how these results can inform future experiments.
3. Guide girls on how to reduce risk and how to learn from mistakes. Discuss various strategies such as: thought experiments, making predictions about possible outcomes, start with simpler versions of the experiment before taking on the more complex versions, and building models.

Final thoughts on my New Framework for Science in the Classroom for both Girls and Boys:

Listening is complicated and an active process that requires a lot of energy, yet it is considered a passive form of learning and doing research. As a teacher I was trained to speak and guide meaningful lessons and to guide students in reconstructing their understanding of the world. My expectations have been that my students listen and learn, but I have only begun to truly develop learning contexts that help me listen and learn from my students.

Start implementing opportunities to leave the boundaries of content and walk the line between facts and feelings, the rational world, and the empathetic modes of learning. We should all aspire to create a classroom culture in which it is common to share what fills us with wonder and excitement about the world we live in, to question one another in a supportive way, to ask questions, problem solve, disagree and together create new knowledge.

American Association  of Advancement of Science states that coupled with an insistence that students be aware of the potential for current and future technologies to affect themselves, society, and the physical environment, contexts within which students can speak about challenging issues brought to us by science and technology are certainly ways for students to apply ideas in novel situations. Listening to students is necessary step in order to change student’s beliefs about science and their ways of doing science.