Lesson Study Cycle 1: Science Literacy
Question of Practice:
How can we use student’s Funds of Knowledge to build their scientific literacy?
Abstract
Building scientific literacy is an important skill for students to better ask questions and understand the world around them. The usage of research based technique funds of knowledge seemed appropriate when considering the methodology of delivery. Relating scientific phenomena to past experiences is a proven method to improve memory of content. The lesson delivered was on Kinetic Energy and the different variables that contribute towards it, being mass and velocity. The students took a short multiple choice quiz to gauge their understanding of the topic at the beginning of the lesson. We chose to deliver the lesson referencing animals to access students funds of knowledge. Students then took the same quiz to see if their was any more retention of information. The results proved successful and nearly every student was able to complete the short assessment with complete accuracy by the end of the lesson.
Conclusion
After performing this lesson study cycle we have learned a lot from the data we collected. The lesson proved successful and the usage of animals in accessing students funds of knowledge seems a useful approach in content delivery and science literacy. The assessment results showed students were able to grasp the content understanding goals with most students scoring with full accuracy. Some areas of exploration for future study would be measuring the affect of phenomena based instruction as a basis for creating funds of knowledge in our students, and checking its influence on science literacy. One improvement for future studies is to clarify our definition and measurement of literacy in general, and improve our assessment process towards literacy understanding.
Reflection
The practice of this lesson cycle has been eye opening in many ways. The science of development isn’t always black and white, teaching is extremely difficult, and measurements of success can always be criticized. There are many factors that influence the success of a lesson and contribute towards students success. Trying to isolate any one of those factors is nearly impossible, so we do the best we can to simplify the delivery and measurements. The best way I’ve come to understand lesson study is through a constant practice. It is the science and art of doing and reflecting. In many ways this is a subjective practice towards the culture and demographic of your students, school, and geography. Because of this it requires an attentiveness and reactivity unlike any other career I’ve been in. This job is all about little humans, and as long as we’ve been paying attention, we’ve never found any two humans exactly the same. Making teaching maybe one of the most dynamic careers.
