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All material is my personal opinion, and not that of any other organization. Copyright 2001. Permission is granted for individual teacher use. All rights reserved. |
CHAPTER I Room 215 at Mark Twain Middle School is large -- formerly an art class, it is long, lined with cupboards and drawers. The walls are brightened by posters and student work. From the ceiling long swaths of sky-blue fabric with white clouds form gentle billows above students' heads. A large, inflated vinyl pterodactyl also hangs, frozen mid-swoop over the teacher's perenially messy desk. A large fish tank houses colorful African cichlids who chase each other constantly. There are eight tables for students to sit before, arranged in two rows. Period one/two is a small seventh grade class, only twenty students. All are immigrants, the class designated as "LEP," Limited English Proficient. About ten are from Asia; Vietnamese, Mien, Cambodian. Another six are Latino, mainly Mexican. Three are from Tonga, an island republic in the South Pacific. Almost all, however, can speak, read and write English, having lived in the US for a long time. They are here for two periods each day, for both math and science. Period three/four is likewise math and science, but these are sixth graders, regular Oakland kids. The majority are African American, but there are several European American students, several Asian Americans, Latinos and Filipinos. I am in my eleventh year of teaching in an Oakland middle school. I chose teaching from dual impulses: first, to seek justice through the delivery of quality education to the largely minority students there; and second, a genuine love of young people. I received my credential in 1987, when the emphasis on "hands-on science" was ascendant. The school's curriculum, however, was a traditional textbook. I strove to integrate activities into my curriculum, and when the time came to choose a new text, I participated in the process. I helped select a text which was accompanied by kits of materials for actually doing the activities described. In practice, however, the kits were inadequate and the books were unpopular. I worked in my class to develop my own curriculum, centering on evolution and biology, and I worked with other teachers in the District to develop more lively and useful hands-on curriculum. In 1995 I was asked to join a team of developers at the Lawrence Hall of Science, to help write a new middle school science curriculum. This curriculum will extend the Full Option Science System (FOSS) up through grade 8. For the past three years we have used one class at my school to try out our material as it was written. Once more the emphasis was on "hands-on activities," but we also strove to challenge students to make inferences based on their experiences. Though we attempted to make our materials "developmentally appropriate," I was not always satisfied with the level of engagement we achieved with my students. As science educators, we face multiple challenges. We wish our students to develop an understanding of a number of specific science concepts, such as density, or states of matter. Beyond these content goals, we also wish them to be capable investigators of the natural world. My central objective this year has been to equip my students with this ability. As an urban educator, I have found that my students will not engage in active study of science if they do not feel ownership of the subject matter. Furthermore, I define active engagement in science as not merely the ability to follow directions in a science "cookbook," but the ability to actually define questions for oneself, and answer them through investigation and experimentation. I engaged in action research to see how I, as a teacher, could develop student questions into centerpieces of ongoing classroom inquiry. I chose as my initial tool a set of investigation kits, which students would use to develop their own investigations. In the course of my own investigation, however, my very definition of inquiry would be challenged, as well as the best way to achieve it with my students. Maintaining a focus on student questions, I revised my approach and found new insights from a more structured model of student inquiry. I present this description of an intense year of experimentation and investigation into my own practice as evidence of some valuable lessons about the structure needed to support effective student investigations. Lessons can also be drawn from the collaborative research process which helped guide my work. A wide circle of critical collaborators provided valuable guidance and critique as my work unfolded. Beginning with my trusted collaborative teacher research group, this circle extended to my students, to colleagues in my district and even in other countries, as publication of my journal on my web site attracted discussion and debate. This thesis is a static record,
an attempt to precipitate solid insights from a suspension of
uncertainty and experimentation. The inquiry will continue beyond
this document as an integral part of the process of teaching
in a critical, collaborative environment. Please join me in exploring
the unique circumstances of Room 215 at Mark Twain Middle School. Next section: Chapter II.
Literature Review
-- How Do We Acquire Knowledge? |
Oakland Unified
School District