I have to say I loved last week's class on misconceptions.  I am still going through the list of common student scientific conceptions, and it made me realize that I need to work on many of my explanations regarding certain concepts! 

That being said, I think misconceptions are a great place to build a lesson around.  I have heard it before that challenging misconceptions can be an excellent way of creating those true learning moments.  It is easy enough for students to pass through their science classes by the simply memorizing facts (or calculus class, as many can attest!), because this method does not involve challenging an individuals pre-conceived notions about the world.  Science then ends up being about accumulating facts rather than the continual evolution of ideas and a particular way of viewing the world.

One technique to combat misconceptions that I particularly like is to have students explain a particular phenomena.  We did this in 416 during our first day of class to particular effect, when we were asked to describe why it is warmer in the summer and colder in the winter (with relation to the celestial bodies).  Many of us, even as future science teachers, were vaguely aware of the seasonal effects of axial tilt, but we all seemed to hold on to the idea that the Earth's elliptical orbit must also play a significant role.

Another way to go about this is as I said bring up a particular scientific concept which students know to be untrue, and to have them try and prove the teacher wrong.  An example could be to tell students that the sun revolves around the earth.  Some students will likely grumble and maybe even call out,  and the teacher can act shocked- "Are you saying that I am wrong?!" "Can you prove it?".  Or, if there is no response, the teacher could try and come up with more outlandish hypotheses until students become confident enough to correct the teacher.  This method might work especially well when the students are allowed to collaborate and scaffold their ideas together in small groups before explaining why the teacher was incorrect.

I also like the idea of students designing their own experiments to prove their hypotheses, or to better rationalize their thinking.  I have done this before by asking students why condensation forms on the outside of a glass (something I believe we discussed in 416 as well).  Many students have trouble conceptualizing condensation, though they have no problem with evaporation, and implicitly believe that it must have something to do with the water in the glass moving to the outside.  It is fun to see what they come up with, such as adding a lid, putting dye in the water, or recalling that they have seen the same phenomena with a can of soda etc.  I have also told students that I have a magic bottle that only allows water to pass through, but no other substance, in order to challenge them further.

Next week is my hook presentation, and I am going to use a similar technique that fits in with the whole theme of misconceptions or unexplained phenomena.  It is something I have made up that I like to call 'Science or Magic?'.  What I do is lay out my experimental reagents and let a few students inspect them.  Then I tell students what I am going to do, and ask them to right down hypotheses of what they think will happen when I do it.  After I preform the 'magic' I ask students, was that magic or science?  Did what you expected to happen, in fact, happen?  What did you observe?  I usually will give them a minute or two to discuss with their neighbors, then let them know that they each have a week to get back to me and explain my 'magic trick'. 

The purpose of this is that it mimics the scientific process in many ways; it allows the students to predict a phenomena by making a hypothesis, to observe the actual phenomena with their senses, and ample time to come up with a conclusion based on not only their own existing scientific knowledge, but also the wider body of knowledge available on the internet etc.

Today the topic is formative assessment, something we discussed at length last week in 416.  Personally I feel that formative assessment is THE integral part of teaching, because it allows us to see if learning is taking place.  My own philosophy mirrors much of what is outlined in the First Peoples principals of learning, where the focus of teaching is on a student's individual growth, rather than against a particular criterion of reference. I believe that an educator's role is to foster growth and reflection in the students, so that they can become mindful of their own learning strengths and weaknesses.  Education eventually becomes a self-evaluative process whereby we are constantly checking to see if we are expanding in our ability to know, understand and do.

Formative assessment can also be a very useful tool for teachers to plan and differentiate their instruction. It is difficult for a teacher to be truly inclusive and teach to every student until he or she has some idea what their individual educational needs are.  They may opt to begin to plan their Units by incorporating various modes of instruction, in an attempt to reach all members of the class, but only once he or she has received feedback from each individual student as to how they learning process is going, can they truly adapt their instruction and assessment accordingly.  The curriculum may indicate the for Chemistry 11 for example, 7-12 hours should be dedicated to the study of the different phases of matter.  However through formative checks it may become apparent that the students have no problem grasping the concepts of matter, and the teacher may then opt to move to more advanced matter discussions, or spend time on other areas of the curriculum.   The opposite is equally possible; perhaps members of the class are having more difficulty with a topic than was initially expected.  By analyzing student work, self-reflections and other formative checks, the teacher is better able to adapt their method of delivery to suit the needs of the student.  It may be that the student is understanding the concept partially, but not to the degree that is required for the summative assessment piece.  This lets the teacher know where they need to dedicate more time, or to alter their approach.

My own favourite form of formative assessment is through open forums such as online blogging.  Platforms such as blogger, wordpress or google classroom are ideal for this, because they utilize the online format which many students are familiar with, and they allow the student to begin to develop their self-reflective capabilities.  I am always surprised just how well many students are able to grasp their learning progress, and where they are having difficulty.  Additionally, I often learn things about the student that are beneficial not only from an assessment viewpoint, but from a personal view as well.  This can help tremendously when building relationships of trust and care, and it allows the educator to reach the student more authentically by learning about their own passions and interests.  One other advantage is that this format allows for other students to learn from the reflections of their peers, and in a sense it extend the classroom community outside of the traditional realms of school.  I have found that many students do not know what is expected of them when it comes to self-reflection, but when they are able to observe the work of their peers, it gives them a bit of a scaffold in their own growth tracking process.  Finally, it allows the educator to see what parts of their instruction could most use adaptation and or improvement.  I have had lessons that I thought were extremely unorganized that students loved, and still others that didn't meet particular needs which I thought went reasonably well (it is important for the teacher to reflect!)

I firmly believe that personal growth is the most important part of education.  We may no all be able to meet every benchmark that is set for us in life, but if we are mindful of our own learning process, and what we need in order to best develop our individual gifts, then we have developed an important skill that is applicable in all walks of life.  This I think should be the core focus of school, and can be best done with formative assessment, by all members of the classroom community.  Blogging as reflection is not new, it is just the 21st century method of retaining a journal or diary, and it can be implemented with ease even by the most technologically illiterate of educators.  Almost all students have mobile devices in the modern classroom, and it is the savvy educator who sees these as additional learning tools, rather than unfortunate distractions.