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Methods For Teaching Science

The document discusses several methods for teaching science, including teacher-centered and student-centered approaches. Lecture is a teacher-centered method where the teacher presents information and students take notes. Hands-on activities and project-based learning are student-centered, involving students conducting experiments and long-term research projects. Peer-led team learning and flipped learning are also student-centered, with students teaching each other or learning content outside of class. Differentiation aims to engage students of all levels through varied activities and tasks.

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Jessa Mae Suson
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173 views

Methods For Teaching Science

The document discusses several methods for teaching science, including teacher-centered and student-centered approaches. Lecture is a teacher-centered method where the teacher presents information and students take notes. Hands-on activities and project-based learning are student-centered, involving students conducting experiments and long-term research projects. Peer-led team learning and flipped learning are also student-centered, with students teaching each other or learning content outside of class. Differentiation aims to engage students of all levels through varied activities and tasks.

Uploaded by

Jessa Mae Suson
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Methods for teaching science

All science teaching methods come down to either teacher-centered or student-

centered instruction. Both types of instruction have their place, however in practice have

very different dynamics in the classroom.

Lecture (teacher-centered)

In this approach, it is the teacher that is the focus. Students either passively take notes

or ask questions through the teacher’s presentation. Handy for large groups of students

or for when you need to get through a large body of information. The key to this lesson

style is to keep it lively by inserting graphics, video snippets, animations, science

demonstrations, audio grabs or guest appearances via video conference. The

advantage of getting active student feedback is that this formative assessment can help

shape your lecture and future lessons to fit the student’s needs.

Hands-on activities (student-centered)

Break out the experiment materials! Whether the students work in small groups or by

themselves, the lesson has a clear question that students need to find an answer to with

the teacher acting as a facilitator. There are a few variations here;

Project Based learning (student-centered)

This teaching method draws on the hands-on nature of the activities above and extends

this to involve students in a deep dive into a given topic. Time is the key here, as

students will be engaged over an extended period of time in researching their topic,

designing their experiment or model, writing a scientific report or creating a poster and


presenting their findings in a short talk. Often part of inquiry-based instruction, the

outputs of Project Based Learning (PBL) can include several of the following as a major

work;

 Field journal

 Student Podcast 

 Working model

 Science poster

 Research paper

 Video diaries

 Augmented reality or Virtual reality

 App creation

Peer-led team learning (student-centered)

Peer-led team learning (PLTL) is about empowering the students to teach the other

students. Often employed in undergraduate studies, this approach also works in schools

where it is most effective when connecting older students with younger students.

Alternatively, PLTL can also be used when pairing students with a high subject aptitude

with students needing help. Guidance is important here as you need to ensure that what

is being covered is correct and safely performed. With supervision, this approach can

be effective for students to learn leadership skills and can create a positive atmosphere

around scholarship.
Flipped learning (student-centered)

Flipped learning has gained a lot of popularity in recent years. The idea is that the

instructional content is given to the students outside of normal school time, with the

intention that students can then come to school with deeper questions for teacher

clarification. you can present this content via a series of videos, articles and books to

read, podcasts to listen to, investigating a problem and so on. The is much debate on

how to best implement this in the classroom; in essence, you need to consider how your

students will respond to flipped learning and how you can motivate them to trial it. A

handy app to use with this is Flip grid, whereby you can record a very short video

question to your class and the students then respond to you with their answers via video

as well.

Differentiation (student-centered)

Differentiation is all about ensuring that students of all levels can be involved in your

lesson. You may want to create worksheets with different tasks or levels of difficulty,

perhaps have a variety of activities for students to choose from or creating a variety of

job roles for students when running PBL. Of course, with differentiation comes a time

requirement to prepare the lesson, however it can help with students being more on

task as they can choose tasks that they can achieve. You can differentiate tasks as both

extension activities as well as design activities for students who need more support.

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