Science Teaching Approaches and Strategies

Teaching Approaches
and
Strategies for Science

INTRODUCTION
• The biggest challenge before a teacher is
how to teach Science lessons.
• If this teaching – learning activities are
effective, students can reach the goals of
life by acquisition of knowledge, skills
and values in Science.

As defined by Dr. Rosalyn Yalon, a Nobel
Laureate in Medicine,
science is… “… not simply a collection
of facts. It is a discipline of thinking about
rational solutions to problems after
establishing the basic facts derived from
observations. It is hypothesizing from
what is known to what might be and then
attempting to test the
hypothesis….logical thinking
must come first; the facts can
come later.

Knowledge, Process Skills and
Attitudes.
Knowledge is sometimes labeled as the
products of science. It generally refers to
facts, concepts, principles, laws, and
theories.

Process skills are the empirical
and analytic procedures used by
scientists in solving problems.

Scientific attitudes refer to the
general predispositions that
characterize the work of
scientists.

Some of the important attitudes students will
have to learn and demonstrate in science
include
Curiosity honesty
objectivity openness
perseverance skepticism
withholding judgment.

Characteristics of Learners
which are relevant to science teaching.
1. Learners learn and develop as a whole
person.
The learners’ cognitive, affective,
physical, social and emotional areas are
intricately intertwined. Learners cannot
grow in one area without affecting the
other areas.

2. Learners grow through the same
predictable stages but at different
rates.
This means that children of the same age
group may not exhibit uniform
characteristics. Some may be more
intellectually or socially advanced than the
others in the same age group.

3. Learners learn best through active
involvement with concrete experiences.
Research studies show that the use of
hands-on activities can result in significant
improvements in academic performance
and attitude of students towards science.

4. Learners are curious and eager to
learn.
When the teacher fits the learning
environment to learners’ interests, needs
and their levels of maturity, they become
highly motivated.

5.Learners have different learning styles.
Learning styles are preferred ways that
different individuals have for processing
and responding to environmental stimulus
(Kuchuck and Eggen, 1997). Learning
styles are also referred to as cognitive
styles.

Science Teaching Approaches and Strategies

Teaching will be more effective if you will do the following:
1. ƒ Present science as a way of finding
out rather than as a body of facts to be
memorized.
Allowing learners to discover and to
organize the information, equip them with
problem-solving and decision-making
skills. It also results in knowledge that
is more easily remembered and
recalled than rote learning.

ƒ 2. Emphasize learning by doing
A number of researches show that
learners learn better when they are
personally involved in physical or hands-
on activities.

3. Encourage interactions among
learners
Give opportunities for students to work
together in groups. Students who work
together learn more from each other. They
also develop their social and
communication skills in the process.

4. Adapt science experiences to the
learners’ developmental levels
Learners differ on how they operate
mentally. Therefore, you must arrange
experiences that fit what they can do.

5. Use a variety of approaches in
teaching science
Students have different learning styles.
To be more effective, you must be aware
of their learning styles and you must
consider them in choosing which teaching
methods to use.

• According to Dr. Rita Dunn, Director,
International Learning Styles Network,
“Students can learn any subject matter
when they are taught with methods and
approaches responsive to their learning
styles.”

STRATEGIES OF TEACHING
STRATEGY: - Strategy is the art and
science of directing and controlling the
movements and activities of the army. If
strategy is good, we can get victory over
our enemies. In teaching this term is
meant those procedures and methods by
which objectives of teaching are
realized in the class.

Constructivist Learning:
A Closer Look
The major theoretical point of this learning
theory is that learners generate their own
understanding. Learners come to school
not as a blank slate but as beings with
preconceptions or prior knowledge about
the natural world.

Let us see how constructivism works by
illustrating its theoretical underpinning.
Principle # 1: Learning is a search for
meaning which starts with issues
around which students actively try to
construct meaning.
Here are two examples of issues/situations
around which students may construct
meanings.

a. A newly opened cold bottle of soft drink is
more pleasant tasting than one that has
been opened before storage in the
refrigerator.
b. A newly opened cold bottle of soft drink is
more pleasant tasting than a newly
opened bottle of soft drink at room
temperature.

. If you ask your students who have not
learned about Henry’s Law and Claysius
Clayperon’s Equation to explain the above
situations, you will probably get answers
such as:
“ A newly opened cold bottle of soft
drink has spirit”
“ A newly opened soft drink at room
temperature has no spirit”

Principle # 2: Meaning requires
understanding wholes as well as parts.
Parts are understood in the context of
wholes. Meaning requires understanding
wholes as well as parts; parts can be
understood in the context of wholes.

Principle # 3: In order to teach
effectively, teachers must understand
the mental models used by students to
perceive the world and the
assumptions they make to support
those models.
The prior mental model of the students
regarding the pleasant taste of a newly
opened bottle of cold soft drink is that it
has ‘spirit’

From their knowledge about gases and soft
drinks, the students would learn that
1.soft drinks are carbonated beverages;
2. carbon dioxide is added to the mixture at
high pressure;
3. some gases are polar while others are
non-polar;
1. 4. polar gases dissolve easily in water;

5. some non-polar gases with low molecular
mass such as carbon dioxide dissolve and
react with water;
6. the product of this reaction is acid. This is
the acid that makes soft drink pleasant in
taste; and
7. pressure and temperature affect solubility
of these gases in water.

Using constructivist approaches
will help students reconstruct their
prior knowledge based on their
new experiences and thus, make
their own meaning. You can be sure
that they will not say “spirit” next time.

Principle # 4: The purpose of learning is
for an individual to construct his/her
own meaning.
Thus, learning must be measured.
Owing to this fact, assessment should be
made part of the learning process to
provide information on the quality of the
students’ learning

. Going back to our example on soft
drinks, you can ask this question after
the lesson to find out if your students
have reconstructed their ideas.
Which of the containers filled
with water has more oxygen?
Explain your answer

a. Bottle of water at 15° C
b. Bottle of water at 20° C
c. Bottle of water at 45° C
If they have reconstructed their idea, they
would choose letter a.
Their explanation could be: Bottle with
water at 15 °C has the lowest
temperature.
The lower the temperature, the more
oxygen dissolves in water
(Clasius-Clayperon Equation).

Constructivist Strategies
There are several strategies that can be
used to probe, reconstruct and assess the
learner’s understanding of science
concepts, principles, laws and theories.
The following discussion will focus on
some of these strategies.

1.The Discovery Approach
by Jerome Bruner
• You can increase the motivation of pupils
to learn science if they are to experience
something different from their day to day
activities.

The lesson proceeds through a hierarchy of
stages which may be associated with
Bruner’s levels of thought. These stages
are the following:
a.Enactive level
At this stage, the students perform hands-
on activities directly related to what is to
be discovered. The sample activity in Box
````1 illustrates the enactive level

b) Ikonic level
After the students have done the hands-on
activity and gain some experiences, the
teacher directs the thinking of the students
using experiential situations to the mental
images or models of the objects used
upon which the discovery is to be based.
Box 2 gives an option you can do after
an activity or experiment.

c) Symbolic level
At this point, the students are guided to
replace mental images with symbols to
increase generality and abstraction which
eventually results in the discovery planned
by the teacher in advance.
Box 3 shows how you can do this.

2. Inquiry Approach
• This approach teaches students to handle
situations they meet in the physical world.
To use the inquiry approach in the
teaching of science, you need to prepare
activities that will allow students to
develop the following skills:

a. recognizing problems;
b. asking questions;
c. applying laboratory procedures; and
d. providing consistent descriptions,
predictions and explanations.

There are many strategies for the inquiry
approach in the classroom.
All inquiry strategies share common
features. These are the following:
a. Students do hands-on activities such as
experiments.
b. Students are focused on learning some
analytical skills and applying the skills
gained in the hands-on activities

We shall demonstrate the two ways of
using inquiry
-as a tool for constructivist learning -
the 5-E Learning Cycle and
-the Discrepant Event as springboard.

A. The 5-E Learning Cycle
The 5-E Learning Cycle is a model that promotes
scientific inquiry. Each “E” represents part of the
process of helping students sequence their
learning experiences to develop a connection
between prior knowledge and new concepts.
The teacher serves as a facilitator as students
construct new knowledge based on
thoughtful inquiry and decision making. The
5-E’s are as follows:

1. Engage
2. Explain
3. Explore
4. Elaborate
5. Evaluate

1. Engage The students engage in a task to
make connections between the past and
present learning experiences.
Example:
Recall the following:
1. Compounds are classified into acids, bases, and compounds.
2. Some acids and bases are strong; some are weak
3. Indicators such as litmus paper and phenolphthalein can be used
to identify acids and bases.
Present the situation below to your students. Suppose you
want to find out which among the substances in your
home are acids and bases. You don’t have any litmus
paper or phenolphthalein. What will you do?

2.Explore The students perform a task to get
directly involved with key concepts through
guided exploration of scientific, geographic,
economic, and other data set.
Example:
Pupils will do an activity.

3.Explain The students give details about the
science concepts being developed in the task.
Through readings and discussions, the
students develop understanding of the major
science concepts and verify answers to
questions or problems posed in the engage
stage.
Example:
Which of the household substances are acidic? Which substances are basic ?
You can answer the questions by comparing the color change of the
extract in solutions found in the second table with the color change of
extract in hydrochloric acid solution/sodium hydroxide solution. From
these two tables you can deduce that milk, tea, coffee and bleaching
agent are acids. Shampoo, detergent, baking soda and
toothpaste are bases.

4. Elaborate The students simplify the
science concept/s in the lesson, e.g.
stating the concepts in their own words,
and applying new found knowledge to a
different situation.
Example:
Present the situation below to the students
Some of us suffer from indigestion or stomach problem in
the morning. Our parents would tell us to drink milk,
coffee, or tea. Is this a good advice or practice? One
cause of indigestion or stomach problem in the
morning is hyperacidity. At first coffee, milk or tea
may help. In the long run, the problem will
worsen. Why? Tea, milk and coffee are acidic.

5. Evaluate The students take a test, quiz,
or any authentic assessment instrument to
determine how much they benefited
from the lesson or activity.

B. Discrepant Event as
Springboard for Inquiry Learning

What is a discrepant event? Why use it to
teach science?
A discrepant event is an unexpected, surprising,
or paradoxical event (FriedI, 1997). It creates a
strong feeling in the student e.g. feeling of
wanting to know.

There are three steps to follow when
using the discrepant event strategy.
They are as follows:
1. Set up a discrepant event.
Present the event to gain attention,
increase motivation, and encourage the
students to seek ways of solving the
unexpected. Some examples of
discrepant events are shown below.

Examples of Discrepant Events
Dancing salt
Making ice disappear
The appearing coin
Changing liquid to gas to liquid
The four seasons
Melting ice below freezing point

2. Students investigate the event to solve
the discrepancy.
Give students the minimum materials as
well as simple procedures to start the
investigation. The students can go beyond
your instruction. However, they should be
advised to present their procedure for your
approval first.

3. Students solve the discrepancy.
After the students have resolved the
discrepancy, evaluate the students.
You can do this by asking the students to do
the following:
a. Prepare a summary of the lesson.
b. Relate the concept to a similar situation.
c. Cite applications of the concept in
the real world.

Reflective Teaching
• REFLECTION
John Dewey defined reflection as a
proactive, on-going examination of beliefs
and practices, their origin and impact.

Reflective Teaching
How are your students benefited by reflective
teaching? Reflective practice helps students
do the following: ƒ
1. frame a problem, detach from it and analyze it
critically; ƒ
2. bridge the gap between theory and practice; ƒ
3.understand and influence their own
thinking; ƒ
4. recognize the depth and range of
transferable skills learned; and ƒ
-become life-long learners.

Reflective teaching can be carried out in
several ways. Salandanan (2000)
suggested four strategies—
-journal writing,
-portfolio,
-self analysis, and
- on-the-spot observation of students’
response.

1.Journal writing allows the students to reflect
or process their thoughts about science
concepts. Journals may be in the form of
workbooks, diaries, logs ,or progress profiles.
Journals make students look back over their
recent learning

2. The portfolio is a personal record
which includes honest to goodness
account of experiences - thoughts,
behavior and reactions.

3. Self-analysis is a record of incidents,
problems and issues that transpired while
doing a science task/lesson. If the student
did right, he would say “I should remember
to do this in another situation”. If he failed,
he could ask “What went wrong”, “I could
have done this”, and “There is room for
improvement” or “Better luck next time”.

4. The fourth strategy for reflective teaching
is on the spot observation of the
students’ responses. As a teacher, ask
yourself the following questions so that
you can reflect on the lessons just
conducted: ƒ
Were the students motivated to participate
in the activity? ƒ Did the students take
part in the discussion? ƒ Did the
students share their views
animatedly?

Were the students given equal opportunity
during the recitation/discussion? ƒ
Was the topic related to the world of the
students? ƒ
Would the students be able to apply the
science concepts discussed to their
everyday life?

Integrative Teaching
This is a teaching strategy which puts
together the parts of a whole in order to
arrive at a holistic, complete and more
accurate view of reality (Corpus and
Salandanan, 2003

It is infused by the multiple intelligences,
the varied learning styles and the daily
experiences of the learners. It empowers
learners to become lifelong learners and
active makers of meaning.

Integrative teaching is a three-level strategy
– the facts level,
- the concept level and
- the values level.

Integrative teaching involves the practice of
recognizing and articulating relationships
among subject matters and applying
learning from one context to another. It
also involves building bridges between the
academe and the wider world, between
public issues and personal experience.

Advantages of Integrative Teaching ƒ
1. makes content more meaningful because
the content is presented the way it is in the
real world
ƒ2. is student-centered, involves active
learning with the teacher acting as
facilitator of learning
ƒ 3.allows learners to form their own
representations of complex topics
and issues

ƒ 4.offers multiple ways for learners to
demonstrate the knowledge, skills and
attitudes learned ƒ gives opportunities for
students to work in a context where
interdependence and cooperation are
crucial for getting things done
ƒ helps learners develop a variety of social
skills

Cooperative Learning
Cooperative learning is “the instructional use of
small groups through which students work
together to maximize their own and each other’s
learning.” Cooperative groups are not the same
as students working cooperatively in groups. In
cooperative groups, each member has a valued
role in the learning process and everyone is
responsible for each other’s learning.

There are four basic components of
cooperative learning.
They are as follows: ƒ
1.Positive interdependence
This principle emphasizes that the success
or failure of the group depends on the
success or failure of each member. Thus,
each member of the group learns to
share and work together to attain the
shared goal.

2. Individual accountability
This implies that each member of the group
is not only responsible for their own
learning but also in helping their fellow
students to learn.

3. Equal participation
This means that each member has
his/her own role, work or load to
achieve the goal of the group. No
member should be allowed to dominate
anybody in the group either socially or
academically

4. Simultaneous interaction.
This means that students share and
openly express their views and
suggestions in a group.

Here are some tips that will help you
implement cooperative learning
successfully. ƒ
Be sure to monitor the group and their activities,
taking care to ensure that the groups are
functioning as groups and that one student is not
dominating the work. ƒ
1. Give credit to the teams for their collective
work, not the work of one individual. ƒ
2 Rotate the roles among the members of
the group.
3. Create a new group every now and then.

Lecture and Student Recitation
You can use the lecture method to explain,
demonstrate, and present information on
the topic to be taken up. It is not
necessary for the teacher to do the
lecturing all the time.

Role Playing and Simulation
• Role playing can be used to dramatize the
situations

Example: Everyday we encounter situations
where people are in conflict or faced with
a dilemma of some sort. Take the need to
have a supply of wood for construction
material as an example. This means trees
have to be cut from the forests. However,
our forest cover is getting smaller. So, we
are faced with a dilemma, “Are we
going to ban logging
completely?” or “Are we going to
practice selected logging?”

Simulation
• Pupils are placed in a situation that
models a real life phenomenon.

For example
Barangay A has a population of ten
thousand ((10,000). One pressing problem
of the barangay is a build up of mountains
of garbage. If a person produces three (3)
kilograms of garbage everyday how
soon can a barangay accumulate a
mountain of garbage with a bulk of
20,000,000 kilograms of garbage?

Field Trips
• The field trip is a vehicle by which science
can be learned and taught. Krepel and
Duvall (1981) defined field trip as
"a trip arranged by the school and
undertaken for educational purposes, in
which the students go to places where
the materials of instruction may be
observed and studied directly in their
functional setting”(Michie, M., 1998)

An example of formal exercises to be
conducted in the field is the relation
between dissolved oxygen and the depth
and water temperature of a lake, river, or
ocean. Another is the distribution of
planktons at different times of the year.
Field trips are valuable for
cognitive and affective
development of the students.

Field trips provide the opportunity for hands-
on, real world experiences, improved
quality of education, motivation and
development of positive attitude towards
the subject, improvement of the
socialization between students as well as
development of rapport between teachers
and students.

Concept Mapping
A concept map is a special form of a web
diagram for exploring knowledge and
gathering and sharing information.
Concept mapping is employed to develop
connections among concepts in the unit.

A concept map consists of nodes or cells
and links. The nodes contain the concepts
and are usually enclosed in a box or circle.
The links are represented by arrows. The
labels in the links explain the relationship
between the nodes. The arrow describes
the direction of the relationship and is read
like a sentence

As an assessment tool, the concept
map will give you information on how
the student relates the identified
concepts from the lesson. This way,
you can be sure that students
understand the lesson.

Games
Children love to play games. Games can
teach children to work together as a well-
coordinated team. It develops coordination
skills which are necessary to perform
delicate jobs..

Basketball can be used to teach motion in
physics. Billiards can be used to develop
functional understanding about
momentum. Tug-of-war is a good analogy
for developing concepts about balanced or
unbalanced forces either in physics or
chemistry

• Puzzles, cartoons, humor, magic, and
jokes can also be used in the science
classrooms. They make science
learning fun and enjoyable for
learners.

• References:
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