T58 Beginning a New Era in Earth Science Education: The Role of Geoscience in Implementing the Next Generation Science Standards

Sunday, 1 November 2015
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
Room 321

IDENTIFYING STUDENT CONCEPTIONS TO ENHANCE NEXT GENERATION SCIENCE STANDARDS (NGSS) ALIGNED CURRICULA

Paper number: T58-7
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 3:00 PM – 3:15 PM

Authors

Abstract

Student preconceptions can serve as a barrier to learning, especially if misconceptions are not properly addressed. Identifying the conceptions students bring into the classroom should help inform unit development and be considered a fundamental initial step in the creation of a new science curriculum.

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) form the basis of the Michigan Science Teaching and Assessment Reform (Mi-STAR) curriculum for the middle grades (6, 7 and 8). The Mi-STAR curriculum is being developed by a partnership that includes K-12 teachers and is working towards the goal of supporting science and engineering education as an integrated body of knowledge that can be applied to study real-world phenomena and develop solutions to 21st-century problems. Mi-STAR is made possible by a grant from the Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation.

In the current stage of Mi-STAR unit development, small teams of teachers are working with content-area and pedagogical experts during two-week-long intensive development sessions, resulting in the creation of draft units. As part of this process, participating teachers identified pre- and mis-conceptions that their students hold about the topics in the specific unit being developed. These student conceptions identified by teachers were supplemented by information compiled from other reputable sources. This list of student conceptions was then explicitly linked to individual NGSS performance expectations and disciplinary core ideas, and was used to guide unit development.

The student conception document compiled during this process will be useful to others developing NGSS-aligned curricula as it will allow teachers to anticipate, and address, common pre- and mis-conceptions. Teachers can use this knowledge to select pre-instruction assessments (including performance-based tasks) to elicit prior knowledge and provide information that can be used to tailor instruction to address students’ needs.