Research supporting the curriculum

“We believe, after examining the findings of cognitive science, that the most effective way of learning skills is “in context”, placing learning objectives within a real environment rather than insisting that students first learn in the abstract what they will be expected to apply.” From the Executive Summary of What Work

Requires of Schools from The Secretary’s Commision on Achieving Necessary Skills, US Dept of Labor, June 1991

Learn all the concepts

Apply them to real-life scenarios

Students don’t see connections between concepts

Students don’t see application to their lives

Students never read the “application” included in traditional textbooks

The order makes sense to those that know the whole story

Learn as scientists learn

Arrange concepts in need-to-know order

The concepts are fit to the theme…not the other way around!

Text, practice problems and labs utilize the theme

Themes are chosen that interest students

Inquiry labs are used when appropriate

Working memory is the memory we can currently access and use

People have between 5 and 9 “slots” of working memory that can be used at any given time

As they understand and integrate knowledge together, they begin to form chunks—each chunk then only ties up one working memory slot

The more information that is chunked, the more information you can deal with at one time

Although people have between 5 and 9 working memory slots available, how many are used for other things: Daydreaming Distractions Emotional concerns Physical concerns All the other things teenagers think about

Motivation is the allocation of working memory slots

When students are motivated, they are more willing to allocate more or all of their working memory slots to the task at hand rather than other concerns in their life

Increased motivation = increased ability to process, integrate and understand information

Contextual teaching increases motivation, as shown in survey data to come later in this presentation

Therefore, contextual teaching leads to increased allocation of working memory slots

The mind makes determinations on which pieces of information to discard and which to move to long-term memory

As much as 90% of the information in short-term memory can be discarded within 24 hours

In order for information to move from short-term to long-term, the information must: Have meaning or relevance to the learner Be understood by the learner

For example, you may have understood the plot of a novel you read many years ago, but if it had no personal meaning or relevance, it’s now forgotten (Johnson)

Many programs provide relevance in side-bars, special vignettes, or after the “learning” has taken place This is called “application”

Application and contextual teaching are not the same

In application, you’re providing the meaning and relevance too late—you need to provide the context and meaning first, before you ask students to learn

Deters completed a survey of over 100 college professors and published the result in J Chem Ed (October 2003)

7 topics were statistically in the top for importance: Basic skills (units, sig figs, graphing, etc.) Moles Dimensional analysis Stoichiometry Nomenclature Atomic structure Balancing equation

Besides the top 7 topics, many professors indicated in comments that they preferred student that were comfortable talking about science, had positive attitudes (not afraid of chemistry), an appreciation for science in their lives and problem-solving abilities rather than those with more content memorization

Other studies have shown this as well (Gold, Barnard)

This is supported by research showing 70% of material learned in science courses is forgotten within 1 year if not used—they’ll forget most of the content between the HS course and their college course (Shumba)

Deters surveyed 571 HS chemistry Teachers and published the results in J Chem Ed (Nov, 2006)

The HS teachers were much more focused on content than college professors

There was a list of topics that more than 90% of the teachers agreed should be in the class & are currently being taught

There was another list of topics that they agreed should be in the class but that they didn’t have time to teach (acid/base, collision theory, etc.)

The topics desired by college professors and thought most important by HS teachers are in the first 6 chapters of the text (which are written to be followed sequentially) Placement of some of the “wish” list topics in these

chapters will allow more teachers to get to them The topics that far fewer HS teachers agreed

upon are in the last 6 chapters (which are written to be ala-carte and do not depend on each other) to allow for flexibility and personal interest and goals

The National Research Council released America’s Lab Report in 2006.

This was a summarization of a large body of research on lab programs and suggestions for making lab programs effective

Their main suggestion was the creation of Integrated Instructional Units

Labs should be integrated in the section—used before content introduction as much as possible

Saving labs until the end of the section, chapter or having them in a separate lab manual does not promote integration in the students mind with the content in lectures, discussions or readings

This curriculum contains embedded labs—placed where they fit in the reading/progression of the course.

The report also suggested the use of student-designed labs

Inquiry is used in this text by having students design their own procedures for investigations at least 1 time per chapter

Research shows that novices at problem-solving processes need significant guidance This allows them to devote more working memory

slots to the science and not the design process The text includes a section teaching students

how to design labs and uses significant guidance in the beginning

Guidance is “weaned” away as students become more comfortable with the design process (begin to “chunk” it)

15 questions given as pre-survey. Previous science courses & books

15 questions given as post-survey Questions were matched, but pertained to

this class and this book.

Contextual Curriculum +1.68

Traditional Curriculum +0.54

Contextual gained 1.14 more than Traditional

Contextual Curriculum +0.49

Traditional Curriculum -0.56

Contextual gained 1.05 more than Traditional

Contextual Curriculum +0.71

Traditional Curriculum -0.13

Contextual gained 0.84 more than Traditional

Contextual Curriculum +0.63

Traditional Curriculum -0.07

Contextual gained 0.70 more than Traditional

Contextual Curriculum +0.37

Traditional Curriculum -0.29

Contextual gained 0.66 more than Traditional

Contextual Curriculum +0.97

Traditional Curriculum +0.34

Contextual gained 0.63 more than Traditional

Contextual Curriculum +0.46

Traditional Curriculum -0.11

Contextual gained 0.57 more than Traditional

Contextual Curriculum +0.10

Traditional Curriculum -0.46

Contextual gained 0.56 more than Traditional

Contextual Curriculum +0.31

Traditional Curriculum -0.23

Contextual gained 0.54 more than Traditional

Contextual Curriculum +0.19

Traditional Curriculum -0.19

Contextual gained 0.38 more than Traditional

Contextual Curriculum +0.89

Traditional Curriculum +0.57

Contextual gained 0.32 more than Traditional

Contextual Curriculum +0.84

Traditional Curriculum +0.54

Contextual gained 0.30 more than Traditional

Contextual Curriculum +0.40

Traditional Curriculum +0.20

Contextual gained 0.20 more than Traditional

Contextual Curriculum +0.25

Traditional Curriculum +0.62

Contextual lost 0.37 more than Traditional, but still showed a gain in student attitude

Each chapter has: Introductory activity Sections learning material needed to understand the

theme. Each has practice problems including conceptual questions

Integrated labs, using the theme product whenever possible

At least one student-designed lab per chapter Chapter culminating project integrating all concepts

and applied to the theme (varying from pre-designed labs to student-designed labs to research and creative writing assignments).

Chapter summary and review

Practice problem answers Teaching tips Demonstrations Lab prep/timing Lab hints & sample data Outside resources

PowerPoint presentations for each section including animations of molecular processes

Color images (in PPT format) from the text All labs to allow customization &

printing/copying for students to take into lab with them rather than carrying their book

Computerized EvamView TestBank All questions with numbers and most with chemical

formulas are algorithm questions, meaning there is almost an infinite possibility for different versions at the push of a button.

Reading guides for each section Practice problems for sections with

mathematic application Section quizzes for each section Grading Rubrics for each inquiry lab

and performance assessment Pre-made tests for each section

2 matched short versions & 2 matched long versions

US Department of Labor: The Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills, What Work Requires of Schools: A SCANS Report for America 2000, June 1991

Brooks, David. http://dwb4.unl.edu/TheoryPaper/compth.html, a paper integrating learning theories (working memory, motivation, etc.)

Johnson, Elaine. Contextual Teaching and Learning: What it is and why it works, Corwin Press, 2002

Deters, Kelly; What should we be teaching in high school chemistry, J Chem Ed, October 2003

Deters, Kelly; What are we teaching in high school chemistry, J Chem Ed, November 2006

Shumba, Overson; Glass, Lynne W. J of Res. In Sci. Teach., 1994, 31, 381

Gold, Marvin. J Chem Educ. 1988, 65, 780 Barnard, JD (1956) Teaching High School

Science. Washington, DO: American Educational Research Association: Department of Classroom Teachers

National Research Council, America’s Lab Report: Investigations in High School Science. National Academies Press, 2006