The Chi Wheel mystery

Tony SherborneCurriculum DirectorCentre for Science Education

OR Teaching skills to mastery

What can the Chi Mystery teach?

Curricula around the world say

Integrate skills with content e.g.“Construct an explanation of the Big Bang theory based on astronomical evidence of light spectra, motion of distant

galaxies, and composition of matter in the universe”

:

School inspectors say

“The best schools ensured that pupils had sufficient time to be taught and subsequently

develop the skills of scientific enquiry”

But psychologists warn

“Inquiry-based instruction places a huge burden on working memory. The onus should surely be

on those who support it to explain how it circumvents the well-known limits of working

memory when dealing with novel information”

cognitive overload

What can happens in classrooms

• Lack of explicit skills teaching• Skills marginalised in curriculum • Teachers have ‘expert blind spot’

What TEMI offers

• Gradual Release of Responsibility model• Content-led and skills-led versions • Lifelines (Cognitive strategies)

Inquiry level

Level 0

Level 1

Level 2

Level 3

Gradual Release of Responsibility

DemonstratedModelled

Structured

Guided

Open

Levels of inquiry

Content Skill Lesson structure

Content-led New Familiar 5E (apply)

Skills-led Familiar New Adapted 5E(apply)

Content-led and skills-led versions

Hypothesise LIFELINE

Prediction – what you expect to happenConclusion - what you have found out

Hypothesis - explanation of what you are going to testObservation - what you can see (hear or smell)

KeyWords

Suggest a hypothesisMake experimental

predictionConclude if hypothesis

is correct

What did you see happen?

My idea (hypothesis) for why it happened is ...

The science to back up my explanation is ...

If my idea is correct,And, I do an experiment to …

Then, I predict what will happen is...

In my test, I found that...

I can conclude that my idea is __________ because ...

SS1

The reason for my prediction is ...

Work through one version, then

Compare with a pair doing the other version• How are they different?• How could you integrate each in your teaching?

Curriculum progression

DemonstratedModelled

Structured

Guided

Open

Year 7

Year 8

Year 8

In schools across the USA, In schools across the USA,