Summary of the reading
The reading this week, The BSCS 5E instructional model: Origins and effectiveness. A report prepared for the Office of Science Education National Institutes of Health, provides a summary on modern
research regarding the sequencing of science based instruction. The report targets research supporting the
idea that the manner of sequencing for teacher instruction in science education
aids in teachers’ ability to target instruction in order to better facilitate
student learning. Specifically, the report provides a rationale and empirical
support for the BSCS 5E Instructional Model (Bybee, Taylor, Gardner, Van Scotter, Powell, Westbrook, &
Landes, 2006). The summary of the 5E Instructional model targets 5
phases that take place in sequential order. Those phases are, engage, explore,
explanation, elaboration, and evaluation.
In the engage phase of the instructional model, teachers target inquiry
based learning that utilizes the students prior knowledge in order to build
upon their learning. The explore phase
of the instructional model provides students with the opportunity to discover
more about the specific concepts being taught or the concepts that was targeted
during the engage phase of this model.
The explanation phase allows students to continue to build upon their
conceptual knowledge and provide a logical explanation of their findings based
on what they have learned in the first two phases. The elaboration phase provides students with an
opportunity to be challenged by the teacher while enhancing their understanding
and building upon their content knowledge.
In the evaluation phase of the model, students are evaluated by the
teacher which allows for the teacher to ensure that students have met the
specific learning objectives established at the beginning of the lesson. The evaluation phase also allows for students
to exhibit their own individual understanding of concepts. The report takes an overall historical view
of the development and implementation of the 5E model due to the overwhelming
widespread curriculum based implementation, research, and development that has
occurred with increasing interest throughout the years. The report then provides a summary of the
acquired research in order to substantiate the effectiveness of this model
using contemporary views. (Bybee, Taylor, Gardner, Van Scotter,
Powell, Westbrook, & Landes, 2006)
Ideas
for possible proposals
Under the 5E
instructional model, a possible proposal might be surrounded around types of energy
and the transfer of energy. This
proposal would be aligned to the Texas Essential Knowledge Standards (TEKS) for
5th grade science.
Specifically, TEKS 5.6(A)
explore the uses of energy, including mechanical, sound, electrical, light, and
heat/thermal, and 5.3 (A-C) Uses critical thinking and problem solving would be
addressed in this proposal. In this possible proposal, students would
explore the different forms of energy around them and learn how energy cannot
be created nor destroyed. To engage students, the teacher could
lead a class discussion by asking students to express their opinion as to what
energy is. Students could make their own list of the different forms of energy
and illustrate their ideas by creating a poster and sharing their posters. To explore,
students could explore real world examples of where we use the different types
of energies. For the explanation portion of the proposal,
students might conduct research to be presented with an educational video on
the 7 forms of energy. The elaboration portion of the proposal
would allow students to find a real world situations where energy is being
transferred using every day examples.
Students could then create a flowchart that shows the origins of the
energy. Finally for the evaluation portion of the 5E model,
students could design and create a Rube Goldberg and label each of energy
transfers ensuring that all 7 forms of energy are utilized within the Rube
Goldberg design. One collaborator in
this proposal could be the Physical Science department at the University of
Texas at El Paso. The Physical Science
department could allow students to take a tour of the department as well as
allowing students to take part in some activities that enhance their
understanding of types of energy and the transfer of energy.
Concerns and
questions for the readings or proposals
Hırça Çalık, & Seven (2011) state, the
classical conceptual change approach involves the teacher designing an approach
to teaching that is consistent with the types of ideas that fit the students’
existing ideas in order to promoting student fulfilment and successfully
facilitate learning. Therefore, my question about the reading is, what are the
best practices for teachers to gain insight into students’ existing ideas on a
variety of content based topics in order to best implement the 5E instructional
model?
References
Bybee, R. W., Taylor,
J. A., Gardner, A., Van Scotter, P., Powell, J. C., Westbrook, A., & Landes, N. (2006). The BSCS 5E
instructional model: Origins and effectiveness. A report prepared for the Office of Science
Education National Institutes of Health. BSCS.
org.
Hırça, N., Çalık, M.,
& Seven, S. (2011). Effects of guide materials based on 5E model on students’ conceptual change and their
attitudes towards physics: A case for ‘work, power and energy’unit. Journal
of Turkish Science Education,8(1), 139-152.
