1. Sources of knowledge – ways of knowing things by way of personal experience, intuition, traditions, expert authority, logic, or research. Personal experience, intuition, traditions, and logic are valuable sources of knowledge, but many times cannot show enough evidence to support the theory. These sources of knowledge may not be valid or reliable for various reasons. Expert authorities on subjects are another valuable source of knowledge, but these experts can lead one to believe what they want you to believe, not necessarily the facts. The true source of knowledge is research – where studies involve a methodical process of gathering, interpreting, and reporting information. I feel many educators use the various sources of knowledge other than research to gain understanding. Even in the classroom setting, methodical research can be essential to understanding students and their behaviors and achievements. Information gained can lead to more effective learning. 2. Scientific inquiry – to be able to explain and describe accepted happenings and use this knowledge to predict and influence behavior. This can be used to explain why some teachers appear to be more effective than others. The explanation can lead to knowledge to share with other teachers to become more effective. McMillan, J.H. (2012). Educational research: Fundamentals for the consumer (6th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson. 3. Empirical study – a study that gathers data that is objective, based on
The scientific method is used during experiments to find a conclusion and or reason as to why an event or something happens.
Inquiry Skills—You will develop questions and plan investigations, evaluate change and continuity over time, develop credible explanations of historical events and developments based on reasoned interpretation of evidence, gather evidence, evaluate and use evidence, develop explanations and make persuasive arguments in support of your conclusions, and communicate your conclusions.
The process skills approach to teaching is defined as the educator helping children develop science skills and processes to confidently undertake their own investigations (Campbell, 2012). These skills are developed through: communicating, science language, asking questions, making sense of phenomena, predicting, modelling, conducting investigations, planning, testing, observing, reasoning, and drawing conclusions of science concepts (Campbell, 2012). When the educator assist children’s learning, it is important to put the emphasis on the nature of science and scientific concepts. Guided discovery approach to teaching requires the educator to ask effective questions that encourage children to explore and extend their investigations throughout science learning (Campbell, 2012). This can be developed through play experiences as children explore their world around them. An interactive approach to teaching children is based on questions that lead explorations and the educators to provide essential resources to guide these explorations (Campbell, 2012). It is the educators’ responsibility to support children’s development, ideas, questions, ways of thinking, and develop scientific thinking. Furthermore, an inquiry approach to teaching relates to children investigating the answers to their own
Student achievement for children is dependent upon the mental processes that are developed and nurtured through educators, culture, and society. Society plays a major role in cognitive human growth and development. It is important for educators to understand that children need opportunities to develop and expand their cognitive abilities. Vygotsky’s theory about mental tools suggest that every child has the ability to develop skills that will enable them to think in complex ways.
The Scientific Method is the approach that scientists use to investigate some phenomena. It’s a standard technique to find cause and effect of a particular problem.
The last twelve years of my life, I have spent the last four or five years of my life focusing on improving my academics and learning how to become a better person. The one consistent drive that pushed me to succeed academically is my dream of attending Kennesaw State University (KSU). Unfortunately, in today’s economic climate I have to be realistic and factor in out-of-state fees and the impact these fees would have on my family’s financial health. That was until I discovered this amazing waiver that gives out of state students an opportunity to pay tuition as a Resident rather than a Nonresident. The KSU OutKSU Out-Of-State Waiver will make my dream of attending KSU a reality. However, I’m sure many other students have come across this waiver and learned it is not handed out to every applicant; it is limited and should be awarded to the most
Forming an explanation or point of view based on the available evidence is a scientific
Having access to relevant resources allows me, as an educator, to frame and scaffold meaningful questions to guide my research within the classroom. As a teacher and student, I am always learning, inquiring, analyzing information and ideas, adapting to behaviors according to information received, looking to improve and adapting to the many demands placed upon me every day (Fields, 2011). As a result, I need to research which means I need to constantly have and demonstrate the ability to frame the meaningful, insightful questions that will inform my learning and teaching practices. If education was not based on inquiry and research the education system would only be based on theory, ideology and prejudice.
The scientific method is a tool that enables a person to seek out new knowledge, or correct and integrate new knowledge. It is composed of eight individual steps: which start out with defining a question, gathering information and resources, form an explanatory hypothesis, test the hypothesis by performing an experiment and collecting data in a reproducible manner, analyze the data, interpret the data and draw conclusions that serve as a starting point for new hypothesis, publish results, and ends with a retest. The steps can be grouped into four different essential elements: operation, observation, model, and utility function.
Inquiry Skills—You will develop questions and plan investigations, evaluate change and continuity over time, develop credible explanations of historical events and developments based on reasoned interpretation of evidence, gather evidence, evaluate and use evidence, develop explanations and make persuasive arguments in support of your conclusions, and communicate your conclusions.
The scientific method is the set of procedures that enable scientists and researchers to conduct
In conclusion, scientific method is something that doesn't have to flow in one direction from Question, hypothesis, experiment, observation, to conclusion. Scientific method can take on many forms as long as it ends with fact and an understanding. This understanding comes from knowing how to ask not simply the right question but how to ask a question right then test it to find an
The first two chapters of this book set the background for student development and how theory has evolved over the years. As time passed and college student demographics changed, new ideas and views were developed to understand the ever changing student body. Theorists realized that the college experience was different between demographic groups. Being able to develop student affairs practices and activities that can reach the different student groups is probably the biggest challenge a student affairs professional will tackle. It is said that student development is most achieved by involvement by the students. This means that these activities must be designed to accommodate students from all walks of life.
Scientific-based instruction is something that teachers use all the time in their classroom. Teachers are consistently assessing and evaluating students’ performance, creating and amending individual education plans, lesson plans, and reflecting on their practices. As teachers, we should be doing rigorous research and building hypothesis to base further teaching practices on.
Science is, by its nature, inquiry based and science knowledge is built through processes in which discoveries of the natural world are made (Abruscato, 2000). It utilizes discovery and scientific thinking process to explore and learn knowledge and skills. Learning by doing is the new efficient method in teaching science. For kindergarten, this method leads to better understanding of science concepts and builds skills that children will use in future life .What a child can do with assistance now, they can later do on their own (Vygotsky, 1978). John Dewey (1916) stated that children must be engaged in an active quest for learning and new ideas. Inquiry is important in educating kindergarteners because it not only keeps them interested in lessons but also helps them retain more information when performing exploration and investigation. Children are naturally motivated to learn and actively seek out information to help their understanding (Piaget, 1950).The success of students who participate in hands- on inquiry activities suggests that if students have first hands experience with science, concepts are easier to understand and apply and students are generally more favorable to science and have better understanding of the nature of science .Within a conceptual framework, inquiry learning and active learner involvement can lead to important outcomes in the classroom. In kindergarten, students who are actively making observations, collecting results and drawing