Teachers need to discuss learning goals across grade levels so that students tackle more complex ideas only after they have learned simpler ones. Making meaningful links among related scientific ideas helps students retain what they've learned and provides a strong framework for future learning. Students learn better if their instruction includes observing, collecting, sorting, and using tools to measure, design, record, and analyze. Students also need time to reflect on what they have learned and to practice communicating their procedures and findings effectively. Students should be encouraged to think and work in ways that are characteristic of science and mathematics, which include having some healthy skepticism, an open mind, and an appreciation of the practicality and the beauty of science.
Teachers benefit greatly from discussing ideas about practices and materials with one another.
They also need the opportunity to take courses and participate in workshops about research on effective instruction and current scientific knowledge. Teachers should help students understand scientific views by finding out about their ideas and addressing them directly. These documents represent the best thinking of hundreds of teachers, scientists, and learning researchers on what students should know and be able to do at various grade levels. All rights reserved.