Are students encouraged to think in a traditional science classroom?
In traditional science classrooms, teachers are the transmitters and students are the receivers of information. Students listen to lectures, read textbooks, watch demonstrations, and follow the cookbook directions in verification laboratory activities. They memorize definitions and search the text for answers to the questions listed at the end of each chapter. These activities can be conducted without much thought. Many students do well on chapter tests and earn good grades. However, months later they have trouble recalling what they “learned” or they revert to tightly held misconceptions. They do not possess the new knowledge we thought they had constructed. What educational strategies promote thinking? Rachel Carlson is credited with saying that “it is more important to pave the way for the child to want to know than to put him on a diet of facts he is not ready to assimilate.” The “light bulb” goes off in our heads when we have become interested enough in a question to seek an answe
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