BUCAS GRANDE FOUNDATION COLLEGE

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TEACHING SCIENCE IN THE

INTERMEDIATE GRADES
MODULE - 4

(Bachelor of Elementary Education)

1st Semester, AY 2020-2021

LEAH MARIE C. MAHOMOC

Instructor

SCI 2 – TEACHING SCIENCE IN THE INTERMEDIATE GRADES

Name of Student: _________________________________ Date: ___________
Course and Year: _________________________________

TEACHING SCIENCE IN THE INTERMEDIATE GRADES

Learning Module

I. Title: Teaching Strategies

II. Topics: 1.1 Constructivist Learning: A Closer Look

1.2 Constructivist Strategies

1.3 Other Teaching Strategies

III. Time Frame: December 3, 2020 – December 15, 2020

IV. Introduction:

As discussed in Module 1, you may have diverse students with individual preferences for
learning; therefore, you have to employ different teaching strategies. Your choice of teaching
strategy should take into account such factors as the skills to be developed for a particular class
session, learning abilities and learning styles of your students, available facilities, and time allotment
for the lesson.

V. Objectives:

After studying this learning module, you should be able to:

1. describe some constructivist approaches in teaching science;

2. decide which strategy is appropriate for your students; and
3. prepare lesson guides using some of the strategies presented in this module.
VI. Learning Activities

Constructivist Learning: A Closer Look

Contemporary science instruction has become highly constructive in nature. It has shifted from
an emphasis on acquiring content knowledge to the process of constructing scientific
understanding. As previously discussed, the major theoretical point of this learning theory is that
learners generate their own understanding. Learners come to school not as a blank slate but as beings
with preconceptions or prior knowledge about the natural world.
Let us see how constructivism works by illustrating its theoretical underpinning.

Principle # 1: Learning is a search for meaning which starts with issues around which students
actively try to construct meaning.

Here are two examples of issues/situations around which students may construct meanings.
a. A newly opened cold bottle of soft drink is more pleasant tasting than one that has been
opened before storage in the refrigerator.

b. A newly opened cold bottle of soft drink is more pleasant tasting than a newly opened bottle of
soft drink at room temperature.

If you ask your students who have not learned about Henry‟s Law and Claysius Clayperon‟s
Equation to explain the above situations, you will probably get answers such as:

“ A newly opened cold bottle of soft drink has spirit”

“ A newly opened soft drink at room temperature has no spirit”

Principle # 2: Meaning requires understanding wholes as well as parts.

Parts are understood in the context of wholes. Meaning requires understanding wholes as well
as parts; parts can be understood in the context of wholes.
Thus, when you take up topics on gases, your students will learn some principles about them.
Eventually, they would use specific principles about gases to explain the pleasant taste of a newly
opened cold bottle of soft drink.

Principle # 3: In order to teach effectively, teachers must understand the mental models used by
students to perceive the world and the assumptions they make to support those
models.

The prior mental model of the students regarding the pleasant taste of a newly opened bottle of cold
soft drink is that it has „spirit’. From their knowledge about gases and soft drinks, the students would
learn that:

1. soft drinks are carbonated beverages;

2. carbon dioxide is added to the mixture at high pressure;
 3. some gases are polar while others are non-polar;
4. polar gases dissolve easily in water;
5. some non-polar gases with low molecular mass such as carbon dioxide dissolve and react with
water;
6. the product of this reaction is acid. This is the acid that makes soft drink pleasant in taste; and
7. pressure and temperature affect solubility of these gases in water.

Principle # 4: The purpose of learning is for an individual to construct his/her own meaning.
Thus, learning must be measured.

Owing to this fact, assessment should be made part of the learning process to provide
information on the quality of the students‟ learning.
Going back to our example on soft drinks, you can ask this question after the lesson to find out if
your students have reconstructed their ideas.
Which of the containers filled with water has more oxygen? Explain your answer
a. Bottle of water at 15° C
b. Bottle of water at 20° C
c. Bottle of water at 45° C

If they have reconstructed their idea, they would choose letter a. Their explanation could be:
Bottle with water at 15 °C has the lowest temperature. The lower the temperature, the more oxygen
dissolves in water (Clasius-Clayperon Equation).

Constructivist Strategies

There are several strategies that can be used to probe, reconstruct and assess the learner‟s
understanding of science concepts, principles, laws and theories. The following discussion will focus
on some of these strategies.

The Discovery Approach by Jerome Bruner

You can increase the motivation of pupils to learn science if they are to experience something
different from their day to day activities. In using discovery approach, the teacher decides, in
advance, the concept, process, law or piece of scientific knowledge which is to be “discovered” or
un-covered by the pupils. The lesson proceeds through a hierarchy of stages which may be
associated with Bruner‟s levels of thought. These stages are the following:

 Enactive level

At this stage, the students perform hands-on activities directly related to what is to be discovered.
 Iconic level

After the students have done the hands-on activity and gain some experiences, the teacher directs
the thinking of the students using experiential situations to the mental images or models of the objects
used upon which the discovery is to be based.

 Symbolic level

At this point, the students are guided to replace mental images with symbols to increase
generality and abstraction which eventually results in the discovery planned by the teacher in
advance.

Inquiry Approach

This approach teaches students to handle situations they meet in the physical world. To use
the inquiry approach in the teaching of science, you need to prepare activities that will allow students
to develop the following skills:

a. recognizing problems;
b. asking questions;

c. applying laboratory procedures; and

d. providing consistent descriptions, predictions and explanations.

There are many strategies for the inquiry approach in the classroom. All inquiry strategies share
common features. These are the following:

a. Students do hands-on activities such as experiments.

b. Students are focused on learning some analytical skills and applying the skills gained in the
hands-on activities in another situation.
c. The students understand scientific constructs or concepts being developed during the hands-on
activities.

We shall demonstrate the two ways of using inquiry as a tool for constructivist learning - the 5-
E Learning Cycle and the Discrepant Event as springboard.

A. The 5-E Learning Cycle

The 5-E Learning Cycle is a model that promotes scientific inquiry. Each “E” represents part of
the process of helping students sequence their learning experiences to develop a connection between
prior knowledge and new concepts. The teacher serves as a facilitator as students construct new
knowledge based on thoughtful inquiry and decision making. The 5-E‟s are as follows:

1. Engage
The students engage in a task to make connections between the past and present learning
experiences.
2. Explore
The students perform a task to get directly involved with key concepts through guided
exploration of scientific, geographic, economic, and other data set.

3. Explain

The students give details about the science concepts being developed in the task. Through
readings and discussions, the students develop understanding of the major science concepts and
verify answers to questions or problems posed in the engage stage.

4. Elaborate
The students simplify the science concept/s in the lesson, e.g. stating the concepts in their
own words, and applying new found knowledge to a different situation.

5. Evaluate

The students take a test, quiz, or any authentic assessment instrument to determine how
much they benefited from the lesson or activity.

B. Discrepant Event as Springboard for Inquiry Learning

Have you seen or heard of an iceberg in Manila Bay? An iceberg in Manila Bay is a discrepant
event. Why? Manila, Philippines is close to the equator and the temperature never reaches the freezing
point.
What is a discrepant event? Why use it to teach science? A discrepant event is an unexpected,
surprising, or paradoxical event (FriedI, 1997). It creates a strong feeling in the student e.g. feeling of
wanting to know. This feeling creates a condition favorable for inquiry learning. Its use in science
capitalizes on the curiosity of students and it leads them to better understanding of science.

There are three steps to follow when using the discrepant event strategy. They are as follows:

1. Set up a discrepant event.

Present the event to gain attention, increase motivation, and encourage the students to seek
ways of solving the unexpected. Some examples of discrepant events are shown below.

2. Students investigate the event to solve the discrepancy.

Give students the minimum materials as well as simple procedures to start the investigation.
The students can go beyond your instruction. However, they should be advised to present their
procedure for your approval first.
3. Students solve the discrepancy.

After the students have resolved the discrepancy, evaluate the students. You can do this by
asking the students to do the following:

a. Prepare a summary of the lesson.

b. Relate the concept to a similar situation.
c. Cite applications of the concept in the real world.

Activity 1

1. Carla wanted to find out the relationship between the amount of gases that goes into solution and
pressure through an experiment. Which of the following strategies is most appropriate?

a. Inquiry learning through a discrepant event

b. Inquiry learning through 5-E learning cycle
c. Discovery learning
d. Cooperative learning

2. If the teacher uses inquiry learning through 5-E learning cycle, at what phase can the students
simplify the concept in their own language and be able to apply it to another situation?

a. engage b. Explore c. explain d. elaborate

3. In which phase of the lesson do the children learn through their own involvement and action?

a. Exploration
b. Evaluation
c. Concept extension
d. Concept explanation

4. Do you feel that a discrepant event helps students reconstruct their ideas about science concepts?
Why do you say so?

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Reflective Teaching

In 1930, John Dewey defined reflection as a proactive, on-going examination of beliefs and
practices, their origin and impact. The practitioners of reflection engage in a cycle of observation and
self-evaluation in order to understand their own actions and the reactions they prompt on themselves
and learners. Reflection can be seen as consciously thinking about analyzing what has been done and
what one has done or is doing (Salandanan, 2000).

Reflecting on how you developed a science concept a week or two days ago is important to the
improvement of the next teaching session. It makes you a better facilitator of science learning. In turn,
students acquire meaningful experience of forthcoming science lessons.

How are your students benefited by reflective teaching? Reflective practice helps students do the
following:

frame a problem, detach from it and analyze it critically;

bridge the gap between theory and practice;
understand and influence their own thinking;
recognize the depth and range of transferable skills learned; and
become life-long learners.

Reflective teaching can be carried out in several ways. Salandanan (2000) suggested four
strategies--journal writing, portfolio, self analysis, and on-the-spot observation of students‟ response.

1. Journal writing allows the students to reflect or process their thoughts about science concepts.
Journals may be in the form of workbooks, diaries, logs,or progress profiles. Journals make students
look back over their recent learning. In doing so, they can identify their strengths, weaknesses, new
levels of understanding about the lesson at hand, and review their attitude towards the latest science
concepts learned. The journal entry includes a
description of the learning event, outcomes of the event, worthiness of outcome and causes of failure or
success.
2. The portfolio is a personal record which includes honest to goodness account of experiences -
thoughts, behavior and reactions. This record gives insights to students‟ learning for a particular science
topic. Portfolios may contain a collection of students‟ work such as homework, projects, written pieces,
graphic organizers, tests, reflections, and other artifacts.
3. Self-analysis is a record of incidents, problems and issues that transpired while doing a science
task/lesson. If the student did right, he would say “I should remember to do this in another situation”. If
he failed, he could ask “What went wrong”, “I could have done this”, and “There is room for
improvement” or “Better luck next time”.
4. The fourth strategy for reflective teaching is on the spot observation of the students’ responses.
As a teacher, ask yourself the following questions so that you can reflect on the lessons just conducted:

 Were the students motivated to participate in the activity?

 Did the students take part in the discussion?

 Did the students share their views animatedly?

 Were the students given equal opportunity during the recitation/discussion?

 Was the topic related to the world of the students?

 Would the students be able to apply the science concepts discussed to their everyday life?

Do not rely solely on the natural process of reflecting on experience. Instead, you should actively
find ways to make reflection a habit. By doing so, you ensure your continuing development as a
professional teacher. Reflecting on your own past performance is one form of feedback. Keeping a
reflective diary about your own experiences with your class, students and colleagues, helps you to
reflect and learn from experience.

Activity 2

1. Can you use reflective teaching with a class of 75 pupils? Explain your answer.

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2. Of the four strategies presented in this lesson on reflective teaching, which one would you
like to use in your class? Why do you like it?

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Integrative Teaching

This is a teaching strategy which puts together the parts of a whole in order to arrive at a holistic,
complete and more accurate view of reality (Corpus and Salandanan, 2003). It is infused by the multiple
intelligences, the varied learning styles and the daily experiences of the learners. It empowers learners
to become life- long learners and active makers of meaning.
Integrative teaching is a three-level strategy – the facts level, the concept level and the values
level. Students pick up fragmented terms or facts at facts level. Here, the students move to the
concept level when they view and organize the isolated, fragmented and meaningless facts into
concepts. Then, the knowledge acquired is applied to the learners‟ life at the values level.

Integrative teaching involves the practice of recognizing and articulating relationships among
subject matters and applying learning from one context to another. It also involves building bridges
between the academe and the wider world, between public issues and personal experience.
Integrative teaching relies on connections built between academic setting on campus and other
settings in the business community, farms, government, churches and host of other partners.

Advantages of Integrative Teaching

 makes content more meaningful because the content is presented the way it is in the real world

 is student-centered, involves active learning with the teacher acting as facilitator of learning

 allows learners to form their own representations of complex topics and issues

 offers multiple ways for learners to demonstrate the knowledge, skills and attitudes learned

 gives opportunities for students to work in a context where interdependence and cooperation are
crucial for getting things done

 helps learners develop a variety of social skills

Activity 3

1. How will students benefit from the use of integrative teaching?

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Cooperative Learning

Cooperative learning is “the instructional use of small groups through which students work
together to maximize their own and each other‟s learning.” Cooperative groups are not the same as
students working cooperatively in groups. In cooperative groups, each member has a valued role in the
learning process and everyone is responsible for each other‟s learning. Students take time to reflect on
their personal contributions to the group, on how members perform, and on how the group may improve.

There are four basic components of cooperative learning. They are as follows:

Positive interdependence

This principle emphasizes that the success or failure of the group depends on the success or
failure of each member. Thus, each member of the group learns to share and work together to
attain the shared goal.

Individual accountability
This implies that each member of the group is not only responsible for their own learning but
also in helping their fellow students to learn.

Equal participation
This means that each member has his/her own role, work or load to achieve the goal of the
group. No member should be allowed to dominate anybody in the group either socially or
academically.

Simultaneous interaction.

This means that students share and openly express their views and suggestions in a group.

Here are some tips that will help you implement cooperative learning successfully.

 Be sure to monitor the group and their activities, taking care to ensure that the groups are
functioning as groups and that one student is not dominating the work.
 Give credit to the teams for their collective work, not the work of one individual.
 Rotate the roles among the members of the group.
 Create a new group every now and then.

Activity 4

1. Think of one science lesson where you can use cooperative learning. What would be that
lesson and why is cooperative learning perfect for it?

2. Cite at least one advantage of using cooperative learning.

Other Teaching Strategies

Other than the teaching strategies discussed above, there are other strategies you can choose
from. Remember, there is no one best strategy. Your choice as to what strategy to use depends on the
factors cited in the previous lesson.

Lecture and Student Recitation

You can use the lecture method to explain, demonstrate, and present information on the topic to
be taken up. It is not necessary for the teacher to do the lecturing all the time. For example, if your
lesson is on diversity, you may invite an expert on biodiversity from the National Museum, Department.
of Environment and Natural Resources or from a nearby university or school.

Lectures may vary in form. The table below lists variations of the lecture. Demonstration
teaching, practice and drills, and review are considered variations of the lecture because they are
expository in nature. These strategies are all teacher-centered.

Different Forms of Lectures

Role Playing and Simulation

Everyday we encounter situations where people are in conflict or faced with a dilemma of some
sort. Take the need to have a supply of wood for construction material as an example. This means trees
have to be cut from the forests. However, our forest cover is getting smaller. So, we are faced with a
dilemma, “Are we going to ban logging completely?” or “Are we going to practice selected logging?”
Role playing can be used to dramatize the situations. Majority of the class members observe and
analyze the components of enactment. After the role play, discussion follows.
An alternative to this is a simulation wherein students are placed in a situation that models a
real life phenomenon. For example, Barangay A has a population of ten thousand ((10,000). One
pressing problem of the barangay is a build up of mountains of garbage. If a person produces three
(3) kilograms of garbage everyday how soon can a barangay accumulate a mountain of garbage
with a bulk of 20,000,000 kilograms of garbage?

Field Trips

The field trip is a vehicle by which science can be learned and taught. Krepel and Duvall
(1981) defined field trip as "a trip arranged by the school and undertaken for educational purposes,
in which the students go to places where the materials of instruction may be observed and studied
directly in their functional setting”(Michie, M., 1998). Biology teachers and students could observe
organisms in their native habitat to describe behavior and other biological functions of living
organisms. Chemistry teachers can bring their students to industries to observe or experience actual
processes which are simulated or discussed in classrooms. Physics teachers can bring their
students to theme parks to discuss physics in the playgrounds. Science teachers can also carry out
field work which indicates formal exercises to be conducted in the field. It is a subset of field trip. An
example of formal exercises to be conducted in the field is the relation between dissolved oxygen
and the depth and water temperature of a lake, river, or ocean. Another is the distribution of
planktons at different times of the year. Field trips are valuable for cognitive and affective
development of the students.

Field trips provide the opportunity for hands-on, real world experiences, improved quality of
education, motivation and development of positive attitude towards the subject, improvement of the
socialization between students as well as development of rapport between teachers and students.

Concept Mapping

A concept map is a special form of a web diagram for exploring knowledge and gathering and
sharing information. Concept mapping is employed to develop connections among concepts in the unit.
A concept map consists of nodes or cells and links. The nodes contain the concepts and are usually
enclosed in a box or circle. The links are represented by arrows. The labels in the links explain the
relationship between the nodes. The arrow describes the direction of the relationship and is read like a
sentence.

A concept map may be used to:

 develop an understanding of a body of knowledge;

 explore new information and relationships;

 access prior knowledge;

 gather new knowledge and information;

  share knowledge and information generated; and

 organize structures or processes such as written documents, constructions, web sites, web
search multimedia presentations.

How would you help students make a concept map? Here are some tips.

1. Identify major and minor concepts of the topic under study.

2. Organize the concepts from most important to less important.
3. Tell them to write the major idea at the center of the paper.
4. Write the next major ideas as the next layer. Connect these ideas to the major idea with lines and
proper linking words.

As an assessment tool, the concept map will give you information on how the student relates the
identified concepts from the lesson. This way, you can be sure that students understand the lesson.
A concept map example about matter is shown below.

Notice that the concepts are linked by lines and there are link words between concepts to
show the relationship. A concept map can be a group work or an individual activity.
Games

Children love to play games. Games can teach children to work together as a well-coordinated
team. It develops coordination skills which are necessary to perform delicate jobs. Basketball can be
used to teach motion in physics. Billiards can be used to develop functional understanding about
momentum. Tug-of-war is a good analogy for developing concepts about balanced or unbalanced forces
either in physics or chemistry.
Puzzles, cartoons, humor, magic, and jokes can also be used in the science classrooms. They
make science learning fun and enjoyable for learners.
Activity 5

My Concept Map

Base on the example of a concept map about matter, make your own concept map by following these
steps:

1. Search for a specific topic about biology.

2. Identify major and minor concepts of the topic under study.
3. Organize the concepts from important to less important.
4. Write the major idea at the top of the paper.
5. Write the next major ideas in the next layer. Connect these ideas to the major idea with lines
and proper linking words.

Activity 6

1. There are a lot of low-achievers in Mrs. Teodoro‟s science class. What strategy should be avoided?

a. Lecture Method
b. Drill practice
c. Discussion
d. Independent research

2. This is a strategy where the students are provided the opportunity to learn an event by observing
some of their classmates performing the activity in front of the class under the direction of the teacher.

a. Project-based learning
b. Demonstration
c. Exposition
d. Lecture

3. In which of the following situations is demonstration likely to be used as a strategy in a science class?

a. The teacher wants to develop students‟ interest in science.

b. The lesson calls for the use of recycled materials.
c. There is danger in the use of some materials.
d. The activity is quite long and complicated.

4. For what purpose can a concept map be used?

a. as an advanced organizer
b. as an assessment tool
c. as a summary
d. all of the three