MODULE 4

Course Title: Teaching Science in Intermediate Grades

Unit: 3
Week: 5 - 6
Day/Time: TUE/7:30am – 10:30am
M/W/11:00pm – 12:30pm
Instructor: Ms. Gerence U. Trivino, LPT

TITLE: Instructional Strategies for Science (Earth Science)

 Strategies in teaching earth science
 Approaches in teaching earth science
 Sample teaching activities in earth science

OVERVIEW:
There are numerous instructional strategies that can be adopted by the teacher to impose inquiry
skills to learners in intermediate levels in science subject. Two of those strategies will be discussed in this
module, namely inductive guided inquiry and cooperative learning.
LESSON OBJECTIVES:
At the end of the lesson, the student is expected to:
1. Define inductive guided inquiry and cooperative learning as an instructional strategy
2. Construct sample lesson plan that follows inductive guided inquiry and cooperative learning
as an instructional strategy
3. Evaluate the use of inductive guided inquiry and cooperative learning as an instructional
strategy
DISCUSSION:
I. What is Inductive Guided Learning
 a thought process wherein the individual observes selected events, processes, or objects and
then constructs a particular pattern of concepts or relationships based on the observation
 This is used as a teaching method where the learners are asked to infer conclusion,
generalization, or pattern of relationship from a fact or set of data.
 Two approaches of inductive inquiry:
 Guided Inductive Inquiry
 The teacher provides the data or facts and requires the student to
generalize (Tamir, 1995).
 Unguided Inductive Inquiry
 The teacher allows the student to discover facts themselves before they
make generalization.
II. How to Use Guided Inductive Inquiry as a Teaching Strategy?
 Using pictures is usually the easiest way to introduce the concept of guided inductive inquiry.
 For example, for young learners you may show different pictures of a same scene and ask the
learners to tell what they see in the pictures of the same scene in front of the class. The
patterns that they will state will be their generalization.
 The teacher needs to keep in mind to distinguish clearly between statements based in
observations and those based on inferences.
 The process of inductive reasoning is developed gradually.
 The learners’ understanding of each process will gradually develop from studying these
examples.
 Time Requirement
o Classes needs to spend at least twice as much class time on each lesson when using
any type of inquiry activity in class.
o Inquiry methods needs greater interaction between the learner and the learning
materials, as well as between the learner and the teacher (Orlich et al., 2007).
o Be prepared to reduce the amount of content because you will use more of the time
developing process skills.
 Characteristics of Guided Inductive Inquiry Model (Orlich et al., 2007)
1. The learners progress from specific observations to inferences or generalizations.
2. The objective is to learn (or reinforce) the process of examining events or objects and
then arriving at an appropriate generalization from the observations.
3. The teacher controls the specifics of the lesson (the events, data, materials, or objects)
and thus acts as the class leader.
4. Each student acts to the specifics and attempts to structure a meaningful pattern based on
his or her observations and those of others in the class.
5. The classroom is to be considered a learning laboratory.
6. Usually, a fixed number of generalizations will be elicited from the learners.
7. The teacher encourages each student to communicate his or her generalizations to the
class so that others may benefit from them.
 A General Model of Inquiry (Orlich et al., 2007)

 The Role of Questioning Within Guided Inductive Inquiry

o The following list shows some questions that the teacher may ask to have more
inquiry-oriented classroom environment (based on Orlich & Migaki, 1981)

Questions Stems: Dynamic Subjects

  What is happening?
 What has happened?
 What do you think will happen now?
 How did this happen? What caused this to happen?
 What took place before this happened?
 Where have you seen something like this happen?
 When have you seen something like this happen?
 How can you make this happen?
 How does this compare with what you saw or did?
 How can you do this more easily?
 How can you do this more quickly?

Question Stems: Static Subjects

 What kind of object is it?
 What is it called?
 Where is it found?
 What does it look like?
 Have you ever seen anything like it? Where? When?
 How is it like other things?
 How can you recognize or identify it?
 How did it get its name?
 What can you do with it?
 What is it made of?
 How was it made?
 What is its purpose?
 How does it work or operate?
 What other names does it have?
 How is it different from other things?
III. Sample Lesson Plan
 Cooperative Learning
I. What is Cooperative Learning?
 Cooperation - an act of working together to fulfill shared goals
 Cooperative Learning – an instructional strategy in which the learners work together to
achieve a common goal
 Principle – learners can achieve more by working collaboratively than by working alone
 Two important components of cooperative learning methods (Johnson and Johnson, 1994)
1. A cooperative task
2. A cooperative incentive structure
 Basic elements of small group work (Johnson and Johnson, 1994) (cited in Killen, 2009)
1. There must be positive interdependence
2. There must be an ongoing, direct interaction in which the students help one another to
learn.
3. There must be individual accountability.
4. The learners must use appropriate interpersonal skills.
 5. The participants become reflective learners as they analyze the outcomes they achieve
and how well the group functions.
 Why Does It Work?
o Three primary reasons why cooperative learning is being used worldwide:
1. It is clearly based on theory
2. It has been proven by various research works
3. It has been operationalized into clear procedures that educators can use
o Three possible motives for student engagement and learning as educators use
cooperative learning:
1. outcome motives (rewards, recognition, and goal achievement)
2. means motives (intrinsic interest in the task, task novelty, and task structure)
3. interpersonal motives (peer support, a desire to help each other, and the need
to belong to a group)
o The students in a group should be comfortable with working with one another for
them to be motivated to make their own effort that is necessary for everyone’s
success (Michael Jones & Watson, 1993).
 Some Advantages of Cooperative Learning
o Having the students work together results in more learning than when the students
work alone, competitively, or individually (Johnson & Johnson, 1986). The students
will also like school better, will like one another better, and will learn more effective
social skills when cooperative learning is used.
o It teaches the students to be less reliant on the teacher and more reliant on their own
ability to think, to seek information from other sources, and to learn from other
students. They become empowered to take greater responsibility for their own
learning and for the learning of others (Drake & Mucci, 1993).
o Cooperative learning helps the students learn to respect one another's strengths and
limitations and to accept these differences. This is very important in culturally diverse
classrooms and in classrooms that include students with disabilities.
o It helps the students understand that different points of view need not be divisive, but
they can be a positive aspect of developing an understanding of a subject.
o It can boost the students' confidence and self-esteem because it allows all the students
(not just the high achievers) to experience learning success.
o It can change the students' views about learning. It helps them to move from seeing
learning as individual memorization of facts to seeing it as a collective construction
of understanding. It emphasizes democratic thought and practice as a desirable way
for people to interact (whatever the focus of their interaction).
o It is appropriate to use when the students are engaged to large problem-solving tasks
and research projects in which the task is heavy for one person and time is limited or
where more than one person is needed to manipulate equipment, perform the
experiment, collect, and analyze data.
o It ensures that all the students are socially integrated into networks of positive peer
relationships. This help the students to become skilled in constructive conflict
resolution, and this can reduce antisocial behavior like bullying (Johnson et al. 2008).
 Suggested considerations when using cooperative learning (Killen, 2009)
II. How to Use Cooperative Learning as a Strategy in Class?
Teacher’s Preparation (Killen, 2009)
 Give the students guidance and practice in helping one another to learn.
 Specify clearly what outcomes you want the learners to achieve.
 Decide what content (issues, problems, theories) the students will focus on as they try to
achieve the outcomes.
 Select what you think will be the most appropriate form of cooperative learning to use.
 Prepare the materials.
 Decide how to form the groups.
 Explain to the students in detail how the cooperative learning sessions will operate, what you
expect from them, how you will assist them, and how they will be assessed.
 Develop a system of recognizing and rewarding the learning of individual students as well as
the achievement of the groups.
 Prepare appropriate assessment instruments so that the students will be able to demonstrate
their mastery and retention of academic content and skills after the cooperative groups have
completed their work.
 Develop a system for keeping records of the group and individual achievements of the
students and for publicly acknowledging the achievements of the group.
 Plan a period of reflection so that after the groups have completed their tasks and received
their feedback, the students can analyze their achievements and their group process.

Implementing Cooperative Learning (Killen, 2009)

 Assign the students in groups. It makes the students more alert to the instructions to be given
to them.
 Explain clearly the outcomes that the students are to achieve and provide clear directions
about the academic tasks that each group will undertake.
 Explain how the learning of individual students will be assessed.
 Remind the students of your expectations from them (particularly in relation to helping one
another learn) and of the cooperative goal structure (the rewards for learning).
 Provide the students with resources if necessary.
 Remind the students how long they have for the cooperative learning and get them started.
 Move around, visit each group to provide assistance, and monitor the activities and learning
of the students to make notes of matters that will need to be dealt with once the group
activities have finished.
 Bring the lesson to a logical conclusion.
  Evaluate the student achievement and help them assess how well they collaborated with one
another.
III. Sample Lesson Plan

EVALUATION:
A. Answer the guide questions.
1. What are the general considerations when using guided inquiry as a strategy in class?
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2. The heart of guided inquiry is questioning. Characterize effective questioning?
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3. Choose a certain topic and develop a sample lesson plan following the 5E model:
Topic:
Learning Competencies
1.
2.
ENGAGE
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 EXPLORE
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EXPLAIN
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ELABORATE
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EVALUATE
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B. Answer the following guide questions.
1. What are the advantages of using collaborative learning as a strategy in class?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
2. What are the limitations of collaborative learning as a strategy in class?
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
3. Given the learning competencies below, develop a sample lesson plan inn incorporating cooperative
learning.
Topic: Other Members of the Solar System: Comets, Meteors, Asteroids
Grade Level: Grade 7
Learning Competencies
The learners should be able to:
1. compare and contrast comets, meteors, and asteroids;
2. predict the appearance of comets based on recorded data of previous appearances; and
3. explain the regular occurrence of meteor showers.
ENGAGE
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
EXPLORE
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
EXPLAIN
 ____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
ELABORATE
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
EVALUATE
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________________________
REFERENCES:
Alata, E., & Alata, E. (2020). Teaching Strategies for Elementary Science. REX Book Store.