Activating Students’ Ideas

Science teachers face an incredible challenging task of combining research on how students learn best, the three-dimensions of the Science Education Frameworks that in themselves are complicated to understand, and instructional sequences that lead to deeper learning. Activating Students' Ideas Matter: Linking Formative Assessment Probes to Instructional Sequence is the type of book that stimulates teacher thinking and cultivates teachers' skills and abilities necessary to take students to higher levels of learning. The beginning chapter of the book, provides teacher candidates, experienced teachers, teacher educators, and professional developers with a framework for developing lessons that promote higher levels of science literacy. The framework that is used throughout the book is an explore-before-explain sequence of instruction using the 5E instructional model. Once teachers have a solid understanding of an explore-before-explain framework, we guide them through planning activities so they can use emerging bodies of research and the Science Education Frameworks to plan their own explore-before-explain lessons. Educators will have many opportunities to think about explore-before-explain teaching and can explore examples of K-5 science lessons. Each chapter addresses the three dimensions of the Frameworks.