Middle School Science Study

Students who do not experience effective science teachers do not perform as well on state-mandated test as students who do experience effective science teachers.

As quoted by Venza (n.d), “An effective teacher is not only the master of her content area but she is acutely aware of the learning styles, abilities, and backgrounds of her students”. Too many teachers are still stuck in the teacher-centered traditional classroom and need to transition to student-centered classrooms. Middle school science teachers need to engage students and use more effective instructional strategies to teach science and get away from the traditional textbook way of teaching (Johnson, Zhang, & Kahle, 2012) Thornburg (2009) said hands-on science education seems

The 2003 Trends in Mathematics and Science Study teacher survey found that 30 percent of instructional time in eighth grade science lessons was devoted to students listening to lecture-style presentations on new content or re-teaching/clarification of content and procedures (Banilower, Cohen, & Weiss, 2010). Science done without much depth is not the fault of the standards. The Next Generation Science Standards offer a strong framework for making clear that students must learn science in the context of doing science by engaging in scientific and engineering practices such as questioning, investigating, designing solutions, constructing explanations, and arguing based on evidence (Good science education depends on actually doing science,”

Teachers who are not using an effective approach to teaching science need professional development support to retool. Science teacher professional development is needed to change teacher beliefs about pedagogy and to support teachers as they make the transition from teacher-centered to student-centered, contextualized, reform based classrooms (Johnson, et al., 2012). Like all professionals, science teachers need opportunities for continuing education in disciplinary content and in content specific pedagogy. Teachers need an understanding that goes beyond knowledge of science content to include knowing how students typically think about concepts, the questions teachers can ask to figure out what their particular students do and do not understand about a specific topic, and the experiences they can provide to help move student understanding forward. The emerging knowledge base on effective professional development can provide guidance in designing and implementing opportunities that enable teachers to both deepen their understanding and apply what they are learning to improve their instruction (Banilower, et al.,