FIRST ASSESSMENT EXERCISE

A MINI-TEACHING (LESSON PRESENTATION) TASK

• The task
• Some suggestions and constraints
• Preparation and trailing of activities
• Assessment Criteria

The task

Each member of the group will be given a small teaching task, focused on a Year 7 topic area from the Stage 4 - 5 Science Syllabus. Each group member will form a pair of teachers who are to present a Year 7 lesson on their topic to the group.

The traditional model of teaching that has prevailed in many schools and universities - that learning occurs when knowledge is transmitted from the expert (teacher or lecturer) to the ignorant (the student), and which uses a didactic or lecture format (teacher as teller or explainer, student as the passive recipient of knowledge) - is not appropriate for much of school science learning. Research in science education shows that much traditional science teaching fails to lead to genuine understanding in the pupils - it often only results in the shallow learning of facts that are regurgitated in exams and quickly forgotten.

Your task is to think about how you could lead your pupils to understand some concept or phenomenon in a way that does not rely solely on you talking/lecturing/explaining. Just telling them (e.g. by lecturing at them and/or giving out some notes) is not the same as teaching them.

The aim of the exercise is to:

• give you an opportunity to work with a partner to plan, prepare and deliver a lesson designed for a Year 7 class , together with the associated worksheet/written material, so that you can personally explore and test your own ideas about teaching science;
• have you come to grips with some of the issues associated with communicating scientific ideas to others, especially children, and
• provide you with the opportunity to practise your teaching skills in front of a (relatively) friendly audience of your peers
• provide you with an opportunity to practise the design and use of teaching aids.

Your pair will be rostered to give your lesson presentation from week 4 or 5 of Phase 2 (as advised). Each pair will be given a 36-minute period for teaching (i.e. the lesson, which will be timed exactly as it is in schools - you will not be allowed to run over time, nor will you be allowed to finish early). Each person in the team is to teach either the first half or the second half of the lesson i.e. each of you will be the teacher for a minimum of 15 minutes and a maximum of 20 minutes.

[top]

---

Some suggestions and constraints

This is not intended as an opportunity for you to:

• be worthy but boring (i.e. it's not about what you know or can tell a class, it's about engaging the class in learning science);
• engage in a piece of chalk 'n talk or a stand-at-the-overhead-projector-and-lecture;
• scribble notes on the chalk/white board;
• regurgitate all that you know or have found out about a topic;
• assume that the class knows the material and your role is merely to lead them through a revision of the topic;
• ask obvious, "convergent" or closed questions that are much more likely to be answerable by your university peers than by school children in a real Year 7 class.

So, in your presentation you may not:

• lecture to the group
• write notes on the black/white board by way of explanation
• use an overhead to show notes, explanations, definitions or summaries in the first 10 minutes of the session
• talk to the class for more than 5 minutes at any one time

You should instead give some thought to such things as:

• creativity and innovation in approaches to teaching
• actively engaging the class' interest in the topic and the role of motivation, engagement, relevance and establishing the "need to know" in the teaching and learning of science
• the role of the student engaging in active learning (what will they be required to do during the session, beyond merely listen to you, that would lead them to understanding)
• common misconceptions that children have about scientific ideas, and how these need to be taken into account when you teach science
• the use of questioning, discussion, interaction and audience involvement in learning
• the use of models and analogies
• the use of teaching aids, demonstrations and other props to learning

[top]

---

Preparation and trailing of activities

You should consider incorporating a small demonstration, group task/activity, visual aid or other teaching aid in your session. If you need to use materials and equipment you should see the Science Laboratory Assistant (u433) before the day you are rostered to do your session and make arrangements for these to be available at a time when you can have a trial run. You should:

• get any requests for materials to the Lab Manager at least the day before you wish to use them, and
• be prepared to do your part in making up any necessary chemical solutions (if none are in stock), preparing specimens and specialised equipment.

After you have completed the task, the lecturer and the group will give you feedback and consider any important teaching and learning principles raised in your presentation.

[top]

---

Assessment Criteria

The criteria for assessment of the presentation is as given in either of the following file formats:

• a pdf (Adobe Acrobat) version of the Assessment sheet (click title)

You should print out a copy of the assessment sheet and give it to your "critical friend" (i.e. presentation partner) to use for your part of the lesson presentation and your own self-evaluation.

 [top]