Paul A. Kirschner & Mirjam Neelen Robert Pondiscio, Senior Fellow and Vice President for External Affairs at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute in the US, recently published a blog (overall worth a visit!) in which he called direct instruction the Rodney Dangerfield of curricula. Rodney Dangerfield was an American comedian who constantly complained that he…
The recent release of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) offers a new challenge and opportunity for science. Science practices are the social interactions, tools and language that scientist use as they construct, evaluate and communicate scientific knowledge. The effective integration of science practices into classrooms can better support a wide range of students, including those typically underrepresented in science, to develop greater scientific literacy.
Effective integration of science practices in classrooms requires instructional leadership to support that change. Instructional leaders can include a variety of different individuals including, but not limited to, school principals, district leaders, coaches and lead teachers. The ILSP team is developing tools to support instructional leaders in the science practices.
Vision
Our vision for supporting instructional leaders in their work with teachers to improve science teaching and learning stems from our approach to instructional supervision and science instruction.
Our orientation to supervision is rooted in the importance of strong instructional leadership. We seek to support leaders in their work with teachers as they promote a growth mindset, foster frequent and ongoing opportunities for feedback, sustain a commitment to teacher development over time, and engage in collaborative practices.
Scientists have identified the part of the brain that teachers use to detect when their pupils do not understand what they are being taught.
Researchers found that a brain region called the anterior cingulate cortex picks up how mistaken students are.
They say their findings provide significant insight into the brain processes that allow a teacher to understand a student's learning.
They also found that other regions of the frontal lobe play important roles.
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L. Lee. Approaches to algebra: perspectives for research and teaching, Kluwer Academic Publishers, p 102
… it is much of a challenge to demonstrate that functions, modelling, and problem solving are all types of generalizing activities, that algebra and indeed all of mathematics is about generalizing patterns.
p 103
The history of the science of algebra is the story of the growth of a technique for representing of finite patterns.
The notion of the importance of pattern is as old as civilization. Every art is founded on the study of patterns.
Mathematics is the most powerful technique for the understanding of pattern, and for the analysis of the relationships of patterns.(1996)