Assessing Understanding of the Learning Cycle: The ULC

Sneed

2019

EURASIA J MATH SCI T

Inquiry teaching in science education has been widely advocated for decades. It is a critical learning objective in many science teacher preparation programs. Despite its importance, it is not effectively implemented in science classrooms. One of the reasons is the lack of reliable and valid instruments that provide practical definition, concrete guideline, and objective assessment for the practice of inquiry teaching. To fill this gap, we designed a 3E rubric based on the 5E learning model as one specific form of inquiry teaching to measure preservice teachers' practice at different phases of a science lesson. In this study, we thoroughly introduced the 3E rubric and its use. Through drawing on 76 elementary pre-service science teachers' teaching videos, we analyzed its reliability and validity with the tools of Intraclass Correlation Coefficient, Fleiss' kappa, and Pearson correlation. According to the results, the 3E rubric is a reliable and valid tool to assess pre-service teachers' practical knowledge of inquiry teaching. The contributions of this rubric to the teaching and research in science teacher preparation are discussed and future research directions are proposed.Inquiry teaching is also being abused due to its loose definition. Crawford (2014) discusses five myths about inquiry teaching:Myth 1: All science subject matter should be taught through inquiry.Myth 2: True inquiry occurs only when students generate and pursue their own questions. Myth 3: Inquiry teaching occurs easily through use of hands-on or kit-based instructional materials.Myth 4: Student engagement in hands-on activities guarantees that inquiry teaching and learning are occurring.Myth 5: Inquiry can be taught without attention to subject matter. (p. 516)Those myths correspond to the inaccurately over-simplified definition of inquiry teaching criticized by Kirschner et al. (2006), which are also common problems PSTs experience when they first implement inquiry teaching. Those myths suggest that inquiry teaching should be framed as one candidate approach to science teaching (Myth 1) epitomized by minds-on rather than hands-on activities (Myths 2 -4) in the attempt to deepen students' conceptual understanding (Myth 5). Together, the guidelines above direct our work of designing the 3E rubric to evaluate PSTs' practical knowledge of inquiry teaching. The 3E Learning CycleIn this study, we derive a 3E rubric from the 5E model (Bybee et al., 2006). As outlined by Liu et al. (2009), this 5E model defines 5 phases of teaching:Engage: The teacher assesses students' prior knowledge and engages students in learning a new concept. The teacher also helps students make connections between prior and present knowledge and helps to organize students' thoughts about the learning outcomes of present activities.Explore: The teacher provides students with a common base of activities reflective of present concepts processes, and skills. Students complete activities by using prior knowledge to generate new ideas, to explore questions and possibilities, and ...

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Validating a 3E Rubric Assessing Pre-service Science Teachers’ Practical Knowledge of Inquiry Teaching

Sneed

2019

EURASIA J MATH SCI T

Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research

“…To employ effectively a teaching approach, inservice elementary teachers need to comprehend how to apply the learning cycle in the classroom since the learning cycle can be implemented in inquiry science from the elementary level to the college level [8]. One of the means to identify the understanding of in-service teachers concerning the inquiry-based learning can be done via diagnostic tests.…”

Section: Concept Application Organizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To achieve the main concern, Indonesian version of the Understanding of Learning Cycle (ULC) test was developed by translation from English to Bahasa Indonesia and back translation to English. To ensure the quality of translation, the ULC test adopted from Marek, Maier, and McCann (2008) was translated by two scholars who had fluency in Bahasa Indonesia and English. The translated ULC was administered to 31 in-service elementary school teachers.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Investigation of in-Service Elementary School Teachers’ Understandings of Inquiry-Based Learning by Using Indonesian Version of Understanding Learning Cycle Test

Irwan¹,

Susanta²

2021

Many scholars have published research studies related to teacher misconceptions about science concepts but a few investigations report teachers' understandings of Inquiry-Based Learning (IBL). To achieve the main concern, Indonesian version of the Understanding of Learning Cycle (ULC) test was developed by translation from English to Bahasa Indonesia and back translation to English. To ensure the quality of translation, the ULC test adopted from Marek, Maier, and McCann (2008) was translated by two scholars who had fluency in Bahasa Indonesia and English. The translated ULC was administered to 31 in-service elementary school teachers. The majority (97%) of the subject had teaching experiences from 5 to 15 years. The use of translated ULC test indicated that (1) Indonesian version of the ULC can be used to evaluate in-service elementary school teachers' understanding of IBL; and (2) The varieties of misunderstandings about the IBL can be reported: (a) 94% of subjects discovered misunderstandings about teacher's role during exploration; during concept introduction, (b) only 4% subjects understood teacher's role as a guide to having students construct knowledge by the use of their learning experience; and ©, the majority (97%) of subjects had misunderstandings the main purpose of concept application to apply new knowledge to a recent situation.

Int J of Sci and Math Educ

“…Recently, Marek, Maier & McCann (2008) revised the Learning Cycle Test (Odom & Settlage, 1996), an instrument designed to measure understanding of the three phases of the learning cycle. The newer version, Understanding the Learning Cycle (ULC), again showed a range of understanding levels among preservice teachers administered the instrument.…”

Section: Science Teaching and The Learning Cycle Instructional Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These include exploration, concept introduction, and concept application, which are often used today (Karplus, Lawson, Wollman, Appel, Bernoff, Howe, Rusch & Sullivan, 1977). No matter which label is used, the learning cycle is composed of three phases that are grounded in Piagetian theory, which, when used in planning lessons, are linked to one another for experiencing science as inquiry (Maier & Marek, 2006;Marek et al, 2008). For instance, first the exploration phase immerses students in activities that provide knowledge for constructing concepts or skills.…”

Section: Science Teaching and The Learning Cycle Instructional Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychometric Analysis of a 5e Learning Cycle Lesson Plan Assessment Instrument

Goldston

Day

Sundberg

et al. 2009

The purpose of this paper is to describe the procedures and the analysis of an instrument designed to measure preservice teachers' ability to develop appropriate 5E learning cycle lesson plans. The 5E inquiry lesson plan (ILP) rubric is comprised of 12 items with a scoring range of zero to four points per item. Content validity was determined through the expertise of a panel of five science educators. Sixty six preservice teachers enrolled in elementary science methods at three universities prepared lesson plans, which were scored by their instructors using the ILP rubric. Using a Pearson two-tailed correlation, inter-rater reliability was established at a value of 0.83. An exploratory factor analysis provided evidence of construct validity, with three factors. The factors included (1) explore, (2) engage/explain/elaborate, and (3) evaluate. In addition, a secondary analysis revealed the means and standard deviations of the students' performance on each of the phases of the 5E that include: engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate. The engage item held the highest mean rating, and the evaluation items had the lowest mean ratings. Examination of the instrument's structure in light of the 5E phases is discussed and provides directions for future revisions and research.