CURRICULUM World Languages SPANISH IV
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Le téléchargement nécessite un accès à la bibliothèque YouScribe Tout savoir sur nos offres
- exposé - matière potentielle : on topics
- cours - matière potentielle : level rounds
- cours magistral
- exposé - matière potentielle : a2
- fiche de synthèse - matière potentielle : on topics
- exposé
- expression écrite
- language on a variety of topics
- summaries on topics
- personal lives
- answer comprehension questions
- family life
- daily life
- details
- activities
- target language
Designing Culturally Based Inquiry Units for Young Children
Mia Dubosarsky* Gillian Roehrig
Stephan Carslon Barbara Murphy
Linda Frost Jennifer Jones
University of Minnesota
* Corresponding author, dubo0053@umn.edu
Paper Presented at the 2012 annual meeting of the Association for Science Teacher Education,
Clearwater Beach, FL.
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Abstract
Science education contributes to the development of critical thinking and problem solving skills.
Unfortunately, research shows that there is an achievement gap between poor minority students
and other students in science and mathematics. The problem is even greater when dealing with
American Indian students. Gaps between disadvantaged and other children open early in life;
hence science intervention programs should focus on early childhood education. Culturally based
education, tailoring each unit plan to students’ cultural background, is recommended by the
National Association for Education of Young Children as well as by science educators. These
methods were found to increase students’ accessibility and engagement with science. The
process of developing culturally based inquiry units was not well defined.
As part of
Ah neen dush
, a professional development program for Head Start teachers on an
American Indian reservation, the authors developed a model for designing culturally based
activities. The presentation introduce the model, as well as two culturally based inquiry units –
ice fishing and animal tracks – to demonstrate two examples of such units, as developed and
taught by the Head Start teams.
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Designing Culturally Based Inquiry Units for Young Children
Science is a critical subject for the future success as an independent thinker of any
student in the US. Unfortunately, the achievement gap between advantageous and
disadvantageous populations is evident in science and STEM subjects (Lynch, 2000; Lynch,
2001). Children from poor families underachieve in school compared with their middle-upper
class peers. Research tells us that these gaps are present when students enter school, and follow
differences in school readiness among student populations (Lee & Burkam, 2002; Rimm-
Kaufman, Pianta & Cox, 2000; Rouse, Brooks-Gunn & McLanahan, 2005). On the other hand,
encouraging longitudinal studies link high quality early childhood interventions to long lasting
positive effects (Consortium for Longitudinal Studies, 1983), and claim that such interventions
yield high returns to society (Heckman & Masterov, 2007).
Although there are many successful American Indian students, cumulative data point at
large inequalities between American Indian students and students from other ethnic groups.
Cultural and identity differences between school and students’ home culture may prevent
students to engage in science subjects, as science may be associated with the Western culture
(Demmert & Towner, 2003). A recent report by Faircloth and Tippeconnic (2010) shows that the
graduation rates for American Indians and Alaska Natives (46.6%) is lower than the graduation
rates for all other racial/ethnic groups. American Indian students scored lower than other students
in reading and mathematics; American Indian students attending rural schools underperformed
all other minority groups (Moran, Rampey, Dion & Donahue, 2008). Additionally, American
Indian 4-year-olds had lower rates of proficiency in letter recognition compared with 4-year-olds
of other racial/ethnic groups (Aud, Fox & KewalRamani, 2010).
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Successful early childhood science intervention must address teachers and caregivers.
Unfortunately, research tells us that early childhood teachers are not comfortable in teaching
science (Cho, Kim & Choi, 2003; Greenfield et al., 2009; Tilgner, 1990; Tosun, 2000). Some
facets of this multidimensional problem include science anxiety, low self-efficacy with respect to
teaching science, lack of experience participating in science activities as students, or the notion
that literacy and language are more important during the early years.
The problem our team tried to address was to find a way to engage early childhood
American Indian teachers in enhancing their curriculum with science and mathematics activities,
while weaving in cultural Ojibwe elements.
Ah neen dush
In order to address the problem presented above, our team developed
Ah neen dush
(‘Why?’ in Ojibwe), a three-year science and mathematics professional development program,
funded by the Federal Office of Head Start.
Ah neen dush
specifically focused on providing
support for Head Start teachers in developing culturally-relevant science and mathematics rich
curricula. During the first two years of the program, the teachers were involved in monthly
sessions that focused on the nature of science and mathematics, early childhood cognitive
development, the relationship between culture and science, as well as sessions about scientific
inquiry, technology, mathematics and teaching methods that support critical thinking. During the
third year we asked teachers to develop week-long inquiry units on a topic of their choice, based
on the models presented in the professional development workshops. This paper presents a
model for creating culturally based inquiry units, as well as sharing two of the teacher’s units:
Animal tracks and Ice fishing. The paper concludes with teachers’ reflections on the process of
developing and teaching the units, and the on the impact it had on their teaching.
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Program structure and participants
Ah Neen Dush
was a collaboration between the University of Minnesota’s STEM
Education Center and the Head Start program on the White Earth reservation, funded by the
Office of Head Start. The program connected a group of 37 teachers (lead teachers, teacher
assistants, family social advocates, and early childhood special education teachers), from nine
Head Start classrooms at six school sites, with a team from the University of Minnesota, which
included experts from the fields of science education, early childhood, environmental education
and Ojibwe culture. The program was conducted as a series of monthly meetings during the
school years, and two summer institutes during the summers.
During the third year of the program the teachers were divided into small cohorts (2-3
HeadStart classrooms), which replaced the structure of the large group meeting. This structure
allowed the teachers to focus more closely on their own classrooms and developing lessons for
their students. Additionally, this structure allowed for more in-class support and a structure that
allowed for feedback on lessons and teaching strategies.
Model for planning culturally based inquiry units
As part of the program, the team developed a model for designing culturally based
inquiry units. Planning an inquiry unit that builds on cultural themes helps support three goals:
First, it helps develop critical thinking and problem solving skills as in an inquiry unit teachers
model those skills as they ask the children to investigate a question or solve a problem. Second,
the children deepen their conceptual understanding of a topic. And third, strengthening the
connection between home and school by using familiar and culturally-relevant experiences.
The developed model expands the teaching and learning cycle of Awareness,
Exploration, Inquiry & Utilization (NAEYC & NAECS/SDE, 1990) by adding a detailed visual
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component to the inquiry cycle, as well as the planning and reflection components before and
after teaching. This model can be easily adapted for teaching any population, by replacing the
word ‘cultural’ with ‘local’ or ‘environmental’. The final model includes the following steps
shown in Figure 1.
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Figure 1: A visual flow chart of the model for designing culturally based inquiry unit
1. Planning
a.
Teachers choose topics that reflect cultural or local-environmental themes.
b.
Teachers collect pictures, artifacts, books, etc. to use in an interactive learning center.
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c.
Teachers invite knowledgeable family or community members into the classroom.
d.
Teachers plan enough time for children to explore materials and engage in science
activities, understanding that inquiry activities take time.
2.
Teaching
(follows the teaching and learning cycle)
a.
Awareness - planning an interactive way to introduce the topic and new vocabulary to the
children
b.
Exploration - designing a selection of activities that will give children the opportunity to
learn through all their senses.
c.
Inquiry - focusing on a question for investigation. A question can be initiated by the teacher
or one of the children; once a question is established, the children follow the steps of:
Prediction - the teacher asks children to make predictions about possible answers to the
questions or to suggest ways to investigate the problem;
Investigation - the children conduct an easy investigation, preferably repeated several
times;
Recording - the children record their findings or interesting things they discovered during
the investigation. Recoding can be done by drawing, picture taking, gluing objects, etc.
Discussion - back in the large group, the children present to their peers the findings of
their investigation. With the guidance of the teacher the children go back to their initial
predictions and record their answer to the question based on their findings.
d.
Utilization - creating extension activities that encourage the students to apply the new
knowledge (concepts and skills) to other situations or other topics.
3
.
Reflecting
. The reflection time allows the teaching team to deepen their understanding about
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what works with their particular group of children and what needs to be done in order to support
their learning.
Based on the developed model the teaching teams collaborated with the program team to
develop a unit on a topic that suits them and their students. Two units are presented: A unit on
Animal tracks and a unit on Ice-fishing.
Animal Tracks
The teaching team of the 4-5 year old classroom from the Pine Point Head Start
classroom chose the topic of animal tracks. During the planning stage the teachers searched for
books and resources about animal tracks, and especially for ways to tie the topic to the Ojibwe
culture and tradition. As both teachers are non-native, they looked for a community member who
could present to the children the cultural aspect of tracking animals. A father of one of the
teachers in the school, who is a trapper, agreed to come to the classroom and talk to the children.
The teachers opened the unit with a variety of animal prints scattered across the
classroom, which grabbed the attention of the children as they walked into the classroom, and
made them aware of the new topic. The teachers allowed the children to explore the topic
through a variety of activities in the different center areas and activities: making animal prints in
the snow table; comparing and exploring children’s own foot prints; using stamps to make
animal prints in the art table; matching animals and their foot prints; examining the differences
between each print.
The inquiry activity focused on an investigation of the animal tracks left on the school’s
playground. After learning to identify the different local animal tracks, the teachers asked the
children which tracks they might see on the playground. The teachers recorded children’s
predictions, and took them outside armed with a digital camera, clipboards and pencils. The
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children ran excitedly and looked for tracks, and pointed at several tracks in the snow, which the
children identified as dog tracks. Back in the classroom, the children were asked to draw the
tracks that they saw outside, and explain how they knew these were dog tracks. The teachers
summarized the unit by creating an animal tracks book made with pictures and drawing made by
the children. They also sent home a follow up activity of searching animal tracks around the
children’s homes.
Reflecting on the unit, the teachers noted first that they themselves learned a lot about
animal tracks while planning the unit. They also commented that the children were fascinated
with the topic, and continued to look for tracks days and weeks after the completion of the unit.
The teachers also reflected on the successful vocabulary learning - the children were using the
new words they leaned during the unit (toes, hooves, paws, claws, etc.) during their
conversations. One of the teachers reported on an end-of-the-year survey, saying:
“The topic of animal tracks still affects the children, even up to the last full week of school - they
continually look for animal tracks & types of animals while outside. Even as they are walking to the bus
they look on the ground and tell us and they look out the bus window and make remarks.”
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