cait_journal7

Cait Benson March 24, 2009 EDC 452 Assessment Journal # 7

Today I had the privilege of observing three Rhode Island College student teachers in my cooperative teacher’s classroom. These three students will be teaching the students’ science unit until the end of the semester. As part of their introduction to the class, the student teachers invited the children to provide them with some background information about their feelings towards science. This assessment was in the form of a worksheet entitled, Science Attitude Survey that was collected at the end of the class. The students were told that their responses to the questions were solely for the student teachers to see and that they would not effect their grade in the class. All students answered these questions silently. Some of the questions on the worksheet resembled the questions on our science survey here at the University of Rhode Island. For example: o Draw a scientist. o How do you feel when you do science? o What are your strengths and weaknesses in science? o Why do you like or dislike science? o How do you feel about reading science? o How do you feel working with students during science lessons? o List three adjectives that represent your attitude towards science.

After the students finished answering the questions on the Science Attitude Survey, the students were welcomed to share their responses. This provided the students with an opportunity to compare and contrast or relate to their peers. I was informed that the student teachers would use their findings from the surveys in order to create science groups that the students will work in for the remainder of the science unit. Each group would be diverse in the sense that there would be a wide variety of student attitudes towards science in every group.

I really liked learning about how the Rhode Island College student teachers would use the Science Attitude Surveys. I know my cooperative teacher may have already asked her students these questions at the beginning of the year, but it was very interesting to actually see some of the answers that the students wrote. I feel that asking students for their opinions on a particular topic or subject is essential to getting to know the students in your class. By having these findings from the survey, the student teachers can not only learn more about the students, but they can also create lessons and activities keeping these student attitudes in mind. They will be able to develop lessons that revolve around what the students enjoy and are eager to learn about. This will benefit the students in future science assignments.

Overall, I would certainly use this form of assessment in my future classroom in order to get to know my students. I might add several questions, however. For one, I might ask students to tell me about their most positive and negative science experience to see exactly what types of activities each student likes or dislikes. Also, I might have students fill these surveys out for a second time at the end of the year to see how the students; attitudes changed as a result of my teaching (hopefully!).

<<Back to EDC 452 home page <<Section 1