When students know their teacher is knowledgeable in the subject matter, they will confidence in what they are learning. Teachers are models for students. When students view a teacher as knowledgeable they are more likely to imitate a modeled strategy. Conversely, teachers who are not perceived as knowledgeable may lose some students attention and respect.
In the 6 March 2013 issue of the American Education Research Journal, Philip M. Sadler, Gerhard Sonnert, Harold P. Coyle, Nancy Cook-Smith and Jaimie L. Miller describe “The Influence of Teachers’ Knowledge on Student Learning in Middle School Physical Science Classrooms”. Those of us in astronomy education immediately recognize Phil Sadler. His “A Private Universe” video is must-see for every astronomy instructor, K-12 and beyond.
Knowledge plus knowledge of …show more content…
I believe this will increase students’ engagement; and, on an educational level, I feel these skills are important for students to learn for three major reasons. First, the students will understand the purpose and outcome of an experiment at a deeper level if they create the procedure and write about it. I have found that students do not seem to connect the application of a skill to an experiment when they are following a list of instructions. When students are presented with a problem and have to develop and write their own procedures for solving a problem, they have ownership and a deeper understanding of how to apply learned skills. Second, laboratory notebooks help students with cognitive skills such as; organization, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. All of these skills are higher level thinking skills within Bloom’s Taxonomy and will help them become better learners. Third, labs are written in 3rd person with no emotion attachment. Students do not have much practice doing this type of writing. This type of writing is not only used in the sciences, it is also used in business. This will help prepare them for the type of reports they will write in college and in a future career. For any student pursuing a career in the sciences, they will most likely begin in a laboratory setting, and these