CPC Paper

For EDPS 457003

By Kelsey Piper

Section One
Currently, I am an undergraduate student studying to become a science teacher. The
problem I am choosing write about is the science problem. This semester I am a practicum
student at Lincoln East and I observe/teach a tenth grade biology class. The problem states that
students in a tenth grade science classroom are regularly attending class, but seem more focused
on the end result of their grades than on learning. Students seem to lack personal commitment to
learning science, and rarely participate in inquiry activities you designed. You tell them that
inquiry activities will help improve their critical thinking skills, but students are unmotivated and
only able to complete task that ask to find isolated information. This problem is very relevant to
me, because I see it everyday in my classroom.
Students in this classroom lack intrinsic motivation but have extrinsic motivation.
Extrinsic motivation is when motivation to learn is a means to an end, such as completing a
homework assignment or studying for an exam to receive a good grade (Moreno, 2010). For
students to complete inquiry activities they must be intrinsically motivated, which means that
students want to learn because they are interested. I see this problem a lot in my practicum.
Students are constantly worried about their grades. Whenever we do an experiment, students are
asking if their lab is being graded. They are not actually completing the assignment because they
want to learn about the problem.
According to the self-determination theory, students have three innate psychological
needs: the need for competence, need for control, and the need for relatedness. If one or more of
these needs are not met then students wont be intrinsically motivated to learn (Moreno, 2010).
The need for competence means that students have the desire to be proficient in a skill. Students
dont have the ambition to master the ability to critically think. Also, students want to be able to

have some control over their environment. In this problem, students have no power over their
environment, which does not fill the innate need for control. The last need that is not met in this
problem is the need for relatedness. Taking some observations from my practicum, students seem
to feel shy or embarrassed when asking questions. When students are given an inquiry problem,
the do not act as a scientific community. Classroom discourse lacks during these labs, which in
turns affects the students need for relatedness.
There are more reasons, besides lack of motivation, why these students are struggling
with inquiry-based lessons. I believe that students are not encoding the isolated information from
the text into their long-term memory. When students are working on an assignment from the
book, they are using their working memory to processes the information for meaning (Moreno,
2010). Once they are done doing the work, students should then transfer the new knowledge over
to their long-term memory. If certain scientific concepts are not stored in the long-term memory,
they cannot be retrieved when they are needed.
However, information cannot just be stored in the memory, it must also be meaningful.
When students are transferring over information to the long-term memory, they need to make
connections between the new and old information. This means that students are required to
encode the information rather than just store it (Moreno, 2010). I feel like students are struggling
with inquiry projects because they are not able to retrieve meaningful prior knowledge from their
long-term memory to use when solving critical thinking problems.
As stated in the paragraph above, students are not storing meaningful knowledge into
their long-term memory. We know that students are going to struggle with inquiry activities
because they dont actually understand the material. A key component to completing inquiry
lessons is critical thinking. Critical thinking can be defined as the process of systematically

examining available information and coming up with conclusions that are based on evidence
(Moreno, 2010). If student do not understand the information, they wont be able to identify the
relevance and importance of the material to solve a problem (Lau, 2004).

Section Two
In order for the students to become successful in a science classroom, they must be able
to have critical thinking skills. Critical thinking depends on students willingness to engage in
this complex cognitive process (Moreno, 2010). Willingness to be well informed, inquisitiveness,
and self-confidence in ones ability to reason are dispositions that will motivate students to
become critical thinkers (Moreno, 2010). So, if we want students to think critically, we must
motivate them. My first step to fixing this issue in the science classroom is to intrinsically
motivate the students. In order to intrinsically motivate students, we must make sure each innate
psychological need is met.
The first step to my intervention plan is to fulfill students need for relatedness in the
classroom. One way I plan to create a sense of belonging in my classroom is by talking to
individual students before class begins. Simply asking them how their day is going can increase
the relationship between the student and teacher. Another way I plan on meeting this need is by
accepting each students feelings and opinions even when they dont agree with mine (Moreno,
2010). Asking more open-ended questions and less straightforward answers can satisfy the need
for relatedness.
My next approach is to meet the students need for control in the classroom. Giving
students options or choices can fulfill this need. During my inquiry activities, I could give the
students the option of designing their own experiment or I could let them choose between two

inquiry labs. Also, another strategy that I have seen in my practicum to motivate students is
allowing them to choose where they sit in the classroom.
My final approach to motivate students is to meet students need for competence. I can
meet this need by giving students constructive feedback during their projects. If students were
designing their own experiment for an inquiry activity, I would allow them to turn in their
procedure and get my feedback. I would also give them praise throughout the class period. If a
student answers a question, I can give him praise for answering. If I see a student working hard, I
could tell them to keep up the good work. To meet this need, students need feedback and genuine
praise and criticism (Moreno, 2010). For example, when students are conducting a science fair
experiment, I would give them feedback throughout their project. My first feedback comments
would be during the selection stage of the project. I would have to approve the project and tell
students why it is a good or bad project. I would also let students turn in a rough draft of their
science fair experiment before they actually conducted it to make sure it is safe and meets all the
requirements.
In order for student to successfully complete inquiry labs they must be able to use their
prior knowledge. I believe that students are not transferring information from their working
memory to their long-term memory. There are two types of learning that can improve the transfer
of information in to the long-term memory and lead to high-level thinking. The first type of
learning is rote learning. Rote learning is when information from the working memory is stored
into the long-term memory, however, there is no meaning attached to it (Moreno, 2010). Rote
learning by itself wont lead to higher-level thinking, but it is an essential building block to reach
it. Rote learning can be viewed as a filing cabinet for the brain. This allows students easy access
to simple prior knowledge, which leaves space open in the working memory to construct

complex thoughts. (Does Rote Learning, 2012). For example, students use rote learning to
memorize the elements on a periodic table. In chemistry, the elements are the fundamental
principle that will be used throughout the course. If students didnt use rote learning to remember
the periodic table, they would have to look up the elements each time before working on a
problem. There are many tactics that can be used to help students with rote learning. The most
common one I have seen in my practicums is the use of flash cards. Also, I can remember in high
school we sang a song to help us memorize the elements on the periodic table. One way to
incorporate technology and rote learning is by using websites such as quizlet.com. Teachers can
input vocabulary words from a chapter so that students can practice their terms and definitions
by taking quizzes or playing games.
The second type of learning that plays an essential role in higher-level thinking is
meaningful learning. Meaningful learning is when information is encoded into the long-term
memory. This is different from rote learning because it is encoded and not just stored
information. Encoding information means that there is significance attached to the information.
Students are able to pull prior knowledge from their long-term memory and make a new, more
meaningful connection. Above, I said rote learning is like a filing cabinet in the brain. Well,
meaningful learning is like the hallways that connect you to lots of cabinets. When students truly
understand the meaning of a subject, they develop higher-level learning skills. There are many
ways to foster meaningful learning. In my practicum, we used a lot of visuals and models. For
example, when teaching students the organelles in a cell, we would project an image of a cell
onto the board. Instead of just telling a student what the nucleus is, we would show them a
picture of it. Also, I have seen an activity done where students make a cell model out of candy
and a cookie. This allows students to make a connection with the material rather than just

memorizing it. These meaningful learning strategies help students encode useful information into
their long-term memory
It is our job as a science teacher to create a classroom that replicates the scientific
community. Just like students in a classroom, scientists have different strengths and interests.
Some scientist choose to approach the same questions but in different ways (The scientific
community, 2014). In order for a student to develop critically thinking skills, they must have a
deep understanding of the topic being discusses. They must also be able to view a problem from
multiple perspectives. Students should look at every possible angle before deciding on an
answer. However, critical thinking skills take time to develop. Usually, students start off
understanding material on a concrete basis. Eventually, they are able to think more abstractly
once they have encoded meaningful information into their long-term memory.
Most experts believe critical thinking needs to be explicitly and repeatedly taught in the
classroom (Moreno, 2010). My plan to improve critical thinking skills is to give students a
chance to use them, everyday. I believe the best way to do that is by creating classroom
discussions. One way I would do that is by giving students a question of the day at the beginning
of class. This question would be open-ended so students could give reasoning for their answers.
For example, if we were learning about carbohydrate, I could ask students, do you think
carbohydrates are important to the human body? This forces students to analyze the question,
synthesize a response, and evaluate their answer (Walker. 2003). I would also incorporate case
studies and experiments into my classroom. Case studies and experiments force students to look
at the problem from multiple perspectives so that they can reach the best possible answer. For
example, in my practicum, students had to solve how to reduce the amount of gas we get from

eating beans. If these elements are incorporated into my curriculum, students critical thinking
skills will improve.
To incorporate these intervention plans, there must be certain environmental supports
throughout the classroom. I think that students desks need to be arranged into groups for these
intervention plans to be most effective. In groups, students would be able to talk to one another
easier when discussing a problem. Students can share their individual perspectives with others to
construct an understanding together (Moreno, 2010). Also, having students sit in groups and not
individually would hopefully promote social interaction, which would fulfill the need to relate to
others.
Section Three
In order to improve a classroom, teachers must evaluate their teaching methods. One of
the main issues in this problem was students lack of motivation. I think the best way to judge if
my intervention plans has worked is through informal, formative assessment by using
observation. Formative assessments are used to make instructional decisions in the classroom
(Moreno, 2010). By observing the level of interest amongst my students, I can gauge how well
my intervention plan is working. For example, if I notice that students are constantly talking
through class and cannot answer questions, I will know that my motivational plan to allow them
to choose their own seats to give them a sense of control did not work. Another way to assess if
students motivation is increasing would be give them a small questionnaire. I could ask students
if they enjoyed a certain activity, or why they thought an experiment was interesting.
The second problem I noticed was students struggling to put meaningful information into
their long-term memory. Students could only answer questions by using isolated information.
There are quite a few assessment strategies that I could use to evaluate my intervention plan, but

I think the most useful would be a test. This test would consist of multiple choice, matching, and
essay questions. The multiple-choice and matching section of that test would tell me if the rote
learning techniques were working. The essay section of the test would allow me to see if students
understood the meaning of that material. Here are a few questions that would be used during a
test over cell transport. A multiple-choice question would ask, A solution with higher solute
concentration compared to another is? If the rote learning methods were working, students
would choose the letter that contained the word hypertonic. However, an essay question would
look like this, What would happen to an egg if it was placed in Karo syrup? This would allow
me to see if students could explain a hypertonic solution, and its effect on an egg.
The last problem I saw in this example was students lack of critical thinking skills. To
assess if students were improving their critical thinking skills, I would use open-ended questions,
and in-depth interviews. Open-ended questions are used in a class setting, where multiple
students can give their feedback. In-depth interviews, however, are conducted one-on-one with a
teacher. These open-ended and in-depth interview questions would serve as a discourse strategy.
It would allow me to analysis the responses given by the students. Lets say that I asked this
question to the class or in an interview. Why cant a person who is lactose intolerant drink milk?
A student with low critical thinking skills would response with something similar to, There
stomach cannot handle the lactose. A student with high critical thinking skills would respond,
lactose is a disaccharide made up of the monosaccharaides, galactose and glucose. Most
peoples stomachs contain an enzyme that breaks down lactose into galactose and glucose.
However, a person who is lactose intolerant does not have the enzyme that breaks down lactose.
Depending on the answers to my questions, I could decide if critical thinking skills have
improved.

Resources
Does rote learning have a place in 21st century education? (2012, November 7). Retrieved
December 19, 2014, from http://education.cu-portland.edu/blog/curriculuminstruction/does-rote-learning-have-a-place-in-21st-century-education/
Lau, J. (2004, January 1). What is critical thinking? Retrieved December 20, 2014, from
http://philosophy.hku.hk/think/critical/ct.php
Moreno, R. (2010). Educational psychology. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons.
The scientific community: diversity makes the difference. (2014, January 1). Retrieved
December 20, 2014, from http://undsci.berkeley.edu/article/socialsideofscience_02
Walker, S. (2003, September 1). Promoting critical thinking in the classroom. Retrieved
December 20, 2014, from
http://www.academia.edu/1561751/Promoting_critical_thinking_in_the_classroom