Contextual Teaching in Science - kennesaw.edu.docVIP

Contextual Teaching in Science Tera C. Hardy Developed August 2003 Cass Middle School 7th Grade Life Science RESEARCH: “Will I Ever Use This Again?” Many times over the course of the year students will ask, “Why do I have to know this?” or “Will I ever use this again?” I am guilty of saying “because you will be tested over this material or because you will need to know this for high school or college.” I have learned over the last year and a half that if I apply science to real life and real life situations that the students are more interested and retain the information much better. This is where contextual teaching and learning comes alive. In contextual learning it is the major task of the teacher to broaden students’ perceptions so that meaning becomes visible and the purpose of learning immediately understandable” (Parnell, 1995). Today in education we are held accountable for so many things that teachers and administrators are terrified to change the ways of thinking. What they do not realize is that if we made changes in the classroom and in our methods that the students will actually do better on tests. “Yet, despite inventions of automobiles, telephones, airplanes, computers, televisions, air conditioning, and cell phones most students sit in classrooms and experience teaching much as students did around 1900” (Parnell, 2001). I truly believe that if there are any academic areas that are already somewhat contextually based it would be science. However, “national; concerns about Americas’ ignorance of science had increased sharply in recent years”(Zemelman, 109). “Several well-publicized reports, both national and international have suggested the science achievement of our children may be far behind that of children in most industrialized nations and even in some Third World countries” (Zemelman, 109,110). These results may be exaggerated because the US still leads the world in most fields of basic research and technology. “National bodies have agr