- Year 2018
- NSF Award #1439761
- Registration Master Teaching Fellow
- First Name Kathleen
- Last Name Tysiak
- Discipline Biology
- Institution University of Illinois at Chicago
- School Name and District Currently Teaching Westinghouse College Preparatory High School, Chicago Public Schools
Abstract
Connections are essential in helping students make meaning of science ideas, concepts, and processes, and reach meaningful learning. Connections may be made to personal experiences, to other concepts and vocabulary explored and discussed in the science class, or to previous texts. By studying my practice and my students’ class contributions, I identified ways in which connections occurred in my classroom and how I could promote stronger connection making and collaboration among the students. My students played an important role in this project as they brainstormed and decided on criteria to monitor and assess the quality of connections made and the nature of collaboration among students. I will present specifics on the unfolding of my teacher inquiry and its role in both strengthening my teaching and guiding new teachers to design and conduct their own teacher inquiries as part of Project SEEEC. I will also discuss implications of my teacher inquiry on developing further curricular and instructional approaches in my Biology classes.
