1.)  How does using a required textbook or standardized tests enable or disable teaching (specifically science at the high school level)?

Textbooks can be useful tools when used as a reference for information versus utilized as the sole provider for learning activities.  Subjects, such as biology, are fairly intensive in vocabulary and textbooks are often necessary to get this information.  Having students just read a chapter out of the textbook and complete questions is not an effective way to teach or instruct students on material.  You have a diverse range of learners in any given classroom and their learning needs must be addressed.

Standardized testing is a tough topic in the educational world…. Standardized tests kind of level the playing field.  For example, we know that hypothetically, all students that take biology in North Carolina are being taught the same curriculum and are being ultimately assessed the same way in the form of a End-of-course test at the end of the semester.  It does not mandate what instructional strategies are used to teach the curriculum, but even know schools are encouraging teachers that teach the same subject to collaborate on developing common classroom activities.

On the other hand, standardized tests severely limit outside topics of interests.  Meaning that teachers are usually on a strict timeline to teach all the material needed for the students to be competent on the end-of-course test.  This limits a lot of creative projects, and allowing for a lot of student ownership on the subject.

2) What ways could you encourage students to pursue information taught in class when they are not in school? (how would you motivate or inspire a high school student to learn about symbiosis?)

There is not a specific answer to this question.  There is not one proven method of capturing students’ interests and making them want to explore topics beyond the classroom.  One thing educators have to consider is how to take the curriculum and make it relevant to the students.  Tie the concepts in with current, real world examples or relate it to activities that they are interested in.  Additionally, teachers should be enthusiastic in their teaching.  If a teacher is not enthusiastic about the material they are covering, that lack of interest can be transferred to the students.

3) Does homework, in the traditional sense, have downfalls (traditional, meaning: read a chapter and answer questions)? What kind of homework might you assign for learning about symbiosis?

Unfortunately there are some cases where homework is abused by teachers.  With standardized curriculum, teachers often find themselves struggling to stay on track to have all curriculum covered before testing occurs.  Homework can then turn into “self-guided” learning for the student where the student pretty much has to teach themselves concepts, outside of class time, using an assignment made up by the teacher.  When the student does not comprehend they then receive a poor grade on their homework and this can cause frustration and discouragement for students.  Homework was originally designed as a reinforcement….some type of evening activity that would help students practice material taught in class.  There is no research that finds that homework helps students comprehend concepts any better, especially traditional paper and book assignments.  A cool alternative, maybe for symbiosis, is having the students to go out in their neighborhood, or if they are able take a trip to a park and take observations on relationships around them and describe the type of relationship that exists between then organisms that they encounter.  Assign something to get them out and looking at the world around them to actually apply the concept being taught.

4) Do you think symbiosis is one of the more important topics of high school level biology? Why or why not?

I think that symbiosis is an important topic within the biology curriculum.  I think understanding biological concepts has a lot to do with understanding relationships among organisms.  Keep in mind that in North Carolina we have standardized curriculum and that there is a statewide standardized test associated with the course, so teachers don’t really have a lot of freedom to decide where to place emphasis (or importance) in regards to concepts.  We spend the majority of our the year preparing our students to obtain mastery on the state level exam.

5) Do you think the current grading scale enables or disables students? Do you think students would be inspired to do activities if they are not graded?

Grades offer motivation to students.  I know there is an alternative argument that grades can also discourage students, but if we did not assign grades then how would we hold them accountable for doing assignments? Unfortunately, in today’s culture if the teacher does not provide adequate justification and reinforcement (i.e. grades) for a given assessment (assignment, project, test, etc.) then most students will not bother participating.  Grades should not be the sole focus in terms of assessing student learning, and furthermore should not be utilized in such a way as to punish students i.e. assigning a student a grade based on their classroom behavior is not acceptable.

6) If you were teaching the topic of “relationships within nature,” at what point would you consider your teachings successful for the students? More specifically, are there any tasks you would aim to teach the students to accomplish upon completion of the lesson?

Ultimately, as a teacher you want your students to reach a level of higher thinking… for example in the case of teaching students about relationships in nature, I’d like for my students to be able to take a sample ecosystem and describe to me the various relationships that are within this population, discuss factors that may impact the relationships within this ecosystem, and given its current situation maybe predict what will happen to the relationships within a given span of time.

The “learning outcomes” for any lesson are usually specific to the teacher, the learners involved, and any mandated curriculum that must be covered.  Ultimately you want the students to be able to apply the information versus just a simple recall of facts.