Teacher
Interview Results
This represents teacher responses regarding
their experiences with the RIP program.
These reports represent unfiltered interactions between the end-users of
the RIP program and the independent evaluator, during which the teachers could
have expressed their feelings with no fear of reprisal, and as such presented
an opportunity for any difficulties or weaknesses in the program to
appear. It is significant, in my
opinion, that all the responses were frank, honest and uniformly positive.
Describe interaction process: A sampling of teachers
were interviewed, by way of email and/or follow-up call.
In this section, we present the responses of teachers in the RIP program to questions about their experiences. The responses are unedited and verbatim.
Jami Muranaka - A
High School Biology Teacher - 2006-07 Teacher of the Year.
About Jami: Jami has taken
years of science course-work and feels that this is the first course that has
given her a sense of clarity and accuracy, as well as a solid background in
statistics. She appreciates the value in having a program that is child
centered. However, realistic to the classroom challenges of limited time
and an immense amount of content to cover, implementing the process was an
obstacle to be overcome. She realizes that she needs to practice the RIP
to really master it, but hopes to get better at it over time. This coming year
she will be out of the classroom and will be in a supportive professional
developer role (a duty required of 'Teacher of the Year' award
recipients). Jami has already indicated that she plans to continue the RIP
and will use part of her service time to support the program?
Teacher Impact:
"How has RIP training helped to
enhance your teaching?" My students participate in
inquiry much more now, and to a deeper level. Before the RIP training, I seldom
used statistical analyses in my classroom, but now I include it with every
inquiry my students do. With each unit I teach, I try to incorporate some sort
of inquiry into the curriculum and it has made teaching scientific inquiry much
easier for me.
"Do you think it is important to
provide professional development in the area of Science? ABSOLUTELY YES!
Many elementary level teachers admit that science is their weakest subject.
Most, if not all, have never been trained in how to teach scientific inquiry.
It's amazing what teachers can do with their science curriculum once they are
taught how to teach science. And I am amazed at what the students can do at
even the kindergarten level! Many secondary teachers still teach science the
traditional way - cookbook labs and activities - because that is how they were
taught when they were in school. We need to train teachers in the inquiry
process since most science teachers are not scientists.
"How do could you use your current
line to help support the implementation of the RIP in your complex?" At the present
time I am collecting baseline data of students who have never learned the RIP
so that we can compare them with students who have been RIP trained - that will
give us a better idea of how effective the RIP actually is in teaching
scientific inquiry. I will also be serving as a life science mentor to other
teachers (in particular elementary teachers who may need help with content knowledge).
Student Impact:
"When fully implementing this
approach, what impact to you think the RIP has on the level of rigor and depth
of understanding of your students?" Many of my students have never
had the opportunity to participate in open inquiries before coming to my class.
When asked to make observations and formulate a research question, they are
dumbfounded because in the past they have always been told what the research
question was and how to investigate it. I think the fact that my students can
actually formulate a research question and construct a testable hypothesis on
their own is evidence that they are being challenged to think critically. Also,
when including statistical analyses within the inquiry, students understand
that a conclusion cannot be made unless data is statistically significant.
Before learning the RIP, students have the misconceptions that they make a
conclusion no matter what and that a hypothesis is either "right" or
"wrong". If there is one thing I want my students to understand about
inquiry, it is that a hypothesis is never right or wrong - just supported or
rejected. Finally, the RIP teaches them to use the language that scientists
use.
"What did you observe about the RIP
and your student's reaction to the program, process and rigor?" Our students
are still getting used to being challenged to think critically, so at first
they complain about how hard the RIP is. But once you show them how fun it can
be and repeat the process over and over, they start to "get it" and
eventually enjoy it. They like the fact that they are "doing"
science, not just learning science.
Complex Impact:
"What value do you see this process would have
when trying to implement complex wide?" All science teachers will
be talking the same language so students won't have to learn new scientific
language each year. Each year builds on the level prior rather than starting
from scratch with your own way of teaching the scientific method.
"
"What
value is there to expand that training and collaborating with our other complex
area schools (Kalani Complex)" There is
still a lot of student movement between complexes - we receive students from Kalani during the middle of the school year, and they
receive students from us. It is also nice to be able to collaborate with other
Biology teachers from Kalani since I am the only RIP
trained Biology teacher at Kaimuki High.
"What
are the particular challenges of the
Bernice
Ishida - Grade 4 and Technology Teacher Ala Wai
About Bernice: Bernice is very enthusiastic,
and believes that the RIP has made teaching fun again. She took on a huge
task of trying to teach science to Grade 4 in addition to teaching technology
classes. She planned an all day RIP Fieldtrip where she and Dr. Landsman
planned a team teaching unit on the electric fish. It was very
successful.
Teacher Impact:
"What impact
has RIP had on your teaching?" “RIP has
revitalized my energy level with regard to planning lessons because it provides
opportunities to be creative. No drill and kill to learn concepts.
It was fun teaching as I was learning as much, if not more than my
students. I enjoyed doing the planning, preparation, gathering materials.
The best part was the support from Dr. Landsman, Pam Kohara,
and my 2 colleagues.”
Student Impact:
"Do you see
any change in the student's attitude, confidence, or science skills and
knowledge?" “The students
seemed more excited for our class to meet every Friday. Because of
scheduling conflicts we had to cancel some Friday sessions, and students
complained about not having time for Science. If anything, I think they
improved their observations skills which was below par
when we began the first lesson. Critical thinking, problem solving,
collaboration skills hopefully were improved. A few students' self-esteem
improved as there were no opportunities for failure. Students low in
reading, math performance tests participated and there were more
opportunities for collaborative learning than with other science programs.
I am curious to see how much is retained when they, as 5th graders take
the Science tests this October.”
"What
was your biggest "ahhh" moment?" “My
biggest "ahhh" moment was when a student
who was always in trouble with the administration, counselor, teachers, and
other classmates, nailed the hypothesis for our ‘Electric Fish Project’.
It was like a moment of redemption for all the trouble he caused
everyone. Students and teachers who were present during the lesson seemed
to have a new respect for him, and he too, felt and I think continues to
feel, a new self worth. His homeroom teacher commented that he noticed a
behavior change...for the better since that particular science lesson.”
Anne McKnight - Grade 7 Teacher at
About Anne: Anne is masterful at
creating partnerships with outside individuals and groups to provide content
support. She used resources at the
Teacher Impact:
"Do you find that RIP can be
effectively integrated into your Science Program at your school?" “The RIP process is
very flexible in terms of the content and standards that can be addressed in
each RIP. I found it very easy to integrate...although not all my RIPs were equally successful. I was quite pleased with how
the rigor of a RIP meant that students really grappled with scientific method
plus the additional life science concepts necessary to understand to complete
each RIP. I think doing the RIPs as a culminating
project each quarter made the concepts covered during the quarter
much more real to the students.”
"How
do you pick your content for your studies?" “I chose RIP topics
that I was personally very comfortable with, and that I thought would really
ask students to grapple with the standard that seems to me most essential for
7th graders - energy flow in the ecosystem - for 3 of the 4 topics. The 4th
topic was the pulse study suggested by Dr Landsman.”
"How
many RIP studies did you conduct within the year?" “4 RIP topics
were: Termites, Pulse, Mold, Plants. For
each topic, 9 different RIP lab groups were running semi-independent studies.
Each group created their own question, hypothesis etc.”
Student Impact:
"How did the students respond to the process? “Most students found the initial RIP extremely
difficult. Learning the nature of, reasoning for and best ways to complete each
section of the RIP was a steep uphill climb all the way. Accurate data
gathering was very challenging, calculating central tendency was a
headache. The statistics of standard deviation was quite beyond their grasp. We
did 4 RIPs and they continued to moan throughout the
year...all the while making tremendous strides in what they were able to
understand and complete independently. By the 4th RIP, all students seemed far
more resourceful when they met challenges, some even excited and
creative. As 8th graders, many students have visited to tell me
that they miss the challenge of designing their own investigations.”
"Summarize
why you chose to feature various students with various abilities in your Power
point?" “I chose 3 students of types that I thought normally might
not be represented at a science fair. The first student has an ESL
background (mainstreamed for 4 years, but speaking Vietnamese only at
home), the second is low income (free/reduced lunch) and from
Micronesia (a population that in many cases struggles academically), the
third received SPED services until 4th quarter in 6th grade and also has
one parent with limited English. I picked 3 who I thought started off the
year thinking all science, especially a RIP was terribly difficult, but
gradually became comfortable with and fairly proficient in completing a RIP as
a member of a team (although not the same team.) I was interested in
tracking how they responded to challenging content and methods.”
_______________________________________________________________________
About Shari:
Teacher impact:
"What was your RIP study about?" “My study compared the accuracy of a laser gun
against the formula of rate=distance/time. We received help from our
local police department - an officer tracked my
students as they ran 50 yards with his laser gun. My other students timed
the same runners using a stopwatch.”
"What
how many and what kinds of conferences have you shared at?" “I have shared at the GEAR UP "Showcase
of Promising Practices" conference in February of 2007 in
"What
is it like being recognized for your professionalism?" It is very humbling
to be recognized for something that I enjoy doing. Being able to excite
students about learning is the best reward.
"How
has RIP changed the way you approach science?" The RIP has helped
me to be less intimidated about teaching science concepts that earlier seemed
too difficult to teach. The process allows my students to become
scientists and they truly enjoy this! The process also allows me to
integrate math, writing, reading and oral presentation skills into each
lesson. RIP has the students lead the way to learning.
Student Impact:
"What were
the student learnings and outcomes?" “The students found that the raw data showed a correlation
between the laser gun and the formula for determining speed. They also
learned about standard deviation and how to calculate this using their data.”
"What did you
observe about the RIP and your student's reaction to the program, process and
rigor?" The RIP was not hard to teach to my students
who are in elementary school. It involves a lot of critical thinking and
they really got very interested in their study. They also enjoyed working
with the numbers and standard deviation which I think helped to increase their
confidence in math.
"How did you
involve community support in your project?" At first, I tried to ask companies if they would donate a
laser speed gun but I later changed my mind since I didn't think that I was an
expert at using the gun and this might compromise the trials/experiment. I
called our local police department and explained my project and they were more
than willing to help out! The police officer who
is also our school's JPO (Junior Police Officer) advisor, is also a patrol
officer and is an expert with the laser gun. He came in and explained the
history of the speed guns (radar, laser) and how/why they use the guns.
He then clocked each student as they ran the 50 yards and helped us record the
data.
Wendy
Gonsalves - Grade 3 Teacher at Lunalilo About Wendy: Wendy is a new teacher. At first she
asked a lot of questions and was very confused about the process, but she
eventually developed confidence that quite apparent. She is very task
oriented and has high expectations of herself and her students. She
pushes the students hard and both she and the students had some initial
difficulties in moving away from traditional science teaching methods and into
the RIP methodology. Wendy struggled to get the kids to think for
themselves. At first the kids reaction was
..."You want us to do what?" Slowly, the kids started to learn
that they had control over their own learning and had to take ownership.
Wendy realized she was making progress when the students opted to continue to
do their science lesson that cut into their math time. They knew that if
they continued the science they would have to do more math
for homework. They chose to continue.
Wendy did the perhaps the best job of following the RIP process really
carefully. Dr. Landsman visited the class for a career day and was able
to do a Q&A with the kids. He was amazed at the level of
understanding and at their ability to correlate the sounds around their
classroom with specific wavelengths and frequencies.
Wendy shared the RIP with her
faculty. Her principal sees her as a real leader and is using her as an
example of where they would like science to be at
Teacher
impact:
"What
impact has RIP had on your teaching?
“It has made me much more confident in teaching science and in turn I am
excited to see where each year's group of students will take us in the
content.”
"Do
you see any change in your attitude, confidence, or science knowledge?"
When I took the RIP, it was only my 2nd year of teaching so I actually was
encouraged by the fact that I was able to put my education to good use.
At the
"What
are you planning to do next year with the RIP?" “I want to just
implement it into my curriculum like I did last year. The great thing
about using the RIP is that I never quite know what kind of inquiries the class
will have to hit on our standards. It will really depend on the interests
of the students.”
Student
impact:
"Do
you see any change in the students attitude,
confidence, or science knowledge?" “I saw them grow in their
confidence to speak their opinions and to take risks with their learning.
I heard from a colleague in the 4th grade (she is doing RIP this year)
that one of my students had asked her if they would be doing the If, then,
because type of science or "the other way". He had said it with
such attitude that I felt that I did make an impact on this student. He
was actually questioning the type of learning or education that he was going to
have this year.”
"How
does RIP encourage rigor and high level critical thinking?" “RIP
encourages the critical thinking because the students become engaged and
invested in the science that they are learning. My students initiated
their own inquiries based on experiences that they had in their classroom.
These 3rd graders had learned more about sound than their 3rd grade
standards had required.
"What is your biggest success story?" I think it was when
there was a district walk through and my students were working collaboratively
in their groups on their group inquiries. One of the people walking
through asked the students "How did you come up with your
hypothesis?" She said that they said, "From our observations."
What was great about that was they said it with almost an air of
"duh, why don't you know that?" They felt so confident in their
knowledge that they could look at an adult asking this question and actually
feel almost like they were the much more knowledgeable ones in the room.
"How
did you integrate assessment with the students? For example, how did you
assess the student's ability to build or construct their hypothesis?
“When my students were creating group hypotheses for the simple machines inquiry,
I had each student create an individual hypothesis first so that when they got
together with their group they would have something to contribute. I took
these individual hypotheses and assessed them individually. I then gave
them opportunities to revise these hypotheses after having discussions within
their groups.”