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Help a Student Teacher Learn the Ropes
I am a student at UMBC and I am going to be starting my internship in the Fall of 2011. One of the things I am worried about as a new teacher is saying the wrong thing and having an angry parent or upset student. I feel like with the creation theories of the universe and God as the creator of the Earth/world may be an area of questions I'm not sure how to answer.
Can anyone give me advice or share their personal experience to help me learn how to handle difficult situations in the classroom?
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What a great question to pose and something to think about when preparing to hit the classroom running- as we all must do! In my twenty-seven years of teaching, I must say that I have only faced this issue a few times, and Adah's advice is right on target, from my perspective. We are never trying to replace parents and their world views, but rather offer scientific literacy to students to enable them to function effectively in the twenty-first century. Sometimes it means that we allow students to explore their preconceived notions with new information, and to then meet with some skepticism as they adjust their existing schema to take in this new world view. Often our roles are to serve as facilitators rather than directors- to lead them to reading and learning from a variety of reliable sources and then letting them figure out how to see the world using the lens of scientific inquiry and literacy.
What are some other issues that pre-service or relatively new teachers may be concerned about related to teaching our students about scientific facts that may appear to be discrepant from a student's religious background?
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Hi Stacy and welcome to the NSTA discussion threads. How exciting that you will soon be doing your student teaching. The NSTA Learning Center has gobs of great resources on this topic including a position statement and a web page devoted to questions (including your questions) and plausible responses. You can find the NSTA Evolutions Q & A on the Evolution Resources page. Here is one of the Q & As:
Q: In general, how should I address questions from students and parents about alternative theories of biological evolution?
A: It is important to first acknowledge that different viewpoints and ideas exist regarding the history and nature of life on Earth. In the discussion that may ensue, you should define the word theory as it is used in the scientific community. In particular, you should note that a theory is a well-substantiated explanation that incorporates facts, laws, inferences, and tested hypotheses, and theories can be tested, modified, and rejected. Theories are valuable because of their explanatory power and their usefulness in making and testing predictions. The alternative 'theories' that typically serve as the springboard for student and parental questions tend not to be scientific theories because they cannot be tested, they lack explanatory power, and they do not provide the basis for additional research. That is why these alternative 'theories' are being omitted from the curriculum, not because of censorship or unfairness.
I hope this helps.
Carolyn
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Hi Stacy,
The webpage that Carolyn provided a link to is a great resource! NSTA has several other resources to help science educators teach evolution. One is The Creation Controversy and the Science Classroom. This book is available in either print or e-book format. You can also download several individual chapters in the Learning Center. The NSTA Tool Kit for Teaching Evolution is another great resource to help you teacher evolution and answer the questions that may arise as you teach the theory.
Best of luck as you move forward!
Maureen
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Wow, thank you so much for sharing this! I don't want to say I am highly religious, but I do have faith in God and it is something I am not ashamed of. However, I know what this means in the teaching field if I were to say something I wasn't supposed to or anything like that. I have thought about the situation before, but since I haven't come across it as a student teacher, I haven't raised any awareness to myself. Great resources to read!
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Hi Stacy
Maureen gave you a perfect resource to read, the book about Creationism in the Science classroom. The book gives you a ton of resources to support your teaching of Evolution! I would highly encourage you to read the book!
Have fun,
Liz
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Hi Stacy,
Here's a link to a similar discussion forum on teaching evolution in the life science forum.
Maureen
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Stacey,
Depending on what age you teach, this can also lead a to a great opportunity to help students develop their critical thinking. I am a Life Science teacher, so I approach this topic from the idea of evolution, but you could do the same with the creation of the universe. I teach the scientific theory of evolution, according to my state's standards. At the end of the unit I have the students conduct a Socratic seminar. They spend 2 days in the school library researching their viewpoint, an I encourage them to have a discussion with their parents. On the day of the Seminar, the students are allowed to argue with each other, but I keep it very civil. Students cannot talk over another student, they have to allow someone to finish their thought. They also have to refer first to the previous comment, and then they can make their comment. It allows me to teach the content, but also teach a life skill of being able to research and think critically. I do this every year with 7th graders, and I am amazed at how civil they are with each other and at their ability to create strong arguments.
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thanks for the advice on how to deal with this issue. i'm currently getting my masters in elementary education, and i could see this being a problem when evolution gets introduced in the upper elementary grades.
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I want to share my personal story about creation and evolution. It actually happened when I was in ninth grade. My social studies teacher assigned a research project about the evolution theory and creation where we needed to compare and contrast through evidence from the sources. I got so into it, that I even read several books of the bible entirely, in addition to spend many afternoons and weekends researching in my hometown university library. After I completed and presented the project, I kept digging into the controversy to the point that my mother scheduled an appointment with our priest to address my doubts and questions. They were many and very complex that after spending an evening with him, I left the room even with more questions. None of his answers convinced me. I lost interest in the religious aspect of my life and as of today I do not speak or discuss my thoughts about this matter with anyone. I do respect everyone's beliefs very much though. Two years ago I had a fourth and a fifth grade gifted classes. Students extremely smart and most of all curious. The controversy arose many times in class discussions because they would bring the word evolution into the conversations frequently. It was really difficult for me to deal with the situation in an objective way because I saw myself in them, in search for answers. I opted sometimes to abruptly change the perspective of the conversation, others I would have an individual conversation with the student, and also would cite the bible and point out that it was written by people just like us. Today, students have access to a lot of information and I believe that it is our duty to provide guidance and clarification based on facts because they might be misled by someone else. I also suggest to the students that they speak to their parents about their questions, and concerns. Unfortunately in the community that I serve parents' involvement and support is not the norm therefore you are the only figure they have to look up to.
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I understand that the original post of this topic was written a few years ago, but it is an interesting topic and reading through the posts made me think of a comment made by a student the other day. It was actually during a fifth grade language arts lesson where I was doing small group instruction with lower level readers on a book about finding cures for diseases. While we were discussing how bacteria can get in your body, I mentioned that open cuts can be among the places that bacteria and viruses can get in. A student then spoke up and said that in the beginning of the Bible, it talks about "the tree of life in the Garden of Eden" that will cure you if you put put a leaf on the wound. I took the opportunity to talk about cures that are derived from plants and was able to bring up how penicillin was derived from mold. I think if you can deflect, do so. It is so much better than needlessly correcting a student for saying what they believe or what they learned somewhere else.
Thanks for a great topic Stacy.
Dave
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