As our pedagogy has developed, we’ve paid great attention to the importance of individual learning needs, developing individual education plans for exceptional students but also promoting the concept that teachers build a strong relationship with each of their students. This relationship is intended to help the teacher meet the student where they are, and encourage their involvement in the content of the course through their interests and the interaction. The content should be learned in isolation, between the teacher and the student, and often teacher and student via technology. Certainly we’ve enabled learners in our classroom to push themselves further and engaged them with this model, but we’ve done so at the cost of true authenticity in modelling the discipline of science, and indeed the primary mechanism by which many working environments function in general.
Related Resources:
Differentiated Instruction in Ontario’s Science & Technology Classrooms
Categories: General Interest, Lab/Student Activity, Lesson Plan
Author: Kristel-Anne Fernandes, Don Galbraith Award Winner, OISE, University of Toronto This resource includes a reflection on differentiated science instruction in the full-day kindergarten... read more
VIDEOCONFERENCING TO CONNECT STUDENTS WITH SCIENCE & STEM EXPERTS
Categories: General Interest, Lab/Student Activity
Videoconferencing allows students to connect to science professionals, engineers and other STEM experts and provides relevant real-world contexts and personal stories that help students engage with... read more
Streaming in Ontario
Categories: General Interest
by Stella Kim In July 2020, the Ontario Ministry of Education made the announcement that it would be ending the practice of academic streaming in Grade 9 in Ontario (source). This change has begun... read more