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Project
2061 Middle and High School Science Textbooks A Standards-Based Evaluation |
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- Promoting Student Thinking
about Phenomena, Experiences, and Knowledge
- Encouraging students to explain their ideas
- Guiding student interpretation and reasoning
- Encouraging students to think about what they've learned
Does the material suggest ways to have students check and reflect on their own progress?
Explanation. This criterion highlights the importance of having students look back at the progress of their thinking and learning. Monitoring one's understanding and realizing which ideas one does not understand can shift some of the responsibility for learning to the students and may elicit their attempts to understand as a result.
Responding to this criterion involves examining whether the material includes questions or tasks that prompt students to monitor their understanding, or includes suggestions to teachers on how to encourage students to do so. For example, "What was confusing to you today? How does the new knowledge compare with what you used to think? What do you think you understand and where do you need to work more?" Encouraging students to monitor their understanding should also include (when appropriate) questions on how and why students changed their ideas. For example, "Did you change any of your ideas today? What evidence convinced you to do so?"