Desirable practices in science instruction - which ones do you agree with?

Friends,

I would like to direct you to the following website that addresses some best practices for science instruction based on How Students Learn: History, Mathematics, and Science in the Classroom.  (Note the free download.)

From the website: 

  • Engaging Resilient Preconceptions (addressing students’ initial understanding and preconceptions about topics) Students do not come into the classroom as "tabula rasa." They are not blank sheets to be written on. Each student comes into the classroom with ideas that often limit what a student can learn. It is critical that student preconceptions be identified, confronted, and resolved. (We have discussed this in the past when we talked about students background knowledge and what to do if their knowledge is not correct.)
  • Organizing Knowledge around Core Concepts (providing a foundation of factual knowledge and conceptual understanding)
  • Supporting Metacognition and Student Self-Regulation (teaching strategies that will help students take control of their learning). Students need to be made fully aware of what they know and what they don't know. 
  • Cooperative Learning (allowing students to learn together)

Desirable Practices in science teaching.  

  • Establishing and maintaining classroom environments that are:
    • learner centered -- identifying, confronting, and resolving preconceptions, and beginning instruction with what students know.
    • knowledge centered -- focus on how something is know as much as what is known, and provide examples of what mastery looks like.
    • assessment centered -- make frequent attempts to make students' thinking and learning visible as a guide for further instruction.
    • community centered -- encourages a culture of questioning, including a bit of risk taking and respect for others.

How do you implement these practices in your classroom? I'd love to see the different ideas. 

Kathy
@Kathy_Tracey