view from my clcu/room
edited by DUANESELL William Palatine,-per iiiinoiscoiiege 60067
Double Your Pleasure-A Team Teaching Concept Gene P. Buzzard R. Nelson Snider High School, Fort Wayne, IN
Whenever a teacher has the chance to feel that he is making a worthwhile contribution to the community in which he lives, and to society in general, it is very satisfying. I have been fortunate to have begun teaching chemistry a t R. Nelson Snider High School in 1966when the school opened. Using the CHEM Study curriculum, and with adequate equipment and freedom to organize the program, the chemistry team chose to use a team%eaching approach, which is still being used. Under this system, a maximum of 64 students per class meet together in large lccture-laboratory room for class discussions, films, and tests. For laboratory experiments, prohI~!twsolvingsessions and similar activities, the large group is divided into smallrr groups, meeting in different laboratory ruoms. In this settine. exneriments are undertaken when they fit the topic rather t i a n b n a set schedule.
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Scheduling For several years both chemistry and physics were taught using team teaching and an expanded block of time, approximately 85 minutes in length. The sample schedule shown in the table indicates arrangements that were used to build a chemistry schedule. The "major unit of time" is still essentially a 55-min period, hut a "half period study time" of 30 min is combined with it to com~letethe 85-min block of time. As can be seen, however, other Scheduling possibilities do exist. The program uses a horizontal organization with as many as three or four teachers involved. It also has the added feature of an inservice program which allows new teachers, or those teachers less familiar with the CHEM Study approaih, to orient themselves to the situation. The team may include some or all of the following members: I , T h e r m m l r a d ~ r This . pcrson is respmsihle for curriculum
drvelupmrnt, assignments, basic grading pattern%,and other duticq, somr ofuhirh will Ire prcsrnted later.
1st Biock
2nd
Block
3rd Biock
4th Block
Chemistry
Period 1 (55min.)
wim 32 students
one teacher Chemistry
Period 2
with
(55 mi".)
64 students
(28 min.) Period 3 (27 min.)
A
2 teachers
B
Lunch
A
wilh 64 students
Chemistry
Period 4
B
2 teachers
Lunch
Period 5
A B
Lunch Chemistry study
Lund
Chemistry with
Period 6
64 students
2 teachers
2) The associate teachers. Their responsibilitiesvary according to the percentage of their teaching time spent in chemistry.
Some of these responsibilitiesmight include laboratory preparation. imorovement of less successful students durine the "half period swdy time." showing and dlrrussmp ('HE.\I &v film with lecture groups, and other spw~f~ed duties. One or more ot these avsociatr tearhrra may he n ~ P Wteacher involved uith inservice work or veteran teachers with mare training in areas other than ehemmtry. 3) The team rowdinoror. This person plans scheduling. ordprri chemicals and materials, and eniovs a close relat~unch~p w~th the administration. The coordinator may also share teaching leadership in the chemistry program.
It is, of course, possihle that a teacher may function in more than one of these roles and the roles may not be as definite as outlined.
Gem Buzzard Is avetmn of 25 ye- of teaching exoerience. Fw oast 16 wars he has tavoht at R ~eisMSnider h gh Schmi in F a t Wayne, i&na At Sn oer he is curremiy the Sclence Departmsm charrman. a postlon rnat ne has held for nne years. For the past 17 years, studems of Mr. Buzzard's have finishedin lhe top 10 on the Nanheastwn In-
diana American Chemical Society's examinatlans. in addition, students at Snider have participated in international Science Fairs and others have won awards n the IMlana State Sclence Talent Search .LSI recentb t h s year, an ndepemem Shq s n d M that Gene supervised won first place and a $1000 scholarship in this Talent Search. Mr. Buuard received his BS degree han Huntington College. He has also received MS &gees in Educatim hm indiana Univerrity and Biology and Chemisv from Purdue University. Gene has received various honors for outstanding teaching-me most recent being lha 1980 recipient of the Northeastern indiana ACS and Regional ACS Chemistry Teacher of the Year awards. 960
Journal of Chemical Education
Philosophy of Team Teaching Since the first students entered Snider High School fifteen years ago, the major emphasis in the science department has been the attempt to shift the responsibility for learning, a t least in part from the teacher to the student. The science department has been organized for team cooperation. Team teaching gives a professional role to the teacher, in that instead of being ionfined to a single room five or six periods a day, covering the same material with each class, some time is available to prepare special demonstrations, work with individual students, and plan ahead. Teams are composed of individuals willing to work for the success of fellow teachers and students. Teachers lose their "god-centered approach as they function to meet the needs of ~ l u d e n t and s fellov. tencht.rs. In this setting rhemistry is a course orimttd around prohlems both expefimental and conceptual. Several underlying motives are fundamental. 1) Students must search for answers to problems. Eventually an-
swers are discussed but not before some searching and frustration. Classwork and study time will generally he used for this **
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2) Instructors seldom provide direct answers to specific problems.
Parallel situations may be studied, guiding questions may be asked, reading material may be cited, but the best answers are provided by the students, not the teachers. 3) Experiments are designed to provoke questions as well as provide answers. They are related to units under discussion and are not well understood before or during performance. Hopefully, at a later time, understanding will come. Again, the instructor's primary job is to facilitate the performance of the experiment and allow the student the task of understanding. To ensure greater participation among students, as many experimentsas possible are done by each student working alone. 4) Tests are designed to be learning situations since all resources are freely used, including textbooks, laboratory notebooks, and class notes. This may give the student a feeling of being somewhat in ... chnree.
5) The teaching of chemistry is essentially a team effort with all
members of the team free to provide suggestions and constructive criticism for the improvement of the program. The Half-Period Study Time Since chemistry is basically a problem-solving course, the purpose of the regular class period allotted to the course should be devoted to preparing students to solve these prohlems. The problems themselves are of two basic types: first, some prohlems are related to chemical experimentation that arise during and after an experiment, and second, other prohlems are presented on selected topics in chemistry. These are based on the most pertinent and useful areas of interest. The chemistry teaching team attempts to allow students to solve these prohlems through many different methods during the "maior unit of time." These include large group lectur& and di!russims, demonstrations hy instructors or students, films and other audiovisual aids, e~periments,reviews, pretesting, and group discussion of these prohlems and completed euperim~nts.In this wav, a large percentage oieach eroun shuuld he successful in their hasic understandine ot'tht: underlying concepts in chemistry and their application. Concent teachine as O D D O S ~to~ teachine for meniorv has proved both stimulat& and productive to student; and teachers. Retention of concepts for future activities has been indicated to he very high, as will be shown later. However, in every croup there will he those students who will neithe; "see the-total picture," nor he able to obtain enough information to solve basic problems in chemistry on their own. These students may often he identified early in the course through their test scores, results of laboratory experiments, and through their inability to solve textbook problems. Usually about 25 to 30 percent of a group of 64 students might need remedial help in problem solving; extra review work in preparation for a test and help in understanding laboratory
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questions. During the "half-period study time, this small group of 16 to 20 students are assigned to a separate room and receive individual help. The associate teacher might take a leading role in the remedial help sessions. This teacher would need to "sense" when it would he nwessary to use thr group's time in reviewing concepts that wvuld l ~ of e specilk help in sohing problems and when 10allow them to work out thrir own prohlrms-hut the 1eadt:r must inwlve them, be willing tu work with them individuallv or in i m d l erouDs. . he willine to eo to them, and also allow &em to move around to get hzlp from each bther. To realize when a model or some other resource could make a point, to he willing tu pruvide guidnnce, to review concepts and to ajk uurstions without solving the nrublems for thestu~lent are themarks of a real professi&al. i n other words, students should be led to the trail without placing them a t the end of it. Above all, the group leader must be willing to visit and ohserve individuals, provjde them with quiet areas for indeen dent or small group study, and insure that the study time is spent in a positive way. The Total Program Along with this first-year Chemistry program there is an Advanced Chemistry course of traditional length (55 m i d in which students work on more advanced tonics and e x ~ e r i ments in organic chemistry. Qualitative and quantitative analysis, chromatography, model building, and other topics are included. There are usually two sections of about 30 students each and often two or three students working independently hecause of scheduling conflicts. Because of student demand, a third course has been estahlished called Science-Independent Study. Students working alone or in groups of two or three, prepare science nroiects that can be disnlaved " . in science fairs. Thevalso work on chemistry problems and experiments of interest. As many as seven or eieht students a vear have been active in this " class. To make all these courses and classes nossihle without providing an impossible burden for teachers, we have an elaborate network of student volunteer service workers, consisting of two to four per class period. These volunteers prepare solutions, wash, label and fill bottles, help with paper work, run errands, set up experiments, and generally help keep the chemistry rooms clrnn and orderly. R-ithuut such a dedicated eroun of workers the comnlex exneriments and demonstragons L e d would be almost'too difkcult to prepare. The willineness that these students have shown over the vears has been one of the strongest points of the entire program. Because of this total approach, in 15years of team teaching in chemistry a t Snider High School, not one day has been lost due to teacher absence. No experiment has been postponed, and tests and experiments have usually been graded and returned within two school days. This has certainly contributed to a professional attitude among teachers and students and helped maintain scholarship and a dedication to learning throuzhout the entire 15-vear . neriod. . All these prugrnms and classes, no matter how complex or efiicirntly organized, would have little value unless students showed clear protit from them. In the last fourteen years. nine Snider students h a w placed first i n the regional American Chemical Snciety tests, and seven have placed serond. In tact, approximately 300: ofthe places have been received by Snider students. Each year two or three f(,rmer students place at the top oi their rollege chemistry classes, and in 1979 five former students were vrrified 8 5 heino at the rou of their chemistrv class and/or receiving an award for such achievement. These include such large and prestigious universities as M.I.T., University of Chicago, University of Michigan, and Purdue Universitv. ~ h i l i t y b fstudents to score in the high 700's to 800 on the chemistrv achievement test as part of the SAT and to test out of one ormore semesters of coilege chemistry might he a fur-
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Volume 58 Number l l
November 1981
961
ther indication that a useful hackeround is heine-. ~rovided. u We have actwely encouraged students to enter Science Fairs and Science Talent Searches with anumher of 1st d a c e winners as well as participants and winners a t the ~nternational Science Fair. Any elective class must he a pleasant place to be as well as learning experience if productivity is to remain at a high level. T o this end we start the first-year class with several CHEM Study experiments, only a few of which require any extensive homework or post-laboratory write ups. We end the school year with a series of qualitative analysis experiments which orovide much interest at a time when most students have more or less "finished" with the school year. Experiments are spaced throuehout the vear at a slower Dace, followinr the au. . arain preach of introducing a section with an experiment,follnw~d hv a discussion of conceDts over several days. he approach most iften followed involves one or more demonstrations and/or displays, along with determining the logic of n situation. We seldom if everask auestions such as. ''whodiscovered chlorim?" hut ask, "Why ioes chlorine have a higher melting point than fluorine?"or, "Why is a chlorine atom smaller than a sodium atom when it should seem to he the oooosite?" In t i i s way the answer "I don't know," which often comes at the end of a question about a fact, can he virtually eliminated since theie types of questions deal with conEepts to which each person may have an opinion. It is irrelevant whether a student's opinion is right or wrong. What is important is the need to requireand stimulate real thinking rather than a parroting of facts. Gradually, through discussion, films, demonstrations, problem solving, and any other useful technique, the concepts are made clear so that by the end of the school year, the first-year students have a worthwhile backeround in chemistrv and a better avoreciation of the .. " wokkings of science in general. The advanced chemistrv oronram also has some of the ele~nt:ntsof the tram itpproach. 0;r uf the chemistry team who is mwe skillvd in ~hvsic9and mi~thematicshmdles thecomputer unit and thk study of the atom regarding wave experiments and coulombic forces. Again, this class begins with a series of experiments, generally in the area of organic chemistry, and finishes the school year with an 8-wk laboratory problem involving qualitative and quantitative analysis. I t is our sincere belief that the first week or two of the school year sets the Dace for the entire vear. and an active. vet husinesswill bring reward; throughout th;! school year. like be&& And as oreviouslv mentioned. endine the season with what is in effect, "a championship game" will very likely result in enthusiasm for the class at a time when most teachers are complaining that the students are already "on vacation." Team Teaching-The Now These courses were orranized and staffed durinn the bwm years of the middle 1960's when money was freel; available for procramsand equipment and when high school students, especially in this suburban community, were anxious for maximum achievement. What is the situation now, after years of roaring inflation, tight budgets, cross busing, apparently decreased student motivation, and other assorted ills of the 1970's? The extended class time which was very successfulfor many years was eliminated in the middle 1970's because of budget problems. At about the same time monies for large equipment items were deleted from the science budget and class sizes were gradually increased. A wider variety of courses developed to allow for the wide range of abilities and interests, and homework was deemphasized as a tool in learning. With a greater emphasis on the "here and now" philosophy, more itudents owned cars, had to have jobs to pay for them, and became involved in different types of extra school activities. How could a rigorous college preparatory chemistry class comI~etewith all these changes and hope to survive? 962
Journal of Chemical Education
From 1966 to the earlv 1970's enrollment in chemistrv climbed from 180studenito about 240aischoul enrullmenk increast!tl from 1500 to 2000 from grade I 0 throurh 1 2 I)esegregation and boundary changes reduced the &hool enrollment to 1700, yet enrollment in chemistry remained at nearly 240 students. At the same time enrollment in advanced chemistry has climbed from about 15 students to over 65 students. Usually the enrollment for this class must be closed because of limited laboratory and teacher availability. Throughout this entire transition period we have maintained homework, lahoratory work, and tests in the pattern established by the CHEM Study program. Our goal has remained the same: we want students with interest and ability in science to work to their m a ~ i m u mpotential, and we shall not insult them by askingless than this. This means, of course, that as teachers we must do the same. The team teaching pattern continues to thrive in spite of changing conditions in finances and society in general. Continuing to make a course in chemistry relevant present conditio& and, most importantly, to help develop a logical approach to problem solving are perhaps the most important things we can do to insure that students of today will have the very best in science education.
