FCS Integrated

Best Practices in CTE

Practice

What Teacher Does

What Students Do

Combat Misconceptions Teachers will use prior knowledge to identify any misunderstandings before introducing new material.

Students will contrast their initial understanding of a subject with their updated knowledge and will be able to articulate or write about how their comprehension of the topic evolved. Students will be encouraged to ask questions of each other about what is being presented and the conclusions they draw from their models or projects. Students will develop, assess, and improve models, which may encompass diagrams, physical replicas, mathematical representations, analogies, and computer simulations. Students will engage in investigations ranging from structured activities led by the teacher to inquiries driven by student curiosity, covering levels of exploration from teacher-led structured inquiry to student-directed open inquiry. Students will be advised to strategically analyze and interpret raw data to derive its meaning and relevance, enabling its use as evidence when forming conclusions. Students will construct solutions to the presented problems and present their fndings to both the teacher and fellow students.

Defne Problems and Ask Questions

Teachers will engage students by presenting content in different ways and inviting them to brainstorm hypotheses and propose new questions. Teachers will furnish and directly instruct students on certain models while also enabling students to devise their own models. By offering targeted feedback, teachers will assist students in refning their models. Teachers will offer students hands-on opportunities to tackle problems, either under the guidance of the teacher or in open-ended scenarios where students can explore and test their own ideas. Teachers will instruct students directly on organizing data specifc to the content and on justifying conclusions drawn from that data. Teachers will create opportunities for students to express problems, work on solving them, and formulate solutions.

Develop Models

Plan and Carry Out Investigations

Analyze and Interpret Data

Problem-Solving