For students who are new to planning investigations (or when the complexity needed to plan an investigation is sufficiently high), chunk the planning of the investigation for students (e.g., create mini-goals that are grade-level appropriate, including
- identifying multiple variables, such as independent and dependent variables and controls;
- selecting tools needed for data collection;
- determining how measurements will be taken and logged; and,
- deciding how many data points are sufficient for supporting a claim; provide time for students to reflect on the process and their progress on achieving each mini-goal) so they can focus on one part at a time and provide informational feedback on how their plans are aligning with the objective for the investigation. As students gain competence in planning parts of an investigation, give them larger chunks at a time to plan.
Resource Information
- MDP: Confidence
- Resource Type: NGSS Connection
Confidence Principles
The strategy above is aligned to the principles in bold.
Provide clear expectations
- What students will be expected to learn or understand for an assignment or unit
- What students will be expected to do and produce for an assignment or activity
- How students will be assessed (on a task, project, unit, etc.)
- What is available for students to manage their work (e.g., materials, time, scaffolds) and how they might manage their work through to completion of the task
Provide challenging work
- Is calibrated to students’ skill level(s)
- Conveys teacher’s confidence in students by communicating, “I believe you can do this”
- Builds students’ confidence, helping students to see that “I can do this”
- Note: Challenge can be less intimidating when teachers make explicit connections between challenge and learning/growth
- Note: Too little challenge and overly scripted tasks damage students’ confidence by sending the message, “I don’t think you can handle anything more than this”
Guide and support students
- Providing examples of high quality work
- Providing examples of similar others (e.g., students from prior years, scientists) who have succeeded or who have overcome challenges. This is especially helpful for learners who struggle or have low confidence
- Being attuned to students (e.g., to their progress, struggles, emotions, actions, reactions, etc.) through observations and interactions
- Helping students identify supports they have available or pointing students to supports to use while they work
- Modeling successful strategies
- Helping students to identify prior knowledge and previously successful strategies that might help them successfully complete the current task
Give informational and encouraging feedback
- Indicates specific things the student has done well and how the student might continue to improve
- Contains information about the causes of success and failure so that students attribute outcomes to their efforts and strategies (rather than luck, ability, or external sources like task difficulty)
- Communicates confidence in students' ability to meet the teacher’s high expectations
- Avoids over-generalizing (e.g., “Good job!”)
