Being a science teacher is not all rainbows and butterflies.
Being a science education major is not easy.
Being a science education major is not like all other education majors.
Is “those who can’t, teach” an actual saying? Yes.
Are the above statements commonly thought of as being true? Yes. Do we basically have the prerequisites to apply for medical school? Yes. Do people take that into account before they just automatically assume that our major is easy? No.
See that tweet I included above?? Yeah, we have to do both the cutting out and the biochem lab report. *mic drop*
Not only is a science education degree hard to obtain, there are many challenges that come with the profession in general. Here are just a few!
Controversial Topics
Most controversial topics have something to do with science. So, naturally, it’s our job as science teachers to address them.
Here’s where the difficulty comes into play:
- What if a parent is not comfortable with you teaching their child about a topic?
- What happens when religion comes into play? Do you ignore it?
- What if you have two strong minded students in the room, each on a different side of the argument?
What could be done?
- Don’t be afraid to contact the parents! If they are very uncomfortable, invite them into your classroom to talk.
- Try not to bring religion into things. Don’t include religion in your lesson plans. Religion is an iffy subject for many people, and there are many different religions out there. Because of this, religion should be steered clear of whenever possible.
- When it comes to having students agreeing with different sides of the argument, make sure to emphasize the fact that that is okay. This could be the perfect opportunity to create a lesson around this topic involving argumentation!
Misconceptions
There are LOTS of misconceptions students come into science classrooms with. That’s not a bad thing! But as science teachers, it’s our job to address these and point students in the right direction.
Here are some examples of misconceptions in science:
What can be done to combat these misconceptions?
- Address them head on. Let students know that it’s okay to have misconceptions and that they aren’t the only ones that have it.
- Make the topic interesting. There are so many activities that can be done to address misconceptions in a fun way.
- You could probe for misconceptions/preconceptions at the beginning of a topic by using an anticipation guide and having students fill them out.
https://twitter.com/MissWelsh3/status/1123649326549487616
The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.
Katie, this blog post is awesome. It is packed filled with a lot of valuable information. There are so many important facts that you made throughout this post. I loved all of the information and it will help me be a better teacher. The images that you included are spot on as well. Based on all of these problems which do you think will be the hardest to get through as a teacher? Overall, great blog post!
Thanks for the feedback, Bailey!
I think that out of all the had things that come with being a science teacher, I think the hardest would be all of the controversial topics that come with science teaching. Science has to be the subject that has the most controversial topics, and it also comes with having to deal with students that have differing opinions, and also the parents.
Thanks again for all of the positive feedback!