Imagine a classroom alive with learning. Students are setting up experiments and asking questions—they are doing science. There is energy and excitement in the air and the teacher is enthusiastically guiding the activity. Everyone is learning.
The scene described is called immersion. A major component of SCALE is based on the concept of immersion, an inquiry-based teaching approach. The approach works because it allows for more interactive, deeper student learning. Students and teachers report experiencing scenes just like the one above when they engage in learning core science concepts by using the inquiry process and other formal scientific habits of thinking. Immersion Units are
designed to support this kind of teaching and learning.
Each Immersion Unit provides a coherent series of lessons designed to guide students in developing deep, conceptual understanding that is aligned with the standards and key concepts in science. Immersion Units are intended to build a learning culture in the classroom where not only students are learning but teachers are learning about student comprehension levels and building their own content knowledge. This feedback process helps to sustain students’ enthusiasm while they learn rigorous science content. The Immersion Design Concept Paper (PDF, 274KB) outlines criteria for model immersion units and defines the role these units will play in the instructional framework, and includes initial plans for integrating immersion units into district learning environments.
What Makes Immersion Compelling to Students?
Immersion projects are designed to allow students to deeply investigate a topic over an extended time period. Students also exercise adaptive reasoning skills by:
- putting disparate information together into a systematic conjecture or hypothesis
- gathering data that tests their hypothesis
- confronting conflicting evidence
- drawing conclusions and
- considering those conclusions in the context of a broader body of knowledge
Immersion Units are also designed to support teachers by providing background information, implementation strategies including how to adjust teaching methods to match comprehension levels, and opportunities for students to make connections between scientific content and real world situations.
SCALE Brand of Collaboration
An important aspect of the immersion units is developing and engaging collaborative teams within the educational district. Collaboration, in the context of immersion, is not merely pooling of expertise or resources, but a process for developing a shared vision and structure for sustained professional support. The collaborative approach is based on an established body of research on successful change initiatives in large organizations. Collaborative teams develop common understanding of the desired outcomes and rationale for achieving them. They work together, through a shared lens with shared vision, common knowledge and similar beliefs, to decide how to best implement best practices for teaching and learning. The vehicle for change becomes the process rather than the materials produced for immersion units or professional development.
Providing a shared context brought together from the entire educational continuum ensures a multi-dimensional and system-wide paradigm change for educational reform. The collaborative approach is formalized through Institutes for teachers and a series of Leadership Study Group sessions, planned throughout the year. These eight sessions provide important face-to-face working time where faculty, administrators and lead teachers can identify key elements of the implementation process that need refinement. Because new approaches are always somewhat fragile, these collaborative opportunities allow partners to consolidate improvement efforts and sustain the momentum for future changes and eventual institutionalization.
