Mark talks with Matt Oney about his introduction to modeling instruction and how he uses modeling methodology in the university setting. They talk about the importance of fostering, as opposed to squashing, the curiosity that all children have. Modeling instruction is designed to train students to use their curiosity to pursue answers, and students are engaged in that learning. Additionally, they discuss ways that teachers may be inadvertently killing students' curiosity. They talk about the importance of modeling the student-centered approach in the professional development that we offer to teachers because we want their classrooms to be student-centered.

Guest

Matt Oney is the Associate Director for Integrated Secondary Science at Michigan State University in the Center for Integrated Studies in General Sciences. His primary focus is on preparing future science educators. In addition, he is the College of Natural Science coordinator for the Certification in College Teaching Program. Matt earned master’s degrees in plant biology and education from MSU. Prior to joining MSU as a faculty member, Matt was a high school chemistry and physics teacher in the Upper Peninsula.

Highlights

[2:33] Matt Oney: "what the myth busters are currently doing of just like taking these general curiosities that they have about the world and identifying ways that they can answer those curiosities. I was like, that's what I want my students to do. But I had no idea how to do that related to physics."

[23:42] Matt Oney: "I would argue that all subject matters should be inquiry based and that our students should be learning through their own curiosities,"

[25:13] Matt Oney: "Learning is not necessarily, fun. It's challenging, but it's engaging. And we have such a huge responsibility to make sure that we are not killing the curiosity of our students."

Resources

Ep 73 Transcript