Teaching science: we're doing it wrong | Danny Doucette | TEDxRiga

The world needs scientists and engineers more than ever, but our approach to raising them is backwards and ineffective. Drawing on his research and experience, high school physics teacher Danny Doucette challenges us to reimagine school science.

As a physics and maths teacher, Danny seeks to understand why science is challenging for students, and works to develop better ways to learn. He believes that scientific thinking empowers everyone to better understand their world.

[bukanyam]

Great to see my old high school teacher giving a TED Talk.

[nouerak]

I'm actually a physics teacher, and I've learned a lot with this video, thanks!

[HumbertoGomez-Guillen]

I am a 49 year veteran science teacher. I started as university professor back in Mexico in 1975. I cannot begin to tell you how much I and my family have suffered. My thesis work was about using the scientific method to teach science. I was a star student that came to the US on a government scholarship. I have been put on leave, investigated and sometimes convicted on ON NOT KNOWING HOW TO TEACH by administrators that have no clue about how science is supposed to work. It is amazing thatI am still doing it. Just to get my credential was an odyssey.

[wtan]

Marx said that to change education, the educators must be educated. Many science teachers have no industry experience. Hence we end up with students studying for grades rather than know how to apply scientific principles to practical problems. Alternative assessments will not solve this problem.

[amandacardoso]

I'd love to have classes like that! The problem, at least in my school, is that you'd have to also train the students to learn to appreciate this kind of knowledge or science in general. I can't tell you how disencouraging my Physics and Chemistry classes are, not because of the subject itself or the teachers, but because the students just don't shut up. While a minority in the class is trying to learn something new, because of the math and numbers involved they just turn around and start talking to their friends, not minding that it is distracting.

[brittanyelstroth]

I completely agree, as a science teacher this is my philosophy. Unfortunately I have had to purchase my own supplies, wash all my own glassware ( rooms did not even have a sink or water) and parents would complain that tests should have study guides with the exact page in the book the questions are from. All in all, I still did it, and the students did great on the applied science assessments....but schools and parents do not appreciate that.

[anonnona]

here's what it's like in India. here, when you take science, Medical or engineering, you have one single test at the end of high school for college entrances. called the JEE for engineering and AIPMT for medical. it's all about the application of the things you learn. personally, I'm here in junior high school and I realise the fact that in middle school senior or when I was 15, I was SO MUCH into science. I had so much interest in modern physics. but as soon as I hit high school and turned 16, now for me it's about knowing the formula, applying it and passing that test. I feel so bad that I loved science so much and now it's like okay okay (because the inner scientist in me never dies). suicide rates in children here because of the pressure of this exam is super high. we go to school to get attendance, go to private tuition for passing school exams and go to coaching institutes to clear that test. it sucks so much but that's what we gotta do. sike

[madiham]

I think this is absolutely brilliant.. I think I finally understood eddy currents in the five minutes he talked about it better than the two hours my teacher spent with her presentations trying to help us understand. That speaks a lot about how much we need practical learning in class rooms.

[joasdasilvabrito]

It was a great presentation! As scientists, we need to make a better connection between the practices, the tests and the scientific method, which is the base of science and of the critical thought. Congrats!

[whoknew]

This is a wonderful presentation about two important ideas for society: (1) how to empower every student with knowledge about the world, such that it gives them meaning & lets them be more effective better people, and (2) how can our educational institutions better assess conceptual understanding and retention of ideas/knowledge. He showed (modeled) the first. The second is a much broader topic, so he astutely did not expound. I'm hoping educators pay attention & experiment - then perhaps implement his or similar suggestions.

Mr. Doucette's style, pace, subdued enthusiasm, and emotional intelligence suggest he is a very good science teacher. He demonstrated he is a very good speaker. Bravo to TEDx for such a talk!!

[tanishagoel]

If only the world had more teachers like him...

[RandhirKumar-gcbr]

I always wanted this kind of learning culture or environment, we have been forced to learn theories without understanding it, which I going to forget it within 2-3 days, science should be fun regular assessment of learning, not just for getting good marks in exams.

[simranaujla]

LOVED this. Examinations are the key problem. All my teachers admit that they just need us to memorise stuff: not learn.

[AriaHarmony]

His students are lucky to have him!! He's teaching them how real science and scientific thinking works! I wish he'll upload some of his classes to YouTube.

[TrickWithAKnife]

Fascinating talk.
I've been teaching English in Japan for the last 10 years, and the need to teach for tests is the bane of many of my peers.
There are students who score well in tests who have almost no communication ability outside of a classroom setting.
There are also students who are excellent speakers, but as the tests were designed and marked by non-native speakers, these student's excellent English is marked as incorrect because it doesn't match the accepted patterns for that particular test.
Unless the focus is switched to practical skills instead of rote memorization and "correct" word for word translation between languages that are too different to translate word for word, Japan will continue to have the some of the poorest English in Asia, despite making the students work harder than any other countries.

[btsarmyforever]

He is a dream teacher❤.. I don't even want to remember about my highschool teachers. They were monsters...No laughing, no holidays and no library periods 😔

[AshK]

When you said it was no longer Newton's law, it was your students' law because they discovered it made me almost tear up. Science is about discovering the world and learning how it works and how we fit into it, not about memorizing what people before us had learned. Science is meaningful because we get to dive into our human interests, not because someone decided how the world worked a hundred years ago and now we all have to go along with that. Thank you for reminding people that there are other ways.

[chop]

I go school in South Africa (I'm not poor or in a poor school, people always think that when I say I'm from South Africa). We don't have Standardized Tests here because in the beginning of a test we get 4 Multichoice questions and the rest is practical. We also learn by doing experiments and that helps a lot. But the tests is soo hard.

[ErutaniaRose]

The problem with most schools is that they think forcing people to do a different thing will make them like it. You can't force learning, and you can't force interest. Let a kid CHOOSE it, and let them learn for real.

I love knowing how things work, making inventions, asking questions, but I sucked at science in school. I got in trouble for asking questions, the whole of the class was paperwork and memorization, and I got yelled at for writing specifics or questions in the margins of multiple-choice tests.

[charlenebecerra]

The science classes of yesterday are gone, at least in our district. We are doing engaging, inquiry based lessons every day.