Using a Discrepant Event to Teach the Coagulation and Flocculation of ColloidsS. B. Parekh and A.C. Rule (2002) Using a discrepant event to teach the coagulation and flocculation of colloids: In CMS Workshop Lectures, Vol. 11, Teaching Clay Science, A. Rule and S. Guggenheim, eds. The Clay Mineral Society, Aurora, CO, 21-44
S. B. Parekh and A.C. Rule (2002) Using a discrepant event to teach the coagulation and flocculation of colloids: In CMS Workshop Lectures, Vol. 11, Teaching Clay Science, A. Rule and S. Guggenheim, eds. The Clay Mineral Society, Aurora, CO, 21-44
Billings, MT 59102, U.S.A.
State University of New York at Oswego
Oswego, NY 13126, U.S.A.
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Shobha B. Parekh, Audrey C. Rule, 2002. "Using a Discrepant Event to Teach the Coagulation and Flocculation of Colloids
S. B. Parekh and A.C. Rule (2002) Using a discrepant event to teach the coagulation and flocculation of colloids: In CMS Workshop Lectures, Vol. 11, Teaching Clay Science, A. Rule and S. Guggenheim, eds. The Clay Mineral Society, Aurora, CO, 21-44
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Abstract
An examination of the National Science Education Standards (National Research Council, 1996) and the Benchmarks for Science Literacy (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1993) reveals that science teaching is a complex activity. For a teacher to be effective, he or she must have theoretical, as well as practical knowledge and abilities about science. However, the content knowledge of facts and principles underlying expertise in a discipline such as clay science differs from the pedagogical knowledge (knowledge of effective teaching strategies) necessary for successful teaching (Redish, 1996; Shulman, 1986, 1987). Expert teachers must not only know the subject matter, but must be familiar with the typical difficulties students encounter as they study clay science. They must know ways of explaining and making connections between concepts to help students understand, and strategies for helping students through difficult material. Hands-on activities related to real-world situations facilitate a student's learning of a concept by enabling the student to transfer learning from the classroom to other settings. When a concept is taught in multiple contexts, and includes examples that embrace a wide application of learning, students are more likely to abstract general principles and therefore be able to transfer the learning to new situations (Gick and Holyoak, 1983; Bjork and Richardson-Klavhen, 1989). This paper focuses on one of the tools necessary to be an effective teacher, that of generating student curiosity and self-questioning through a discrepant event, a simple demonstration that
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Teaching clay science

The teaching of clay science is often thought of as forming the curriculum of an upper-level college course for juniors, seniors and graduate students. Although clays and clay minerals are complex subjects often requiring extensive background to understand in detail, introducing topics related to clays does not require such specialization. Furthermore, clays are a part of modern everyday life, being found in common household products (from toothpaste, toilets, and cat litter to paper, plastics, and fine china). It does not seem reasonable to wait until a student reaches the upper-college level to introduce the subject, although the introduction of clay science must be approached at levels appropriate to the student's development and background. In fact, one of us (A. Rule) has successfully introduced crystallography concepts of crystal shape and symmetry, and has taught lessons in the industrial uses of clay minerals at the primary-school level. Education scholars have developed procedures for teaching that closely parallel the way humans learn. For the most part, these instructional practices have not been implemented at the college level, although such teaching methods could easily be applied to benefit college-level students. The idea of a Teaching Clay Science Workshop was developed over the last three years to integrate the efforts of education scholars, high-school teachers and college professionals toward improving clay-science instruction. This integration of learning theory with clay-science teaching has produced a unique set of example lessons, which resulted in this volume of Workshop Lectures. Finally, we express our appreciation to P. Schroeder for taking our edited manuscripts and organizing them to conform to the CMS Workshop Lectures Series. Also, we thank M. Krekeler for working through all of the laboratories presented here and for providing his comments to the authors.