Visible Science
Students reveal many relevant, incomplete, and disconnected ideas, especially about their personal experiences. They hold multiple views of the same phenomenon. In this chapter we discuss how making thinking visible can help students sort out ideas, entertain new ideas, and form more cohesive, sophisticated views. We describe how teachers model the process of connecting ideas and detecting mistakes to make the thinking of science visible. We discuss ways the curriculum can guide students to make their own thinking visible. And, we describe how technological supports make scientific ideas visible.

Our first principle says: Model the scientific process of considering alternative explanations and diagnosing mistakes.

Our second principle says: Scaffold students to explain their ideas. We can design curriculum materials that encourage students to explain their ideas and reduce emphasis on mundane tasks like copying down procedures. This frees students to think and teachers to help individuals integrate their ideas.

Our third principle asserts: Provide multiple, visual representations from varied media. Technologies that provide animations, modeling environments, and multimedia depictions of phenomena all play a role here along with drawings, print materials, and hands-on materials. To offer learning partners to diverse students we need varied visualizations.

See Computers, Teachers, Peers for more examples of how to make thinking visible.