Junior high school students who are not good at science have common characteristics

Junior high school students who are not good at science have common characteristics

While teaching science in junior high school, I felt that students who struggle with science have several things in common.

Of course, this does not apply to everyone.

However, I feel that there are many common reasons why they struggle.

This time, I will write about the "characteristics of junior high school students who are not good at science" that I have actually observed.

1. Difficulty with calculations using formulas and reading graphs

Science is often thought of as a subject that requires memorization, but in reality, it involves many calculations and reading graphs.

Therefore, I felt that students who are not good at mathematical thinking tend to have a sense of difficulty with science as well.

In particular,

・Not knowing how to use formulas
・Not understanding the meaning of units
・Difficulty reading graphs

There were many students who struggled with these.

However, even for students who were not good at graphs, some were able to solve problems once we checked the vertical and horizontal axes together and organized what the graph represented.

Also, even for students who were not good at calculations, some were able to understand by checking the meaning of formulas and units one by one as we proceeded.

2. Trying to memorize the answers to problems

There were also many students who would immediately look at the answers in their workbooks and try to memorize them without thinking much.

That might be fine at first.

However, if you only memorize the answers without thinking about "why it happens," you will not be able to solve the problems once they change slightly.

Science is a subject where understanding "why things happen" is very important.

3. Only memorizing the surface of the content

Even if you only memorize terms, if you do not understand the meaning or mechanism of the phenomena, it is easy to struggle with applied problems.

For example,

There were also many cases where students remembered the terms "evaporation" and "boiling" but could not explain the difference between them.

I believe that in science, it is important to learn while visualizing "what kind of phenomenon it is," rather than just memorizing terms.

4. Difficulty in thinking by applying learned knowledge

In science, many problems appear that require combining learned knowledge to think through them.

However, if you only memorize knowledge separately, you may get stuck on applied problems.

I also felt that the experience of thinking about "how to use what you have learned" is important.

5. Not working on problems persistently

There were also students who would immediately stop and say "I don't understand" when they saw a slightly difficult problem.

Of course, there are some problems that are truly difficult.

However, there are many problems in science that become solvable if you think about them while organizing them little by little.

I think it is also important not to give up from the start and to think about things little by little.

6. Not being able to organize information in the problem text

In science, organizing the conditions in the problem text is also important.

What is being asked,
which information to use,
which formula to use

Many students would get confused because they tried to solve the problem without being able to organize these points.

I felt that it is also important to organize information while reading the problem text carefully.

Finally,

Even for students who struggle with science, many were able to understand it little by little when they studied while organizing their thinking and information.

I feel that science is not just a "subject of memorization," but a subject where it is important to think about "why things happen."

I would like to continue sharing study methods for junior high school science and tips for overcoming weaknesses.