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In 1985, when the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) designed and launched Project 2061, the nation was just beginning to respond to reports of the failure of schools to educate our children, particularly in science and mathematics. Silence then, several reform initiatives have tried to identify reasons for this failure and to bring about the necessary changes in science and mathematics education.

In the area of science, there have been two comprehensive efforts to specify the goals of science education over the past decade: the National Research Council's (NRC) National Science Education Standards, published in draft form in 1994, and the science literacy goals established by AAAS' Project 2061 and published in Science for All Americans (1989) and Benchmarks for Science Literacy (1993). A third, large-scale enterprise, the Project on Scope, Sequence, and Coordination of Secondary School Science of the National Science Teachers Association, is a loose collection of diverse curriculum developments, mostly for middle school, that emphasizes a parallel course structure rather than any particular set of learning goals.

On many of the most essential reform principles, there is a high level of consensus among these initiatives, perhaps an indicator of the strength and effectiveness of the science education reform movement:

The first priority is basic science and mathematics literacy for all student so that as adults they can participate fully in a world that is increasingly being shaped by science and technology.
Science literacy consists of knowledge of certain important scientific ideas and habits of mind and an awareness of the nature of science, its connections to mathematics and technology, and its relation to society.
Education for science literacy will create a larger and more diverse pool of students who seek further education in scientific fields.
The sheer amount of material that today's curriculum tries to cover must be significantly reduced so that students (who now often only memorize and forget without understanding) will have the time to acquire essential knowledge and skills.
Instruction should exist as much as possible in real-world rather than abstract context, with students frequently and actively exploring nature and the world around them in ways that resemble how scientists themselves go about their work.
The involvement of families and communities is essential for real reform to take place.

Excerpted from A. Glatthorn's Content of the Curriculum, 1995 (pp. 202-208).

 

What is Being Reformed?

Science education has traditionally followed the "teaching by telling" approach. Teachers have relied heavily on textbooks and
lectures to convey large quantities of information, and students have been expected to memorize reams of facts and terminology. Hands-on experiences have typically be limited to "cookbook labs" with outcomes known in advance, not real investigations. In most classrooms, science has been presented as an inert body of knowledge to be assimilated, rather than a process of inquiry and a way to make sense of our world.

The traditional "telling" approach has allowed science teachers to cover a great many topics. But the quality of student learning that it has yielded has proven disappointing. Many students can parrot what they've been taught, but their understanding of science concepts is often seriously flawed. Students' prior misconceptions, for example, stubbornly resist change.

Even on standardized tests, which emphasize recall over reasoning, student achievement has been lackluster. According to the
most recent data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress, "Compared to 1969-70, average science achievement in 1992 was higher at age 9, essentially the same at age 13, and lower at age 17."

Perhaps worse, the "telling" approach bores and alienates many students, who stop taking science courses as soon as possible.
As a cohort of students progresses through high school, the number enrolled in science classes drops by roughly half each year.
The students who typically stick with science courses and succeed in them--students who are highly verbal and have good
memories--do not necessarily make the best scientists!

Strong Themes in the Reform Literature
Learning of concepts should be emphasized over memorization of terms and facts.
Students should have ample opportunities for hands-on learning. Concrete experiences with actual phenomena should precede more abstract lessons. 
Science instruction should be inquiry-based, at least in part. Students should have opportunities to pose their own questions, design and pursue their own investigations, analyze data, and present their findings.
Teachers should explain concepts thoroughly before introducing the terminology associated with them, to ensure real understanding rather than mere repetition.
Teachers should teach fewer concepts, in greater depth, rather than covering a great many topics superficially. ("Less is more.")
Students should have opportunities to apply science knowledge and to make connections between what they learn and their everyday lives.
Teachers should build on students' prior understandings and prod them to rethink their misconceptions.
All students should become science literate, not just the college-bound. Schools should prepare science-literate citizens, not just future scientists.
Educators should begin to integrate the various science disciplines (biology, chemistry, physics), as well as integrating science with other subject areas.

 

Excerpted from O'Neill and Willis' Revitalizing the Disciplines 1998 (pp. 151-153).

Examine the Standards

National Standards as reported by McREL: This is an attempt to synthesize all of the professional organizations, state agencies and national organizations who have proposed standards in content areas for all the nation's children, with benchmarks at early and upper elementary grades and the middle and high school levels. You will need to select "Browse Standards" and then your content areas.

Michigan Department of Education: Select your content area from the list on the middle, right side of page of the front page, under K-12 Curriculum. The Science page will include a good deal of information about Science Education in Michigan. Look for the link to the Michigan Curriculum Framework, and for Science. It is a long document, so don't get impatient with its loading.