National Academies Press: OpenBook
« Previous: Appendix C: Biographical Sketches of Presenters and Facilitators
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Summary of Selected National Academies Reports." National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. 2009. Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8: Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12739.
×
Page 105
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Summary of Selected National Academies Reports." National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. 2009. Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8: Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12739.
×
Page 106
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Summary of Selected National Academies Reports." National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. 2009. Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8: Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12739.
×
Page 107
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Summary of Selected National Academies Reports." National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. 2009. Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8: Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12739.
×
Page 108
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Summary of Selected National Academies Reports." National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. 2009. Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8: Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12739.
×
Page 109
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Summary of Selected National Academies Reports." National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. 2009. Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8: Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12739.
×
Page 110
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Summary of Selected National Academies Reports." National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. 2009. Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8: Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12739.
×
Page 111
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Summary of Selected National Academies Reports." National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. 2009. Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8: Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12739.
×
Page 112
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Summary of Selected National Academies Reports." National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. 2009. Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8: Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12739.
×
Page 113
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Summary of Selected National Academies Reports." National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. 2009. Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8: Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12739.
×
Page 114
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Summary of Selected National Academies Reports." National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. 2009. Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8: Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12739.
×
Page 115
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Summary of Selected National Academies Reports." National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. 2009. Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8: Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12739.
×
Page 116
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Summary of Selected National Academies Reports." National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. 2009. Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8: Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12739.
×
Page 117
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Summary of Selected National Academies Reports." National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. 2009. Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8: Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12739.
×
Page 118
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Summary of Selected National Academies Reports." National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. 2009. Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8: Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12739.
×
Page 119
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Summary of Selected National Academies Reports." National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. 2009. Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8: Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12739.
×
Page 120
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Summary of Selected National Academies Reports." National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. 2009. Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8: Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12739.
×
Page 121
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Summary of Selected National Academies Reports." National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. 2009. Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8: Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12739.
×
Page 122
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Summary of Selected National Academies Reports." National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. 2009. Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8: Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12739.
×
Page 123
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Summary of Selected National Academies Reports." National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. 2009. Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8: Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12739.
×
Page 124
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Summary of Selected National Academies Reports." National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. 2009. Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8: Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12739.
×
Page 125
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Summary of Selected National Academies Reports." National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. 2009. Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8: Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12739.
×
Page 126
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Summary of Selected National Academies Reports." National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. 2009. Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8: Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12739.
×
Page 127
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Summary of Selected National Academies Reports." National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. 2009. Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8: Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12739.
×
Page 128
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Summary of Selected National Academies Reports." National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. 2009. Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8: Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12739.
×
Page 129
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Summary of Selected National Academies Reports." National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. 2009. Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8: Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12739.
×
Page 130
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Summary of Selected National Academies Reports." National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. 2009. Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8: Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12739.
×
Page 131
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Summary of Selected National Academies Reports." National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. 2009. Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8: Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12739.
×
Page 132
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Summary of Selected National Academies Reports." National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. 2009. Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8: Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12739.
×
Page 133
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Summary of Selected National Academies Reports." National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. 2009. Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8: Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12739.
×
Page 134
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Summary of Selected National Academies Reports." National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. 2009. Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8: Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12739.
×
Page 135
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Summary of Selected National Academies Reports." National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. 2009. Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8: Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12739.
×
Page 136
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Summary of Selected National Academies Reports." National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. 2009. Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8: Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12739.
×
Page 137
Suggested Citation:"Appendix D: Summary of Selected National Academies Reports." National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Engineering. 2009. Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8: Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/12739.
×
Page 138

Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.

Appendix D Summary of Selected National Academies Reports S ome key reports from the National Academies are summarized in this appendix (listed in reverse chronological order). The Executive Summary for each report is available for downloading without cost at the URL listed. Learning Science in Informal Environments: People, Places, and Pursuits (2009) http://books.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=12190. Taking Science to School: Learning and Teaching Science in Grades K-8 (2007) http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11625. Ready, Set, Science! Putting Research to Work in K-8 Science Classrooms (2007) http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11882 Enhancing Professional Development for Teachers: Potential Uses of Information Technology (2007) http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11995 Tech Tally: Approaches to Assessing Technological Literacy (2006) http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11691 Technically Speaking: Why All Americans Need to Know More About Technology (2002) http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=10250 105

106 NURTURING AND SUSTAINING EFFECTIVE PROGRAMS Adding It Up: Helping Children Learn Mathematics (2001) http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=9822 Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards: A Guide for Teaching and Learning (2000) http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=9596 How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School—Expanded Edition (2000) http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=9853 Educating Teachers of Science, Mathematics, and Technology: New Practices for the New Millennium (2000) http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=9832 Learning Science in Informal Environments: People, Places, and Pursuits (2009) General Description Science is shaping people’s lives in fundamental ways. Efforts to enhance scientific capacity typically target schools and focus on such strategies as improving science curriculum and teacher training and strengthening the science pipeline. What is often overlooked or under­ estimated is the potential for science learning in nonschool settings, where people actually spend the majority of their time. This report examines the potential of nonschool settings for ­science learning. The authoring committee assessed the evidence of science learn- ing across settings, learner age groups, and over varied spans of time; they identified the qualities of learning experiences that are special to informal environments and those that are shared (e.g., with schools); and proposed an agenda for research and development The commit- tee examined the places where science learning occurs as well as cross- c ­ utting features of informal learning environments. The “places” include everyday ­ experiences—like hunting, walking in the park, watching a s ­ unrise—designed settings—such as visiting a science center, zoo, a ­ quarium, ­botanical garden, planetarium—and programs—such as after- school science or environmental monitoring through a local organization. Cross-cutting features that shape informal environments include the role of media as a context and tool for learning and the opportunities these environments provide for inclusion of culturally, socially, and linguisti- cally diverse communities.

APPENDIX D 107 The report is focused on the following issues: • Defining Appropriate Outcomes: To understand whether, how, or when learning occurs, good outcome measures are necessary, yet efforts to define outcomes for science learning in informal settings have often been controversial. At times, researchers and practi- tioners have adopted the same tools and measures of achieve- ment used in school settings. Yet traditional academic achievement outcomes are limited. Although they may facilitate coordination between informal environments and schools, they fail to reflect the defining characteristics of informal environments. The challenge of developing clear and reasonable goals for learning science in informal environments is compounded by the real or perceived encroachment of a school agenda on such settings. This has led some to eschew formalized outcomes altogether and to embrace learner-defined outcomes instead. The authoring committee’s view is that it is unproductive to blindly adopt either purely academic goals or purely subjective learning goals. Instead, the committee prefers a third course that combines a variety of specialized science learning goals used in research and practice. • Strands of Science Learning: The committee proposed a “strands of science learning” framework that articulates science-specific capabilities supported by informal environments. It builds on the framework developed for K-8 science learning in Taking Science to School (see below) and in the growing body of evidence that learn- ing also occurs in these environments across the strands. They added two additional strands—Strands 1 and 6—which are of special value in informal learning environments. Learners in informal environments: Strand 1:  Experience excitement, interest, and motivation to learn about phenomena in the natural and physical world. Strand 2:  Come to generate, understand, remember, and use concepts, explanations, arguments, models, and facts related to science. Strand 3:  Manipulate, test, explore, predict, question, observe, and make sense of the natural and physical world. Strand 4:  Reflect on science as a way of knowing; on processes, concepts, and institutions of science; and on their own process of learning about phenomena.

108 NURTURING AND SUSTAINING EFFECTIVE PROGRAMS Strand 5:  Participate in scientific activities and learning practices with others, using scientific language and tools. Strand 6:  Think about themselves as science learners and develop an identity as someone who knows about, uses, and sometimes contributes to science. The strands are distinct from, but overlap with, the science-specific knowledge, skills, attitudes, and dispositions that are ideally devel- oped in schools. • Broadening Participation: There is a clear and strong commitment among researchers and practitioners to broadening participation in science learning. Efforts to improve inclusion of individuals from diverse groups are under way at all levels and include educators and designers, as well as learners themselves. However, it is also clear that laudable efforts for inclusion often fall short. Research has turned up several valuable insights into how to organize and compel broad, inclusive participation in science learning. The report provides an array of conclusions about ways to broaden inclusion. Relevance to Convocation Participants This report is important to convocation participants because it stresses the broad possibilities for people to learn about science both inside and outside school settings. Informal education, both in its own right and when well integrated with formal education, has the potential to reach and engage many more students, and especially younger children, than either setting alone. Recommendations Exhibit and Program Designers Exhibit and program designers play an important role in determining what aspects of science is reflected in learning experiences, how learners engage with science and with one another, and the type and quality of educational materials that learners use. Recommendation 1: Exhibit and program designers should create infor- mal environments for science learning according to the following prin- ciples. Informal environments should

APPENDIX D 109 • Be designed with specific learning goals in mind (e.g., the strands of science learning). • Be interactive. • Provide multiple ways for learners to engage with concepts, prac- tices, and phenomena within a particular setting. • Facilitate science learning across multiple settings. • Prompt and support participants to interpret their learning expe- riences in light of relevant prior knowledge, experiences, and interests. • Support and encourage learners to extend their learning over time. Recommendation 2: From their inception, informal environments for science learning should be developed through community–educator part- nerships and whenever possible should be rooted in scientific problems and ideas that are consequential for community members. Recommendation 3: Educational tools and materials should be devel- oped through iterative processes involving learners, educators, ­designers, and experts in science, including the sciences of human learning and development. Front-Line Educators Front-line educators include the professional and volunteer staff of institutions and programs that offer and support science learning experi- ences. In some ways, even parents and other care providers who interact with learners in these settings are front-line educators. Front-line educa- tors may model desirable science learning behaviors, helping ­ learners develop and expand scientific explanations and practice and in turn shaping how learners interact with science, with one another, and with educational materials. They may also serve as the interface between infor- mal institutions and programs and schools, communities, and groups of professional educators. Given the diversity of community members who do (or could) participate in informal environments, front-line educators should embrace diversity and work thoughtfully with diverse groups. Recommendation 4: Front-line staff should actively integrate questions, everyday language, ideas, concerns, world views, and histories, both their own and those of diverse learners. To do so they will need support oppor- tunities to develop cultural competence, and to learn with and about the groups they want to serve.

110 NURTURING AND SUSTAINING EFFECTIVE PROGRAMS Researchers and Evaluators Improving the quality of evidence on learning science in informal environments is a paramount challenge. Research and evaluation efforts rely on partnerships among curators, designers, administrators, evalua- tors, researchers, educators, and other stakeholders whose varied inter- ests, expertise, and resources support and sustain inquiry. Accordingly our recommendations address investigators and the broader community that collaborates with investigators and consumes research and evalua- tion results. Recommendation 5: Researchers, evaluators, and other leaders in informal education should broaden opportunities for publication of peer-reviewed research and evaluation and provide incentives for investigators in non- academic positions to publish their work in these outlets. Recommendation 6: Researchers and evaluators should integrate bodies of research on learning science in informal environments by developing theory that spans venues and links cognitive, affective, and sociocultural accounts of learning. Recommendation 7: Researchers and evaluators should use assessment methods that do not violate participants’ expectations about learning in informal settings. Methods should address the science strands, provide valid evidence across topics and venues, and be designed in ways that allow educators and learners alike to reflect on the learning taking place in these environments. ——— Taking Science to School: Learning and Teaching Science in Grades K-8 (2007) General Description What is science for a child? How do children learn about science and how to do science? Drawing on a vast array of evidence from neuro­science to classroom observation, Taking Science to School provides a comprehen- sive picture of what we know about teaching and learning science from kindergarten through eighth grade. This book provides a basic foundation for guiding science teaching and supporting students in their learning developed around three fundamental questions: 1. How is science learned, and are there critical stages in children’s development of scientific concepts?

APPENDIX D 111 2. How should science be taught in K-8 classrooms? 3. What research is needed to increase understanding about how students learn science? This book also offers recommendations on professional development. How science is taught ultimately depends on teachers. Extensive rethink- ing of how teachers are prepared before they begin teaching and as they continue teaching—and as science changes—is critical to improving K-8 science education. This book offers a new framework for what it means to be proficient in science. This framework rests on a view of science as both a body of knowledge and an evidence-based, model-building enterprise that con- tinually extends, refines, and revises knowledge. This framework moves beyond a focus on the dichotomy between either content knowledge or process skills because content and process are inextricably linked in sci- ence. In this framework, students who are proficient in science: 1. know, use, and interpret scientific explanations of the natural world; 2. generate and evaluate scientific evidence and explanations; 3. understand the nature and development of scientific knowledge; and 4. participate productively in scientific practices and discourse. Relevance to Convocation Participants This book is directly relevant to researchers and practitioners alike. (A separate, more practitioner-oriented, volume Ready, Set, Science! has been developed based on its content and is described separately in this appendix.) Taking Science to School is important because it makes clear that effective science education requires a complex interplay among content knowledge, investigation, reflection, and discourse skills. Development of these skills is influenced by maturation, experience, prior instruction, and opportunities to learn as well as gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and cultural experiences. Research makes clear that many children arrive at school already able to understand concepts and think at a level that many educators had previously thought to be impossible. Younger students are capable of engaging with concepts and interacting with each other in ways that allow them to develop all four strands of scientific capability. The book calls on the education community to rethink what constitutes effective science education for all children based on the grow- ing body of knowledge in human learning generally and early childhood learning and education more specifically.

112 NURTURING AND SUSTAINING EFFECTIVE PROGRAMS Recommendations Recommendation 1: Developers of standards, curriculum, and assess- ment should revise their frameworks to reflect new models of children’s thinking and take better advantage of children’s capabilities. Recommendation 2: The next generation of standards and curricula at both the national and state levels should be structured to identify a few core ideas in a discipline and elaborate how those ideas can be cumula- tively developed over grades K-8. Recommendation 3: Developers of curricula and standards should pres- ent science as a process of building theories and models using evidence, checking them for internal consistency and coherence, and testing them empirically. Discussions of scientific methodology should be introduced in the context of pursuing specific questions and issues rather than as templates or invariant recipes. Recommendation 4: Science instruction should provide opportunities for students to engage in all four strands of science proficiency. If these four strands are realized, children will be able to: 1. know, use, and interpret scientific explanations of the natural world; 2. generate and evaluate scientific evidence and explanations; 3. understand the nature and development of scientific knowledge; and 4. participate productively in scientific practices and discourse. Recommendation 5: State and local leaders in science education should provide teachers with models of classroom instruction that provide opportunities for interaction in the classroom, where students carry out investigations and talk and write about their observations of phenomena, their emerging understanding of scientific ideas, and ways to test them. Recommendation 6: State and local school systems should ensure that all K-8 teachers experience sustained science-specific professional devel- opment in preparation and while in service. Professional development should be rooted in the science that teachers teach and should include opportunities to learn about science, about current research on how chil- dren learn science, and about how to teach science. Recommendation 7: University-based science courses for teacher can- didates and teachers’ ongoing opportunities to learn science in service

APPENDIX D 113 should mirror the opportunities they will need to provide for their stu- dents, that is, incorporating practices in the four strands that constitute science proficiency and giving sustained attention to the core ideas in the discipline. The topics of study should be aligned with central topics in the K-8 curriculum. Recommendation 8: Federal agencies that support professional develop- ment should require that the programs they fund incorporate models of instruction that combine the four strands of science proficiency, focus on core ideas in science, and enhance teachers’ science content knowledge, knowledge of how students learn science, and knowledge of how to teach science. ——— Ready, Set, Science! Putting Research to Work in K-8 Science Classrooms (2007) General Description What types of instructional experiences help K-8 students learn sci- ence with understanding? What do science educators teachers, teacher leaders, science specialists, professional development staff, curriculum designers, school administrators need to know to create and support such experiences? Directed toward education practitioners and filled with classroom case studies that bring to life research findings and help ­ readers to replicate success, Ready, Set, Science! provides an overview of the groundbreaking and comprehensive synthesis of research into teaching and learning sci- ence in kindergarten through eighth grade that is detailed in Taking Science to School: Learning and Teaching Science in Grades K-8. This practitioner- o ­ riented volume summarizes a rich body of findings from the learning sci- ences and presents detailed cases of science educators at work to make the implications of research clear, accessible, and stimulating for a broad range of science educators. It richly illustrates the four strands of learning that are featured in Taking Science to School, i.e., that children will be able to: 1. know, use, and interpret scientific explanations of the natural world; 2. generate and evaluate scientific evidence and explanations; 3. understand the nature and development of scientific knowledge; and 4. participate productively in scientific practices and discourse.

114 NURTURING AND SUSTAINING EFFECTIVE PROGRAMS The examples presented are based on real classroom experiences that illustrate the complexities with which teachers grapple every day. They show how expert teachers work to select and design rigorous and engaging instructional tasks, manage classrooms, orchestrate productive discussions with culturally and linguistically diverse groups of students, and help students make their thinking visible using a variety of repre- sentational tools. Relevance to Convocation Participants There are many reasons that science must be taught and learned in ways that encourage younger children to become interested in this subject area: 1. Science is an enterprise that can be harnessed to improve quality of life on a global scale. 2. Science may provide a foundation for the development of lan- guage, logic, and problem-solving skills in the classroom. 3. A democracy demands that its citizens make personal, community- based, and national decisions that involve scientific information. 4. For some students, science will become a lifelong vocation or avocation. New research points toward a kind of science education that differs substantially from what occurs in most science classrooms today. This new vision of science education embraces different ways of thinking about science, different ways of thinking about students, and different ways of thinking about science education. Given that a goal of this convocation is to help participants think much more deeply about the role of science education in furthering the development of all of California’s students in grades K-8, and the inter- connections between science and other subject domains, this book offers those who are tasked with implementing this vision with the background and resources they will need to do so effectively. Report Table of Contents Because this is a practitioner volume that is a derivative of Taking Science to School, it does not include specific conclusions or recommenda- tions. That information can be found in the more technical Taking Science to School. Instead this volume contains the following themes organized as chapters and appendices; all sections of the book are directly relevant to this convocation.

APPENDIX D 115 Chapters 1. A New Vision of Science in Education 2. Four Strands of Science Learning 3. Foundational Knowledge and Conceptual Change 4. Organizing Science Education Around Core Concepts 5. Making Thinking Visible: Talk and Argument 6. Making Thinking Visible: Modeling and Representation 7. Learning from Science Investigations 8. A System That Supports Science Learning Appendixes A Questions for Practitioners B Assessment Items Based on a Learning Progression for Atomic- Molecular Theory C Academically Productive Talk D Biographical Sketches of Oversight Group and Coauthors ——— Enhancing Professional Development for Teachers: Potential Uses of Information Technology (2007) General Description This report is a comprehensive overview of a workshop organized by a committee of teachers and other education experts and hosted by the National Academies Teacher Advisory Council and the California Teacher Advisory Council. The workshop was developed to explore a vision of the potential of online teacher professional development, its challenges, and the research needed to understand and advance this rapidly emerging area. In the workshop presentations and discussions, master classroom teachers joined with researchers, curriculum and information technology developers, professional development experts, state-level policy makers, principals, and foundation representatives. This report is addressed to all of the audiences represented by these participants. Teachers too often have experienced a “one-size-fits-all” professional development model, in which someone else decides what they need to learn. And too often experiences with professional development focus primarily on improvement (i.e., remediation) rather than professional growth and exploration of new ideas, cutting-edge developments in a teacher’s field of expertise, or promising new pedagogies. This conven- tional model seldom meets the particular needs of teachers in specific fields and disciplines, such as mathematics, science, and technology. Recognizing ­ineffective professional development as a critical issue, the

116 NURTURING AND SUSTAINING EFFECTIVE PROGRAMS Teacher Advisory Council convened a workshop in October 2004 and issued a report called Linking Mandatory Professional Development with High-Quality Teaching and Learning (National Research Council, 2006, see http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php?record_id=11518). In an effort to build on the knowledge gained at the 2004 workshop, the Teacher Advisory Council began to explore emerging opportunities in professional development. Council members saw the potential for online learning technologies to provide professional development that could be far more tailored to the needs of science, mathematics, and technology teachers, to all teachers at different stages of their professional careers, and to teachers located in places where access to high-quality face-to-face professional development experiences to their schools is difficult. Relevance to Convocation Participants An accumulating body of evidence is showing that effective teachers are one of the most important contributors to science learning. Profes- sional development designed for teachers of science, especially in the elementary and middle grades, can be integral to improving teachers’ classroom practice and to empowering them as professionals. Given the new, expansive array of electronic tools that are being developed to enhance student learning, the participants at this workshop concluded that additional time, effort, and resources should be devoted to study- ing much more intensively their uses and applications in making ­quality professional development experiences available to teachers that are more tailored to their individual needs and the stages of their careers in teach- ing. The hardware and software industries in California, working in con- cert with education researchers, professional development providers, and classroom teachers, could make significant advances in this realm of education. Report Table of Contents Because this is a report from a workshop, it contains no recommendations. Introduction What Is Online Teacher Professional Development? Models of Online Teacher Professional Development Advantages of Online Professional Development Flexibility and Versatility Community of Professionals Accountability Retention

APPENDIX D 117 Obstacles to Online Teacher Professional Development Lack of Knowledge Lack of Support from Administrators Lack of Access to Technologies Lack of Time, Financial, and Parental Support Lack of Materials Lack of Support from Higher Education Changing Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices Teacher Leadership The Need for Research on Online Teacher Professional Development Next Steps Providing Teachers, Administrators, and Policy Makers with Information Building Support Among Administrators and Policy Makers Providing Teachers with Access to Online Technologies Fostering Development of Good Materials Changing Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices Involving Teachers as Active Participants in Planning and Implementation Appendixes A Workshop Agenda and Participants B Workshop Materials C Programs Highlighted During the Workshop D Biographical Sketches of Committee Members and Workshop Presenters ——— Tech Tally: Approaches to Assessing Technological Literacy (2006) General Description In a broad sense, technology is any modification of the natural world made to fulfill human needs or desires. Although people tend to focus on the most recent technological inventions, technology includes a myriad of devices and systems that profoundly affect everyone in modern society. Technology is pervasive; an informed citizenry needs to know what tech- nology is, how it works, how it is created, how it shapes our society, and how society influences technological development. This understanding depends in large part on an individual level of technological literacy. No one really knows the level of technological literacy among people in this country—or for that matter, in other countries. Although many concerns have been raised that Americans are not as technologically

118 NURTURING AND SUSTAINING EFFECTIVE PROGRAMS l ­ iterate as they should be, these statements are based on general impres- sions with little hard data to back them up. Therefore, the starting point for improving technological literacy must be to determine the current level of technological understanding and capability, areas that require improvement first, and how technological literacy varies among different p ­ opulations—children and adults, for instance. Tech Tally: Approaches to Assessing Technological Literacy uses the meta- phor of design to talk about how an assessment of technological literacy might be constructed, includes a primer on educational assessment issues for nonexperts, and reviews several dozen assessment instruments that directly or indirectly measure some aspect of technological literacy for students, teachers, or out-of-school adults. The book also: • examines opportunities and obstacles to developing scientifically valid and broadly applicable assessment instruments for techno- logical literacy in the three target populations; • includes several sample case studies, one at the state level, of how assessment in this domain might be done; • proposes an assessment matrix that suggests how content areas and cognitive domains of technology might be accounted for in an assessment of technological literacy; and • explores computer-based assessment methods that might be par- ticularly suited to assessment of technological literacy. Relevance to Convocation Participants If technology and technological literacy are to become meaningful components of science education in California and elsewhere, attention must be paid to assessment issues. As Tech Tally makes clear, however, assessment in this domain poses significant challenges, and to date there are no ready-made assessment instruments available. One chapter of the report and a related recommendation suggest the potential value of com- puter-based assessment methods. Given the concentration of academic and industrial activity in California related to computer technology and software, research on computer-based assessment for achievement in sci- ence, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education could be a valuable component of the overall planning. Finally, in response to Tech Tally, the National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB, the over- seers of the National Assessment of Education Progress) has begun a feasibility study of the assessment of technological literacy. The pilot will be fielded in 2012 and, depending on the result, NAGB may add an assessment of technological literacy to its portfolio of national and state tests. This addition could have potentially important implications for sci- ence education in California.

APPENDIX D 119 Recommendations Recommendation 1: The National Assessment Governing Board, which oversees the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), should authorize special studies of the assessment of technological literacy as part of the 2009 NAEP mathematics and science assessments and the 2010 NAEP U.S. history assessment. The studies should explore the content connections between technology, science, mathematics, and U.S. history to determine the feasibility of adding technology-related items to future NAEP assessments in these subjects. Recommendation 2: The U.S. Department of Education and National Science Foundation should send a recommendation to the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement and the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) governing board encouraging them to include technological literacy items in TIMSS assessments as a context for assessments of science and mathematics. The U.S. Department of Education and National Science Foundation should send a recommen- dation to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the governing board for the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) supporting the inclusion of technological literacy items as a cross-curricular competency. Recommendation 3: The National Science Foundation should fund a number of sample-based studies of technological literacy in K-12 stu- dents. The studies should have different assessment designs and should assess different population subsets, based on geography, population den- sity, socioeconomic status, and other factors. Decisions about the content of test items, the distribution of items among the three dimensions of tech- nological literacy, and performance levels should be based on a detailed assessment framework. Recommendation 4: When states determine whether teachers are “highly qualified” under the provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), they should ensure—to the extent possible—that assessments used for this purpose include items that measure technological literacy. This is especially important for science, mathematics, history, and social studies teachers, but it should also be considered for teachers of other subjects. In the review of state plans for compliance with NCLB, the U.S. Department of Education should consider the extent to which states have fulfilled this objective. Recommendation 5: The National Science Foundation and U.S. Depart- ment of Education should fund the development and pilot testing of

120 NURTURING AND SUSTAINING EFFECTIVE PROGRAMS sample-based assessments of technological literacy among preservice and inservice teachers of science, technology, English, social studies, and math- ematics. These assessments should be informed by carefully developed assessment frameworks. The results should be disseminated to schools of education, curriculum developers, state boards of education, and other groups involved in teacher preparation and teacher quality. Recommendation 6: The International Technology Education Association should continue to conduct a poll on technological literacy every several years, adding items that address the three dimensions of technological literacy, in order to build a database that reflects changes over time in adult knowledge of and attitudes toward technology. In addition, the U.S. Department of Education, working with its international partners, should expand the problem-solving component of the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey to include items relevant to the assessment of techno- logical literacy. These items should be designed to gauge participants’ general problem-solving capabilities in the context of familiar, relevant situations. Agencies that could benefit by knowing more about adult understanding of technology, such as the National Science Foundation, U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Defense, and National Institutes of Health, should consider funding projects to develop and con- duct studies of technological literacy. Finally, opportunities for integrating relevant knowledge and attitude measures into existing studies, such as the ­General Social Survey, the National Household Education Survey, and Surveys of Consumers, should be pursued. Recommendation 7: The National Science Foundation or U.S. Department of Education should fund a synthesis study focused on how children learn technological concepts. The study should draw on the findings of multi- disciplinary research in mathematics learning, spatial reasoning, design thinking, and problem solving. The study should provide guidance on pedagogical, assessment, teacher education, and curricular issues of inter- est to educators at all levels, teacher-education providers and licensing bodies, education researchers, and federal and state education agencies. Recommendation 8: The National Science Foundation (NSF) and U.S. Department of Education should support a research-capacity-building initiative related to the assessment of technological literacy. The initia- tive should focus on supporting graduate and postgraduate research related to how students and teachers learn technology and engineering concepts. Funding should be directed to academic centers of excellence in education research—including, but not limited to, NSF-funded centers for learning and teaching—whose missions and capabilities are aligned

APPENDIX D 121 with the goal of this recommendation. To the committee’s knowledge, no rigorous efforts have been made to ascertain how adults acquire and use technological knowledge. School and work experience could affect their performance, but adults who are no longer in the formal education sys- tem are also influenced by a variety of free-choice learning opportunities, including popular culture, the news media, and museums and science centers. Recommendation 9: The National Science Foundation should take the lead in organizing an interagency federal research initiative to investigate technological learning in adults. Because adult learning is continuous, longitudinal studies should be encouraged. Informal learning institutions that engage broad populations, such as museums and science centers, should be considered important venues for research on adult learning, particularly related to technological capability. To ensure that the perspec- tives of adults from a variety of cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds are included, studies should also involve community colleges, nonprofit community outreach programs, and other programs that engage diverse populations. Recommendation 10: The National Institute of Standards and Technology, which has a broad mandate to promote technology development and an extensive track record in organizing research conferences, should convene a major national meeting to explore the potential of innovative, computer- based techniques for assessing technological literacy in students, teachers, and out-of-school adults. The conference should be informed by research related to assessments of science inquiry and scientific reasoning and should consider how innovative assessment techniques compare with traditional methods. Recommendation 11: Assessments of technological literacy in K-12 stu- dents, K-12 teachers, and out-of-school adults should be guided by rigor- ously developed assessment frameworks, as described in this report. • For K-12 students, the National Assessment Governing Board, which has considerable experience in the development of assess- ment frameworks in other subjects, should commission the devel- opment of a framework to guide the development of national and state-level assessments of technological literacy. • For K-12 teachers, the National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Education, which both have programmatic inter- ests in improving teacher quality, should fund research to develop a framework for an assessment of technological literacy in this

122 NURTURING AND SUSTAINING EFFECTIVE PROGRAMS population. The research should focus on (1) determining how the technological literacy needs of teachers differ from those of student populations and (2) strategies for implementing teacher assess- ments in a way that would provide useful information for both teachers and policy makers. The resulting framework would be a prerequisite for assessments of all teachers, including generalists and middle- and high-school subject-matter specialists. • For out-of-school adults, the National Science Foundation and U.S. Department of Education, which both have programmatic activi- ties that address adult literacy, should fund research to develop a framework for the assessment of technological literacy in this population. The research should focus on determining thresholds of technological literacy necessary for adults to make informed, everyday, technology-related decisions. Recommendation 12: The U.S. Department of Education, state educa- tion departments, private educational testing companies, and educa- tion-related accreditation organizations should broaden the definition of “technological literacy” to include not only the use of educational tech- nologies (computers) but also the study of technology, as described in the International Technology Education Association Standards for Technological Literacy and the National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council report Technically Speaking. ——— Technically Speaking: Why All Americans Need to Know More About Technology (2002) General Description The United States is riding a whirlwind of technological change. To be sure, there have been periods, such as the late 1800s, when new inven- tions appeared in society at a comparable rate. But the pace of change today, and its social, economic, and other impacts, are as significant and far-reaching as at any other time in history. And it seems that the faster we embrace new technologies, the less we are able to understand them. What is the long-term effect of this galloping technological revolution? In today’s world, it is nothing less than a matter of responsible citizenship to grasp the nature and implications of technology. Technically Speaking provides a blueprint for bringing us all up to speed on the role of technology in our society, including understanding such distinctions as technology versus science and technological literacy versus technical competence. It explains what it means to be a techno-

APPENDIX D 123 logically literate citizen. The book goes on to explore the social, historical, political, and educational contexts of technological literacy. This overview highlights specific issues of concern: the state of tech- nological studies in K-12 schools, the reach of the Internet into people’s homes and lives, and the crucial role of technology in today’s economy and workforce. Three case studies, related to car airbags, genetically mod- ified foods, and the 2001 California energy crisis, illustrate why ordinary citizens need to understand technology to make responsible decisions. Relevance to Convocation Participants Technically Speaking is relevant to this convocation because it clearly explains and makes the case for the “T” in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education. As the report points out, ­policy makers, educators, and the public alike tend to think of technology quite narrowly, as either the use of computers and other electronics or as edu- cational technology—a tool for classroom learning. This vision of tech- nology is quite limited in scope, as Technically Speaking makes clear. A broader view of technology, as the human-constructed world, is consistent with how engineers and scientists see the world and gives technology equal-partner status within the STEM quartet of subjects. The report also defines and presents a conceptual model for “technological literacy,” a quality that captures a complex mix of knowledge, capability, and ways of thinking and acting. Recommendations Recommendation 1: Federal and state agencies that help set education policy should encourage the integration of technology content into K-12 standards, curricula, instructional materials, and student assessments in non-technology subject areas. Recommendation 2: The states should better align their K-12 standards, curriculum frameworks, and student assessment in the sciences, math- ematics, history, social studies, civics, the arts, and language arts with national educational standards that stress the connections between these subjects and technology. National Science Foundation (NSF)- and Depart- ment of Education (DoEd)-funded instructional materials and informal- education initiatives should also stress these connections. Recommendation 3: NSF, DoEd, state boards of education, and others involved in K-12 science education should introduce, where appropriate, the word “technology” into the titles and contents of science standards, curricula, and instructional materials.

124 NURTURING AND SUSTAINING EFFECTIVE PROGRAMS Recommendation 4: NSF, DoEd, and teacher education accrediting bodies should provide incentives for institutions of higher education to trans- form the preparation of all teachers to better equip them to teach about technology throughout the curriculum. Recommendation 5: The National Science Foundation should support the development of one or more assessment tools for monitoring the state of technological literacy among students and the public in the United States. Recommendation 6: The National Science Foundation and the Depart- ment of Education should fund research on how people learn about technology, and the results should be applied in formal and informal education settings. Recommendation 7: Industry, federal agencies responsible for carry- ing out infrastructure projects, and science and technology museums should provide more opportunities for the nontechnical public to become involved in discussions about technological developments. Recommendation 8: Federal and state government agencies with a role in guiding or supporting the nation’s scientific and technological enterprise, and private foundations concerned about good governance, should sup- port executive education programs intended to increase the technological literacy of government and industry leaders. Recommendation 9: U.S. engineering societies should underwrite the costs of establishing government- and media-fellow programs with the goal of creating a cadre of policy experts and journalists with a back- ground in engineering. Recommendation 10: The National Science Foundation, in collaboration with industry partners, should provide funding for awards for innova- tive, effective approaches to improving the technological literacy of stu- dents or the public at large. Recommendation 11: The White House should add a Presidential Award for Excellence in Technology Teaching to those that it currently offers for mathematics and science teaching. ———

APPENDIX D 125 Adding It Up: Helping Children Learn Mathematics (2001) General Description The first two paragraphs of the executive summary for Adding it Up provide a clear and compelling rationale of new ways of thinking about and learning mathematics for younger children (p. 1): Mathematics is one of humanity’s great achievements. By enhancing the capabilities of the human mind, mathematics has facilitated the devel- opment of science, technology, engineering, business, and government. Mathematics is also an intellectual achievement of great sophistication and beauty that epitomizes the power of deductive reasoning. For people to participate fully in society, they must know basic mathematics. Citi- zens who cannot reason mathematically are cut off from whole realms of human endeavor. Innumeracy deprives them not only of opportunity but also of competence in everyday tasks. The mathematics students need to learn today is not the same mathe­ matics that their parents and grandparents needed to learn. When today’s students become adults, they will face new demands for mathematical proficiency that school mathematics should attempt to anticipate. More- over, mathematics is a realm no longer restricted to a select few. All young Americans must learn to think mathematically, and they must think mathematically to learn. Adding It Up explores how students in pre-K through eighth grade learn mathematics and recommends how teaching, curricula, and teacher edu- cation should change to improve mathematics learning during these criti- cal years. The committee identified five interdependent components of math- ematical proficiency and described how students develop this proficiency, all of which must be woven together and interconnected (see the braid metaphor on p. 126). They include Conceptual understanding—comprehension of mathematical concepts, operations, and relations; Procedural fluency—skill in carrying out procedures flexibly, accurately, efficiently, and appropriately; Strategic competence—ability to formulate, represent, and solve math- ematical problems; Adaptive reasoning—capacity for logical thought, reflection, explanation, and justification; and Productive disposition—habitual inclination to see mathematics as sen- sible, useful, and worthwhile, coupled with a belief in diligence and one’s own efficacy.

126 NURTURING AND SUSTAINING EFFECTIVE PROGRAMS Conceptual Understanding Strategic Productive Competence Disposition Adaptive Procedural Reasoning Fluency Intertwined Strands of Proficiency Relevance to Convocation Participants Just as Taking Science to School emphasizes the connections among dif- ferent “strands” in science education, Adding It Up emphasizes the coher- ence and interconnectedness of mathematical concepts for children and how they might be taught most effectively. Because the concept of number is used so broadly for mathematics education in the early grades, this book also focuses on that conceptBox 4-1 but shows how students can be provided with rich experiences in mathematics that build on this basis concept that goes well beyond the operational aspects of arithmetic that often are the primary components of mathematics education in the elementary and early middle grades. For example, students can understand that it is pos- sible to communicate about numbers through graphical representations and systems of notation. Students can appreciate and understand that numbers and the operations that are typically emphasized in elementary school mathematics are organized as number systems, such as the whole numbers, and there are regularities of each system that can be discerned.

APPENDIX D 127 Numerical computations require algorithms—step-by-step procedures for performing the computations, that can be more or less useful to students depending on how it works and how well it is understood. And finally, the domain of number both supports and is supported by other branches of mathematics, including algebra, measure, space, data, and chance. Adding It Up also was the first of a series of seminal reports from the National Academies that used knowledge and evidence from the growing research base on human learning and cognition (as described in the NRC report How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School—see separate overview) as the basis for its findings, conclusions, and recommendations. Others include Taking Science to School; Ready, Set, Science! (see separate sum- maries of these books); and Learning and Understanding: Improving Advanced Study of Mathematics and Science in U.S. High Schools (2002). The general agreement of the recommendations in this and those subsequent reports strongly suggests that there are fundamental approaches to improving edu- cation that are supported by a growing body of research. While learning in specific disciplines may require somewhat different approaches (and there is now a growing area called discipline-based education research), there are also fundamental principles for improving aspects of education, such as teacher professional development, that appear to transcend disciplines. Recommendations The overriding premise of Adding It Up is that throughout the grades from pre-K through 8 all students can and should be mathematically proficient. Recommendation 1: The integrated and balanced development of all five strands of mathematical proficiency (conceptual understanding, proce- dural fluency, strategic competence, adaptive reasoning, and productive disposition) should guide the teaching and learning of school mathemat- ics. Instruction should not be based on extreme positions that students learn, on one hand, solely by internalizing what a teacher or book says or, on the other hand, solely by inventing mathematics on their own. Recommendation 2: Teachers’ professional development should be high quality, sustained, and systematically designed and deployed to help all students develop mathematical proficiency. Schools should support, as a central part of teachers’ work, engagement in sustained efforts to improve their mathematics instruction. This support requires the provision of time and resources. Recommendation 3: The coordination of curriculum, instructional materi- als, assessment, instruction, professional development, and school organi-

128 NURTURING AND SUSTAINING EFFECTIVE PROGRAMS zation around the development of mathematical proficiency should drive school improvement efforts. Recommendation 4: Efforts to improve students’ mathematics learning should be informed by scientific evidence, and their effectiveness should be evaluated systematically. Such efforts should be coordinated, con- tinual, and cumulative. Recommendation 5: Additional research should be undertaken on the nature, development, and assessment of mathematical proficiency. ——— Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards: A Guide for Teaching and Learning (2000) General Description “Inquiry” refers to the diverse ways in which scientists study the natural world and in which students grasp science knowledge and the methods by which that knowledge is produced. Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards offers a practical guide to teaching inquiry and teaching through inquiry, as recommended by the National Science Education Standards. This resource can assist educators who must help school boards, parents, and teachers understand the nature and process of inquiry in science education and the kinds of resources that are required to sustain and nurture it. This book explains and illustrates how inquiry helps students learn science content, master how to do science, and understand the nature of science. It explores the dimensions of teaching and learning science as inquiry for K-12 students across a range of science topics. Detailed exam- ples help clarify when teachers should use the inquiry-based approach and how much structure, guidance, and coaching they should provide for students. The book dispels myths that may have discouraged some educators from the inquiry-based approach and elucidates the interplay among con- cepts, processes, and science as it is experienced in the classroom. Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards offers a number of classroom vignettes that explore different kinds of inquiries for elementary, ­middle, and high school. A section of Frequently Asked Questions addresses teachers’ common concerns, such as obtaining appropriate supplies for this kind of pedagogy. In addition, the book discusses why assessment is important, looks at existing schemes and formats, and addresses how to involve students

APPENDIX D 129 in assessing their own learning. This book also discusses administrative assistance, communication with parents, appropriate teacher evaluation, and other avenues to promoting and supporting this new teaching and learning paradigm. Relevance to Convocation Participants Research indicates that multiple approaches to teaching must be employed to truly engage students from diverse backgrounds and levels of interest in this subject area. While the evidence suggests that a variety of inquiry-based approaches to teaching and learning can indeed reach and engage students who otherwise claim to dislike or be uninterested in science, major problems remain with their implementation, including: • The education community has not settled on common definitions for what constitutes inquiry-based approaches to teaching and learning. • Many teachers did not experience inquiry-based approaches to sci- ence when they themselves were students and thus may not know how to begin to do so. This problem may increase in the higher grades of K-12 education and especially at the postsecondary level, where few faculty have received professional development in its use and implementation. • To school officials and parents who have not experienced this approach, inquiry-based science may give the impression that little learning is actually occurring. It may be viewed as unstructured and even chaotic to the casual observer. Thus, there are concerns about what students are and are not learning. • Because of the traditional dichotomy that has existed in the minds of many science educators between content and process in science education, an emphasis on inquiry is viewed by some as a diminu- tion of content at a time when high-stakes tests seem to emphasize mastery of content. • It is much more difficult and expensive to assess learning through inquiry-based approaches than more traditional routes of teaching. Thus, this book, written primarily for the practitioner and teacher educator audiences, can provide very helpful insights about ways to implement inquiry-based teaching and learning. Report Table of Contents This book is a derivative of and supplement to the National Research Council’s National Science Education Standards. Thus, there are no specific policy recommendations in this book beyond those in the National Science

130 NURTURING AND SUSTAINING EFFECTIVE PROGRAMS Education Standards. To give convocation participants a better sense of the scope of Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards, the table of contents is reproduced here. 1. Inquiry in Science and in Classrooms 2. Inquiry in the National Science Education Standards 3. Images of Inquiry in K-12 Classrooms 4. Classroom Assessment and Inquiry 5. Preparing Teachers for Inquiry-Based Teaching 6. Making the Case for Inquiry 7. Frequently Asked Questions About Inquiry 8. Supporting Inquiry-Based Teaching and Learning Appendixes A Excerpts from the National Science Education Standards B Selecting Instructional Materials C Resources for Teaching Science Through Inquiry ——— How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School— Expanded Edition (2000) General Description How People Learn offers a detailed review, synthesis, and analysis of exciting research about the brain and human learning that provides answers to a number of compelling questions. When do infants begin to learn? How do experts learn and how is this learning different from that of novices? What happens to how people process information when they move from being a novice to an expert in some subject domain? Does expertise in one subject area allow experts to also better understand other subject areas more quickly? What can teachers and schools do—with cur- ricula, classroom settings, and teaching methods—to help children learn most effectively? New evidence from many branches of science has significantly added to the understanding of what it means to know, from the neural processes that occur during learning to the influence of culture on what people see and absorb. How People Learn examines these findings and their impli- cations for what we teach, how we teach it, and how we assess what our children learn. The book uses exemplary teaching to illustrate how approaches based on what we now know result in in-depth learning. This new knowledge calls into question concepts and practices firmly entrenched in our current education system.

APPENDIX D 131 Topics in this book include • How learning actually changes the physical structure of the brain. • How existing knowledge affects what people notice and how they learn. • What the thought processes of experts tell us about how to teach. • The amazing learning potential of infants. • The relationship of classroom learning and everyday settings of community and workplace. • Learning needs and opportunities for teachers. • A realistic look at the role of technology in education. Originally released in hardcover in the 1999, How People Learn was expanded in 2000 to show how the theories and insights from the original book can translate into actions and practice, thus making a real connection between classroom activities and learning behaviors. Relevance to Convocation Participants The rich set of evidence presented, findings, and conclusions in How People Learn have direct application and important implications for convo- cation participants. This book has served as the basis for many subsequent reports in education that have been authored by expert committees of the National Academies. How People Learn will provide a vitally important guide to the kinds of research evidence in human learning and cognition and can serve as a very useful guide to the leaders of efforts to improve science education in grades K-8 throughout California in ways that are steeped in solid research evidence. Recommendations Unlike other NRC studies that include specific recommendations, this committee of experts instead decided to present implications of the research and evidence on human learning for teachers, school, and the larger education system. They offer conclusions that are dispersed throughout the book and too numerous to list in their entirety here. The major set of implications for education is provided below. The book pro- vides much more detail about each of these statements: Key Findings: 1. Students come to the classroom with preconceptions about how the world works. If their initial understanding is not engaged, they

132 NURTURING AND SUSTAINING EFFECTIVE PROGRAMS may fail to grasp the new concepts and information that are taught, or they may learn them for purposes of a test but revert to their preconceptions outside the classroom. 2. To develop competence in an area of inquiry, students must: (a) have a deep foundation of factual knowledge, (b) understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, and (c) orga- nize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application. 3. A “metacognitive” approach to instruction can help students learn to take control of their own learning by defining learning goals and monitoring their progress in achieving them. Implications for Teaching: 1. Teachers must draw out and work with the preexisting understand- ings that their students bring with them [pre- and misconceptions]. 2. Teachers must teach some subject matter in depth, providing many examples in which the same concept is at work and providing a firm foundation of factual knowledge. 3. The teaching of metacognitive skills should be integrated into the curriculum in a variety of subject areas. Implications for Designing Classroom Environments: 1. Schools and classrooms must be learner centered. 2. To provide a knowledge-centered classroom environment, atten- tion must be given to what is taught (information, subject matter), why it is taught (understanding), and what competence or mastery looks like. 3. Formative assessments—ongoing assessments designed to make students’ thinking visible to both teachers and students—are essen- tial. They permit the teacher to grasp the students’ preconceptions, understand where the students are in the “developmental cor- ridor” from informal to formal thinking, and design instruction accordingly. In the assessment-centered classroom environment, formative assessments help both teachers and students monitor progress. 4. Learning is influenced in fundamental ways by the context in which it takes place. A community-centered approach requires the development of norms for the classroom and school, as well as con- nections to the outside world, that support core learning values. ———

APPENDIX D 133 Educating Teachers of Science, Mathematics, and Technology: New Practices for the New Millennium (2000) General Description Written by a committee that included experts in science, mathemat- ics, and technology education at both the K-12 and postsecondary levels (including teacher practitioners at various grade levels), Educating Teachers of Science, Mathematics, and Technology synthesized what was known at the time about the quality of math and science teaching in the United States, drawing conclusions about why teacher preparation needs to change, and then outlining recommendations for accomplishing those changes. Educating Teachers addresses the issues associated with teacher educa- tion and professional development from a variety of contexts. It begins by helping readers understand the kinds of challenges that teachers often routinely face in their classrooms and in their schools and districts. It compares and contrasts teaching as a profession with other professions in the United States. The book then synthesizes the research literature about the impor- tance of having effective teachers in classrooms and what might constitute more effective teacher education. One of the important insights from this report is that, rather than being seen as distinctive entities that are con- trolled and managed very differently from each other, pre- and inservice education of teachers should instead be viewed as a seamless continuum that begins when a student makes decisions about whether to become a teacher (similar to prelaw or premedical advising) through a professional career that progresses from induction to experienced teacher to master teacher. It suggests instead that increased emphasis be placed on career- long teacher education. Also examined are important issues in teacher professionalism: what teachers should be taught about their subjects, the usefulness of in­service education to novice and experienced teachers, the challenge of program funding, and the merits of various kinds of credentialing. Professional development schools are reviewed and vignettes are presented that describe exemplary teacher development practices. As a framework for addressing the task of revamping teacher educa- tion, the book (and especially Chapter 6) offers a vision for fundamentally different relationships than currently exist among most school districts, two- and four-year colleges, and universities. It also offers recommenda- tions about how teachers can experience professional growth throughout their careers that may help them stay in the classroom rather than feeling compelled to move to other areas of education (e.g., school administra- tion) in order to advance in their careers.

134 NURTURING AND SUSTAINING EFFECTIVE PROGRAMS Relevance to the California STEM Innovation Network The ultimate success of the California STEM Education Network is likely to be determined to a large extent by the time, resources, and knowl- edge base that are devoted to preparing California’s current workforce of teachers of science and mathematics to approach their craft differently. It also will be determined in part by the ability of the network to (1) con- vince postsecondary faculty (both in the STEM disciplines and in schools of education) and the leaders of colleges and universities that teacher edu- cation is an inherent and primary responsibility of those institutions and (2) to work in partnership with higher education to foster more effective education of teachers at all levels of the professional continuum. Layered upon the well-known issues surrounding teacher education in science, mathematics, and technology are the issues of 1. preparing both future and currently practicing teachers to focus on new approaches and techniques to promote more inquiry by students in classrooms and laboratories (see also the overviews of Ready, Set, Science!; Adding It Up; and Inquiry and the National Sci- ence Education Standards), especially when too few teachers have personally experienced these approaches to STEM education when they were students, and 2. developing new approaches to the continuum of teacher education that helps future and currently practicing teachers more deeply understand the interconnections among the STEM disciplines and how those interconnections can be used to approach teaching and learning of these disciplines in fundamentally different ways. This challenge is likely to be especially difficult because most teachers have not had courses or professional development experiences that help to interconnect science and mathematics, let alone the additional connections of technology and engineering. Educating Teachers of Science, Mathematics, and Technology can provide the leadership of the California STEM Education Network with new perspec- tives about approaches to teacher education and how new relationships among the various stakeholders might be developed and nurtured. Recommendations General Recommendations 1. Teacher education in science, mathematics, and technology [should] be viewed as a continuum of programs and professional experi- ences that enables individuals to move seamlessly from college preparation for teaching to careers in teaching these subject areas.

APPENDIX D 135 2. Teacher education [should] be viewed as a career-long process that allows teachers of science, mathematics, and technology to acquire and regularly update the content knowledge and pedagogical tools needed to teach in ways that enhance student learning and achieve- ment in these subjects. 3. Teacher education [should] be structured in ways that allow teach- ers to grow individually in their profession and to contribute to the further enhancement of both teaching and their disciplines. Specific Recommendations For Governments: Local, state, and federal governments should recognize and acknowl- edge the need to improve teacher education in science and mathematics, as well as assist the public in understanding and supporting improve- ment. Governments should understand that restructuring teacher educa- tion will require large infusions of financial support and make a strong commitment to provide the direct and indirect funding required to sup- port local and regional partnerships for improving teacher education in these disciplines. They also should encourage the recruitment and retention of teachers of science and mathematics—particularly those who are “in-field”—through financial incentives, such as salaries that are com- mensurate and competitive with those in other professions in science, mathematics, and technology; low-interest student loans; loan forgiveness for recently certified teachers in these disciplines who commit to teaching; stipends for teaching internships; and grants to teachers, school districts, or teacher education partnerships to offset the costs of continual profes- sional development. For Collaboration Between Institutions of Higher Education and the K-12 Community: Two- and four-year institutions of higher education and school dis- tricts that are involved with partnerships for teacher education should— working together—establish a comprehensive, integrated system of recruiting and advising people who are interested in teaching science, mathematics, and technology. For the Higher Education Community: 1. Science, mathematics, and engineering departments at two- and four year colleges and universities should assume greater respon- sibility for offering college-level courses that provide teachers with strong exposure to appropriate content and that model the kinds of pedagogical approaches appropriate for teaching that content.

136 NURTURING AND SUSTAINING EFFECTIVE PROGRAMS 2. Two- and four-year colleges and universities should reexamine and redesign introductory college-level courses in science and math- ematics to better accommodate the needs of practicing and future teachers. 3. Universities whose primary mission includes education research should set as a priority the development and execution of peer- reviewed research studies that focus on ways to improve teacher education, the art of teaching, and learning for people of all ages. New research that focuses broadly on synthesizing data across studies and linking it to school practice in a wide variety of school settings would be especially helpful to the improvement of teacher education and professional development for both prospective and experienced teachers. The results of this research should be col- lated and disseminated through a national electronic database or library. 4. Two- and four-year colleges and universities should maintain con- tact with and provide guidance to teachers who complete their preparation and development programs. 5. Following a period of collaborative planning and preparation, two- and four-year colleges and universities in a partnership for teacher education should assume primary responsibility for providing pro- fessional development opportunities to experienced teachers of sci- ence, mathematics, and technology. Such programs would involve faculty from science, mathematics, and engineering disciplines and from schools of education. For the K-12 Education Community: 1. Following a period of collaborative planning and preparation, school districts in a partnership for teacher education should assume primary responsibility for providing high-quality practi- cum experiences and internships for prospective teachers. 2. School districts in a partnership for teacher education should assume primary responsibility for developing and overseeing field experiences, student teaching, and internship programs for new teachers of science, mathematics, and technology. 3. School districts should collaborate with two- and four-year colleges and universities to provide professional development opportunities to experienced teachers of science, mathematics, and technology. Such programs would involve faculty from science, mathematics, and engineering disciplines and from schools of education. ­Teachers who participate in these programs would, in turn, offer their exper- tise and guidance to others involved with the partnership.

APPENDIX D 137 For Professional and Disciplinary Organizations: 1. Organizations that represent institutions of higher education should assist their members in establishing programs to help new teachers. For example, databases of information about new teach- ers could be developed and shared among member institutions so that colleges and universities could be notified when a newly certified teacher was moving to their area to teach. Those colleges and universities could then plan and offer welcoming and support activities, such as opportunities for continued professional and intellectual growth. 2. Professional disciplinary societies in science, mathematics, and engineering, higher education organizations, government at all levels, and business and industry should become more engaged as partners (as opposed to advisors or overseers) in efforts to improve teacher education. 3. Professional disciplinary societies in science, mathematics, and engineering, and higher education organizations also should work together to align their policies and recommendations for improv- ing teacher education in science, mathematics, and technology.

Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8: Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation Get This Book
×
Buy Paperback | $50.00 Buy Ebook | $40.99
MyNAP members save 10% online.
Login or Register to save!
Download Free PDF

K-8 science education in California (as in many other parts of the country) is in a state of crisis. K-8 students in California spend too little time studying science, many of their teachers are not well prepared in the subject, and the support system for science instruction has deteriorated. A proliferation of overly detailed standards and poorly conceived assessments has trivialized science education. And all these problems are likely to intensify: an ongoing fiscal crisis in the state threatens further cutbacks, teacher and administrator layoffs, and less money for professional development.

A convocation held on April 29-30, 2009, sought to confront the crisis in California science education, particularly at the kindergarten through eighth grade level. The convocation, summarized in this volume, brought together key stakeholders in the science education system to enable and facilitate an exploration of ways to more effectively, efficiently, and collectively support, sustain, and communicate across the state concerning promising research and practices in K-8 science education and how such programs can be nurtured by communities of stakeholders.

  1. ×

    Welcome to OpenBook!

    You're looking at OpenBook, NAP.edu's online reading room since 1999. Based on feedback from you, our users, we've made some improvements that make it easier than ever to read thousands of publications on our website.

    Do you want to take a quick tour of the OpenBook's features?

    No Thanks Take a Tour »
  2. ×

    Show this book's table of contents, where you can jump to any chapter by name.

    « Back Next »
  3. ×

    ...or use these buttons to go back to the previous chapter or skip to the next one.

    « Back Next »
  4. ×

    Jump up to the previous page or down to the next one. Also, you can type in a page number and press Enter to go directly to that page in the book.

    « Back Next »
  5. ×

    To search the entire text of this book, type in your search term here and press Enter.

    « Back Next »
  6. ×

    Share a link to this book page on your preferred social network or via email.

    « Back Next »
  7. ×

    View our suggested citation for this chapter.

    « Back Next »
  8. ×

    Ready to take your reading offline? Click here to buy this book in print or download it as a free PDF, if available.

    « Back Next »
Stay Connected!