Fulfilling the Promise Biology Education in the Nation's Schools (1990) / Chapter Skim
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Executive Summary
Executive Summary
Pages 102-114
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From page 102... ...
Leadership, on the other hand, is an essentially moral act, not as in most management an essentially protective act. It is the assertion of a vision, not simply the exercise of a style: the moral courage to assert a vision of the institution in the future and the intellectual energy to persuade the community or the culture of the wisdom and validity of the vision.
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From page 103... ...
We do not propose, however, that the scientists undertake this task in isolation. The organization we envision must be a cooperative venture that fully involves knowledgeable science educators and outstanding teachers at all levels.
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From page 104... ...
We reinforce the students' sterile experience with standardized tests that require the recognition of terms, and we teach from textbooks that are often too long, are abysmally crafted, and are written with little or no understanding of biological concepts and with the implicit aim of avoiding offense to a scientifically illiterate segment of the adult population. Too many of our teachers are recruited from the lowest academic quartile of the college population, and in the liberal-arts colleges and universities prospective teachers are themselves taught in lecture formats that ill prepare them for their future role.
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From page 105... ...
The biological science presented to young children should have natural history as a major focus, be integrated with other subjects wherever possible, and emphasize observation, interpretation, and hands-on involvement, rather than memorization of facts. To prevent the acquisition of detailed factual knowledge for its own sake, achievement tests, when used, should stress conceptual understanding and development of skills.
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From page 106... ...
· A major effort should be initiated to identify current exemplary laboratory activities for the biology curriculum. Laboratory activities should take advantage of recent research about how students learn science and should contribute to the development of fundamental biological concepts.
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From page 107... ...
Such teacher education would enable teachers to be laboratory students and to work through the laboratory activities with people who can interweave laboratory experience with effective teaching, providing a model as to how a particular activity is approached most effectively. · Laboratory activities require more time than normally allotted.
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From page 108... ...
University science departments and schools of education bear major responsibility for problems related to teaching of teachers. Neither has provided course work appropriate to teaching science at the K-12 level, and liberal-arts faculties have not encouraged their best students to consider teaching as a career.
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From page 109... ...
We propose that mentor teachers be involved in developing appropriate criteria for defining mentor teachers, training new teachers, disseminating new curricular materials, and contributing to local and national curriculum development and other professional activities.
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From page 110... ...
· There is clear need for national leadership in identifying and defining the kinds of inservice programs that will be most successful in fostering inquiry-based teaching-teaching that promotes interest, curiosity, and increasing understanding of scientific concepts. Effective inservice programs must be: Attractive enough to entice many teachers to participate and appropriate to teachers' needs, as identified by biology teachers, biology educators, and biologists.
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From page 111... ...
· Major universities should be expected to develop permanent summer inservice institutes for precollege science teachers either developed locally or based on successful model institutes held elsewhere. Outstanding faculty from university science departments should be recruited to teach in these institutes, side by side with outstanding precollege mentor teachers.
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From page 112... ...
Fellowships need not be exclusively for future high-school teachers; they could be used to attract individuals with an interest in science to teach in elementary and middle schools. Similar fellowships could be offered to established teachers; in the most ambitious form, they might be used to underwrite year-long sabbaticals, during which teachers would attend universities and participate in the development of new preservice and inservice programs, as well as improve their own knowledge of science and how students learn it.
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From page 113... ...
While stressing the urgent need for action, we do not underestimate the obstacles. But we see a board within the NRC as offering an especially promising opportunity for building bridges between the science and education communities bridges that will facilitate the kind of broad consensus that is essential if we are to achieve quality education in science.
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From page 114... ...
· Promoting interdisciplinary cooperation in the development of science curricula, the use of laboratories, and the preparation of teachers. · Developing standards and criteria for inservice programs based on educational research, guiding the creation of new programs, evaluating the effectiveness of programs, and creating mechanisms for the wide dissemination of successful models.
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