California State Science Framework
CHEM Study: Chemical Education Material Study
Computer-based science teaching (CBST) (Osio)
Computer Managed Instruction (CMI)
The Council of State Science Supervisors (CSSS)
California Science Teachers Association (CSTA)
California State Science Framework
Published by the California Department of Education in 1990 and adopted by the California State Board on November 9, 1989. The 1990 Science Framework for Public Schools is a revision of the 1984 Science Framework Addendum and the 1978 Science Framework for Public Schools. The Science Framework for California Public Schools establishes guidelines and provides direction to help districts revise their K-12 science instruction strategies. The 1990 Science Framework for California emphasizes a thematic approach to science (California Department of Education, 1990).
The Chemical Bond Approach was a project started in 1957 at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. "The concept that chemical bonds are the electrical-energy links that hold matter together, known as a CHEMICAL BOND, was the central theme." (Lacy, 1966. pg. 42) Science educators wanted to provide junior and senior high school students with an introductory course in chemistry that focused on logical thinking through laboratory work, giving them more freedom by providing less direction during experiments. Two major goals of the program were 1) to present the basic principles of chemistry while achieving an appreciation of the discipline, 2) to develop higher-level thinking skills involving logical and quantitative relationships (DeBoer, 1991.pg. 182-83).
Approximately 10,000 students participated in the testing program over a three year period, but no results or statistics regarding its success were ever published (Lacy, 1966. pg. 42).
CHEM Study: Chemical Education Material Study
This project began with a committee that consisted of university and industry representatives who, in 1960, decided to assemble a team of outstanding high school teachers, university professors, and industrial chemists to prepare materials for a new course in the field of chemistry. The group agreed that the course should integrate laboratory and classroom work, and that students should be encouraged to understand fundamental ideas of the subject rather than to memorize principles and definitions of terms. One of the more important goals of this study course was to give students a better idea of the nature of scientific investigation by emphasizing the "discovery approach", and that the laboratory was to be an essential part of the development of that goal.
From the late 1800's through the early 1920's there was a major push to introduce and then revise science education in secondary schools. The first organized effort was started at the 1892 National Education Association (NEA) meeting. The Committee of Ten was established to evaluate nine major areas of curriculum, three of them science, at the secondary level with the aim of smoothing the transition to a college level curriculum. The science sub-committees were to justify the inclusion of natural sciences in the schools, which they did by citing the disciplinary value and the potential for the development of the intellect. The final report recommended that one-fifth of instruction be given over to the sciences, with an emphasis on laboratory work. In 1895 the NEA established the Committee on College-Entrance Requirements. This committee was to create a more uniform set of requirements for entrance to college or university. The 1899 report recommended a sequence of sixteen core courses, only one of which was required to be a science class, with six of the courses to be electives. The course content was to be the same whether the students were college bound or not. In 1918, the NEA set up the Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education in response to changing attitudes about science education. Development of the intellect was no longer an acceptable reason for science education. Science education was revamped to emphasize its relevance to society and everyday living. There was a call for two tracks in science education, one for those students going on to college and one for those who were going straight to work after graduation.
Computer-based science teaching (CBST)
The use of computers and their technologies in a science classroom based on how computers are used in the real world of science and society. The different uses of computers in the classroom are as a database, tutor, communication link, science laboratory, data collection tool and for scientific writing.
Computer Managed Instruction (CMI)
CMI is an instructional strategy whereby the computer is used to provide learning objectives, learning resources, and assessment of learner performance. Computer-managed instruction (CMI) aids the instructor in instructional management without actually doing the teaching. Central CMI themes discussed in the literature are individualization, behavioral objectives, and educational technology.
This model of learning and appropriate instruction recognizes that each individual brings to a learning situation certain conceptual positions or viewpoints, and that these previously held notions are used to integrate and assimilate new information. If new concepts cannot be made sensible in terms of existing ideas, they will be rejected, modified and/or easily forgotten.
When new ideas build upon old ones the conceptual changes are minor. This is known as weak restructuring. Strong restructuring takes place when a student's existing theoretical positions can no longer be perceived as valid or useful. Posner, Strike, Hewson, and Gertog (1982) proposed that students accept new concepts when these four conditions are met:
Subsequent ideas about conceptual development, such as those voiced by Laudan (1986) have included new conditions for student understanding that stress contextualized learning for a justification of methods and for their relationship to particular aims. Theories supported by aims are broader and represent scientific conceptual thinking more fully than the mere drive for internal consistency.
Gitomer and Duschl (1995) point out that the overall view of science education as conceptual change, (as opposed to concept transfer from teachers and textbooks to students) carries significant implications for science instruction. Students must be allowed to express their pre-existing theoretical viewpoints, while instructors must account for these in order to plan instruction and activities that challenge students' prior notions and introduce them to positions that are more scientifically consistent.
The problem of conceptual change in science according to Thomas Kuhn is that the development of science involves one paradigm or theory being replaced with a radically different theory. In conceptual change, it is not just the replacement of one theory with another. But, it involves shifts in the meaning of the concepts used in the theory.
http://cogsci.uwaterloo.ca/Articles/conc.change.pdf
Constructivism is a learning theory based on research done by Piaget. Constructivism encompasses the following premises: knowledge is constructed from experience, learning is a personal interpretation of the world, learning is an active process of meaning-making based on experience, learning should occur in realistic settings and testing should be integrated with the task, not a separate activity. Its educational applications lie in creating curricula to match children's learning processes.
http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/constructivism/index.html
A three-year unified science sequence (grades 10, 11, and 12) begun in 1968 by Gadsen, Allen and D. Altieri at P. K. Yonge Laboratory School at the University of Florida-Gainesville. The courses emphasize the "inter-relationships that exist in the environment and among disciplines," and its major themes are Orderliness, Change, Equilibrium, Models, Quantification and Technology. The correlated science curriculum is based on six essential characteristics described as follows:
The Council of State Science Supervisors (CSSS)
CSSS is a professional organization composed of science education specialists who serve at the state, territorial, or the protectorate educational agency in the United States and U.S. Territories. CSSS is the only professional science organization whose members have direct accountability to the government agencies given the constitutional authority for education. Within their own jurisdictions. Each of these supervisors plays a key role in directing effort at improving school science and to ensure excellence and equity in science education. CSSS can offer state and national organizations a direct science education link to every school building in their state or territory. These science supervisors can provide information on the types of science programs their schools are using and how well each of the programs are working in their state. Most of the members serve on the state science teacher's organizational boards and are on a first name basis with their leaders. The Council members are proactive change agents in science for their state. Their responsibilities link the Council members by leadership and service to a broad constituency.
Probably the greatest oxymoron in science education, creation science aims to introduce a non-scientific version of the origin of life to be taught alongside evolution in biology curriculum. A 1981 Arkansas law that mandated "balanced treatment" for both creationism and evolution defined creation-science as:
In 1982, McLean v. Arkansas Board of Education, the Arkansas mandate was overturned. In 1981, Louisiana enacted a statute authorizing the teaching of creation science in schools. In 1987, in the Supreme Court case Edwards v. Aguillard, the Louisiana law was overturned which dealt the legislative efforts of creationists a heavy blow. Creation science is inescapably religious and a violation of the First Amendment to the U.S. constitution.
California Science Teachers Association (CSTA)
Founded in the early 1980's, this organization is comprised of teachers, educators, specialists, and administrators. CSTA has two publications: CSTA Journal published three times a year and California Classroom Science published every six weeks. It also sponsors an annual conference in October. Membership is $20 per year and includes copies of the two publications and reduced prices at the annual conference. For membership information call CSTA in Sacramento at (916) 979-7004.
The notion of teaching science through non-Western cultural contexts. Based on the premise that because people of color are under-represented in scientific fields, there is a need to provide role models and a fuller appreciation of non-Western cultural achievements in science. For the most part, culturally relevant science tends to be aimed at students whose cultural heritage is highlighted in order to:
The movement has been characterized by controversy. On the one hand, scholars such as Ortiz de Montellano (n.d.) call for scientifically valid multicultural curriculum, focusing attention on scientific activities in non-Western cultures, with the same intellectual rigor given to other sociological issues in the history of science. From this viewpoint, culturally relevant science could be of interest to all students. On the other hand, some efforts, such as Hunter Havelin Adams' Portland Baseline Essays, seem to be heavily biased, based on questionable sources, and more interested in creating inspirational stories to foster ethnic pride than in promoting an accurate historical understanding of science (Klotz, 1993). As more scholarship has focused on non-Western scientific traditions, there will likely be an improvement in the availability of scientifically valid, culturally relevant science curricula.