Science education
Encyclopedia
Science education is the field concerned with sharing science
content and process
with individuals not traditionally considered part of the scientific community. The target individuals may be children, college students, or adults within the general public. The field of science education comprises science content, some social science, and some teaching pedagogy
. The standards for science education provide expectations for the development of understanding for students through the entire course of their K-12 education. The traditional subjects included in the standards are physical, life, earth, and space sciences.
who left the job at Rugby School
in 1850 after establishing Science to the curriculum. Sharp is said to have established a model for Science to be taught throughout the British Public Schools.
The next step came when the British Academy for the Advancement of Science (BAAS) published a report in 1867. BAAS promoted teaching of “pure science” and training of the "scientific habit of mind." The progressive education movement of the time supported the ideology of mental training through the sciences. BAAS emphasized separately pre-professional training in secondary science education. In this way, future BAAS members could be prepared.
The initial development of science teaching was slowed by the lack of qualified teachers. One key development was the founding of the first London School Board in 1870, which discussed the school curriculum; another was the initiation of courses to supply the country with trained science teachers. In both cases the influence of Thomas Henry Huxley was critical (see especially Thomas Henry Huxley educational influence). John Tyndall
was also influential in the teaching of physical science.
In the US, science education was a scatter of subjects prior to its standardization in the 1890s. The development of a science curriculum in the US emerged gradually after extended debate between two ideologies, citizen science and pre-professional training. As a result of a conference of 30 leading secondary and college educators in Florida, the National Education Association appointed a Committee of Ten in 1892 which had authority to organize future meetings and appoint subject matter committees of the major subjects taught in U.S. secondary schools. The committee was composed of ten educators (all men) and was chaired by Charles Eliot of Harvard University. The Committee of Ten met, and appointed nine conferences committees (Latin, Greek, English, Other Modern Languages, Mathematics, History, Civil Government and Political Economy, and three in science). The three conference committees appointed for science were: physics, astronomy, and chemistry (1); natural history (2); and geography (3). Each committee, appointed by the Committee of Ten, was composed of ten leading specialists from colleges and normal schools, and secondary schools. Each committee met in a different location in the U.S. The three science committees met for three days in the Chicago area. Committee reports were submitted to the Committee of Ten, which met for four days in New York, to create a comprehensive report. In 1894, the NEA published the results of work of these conference committees.
Of particular interest here is the Committee of Ten recommendations for the science curriculum. It recommended four possible courses of study:
Three of the courses of study had the following science recommendations
Grade 9: Physical Geography (3p)
Grade 10: Physics(3p),
Botany or Zoology (3p);
Grade 11: Astronomy 1/2 year & Meteorology, 1/2 year (3p)
Grade 12: Chemistry (3p)
Geology or physiography, 1/2 year
& (3p)
Anatomy, physiology, and hygiene, 1/2 year
For the classical course of studies Greek replaced many of the sciences
Grade 9: Physical geography (3p)
Grade 10: Physics (3p),
Grade 11:
Grade 12: Chemistry (3p)
See Sheppard & Robbins (2007) for a more full discussion of the recommendations of the Committee of Ten.
The curriculum shown above has been largely replaced by the physical/earth science or biology, chemistry, and physics sequence in most high schools.
According to the Committee of Ten, the goal of high school was to prepare all students to do well in life, contributing to their well-being and the good of society. Another goal was to prepare some students to succeed in college.
This committee supported the citizen science approach focused on mental training and withheld performance in science studies from consideration for college entrance. The BAAS encouraged their longer standing model in the UK. The US adopted a curriculum was characterized as follows:
The format of shared mental training and pre-professional training consistently dominated the curriculum from its inception to now. However, the movement to incorporate a humanistic approach, such as is science, technology, society and environment education
is growing and being implemented more broadly in the late 20th century (Aikenhead, 1994). Reports by the American Academy for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), including Project 2061, and by the National Committee on Science Education Standards and Assessment detail goals for science education that link classroom science to practical applications and societal implications.
educators must adhere to rigid standards or frameworks
of what content is to be taught to which age groups. Unfortunately, this often leads teachers to rush to "cover" the material, without truly "teaching" it. In addition, the process of science, including such elements as the scientific method
and critical thinking
, is often overlooked. This emphasis can produce students who pass standardized tests without having developed complex problem solving skills. Although at the college level American science education tends to be less regulated, it is actually more rigorous, with teachers and professors fitting more content into the same time period.
In 1996, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences of the U.S. National Academies produced the National Science Education Standards
, which is available online for free in multiple forms. Its focus on inquiry-based science, based on the theory of constructivism
rather than on direct instruction
of facts and methods, remains controversial. Some research suggests that it is more effective as a model for teaching science. Other approaches include standards-based assessments such as Washington Assessment of Student Learning
, which emphasize devising experiments at early grades at a level traditionally not covered until college (traditionally, students conducted rather than designed experiments), based on mock data with very little testing of factual knowledge. Their eight categories of national science education standards reflect a new emphasis on the themes of constructivist approaches, diversity, and social justice common throughout the education reform
movement. These categories are unifying concepts and processes, science as inquiry, physical science, life science, earth and space science, science and technology, science in personal and social perspectives, and history and nature of science.
Concern about science education and science standards has often been driven by worries that American students lag behind their peers in international rankings. One notable example was the wave of education reforms implemented after the Soviet Union
launched its Sputnik satellite
in 1957. The first and most prominent of these reforms was led by the Physical Science Study Committee at MIT
. In recent years, business leaders such as Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates
have called for more emphasis on science education, saying the United States risks losing its economic edge. To this end, Tapping America's Potential is an organization aimed at getting more students to graduate with science, technology, engineering and mathematics degrees. Public opinion surveys, however, indicate most U.S. parents are complacent about science education and that their level of concern has actually declined in recent years.
is a popular movement in American high schools. In schools with this curriculum 9th grade students take a course with introductory physics education. This is meant to enrich students understanding of physics, and allow for more detail to be taught in subsequent high school biology, and chemistry classes; it also aims to increase the number of students who go on to take 12th grade physics or AP Physics, which are generally elective courses in American high schools.
Physics education in high schools in the United States has suffered the last twenty years because many states now only require 3 sciences, which can be satisfied by earth/physical science, chemistry, and biology. The fact that many students do not take physics in high school makes it more difficult for those students to take scientific courses in college.
At the university/college level, using appropriate technology
-related projects to spark non-physics majors’ interest in learning physics has been shown to be successful. This is a potential opportunity to forge the connection between physics and social benefit.
has created a position statement on Informal Science Education to define and encourage science learning in many contexts and throughout the lifespan. Research in informal science education is funded in the United States by the National Science Foundation. The Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE) provides resources for the informal science education community.
Examples of informal science education include science centers, science museums, and new digital learning environments (e.g. Global Challenge Award
), many of which are members of the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC). The Exploratorium
in San Francisco and The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia are the oldest of this type of museum in the United States. Media include TV programs such as NOVA
, Newton's Apple, "Bill Nye the Science Guy
", The Magic School Bus
, and Dragonfly TV. Examples of community-based programs are 4-H
Youth Development programs, Hands On Science Outreach
, NASA and Afterschool Programs and Girls at the Center.
In 2010, the National Academies released Surrounded by Science: Learning Science in Informal Environments, based on the National Research Council study, Learning Science in Informal Environments: People, Places, and Pursuits. Surrounded by Science is a resource book that shows how current research on learning science across informal science settings can guide the thinking, the work, and the discussions among informal science practitioners. This book makes valuable research accessible to those working in informal science: educators, museum professionals, university faculty, youth leaders, media specialists, publishers, broadcast journalists, and many others.
s science is a compulsory subject in the National Curriculum. All pupils from 5 to 16 years of age must study science. It is generally taught as a single subject science
until sixth form, then splits into subject-specific A levels (physics
, chemistry
and biology
). However, the government has since expressed its desire that those pupils who achieve well at the age of 14 should be offered the opportunity to study the three separate sciences from September 2008. In Scotland the subjects split into chemistry, physics and biology at the age of 13-15 for Standard Grade
s in these subjects.
In September 2006 a new Science programme of study known as 21st Century Science was introduced as a GCSE option in UK schools, designed to "give all 14 to 16 year olds a worthwhile and inspiring experience of science".
John D. Bransford
, et al., summarized massive research into student thinking as having three key findings:
Preconceptions : Prior ideas about how things work are remarkably tenacious and an educator must explicitly address a students' specific misconceptions if the student is to reconfigure his misconception in favour of another explanation. Therefore, it is essential that educators know how to learn about student preconceptions and make this a regular part of their planning.
Knowledge Organization: In order to become truly literate in an area of science, students must, "(a) have a deep foundation of factual knowledge, (b) understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, and (c) organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application."http://www.nap.edu/html/howpeople1/
Metacognition : Students will benefit from thinking about their thinking and their learning. They must be taught ways of evaluating their knowledge and what they don't know, evaluating their methods of thinking, and evaluating their conclusions.
Educational technologies are being refined to meet the specific needs of science teachers. One research study examining how cellphones are being used in post-secondary science teaching settings showed that mobile technologies can increase student engagement and motivation in the science classroom.
According to a bibliography on constructivist
-oriented research on teaching and learning science in 2005, about 64 percent of studies documented are carried out in the domain of physics, 21 percent in the domain of biology, and 15 percent in chemistry. The major reason for this dominance of physics in the research on teaching and learning appears to be that physics learning includes difficulties due to the particular nature of physics.
Research on students conceptions has shown that most pre-instructional (everyday) ideas that students bring to physics instruction are in stark contrast to the physics concepts and principles to be achieved – from kindergarten to the tertiary level. Quite often students' ideas are incompatible with physics views. This also holds true for students’ more general patterns of thinking and reasoning.
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
content and process
Process (science)
In science, a process is every sequence of changes of a real object/body which is observable using the scientific method. Therefore, all sciences analyze and model processes....
with individuals not traditionally considered part of the scientific community. The target individuals may be children, college students, or adults within the general public. The field of science education comprises science content, some social science, and some teaching pedagogy
Pedagogy
Pedagogy is the study of being a teacher or the process of teaching. The term generally refers to strategies of instruction, or a style of instruction....
. The standards for science education provide expectations for the development of understanding for students through the entire course of their K-12 education. The traditional subjects included in the standards are physical, life, earth, and space sciences.
Historical background
The first person credited with being employed as a Science teacher in a British public school was William SharpWilliam Sharp (homeopath)
William Sharp was an English surgeon and physician. Sharp is credited with first advocating the establishment of local museums in Britain and for putting science on the curriculums of British public schools...
who left the job at Rugby School
Rugby School
Rugby School is a co-educational day and boarding school located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, England. It is one of the oldest independent schools in Britain.-History:...
in 1850 after establishing Science to the curriculum. Sharp is said to have established a model for Science to be taught throughout the British Public Schools.
The next step came when the British Academy for the Advancement of Science (BAAS) published a report in 1867. BAAS promoted teaching of “pure science” and training of the "scientific habit of mind." The progressive education movement of the time supported the ideology of mental training through the sciences. BAAS emphasized separately pre-professional training in secondary science education. In this way, future BAAS members could be prepared.
The initial development of science teaching was slowed by the lack of qualified teachers. One key development was the founding of the first London School Board in 1870, which discussed the school curriculum; another was the initiation of courses to supply the country with trained science teachers. In both cases the influence of Thomas Henry Huxley was critical (see especially Thomas Henry Huxley educational influence). John Tyndall
John Tyndall
John Tyndall FRS was a prominent Irish 19th century physicist. His initial scientific fame arose in the 1850s from his study of diamagnetism. Later he studied thermal radiation, and produced a number of discoveries about processes in the atmosphere...
was also influential in the teaching of physical science.
In the US, science education was a scatter of subjects prior to its standardization in the 1890s. The development of a science curriculum in the US emerged gradually after extended debate between two ideologies, citizen science and pre-professional training. As a result of a conference of 30 leading secondary and college educators in Florida, the National Education Association appointed a Committee of Ten in 1892 which had authority to organize future meetings and appoint subject matter committees of the major subjects taught in U.S. secondary schools. The committee was composed of ten educators (all men) and was chaired by Charles Eliot of Harvard University. The Committee of Ten met, and appointed nine conferences committees (Latin, Greek, English, Other Modern Languages, Mathematics, History, Civil Government and Political Economy, and three in science). The three conference committees appointed for science were: physics, astronomy, and chemistry (1); natural history (2); and geography (3). Each committee, appointed by the Committee of Ten, was composed of ten leading specialists from colleges and normal schools, and secondary schools. Each committee met in a different location in the U.S. The three science committees met for three days in the Chicago area. Committee reports were submitted to the Committee of Ten, which met for four days in New York, to create a comprehensive report. In 1894, the NEA published the results of work of these conference committees.
Of particular interest here is the Committee of Ten recommendations for the science curriculum. It recommended four possible courses of study:
Three of the courses of study had the following science recommendations
- High School Science (9-12)
Grade 9: Physical Geography (3p)
Grade 10: Physics(3p),
Botany or Zoology (3p);
Grade 11: Astronomy 1/2 year & Meteorology, 1/2 year (3p)
Grade 12: Chemistry (3p)
Geology or physiography, 1/2 year
& (3p)
Anatomy, physiology, and hygiene, 1/2 year
For the classical course of studies Greek replaced many of the sciences
Grade 9: Physical geography (3p)
Grade 10: Physics (3p),
Grade 11:
Grade 12: Chemistry (3p)
See Sheppard & Robbins (2007) for a more full discussion of the recommendations of the Committee of Ten.
The curriculum shown above has been largely replaced by the physical/earth science or biology, chemistry, and physics sequence in most high schools.
According to the Committee of Ten, the goal of high school was to prepare all students to do well in life, contributing to their well-being and the good of society. Another goal was to prepare some students to succeed in college.
This committee supported the citizen science approach focused on mental training and withheld performance in science studies from consideration for college entrance. The BAAS encouraged their longer standing model in the UK. The US adopted a curriculum was characterized as follows:
- Elementary science should focus on simple natural phenomena (nature study) by means of experiments carried out "in-the-field."
- Secondary science should focus on laboratory work and the committees prepared lists of specific experiments
- Teaching of facts and principles
- College preparation
The format of shared mental training and pre-professional training consistently dominated the curriculum from its inception to now. However, the movement to incorporate a humanistic approach, such as is science, technology, society and environment education
Science, technology, society and environment education
Science, technology, society and environment education, originates from the science technology and society movement in science education. This is an outlook on science education that emphasizes the teaching of scientific and technological developments in their cultural, economic, social and...
is growing and being implemented more broadly in the late 20th century (Aikenhead, 1994). Reports by the American Academy for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), including Project 2061, and by the National Committee on Science Education Standards and Assessment detail goals for science education that link classroom science to practical applications and societal implications.
Pedagogy
Whilst the public image of science education may be one of simply learning facts by rote, science education in recent history also generally concentrates on the teaching of science concepts and addressing misconceptions that learners may hold regarding science concepts or other content. Research shows that students will retain knowledge for a longer period of time if they are involved in more hands-on activities .United States
In many U.S. states, K-12K-12
K–12 is a designation for the sum of primary and secondary education. It is used in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand where P–12 is also commonly used...
educators must adhere to rigid standards or frameworks
Conceptual framework
A conceptual framework is used in research to outline possible courses of action or to present a preferred approach to an idea or thought. For example, the philosopher Isaiah Berlin used the "hedgehogs" versus "foxes" approach; a "hedgehog" might approach the world in terms of a single organizing...
of what content is to be taught to which age groups. Unfortunately, this often leads teachers to rush to "cover" the material, without truly "teaching" it. In addition, the process of science, including such elements as the scientific method
Scientific method
Scientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of...
and critical thinking
Critical thinking
Critical thinking is the process or method of thinking that questions assumptions. It is a way of deciding whether a claim is true, false, or sometimes true and sometimes false, or partly true and partly false. The origins of critical thinking can be traced in Western thought to the Socratic...
, is often overlooked. This emphasis can produce students who pass standardized tests without having developed complex problem solving skills. Although at the college level American science education tends to be less regulated, it is actually more rigorous, with teachers and professors fitting more content into the same time period.
In 1996, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences of the U.S. National Academies produced the National Science Education Standards
National Science Education Standards
The National Science Education Standards are a set of guidelines for the science education in primary and secondary schools in the United States, as established by the National Research Council in 1996. These provide a set of goals for teachers to set for their students and for administrators to...
, which is available online for free in multiple forms. Its focus on inquiry-based science, based on the theory of constructivism
Constructivism (learning theory)
Constructivism is a theory of knowledge that argues that humans generate knowledge and meaning from an interaction between their experiences and their ideas. During infancy, it was an interaction between human experiences and their reflexes or behavior-patterns. Piaget called these systems of...
rather than on direct instruction
Direct instruction
Direct Instruction is an instructional method that is focused on systematic curriculum design and skillful implementation of a prescribed behavioral script....
of facts and methods, remains controversial. Some research suggests that it is more effective as a model for teaching science. Other approaches include standards-based assessments such as Washington Assessment of Student Learning
Washington Assessment of Student Learning
The Washington Assessment of Student Learning was a standardized educational assessment system given as the primary assessment in the state of Washington from spring 1997 to summer 2009. The WASL was also used as a high school graduation examination beginning in the spring of 2006 and ending in 2009...
, which emphasize devising experiments at early grades at a level traditionally not covered until college (traditionally, students conducted rather than designed experiments), based on mock data with very little testing of factual knowledge. Their eight categories of national science education standards reflect a new emphasis on the themes of constructivist approaches, diversity, and social justice common throughout the education reform
Education reform
Education reform is the process of improving public education. Small improvements in education theoretically have large social returns, in health, wealth and well-being. Historically, reforms have taken different forms because the motivations of reformers have differed.A continuing motivation has...
movement. These categories are unifying concepts and processes, science as inquiry, physical science, life science, earth and space science, science and technology, science in personal and social perspectives, and history and nature of science.
Concern about science education and science standards has often been driven by worries that American students lag behind their peers in international rankings. One notable example was the wave of education reforms implemented after the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
launched its Sputnik satellite
Satellite
In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....
in 1957. The first and most prominent of these reforms was led by the Physical Science Study Committee at MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
. In recent years, business leaders such as Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates
Bill Gates
William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. Gates is the former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen...
have called for more emphasis on science education, saying the United States risks losing its economic edge. To this end, Tapping America's Potential is an organization aimed at getting more students to graduate with science, technology, engineering and mathematics degrees. Public opinion surveys, however, indicate most U.S. parents are complacent about science education and that their level of concern has actually declined in recent years.
Physics education
Physics is taught in high schools, colleges, and graduate schools. Physics FirstPhysics First
Physics First is an educational program that teaches a basic physics course in the ninth grade , rather than the biology course which is more standard in public schools. This course relies on the limited math skills that the students have from pre-algebra and algebra I...
is a popular movement in American high schools. In schools with this curriculum 9th grade students take a course with introductory physics education. This is meant to enrich students understanding of physics, and allow for more detail to be taught in subsequent high school biology, and chemistry classes; it also aims to increase the number of students who go on to take 12th grade physics or AP Physics, which are generally elective courses in American high schools.
Physics education in high schools in the United States has suffered the last twenty years because many states now only require 3 sciences, which can be satisfied by earth/physical science, chemistry, and biology. The fact that many students do not take physics in high school makes it more difficult for those students to take scientific courses in college.
At the university/college level, using appropriate technology
Appropriate technology
Appropriate technology is an ideological movement originally articulated as "intermediate technology" by the economist Dr...
-related projects to spark non-physics majors’ interest in learning physics has been shown to be successful. This is a potential opportunity to forge the connection between physics and social benefit.
Informal science education
Informal science education is the science teaching and learning that occurs outside of the formal school curriculum in places such as museums, the media, and community-based programs. The National Science Teachers AssociationNational Science Teachers Association
The National Science Teachers Association , founded in 1944 and headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, is an association of science teachers in the United States and is the largest organization of science teachers worldwide...
has created a position statement on Informal Science Education to define and encourage science learning in many contexts and throughout the lifespan. Research in informal science education is funded in the United States by the National Science Foundation. The Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE) provides resources for the informal science education community.
Examples of informal science education include science centers, science museums, and new digital learning environments (e.g. Global Challenge Award
Global Challenge Award
The is an online science and engineering design program for pre-college school students from all over the world...
), many of which are members of the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC). The Exploratorium
Exploratorium
The Exploratorium is a museum in San Francisco with over 475 participatory exhibits, all of them made onsite, that mix science and art. It also aims to promote museums as informal education centers....
in San Francisco and The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia are the oldest of this type of museum in the United States. Media include TV programs such as NOVA
NOVA (TV series)
Nova is a popular science television series from the U.S. produced by WGBH Boston. It can be seen on the Public Broadcasting Service in the United States, and in more than 100 other countries...
, Newton's Apple, "Bill Nye the Science Guy
Bill Nye the Science Guy
Bill Nye the Science Guy is an educational television program that originally aired from September 10, 1993 to June 20, 1998, hosted by Bill Nye and produced by Buena Vista Television. The show aired on PBS Kids and was also syndicated to local stations, making it the second first-run television...
", The Magic School Bus
The Magic School Bus
The Magic School Bus is a series of children's books about science written by author Joanna Cole. They feature the antics of Ms. Valerie Frizzle, an elementary school teacher, and her class, who board a magical school bus which takes them on field trips to impossible locations such as the solar...
, and Dragonfly TV. Examples of community-based programs are 4-H
4-H
4-H in the United States is a youth organization administered by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture of the United States Department of Agriculture , with the mission of "engaging youth to reach their fullest potential while advancing the field of youth development." The name represents...
Youth Development programs, Hands On Science Outreach
Hands On Science Outreach, Inc.
Hands On Science Outreach, Inc. operated as a national non profit organization registered in Maryland with a volunteer Board of Directors that conducted informal science education programs from 1984-2007. The programs were developed as a science alternative to sustained afterschool activities in...
, NASA and Afterschool Programs and Girls at the Center.
In 2010, the National Academies released Surrounded by Science: Learning Science in Informal Environments, based on the National Research Council study, Learning Science in Informal Environments: People, Places, and Pursuits. Surrounded by Science is a resource book that shows how current research on learning science across informal science settings can guide the thinking, the work, and the discussions among informal science practitioners. This book makes valuable research accessible to those working in informal science: educators, museum professionals, university faculty, youth leaders, media specialists, publishers, broadcast journalists, and many others.
United Kingdom
In England and Wales schoolSchool
A school is an institution designed for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is commonly compulsory. In these systems, students progress through a series of schools...
s science is a compulsory subject in the National Curriculum. All pupils from 5 to 16 years of age must study science. It is generally taught as a single subject science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
until sixth form, then splits into subject-specific A levels (physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
, chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
and biology
Biology
Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...
). However, the government has since expressed its desire that those pupils who achieve well at the age of 14 should be offered the opportunity to study the three separate sciences from September 2008. In Scotland the subjects split into chemistry, physics and biology at the age of 13-15 for Standard Grade
Standard Grade
Standard Grades are Scotland's educational qualifications for students aged around 14 to 16 years, which are due to be fully replaced in 2014 when Scottish Qualifications Authority's Higher Still system becomes the main qualifications as part of the major shake up of Scotland's education system as...
s in these subjects.
In September 2006 a new Science programme of study known as 21st Century Science was introduced as a GCSE option in UK schools, designed to "give all 14 to 16 year olds a worthwhile and inspiring experience of science".
Research in science education
The practice of science education has been increasingly informed by research into science teaching and learning. Research in science education relies on a wide variety of methodologies, borrowed from many branches of science and engineering such as computer science, cognitive science, cognitive psychology and anthropology. Science education research aims to define or characterize what constitutes learning in science and how it is brought about.John D. Bransford
John D. Bransford
Dr. John D. Bransford holds the Shauna C. LarsonUniversity Professor of Education and Psychology at the University of Washington in Seattle. Dr. Bransford is also Co-Principal Investigator and Director of , an ....
, et al., summarized massive research into student thinking as having three key findings:
Preconceptions : Prior ideas about how things work are remarkably tenacious and an educator must explicitly address a students' specific misconceptions if the student is to reconfigure his misconception in favour of another explanation. Therefore, it is essential that educators know how to learn about student preconceptions and make this a regular part of their planning.
Knowledge Organization: In order to become truly literate in an area of science, students must, "(a) have a deep foundation of factual knowledge, (b) understand facts and ideas in the context of a conceptual framework, and (c) organize knowledge in ways that facilitate retrieval and application."http://www.nap.edu/html/howpeople1/
Metacognition : Students will benefit from thinking about their thinking and their learning. They must be taught ways of evaluating their knowledge and what they don't know, evaluating their methods of thinking, and evaluating their conclusions.
Educational technologies are being refined to meet the specific needs of science teachers. One research study examining how cellphones are being used in post-secondary science teaching settings showed that mobile technologies can increase student engagement and motivation in the science classroom.
According to a bibliography on constructivist
Social constructivism
Social constructivism is a sociological theory of knowledge that applies the general philosophical constructionism into social settings, wherein groups construct knowledge for one another, collaboratively creating a small culture of shared artifacts with shared meanings...
-oriented research on teaching and learning science in 2005, about 64 percent of studies documented are carried out in the domain of physics, 21 percent in the domain of biology, and 15 percent in chemistry. The major reason for this dominance of physics in the research on teaching and learning appears to be that physics learning includes difficulties due to the particular nature of physics.
Research on students conceptions has shown that most pre-instructional (everyday) ideas that students bring to physics instruction are in stark contrast to the physics concepts and principles to be achieved – from kindergarten to the tertiary level. Quite often students' ideas are incompatible with physics views. This also holds true for students’ more general patterns of thinking and reasoning.
See also
- Controversial science
- EducationEducationEducation in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
- Educational researchEducational researchEducational research refers to a variety of methods, in which individuals evaluate different aspects of education including but not limited to: “student learning, teaching methods, teacher training, and classroom dynamics”....
- Environmental groups and resources serving K–12 schoolsEnvironmental groups and resources serving K–12 schoolsThis article includes information about environmental groups and resources that serve K–12 schools in the United States and internationally...
- Epistemology (the study of knowledgeKnowledgeKnowledge is a familiarity with someone or something unknown, which can include information, facts, descriptions, or skills acquired through experience or education. It can refer to the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject...
and how we know things) - Graduate schoolGraduate schoolA graduate school is a school that awards advanced academic degrees with the general requirement that students must have earned a previous undergraduate degree...
- Inquiry-based Science
- National Science Education StandardsNational Science Education StandardsThe National Science Education Standards are a set of guidelines for the science education in primary and secondary schools in the United States, as established by the National Research Council in 1996. These provide a set of goals for teachers to set for their students and for administrators to...
- National Science Teachers AssociationNational Science Teachers AssociationThe National Science Teachers Association , founded in 1944 and headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, is an association of science teachers in the United States and is the largest organization of science teachers worldwide...
- PedagogyPedagogyPedagogy is the study of being a teacher or the process of teaching. The term generally refers to strategies of instruction, or a style of instruction....
- Physics education research (PER)Physics educationPhysics education or physics education research refers both to the methods currently used to teach physics and to an area of pedagogical research that seeks to improve those methods. Historically, physics has been taught at the high school and college level primarily by the lecture method...
- School science technicians
- ScienceScienceScience is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
- Science, Technology, Society and Environment EducationScience, technology, society and environment educationScience, technology, society and environment education, originates from the science technology and society movement in science education. This is an outlook on science education that emphasizes the teaching of scientific and technological developments in their cultural, economic, social and...
Further reading
- The Myth of Scientific Literacy, Morris Herbert Shamos, 1995, Rutgers University PressRutgers University PressRutgers University Press is a nonprofit academic publishing house, operating in Piscataway, New Jersey under the auspices of Rutgers University.-History:...
, ISBN 0-8135-2196-3 - Berube, Clair T. (2008) The Unfinished Quest: The Plight of Progressive Science Education in the Age of Standards. Charlotte, NC: Information Age, Inc. ISBN 978-1593119287
- Falk, John H. (2001) Science Education: How We Learn Science Outside of School. New York: Teachers College ISBN 0-8077-4064-0
- Sheppard, K. & Robbins D. M. (2007). High School Biology Today: What the Committee of Ten Actually Said. CBE-Life Sciences Education. 6 (3) 198-202.
External links
- ERIC: Education related articles online
- National Science Education Standards
- The importance of scientific education
- Electronic Journal of Science Education
- National Institute for Science Education
- Benchmarks for Science Literacy
- National Association for Research in Science Teaching
- The Association for Science Teacher Education
- Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science & Technology Education
- Science videos for use in Science Education
- The European Learning Laboratory for the Life Sciences (ELLS)
- Science Class Back in the Day - slideshow by Life magazine
- XVIVO (Scientific Animation)
- Scientix: portal on science and maths education in Europe