Transcript Education discussion

Perspectives on K-12 Science Education
Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program Conference
Washington, DC
July 9, 2010
Bruce Alberts,
University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)
Editor-in-Chief, Science magazine
US Science Envoy (Indonesia & Pakistan)
My life from 1993-2005
A 12-year education in Washington
My most important take-home lesson
from 12 years in Washington
Science is much more important
than most scientists think!
More specifically:
It is critically important that science, and
scientists, achieve a much higher degree of
influence throughout both their nations and
the world.
• This is important for the success of each
nation.
• It is also important for building a better world.
In particular, we need much more of the
creativity, rationality, openness, and
tolerance that are inherent to science --what Indian Prime Minister Nehru called
a “scientific temper” -- for both the US and
all other nations
Three ambitious goals
Through science education
for all Americans:
1. Enable all children to acquire the problem-solving,
thinking, and communication skills of scientists – so that
they can be productive and competitive in the new world
economy.
2. Generate a “scientific temper” for our nation, with
scientifically trained people in many professions,
ensuring the rationality and the tolerance essential for a
democratic society.
3. Help the US generate new scientific knowledge and
technology by casting the widest possible net for talent.
To accomplish these goals, we
must redefine what we mean by
the term “science education”
My History
Requested by the
50 state governors,
this is what I spent
half my time on at
the US National
Academies, from
1993-1995
18,000 reviewers
250 pages
An emphasis on
active inquiry
What science should look like in school
What 5 year olds can do
1) Put on clean white socks and walk around
school yard.
2) In class, collect all black specks stuck to socks
and try to classify them: which are seeds and
which are dirt?
3) Start by examining each speck with a 3 dollar,
plastic “microscope”.
4) End by planting both those specks believed to
be dirt and those believed to be seeds, thereby
testing their own idea that the regularly shaped
ones are seeds.
The Vision
Imagine an education that includes solving hundreds of
such challenges over the course of the 13 years of
schooling that lead to high school graduation – challenges
that increase in difficulty as the children age. Outstanding
curricula of this type already exist, having been developed and
refined in the United States for 50 years.
I believe that children who are prepared for life in this way
would be great problem solvers in the workplace, with the
abilities and the can-do attitude that are needed to be
competitive in the global economy.
Even more important, they will also be more
rational human beings – people who are able to
make wise judgments for their family, their
community, and their nation.
The disaster that followed the 1996 Standards
• With little expertise and much politics, the states went on to
produce their own standards for science education, often paying
little attention to the National Science Education Standards
• Tremendous time is now wasted by curriculum developers
attempting to make their textbooks and other materials match
the needs of multiple states.
• The diversity of standards prevents any national effort to make
high quality assessments.
• The nail in the coffin has been No Child Left Behind rules and
high stakes testing.
How can the
US recover?
A scholarly
2007 update of
the National
Science
Education
Standards,
emphasizing
what has been
learned from
research in the
subsequent
decade
Popular version, interpreting
Taking Science to School
for States, School Districts
and Teachers
These important reports claim that students who
are proficient in science should be expected 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.
4. Participate productively in scientific practices and discourse.
Each of the above four strands of science education are judged to
be of equal importance!
Note that strands 2 and 4 can ONLY be taught
through active inquiry
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.
4. Participate productively in scientific practices and
discourse.
Some advantages of meeting this challenge
1. Retaining the curiosity and energy for learning that young
children bring to kindergarten, throughout all their years of
schooling.
2. Giving many more children a chance to excel at something
in the classroom (critical for their motivation).
3. Creating a nation of “can-do” problem solvers.
4. Insulating the next generation from scams, TV rant, and talk
radio!
Some good news
• This definition of science education
precisely fits the needs for workforce skills
that have been widely expressed by US
business and industry
The skills needed to be successful
competitors in the modern world economy
• A high capacity for abstract, conceptual thinking.
• The ability to apply that capacity for abstract thought
to complex real-world problems—including problems
that involve the use of scientific and technical
knowledge—that are nonstandard, full of ambiguities,
and have more than one right answer.
• The capacity to function effectively in an environment
in which communication skills are vital – in work
groups.
Ray Marshall and Marc Tucker,
Thinking for a Living, 2002
The bad news
• Most science education is not like the
science education that we have been
talking about!
What do we usually do in science class?
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.
4. Participate productively in scientific practices and
discourse.
Science education as “mentioning”
From a 7th grade life sciences textbook:
“Running through the cell is a network of flat
channels called the endoplasmic reticulum.
This organelle manufacturers, stores and
transports materials.”
Supported by trivial tests
From the Chapter Self-Test:
“Write a sentence that uses the term
endoplasmic reticulum correctly”.
We are losing many potential
scientists because:
Real science is exciting, and completely
different from the tests and textbooks!
An important challenge of the
“No Child Left Behind” Act
• It is much easier to test for science words than for
science understanding and abilities
• Bad tests are forcing a trivialization of science
education and drive most students, including many
potential scientists, away from science
The critical criterion for a good test: One that
motivates good teaching and learning!
The forward-looking framework for
the PISA science exam (OECD)
PISA’s assessment of students’ scientific knowledge and skills is
rooted in the concept of scientific literacy, defined as the
extent to which an individual:
Possesses scientific knowledge and uses that knowledge to identify
questions, acquire new knowledge, explain scientific phenomena and
draw evidence-based conclusions about science-related issues.
Understands the characteristic features of science as a form of human
knowledge and enquiry.
Shows awareness of how science and technology shape our material,
intellectual and cultural environments.
Engages in science-related issues and with the ideas of science, as a
reflective citizen.
The frightening truth
“In the 2006 Program for International Student Assessment
that measured the applied learning and problem-solving skills
of 15-year-olds in 30 industrialized countries, the U.S. ranked
25th out of the 30 in math and 24th in science.
That put our average youth on par with those from Portugal
and the Slovak Republic, rather than with students in
countries that are more relevant competitors for service-sector
and high-value jobs, like Canada, the Netherlands, Korea, and
Australia.”
Tom Friedman, NY Times
Finally, new
widespread
recognition
that the
current,
chaotic
system
does not
work!
DRAFT “Framework” to be released
next week at www.nas.edu/BOSE
Other opportunities for change:
• Major investments promised in high quality
math and science assessments.
• Major new AP course redesigns in Biology,
Chemistry, and Physics released year in
response to 2002 report from the National
Academies. Emphasis on inquiry.
•The idealism of many young Americans,
including many scientists.
We need to make a science out
of science education!
Education is as important as health, but
we treat the two completely differently
For example, without demanding evidence for effectiveness, or
commissioning an objective study of the consequences, the
California State School Board recently voted to mandate that
every eighth grader in the state take Algebra 1.
There have been many past decisions of this kind, including
suppressing the use of phonics for teaching reading in 1987,
lasting nearly a decade before the mistake was recognized.
The equivalent of “medical malpractice” is flagrant in
education, with tragic consequences for both teachers and
students. Why is it tolerated across the United States?
Instead of flying blind, we need to use
knowledge of what increases student
learning -- based on scientifically obtained
evidence -- to create a continuously
improving education system at all levels.
This will require a much more focused and
effective system of education research!
• Much of the new research must be focused on
the classroom, incorporating our best teachers
and building on what they already know.
• Otherwise our nation’s schools will continue to
be driven by one simple “magic bullet” solution
after another, as each new leader seeks a quick
fix.
The Academies
first attempt to
harvest what
we know.
Published 2000
The National
Academies’ recipe for
effective education
research:
SERP
published 2003
The major question posed to the
SERP committee:
Why has research supported
innovation and continuous
improvement in medicine,
agriculture, and transportation, but
not in education --and what can we
do about it?
The SERP answer
Education is missing the equivalent of the teaching
hospital in medicine, that is:
Field Sites: places where researchers,
teachers and designers work in practice
settings to:
• Observe, explain, document, replicate and
evaluate practice as a source of new
knowledge.
• Define problems and test solutions in
context.
• Train new researchers and practitioners for
“use-inspired” research and development.
Design team meeting San Francisco
www.serpinstitute.org
There is also the critical issue of
teacher empowerment
• Some 30 years ago, US industry learned from
the Japanese that building a better automobile
requires listening to workers on the assembly
line – ground truth is essential for wise
decision making!
• Education is one of the few parts of our
society that has failed to exploit this fact.
What keeps me up at night
• Our best science teachers need to have much more
influence on the education system; current trends
will drive these talented people into more lucrative
and respected careers.
• This influence is needed at every level: from school
districts, to States, to the Federal Government.
• How can we institutionalize such an influence, as
needed to create a continuously improving
education system?
A national Teacher Advisory Council
Every State also needs one!
Teacher Advisory Council
Recommendation for State Associate
Councils
• State Councils are needed to provide a new
voice for teachers at the state level, where
most education policies are made.
• State Council members will receive support
from the National Teacher Advisory Council via
electronic networking and opportunities for
input and participation in studies.
A California Teacher Advisory Council
(CTAC) has been established
• Sponsored by the California Council on
Science and Technology (CCST), a state
version of the National Academies
• Making connections to legislators and
education leaders in Sacramento
• Connections to the CEOs of major technical
companies in California through the CCST
To remove a major barrier to
progress, science education at
the college level must change
State and
National Exams
Textbook
Publishers
Students
State Boards,
School Districts
Teachers
Parents
Politicians
Colleges of
Education
Faculties
of Arts &
Sciences
School
Administrators
Unions
Summer workshop for teams of Biology 1
teachers at University of Wisconsin (Jo
Handelsman and Bill Wood, co-organizers))
A message for professors
In my opinion, the primary aim of any undergraduate
introductory science course—whether in biology,
chemistry, physics, or earth sciences—should be to
enable students to appreciate and participate in
science as a special way of knowing about the
world.
Our goal as teachers and educators should be to
expose our students to the discovery process and to
excite them about challenges at the frontiers of
knowledge. We should try to make students understand
why it is crucial that any scientific result be confirmed
by other scientists, and why a scientist can never be
sure that he or she has the final answer about anything.
How can Science magazine help to promote
the needed revolution in science education?
It is great to have control of the editorial page!
How Science
magazine can
help
2009 & 2010
special
issues on
education
How Science
magazine can
help
24 monthly
winners of
contest for
best free
science
education
websites
Important to remember
“The society of scientists is simple because it has a
directing purpose: to explore the truth. Nevertheless,
it has to solve the problem of every society, which is
to find a compromise between the individual and the
group. It must encourage the single scientist to be
independent, and the body of scientists to be tolerant.
From these basic conditions, which form the prime
values, there follows step by step a range of values:
dissent, freedom of thought and speech, justice,
honor, human dignity and self respect.
Science has humanized our values. Men have
asked for freedom, justice and respect precisely as
the scientific spirit has spread among them.”
Jacob Bronowski, Science and Human Values, 1956
My final message
• You are each involved in critical work for our
nation’s future, work that is much more
important than some of you may recognize.
• Be ambitious, we urgently need major
institutional changes at both the college and
school system levels!