ERIC Identifier: ED478718
Publication Date: 2002-11-00
Author: Anderson, Ronald D. - Helms, Jenifer V.
ERIC Clearinghouse for Science Mathematics and Environmental Education
Open Questions in Science Education. ERIC Digest.
The "No Child Left Behind Act" signed into law on January 8, 2002 places
strong emphasis on state accountability for educational results and use of
teaching methods that have been shown to work [see
http://nclb.gov/next/overview/]. For science educators, these expectations
underscore the need to fully implement the National Science Education Standards
(National Research Council (NRC), 1996) by attending to the multifaceted
conditions in schools in a holistic and systemic manner. The challenge for the
research community is to identify the most critical aspects of the needed
research, conduct the research, and provide the educational community with the
research-based information needed to move forward with science education reform.
There are significant gaps in our knowledge of the science education reform
process, and the existing body of research highlights specific areas where
additional understanding is of central importance to successful reform.
WHAT WE KNOW
A review of extant research (Anderson &
Helms, 2001) provides the basis for the following generalizations about efforts
to promote broad reform congruent with the vision of the "National Science
Education Standards" (NRC, 1996):
* The dramatic changes called for in the Standards are very difficult to put
into full practice and where attempted generally fall short of the mark.
* The difficulties of making the desired changes are highlighted by the many
dilemmas teachers face in the process. Some of the dilemmas teachers experience
(Anderson, 1995, 1996) relate to time constraints, tensions between the ideal
and classroom realities, changing roles for students and teachers, overcoming
traditional views of preparing students for the next level of schooling, and
issues related to equity, such as tracking and ability grouping.
* Fundamental reform requires significant changes in teachers' values and
beliefs about science education practices. Though the relationship between
teachers' beliefs about the nature of science and their views of schools and
pedagogy is unclear, teachers' views of students in terms of ability, gender,
and ethnic identity do seem related to their pedagogical decision making
(Bianchini, Cavazos, & Helms, 1999).
* Departments within schools are the most important setting for change, although
most research addresses whole school change.
* Substantial teacher collaboration in the work context--not just in inservice
education--can be a powerful changing influence on teachers' values and beliefs.
A significant barrier to substantive change comes from a lack of attention to
the ways in which teachers come to hold certain beliefs, values, and assumptions
with respect to students' roles, pedagogy, and the science curriculum.
* Parents often resist reforms and they have a strong influence on science
education reform efforts; without local parental support of the reform ideas and
practices, their implementation fallsshort.
* The recommended reforms demand new student roles and different student work.
It is the "bottom line" of science education reform, and it is the area in which
almost all reforms fall short, even when teachers have made substantial changes
in their own roles and practice.
WHAT WE DO NOT KNOW
Following are topics important both to
practitioners and policy makers, but we do not have a good understanding of
these matters. Thorough investigations are needed.
* The most productive roles for students when addressing science content in
ordinary classroom settings are not known in any practical detail.
modes of learning called for in the Standards imply markedly different roles for
students in terms of designing laboratory investigations, processing
information, and engaging in such mental processes as interpreting, explaining,
and hypothesizing. Given the knowledge we have, it is clear that these roles
cannot be studied very effectively in isolation because their implementation
interacts so deeply with changes in teachers' roles and various teacher values
* In addition to student roles, the nature of the desired student work and the
means of engaging students in it within ordinary classroom contexts, are not
known in any practical detail.
new student roles imply that students will direct much of their own learning,
that learning tasks will vary among students, and that these tasks will
emphasize reasoning, reading and writing for meaning, solving problems, building
from existing cognitive structures, and explaining complex problems. The range
and nature of these tasks in various specific science contexts are not well
understood; in fact, there is a dearth of studies on desired student work.
* How teachers can best be engaged (over a period of years) in reassessing their
personal values and beliefs and taking major personal responsibility for
acquiring needed new professional competencies is not well understood.
research tells us that teacher collaboration is powerful, but it has not been
studied as a specific means of addressing these particular aspects of science
education reform. To be fully understood, this situation must be studied from
multiple perspectives, in particular from psychological and socio-cultural
* It is not clear how to involve parents most effectively in the science
education reform process so that they are educated about the issues involved and
can influence their children's education most positively.
is clear that parents can have a strong influence on efforts to change science
education practice, and research indicates that teachers provide a key interface
between parents and schools. There is, however, an insufficient research base
for deciding the best course of action for schools to take to inform parents and
productively engage them in the reform process.
* How to address the increasingly acute equity and diversity issues in a climate
of science education reform is not well understood.
efforts," Lee (2000) claims, "generally involve identifying educational problems
or describing instructional practices rather than implementing intervention
strategies to promote teacher effectiveness or student achievement. Research is
still at the stage of conceptualizing issues that need empirical testing." A
recent forum on "Diversity and Equity Issues in Mathematics and Science
Education-What do We Know? What Do We Need to Know?" (Britton, Raizen, Kaser,
& Porter, 2000) offers specific recommendations regarding the research
needed in this important area.
CHARACTERISTICS OF NEEDED RESEARCH
challenges listed above call for a variety of holistic and systemic approaches
to research. Scholarship must be "holistic" in the sense of giving simultaneous
attention to all of the many elements and perspectives that are part of the
picture. They must be "systemic" in that attention is given to the many
"interactions" among the various elements and the influences they have on each
Broad, comprehensive studies from a multiplicity of
perspectives--psychological, sociological, cultural, organizational, political,
economic, philosophical, and subject matter--are needed. Then, scholarly
syntheses of studies conducted from various perspectives will need to follow.
Our poor understanding of "science for all" underscores our need to study
science classrooms as communities of practice, and teachers as communities of
Research in the "Real World"
Studies are needed in ordinary school contexts, with ordinary levels of
resources, and ordinary outside help.
Researchers need to study a variety of specific interventions having certain
intended outcomes. Interventions chosen and initiated by teachers must be
central, and they should include those influencing parents, teachers, and
Based on Assumptions that Change Comes from the Top Down
The inadequacies of interventions that are solely top-down are well
established in the research literature (Sarason, 1996).
The multiplicity of interacting variables in the matters under study is such
that controlled experiments with full prior delineation of all variables are
largely impossible. The goal is to make interpretations of this complex
situation that will make it possible to assist practitioners in changing
practice and aid policy makers in setting better policy. This need places a
premium on research that attends to the many relevant variables, their
interactions, and various interpretations of the complex situations.
on Students Roles and Student Work
The roles played by students and the nature of the work they do constitute
the "bottom line" of educational reform, yet the specifics of desired roles and
the most beneficial student work are not clear. These matters must be at the
center of research in this area.
Major Attention to Teacher Learning
Past research points to teacher learning as being central to reform, and that
the most important dimension of learning has to do with values and beliefs. What
is not fully understood are the nature of needed changes and the circumstances
under which teachers personally can best reassess relevant values and beliefs.
Anderson, R. D. (1995). Curriculum reform:
Dilemmas and promise. "Phi Delta Kappan", 77, 33-36.
Anderson, R. D. (1996). "Study of curriculum reform" (Volume I of the final
report of research conducted under contract number RR91182001 with OERI, U. S.
Department of Education). Washington, DC: U. S. Government Printing Office (ISBN
Anderson, R. D., & Helms, J. V. (2001, January). The ideal of standards
and the reality of schools: Needed research. "Journal of Research in Science
Teaching", 38 (1), 3-16. [EJ 622 074]
Bianchini, J. A., Cavazos, L. M., & Helms, J. V. (1999). "From
professional lives to inclusive practice: Science educators' views of gender,
ethnicity, and science". Paper presented at the American Educational Research
Association conference in Montreal, Canada.
Britton, E., Raizen, S., Kaser, J., & Porter, A. (2000). "Beyond
description of the problems: Directions for research on diversity and equity
issues in K-12 mathematics and science education". Available online at:
Lee, O. 2000. "Equity for Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students in
Science Education: Recommendations for a Research Agenda." Paper presented at
the National Institute for Science Education Forum, Detroit, May 2000.
National Research Council. (1996). "National Science Education Standards".
Sarasan, S. B. (1996). "Revisiting 'The culture of the school and the problem
of change'". New York: Teachers College Press.