Nurturing and Sustaining Effective Programs in Science Education for Grades K-8 Building a Village in California: Summary of a Convocation (2009) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix D: Summary of Selected National Academies Reports
Appendix D: Summary of Selected National Academies Reports
Pages 105-138
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From page 105... ...
http://www.nap.edu/catalog.php? record_id=11882 Enhancing Professional Development for Teachers: Potential Uses of Information Technology (2007)
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From page 106... ...
This report examines the potential of nonschool settings for science learning. The authoring committee assessed the evidence of science learning across settings, learner age groups, and over varied spans of time; they identified the qualities of learning experiences that are special to informal environments and those that are shared (e.g., with schools)
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From page 107... ...
• Strands of Science Learning: The committee proposed a "strands of science learning" framework that articulates science-specific capabilities supported by informal environments. It builds on the framework developed for K-8 science learning in Taking Science to School (see below)
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From page 108... ...
Recommendations Exhibit and Program Designers Exhibit and program designers play an important role in determining what aspects of science is reflected in learning experiences, how learners engage with science and with one another, and the type and quality of educational materials that learners use. Recommendation 1: Exhibit and program designers should create informal environments for science learning according to the following principles.
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From page 109... ...
Recommendation 2: From their inception, informal environments for science learning should be developed through community–educator partnerships and whenever possible should be rooted in scientific problems and ideas that are consequential for community members. Recommendation 3: Educational tools and materials should be developed through iterative processes involving learners, educators, designers, and experts in science, including the sciences of human learning and development.
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From page 110... ...
Drawing on a vast array of evidence from neuroscience to classroom observation, Taking Science to School provides a comprehensive picture of what we know about teaching and learning science from kindergarten through eighth grade. This book provides a basic foundation for guiding science teaching and supporting students in their learning developed around three fundamental questions: 1.
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From page 111... ...
Taking Science to School is important because it makes clear that effective science education requires a complex interplay among content knowledge, investigation, reflection, and discourse skills. Development of these skills is influenced by maturation, experience, prior instruction, and opportunities to learn as well as gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and cultural experiences.
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From page 112... ...
Recommendation 5: State and local leaders in science education should provide teachers with models of classroom instruction that provide opportunities for interaction in the classroom, where students carry out investigations and talk and write about their observations of phenomena, their emerging understanding of scientific ideas, and ways to test them. Recommendation 6: State and local school systems should ensure that all K-8 teachers experience sustained science-specific professional development in preparation and while in service.
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From page 113... ...
Recommendation 8: Federal agencies that support professional development should require that the programs they fund incorporate models of instruction that combine the four strands of science proficiency, focus on core ideas in science, and enhance teachers' science content knowledge, knowledge of how students learn science, and knowledge of how to teach science. -- -- -- Ready, Set, Science!
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From page 114... ...
Given that a goal of this convocation is to help participants think much more deeply about the role of science education in furthering the development of all of California's students in grades K-8, and the interconnections between science and other subject domains, this book offers those who are tasked with implementing this vision with the background and resources they will need to do so effectively. Report Table of Contents Because this is a practitioner volume that is a derivative of Taking Science to School, it does not include specific conclusions or recommendations.
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From page 115... ...
A System That Supports Science Learning Appendixes A Questions for Practitioners B Assessment Items Based on a Learning Progression for Atomic Molecular Theory C Academically Productive Talk D Biographical Sketches of Oversight Group and Coauthors -- -- -- Enhancing Professional Development for Teachers: Potential Uses of Information Technology (2007) General Description This report is a comprehensive overview of a workshop organized by a committee of teachers and other education experts and hosted by the National Academies Teacher Advisory Council and the California Teacher Advisory Council.
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From page 116... ...
Council members saw the potential for online learning technologies to provide professional development that could be far more tailored to the needs of science, mathematics, and technology teachers, to all teachers at different stages of their professional careers, and to teachers located in places where access to high-quality face-to-face professional development experiences to their schools is difficult. Relevance to Convocation Participants An accumulating body of evidence is showing that effective teachers are one of the most important contributors to science learning.
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From page 117... ...
Although people tend to focus on the most recent technological inventions, technology includes a myriad of devices and systems that profoundly affect everyone in modern society. Technology is pervasive; an informed citizenry needs to know what technology is, how it works, how it is created, how it shapes our society, and how society influences technological development.
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From page 118... ...
Relevance to Convocation Participants If technology and technological literacy are to become meaningful components of science education in California and elsewhere, attention must be paid to assessment issues. As Tech Tally makes clear, however, assessment in this domain poses significant challenges, and to date there are no ready-made assessment instruments available.
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From page 119... ...
Department of Education and National Science Foundation should send a recommendation to the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement and the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) governing board encouraging them to include technological literacy items in TIMSS assessments as a context for assessments of science and mathematics.
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From page 120... ...
The study should provide guidance on pedagogical, assessment, teacher education, and curricular issues of interest to educators at all levels, teacher-education providers and licensing bodies, education researchers, and federal and state education agencies. Recommendation 8: The National Science Foundation (NSF)
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From page 121... ...
To ensure that the perspectives of adults from a variety of cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds are included, studies should also involve community colleges, nonprofit community outreach programs, and other programs that engage diverse populations. Recommendation 10: The National Institute of Standards and Technology, which has a broad mandate to promote technology development and an extensive track record in organizing research conferences, should convene a major national meeting to explore the potential of innovative, computerbased techniques for assessing technological literacy in students, teachers, and out-of-school adults.
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From page 122... ...
but also the study of technology, as described in the International Technology Education Association Standards for Technological Literacy and the National Academy of Engineering and National Research Council report Technically Speaking. -- -- -- Technically Speaking: Why All Americans Need to Know More About Technology (2002)
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From page 123... ...
-funded instructional materials and informaleducation initiatives should also stress these connections. Recommendation 3: NSF, DoEd, state boards of education, and others involved in K-12 science education should introduce, where appropriate, the word "technology" into the titles and contents of science standards, curricula, and instructional materials.
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From page 124... ...
Recommendation 6: The National Science Foundation and the Department of Education should fund research on how people learn about technology, and the results should be applied in formal and informal education settings. Recommendation 7: Industry, federal agencies responsible for carrying out infrastructure projects, and science and technology museums should provide more opportunities for the nontechnical public to become involved in discussions about technological developments.
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From page 125... ...
All young Americans must learn to think mathematically, and they must think mathematically to learn. Adding It Up explores how students in pre-K through eighth grade learn mathematics and recommends how teaching, curricula, and teacher education should change to improve mathematics learning during these critical years.
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From page 126... ...
126 NURTURING AND SUSTAINING EFFECTIVE PROGRAMS Conceptual Understanding Strategic Productive Competence Disposition Adaptive Procedural Reasoning Fluency Intertwined Strands of Proficiency Relevance to Convocation Participants Just as Taking Science to School emphasizes the connections among different "strands" in science education, Adding It Up emphasizes the coherence and interconnectedness of mathematical concepts for children and how they might be taught most effectively. Because the concept of number is used so broadly for mathematics education in the early grades, this book also focuses on that conceptBox 4-1 but shows how students can be provided with rich experiences in mathematics that build on this basis concept that goes well beyond the operational aspects of arithmetic that often are the primary components of mathematics education in the elementary and early middle grades.
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While learning in specific disciplines may require somewhat different approaches (and there is now a growing area called discipline-based education research) , there are also fundamental principles for improving aspects of education, such as teacher professional development, that appear to transcend disciplines.
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-- -- -- Inquiry and the National Science Education Standards: A Guide for Teaching and Learning (2000) General Description "Inquiry" refers to the diverse ways in which scientists study the natural world and in which students grasp science knowledge and the methods by which that knowledge is produced.
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From page 129... ...
• Many teachers did not experience inquiry-based approaches to sci ence when they themselves were students and thus may not know how to begin to do so. This problem may increase in the higher grades of K-12 education and especially at the postsecondary level, where few faculty have received professional development in its use and implementation.
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From page 130... ...
Supporting Inquiry-Based Teaching and Learning Appendixes A Excerpts from the National Science Education Standards B Selecting Instructional Materials C Resources for Teaching Science Through Inquiry -- -- -- How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School -- Expanded Edition (2000) General Description How People Learn offers a detailed review, synthesis, and analysis of exciting research about the brain and human learning that provides answers to a number of compelling questions.
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From page 131... ...
How People Learn will provide a vitally important guide to the kinds of research evidence in human learning and cognition and can serve as a very useful guide to the leaders of efforts to improve science education in grades K-8 throughout California in ways that are steeped in solid research evidence. Recommendations Unlike other NRC studies that include specific recommendations, this committee of experts instead decided to present implications of the research and evidence on human learning for teachers, school, and the larger education system.
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From page 132... ...
3. A "metacognitive" approach to instruction can help students learn to take control of their own learning by defining learning goals and monitoring their progress in achieving them.
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From page 133... ...
, Educating Teachers of Science, Mathematics, and Technology synthesized what was known at the time about the quality of math and science teaching in the United States, drawing conclusions about why teacher preparation needs to change, and then outlining recommendations for accomplishing those changes. Educating Teachers addresses the issues associated with teacher education and professional development from a variety of contexts.
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From page 134... ...
This challenge is likely to be especially difficult because most teachers have not had courses or professional development experiences that help to interconnect science and mathematics, let alone the additional connections of technology and engineering. Educating Teachers of Science, Mathematics, and Technology can provide the leadership of the California STEM Education Network with new perspectives about approaches to teacher education and how new relationships among the various stakeholders might be developed and nurtured.
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From page 135... ...
Governments should understand that restructuring teacher education will require large infusions of financial support and make a strong commitment to provide the direct and indirect funding required to support local and regional partnerships for improving teacher education in these disciplines. They also should encourage the recruitment and retention of teachers of science and mathematics -- particularly those who are "in-field" -- through financial incentives, such as salaries that are commensurate and competitive with those in other professions in science, mathematics, and technology; low-interest student loans; loan forgiveness for recently certified teachers in these disciplines who commit to teaching; stipends for teaching internships; and grants to teachers, school districts, or teacher education partnerships to offset the costs of continual professional development.
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From page 136... ...
New research that focuses broadly on synthesizing data across studies and linking it to school practice in a wide variety of school settings would be especially helpful to the improvement of teacher education and professional development for both prospective and experienced teachers. The results of this research should be col lated and disseminated through a national electronic database or library.
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From page 137... ...
in efforts to improve teacher education.
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