J. Myron Atkin

Changing the subject : innovations in science, mathematics and technology education

Change in education is too often a process which enthusiasts, ranging from top policy makers to groups of teachers, plan and drive forward, but in which they all find unexpected pitfalls. Every innovation depends on the commitment of schools and teachers to make it work. But often that commitment is lacking, or is less than total, or it turns to fustration as events develop. This book is based on a set of stories from teachers and education professionals in thirteen OECD countries. Twenty-three case studies of educational innovation in science, mathematics and technology have involved school teachers, inspectors, academics (both subject specialists and educational researchers), policy makers and advisors. The case studies come from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Scotland, Spain, Switzerland and the USA. Drawing on this rich variety of material the authors concentrate on the origins and purposes of innovation within and across the science, mathematics and technology curricula. They consider the conceptions of the three subjects, along with issues of teaching, learning and assessment, and explore the involvement of both teachers and students. They reflect on the various strategies adopted to cope with or bring about change, and offer valuable insights to advisors, developers, policy makers and practitioners, both in schools and outside. The writing team includes Paul Black, Kings College London; Mike Atkin, Stanford University; Raymond Duval, University of Lille; Edwyn James, Consultant, OECD; John Olson, Queens University of Kingston, Ontario; Dieter Pevsner, Consultant, London; Senta Raizen, National Centre for Improving Science Education, Washington; Maria Saez, University of Valladolid, Spain; and Helen Simons, Southampton University. Published in association with the OECD

Everyday assessment in the science classroom

The second in NSTAs Science Educators Essay Collection, Everyday Assessment is is designed to build confidence and enhance every teachers ability to embed assessment into daily classwork. The books insights will help make assessment a dynamic classroom process of fine-tuning how and what you teach.

The OECD study of innovations in science, mathematics and technology education

Under the auspices of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), 13countries prepared 23 case studies of innovations inscience, mathematics and technology education between 1992 and 1995. While there were important differences across countries- particularly in the impetus for the innovations- there were significant similarities in the programmes themselves. In particular, all the countries that participated in the study were developing curricula that were more practical and more integrated. Other general features of the innovations included strong participation by classroom teachers in designing the new courses, serious attention to student diversity, introduction of new assessment techniques, and an emphasis on scientific ways of knowing.

Teaching as Research: An Essay.

Abstract Educational research is largely the province of professors. This circumstance leads to undervaluation of the knowledge that is available only to people who work within schools. It also creates the expectation that some people do research, while others act on the results. Collaborative teacher-initiated inquiry, on the other hand, capitalizes on the insider knowledge of teachers and is directed toward changing the professional activities of the researchers themselves. For teacher-initiated research to prosper, however, it probably develops best outside the university setting.

The Federal Role in Curriculum Development, 1950–80

The Federal Government became involved in curriculum development in the elementary and secondary schools to pursue certain national goals about which there was broad agreement. The first section of this monograph traces the history of that involvement and represents an attempt to put it in social and political perspective. During the course of the first 2 decades of federal curriculum activity, however, the country became increasingly fragmented both socially and politically, a sense of national purpose began to fade, and special interest groups increasingly determined policy. As a result, the federal role became more complex and controversial.

Practice Oriented Inquiry: A “Third Approach” To Research In Education

There are two major intellectual styles in the field of education. In one, scholars have attempted to fathom the meaning of their own experience in the schools and to distill this experience and the insights gleaned from it for students and for other practitioners. This scholarly tradition has benefited only sporadically from principles derived from scientifically-oriented disciplines since it is rooted in the classroom and values most the wisdom of the articulate practitioner. Teacher education institutions were characterized largely by such scholarly approaches from the 1930s through the 1950s; many are best characterized today in such a fashion. A second style, with roots that also extend back many decades, is derivative from the social and behavioral science disciplines. Psychological theory, for example, is presumed to carry implications for education; if we understand the psychological research about learning, we should be more effective in teaching children. This perspective — basically an applied social/behavioral science tradition — has been invigorated in recent years by the realization that many disciplines other than psychology have a bearing on educational practice. There now are strong attempts to profit from understandings drawn from sociology, anthropology, economics, law, political science, and many other fields. The conviction seems to be that problems of educational practice may yield if they are approached by summing social/behavioral science perspectives. Each style has deficiencies. Neither one, nor even a combination of the two, may be sufficient to understand a complex field of practice like education. The distillation of experience approach tends to be noncumulative as well as unsystematic. Frequently it also is undesirably romantic — even sentimental. The applied social/behavioral science tradition, while much more promising and important, falls short because it addresses only part of the totality of educational practice — practice that is influenced by many factors in addition to those that yield readily to scientific study. The approach also is frequently characterized by undesirable reductionism. The situation for the scholarly study of education today appears analogous to the study

Swimming upstream: Relying on teachers' summative assessments

The Black and Wiliam1998 paper, Inside the Black Box: Raising Standards through Classroom Assessment,* was a landmark article. It crystallized hundred of studies to advance an argument that certain kinds of assessment by teachers and students in their own classrooms is one of the most effective ways to improve educational achievement. The paper continues to shape assessment practices to this day. In the current article, the authors continue their collaboration by producing another landmark analysis. This one establishes a new and needed level with respect to policy-oriented analyses of assessment practices internationally. It may well set a standard by which other international comparisons of assessment systems that are intended to affect policy will be judged. The selection of the nine substantive areas around which the paper is organized is itself a salutary contribution. Each one (purposes of assessment, the structure of the assessment system, the locus of assessment, extensiveness, assessment format, scoring models, quality issues, the role of teachers, and contextual issues) serves as a conceptual and practical pivot-point for highlighting key tasks and challenges in developing assessment policies and practices that are educationally and technically sound. Relevant international examples are offered to illustrate a range of approaches to such issues as the age levels at which external examinations are administered, scoring mechanisms, the use of teacher judgments, and much more. One telling conclusion in the section on purposes of assessment is that there is an “almost total absence of pattern” about what assessments are intended to accomplish (page 8). A corollary emerges in the paper as a central theme: There are no clear dimensions for comparisons among the seven countries

American Graduate Schools of Education: a view from abroad∗

∗ Harry Judge: American Graduate Schools of Education: a view from abroad (New York, Ford Foundation), 1982.

Chapter I: Science in the Elementary School

1. Science is now accorded a place in virtually all elementary school curriculums. 2. Accelerated curricular modifications in secondary school science have exerted an exhilarating effect on all science education research and development activities. 3. It is often assumed that studies of how science is learned are most effectively attempted with young children; they offer a fertile ground for the testing of various teaching-learning theories. 4. Problems in the field of elementary school science are increasingly apparent, and relatively little work has been done on them. 5. The field represents a meeting ground for educationists, subject matter specialists, and psychologists, as do few other fields at this writing.

Some Challenges in Planning Educational Programs for Generation R

Eighty years ago, T. S. Elliot asked: Where is the wisdom lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge lost in information?