John E. Penick

Trends in science education: some observations of exemplary programmes in the United States

The National Science Teachers Association in the United States undertook a major new project in 1982‐a Search for Excellence in Science Education. For the first year Project Synthesis desired state descriptions were used as criteria for searches conducted in each state. Subsequently, new task forces were at work defining excellence and developing search criteria from a variety of views. A total of 104 exemplary programmes have been selected to date. An analysis of the Focus on Excellence monographs reveals some national trends in school science. These major trends include: (1) significant involvement of local communities in programme development and instruction; (2) science/technology/society as a curriculum focus; (3) laboratories defined as the real world; and (4) a focus first on qualitative considerations and later on quantitative ones. These trends are discussed, analysed and exemplified with the exemplary programmes identified across the United States.

Classroom Climate and Instruction: New Goals Demand New Approaches

Uniformly, science teachers express the same goals for their students, goals that emphasize attitude, communication, creativity, and application of knowledge. Yet, the traditional role of the teacher ignores these goals and focuses on attainment of knowledge, rarely going on to applications. This paper suggests, rather specifically, how to provide instruction that leads to the expressed goals. These specific behaviors come from a three-part model where expressed goals define the role of the student and the students roles are, in turn, stimulated by the teacher.

Science Teacher Education: A Program with a Theoretical and Pragmatic Rationale.

Penick and Yager show how research and practice can be blended to produce a powerful preservice science teacher education program. The University of Iowa program includes intensive field ex periences at a variety of levels, small group seminars, and a series of oppor tunities for teacher self-evaluation. Orig inally developed with funding for a ten- year period from the National Science Foundation, this program is now fully self-supporting, visible within the uni versity, and successful in terms of stu dent performance.

Issues-Based Education A Need and Rationale

What is consistent from culture to culture is not the institutions; what is consistent are the social problems. What is recurrent from society to society is solutions to these problems. (Goldschmidt, 1966, p. 31)

Learning from excellence: Some elementary exemplars

This paper presents a series of outstanding examples of excellence in science teaching. Such examples are critical for most educators if they are to move ahead in the reform of teaching. Criteria for both outstanding elementary education and the characteristics of outstanding teachers are listed, and the reader will examine numerous ideas for change and improvement that have achieved success over the past decade.

Using Science as a Connector for the Reformed School Curriculum.

Science/Technology/Society (STS) is the latest effort to provide a real- world, interdisciplinary context for the study of science. Heres how a num ber of districts in one midwestern state are using the approach.

Public Attitude Toward Science and Science Education

Public support for and interest in various fields, issues, organizations, and situations change. Public support for and interest in science and science education have been studied over a thirty-year period. Yankelovichs work related to science was enlarged to include science education. The public was very supportive of science and science education following the 1957 lauching of the Soviet Sputnik This high level of support is observed again in 1985, presumably because of the relationship of science and technology to economic security. Public support for science and science education was at a low point for the 30 year period in 1975.

Science-Technology,Society Programs: Some Shining Examples

&dquo;It can’t be done,&dquo; responded the smug library clerk, &dquo;iot -6c~tc.e, technotogy, and society have nothIng to do with each othea.&dquo; &dquo; Or so we learned when asking for a computer search on science, technology, and society and the curriculum. The message is obvious: while we know what STS is all about and what an STS program might look like, few among the general 1 public recognize the concept or have ever experienced a systematic STS approach. But, some schools do have STS programs and, as a result of the National Science Teachers Association Search for Excellence in Science Education, we have identified some of the best (see Penick and Meinhard-Pellens (1984) for more details on ten of these programs).