Research on Science Education

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Slide 23

Science isn't unique

• Science content shares many similarities with content from other subjects
• Research on reading, thinking, learning, and remembering will prove relevant to science education

Speaker's notes:

The next slide is another illustration of the same point. Here students are asked how competent they think they are in science. The U.S. 8th graders lead the world in science self-confidence, even though they're only in the middle of the pack internationally in terms of performance.

Don't get me wrong. I am not arguing for the pedagogical value of drudgery. Whatever we can do to make any academic subject more intrinsically interesting is worthwhile, as long as we don't compromise the content along the way. But that requires vigilance. For example, we now have research that demonstrates that illustrations that publishers put in science textbooks to liven up the material can interfere with learning if the illustrations are not germane to the content the student is expected to extract from the page. In science, we can use computer-based animation, real-time feedback, appropriately placed real life problems, and social processes to make learning more fun. The younger the child, the more important these motivators will be. However, the there is a lot of content in science that simply has to be learned through practice and time-on-task. By failing to acknowledge that science learning involves work, the United States may be placing a ceiling on the levels of proficiency that it can expect its students to achieve. We may also be missing the boat in terms of the pipeline issue in that research demonstrates that high school students take science courses because they are perceived as relevant to college entry, not because they are fun.

Finally with respect to a science of learning, it is important for us to understand that much of K-12 science content is remarkably similar to content that children are striving to learn in other subjects. It involves vocabulary, concepts, and procedures.

My youngest son, Adam, is an 8th grader taking an honors science class. I've looked over his homework and the Regents' tests in 8th grade science given by the state of NY. I've done the same thing for his coursework in history. These slides illustrate the remarkable similarities between the general form of questions that are asked in these two academic areas, and by implication in the cognitive demands and instructional strategies that would be involved in teaching the material.