A National Perspective on K-12 STEM Education: Challenges and Opportunities for Leadership Jay Labov National Academy of Sciences Washington, DC [email protected]

A National Perspective on K-12 STEM Education: Challenges and

Opportunities for Leadership

Jay Labov National Academy of Sciences

Washington, DC

[email protected] http://nationalacademies.org

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIESNational Academy of Sciences

National Academy of Engineering Institute of Medicine

National Research Council

University Council for Educational AdministrationAnaheim, CA

November 21, 2009

http://nationalacademies.org/

Two Premises:

Premise 1:

Improving STEM Education is Not Rocket Science

It’s a LOT harder!

“A good hockey player plays where the puck is.

“A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.”

Premise 2 (a.k.a. Gretsky Philosophy):

We Need to Anticipate and Skate to Where the Puck is Likely to Be:

EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP IS CRITICAL!!

UNDERSTANDING POLICY MATTERS!!!

CAVEAT:Education policy and implementation often do not obey the usual tenets of logic or rationality

Where is the puck likely to be?

• CA Convocation on K-8 Education

• K-12 National & State Standards

• Advanced Placement• 21st Century Skills• Science vs. STEM Education • Closing Thoughts

A Convocation to Address Special Issues of K-8 Science Education in CA

April 29-30, 2009, Irvine

• Organizers:– National Academies of

Science & Engineering– California Council on

Science and Technology

• Sponsorship:– Arnold and Mabel

Beckman Foundation– S.D. Bechtel, Jr.

Foundation

Chapters:1. The Challenges Facing

California 2. The National Context 3. Science Education in

Action 4. Exemplary Programs5. Fostering Sustainable

Programs6.Rising to the ChallengeAppendices




April 29-30, 2009, IrvineSummary of Discussions:

• Many indicators point to severe weaknesses in California’s science education systems at the kindergarten through eighth grade (K-8) levels:

– K-8 students in California spend too little time studying science

– Many of their teachers are not well prepared in the subject

– The support system for science instruction has deteriorated.

– A proliferation of overly detailed standards and poorly conceived assessments has trivialized science education.



• Yet there exists a solid base on which to strengthen K-8 science education in California and across the nation, including:

– A movement toward common national standards and assessments

– New research findings on effective educational practices – Involvement of scientific, business, and philanthropic

organizations in many schools– Growing realization that science education must improve to

support future prosperity.– Linking education in technology, engineering, and mathematics

to science education, thereby creating a truly integrated science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, could have major implications for K-12 education.



The time to act is now, while science and STEM education occupy positions of prominence on state and national agendas.

Informed, inspired, and inspiring leadership at all levels of the K-12 system is desperately needed.

K-12 National and State Science Standards

National Research Council 1996 AAAS 1993

Overview of theNational Science

Education Standards• Science Teaching Standards• Professional Development of

Teachers• Assessment• Content Standards

• Infrastructure Standards– Program Standards– System Standards

Standards for Science Teaching

Teachers of Science

• A: Plan an inquiry-based science program for their students …

• B: Guide and facilitate learning…

• C: Engage in ongoing assessment of their teaching and of student learning…

• D: Design and manage learning environments that provide students with the time, space, and resources needed for learning science…

• E: Develop communities of science learners that reflect the intellectual rigor of scientific inquiry and the attitudes and social values conducive to science learning…

• F. Actively participate in the ongoing planning and development of the school science program.

CHANGING EMPHASES IN SCIENCE CONTENT

Treating all students alike and responding to the group as a whole.

Understanding and responding to individual students’ interests, strengths, and needs.

Rigidly following curriculum. Selecting and adapting curriculum.

Focusing on acquisition of information. Focusing on student understanding and use of scientific knowledge, ideas, and inquiry processes.

Presenting scientific knowledge through lecture, text & demonstration.

Guiding students in active and extended scientific inquiry.

Asking for recitation of acquired knowledge.

Providing opportunities for scientific discussion and debate among students.

Testing students for factual information at the end of the unit or chapter.

Continuously assessing student understanding.

Maintaining responsibility and authority. Sharing responsibility for learning with students.

Supporting competition. Supporting a classroom community with cooperation, shared responsibility, and respect.

Working alone. Working with other teachers to enhance the science program.

LESS EMPHASIS ON: MORE EMPHASIS ON:

4 Strands of Scientific Proficiency

• Know, use and interpret scientific explanations of the natural world.

• Generate and evaluate scientific evidence and explanations.

• Understand the nature and development of scientific knowledge.

• Participate productively in scientific practices and discourse.

National Research Council (2007)

4 Strands of Scientific Proficiency

• Know, use and interpret scientific explanations of the natural world.

• Generate and evaluate scientific evidence and explanations.

• Understand the nature and development of scientific knowledge.

• Participate productively in scientific practices and discourse.

National Research Council (2007)

Published in 2009

Published in 2007

Additional information available at:

http://professionals.collegeboard.com/k-12/standards

Other Organizations Have Also Published Standards Recently for

Science and Mathematics

Advanced Placement

National Research Council 2002

AP RedesignBiology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Physics (2013-16)

• Science Panels– Big Ideas / Unifying

Themes – Enduring

Understandings– Competencies– Evidence Models

(Formative Assessments)

• Evidence of Learning• The student can use

representations and models to communicate scientific phenomena and solve scientific problems.

• The student can use mathematics appropriately

• The student can engage in scientific questioning

• The student can perform data analysis and evaluation of evidence

• The student can work with scientific explanations and theories

• The student is able to transfer knowledge across various scales, concepts, and representations in and across domains

21st Century Skills

“If I take the revenue in January and look again in December of that year, 90% of my December revenue comes from products which were not there in January.”

Craig Barrett, Chairman of Intel

“Rising Above the Gathering Storm” (NAS, NAE, and IOM, 2007)

"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those

who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."Alvin Toffler, American Writer and Futurist

20th Century 21st Century

1 – 2 Jobs 10 – 15 Jobs

Critical Thinking Across

Disciplines

Integration of 21st

Century Skills intoSubject Matter

Mastery

Mastery ofOne Field

SubjectMatter

Mastery

Number ofJobs:

JobRequirement:

Teaching Model:

SubjectMatter

Mastery

Integration of 21st

Century Skills intoSubject Matter

Mastery

Assessment Model:

Why 21st Century Skills?Shifting Job Market

Courtesy of Linda Froschauer

Science vs. STEM Education

• To be inclusive, the NSF adopted the term “Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology” (SMET) to describe their education programs



• Someone decided that SMET sounded too much like “SMUT”



• Someone decided that SMET sounds too much like “SMUT”

• SMET STEM

Instead of beginning (and, all too often, ending) with test scores, we should begin by considering the kinds of minds that we

want to cultivate in our education system. My own reflections suggest that in the future, we need to cultivate five kinds of minds if we want to be successful as a nation and, more important, as a world. Those minds include:

Howard Gardner, “Beyond the Herd Mentality: The Minds That We Truly Need in the Future.”Ed Week, 9/14/05, http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2005/09/14/03gardner.h25.html

Some Closing Thoughts

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2005/09/14/03gardner.h25.html

• A disciplined mind that can think well and appropriately in the major disciplines;

• A synthesizing mindthat can sift through a large amount of information, decide what is important, and put it together in ways that make sense for oneself and for others;

• A creative mind that can raise new questions, come up with novel solutions, think outside the box;

• A respectful mind that honors the differences among individuals and groups, and tries to understand them and work productively with them; and

• An ethical mind that thinks, beyond selfish interests, about the kind of worker one aspires to be, and the kind of citizen that one should be.

Howard Gardner, “Beyond the Herd Mentality: The Minds That We Truly Need in the Future.”Ed Week, 9/14/05, http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2005/09/14/03gardner.h25.html

http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2005/09/14/03gardner.h25.html

Documents

A National Perspective on K-12 STEM Education: Challenges and Opportunities for Leadership Jay Labov National Academy of Sciences Washington, DC [email protected]