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Assessing Schools for Generation R (Responsibility): A Guide for Legislation and School Policy in Science Education PDF

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Contemporary Trends and Issues in Science Education 41 Michael P. Mueller Deborah J. Tippins Arthur J. Stewart Editors Assessing Schools for Generation R (Responsibility) A Guide for Legislation and School Policy in Science Education Assessing Schools for Generation R (Responsibility) Contemporary Trends and Issues in Science Education VOLUME 41 SERIES EDITOR Dana Zeidler, University of South Florida, Tampa, USA FOUNDING EDITOR Ken Tobin, City University of New York, USA EDITORIAL BOARD Fouad Abd El Khalick, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA Marrisa Rollnick, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa Svein Sjøberg, University of Oslo, Norway David Treagust, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia Larry Yore, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada HsingChi von Bergmann, University of Calgary, Canada Troy D. Sadler, University of Missouri, Columbia, USA SCOPE The book series Contemporary Trends and Issues in Science Education provides a forum for innovative trends and issues connected to science education. Scholarship that focuses on advancing new visions, understanding, and is at the forefront of the fi eld is found in this series. Accordingly, authoritative works based on empirical research and writings from disciplines external to science education, including historical, philosophical, psychological and sociological traditions, are represented here. For further volumes: http://www.springer.com/series/6512 Michael P. Mueller (cid:129) Deborah J. Tippins Arthur J. Stewart Editors Assessing Schools for Generation R (Responsibility) A Guide for Legislation and School Policy in Science Education Editors Michael P. Mueller Deborah J. Tippins College of Education Department of Mathematics University of Alaska Anchorage and Science Education Anchorage , AK , USA University of Georgia Athens , GA , USA Arthur J. Stewart Oak Ridge Associated Universities Oak Ridge , TN , USA ISSN 1878-0482 ISSN 1878-0784 (electronic) ISBN 978-94-007-2747-2 ISBN 978-94-007-2748-9 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-2748-9 Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg New York London Library of Congress Control Number: 2013939322 © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifi cally the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfi lms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. Exempted from this legal reservation are brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis or material supplied specifi cally for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is permitted only under the provisions of the Copyright Law of the Publisher’s location, in its current version, and permission for use must always be obtained from Springer. Permissions for use may be obtained through RightsLink at the Copyright Clearance Center. Violations are liable to prosecution under the respective Copyright Law. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specifi c statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. While the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication, neither the authors nor the editors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility for any errors or omissions that may be made. The publisher makes no warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein. Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Praise for Assessing Schools for Generation R (Responsibility) Indira Nair, Professor and Vice Provost for Education Emeritus, Carnegie Mellon University Education has changed its role from transmitting “old wisdom” and propagating conventional mores only, to changing the world or at least being competent in navigating the world, and particu- larly a technological, global, world. It is vital that our education prepare a new generation of students to move from a very occupation-minded, instrumental view of their education to one that puts social responsibility on their life map even if not at the center. In this pioneering collection, the authors of Assessing Schools for Generation R (Responsibility): A Guide to School Policy and Legislation in Science Education articulate and defi ne this new “Generation R”. The authors, all experienced educators, thoughtfully inquire what has to happen in the domains of teacher preparation and public education to effect a transition of the youth in the US “from “complacency” towards a condition of greater civic responsibility”. They remind us that “free public schools itself was introduced as an aid to democratic well-being, as a vehicle for preparing citizens who possessed the intellectual wherewithal required to shoulder civic responsibilities.” So, in a world pervaded by science and technology, that is what science education has to be. They discuss shifting the priorities of science education, and I would add technological education, to a place where science becomes meaningful to the students as a way of solving important problems that they see around them. Students will understand and learn science better in this process. This would involve among other things, using “caring reasoning” with a systems approach to teach science and incorporating critical science literacy in place of a “rote knowledge”-based literacy. Ways of assessing students’ learning would involve measuring their ability to apply science rather than blindly knowing mechanics and defi nitions to answer disembodied and disconnected science questions. Such a pedagogy would be embedded “in a constructivist, project-based and hopefully place-based, approach to science instruction” and contain social responsibility as one of the aims of science. This of course has to start with a new type of teacher, and a new type of framework governing public education. An outstanding and much-needed of synthesis of literature on teaching in a new way, “Assessing Schools for Generation R”, could produce a new generation of teachers and produce a real ferment in the way we teach science if the recommendations are followed by those who govern and plan education and those who prepare and evaluate teachers. Caren Cooper, Research Associate, Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Cornell University How will the next generation develop both the wherewithal to dream of a sustainable future a nd the intellectual capacity to achieve it? This edited volume brings together inspiring stories, creative practices, and theoretical work to make the case that s cience education can be reformed to help students develop affectively and intellectually in order to grow into civically engaged citizens. Quickly departing from the notion that science education is primarily for those on a science-career v vi Praise for Assessing Schools for Generation R (Responsibility) track, contributors to this book view science education as integral to the development of responsible citizens. I recommend this read not only to those involved in science education but to those who have not yet considered science education as a mechanism for sustaining a democratic society. Nancy Tuana, Department of Philosophy, Penn State University The rewards and challenges of science education that is grounded in authentic learning and designed to promote personal, social, and civic responsibility are at the heart of this important collection of essays. Recognizing that today’s youth will face global environmental challenges, as well as complex personal and social challenges, this collection of essays provides vital insights on how science education can be designed to provide a solid foundation for knowledge and action. Assessing Schools for Generation R (Responsibility) is essential reading for all educators who care about the future . Foreword In June 2009, New York Times journalist Steven Greenhouse coined the term Generation R to denote the millions of US teenagers and twentysomethings who are struggling to carve out a future for themselves during the worst economic downturn in decades. At about the same time, Gill Plimmer of T he Financial Times used the same term to describe professionals who have prospered during the recession, gaining much expanded roles and progressing faster than anticipated by taking on the work of more senior colleagues who have been made redundant through downsizing. Others have used the term simply to refer to those who graduated from college in the period 2006–2010. For example, G eneration R ( Recession ) is a Philadelphia- based study of how the current economic recession is impacting the expectations, dreams, and aspirations of 150 young people from the high school class of 2006. In the Netherlands, G eneration R is a longitudinal cohort study extending from fetal life in 2006 to young adulthood in a multiethnic urban population. Interestingly, Generation R is the name of a social networking site for Russian Jewish Americans. For this book, Michael Mueller, Deborah Tippins, and Arthur Stewart replace R for recession with R for responsibility, such that Generation R now identifi es a generation of people who are expected to assume much greater levels of social and environmental responsibility than current citizens, and will be well equipped to do so if the editors and authors of this book succeed in establishing the kind of science education they advocate. From a range of social, economic, and environmental perspectives, it is evident that we live in turbulent times, with increasingly complex problems and challenges at the local, regional, and global levels, but science education as currently practiced does little to prepare students to address these problems carefully, critically, confi dently, responsibly, and effectively. If anything, it serves to reproduce the kind of thinking and to foster the kind of values that created many of the problems. The basic message of this book is that we need to take the bull by the horns and imple- ment a curriculum that focuses clearly and systematically on life in the twenty-fi rst century in all its complexity and uncertainty; equips students with the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values to confront the complex and often ill- defi ned socio- scientifi c issues (SSI) they encounter in daily life; enables them to reach their own views through debate and argument about where they stand on major socioscientifi c vii viii Foreword issues, including the moral-ethical issues they often raise; and builds responsible and engaged citizenship. My own generation of WWII kids and the subsequent generation of baby boomers grew up in a very different world. During the 1960s, we were blissfully unaware of the extent and pace of environmental degradation; jobs were plentiful; ambitions were high, and despite the constant threat of nuclear annihilation and daily news bulletins about the evils of the Vietnam War (or American War as the Vietnamese call it), the social climate was one of optimism for the future. Young people were confi dent that desirable change could be brought about by collective action (marches, demonstrations, petitions, and the like), as illustrated by the lyrics of many of the pop songs of the time. The following fi ve decades have seen a marked decline in social activism and levels of public participation. During my 40+ years as a teacher and teacher educator, I have been saddened at the lack of political interest among teachers and students, disturbed by their complacency and easy acceptance of the status quo, concerned by the apathy of teachers regarding the values implicit and explicit in the curriculum they deliver, and disappointed with their lack of courage to fi ght for a more engaging and socially relevant science education. We need to turn back the clock and re-instill the view that we can, should, and will strive to change the world for the better. This book can be the catalyst to reverse the trend and to fi re up a new generation of people determined to make a difference and to assume responsibility for social reconstruction and environmental regeneration. The simple point is that unless we do something substantial to change the ways in which we live and do it quickly, it will be too late. Our current lifestyles and the impoveri- shed values that underpin them have put us on a collision course with disaster. All teachers know that the key to wide-ranging social change is education. Because the changes we need to effect encompass changes in lifestyle that will be quite profound and potentially disconcerting for many people in industrialized socie- ties and will inevitably run counter to the goals, aspirations, and desires instilled in us by the popular media, current consumerist rhetoric, and the world of advertising, it is not just school-based education that we need to reform. We need to establish a new climate of concern and commitment throughout education at all levels, and we need to involve a much wider range of educational venues, including parks and gardens, nature centers, museums, zoos and aquaria, science centers, and environ- mental clubs. We need to revitalize education in the home, in the workplace, and in community centers and through advertising and public notices. We need to mobilize effective education through leisure activities; through the print and broadcast media, the Internet, and social networking media; through movies, theater, literature, music, and dance; and through examples set by prominent members of the community. Unprecedented levels of cooperation, support, and collaboration will be necessary among national and local governments, government agencies and public services, research establishments, environmental groups, formal and informal educational institutions, the business and industrial sector, trade unions, cultural and community organizations, youth groups, voluntary organizations, schools, and families. Through all these outlets, we need to focus very directly on how we live and how we should live in the future if we really want to establish and maintain a more equitable and socially just society and an environmentally sustainable lifestyle. Foreword ix As far as school-based education is concerned, we need to rethink the purpose of education in general and science education in particular. Our current educational priorities are hopelessly misplaced, inadequate for the task of preparing students for responsible and active citizenship. There is, for example, way too much emphasis on preparing students for later study of science or subsequent employment as scien- tists, way too much emphasis on competition, way too much emphasis on pre- specifi ed and highly detailed (but often essentially trivial) learning outcomes, way too much emphasis on rigorous and systematic testing for so-called educational standards, and way too much teacher-centered pedagogy. As a result, students are led to distrust and devalue their own knowledge, skills, values, and experiences. In consequence, they look to experts as the source of all views, solutions to problems, and decisions on socioscientifi c issues. To affect the kind of changes that Mike Mueller and his co-editors and authors seek, we need a curriculum that promotes problem solving, especially real-world, complex, and ill-defi ned problems, not one focused on the steady accumulation of knowledge. We need a curriculum that fosters critique and intellectual independence rather than conformity and compliance yet also promotes the cultivation of interdependence and potential for community building. We need a curriculum that equips students to make judgments and reach decisions on complex socioscientifi c issues; develops the capacity to deal with change, uncertainty, and unpredictability; cultivates the ability to ascertain what is desirable/undesirable and what is possible in the long and short terms; pays much more attention than has been usual to values issues and the active promotion of democracy and social justice; and prepares students for taking direct and indirect action in pursuit of changes they consider desirable. Of course, if students are to take effective action, it is essential that they gain robust knowledge of the social, legal, and political system(s) that prevail in the communities in which they live and develop a clear understanding of how decisions are made within local, regional, and national government and within industry, commerce, and the military. Without knowledge of where and with whom power of decision making is located and awareness of the mechanisms by which decisions are reached, intervention is not possible. Thus, the curriculum advocated in this book will require a concurrent program designed to achieve a measure of p olitical literacy , including knowledge of how to engage in collective action with individuals who have different competencies, backgrounds, and attitudes, but share a common interest in a particular SSI. Such shifts of curricular emphasis will necessarily trigger a shift in pedagogy in the direction of greater learner autonomy; more extensive and imaginative use of industry, commerce, and military; and increased involvement in group work. If students are to come to grips with SSI at any level beyond the merely superfi cial, they need relevant scientifi c knowledge. Simple common sense tells us that relevant content knowledge is crucial and that those who know more about the topic/issue under consideration will be better positioned to understand the underlying issues, evaluate different positions, reach their own conclusions, make an informed decision on where they stand in relation to the issue, and argue their point of view. A key question concerns the manner in which relevant scientifi c knowledge should be acquired. Should it be through prior instruction or on a need-to-know basis when dealing with a particular issue? As is so often the case in education, there is no

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