Posted by
Waski_the_Squirrel on Friday, July 28, 2006 6:15:01 PM
Since long before I ever entered school, we have been treated to a steady stream of news about the problems in education. The common response has been to toss money into education. Although I wouldn't object to the ability to outfit my lab the way I want, this will not affect the education my students get. A lot of the reform is of very little practical value.
In the mid-eighties, a group of scientists, teachers of science (at all levels) and concerned citizens met under the auspices of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). They came together to answer a simple but profound question: what do our students need to know about science when they graduate high school. This is a focus on all students, not just the “smart” ones or future scientists.
They formed a group called Project 2061. Their first project was a book called Science for All Americans (SFAA). If you click on the title, you can read the book online for free.
This book and the other products this group produced are a real tool for science reform. It focused on specific essential topics. It them proceeded to develop them to illustrate the kind of understanding a graduate of our high schools should have. I read this book and had my eyes opened wide.
I have a degree in Physics, yet I understood a few things better after reading this book. I really had my eyes opened in the other sciences. I'd been teaching them and, I realized, doing so without any understanding. For example, I had once memorized all the details of photosynthesis. I thought I understood it. Thanks to this book, I finally realized where the dry mass of a plant comes from (hint: it's not the ground).
Our science textbooks are encyclopedic in coverage. The only way to cover everything in them is through memorization. By this means we come to believe (as I did with photosynthesis) that we understand. By limiting topics, we are able to actually understand topics and thereby come to a higher level of thinking.
Project 2061 is a valuable tool for helping science teachers focus on important topics. It does not discount the importance of other topics, but it does recognize that we cannot properly teach everything that is important. Instead, it emphasizes certain skills that can be built upon and branch into other topics. In addition, it recognizes how understanding should be developed from elementary school.
There are similar projects in other subject areas. There are also competing projects in science. The quality of these projects varies. In some cases, such as the NCTM standards in mathematics, they are quite controversial. I don't want to debate that today, but what I will say is that it's about time we start focusing on understanding rather than encyclopedic coverage. These tools will provide a starting point for doing that.