Category: science education reform
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New wine, old skins #3: The core of schooling
I’m hoping to get to the point today. As I said, it’s a complicated argument. All that I’ve written so far is the same thing I’ve been saying for 20 years. But my recent experiences as a long-term substitute at an urban middle school, teaching 7th and 8th grade science, lead me to conclude that…
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Old Wine in New Skins Part 2
Yesterday I didn’t get to the point of the post. Perhaps today. NGSS and Common Core are grounded in particular assumptions about learning. These assumptions include: * All people can learn; learning is a characteristic of humans; * People learn by integrating new knowledge into existing knowledge; * Asking and seeking to answer questions results…
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Science Education for All. I Mean it: Each and All
I’m reading Larry Cuban’s new book, Inside the Black Box of Classroom Practice, which has a chapter on the history of science education reform. (Note the subtitle, Change without Reform in American Education.) He quotes Jonathan Osborne, who points out that the goals of science education appear to be contradictory. Are we aiming to produce…