IBSE Final

18 NaTIoNal SCIENCE TEaChERS aSSoCIaTIoN

Chapter 1 The Teaching of Science: Contemporary Challenges

The actual standard states, “As a result of activities in grades 9–12, all

students should develop both abilities necessary to do scientific inquiry and

understandings about scientific inquiry.” Figures 1.2 and 1.3 present the funda-

mental abilities and understandings associated with these respective compo-

nents of the Standards.

Inquiry as Both Content and Process

The Standards shifted the implementation of the “science as inquiry” theme from

an emphasis on the processes to a focus on cognitive abilities such as reasoning

with data, constructing an argument, and making a logically coherent explana-

tion (see Figure 1.2). Furthermore, the Standards made it clear that the aims of

science education include students’ understanding inquiry (see Figure 1.3).

As the science education community considers the needs at the instructional

core—curriculum, professional development, and research and evaluation—we

must acknowledge that our most valuable work occurs at the intersection of

these three spheres. These questions are central: Given our mission of leadership

and our goal of science literacy for all, the needs of students and teachers, and

the current wave of assessments that grip the nation, what should the curric-

ulum materials look like? What should our professional development programs

provide? And how can we structure our research and evaluation to provide the

evidence that schools and districts need when making decisions?

Discussions and subsequent decisions should be informed by a number of

recent works: National Science Education Standards (NRC 1996); How People Learn

(Bransford, Brown, and Cocking 1999); results of TIMSS (Schmidt et al. 2001);

Understanding by Design (Wiggins and McTighe 2005); and recent evaluations by

Project 2061 at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS

1999, 2000; Bybee 2001).

Figure 1.2 Abilities of Scientific Inquiry • Identify questions and concepts that guide scientific investigations • Design and conduct scientific investigations • Use technology and mathematics to improve investigations and communications • Formulate and revise scientific explanations and models using logic and evidence • Recognize and analyze alternative explanations and models • Communicate and defend a scientific argument