IBSE Final

Chapter 3 The Science Curriculum and Classroom Instruction

tHE tEACHING OF SCIENCE: 21 st-CENTURY PERSPECTIVES 57

a higher degree of expertise by developers; thus, implementation has become

more complicated, requiring an understanding of science teachers’ concerns

and extended professional development. To use Karplus’s term, communication

with teachers has become imperative.

In Developing Inquiry-Based Science Materials (2001), Herb Thier and Bennett

Daviss report a wonderful story about a Harvard professor who developed an

interest in the acoustics of violins. As part of a study he collected a variety of

violins, ranging from the cheapest violin to the finest Stradivarius. The professor

then erected a small screen in a concert hall and assembled an audience. Yehudi

Menuhin, a world-famous violinist, stood behind the screen and played each

of the violins for the group. The professor asked the audience to select the best-

sounding violin of the collection.

To the professor’s amazement, each violin received about the same number

of votes. Upon expressing his finding, and shock, to Menuhin, the great violinist

provided a significant insight. Menuhin said, “Yes, they sounded about the same.

The difference was that the Strad played itself, while I had to work like hell to

make the cheap violin sound like anything at all” (Thier and Daviss 2001, p. 6).

I have to wonder what the difference in audience assessment would have

been if the violinist would have been average or even a beginner. By analogy,

this story tells us something of great science teachers. In addition, it also

affords insights about the importance of well-designed curriculum. I hesitate to

suggest that curriculum development has reached the equivalent of the finest

Stradivarius. However, it is far beyond the cheapest beginning instrument, and

certainly is more advanced than something one could design and develop alone,

with little support, using parts from other violins, in a short period of time,

without formal field testing and evaluation.

Contemporary Challenges for Curriculum and Instruction

Just as earlier generations confronted curriculum reform, now a new genera-

tion faces the 21st-century challenges. The 21st century presents the education

community with new scientific discoveries, technological advances, national

security issues, workforce requirements, and international perspectives.

Although these have the power to justify curricular change, it is a paradox that

we still must answer fundamental questions. Indeed, the questions Karplus and

Their raised in the late 1950s serve us as well today as they did then. How will

we answer the following questions?

• How can one create a learning experience that achieves a sure connection

between the pupil’s intuitive attitudes and the concepts of the modern

scientific point of view?

• How can one determine what children have learned?