IBSE Final

Chapter 3 The Science Curriculum and Classroom Instruction

tHE tEACHING OF SCIENCE: 21 st-CENTURY PERSPECTIVES 53

medium. This step, which aids self-regulation, should always follow exploration

and relate to the exploration activities. ...

In the last phase of the learning cycle, concept application, familiarization takes

place as students apply the new concept and/or reasoning pattern to additional

situations. (Karplus 1977, pp. 173–174)

Both A Love of Discovery (Fuller 2002) and Anton Lawson’s book Science

Teaching and the Development of Thinking (1995) provide an excellent discus-

sion of the origins, applications, variations, and supporting research for the

learning cycle. The summaries center on the formative experiences of Karplus,

his early classroom activities, working with J. Myron Atkin and publishing

“Discovery or Invention?” (Atkin and Karplus 1962), and visiting the Elemen-

tary Science Study, where he became familiar with the approach to learning

discussed by David Hawkins in “Messing About in Science” (1965). Lawson

also discussed the origins of the learning cycle in biology education, which

represents an independent and parallel development of the significant features

of the learning cycle.

The learning cycle continues to influence curriculum and instruction in

science. It has substantial research support (Lawson, Abraham, and Renner

1989) and widespread application through textbooks on science teaching and

learning (Lawson 1995; Marek and Cavallo 1997).

New Designs for Curriculum and Instruction

A colleague recently asked what I would do about curriculum and instruc-

tion if I returned to the science classroom. I took a moment to reflect, but the

response came quickly. I replied, “Concentrate on the instructional core.” I

would employ an instructional model, concentrate on teaching, and for science

content I would implement the best curriculum available. This, however, was

not always the case. At a very early point in my career, I would have answered,

“Lecture, demonstrations, and occasional laboratories.” SCIS played an impor-

tant role in forming my ideas about curriculum and instruction. I visited SCIS

for a week, and that experience helped me form ideas about well-designed

curriculum materials and effective instruction. During this period, the work of

Jean Piaget became a point of study and eventually a book, Piaget for Educators

(Bybee and Sund 1982). The latter drew me to the learning cycle and its appli-

cation in the classroom.

In the late 1960s, I taught SCIS at the University of Northern Colorado Labo-

ratory School. This experience provided more than an academic perspective of

the program and the work of Robert Karplus, Herb Thier, and their colleagues.

Although this time provided insights that I would use later, I had two especially