A National Perspective on K-12 STEM
Education: Challenges and
Opportunities for Leadership
THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
National Academy of Sciences
National Academy of Engineering
Institute of Medicine
National Research Council
Jay Labov
National Academy of Sciences
Washington, DC
jlabov@nas.edu
http://nationalacademies.org
University Council for Educational Administration
Anaheim, CA
November 21, 2009
Two Premises:
Premise 1:
Improving STEM Education is
Not Rocket Science
It’s a LOT harder!
Premise 2 (a.k.a. Gretsky Philosophy):
“A good hockey player plays where the puck is.
“A great hockey player plays where the puck is
going to be.”
We Need to Anticipate and Skate to
Where the Puck is Likely to Be:
EFFECTIVE LEADERSHIP IS CRITICAL!!
UNDERSTANDING POLICY MATTERS!!!
CAVEAT:
Education policy and implementation often do
not obey the usual tenets of logic or rationality
Where is the
puck likely to be?
• CA Convocation on K-8
Education
• K-12 National & State
Standards
• Advanced Placement
• 21st Century Skills
• Science vs. STEM Education
• Closing Thoughts
A Convocation to Address Special Issues of
K-8 Science Education in CA
April 29-30, 2009, Irvine
• Organizers:
– National Academies of
Science & Engineering
– California Council on
Science and
Technology
• Sponsorship:
– Arnold and Mabel
Beckman Foundation
– S.D. Bechtel, Jr.
Foundation
A Convocation to Address Special Issues of
K-8 Science Education in CA
April 29-30, 2009, Irvine
Chapters:
1. The Challenges Facing
California
2. The National Context
3. Science Education in
Action
4. Exemplary Programs
5. Fostering Sustainable
Programs
6.Rising to the Challenge
Appendices
A Convocation to Address Special
Issues of K-8 Science Education in CA
April 29-30, 2009, Irvine
Summary of Discussions:
• Many indicators point to severe weaknesses in California’s
science education systems at the kindergarten through
eighth grade (K-8) levels:
– K-8 students in California spend too little time studying
science
– Many of their teachers are not well prepared in the
subject
– The support system for science instruction has
deteriorated.
– A proliferation of overly detailed standards and poorly
conceived assessments has trivialized science
education.
A Convocation to Address Special
Issues of K-8 Science Education in CA
April 29-30, 2009, Irvine
• Yet there exists a solid base on which to strengthen K-8
science education in California and across the nation,
including:
– A movement toward common national standards and
assessments
– New research findings on effective educational practices
– Involvement of scientific, business, and philanthropic
organizations in many schools
– Growing realization that science education must improve to
support future prosperity.
– Linking education in technology, engineering, and mathematics
to science education, thereby creating a truly integrated science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education,
could have major implications for K-12 education.
A Convocation to Address Special
Issues of K-8 Science Education in CA
April 29-30, 2009, Irvine
The time to act is now, while science and STEM
education occupy positions of prominence on
state and national agendas.
Informed, inspired, and inspiring leadership at all
levels of the K-12 system is desperately needed.
K-12 National and State Science
Standards
National Research Council 1996
AAAS 1993
Overview of the
National Science
Education Standards
• Science Teaching
Standards
• Professional Development
of Teachers
• Assessment
• Content Standards
• Infrastructure Standards
– Program Standards
– System Standards
Standards for Science Teaching
Teachers of Science
•
A: Plan an inquiry-based science program for their students …
•
B: Guide and facilitate learning…
•
C: Engage in ongoing assessment of their teaching and of student
learning…
•
D: Design and manage learning environments that provide students
with the time, space, and resources needed for learning science…
•
E: Develop communities of science learners that reflect the
intellectual rigor of scientific inquiry and the attitudes and social
values conducive to science learning…
•
F. Actively participate in the ongoing planning and development of the
school science program.
CHANGING EMPHASES IN SCIENCE CONTENT
LESS EMPHASIS ON:
MORE EMPHASIS ON:
Treating all students alike and responding
to the group as a whole.
Understanding and responding to individual
students’ interests, strengths, and needs.
Rigidly following curriculum.
Selecting and adapting curriculum.
Focusing on acquisition of information.
Focusing on student understanding and
use of scientific knowledge, ideas, and
inquiry processes.
Presenting scientific knowledge through
lecture, text & demonstration.
Guiding students in active and extended
scientific inquiry.
Asking for recitation of acquired
knowledge.
Providing opportunities for scientific
discussion and debate among students.
Testing students for factual information at
the end of the unit or chapter.
Continuously assessing student
understanding.
Maintaining responsibility and authority.
Sharing responsibility for learning with
students.
Supporting competition.
Supporting a classroom community with
cooperation, shared responsibility, and
respect.
Working alone.
Working with other teachers to enhance the
science program.
4 Strands of Scientific
Proficiency
• Know, use and interpret
scientific explanations of
the natural world.
• Generate and evaluate
scientific evidence and
explanations.
• Understand the nature
and development of
scientific knowledge.
• Participate productively in
scientific practices and
discourse.
National Research Council (2007)
4 Strands of Scientific
Proficiency
• Know, use and interpret
scientific explanations of
the natural world.
• Generate and evaluate
scientific evidence and
explanations.
• Understand the nature
and development of
scientific knowledge.
• Participate productively in
scientific practices and
discourse.
National Research Council (2007)
Other Organizations Have Also
Published Standards Recently for
Science and Mathematics
Published in 2009
Additional information available at:
http://professionals.collegeboard.com
/k-12/standards
Published in 2007
Advanced Placement
National Research Council 2002
AP Redesign
Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Physics (2013-16)
• Evidence of Learning
• Science Panels
– Big Ideas / Unifying
Themes
– Enduring
Understandings
– Competencies
– Evidence Models
(Formative
Assessments)
•
•
•
•
•
•
The student can use
representations and models to
communicate scientific
phenomena and solve scientific
problems.
The student can use mathematics
appropriately
The student can engage in
scientific questioning
The student can perform data
analysis and evaluation of
evidence
The student can work with
scientific explanations and
theories
The student is able to transfer
knowledge across various scales,
concepts, and representations in
and across domains
21st Century Skills
“If I take the revenue in January and look
again in December of that year, 90% of
my December revenue comes from
products which were not there in
January.”
Craig Barrett, Chairman of Intel
“Rising Above the Gathering Storm” (NAS, NAE, and IOM, 2007)
"The illiterate of the 21st century will not be
those who cannot read and write, but those
who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."
Alvin Toffler, American Writer and Futurist
WhyShifting
21st Century
Skills?
Job Market
20th Century
21st Century
1 – 2 Jobs
10 – 15 Jobs
Job
Requirement:
Mastery of
One Field
Critical Thinking
Across
Disciplines
Teaching
Model:
Subject
Matter
Mastery
Integration of 21st
Century Skills into
Subject Matter
Mastery
Assessment
Model:
Subject
Matter
Mastery
Integration of 21st
Century Skills into
Subject Matter
Mastery
Number of
Jobs:
Courtesy of Linda Froschauer
Science vs. STEM Education
• To be inclusive, the NSF adopted the term
“Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and
Technology” (SMET) to describe their
education programs
Science vs. STEM Education
• To be inclusive, the NSF adopted the term
“Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and
Technology” (SMET) to describe their
education programs
• Someone decided that SMET sounded too
much like “SMUT”
Science vs. STEM Education
• To be inclusive, the NSF adopted the term
“Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and
Technology” (SMET) to describe their
education programs
• Someone decided that SMET sounds too
much like “SMUT”
• SMET  STEM
Some Closing Thoughts
Instead of beginning (and, all too often,
ending) with test scores, we should begin
by considering the kinds of minds that we
want to cultivate in our education system.
My own reflections suggest that in the
future, we need to cultivate five kinds
of minds if we want to be successful as
a nation and, more important, as a
world. Those minds include:
Howard Gardner, “Beyond the Herd Mentality: The Minds That We Truly Need in the Future.”
Ed Week, 9/14/05, http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2005/09/14/03gardner.h25.html
• A disciplined mind
that can think well and appropriately in the major disciplines;
• A synthesizing mind
that can sift through a large amount of information, decide what
is important, and put it together in ways that make sense for
oneself and for others;
• A creative mind
that can raise new questions, come up with novel solutions,
think outside the box;
• A respectful mind
that honors the differences among individuals and groups, and
tries to understand them and work productively with them; and
• An ethical mind
that thinks, beyond selfish interests, about the kind of worker
one aspires to be, and the kind of citizen that one should be.
Howard Gardner, “Beyond the Herd Mentality: The Minds That We Truly Need in the Future.”
Ed Week, 9/14/05, http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2005/09/14/03gardner.h25.html