Why is it that the perception of science education in the U.S. (and other countries as well) is driven by rankings of students on international test score comparisons? The perception is that U.S. students are not competitive in the global market place because of their position in the rankings of the scores obtained on tests such as PISA and TIMSS.… Read more
Posts Tagged ‘ PISA ’
PISA Test Results Through the Lens of Poverty
January 5, 2011
PISA, the Program for International Student Assessment, released results last month, and you would have thought the sky was falling if you listened to our Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan. PISA is an international assessment that is administered to 15 year-old students in participating countries. The PISA assessment has been administered in 2000, 2003, 2006 and 2009. The 2009 test results were released in December 2010.… Read more
Why Do We Teach Science, Anyway? The Democratic Argument
November 30, 2010
There are at least two interpretations that emerge when we explore why we teach science from the democratic argument. The first interpretation is that we should be teaching science to help students become informed citizens in an increasingly technocratic and scientific world, and provide them with the tools to intelligently discuss, vote on, and make decisions about “modern life, politics and society.” (Turner, p.… Read more
Progressive Science Education
November 16, 2009
I have been reading and have referenced on this weblog the October 2009 special issue of the Journal of Research in Science Teaching (JRST) on the topic/theme “Scientific Literacy and Contexts in PISA Science.” The articles in the special issue provide a broad view of international testing as conceived in PISA, as well as the TIMSS.
One of the articles (by Sadler and Zeidler) which was focused on PISA and Socioscientific Discourse, used the term progressive science education as a way to describe a vision of science education that includes public understanding of science, humanistic science education, context-based science teaching, S-T-S, and socioscientific issues.… Read more
Should PISA Type Assessments be used to evaluate Teacher Performance?
November 10, 2009
There is a clear mandate to build “data systems that measure student success and inform teachers and principals how they can improve their practices.” This is one of the “reform areas” in the U.S. Department of Education’s Race to the Top Fund. A second area of reform is the adoption of internationally benchmarked standards and assessments that prepare students for success in college and the workplace.… Read more
The Race to the Top: Climbing Mt. PISA
November 9, 2009
In the last post, I referenced a recent special issue of the Journal of Research in Science Teaching which was devoted to an exploration of scientific literacy and context in PISA Science. PISA (The Programme for International Student Assessment) is one of two (the other is TIMSS) major international assessments of science that has captured the attention of educators, politicians, policy makers, and the general public.… Read more
PISA: Can this test measure the outcomes of progressive science education
November 6, 2009
Long title, sorry. But, Volume 46, Issue 8 (October 2009) of the Journal of Research in Science Teaching was devoted to Scientific Literacy and Context in PISA Science. The entire issue was devoted to this theme. In one of the articles in this volume (Scientific Literacy, PISA, and Socioscientific Discourse: Assessment for Progressive Aims of Science Education), the authors used the term progressive science education in the way George DeBoer used in many years ago to summarize movements in science teaching that included public understanding of science, humanistic science education, context-based science teaching, STS, and socioscientific issues science education.… Read more
The Art of Teaching Science is the personal blog of Jack Hassard. I am a writer, a former high school science teacher and Professor Emeritus of Science Education, Georgia State University. The blog reflects my opinions on science education and issues related to educational reform from a progressive science and education philosophy.
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