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International science and environmental education have been a major focus of my professional work, and so when results on international comparisons are released by TIMSS (Math and Science, PIRLS (Reading), or PISA(Math, Reading & Science), I am eager to write about what these results mean.
On this website there have been many posts devoted to an analysis of international test results and the comparisons that fill the airwaves, the Internet and newspapers.… Read more
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
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
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
There was story on cnn.com today that caught my attention entitled U.S. students behind in math, science, analysis says. The analysis was written by the National Center of Educational Statistics and was a summary analysis of several international assessments including the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), and the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA, 2006 results).
The story was a report of a brief talk given by the U.S.… Read more
In yesterday’s post, I described Science Debate 2008, and efforts to engage the two major candidates for President to answer 14 important questions about science. The one question that focused on science education was as follows:
A comparison of 15-year-olds in 30 wealthy nations found that average science scores among U.S. students ranked 17th, while average U.S. math scores ranked 24th. What role do you think the federal government should play in preparing K-12 students for the science and technology driven 21st Century?
This issue (March, 2007) of the Journal of Research in Science Teaching had two articles that investigated the effects of science education reform in the United States. The first of the two studies, Can professional development make the vision of the standards a reality? The impact of the national science foundation’s local systemic change through teacher enhancement initiative by Eric R.… 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.
