Australia As in England and Wales, science education in Australia is compulsory up until year 11, where students can choose to study one or more of the branches mentioned above. If they wish to no longer study science, they can choose none of the branches. The science stream is one course up until year 11, meaning students learn in all of the branches giving them a broad idea of what science is all about.
The National Curriculum Board of Australia (2009) stated that "The science curriculum will be organised around three interrelated strands: science understanding; science inquiry skills; and science as a human endeavour." These strands give teachers and educators the framework of how they should be instructing their students. In 2011, it was reported that a major problem that has befallen science education in Australia over the last decade is a falling interest in science. Fewer year 10 students are choosing to study science for year 11, which is problematic as these are the years where students form attitudes to pursue science careers. This issue is not unique in Australia, but is happening in countries all over the world.
China Educational quality in China suffers because a typical classroom contains 50 to 70 students. With over 200 million students, China has the largest educational system in the world. However, only 20% percent of students complete the rigorous ten-year program of formal schooling.
United Kingdom In English and Welsh schools, science is a compulsory subject in the National Curriculum. All pupils from 5 to 16 years of age must study science. It is generally taught as a single subject science until sixth form, then splits into subject-specific
A levels (
physics,
chemistry and
biology). However, the government has since expressed its desire that those pupils who achieve well at the age of 14 should be offered the opportunity to study the three separate sciences from September 2008. In Scotland the subjects split into chemistry, physics and biology at the age of 13–15 for
National 4/5s in these subjects, and there is also a combined science standard grade qualification which students can sit, provided their school offers it. In September 2006 a new science program of study known as 21st Century Science was introduced as a
GCSE option in UK schools, designed to "give all 14 to 16-year-old's a worthwhile and inspiring experience of science". In November 2013, Ofsted's survey of science in schools revealed that practical science teaching was not considered important enough. At the majority of English schools, students have the opportunity to study a separate science program as part of their GCSEs, which results in them taking 6 papers at the end of Year 11; this usually fills one of their option 'blocks' and requires more science lessons than those who choose not to partake in separate science or are not invited. Other students who choose not to follow the compulsory additional science course, which results in them taking 4 papers resulting in 2 GCSEs, opposed to the 3 GCSEs given by taking separate science.
United States In many U.S. states,
K-12 educators must adhere to rigid standards or
frameworks of what content is to be taught to which age groups. This often leads teachers to rush to "cover" the material, without truly "teaching" it. In addition, the
process of science, including such elements as the
scientific method and
critical thinking, is often overlooked. This emphasis can produce students who pass
standardized tests without having developed complex problem solving skills. Although at the college level American science education tends to be less regulated, it is actually more rigorous, with teachers and professors fitting more content into the same time period. In 1996, the
U.S. National Academy of Sciences of the
U.S. National Academies produced the
National Science Education Standards, which is available online for free in multiple forms. Its focus on
inquiry-based science, based on the theory of
constructivism rather than on
direct instruction of facts and methods, remains controversial.Concern about science education and science standards has often been driven by worries that American students, and even teachers, lag behind their peers in
international rankings. One notable example was the wave of
education reforms implemented after the
Soviet Union launched its
Sputnik satellite in 1957. The first and most prominent of these reforms was led by the
Physical Science Study Committee at
MIT. In recent years, business leaders such as Microsoft Chairman
Bill Gates have called for more emphasis on science education, saying the United States risks losing its economic edge. To this end, Tapping America's Potential is an organization aimed at getting more students to graduate with science, technology, engineering and mathematics degrees. Public opinion surveys, however, indicate most U.S. parents are complacent about science education and that their level of concern has actually declined in recent years. Furthermore, in the recent National Curriculum Survey conducted by ACT, researchers uncovered a possible disconnect among science educators. "Both middle school/junior high school teachers and post secondary science instructors rate(d) process/inquiry skills as more important than advanced science content topics; high school teachers rate them in exactly the opposite order." Perhaps more communication among educators at the different grade levels is necessary to ensure common goals for students.
2012 science education framework According to a report from the National Academy of Sciences, the fields of science, technology, and education hold a paramount place in the modern world, but there are not enough workers in the United States entering the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) professions. In 2012 the National Academy of Sciences Committee on a Conceptual Framework for New K-12 Science Education Standards developed a guiding framework to standardize K-12 science education with the goal of organizing science education systematically across the K-12 years. Titled
A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas, the publication promotes standardizing K-12 science education in the United States. It emphasizes science educators to focus on a "limited number of disciplinary core ideas and crosscutting concepts, be designed so that students continually build on and revise their knowledge and abilities over multiple years, and support the integration of such knowledge and abilities with the practices needed to engage in scientific inquiry and engineering design." The report says that in the 21st century Americans need science education in order to engage in and "systematically investigate issues related to their personal and community priorities," as well as to reason scientifically and know how to apply science knowledge. The committee that designed this new framework sees this imperative as a matter of
educational equity to the diverse set of schoolchildren. Getting more diverse students into
STEM education is a matter of social justice as seen by the committee.
2013 Next Generation Science Standards In 2013 new standards for science education were released that update the national standards released in 1996. Developed by 26 state governments and national organizations of scientists and science teachers, the guidelines, called the
Next Generation Science Standards, are intended to "combat widespread scientific ignorance, to standardize teaching among states, and to raise the number of high school graduates who choose scientific and technical majors in college...." Included are guidelines for teaching students about topics such as climate change and evolution. An emphasis is teaching the scientific process so that students have a better understanding of the methods of science and can critically evaluate scientific evidence. Organizations that contributed to developing the standards include the
National Science Teachers Association, the
American Association for the Advancement of Science, the
National Research Council, and Achieve, a nonprofit organization that was also involved in developing math and English standards.
Next Generation Science Standards Science education curriculum in the
United States is outlined by the
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) which were released in April 2013. The purpose of the NGSS is to establish a standardized Kindergarten to 12th Grade science curriculum. These standards were instituted in hopes that they would reform the past science education system and foster higher student achievement through improved curriculum and teacher development. The Next Generation Science Standards are made up of three components listed as follows: disciplinary core ideas, science and engineering practices, and crosscutting concepts. These are referred to as the three dimensions of the Next Generation Science Standards. Within these standards, there is emphasis on alignment with K-12
Common Core state standards. The dimension entitled "science and engineering practices" focuses on students' learning of the scientific method. This means that this dimension centers around practicing science in a hands-on manner, giving students the opportunity to observe scientific processes, hypothesize, and observe results. This dimension highlights the empirical methods of science. The dimension entitled "crosscutting concepts" emphasizes the understanding of key themes within the field of science. The "crosscutting concepts" are themes that are consistently relevant throughout many different scientific disciplines, such as the flow of energy/matter, cause/effect, systems/system practices, patterns, the relationship between structure and function, and stability/change. The purpose of outlining these key themes relates to generalized learning, meaning that the effectiveness of these themes could lie in the fact that these concepts are important throughout all of the scientific disciplines. The intention is that by learning them, students will create a broad understanding of science. The dimension entitled "disciplinary core ideas" outlines a set of key ideas for each scientific field. For example, physical science has a certain set of core ideas laid out by the framework.
Science Education and Common Core Common Core education standards emphasize reading, writing, and communication skills. The purpose of these standards for English and Mathematics was to create measurable goals for student learning that are aligned with the standards in place in other nations, such that students in the United States become prepared to succeed at a global level. It is meant to set standards for academics that are rigorous in nature and prepare students for higher education. It is also outlined that students with disabilities must be properly accommodated for under Common Core standards via an
Individualized Education Plan (IEP). Under these standards, the comprehension of scientific writing has become an important skill for students to learn through textbooks. The laboratory is a foundational example of hands-on, activity-based learning. In the laboratory, students use materials to observe scientific concepts and phenomena. The laboratory in science education can include multiple different phases. These phases include planning and design, performance, and analysis and interpretation. It is believed by many educators that laboratory work promotes their students' scientific thinking, problem solving skills, and cognitive development. Since 1960, instructional strategies for science education have taken into account
Jean Piaget's developmental model, and therefore started introducing concrete materials and laboratory settings, which required students to actively participate in their learning. In addition to the importance of the laboratory in learning and teaching science, there has been an increase in the importance of learning using computational tools. The use of computational tools, which have become extremely prevalent in
STEM fields as a result of the advancement of technology, has been shown to support science learning. The learning of computational science in the classroom is becoming foundational to students' learning of modern science concepts. In fact, the Next Generation Science Standards specifically reference the use of computational tools and simulations. Through the use of computational tools, students participate in computational thinking, a cognitive process in which interacting with computational tools such as computers is a key aspect. As computational thinking becomes increasingly relevant in science, it becomes an increasingly important aspect of learning for science educators to act on. Another strategy that may include both hands-on activities and using computational tools is creating authentic science learning experiences. Several perspectives of authentic science education have been suggested, including:
canonical perspective - making science education as similar as possible to the way science is practiced in the real world;
youth-centered - solving problems that are of interest to young students;
contextual - a combination of the canonical and youth-centered perspectives. Although activities involving hands-on inquiry and computational tools may be authentic, some have contended that inquiry tasks commonly used in schools are not authentic enough, but often rely on simple "cookbook" experiments. Authentic science learning experiences can be implemented in various forms. For example: hand on inquiry, preferably involving an open ended investigation; student-teacher-scientist partnership (STSP) or
citizen science projects;
design-based learning (DBL); using web-based environments used by scientists (using bioinformatics tools like genes or proteins databases, alignment tools etc.), and; learning with adapted primary literature (APL), which exposes students also to the way the scientific community communicates knowledge. These examples and more can be applied to various domains of science taught in schools (as well as undergraduate education), and comply with the calls to include scientific practices in science curricula. on Informal Science Education to define and encourage science learning in many contexts and throughout the lifespan. Research in informal science education is funded in the United States by the National Science Foundation. The
Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE) provides resources for the informal science education community. Examples of informal science education include science centers,
science museums, and new digital learning environments (
e.g. Global Challenge Award), many of which are members of the
Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC). The
Franklin Institute in Philadelphia and the
Museum of Science (Boston) are the oldest of this type of museum in the United States. Media include TV programs such as
NOVA, ''Newton's Apple'', "
Bill Nye the Science Guy", "
Beakman's World",
The Magic School Bus, and
Dragonfly TV. Early examples of science education on American television included programs by
Daniel Q. Posin, such as "Dr. Posin's Universe", "The Universe Around Us", "On the Shoulders of Giants", and "Out of This World". Examples of community-based programs are
4-H Youth Development programs,
Hands On Science Outreach, NASA and After school Programs and Girls at the Center. Home education is encouraged through educational products such as the former (1940–1989)
Things of Science subscription service. In 2010, the National Academies released
Surrounded by Science: Learning Science in Informal Environments, based on the National Research Council study,
Learning Science in Informal Environments: People, Places, and Pursuits.
Surrounded by Science is a resource book that shows how current research on learning science across informal science settings can guide the thinking, the work, and the discussions among informal science practitioners. This book makes valuable research accessible to those working in informal science: educators, museum professionals, university faculty, youth leaders, media specialists, publishers, broadcast journalists, and many others. ==See also==