Vanessa Westbrook, NSTA Multicultural/Equity in Science Division Director Charles A. Dana University of Texas at Austin [email protected] FOCUSING.

Vanessa Westbrook, NSTA Multicultural/Equity in Science Division Director

Charles A. Dana University of Texas at Austin

[email protected]

FOCUSING ON THE 21ST CENTURY: TEACHING SCIENCE AND PROVING LEADERSHIP

How has history impacted the teaching and learning of science?

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LET’S REVIEW A TIMELINE OF THE PAST 60TH TO 70TH YEARS

1940

• Ending of the war-”The Bomb”• Women move into the workforce in large numbers due to the

war• Thousands of servicemen return, get educated and fuel the

greatest economic growth period (GI Bill)• Transistor invented• Jackie Robinson becomes first Black to play major league

baseball• Average salary $2992• Labor force male/female 5:2• Bread cost $0.14

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DRIVERS OF THE ECONOMY AND SOCIETY 1940

• Industrialization increased from war effort• College graduates increase from returning servicemen• USA is the world’s largest manufacturing engine• Exports and rebuilding of Europe• First computer ENIAC -first electronic calculator (18,000

vacuum tubes)• Economy begins to grow in late 40’s

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CHARACTERIZATION OF SCIENCE TEACHING -1940’

• The United States census lists nearly ten million adults as virtually illiterate.

• A select few took Algebra, Chemistry, Geometry and Physics (~15%)

• High School Math and Science teaching is based on college teaching pedagogy (Textbook, Lecture, Homework)

• Majority of students took “Basic Biology” courses and basic arithmetic

• Education model based on the Industrial Revolution model

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1950

• Industrial revolution is maturing and moving into the service economy

• Nuclear applications begin• First box cake mix is introduced• Drive-in movies provide entertainment• Automobile opens up travel• Digital programming of computers• Greatest industrial nation—no other country even close• NASA established

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DRIVERS OF ECONOMY AND SOCIETY 1950’

• Integrated circuit invented

• Transcontinental TV begins

• McCarthy Hearings –Communism

• Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a public bus

• Sputnik-First satellite orbits the earth; US launches Explorer I

• Economy expansion is significant

• Radio prime information and entertainment media in the home

• Salk vaccine developed to halt polio epidemic

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CHARACTERIZATION OF SCIENCE TEACHING -1950’

• Math and Science teaching still much the same as it was in the 40’s Higher level math and science courses for only the brightest students - traditional teaching- whole group”

• “Separate but Equal” education being challenged

• Sweatt vs. Painter, U.S. Supreme Court rules in Colleges (52’)

• Brown vs. Topeka, Kansas Supreme Court Decision in K-12 schools (54’) “separate facilities for African American is wrong!”

• Sputnik redirects the US to focus on mathematics and science education Many people have ideas of what to change; A great amount of rhetoric

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1960• Viet Nam war

• Civil Rights movement becomes a center piece of society

• Civil Rights Act of 1964

• African American students in Greensboro, North Carolina, stage a sit-in by filling seats at a lunch counter to protest refusals to serve seated African Americans

• Cuba “Bay of Pigs” and missile crisis

• JFK assassinated

• John Glenn orbits the earth 3 times

• Alabama Governor George Wallace urges southern governors to defy integration orders with his theme "Stand in the Schoolhouse Door”

• TI handheld calculator $2500

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DRIVERS OF ECONOMY AND SOCIETY - 1960• Space research and engineering• Apollo program • Building of the USA infrastructure• Televisions in most homes• Most all products- American made

• Computers making significant inroads into business/government (IBM, HP, Apple, Space program)

• Computer Science as a discipline• TV - main media in home for entertainment and news (3-5 channels)

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CHARACTERIZATION OF SCIENCE TEACHING - 1960

• “New Math” introduced into schools via NSF (focus on concepts, set theory, functions, various number bases and diagrams)

• Public and teachers rebel and went back to traditional teaching of mathematics

• Science education gets attention, some resources but little change• Much rhetoric about improving schools• Integration begins in public schools• Ninety percent of high-school principals were men and 85 percent of

elementary-school teachers were women.• ~40% of students graduate from H.S.

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1970• Roe Vs Wade• Prayer in school unconstitutional• Impeachment proceedings of a President Nixon• Viet Nam war divides the country• Affirmative Action becomes key elements for business in hiring• “Glass Ceiling” concept is popularized• Ohio National Guard kills four students and wounds eight at a Kent

State University student rally protest

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DRIVERS OF THE ECONOMY AND SOCIETY 1970

• Travel- Jumbo Jets

• Genetic engineering born- first test tube baby

• Intel’s microprocessor• Apollo18 and USSR’s Soyuz 19 linked• Entertainment - VCRs• First “Star Wars” movie• Significant Stock Market decline• Oil shortage

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CHARACTERIZATION OF SCIENCE TEACHING 1970

• Relatively little has changed in teaching science from 1960 - some believe education lost the impetus of the 1960

• School integration in full gear• Schools must address the “handicapped”

• April 22, the first Earth Day celebration - Two thousand college campuses host events and

over ten thousand elementary & high-school students take part

• Computer Assisted Instruction (CAI) becomes part of business training, i.e. next phase of programmed instruction

• Significant rhetoric about public education

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1980• Business hostile takeovers and mega mergers

• AIDS becomes significant issue

• Berlin wall comes down

• Credit buying becomes the norm

• Rescue mission to Iran fails

• First Space Shuttle – Columbia

• U. S. Hockey Team beats Russia

• Sandra Day O’Connor appointed to Supreme Court

• National Education Association (NEA) endorses Democrat Jimmy Carter

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DRIVERS OF THE ECONOMY AND SOCIETY 1980

• Personal Computers become legitimate tools in business• “Microsoft Operating System” introduced by IBM• Imports gaining large market share in automobiles and

consumer electronics• Inflation 13+%--Prime rate 21%• Internet opens up to selected groups• Reagan-nomics

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CHARACTERIZATION OF SCIENCE TEACHING -1980

• States Standards, State Assessments, Accountability are buzz words

• “Stand and Deliver” Jamie Escalante work at Garfield HS

• The teaching of math and science in some states is beginning to be based on a set of standards-pedagogy changes from traditional modes

• A federal judge strikes down a Texas law excluding most illegal alien children from public schools. "the rights of man are not a function of immigration status."

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CHARACTERIZATION OF SCIENCE TEACHING -1980

• We continue to lead due to our colleges and universities

• Report on Pre-college education in Math, Science and Technology “The nation that dramatically and boldly lead the world into

the age of technology is failing to provide its own children

with intellectual tools needed for the 21st century” A Nation at Risk

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A Nation at Risk report

If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well have

viewed it as an act of war.

As it stands, we have allowed this to happen to ourselves. We have even squandered the gains in student achievement made in the wake of

the Sputnik challenge.

Moreover, we have dismantled essential support systems which helped make those gains possible. We have, in effect, been committing an act

of unthinking, unilateral educational disarmament.

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1990

• Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

• Brady Bill — gun control

• Bernard A. Harris is the first American African to walk in space

• Gulf war

• Social security, gun control and health care were significant issues

• Famous trials - Rodney King and O.J. Simpson

• John H. Glenn, age 77, goes on space mission, again!

• Columbine Shooting

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DRIVERS OF THE ECONOMY AND SOCIETY 1990

• World Wide Web grew from 2-100 million users • Imports continue to make gains • Out-sourcing jobs• Importing skills HB-1 visa program• Stock market decline• Cell phones becoming a “must” for everyone

• Medical technology is racing with many new applications; Physicians jobs and health care change dramatically. (CAT scans, Pacemakers, less invasive surgeries)

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CHARACTERIZATION OF SCIENCE TEACHING -1990

• Majority of students taking Biology and Algebra, few are taking Chemistry, Physics and Geometry

• Hand held calculators introduced in significant numbers in schools

• Education ideology wars creates confusion among educators and public (content vs. pedagogy, whole language vs. phonetics

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CHARACTERIZATION OF SCIENCE TEACHING -1990

• African Americans at private colleges and universities in the United States rose by 7.1 compared to 0.2 in public universities

• Ritalin drug of choice for ADD/ADHD

• The College Board report on college costs increased by 5 to 8 percent in just one year – 1990-1991

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2000

• Communications integration, Cell phones, internet and digital TV

• Genetic engineering

• Fossil fuels demand outstripping supply

• 9/11—war on terrorists

• $100 in 1940 is same as $1322 today

• Average salary $37,000 vs. $2992 in 1940

• Labor force male: female 1:1 vs. 5:2 in 1940

• $1.50 cost of loaf of bread vs. $0.14 in 1940

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DRIVERS OF THE ECONOMY AND SOCIETY 2000

• Consumer spending key to economy

• Housing sector key element

• New technologies in communications

• Oil prices steadily increasing

• Social issues revolve around social security, education, personal security and health care

• Iraq war and peace keeping mission

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CHARACTERIZATION OF SCIENCE TEACHING 2000

• Math and Science teaching has not changed much from the 1990s

• 2003 task force on education4 graders competitive internationally

8th graders lose 40 points and are average

12 graders are at the very bottom

• 21st Century Summit identify what students need

Digital-age literacy, Inventive Thinking, Effective Communications

• STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics

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SOME PERSPECTIVES• Americans have wanted schools to serve different and often contradictory

purposes for their own children

• To socialize them to be obedient, yet to teach them to be critical thinkers,

• To pass on the best academic knowledge that the past has to offer, yet also teach

marketable and practical skills,

• To cultivate cooperation, yet to teach students to compete with one another in

school and later life,

• To stress basic skills but also encourage creativity and higher order thinking skills,

• To focus on academic “basics” yet permit a wide range of choice of courses.

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SOME PERSPECTIVES

• How fast is technology moving?

• 38 years for radio to get to 50 million users

• 13 years for TV to get to 50 million users

• 16 years for PC’s to get to 50 million users

• 4 years for Internet to get to 50 million users

• Life expectation has gone from 62 in 1940 to 82 for women by 2007

• Robots operating on humans today!!

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SOME PERSPECTIVES

• 20th Century had many education reforms:• New America Schools Essential Schools

• Accelerated Schools America’s Choice

• Basic Education Direct Instruction

• Engaged Learning Purpose Centered

• Atlas Co-NECT

• Success for All

• Major barriers:• 3 million teachers 50 million students

• Governance

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SOME PERSPECTIVES• In the 1940 science teaching was based on text books and chalk boards

the “Industrial Model”• In 2010 science teaching is based on …

• Textbooks

• Chalk/white boards

• Laboratory investigations

• Technology

• Conceptual Understanding

• Standards

• What?

• Have we changed enough to reflect the changes that occurred in society to meet society’s need?

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SOME PERSPECTIVES

Change Society

Public Education

Time

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SOME PERSPECTIVES

The essentials for improving student achievement are:

• All students must have access to the same viable curriculum in every

classroom-”guaranteed”

• High Yield instructional strategies have significant impact on student

achievement

• Teachers must collaborate to make this happen-we are all in this together,

let’s build a system!!

• Use technology as a building block for instruction, not a “add on”

.

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SO WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT IN THE NEXT 20 YEARS?

• Health Care?

• E-Learning

• Mobile computing

• Energy?

• Jobs?

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• Is our current Industrial Model of Education what we need in the 21st Century?

• Let’s all start looking at new ways of doing things. I believe you have many of the answers, but need to have the opportunity and responsibility to begin to revolutionize the teaching of science.

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Now that You Know!

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Engage that Leader in YOU!

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The Teaching of Science: 21st Century Perspectives

By Rodger W. Bybee

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The focus of this book blends the idea of teaching for the 21st century

and being a leader.

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Leadershipp.161

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Definitions of Leadershipp.162

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Leadership Requires a Vision and a Planp.165

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Providing Leadership as a Science Teacher“Leadership qualities are sometimes attributed to individuals because of personality: we say they have charisma” P.. 167

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Notable pages

Pay attention to Equity. p. 119Inquiry Continuum p. 86Create Learning Experiences p. 58

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Final tips:

Empower your studentsMentor the new educatorApply for other awards

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Teach HardLead Strong!

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[email protected]

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