Wendy Decter, M.D.
The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) collects educational achievement data at the fourth and eighth grade levels from countries around the world in order to provide information about students' performance. It is an achievement test administered to students as well as extensive background information collected from schools regarding methodology and content. The test items in 2003 were specifically designed to assess inquiry-based learning and "higher order thinking" skills. TIMSS data is useful to assess our educational policies and compare them to those of the fifty other participating countries. Studies were conducted in 1995, 1997, 2003, and the next will be completed in 2007. In the 2003 study, the United States 8th graders ranked 9th after Singapore, China, Korea, Hong Kong, Estonia, Japan, Hungary and the Netherlands.
How have our curriculae and methods left us so far behind in achievement in the most essential subjects for mastering our world? It will be interesting to see if we have closed the gap when the 2007 results are published next year.
Since 1996 the National Science Education Standards have placed an emphasis on inquiry and process. It is no longer a matter of teaching our students groups of interrelated facts. We must teach them how to investigate, a process which they intuitively knew before they ever entered school. In fact in the 2003 TIMSS our 4th graders were ranked 6th, behind Singapore, China, Japan, Hong Kong, and England. What is happening in science teaching in our schools between 4th and 8th grade. Do we change over to a fact-based "listen and learn" model? Are we more able to capitalize on younger children's' natural curiosity? Inquiry learning is NOT new. It is what babies do. Watch your world, try something, if it "sort of" works, modify it, if it doesn't work, try something else. This how children learn naturally and it is also the essence of the scientific method. We have to reteach this most natural method of discovering the world to our students or prevent them from losing the wonder of it in the first place.
The NSES standards A and E speak to teaching science as inquiry and having students acquire understanding of science and technology. Inquiry means asking questions, but not just any questions. Questions must lead to hypotheses. Students will have to develop their own ways of testing these hypotheses. Observations during these tests lead to more questions. A model starts to take shape and can be tested. Ones' methods can be evaluated and revised. Students take initiative and responsibility for learning. They are doing science. Students bring their own perspectives and talents to the problems they are investigating so that each student may not be doing exactly the same thing as other students in the class (nor should they be). They must prepare and share their findings with other students so that they teach and learn from each other. Collaboration and communication skills are learned. As students explore they will tend to bring other disciplines into play in their questions and their experiments. They may have to use mathematics, their artistic skills, and they will certainly be practicing their reading and writing skills. The science room should look like a hive of activity with the teacher carefully observing and remaining as quiet as possible. Giving answers spoils the fun.
Relevancy is a most important issue in the teaching of science but once the students are in charge of their own learning it is already relevant to them. While pure science is a joy to some, it is applied science that usually brings home the message to students. I believe this is the basis for the extreme popularity of the forensic science television shows. The science behind the action is made accessible and understandable to the audience. We as high school and middle school science teachers can "cash in" on this tremendous appeal
by creating "crimes" for students to solve. They will be using scientific inquiry daily and instinctually.
As a teacher in an inner city school where students are distracted by the events of their owns lives it is important to create engaging lessons. Crime, hunger, poverty, pregnancy, unstable living arrangements, foster care, and jobs are just a few of the obstacles our students face. It is always challenging to find a way to make science relevant. In my opinion is seems easier to relate a theme from history or a novel to students' day-to-day concerns than it is to make atomic theory relevant. It is more important to me that students learn a method of evaluating their world than the principles of Dalton's Theory. They have to make decisions, every second of every day. Hopefully, they will use the skills they acquire in science class to observe, think, test, and decide based on data, in their lives, whether dealing with influential peers or making decisions for their families' health in the future.