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Thanks Martin -
I think one of the barriers to getting a system of accountability you aspire to is the way we study learning. We still see learning as linearized, physicalized processes rather than a self-organizing and emergent phenomena in neurological, cognitive and social networks of interaction. One big step might be to rethink the whole way in which we teach and test, perhaps not even try to adapt what we have done in the past, but just start over. This may sound a little crazy, but as I watch my 15 year old be subject to the same quaint approaches to learning and assessment I was subject to 40 years ago, irrespective of what progress we may be making in theory, we have made no progress in practice at all. The main value I see in the new common core standards in math, and the direction we seem to be headed in science is a realization that we need to clean house for the next go around, that incremental change may not be able to get us what we want. I totally get that incremental change may be all that's possible. All the more reason to perhaps look at a decade out or more and determine where we want to be and train the trajectory of learning and cognitive sciences toward that, so we have the right tools when we need them. I suspect they won't look anything like what we have now. This is starting to smell like a REESE proposal.
Stephen Miles Uzzo, PhD.
VP, Science & Technology
New York Hall of Science
47-01 111th Street
Flushing Meadows Corona Park, NY 11368 USA
V +1.718 595.9177
F +1.718.699.5227
On May 7, 2012, at 8:25 AM, Storksdieck, Martin wrote:
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
> *****************************************************************************
>
> RE: Common Core Standards for Science - AKA (more precisely) Next Generation Science Standards (since they are not common core in the sense that state governors did not sign on before they were developed)
>
> Alan is correct: the NRC Framework for K-12 Science Education that will guide the development of the Next Generation Science Standards referenced the four strands of 2007 Taking Science to School: Learning and Teaching Science in Grades K-8. It leaves out motivation and interest (strand 1 in LSIE) and the development of an identity as a science learner and as someone who knows about, uses and sometimes contributes to science (strand 6). However, while not addressed directly those ideas were also not entirely ignored (I think). The discussion about science education standards in the Framework starts with 8 practices of science and engineering that students should engage with when encountering core ideas and cross-cutting concepts. It is worth looking at these eight practices since they suggest a huge role for informal science institutions, and they suggest a way to engage with science that many of us would reasonably claim foster those affective and identity-related outcomes. Furthermore, the core ideas in science were selected using a range of criteria, including their broad explanatory power, but also whether they are significant and relevant to students and whether they are teachable and learnable in K-12.
>
> The Framework makes it clear that science is meant for all students, and it also speaks about the love for science and lifelong learning. True, it doesn't specify affective outcomes, and it talks about "performance expectations" that basically ask what students can do with what they have learned, something that traditional paper-pencil multiple choice questionnaires have difficulties measuring. In that sense they are already stretching the system.
>
> I would love to see a system of accountability in K-12 (or K-16) be responsive to a variety of cognitive, affective and even conative outcomes so that the love of learning and innate curiosity would not get squeezed out of kids in our pursuit for academic excellence, no matter how sophisticated the education system. Imagine a principle having to optimize his or her school for both... My sense is, though, that we need to take small, somewhat manageable steps towards that goal. Assessing student performance within the vision of the new Framework will be hard, and we are not yet where we want to be in assessing interest, motivation, engagement, identity or many of the so-called 21st Century skills in large scale or high stakes tests yet.
>
> But in the spirit (I hope) of Alan's comment, I would also like to add that there is a growing realization that these affective and identity-related elements of (science) learning are crucial. I believe that the Framework, combined with LSIE, opens the door for these discussions, allows ISE institutions to point to their essential role in providing children and adults with experiences that engage and inspire (two important terms in Washington now). In order to be able to have this conversation we need to ensure that we can show, and show it well, that ISE institutions do this. A previous discussion on this listserv doubted the value of evaluation. I can attest: good measures of accomplishments are essential!
>
> Best,
> Martin
>
> ________________________________________________
> Martin Storksdieck, 202-334-3987 (office), 443-254-0002 (cell)
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Informal Science Education Network [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Alan Friedman
> Sent: Sunday, May 06, 2012 2:33 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Common Core Standards
>
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
> *****************************************************************************
>
> RE: Common Core Standards for Science
>
> As I read the documents, one aspect of the next generation science standards framework is that, like the last generation of science standards, it does not pay attention to any of the NRC's 6 strands of learning (LSIE, 2009) except the cognitive ones. Interest, attitude, and other strands where ISE can have big positive impacts are not in the framework, so they will not be included in the standards themselves, and they will not appear in the high-stakes assessments which follow.
>
> I'd love to hear that this reading is wrong, and also I'd love to hear if anyone has a strategy for countering this ongoing shortsighted view of how learning happens.
>
> Alan
> ________________________________________
> Alan J. Friedman, Ph.D.
> Consultant for Museum Development and Science Communication
> 29 West 10th Street
> New York, New York 10011 USA
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>
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>
>>>
>
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