College of Education faculty helping to reform science teaching methods in Pa.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Faculty in the Penn State College of Education, along with some alumni currently working in the education field, are helping reform Pennsylvania’s science teaching methods as part of a broader effort by the state to modernize how students throughout the commonwealth are taught.

Looking to support the adoption of the new Pennsylvania Science, Technology & Engineering, Environmental Literacy and Sustainability (STEELS) Standards, Scott McDonald, professor of education (science education) and director of the Krause Studios for Innovation in the college, said the group’s mission is to implement the idea of what is known as “3D teaching” because of its three-pronged approach based on the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS).

“There are the disciplinary core ideas, which you would typically think of as the content — photosynthesis or the forces and motion, that kind of thing,” McDonald explained. “Then there’s science and engineering practices. Traditionally, these would be thought of as process skills — developing models, collecting and analyzing data, developing explanations, etc. The last of the three dimensions is cross-cutting concepts. These things appear in all the different subareas of science but are not specific to any one area of science — things like cause and effect, size and scale or other items.”

McDonald, who is partnering with Carla Zembal-Saul, a fellow professor of education (science education) and head of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, in addition to a team including several College of Education alumni, said now that the new standards are finalized, his group will work with the state’s network of 29 intermediate units (IUs) to bring teachers from all parts of Pennsylvania up to date on what the standards demand of them. Staff at the IUs will provide professional learning directly to teachers from the schools they serve.

“It is important that teachers and students engage in the three-dimensional approach to science as this approach models the actual work of practicing scientists,” said team member Peter Licona, who earned a doctorate from the Penn State College of Education and is associate professor of Pre-K-12 science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) Education at Elizabethtown College. “The attention to disciplinary core ideas, cross-cutting concepts, and science and engineering practices provides a much more robust and active science teaching and learning experience. Starting with this approach in elementary school not only has the potential to develop future scientists early but also allows students to understand the science that is part of their out-of-school worlds.”

Localized curriculum for science

One significant component of the new standards is for science to be localized as much as possible, meaning studying what is happening in nearby areas because McDonald said that makes science more relevant to students.

“We want teachers to take professional ownership over the learning, and we want them to localize it as much as possible,” he said. “We still want kids to learn big ideas in science. You can learn photosynthesis in lots of different ways. You can learn it in a community garden, maybe rooftop gardening, and maybe other folks, their families live on a farm, so they know lots about photosynthesis. It engages kids in science learning if what they’re learning is meaningful to them and is grounded in their experience and their view of how the world works. Those are essential pieces. It isn’t one-size-fits-all.”

McDonald continued, “What we want is a professional responsibility for teaching the kids in front of them. We don’t want them just marching through a curriculum where who the kids are doesn’t matter. Nobody wants that.”

Student engagement with science teaching curriculum

Engagement of students is crucial because, as fellow team member Colleen Epler-Ruths, a College of Education graduate who was a secondary science teacher for 24 years and is now a STEM education consultant with the Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit, explained, children have natural curiosity tailor-made for scientific discovery.

“The goal for science education should be to keep that curiosity alive in students throughout their entire school career,” she said. “The new standards are asking our teachers to not only teach content but to have students engage in science and engineering practices and cross-cutting concepts. This is important because our students will someday be voters, business owners and shoppers in a complex world.”

Lasting change will take time

Like any significant structural change, the team said, it will take time for administrators, teachers, students and parents to adjust to and ultimately accept this new way of doing things.

It won’t be a situation similar to throwing a switch in which one day is the current method and the next is a complete overhaul. Instead, it will take time and resources to affect a more gradual change, and students can benefit most.

“I think one needs to understand that, like many projects of this nature, the resources and infrastructure that are needed are only partially in place,” said team member Brett Criswell, a College of Education graduate who previously taught high school chemistry for 15 years and is currently an assistant professor of secondary education at West Chester University.“I think that parents, community members, informal STEMxs educators, and industry leaders really need to see this opportunity for what it is and throw all that they can into supporting teachers in the shifts that need to happen. This project’s success will rely only partially on our group’s work. Pennsylvania as a broader STEM ecosystem needs to work together with a singular purpose of allowing these new state standards to have the broader impact of which they are capable.”