UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Carla Zembal-Saul, professor of education and head of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in the Penn State College of Education, has spent her career pushing educational boundaries.
Some of her more recent work has had a direct impact on students in kindergarten through fifth grade in the State College Area School District. Zembal-Saul has inspired the district to write a new science curriculum that prioritizes student voice and agency by putting the tasks of asking questions and constructing explanations in the hands of students.
Her efforts have drawn admiration from those with whom she is working.
“One of her super-powers is her knowledge of the Next Generation Science Standards and her deep understanding of best teaching practices,” said Kimber Hershberger, a former SCASD teacher leader in science who has worked with Zembal-Saul. “She is a strong advocate for empowering students as knowledge-builders. For instance, she taught us to use a strategy of gathering wonderings from students which tap their curiosity. Doing this strategy during the beginning of the unit allows students to have a voice in what questions will guide further investigations.”
Creating a new curriculum is no easy task, as it takes time, effort and resources. But, Zembal-Saul said, for those willing to take on that work, it is rewarding to be able to shape students’ educational experiences for years to come.
“Curriculum-writing is a Herculean task that requires an understanding of big ideas in science, science and engineering practices and how to engage children with them, contemporary frameworks for learning and standards, curriculum writing that supports teacher learning, and more,” Zembal-Saul said.
“I would never recommend that school-based educators take on creating their own curriculum,” she continued. “But SCASD teacher leaders in elementary science are remarkable — they have almost two decades of professional learning in which they implemented new approaches in their classrooms, participated in self-study, and made their learning public, locally and nationally, through professional meetings and publications.”
A major difference between the framing of the new curriculum and mere hands-on learning is that this approach engages children directly in investigating and making sense of phenomena. Zembal-Saul said this is important to do with children at this age because of their natural curiosity.
“The elementary years are often neglected,” she said. “Young children are all about ‘why’ and sometimes family members and teachers feel the pressure to answer their questions instead of supporting their inquiry.”
To say changing education has been her life’s work is no exaggeration. Zembal-Saul has spent her career advocating for this evolution in the way science is taught in Pennsylvania and nationally. She even has traveled to Spain and South Africa on multiple occasions to collaborate with educators there to further the cause.
“Advancing practice and research for equitable elementary science education is an ongoing journey for me that has gone from the margins of science education research to, just this past year, the publication of the National Academies of Sciences’ new report for which I had the privilege of serving on the consensus committee,” Zembal-Saul said. “A central message of the report is that educator[s] and researchers alike should tap into children’s natural curiosity about how the world works, their intuitive methods of investigating and their cultural and linguistic resources. We also need to flip the narrative about elementary teachers and science to draw on their strengths, not focus only on gaps in their science background.”
Hershberger cited an example of that kind of science with third-graders having multiple experiences observing and collecting data about Madagascar “hissing” cockroaches’ physical structures and their functions. Students then use this data to add to a developing explanation for how these interesting critters survive in their environment.
“Often science curriculum merely tells students what the concepts are and has them verify with labs,” Hershberger said. “The NGSS standards emphasize having students use science practices as they investigate. These practices include collecting data, making models, constructing scientific explanations that are supported by evidence. Carla has been instrumental in supporting teachers in learning how to incorporate these practices in the science lessons.”
The local school district is familiar with Penn State and has worked with the University at large, and the College of Education specifically, on numerous occasions. But when it comes to advocating for changes both in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, the Penn State name provides cachet.
“I have been supported at Penn State across my 25 years here, advancing from a brand new assistant professor to full professor,” said Zembal-Saul. “Penn State’s reputation as a research university precedes it, providing credibility and opening doors. For example, I was invited to make a presentation to the Pennsylvania State Board of Education in 2019 on the urgency to review and update the state science standards.”
But always at the core of Zembal-Saul’s work are the students, something she plans on always being the case.
“It comes down to the kids,” she said. “I want this for the children and I’m willing to do all kinds of things that look non-traditional on the surface to make that happen. And I am committed to walking the walk with educators, kids, administrators and families in schools and community spaces. The relational part of that work both brings me joy and it’s also what I hope people remember — that I can’t go into a classroom without rolling up my sleeves and joining a small group of students and literally listening to what kids are grappling with and then processing with teachers.
“That’s really what I would like classroom teachers and other educators to associate with my way of being in the world and my impact.”