SCED 550
Current Issues & Research in Science Education
Catalog Copy:
Prerequisite: Admission to M.S. in Science Education program. SCED 550
is a core course in the M.S. in Science Education.
Introduces students to body of research and practical knowledge shared
by science education community. Includes choosing, studying, and
discussing articles from science education literature relevant to key
issues in science education. Course requirements include attending
science teacher’s conventions.
Letter grade only (A-F). (Seminar 3 hrs.)
BASIC INFORMATION
Semester: Fall 2011
Instructor: Alan Colburn
Classroom: LA5-353
Meeting Time: Tu 5:00-7:45 p.m.
Office: HSCI-216
Office Hours: M, W 4-5. These times don't work well for students in
this particular class, I know, but I usually respond to e-mails
quickly, and I am on campus almost every day. Let me know when you want
to come.
Telephone: 562 985 5948
E-mail: acolburn@csulb.edu
OVERVIEW OF THE COURSE
& COURSE GOALS
Welcome to the CSULB M.S. program in Science Education!
This course is first in the three-course sequence that is at the heart
of the Science Education M.S. degree. ScEd 550 is designed to introduce
you to the field of science education as a discipline. In this class
you will learn about science education's history, examine current
issues in our field, and become familiar with the reasons we study
these problems. You’ll get to know some of the journals making up our
professional literature, meet the rest of the Science Education
Department faculty, and meet local science education leaders. You’ll
explore new issues, including those that might become the basis for
your thesis/project, while building upon the knowledge you
gained during your credential program and time in the K-12 classroom.
My overarching mission is to introduce you to the big
picture of science education. I want to help you see your profession
through a different lens. As a practicing teacher, you're used to
seeing teaching via a close-up perspective. This class will help you
also view teaching via a more distant perspective. The goal is not to
replace
your day to day classroom viewpoint, but to
enhance it. The
ability to see your profession with various viewpoints is a necessary
quality for any educational leader. And creating educational leaders is
one of the main goals of the CSULB M.S. in Science Education program.
This 'big picture' viewpoint includes things like thinking about your
discipline’s history, understanding how and why people have justified
science being part of the school curriculum, major issues to which we
attend, professional development, what's going on with science
education at the state and national levels, etc.
You’ll also become familiar with the kinds of scholarly literature
making up the discipline of Science Education. You'll read a variety of
articles from widely varied journals. You'll become better at
understanding the style of scholarly work in education. And you will
learn things that will help you when you eventually
complete your thesis--like how to find relevant references via online
databases, APA and thesis formatting requirements, and getting research
clearance from the Institutional Review Board.
The purpose of the class (and indeed the entire M.S. program) is for
you to head toward a point where you can hold your own when talking
with anyone about science teaching and the science education discipline!
REQUIRED COURSE MATERIALS
Text: DeBoer, G.E. (1991). A History of Ideas in Science Education:
Implications for Practice. New York, NY: Teacher’s College Press. [will
be distributed in class]
Course Reader: a package of articles, accessible via
library e-reserves
Optional Text: Colburn, A. (2003). The Lingo of Learning: 88 Education
Terms Every Science Teacher Should Know. Arlington, VA: NSTA Press. I
put this on the list solely for students who feel intimidated by a lack
of science education background. If you have never had a Science
Methods course, you might find the book a handy reference. It's in the
library at Q181 .C5265.
ASSIGNMENTS &
ASSESSMENT
Course grades will be based on these assignments:
•
Reading,
participation, short essays related to reading assignments
(45%): With a class this small, you will definitely
participate extensively. If you’re unprepared for class for some
reason, it will be pretty obvious. Sometimes you might be responsible
for developing guiding questions to examine and clarify readings,
providing a summary of an article, or even leading a portion of the
weekly seminar. There may also be times when you will be responsible
for finding an article(s) for everyone in the class to read.
The class will also include small essays. I'll assign them as the class
goes on, and post the information below. These assignments are
short--one page maximum--and designed to get you thinking about issues.
For these short essays I'll be grading on the basis of simple effort +
cogency. A student will receive an A if it looks to me like s/he
responded in a way reflecting serious thought, written clearly.
The small essays include very brief responses to four questions after
reading assignments from DeBoer's book. Bring your responses to the
questions to the class session in which we discuss the assignment:
* What ideas or principles do you think
were driving reformers during this chapter's time period? (What
connections, if any, do you see between reformers' ideas about school
science and conditions in the larger society at the time?)
* How do you think they would have
advocated that science be taught?
* What do you think they would have said
about assessment?
* What do you think they might have said
about how people learn (or how people should learn)?
•
Curriculum
Project (15%): The purpose of this assignment
is for you to compare past science curricula to current curricula.
Today's hands-on science curricula owe a lot to their predecessors from
the 1960's. Many still popular activities were originally created for
these projects. In this assignment you'll to become familiar with one
of the successful "alphabet soup" curricula (so named because they were
know via acronyms), compare it to curricula of today (traditional texts
and reform based curriculum) and educate your classmates about the
projects. You'll ultimately write a paper (and give a presentation) in
which you provide this information:
1. The project's title, including a translation
for its acronym.
2. A broad overview of the project--its
philosophy, goals, and rationale. Situate this curriculum within what
you’ve read and understand about the history of science education. Link
it back to readings in DeBoer.
3. A brief history of the project and its
development, including discussion about the project's overall
acceptance within the educational community. You will need to include
information about who created this (scientists, teachers, professional
organization…), how it came into being and who published it.
4. You will provide a detailed description of one
unit from the project, including a discussion about the project’s
assessment(s). This should include an annotated listing of the unit’s
activities, labs, readings, etc.
5. Comparison of this curriculum to today’s
curriculum – textbooks and project based/reform based curriculum.
Compare ways in which the instructional materials are similar and
different. Compare the content expectations within each (depth and
breadth) and amount of time to be devoted to instruction. Pay
particular attention to what the teacher and students are expected to
do in each. Decide whether you think the project could/would fit in
today's classrooms--is the project outdated or still applicable? You
could, if you like, create a chart where you compare the 1960’s
curriculum with today’s texts and project-based curricula.
•
Grant
Proposal (10%): Write a grant proposal for a classroom
project.
I may be able to help you a little to find different granting agencies
and proposal forms; people at your school site may have suggestions,
too. Two places to start are
http://www.cascience.org/csta/res_awards.asp (CSTA, the California
Science Teachers Association) and
http://teachingcommons.cdl.edu/sec/grants_awards/ (CSU, California
State University). For the assignment you will write a proposal,
complete with budget. You will hand in a copy of the proposal
and--probably--supporting documentation that accompanied the proposal.
(Check with me to confirm this last point. You may not need to hand in
supporting documents that are merely photocopies of school-related
information.) Don't forget about companies like Target and Best Buy as
a potential funding source; large companies whose customer bases
include people with school aged children often have programs in which
they donate moneys to teachers. (Successful funding is not a
requirement.)
OR
•
Conference
Proposal
(10%). Students are required to present at a
conference sometime before receiving their M.S. For this assignment you
will submit a presentation proposal, or at least complete the proposal
for a hypothetical presentation you will hopefully give someday soon.
Beside the proposal you’ll also provide: a list of the materials needed
for the presentation, an outline of the presentation, and copies of
handouts you’ll give attendees. The California Science Teachers
Association conference will be in Pasadena this October. Some of your
fellow students are presenting there; their proposals may have begun
with this assignment!
•
Literature
Analysis Matrix (30% for paper+presentations): For this
first Science Education course I'm asking you to begin doing things
that are part of any literature review--find relevant articles about a
topic, read them critically, and begin synthesizing their
content--without requiring a formal paper. The assignment is designed
help you become familiar with the science education literature, current
scholarship, and get you thinking critically about research and its
classroom implications. (You will conduct a literature review later in
your M.S. program. Literature reviews are typically the second chapter
in a thesis or project.)
Just about any topic, with instructor approval, is fair game. Examples
include—but are not limited to:
• Standards
• Scientific Literacy
• Teaching Strategies
• Lectures
• Laboratories
• Constructivism
• Inquiry
• Demonstrations
• Misconception/conceptual change
• Questioning strategies
• Problem solving
|
• Integration (i.e., reading and writing to learn
science)
• Science, Technology and Society
• Problem based learning
• Assessment
• Gender issues, equity, inclusion
• English as Second Language
• Informal science education
• Technology in the science classroom
• Urban science teaching
• Parent involvement, school-home connections
|
To make all this happen, you'll complete a research-literature analysis
matrix. We've agreed, as a department, to use the same matrix format in
other classes.
The matrix is a table. Each row discusses a single research article,
with the bolded headings:
| Authors (last name, year) |
Research
Question(s) |
Methodology
|
Results |
Implications |
| [Write the author & year, properly APA
formatted for in-text
citation] |
[What question or questions
were the researchers investigating?] |
[What kinds of data were collected? How was the data
collected? How did
the researchers organize and analyze their data?] |
[What were the researchers' key
results?] |
[What did the researchers
think their results meant? What did they see as the work's key
implications?] |
For each article you read, separately write its full APA citation, and
your own brief comments on the article. Did you think the results were
supported by the raw data? Did you think the authors' implications
followed logically from their results? Note particular strengths,
weaknesses, discreipancies, etc. Select five (or more)
articles to discuss for this part of the assignment.
In addition, choose two (or more) practitioner-oriented articles on the
same general topic. For each of these articles, write the article's
full APA citation, and a paragraph's description of the article's
activity or other main points.. . . Resist the urge to write too much.
Finally, include a brief discussion where you put it all together. This
section is a high level summary; it's not about individual articles.
When you synthesize everything you read, what comes out?
A few weeks before the paper is due I'll ask you to tell your
classmates about a relevant research article that you thought was well
done. You and I will discuss the article beforehand. Once approved,
you'll distribute copies to everyone and everyone will read the
article. This aspect of the assignment provides a way for everyone in
the class to learn about interesting, well done educational research.
In your presentation you'll briefly summarize the work and discuss your
thoughts about it--how the findings relate (or not) to your
school/district, and the audience to whom you think the work might be
most relevant, e.g., you might believe the study is most relevant to
small rural school districts or upper middle class suburban districts
with college bound students, or school administrators trying to match
teachers and students, etc. Your classmates will also participate, I
may ask a question or two, and we will ultimately have a nice
discussion. If you're lucky, this part of the assignment will prove
helpful in completing its written portion.
We will take classtime to discuss further details of the assignment and
I will answer all your questions long before the assignment is due.
Examples of research-oriented journals available at CSULB include:
Journal of Science Teacher Education, Journal of Research in Science
Teaching, School Science & Mathematics, Science Education,
Educational Leadership, and Phi Delta Kappan.
Examples of practitioner-oriented journals here include: The Science
Teacher, Science Scope, Science & Children, American Biology
Teacher, Journal of Chemical Education, The Physics Teacher, and
Journal of Geology Education.
COURSE POLICIES
Deadlines Assignments are expected to be handed in on time. Late
assignments will be marked down unless arrangements have been made with
the instructor before the assignment is due.
Attendance, Participation Attendance and participation are essential
components of this course. If you don't come, and talk, class won't
work! You and your classmates' ideas need to be heard for individual
and collective growth to occur. As such, your final course grade will
reflect your level of attendance and participation: an "A" student will
have attended virtually all classes and participated in each.
I understand, of course, that things happen. I don't want you coming to
class if you have a contagious disease, for example! So, you can miss
one class session (of 15 total) without a penalty. However, if you miss
two sessions you will have missed more than 10% of the total class
time. In a class like this, you can't miss that much class and learn as
much as if you were present and participating. Thus, your final grade
may decrease 3.3% if you miss two class sessions,6.6% if you miss three
class sessions, etc. unless you can provide support for the absences
being excused. If you know weeks beforehand that you will miss a class,
please let me know.
Grading Traditional grading only. Attendance and participation in class
are required. Clear communication is important as well as the ability
to synthesize complex ideas. Students earning an A will demonstrate
excellent written and oral communication skills and an ability to think
critically about issues related to science education.
Disability Students with disabilities who need reasonable
modifications, special assistance, or accommodations in this course
should promptly direct their request to the course instructor. If a
student with a disability feels that modifications, special assistance,
or accommodations offered are inappropriate or insufficient, s/he
should seek the assistance of the Director of Disabled Student Services
on campus
Other Policies Please visit the CNSM policy website for information
about course withdrawals, university policy on the number of times a
class can be repeated and other fall semester deadlines.
http://www.cnsm.csulb.edu/students/
TENTATIVE
COURSE SCHEDULE
| Week |
Date |
Topic for this Evening's
Class |
Assignment Due Today |
| 1 |
Aug 30 |
Intro
course; registration; answer questions; course overview; learn
to do
ERIC searches; students tour campus and dept libraries; learn
how to
find references
|
--
|
| 2 |
Sept 6 |
Discuss
reading; discuss articles found via ERIC; examine goals, standards
documents, depth vs. breadth, NCLB?, Race to the Top?, Gathering
Storm?; discuss proposal assignment
|
DeBoer
ch. 1;
Clough;
Bianchini;
Windschtitl.
[Find
article, present to classmates]
|
| 3 |
Sept
13
|
Discuss
reading; intro to
reading research; IRB.
|
DeBoer ch. 2;
Dimsdale
(Becoming an Educated Consumer of Research);
Crockett; Zimmerman;
|
| 4 |
Sept
20
|
Discuss
reading; intro to
constructivism, misconceptions & inquiry
|
DeBoer
ch. 3;
Smith
& Anderson;
Conference/Grant
Proposal
Due
|
| 5 |
Sept
27
|
Discuss
reading; constructivism, misconceptions & inquiry
(cont'd); prep for
curriculum assignment.
|
DeBoer
ch. 4;
Blanchard
et al. IRB Certificate
|
| 6 |
Oct
4
|
[4:30 seminar--Jo Topps, Designing Professional Development for Science Teaching] Discuss reading; teacher
behavior research, questioning, wait-time. |
DeBoer ch. 5;
Colburn;
Shymansky & Penick;
|
| 7 |
Oct
11
|
Discuss
reading; assessment (of students) |
DeBoer
ch. 6;
Colburn; Shavelson
|
| 8 |
Oct
18
|
[Guest: Bill Straits] Discuss reading; assessment
(international comparisons); assessment (of teachers) [new] |
DeBoer
ch. 7;
Achieve
article (intl assessment); Levin;
|
| 9 |
Oct
25
|
[4:30 seminar--Lauren Shea and Terry Shanahan,
Talking
to Learn: The role of student conversation in literacy and
science learning]
Discuss reading; Student Presentations |
DeBoer
ch. 8;
Curriculum
Assignment
|
| 10 |
Nov 1 |
[Guest: Laura Henriques] Discuss reading; EL's
[new]; |
DeBoer ch. 9;
Goldenberg;
Lit Review article selected
|
| 11 |
Nov 8 |
NO CLASS.
|
|
| 12 |
Nov 15 |
[4:30 seminar--Debbie DeRoma and Donna Ross,
Promoting Empowerment and Professionalism Among Informal Educators Through Lesson Study]
Discuss reading; urban education
[new]; article
presentations. |
DeBoer ch.
10;
Poplin et al.;TBA |
| 13 |
Nov 22 |
Discuss reading; article
presentations. |
DeBoer ch 11;
Lewis et
al. (on lesson study); TBA |
| 14 |
Nov 29 |
[guest: Jim Kisiel] Discuss reading; article
presentations |
TBA |
| 15 |
Dec 6 |
[5:00 Seminar--Xeng de los Santos, Jill Grace and
Natalie Torres, Evolution, Global Warming and Chemistry Discourse: An
Overview of Student Research in Science Education] |
Lit
Review assignment
|
