The Science and Technology Standards for the teaching and learning of K-12 science in Massachusetts were issued in April 2016. These were adapted, as the document explains, from K-12 science-education documents that have come generally to be known as the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Common features include: (1) integration of science…

Scientific modeling has been advocated as one of the core practices in recent science education policy initiatives. In modeling-based instruction (MBI), students use, construct, and revise models to gain scientific knowledge and inquiry skills. Oftentimes, the benefits of MBI have been documented using assessments targeting students' conceptual…

Science curriculum and instruction in K-12 settings in the United States is currently dominated by an emphasis on the science standards movement of the 1990s and the resulting standards-based high-stakes assessment and accountability movement of the 2000s. We argue that this focus has moved the field away from important philosophical…

For students to develop a more realistic picture of how scientists practice science, there must be well-researched understanding of how scientists do science. A model for the process of scientific inquiry that more closely reflects actual scientific practices can provide a means of dispelling some of the myths about scientific inquiry. This paper…

Proposes model, based on Kuhn's paradigmatic epistemology, for employing the scientific method in education. Model acknowledges that all scientific knowledge is social knowledge derived through social processes and allows for all scientific truths to be subjected to constant scrutiny and reviews by both practitioners and scientists. (CMG)

This paper proposes a comprehensive approach to program evaluation and suggests employing a number of methods in evaluating a program. Exclusive allegiance to one school of thought and adoption of one particular technique leads to limited comprehension about programs, and hence their evaluations. If evaluation is viewed as a process by which…

The workings of schools have not received the attention due them in the study of educational administration. We need to generate new "images" or models of school organization that are more congruent with reality. These models need to be refined through expression and discussion and selected and changed through scientific methodology.…

The article discusses observing and quantifying as basic skills, presents a model for dealing with problems, and suggests seven activities which range from kindergarten to twelfth-grade level. (MK)

Defines and discusses the extremes of "poetism" (or overreliance on intuition) and "scientism" (overreliance on research-based models) in teaching and supervision. Argues that teaching is neither an art nor a science, but more like a craft that skilled teachers practice as artisans, combining technique and reflection. (TE)

Demonstrates that scientific laws about nature and their representative models, as taught and described by theory, are often different from the method as practiced. Focuses on the use of the Periodic Table as a scientific model. Contains 26 references. (DDR)

An emerging postpositivist paradigm for inquiry and research is outlined, based on recent thinking in philosophy, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The paper delineates the paradigm's basic beliefs, considers methodological implications, and suggests applications in the education of the gifted. (Author/JDD)

Argues that assumptions of the empirical-analytic paradigm that social-science research is objective may be flawed, and researchers need to be aware of the political and ideological influences in research on special-needs education. An alternative model is offered which challenges the "normalization" approach to teaching students with special…

Offers a concise, abstract description of the scientific method different from the historical, philosophical, and case-study approaches, which lead to comprehension of this method. Discusses features of scientific models, dynamic interactions underlying scientific progress, ways that scientist successfully understand nature, mechanisms for…

A new model for problem solving is broken down into four overlapping and interactive processes: Problem Posing, Problem Approach, Problem Solutions, and Communication. Figures illustrate the skills used in this new image of science problem solving, and a ninth-grade science investigation employing the processes is described. (LZ)

This paper explores the evidence of a substantive paradigm shift in curriculum theory by examining the questions that have caused Elliot Eisner's radical shift from an empirical-analytical research model to a critical-theoretical one. The role of theory development and of ethics and values in research have propelled Eisner's theoretical shift. (TE)