This article is the first in what will become a continuing series of articles highlighting the perspectives of renowned science educators. The first featured article is by Robert Yager, Science Education Center, University of Iowa, USA. Dr. Yager has directed over 100 NSF projects designed to improve K-16 science programs. He has served as…

Science teaching and teacher education in the U.S.A. have been of great national interest recently due to a severe shortage of science (and mathematics) teachers who do not hold strong qualifications in their fields of study. Unfortunately we lack a rigorous research base that helps inform solid practices about various models or elements of…

Lead teachers were a major part of a staff-development program first offered in 1983 for science teachers in Iowa. Later, the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) reform project called Scope, Sequence, and Coordination (SS&C) involved 20 school districts and worked annually with new teachers involved during the 7-year funding period,…

The National Science Education Standards (NSES) articulates four goals (justifications) for requiring science in K-12 schools. An argument is made that science leaders must take the goals of science education seriously and use them to frame their teaching and staff development efforts. In this article, the author discusses the four NSES goals for…

Social issues provide real life and motivational questions which are successful in engaging the minds of many people (especially students). When dealing with social issues, students see the importance of so-called basic concepts and skills in dealing with them. For most persons, real mind engagement rarely occurs in educational settings. One…

Assessment, when integrated with instruction, can provide a basis for restructuring science education. The National Science Education Standards are incorporated into this guide to assessing student understanding in science. Chapters include: (1) "Assessment Based on Six Domains of Science," which organizes an assessment framework for…

The early drafts of the National Science Education Standards (NSES) did not include any mention of staff development; it was not considered as part of the needed visions for changing school science. It was when the final draft was offered to the leadership in the National Academy of Sciences that a section on Staff Development was added in…

Nine years after the National Science Education Standards' release, just how well do science teachers in grades 5 to 8 actually use them to plan content, define improved teaching, and assess real learning? Find out the answers to these key questions in this groundbreaking collection of 15 essays by teachers, researchers, and professors whose…

Discusses aspects of science-teacher education that should be reformed in efforts to reform science education. The need for reform in science education implies a concomitant demand for reform in science-teacher education. Effective educational standards must accommodate standards for teaching, coordination of teaching and assessment, and systems…