Grant-funded curriculum development efforts can substantially impact practice and research in science education. Therefore, understanding the sometimes-unintended consequences of changes in grant priorities is crucial. Using the case of two large funding agencies in the United States, the current portfolio review provides insight into these…

E-Science has the potential to transform school science by enabling learners, teachers and research scientists to engage together in authentic scientific enquiry, collaboration and learning. However, if we are to reap the benefits of this potential as part of everyday teaching and learning, we need to explicitly think about and support the work…

Interest and participation in science in schools has been declining for many years and there is a genuine need to rejuvenate interest in science at the high school level. One possible solution is the completion of challenging science projects which fulfill an authentic purpose in the community. This paper discusses the results of ongoing research…

In this study we examined curriculum integration in new ways by exploring the link between classroom context, the implementation of community-based, integrated science projects, and the subsequent student learning. The literature is inconsistent regarding the benefits of an integrated approach to curriculum. The research design was a multiple case…

Reports that teachers in preservice education programs still view the teaching of science much in the same traditional ways as our predecessors. "The Oklahoma Science Project (OSP) Model for Professional Development: Practicing Science Across Contexts" will build discourses and relationships that can be extended across contexts to establish…

An explicit goal of the current reform movement in science education is to promote scientific literacy in the United States. One way to encourage scientific literacy is to help students develop a better understanding of science subject matter, that is, the declarative knowledge specifically associated with the physical, life, and earth sciences.…

The purpose of this study was to document the iterative development of a design-based science curriculum called Learning Science by Designing Artifacts (LSDA). The study refers to the enactment of the Safer Cell Phones curriculum in a high school located in the Midwest. The curriculum was a 5- or 9-week unit in an 18-week science elective course.…

Reports on a study, Project REMODEL, that implemented and evaluated innovations in lecture, laboratory, and assessment for students in the introductory sequence for undergraduate chemistry. Results indicate that special sessions and conceptual exam questions can improve students' abilities to work successfully with both concepts and algorithms.…

Research into effective pedagogy was a major strand of the science education research programme at the University of Waikato for the 20 years of the 1980s and 1990s, being done in all five Learning in Science Projects and related theses. The research was closely connected to constructivist and sociocultural views of learning, current national…

Recommends ways in which the National Science Foundation can promote educational reform through the development of a national telecommunications system accessible to all schools and through support for project-enhanced science learning. Describes existing networks, factors in making a national network useful and accessible to teachers, and…

This document is written to encourage college faculty to use a student-centered, activity-related, approach to science instruction. Suggestions are provided for methods that can be used by faculty and administrators to develop alternatives to lecturing. The major sections of this document include the following: (1) Is There an Alternative to…

What teaching practices foster inquiry and promote students to learn challenging subject matter in urban schools? Inquiry-based instruction and successful inquiry learning and teaching in project-based science (PBS) were described in previous studies (Brown & Campione, [1990]; Crawford, [1999]; Krajcik, Blumenfeld, Marx, Bass, & Fredricks,…

Reviews the successes and failures of the science curriculum reform activities in England and Wales during the last 20 years and examines the underlying causes. In this review the author draws extensively on findings from researchers into curriculum implementation, conducted in Britain and elsewhere. (Author/HM)

Two lengthy reviews are presented of a series of seven studies, sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF), on the subject of science education from 1950 to 1975. In "Science Education in the United States during the Third Quarter of the Twentieth Century", Rita Peterson provides an historical view of major events that occurred…

In recent years, a number of curriculum reform projects have championed the notion of having students do science in ways that move beyond hands-on work with authentic materials and methods, or developing a conceptual grasp of current theories. These reformers have argued that students should come to an understanding of science through doing the…