U.S. science education lags, study finds (Reuters/CNN)

[eppur_se_muova]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Science education in U.S. elementary and middle schools is overly broad and superficial, according to a government report issued Thursday that also faults science curricula for assuming children are simplistic thinkers.

"All children have basic reasoning skills, personal knowledge of the natural world, and curiosity that teachers can build on to achieve proficiency in science," said the report from the National Research Council, one of the National Academies.

Part of the problem is that state and national learning standards for students in elementary and middle schools require children to memorize
often-disconnected scientific facts, the report said.

Other countries such as Japan have students explore a core set of ideas, with increasing depth as they get older, it said.

"Comparisons of science standards and curricula in the United States with that of countries that perform well on international science tests reveal overly broad and superficial coverage of science topics in U.S. classrooms," said the report by 15 education specialists from across the country.
***
more: http://www.cnn.com/2006/EDUCATION/09/21/science.education.reut/index.html

Hey, it's only the future at stake ... don't make a big deal out of it.

[Selatius]

1. Define "basic reasoning skills"

Does it mean something like, "Dinosaur bones were put into the sediment by God to fool with mankind because earth is really only 7,000 years old"?

[pinerow]

2. I have a tendency to agree with article, however, I put the onus

on the fact that schools don't educate anymore, they teach to the "test", which in Florida is known as the FCAT...schools spend their resources on passing the test and not educating the kids. Music, art, science all suffer because of this approach.

[n2doc]

3. All part of the plan

Don't think, just memorize "concepts"- Concepts helpfully provided by Big Brother, inc. Thinking leads to bad thoughts and rendition, ya know.....

[eppur_se_muova]

4. Memorize data, not concepts -- and the data will shift, year by year

until they present only the picture the Authorities approve of.

[Sgent]

5. Tests aren't the problem

tests can be written that test reasoning skills -- although they might be more expensive to adminster than other varieties.

We have to have some method of holding schools (and individuals) accountable, and tests of some sort seem to be one effective method available.

[n2doc]

8. But when the test becomes the only important metric

Then there is a problem. School should not be a test taking training camp. Unfortunately tests are the simplest metric to use and provide the all important numbers that can be waived around to show how much "improvement" there has been. The Daily Howler has done excellent work in the past showing how such "improvements" are spun.

[pinerow]

10. It's fairly simple to gauge the efficacy of any school...

longitudinal studies are very good at measuring the progress of any given school...yes it costs more, but then, can you put a price tag on preparing the future leaders of this country....some areas than can be easily tracked are drop out rates, college admission rates, carreer choices...stadardized testing has an inherent bias, one of them being that it must assume that everyone tests the same and that there are no variables between and within groups of people...testing can measure some rote learning (multiplication tables, etc), but they also leave a lot to be desired.

[seasat]

9. Because of the FCAT, they don't teach science in FL schools.

Prepping for the FCAT takes so much time that they've severely cut science classes in many elementary schools.

I'm an oceanographer in FL and a email from another FL scientist was posted to our user group. The local schools used to get scientists to come in and speak to their class. The author of the email enjoyed doing this but hadn't recieved an invitation this year. They contacted a teacher at one of the schools and found that the school had almost abandoned their science classes in order to prep for the FCAT. This is a dirty little secret of the FCAT that Jebbie's crew doesn't want to be made public.

[bamacrat]

6. When you cut education funding, people don't get smarter.

Especially in science.

[hatrack]

7. But we lead the world in "Intellgent Design" scholarship!!!

:puke: :puke: :puke:

[VegasWolf]

11. Yeah, and " bible stuff memorizn' !" nt