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The Quest for a Coherent School Science Curriculum: The Need for an Organizing Principle
Author(s) -
SCHMIDT WILLIAM H.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
review of policy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.832
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1541-1338
pISSN - 1541-132X
DOI - 10.1046/j.1541-1338.2003.00039.x
Subject(s) - curriculum , sociology , mathematics education , engineering ethics , political science , pedagogy , psychology , engineering
Achievement test results from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) suggest that the performance of US students in science is not strong either in terms of international or national standards. Yet, the US is preceived as a world leader in standards‐based and “hands‐on” science reform. In this article I argue that the major policy issue confronting the science community that addresses this apparent disconnect is the development of an organizing principle that would serve to limit the number of essential topics, subordinating some topics in science standards to others. Furthermore, this organizing principle would weave the reduced set of topics into a sequence that is logical and that leads to an unfolding of a key story or stories in science that are intrinsically interesting to students and that provide the basis for understanding science by future literate citizens and not just the memorization of isolated facts to be forgotten when school finishes.