Chemical Education Today
An Urgent Call for Academic Chemists To Engage in Precollege Science Education by Kristen L. Cacciatore* Science Department, East Boston High School, Boston, Massachusetts 02128, United States *
[email protected] by Hannah Sevian Departments of Chemistry and Curriculum and Instruction, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, Massachusetts 02125, United States, and Division of Undergraduate Education and Division of Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings, National Science Foundation, Arlington, Virginia 22230, United States.
The International Year of Chemistry (IYC) provides a tremendous opportunity for academic chemists to engage in achieving several of the stated objectives of the IYC through involvement in K-12 (precollege) science education. Relevant IYC objectives include increasing the public appreciation and understanding of chemistry in meeting world needs, encouraging the interest of young people in chemistry, and generating enthusiasm for the creative future of chemistry. Content and Inspiration Efforts to reach the objectives of the IYC align well with the U.S. agenda for K-12 science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. A recent report from the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) provides an analysis of federal programs and policy on STEM education, informed by formal and informal education, research and policy experts, practitioners, and private and public sector officials (1). The PCAST report concludes with a call for reforms that will take advantage of historic opportunities to address current challenges, and advocates a two-pronged approach to transforming STEM education (1, p iii): We must prepare students so they have a strong foundation in STEM subjects and are able to use this knowledge in their personal and professional lives. And we must inspire students so that all are motivated to study STEM subjects in school and many are excited about the prospect of having careers in STEM fields.
The health of our planet rests in increased public understanding of science and greater capacity to design, develop, and apply creative solutions to current and future challenges. Achieving this depends upon inspiring more young people to value and desire to learn science and for more to pursue STEM-related careers; it also depends on increasing the rigor of science education at the precollege level. In our view, this cannot happen without the involvement of STEM professionals in precollege education. What Academic Chemists Bring Academic chemists are uniquely positioned to support these efforts, given their extensive personal knowledge of chemistry and their understanding of the skills and knowledge students 248
Journal of Chemical Education
_
_
need to be successful in scientific research and coursework at the college level. Differences between experts and novices are well documented. Experts organize knowledge differently from novices, and draw from greater perspective to apply more strategies when approaching problems (2). Students can benefit from direct exposure to experts' organization of content knowledge. Inspiration fuels interest, and chemists also can contribute to this in unique and important ways, by sharing their excitement, serving as examples and mentors, and demonstrating the value of science to society. As the PCAST report advocates (1, p ix): STEM education is most successful when students develop personal connections with the ideas and excitement of STEM fields. This can occur not only in the classroom but also through individualized and group experiences outside the classroom and through advanced courses.
Academic and professional chemists can also bring synergistic knowledge building to collaborations with teachers and in working with preservice teacher education programs. One way that researchers in mathematics education have categorized the specialized knowledge of teachers includes common content knowledge, knowledge at the horizon of the discipline, specialized content knowledge, knowledge of the content in terms of student learning, knowledge of the content in terms of teaching it, and knowledge of curriculum (3). It is reasonable to expect that the same kinds of specialized knowledge apply to chemistry teaching. Academic and professional chemists can contribute expertise most uniquely to knowledge at the horizon of chemistry, and they also play crucial roles in helping teachers to develop common content knowledge in chemistry. K-12 teachers and higher education faculty bring overlapping perspectives on knowledge of the content in terms of student learning and teaching of chemistry, and both can benefit from each other's perspectives in this regard. Research Experience for Teachers programs and Noyce Master Teaching Fellow programs are deliberately structured to facilitate these types of exchanges. Such relationships can also be set up outside of structured programs when individuals find each other. Examples of Success Historically, many academic chemists have been reluctant to engage in K-12 STEM education activities. As noted in a recent
_
Vol. 88 No. 3 March 2011 pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc r 2011 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc. 10.1021/ed200008q Published on Web 01/13/2011
Chemical Education Today
article in Science, three primary obstacles impede such engagement (4): Consistent with barriers to community-engaged scholarship in general, STEM faculty engagement in elementary and secondary schools (K-12) can be undermined, for example, by (i) low status accorded to STEM education research and publications, (ii) a zero-sum view of faculty time allocation (e.g., K-12 engagement means time away from work more highly rewarded during promotion, tenure, and merit review), and (iii) bureaucracies that hinder collaboration between STEM faculty and K-12 teachers and administrators.
Despite these longstanding and persistent barriers, many chemists have taken part in meaningful K-12 STEM education efforts, and a significant research base documents the benefits of such activities for K-12 teachers and students, as well as for STEM faculty (5). Academic chemists can engage with K-12 science improvement efforts in myriad ways, including outreach and internship programs for high school students, developing and implementing programs that help K-12 science teachers increase their content knowledge and research skills, and participating in policy initiatives around science education reform, among others. Specifically, higher education faculty can contribute to content knowledge that complements the instructional expertise of K-12 teachers. When higher education faculty collaborate with K-12 teachers to co-instruct professional development for K-12 teachers, those faculty help to: (i) augment selfefficacy in science understanding by teachers; (ii) shift K-12 education more toward inquiry-based teaching; and (iii) improve test scores of K-12 students (4). Here we present a few examples of successful programs with which we are personally involved and familiar; many more examples exist. As part of a National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Math and Science Partnership, STEM faculty at two Boston universities participated in the development and delivery of a series of graduate science courses for science teachers in the Boston Public Schools. As a result, all participating teachers increased their science content knowledge; in addition, 170 participants were able to use these courses to obtain additional teaching certifications in different science areas (6). Another series of programs that involved science faculty at the two universities dramatically increased the number of students participating in advanced placement (AP) science courses in the Boston Public Schools, through enrichment programs for AP science students held on the university campuses. The student programs include field trips to the university to learn about science research, intensive summer science courses, monthly laboratory experiments during the school year, and a practice AP exam. Though these programs are primarily led by K-12 teachers, faculty participate in the following ways: speaking to students and encouraging them to enroll in AP courses, leading student tours of their research laboratories, consulting with K-12 teachers about laboratory experiments, and grading student practice exams as part of teacher-faculty teams. The success of these programs is particularly important given the research that shows that participation in AP science courses benefits students by increasing their college readiness and persistence, and may lead to an increased likelihood that they will choose a STEM major (7, 8). A third program in Boston entails teams of middle and secondary science teachers, science graduate students, and STEM faculty working to align curricula at the middle school, high
r 2011 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.
_
school, and first-year college level, in order to ensure that students are prepared to do higher-level work in science as they progress through educational levels. This program increased K-12 teachers' awareness of the content and skills students need to succeed in college-level science and motivated several teachers to implement new AP science courses at their school in order to better prepare students for college, as well as increased collaboration between middle and high school teachers. The Benefits to Chemists These efforts promise to benefit academic chemists in several ways, including reinforcing their own excitement about science as they work with students and teachers. Chemists are uniquely positioned to inspire K-12 students to enjoy science more, and this contributes to improving K-12 students' readiness for college coursework. Another positive outcome is enhanced public understanding of the purpose, goals, and benefits of scientific research and the need for public funding of this research. Chemists also can provide unique contributions to teachers' knowledge and to preservice teacher education. Both working directly with students and as well as with teachers offer benefits to chemists that they may not otherwise access. Because motivation is central to dispositions and actions, it is important to take into consideration that chemists may derive motivation from different sources, and that intrinsic and extrinsic factors influence their actions. Two recent studies illuminate some of the needs and rewards associated with the engagement of STEM faculty in such outreach efforts. Different faculty are motivated by different combinations of reasons for engaging in this work, among them meeting their own research objectives, being active in the schools their children attend, promoting environmental awareness and stewardship, expanding their pedagogical knowledge and repertoire, and promoting equity in educational opportunity (9). Higher education institutions can typically promote faculty engagement and create structures that reward such engagement by adapting structures that exist within their institutions (10). These efforts promise to benefit academic chemists in several ways, including: reinforcing their own excitement about science as they deliberately engage in inspiring K-12 students to enjoy science more; improving K-12 students' readiness for college coursework; and enhanced public understanding of the purpose, goals, and benefits of scientific research, and the need for public funding of this research. Conclusion In summary, through engagement in meaningful K-12 STEM education activities, academic chemists can help address the urgent need for science education reform at both the K-12 and college level while meeting the lofty and worthy goals of the IYC. It is worth noting that in particular there is a great need for academic chemists to support science education for urban, highneed students, who are primarily from demographic groups underrepresented in chemistry and in all STEM fields (11). This population of students represents a vast untapped pool of potential that could help meet the demand for chemists in the future if we work to improve the science education they receive now. Whatever the demographics of the student population served, academic chemists' involvement in K-12 education
pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
_
Vol. 88 No. 3 March 2011
_
Journal of Chemical Education
249
Chemical Education Today
promises rich rewards for K-12 students, their teachers, and the chemists themselves. Acknowledgment This commentary is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), while one of the authors (H.S.) was working at the Foundation. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF. Literature Cited 1. Report to the President: Prepare and Inspire: K-12 Education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) for America's Future, September 2010 Prepublication version; President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology: Washington, DC, 2010. http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/ pcast-stemed-report.pdf (accessed Jan 2011). 2. National Research Council. How Students Learn: Science in the Classroom; Donovan, M. S., Bransford, J. D., Eds.; The National Academies Press: Washington, DC, 2005. 3. Hill, H. C.; Ball, D. L.; Schilling, S. G. Unpacking Pedagogical Content Knowledge: Teachers' Topic-Specific Knowledge of Students. J. Res. Math. Educ. 2008, 39 (4), 372–400.
250
Journal of Chemical Education
_
Vol. 88 No. 3 March 2011
_
4. Foster, K. M.; Bergin, K. B.; McKenna, A. F.; Millard, D. L.; Perez, L. C.; Prival, J. T.; Rainey, D. Y.; Sevian, H. M.; VanderPutten, E. A.; Hamos, J. E. Partnerships for STEM Education. Science 2010, 329 (5994), 906-907; DOI:10.1126/science.1191040. 5. National Impact Report: Math and Science Partnership Program, NSF 10-046; National Science Foundation: Washington, DC, 2010. http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2010/nsf10046/nsf10046.pdf (accessed Jan 2011). 6. Boston Science Partnership Home Page. http://bsp.mspnet.org/ (accessed Jan 2011). 7. Camara, W. College Persistence, Graduation, and Remediation. In College Board Research Notes ( RN-19); College Board: New York, 2003. 8. Morgan, R.; Maneckshana, B. AP Students in College: An Investigation of Their Course-Taking Patterns and College Majors, ETS Statistical Report 2000-09; Educational Testing Service: Princeton, NJ, 2000. 9. Skerrett, A.; Sevian, H. Identity and Biography as Mediators of Science and Mathematics Faculty's Involvement in K-12 Service. Cult. Stud. Sci. Educ. 2010, 5 (3), 743–766. 10. Kutal, C.; Rich, F.; Hessinger, S.; Miller, H. In Increasing the Competitive Edge in Math and Science; Kettlewell, J., Henry, R., Eds.; Rowman and Littlefield: Lanham, MD, 2009; pp 121-134. 11. Heylin, S. Demographics of Chemistry. Chem. Eng. News 2007, 85 (38), 43–44.
pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
_
r 2011 American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.
