Chemical Education Today
Book & Media Reviews
Pre-College Chemistry and Assessment The two book reviews published this month address precollege education. Chemistry in the National Science Education Standards provides a wealth of information for secondary educators and will also be useful to college chemistry faculty who want to know more about the preparation of students entering their classrooms. Grading Education: Getting Accountability Right focuses on the multi-layered challenges of assessment. Enjoy the reviews of these complementary books. In the future we plan to publish groups of reviews on electronic homework systems and on the use of Excel in chemistry. If you have ideas for other groups of book or media reviews, would like to become a Journal book reviewer, or have comments about a particular review or book, please contact Cheryl B. Frech,
[email protected]. Chemistry in the National Science Education Standards: Models for Meaningful Learning in the High School Chemistry Classroom, 2nd Edition edited by Stacey Lowery Bretz American Chemical Society: Washington, DC, 2008. 157 pp. ISBN 978-0841269910; ACS Item No. 69910. $24.95 reviewed by Brittland K. DeKorver
Chemistry in the National Science Education Standards goes beyond the claims of the book’s cover; it provides models not only for learning, but also for teaching. The content will be helpful for high school teachers, to be sure, but it also makes recommendations for school administrators and curriculum developers, post-secondary chemistry instructors and those who teach science pedagogy. Each chapter is co-written by authors from both the high school and university levels of chemistry teaching. The book begins by explaining the purposes and objectives of the National Science Education Standards (NSES). Kelly Deters and Henry Heikkinen discuss the questions and challenges that are raised by the NSES. The next chapter, by William Carroll and Kristin Sherman, describes why chemistry is essential in a science curriculum that meets the Standards, and to students’ educations in general. Then, Kathy Kitzmann and Charlotte Otto describe how chemistry topics are related to the unifying themes of science (as described by the National Research Council and the American Association for the Advancement of Science). Inquiry learning is the topic of chapter four, written by Laura Trout, Chris Lee, Rick Moog, and Dawn Rickey. They provide a description of inquiry learning and the differences between inquiry instruction and traditional instruction. Teachers who are looking for ways to increase the degree of inquiry teaching in their classes will value the thorough descriptions and examples of Process-Oriented, Guided-Inquiry Learning (POGIL) and Model–Observe–Reflect–Explain (MORE).
edited by
Cheryl Baldwin Frech University of Central Oklahoma Edmond, OK 73034
Chapters five, six, and seven all provide ways to create connections between disciplines. Deborah Herrington, Ellen Yezierski, and Rebecca Caldwell convincingly describe how taking a life science approach to the chemistry topics that are traditionally taught from an inorganic perspective could benefit student comprehension. Anne Benbow and Cheryl Mosier discuss how earth science topics can include chemistry content. And Loretta Jones and Seán Madden discuss the ways that technology can enhance chemistry learning. Chapter eight, “Bringing Social and Personal Perspectives into Standards-Based Chemistry Instruction in an Urban School District”, argues that a thematic approach to teaching chemistry can address both the NSES and help solve some of the challenges of teaching in an urban setting. Donald Wink, Patrick Daubenmire, Sarah Brennan, and Stephani Cunningham describe how they implemented Chemistry in the Community (1) in Chicago area schools. They also explain how they addressed the common challenge of meeting multiple sets of standards (district, state, and national). Seth Rasmussen, Carmen Giunta, and Misty Tomchuk provide arguments for the inclusion of history and the nature of science in chemistry courses in chapter nine, along with ways for teachers to accomplish this without sacrificing other content. The most valuable part of this section is the list of recommended books and Web sites, which will capture the interest of student and teacher alike while providing insight into the history and nature of chemistry. Professional development for teachers at all stages of experience is the topic of chapter ten. Mickey Sarquis and Lynn Hogue describe the characteristics of professional development programs that are aligned with the NSES, supported by descriptions of current successful programs. This chapter is mainly written for a professional development program designer; however, teachers will find the criterion of quality programs useful when choosing programs in which to participate. Chapter 11 focuses on assessments. Thomas Holme and Laura Slocum begin by providing background on how the soundness of assessments is measured, and then discuss the use of national standardized tests in assessing chemistry learning. They encourage teachers to serve on the development committees for these exams, giving a description of how the committees for the ACS exams operate. However, the most practical feature of this section was the many examples of how subtle revisions of test items can lead to more robust assessment. These will help teachers to strengthen existing and provide guidance for creating new assessments. Following the chapter on assessments, Jim Spencer and John Hnatow discuss the changes that the College Board is making to the AP Chemistry program. These changes include a shift to a “less is more” approach regarding content and more emphasis
© Division of Chemical Education • www.JCE.DivCHED.org • Vol. 86 No. 4 April 2009 • Journal of Chemical Education
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Chemical Education Today
Book & Media Reviews on inquiry-based learning. This chapter will be extremely helpful to teachers who are new to the program, but especially for those who have been teaching AP Chemistry and are concerned about how to change their curriculum to meet the recommendations of the College Board. Do not be misled by the title of chapter 13, “Embracing Diverse and English Language Learners in Chemistry”. This section, written by Doris Kimbrough and Susan Cooper, provides numerous specific ways that teachers can reach the lofty goal of providing equitable education for all students. Many of their strategies would benefit not only English Language Learners (ELL), but students who have learning disabilities, attention deficit disorders, and other students who struggle in chemistry or are discouraged. Chapter 14 addresses how to prepare K–8 students for success in chemistry once they reach high school. This was the one section of the book where I found myself disagreeing with the authors more often than not. Dorothy Gabel and Karen Stucky argue that science education for K–8 students should focus on the macroscopic level of chemistry, leaving particulate and symbolic for later because abstract thinking is not attainable by younger students. They refer to many studies that show particulate misconceptions among high school and college students, and draw the conclusion that if these more advanced students have troubles understanding the particulate nature of matter, then it should not be taught to younger students. The only studies of younger students that they discuss concluded that students did not have accurate chemistry knowledge on the particulate level prior to formal instruction, and some middle school students have difficulty assimilating macroscopic and particulate knowledge. To me, this does not suggest that we should eliminate discussion of chemistry beyond the macroscopic level; if anything, the opposite would be true, that discussions are needed to help students who have trouble with abstract thinking at all levels of education. Chapter 15 uses the results of chemistry education research to paint a picture of what a classroom should look like, while the previous ten sections provide methods to achieve it. Therefore, chapter fifteen would have been more beneficial at the beginning
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of the book. Authors Diane Bunce, Sharon Hillery, and Elena Pisciotta also give many strategies on how to apply the results of research in the classroom. The book closes with a chapter by Mary Kirchoff and Steven Long about the role of the American Chemical Society in helping to improve and support chemistry education and the generation of future chemists, and by publishing this book, and even making it available online free of charge (2), the ACS has shown they are serious about their mission. Every chemistry educator will learn something from the wide range of topics in this book, which includes the expertise of dozens of authors, provides hundreds of resources, and covers nearly every aspect of teaching and learning. I say nearly because a section describing how to determine the extent of one’s implementation of the NSES (perhaps providing a survey with Likert-scaled items) would greatly benefit those teachers who aren’t sure where or how to begin initiating change, or whether they need to change anything in the first place. However, even without this, Chemistry in the National Science Education Standards will be a valuable resource to all who read it. Literature Cited 1. American Chemical Society. Chemistry in the Community, 5th ed.; W. H. Freeman: New York, 2006. 2. Chemistry Education Reports, Studies, and Surveys; available for download at American Chemical Society Web site at http:// www.acs.org by following the path > Education > Educators > Reports, Studies & Surveys on Chemistry Education (accessed Dec 2008).
Supporting JCE Online Material
http://www.jce.divched.org/Journal/Issues/2009/Apr/abs435.html Keywords Full text (HTML and PDF) with link to cited URL
Brittland K. DeKorver is in the Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin–Madison, 1101 University Avenue, Madison, WI 53706;
[email protected].
Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 86 No. 4 April 2009 • www.JCE.DivCHED.org • © Division of Chemical Education
