Chemical Education Today
Commentary 1
The Necessary Role of Scientists in the Education of Elementary Teachers by G. A. Crosby The revolution in technology and information processing that is engulfing the modern world is defining the educational needs of the next generation. Future citizens must learn to work and compete in a world of integrated economies linked together by information technologies that operate at incredible speeds. The signs of this coming New Age of information and communication are everywhere. Businesses are transforming their operations, governments are adjusting to the changes, the financial systems of disparate economies are more interdependent than most of us realize, and not a few of us are discomfited by the pace of change. There is general agreement that all educational systems must adjust to the new realities in order to produce informed citizens who can prosper and live with psychological comfort in the 21st century. There is also a palpable malaise among parents, school teachers, and university educators, because many educational systems are not changing rapidly enough to adjust to the new order. Particularly missing in the backgrounds of vast numbers of students is a grounding in science and mathematics, both prerequisite for capitalizing on the opportunities of the next century and for functioning effectively in it. There is also copious evidence that the current cohort of teachers is not comfortable with science and avoids teaching science because of ignorance, disinterest, and lack of support from school authorities. Moreover, there is a perception among scientists that the current university curricula designed for new teachers lack features essential for producing teachers who can inculcate science literacy in their students. To date, however, little of this manifest concern has been translated into action. In the United States, few college students who intend to teach in elementary schools (grades K–8) major in a science. What little science they do experience is usually descriptive, such as elementary biology or a first course in geology. The quantitative sciences, such as chemistry and physics, are largely avoided. Once in the school system the teacher must rely upon printed materials, in-service workshops, and prescribed curricula, since without outside help the teacher’s knowledge is insufficient to enable him or her to stimulate curiosity and excitement about the physical world in young minds. Science becomes “bookish”, utterly lacking in vitality, and trivial. Feeling insecure and frustrated, the teacher sometimes avoids teaching any science at all! Preservice Programs for Elementary Teachers To produce an elementary teacher who is prepared for and enthusiastic about teaching science, a completely new curriculum for teacher preparation must be designed. This curriculum must integrate the rudiments of physics, chemistry, biology, geology, and mathematics in a seamless way that portrays the universality of science. The new curriculum must also be an experiential one in which the prospective teacher is constantly relating scientific principles to the world about us. In biology this translates into activities such as growing plants, monitoring the seasonal changes, and
field trips. For chemistry such a curriculum would include simple experiments with consumer supplies and chemicals, not only to keep the cost low but also to underscore the ubiquity of chemistry in all our lives. During the study of both physics and A revolution in the geology the aspiring teaching of science to teacher should come to see what Newton saw, elementary students is that the same laws that badly needed. operate on Planet Earth also dictate the trajectories of space capsules and the motions of the heavens. Such a curriculum would also include investigation of the planets, the stars, the depths of the earth, the oceans, and the creatures that inhabit the earth. Computers would be used to access the wealth of information available for both teachers and students to expand their horizons beyond a parochial view of science to an appreciation of its universality and the power of the scientific method. The Role of the Scientist The teaching of science to preservice elementary teachers is far too important to allow it to be totally in the hands of professional educators. Experts in curriculum design are necessary. Those who teach “methods” are needed. The content specialists, however, must include those who practice science. The holistic approach to science and its methods outlined above cannot be generated by specialists in education, nor can it be forged by scientists acting in isolation. To design a truly effective curriculum that will produce scientifically literate teachers will require the concerted, integrated, and cooperative interaction of exponents from education and from all the disciplines of science. Moreover, these experts must respect each other’s knowledge and be ready to sacrifice “coverage” of parts of their own disciplines in order to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts. This is a very tall order. Scientists are specialists. They have succeeded by restricting their visions and delving deeper into a single subject than those who have preceded them. To educate teachers they must become generalists and participate in an enterprise where cooperation with specialists outside their immediate fields becomes the norm. Difficult as this may be, it must be done if a curriculum is to be forged that is commensurate with the demands of educating a teacher for the 21st century. Essential Elements of a New Science Curriculum Although the essence of any program ultimately lies in the details, certain global parameters that should define the new curriculum for prospective elementary teachers are becoming visible. The list below contains essential features of
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Chemical Education Today the science component. • •
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sciences taught with interdisciplinary emphasis instruction by a combination of methods ♦ lectures, multimedia, computer simulation, group projects, self-study computers integrated with the teaching of science and mathematics ♦ note-taking, data acquisition, data reduction, graphing, computation, report writing laboratory instruction (traditional and open-ended investigations) ♦ individual and group projects ♦ student-designed experiments ♦ field trips, environmental monitoring, astronomical observations science knowledge of student constructed by inquiry, discussion, confirmation, and reflection ♦ use of both inductive and deductive methods ♦ focus on conceptual knowledge: acquisition, evaluation, application, communication ♦ emphasis on analysis and synthesis of knowledge assessment by multiple techniques ♦ examinations, project evaluations, portfolios, interviews, oral presentations, lab practica, written reports
view science as disparate sets of unrelated facts that relate neither to each other nor to the world around them. Such a teacher will never be able to show children how to enjoy science nor be able to elevate them to an acceptable level of science literacy to prepare them for secondary school. A Small Beginning Although a new integrated course of study for prospective elementary teachers is the only permanent solution to the problem of scientifically uneducated elementary teachers, there are some small steps that chemistry departments could take to improve the lot of these neglected individuals. •
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modify courses such as “Chemistry for Nurses and the Health Sciences” to include special laboratory sections designed for elementary education majors team-teach science methods courses with colleagues in the School of Education collaborate with physicists to offer an interdisciplinary sequence in the physical sciences that includes interesting and enjoyable laboratory investigations join the geologists to offer an interesting interdisciplinary sequence on the chemistry and geology of the Earth
Conclusion Chemistry in the Elementary Curriculum Since most of the phenomena children encounter in the world around them conform to universal chemical laws, the teaching of chemistry to prospective elementary teachers should relate chemical principles to our daily activities. The laboratory should use consumer materials and supplies, for these are familiar to students. The acquisition of chemical knowledge should occur in many activities ranging from formal lab experiments at a desk to assaying the quality of stream water. The prospective teachers should learn how to employ simple household supplies to illustrate phenomena, how to relate familiar processes to established scientific principles. The teacher must also become comfortable with applied science in its many forms; demonstrations are a must. If the relevance of chemical principles to daily observed phenomena does not become clear to a prospective teacher, then that teacher will never be able to evoke from children curiosity and wonder about the world around them. Moreover, unless a prospective teacher traverses a curriculum where the integration of the fields of science (chemistry with biology, chemistry with physics, chemistry with geology, physics with biology, etc.) and the universality of the scientific method are clearly revealed, then that teacher will always
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A revolution in the teaching of science to elementary students is badly needed. Before that revolution can occur in the self-contained classroom of the school, however, a new type of teacher will be required, a teacher schooled in the basic ideas of all the sciences, a teacher capable of relating the principles and laws of science to the world of the student, and a teacher comfortable with science as a body of knowledge and a way of knowing. Designing the new curriculum and implementing it in the universities cannot be accomplished by professional educators alone. To tackle such a formidable task practicing scientists must be involved. The central question is: Will the university scientists accept the challenge? Note 1. Adapted from an address presented at the Third Venezuelan Congress of Chemistry, Caracas, Venezuela, 10–14 November 1996.
Glenn Crosby is in the Department of Chemistry, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164-4630; e-mail
[email protected].
Journal of Chemical Education • Vol. 74 No. 3 March 1997
