By Robert E. Yager, John Dunkhase, John Tillotson, and Lynn W. Glass

S cience reform through distance education was the goal for one component of the Iowa Dis tance Education Alliance (IDEA) that operated

during two academic years, 1992-94, as a cooperative venture to utilize the new Iowa Communications Net- work (ICN). This project promoted curriculum reform in five areas, science, mathematics, foreign language, literacy, and vocational. Basic to the project was not merely introducing the fiber-optic system for the sake of enhancing communication; it was seen as an oppor- tunity for encouraging and enhancing school reform mmauves.

Science and mathematics have been identified as in need of reform. Failures in the international arena are often related to the poor showing U.S. students dis- play in science and mathematics when international comparisons are made. Reforms in science are exempli- fied by two projects with support from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the U.S. Department of

Robert E. Yager is a professor of Science Education in the College of Education at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa;John Dunkhase is Director of Off-campus Graduate Programs in Science Education at the University of Iowa; John 7~llotson is a graduate student in Science Education in the College of Education at the University of Iowa; Lynn W. Glass is a professor of Curriculum and Instruction in the College of Education at Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa,

Education, private foundations, and direct support from local industries. National support for these projects has totaled nearly $30 million dollars. Probably Project 2061 has what many consider as the most thoughtful and complete rationale for science, mathematics, technol- ogy, and social studies reforms for the 90s. The publi- cation, Science for AllAmericans (Rutherford & Ahlgren, 1989), provides a clear rationale for the current reforms. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Cur- riculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathemat- ics (NCTM, 1989) and the emerging National Research Council Science Education Standards (National Com- mittee on Science Education Standards and Assessment, 1992, 1993a, 1993b) are similar in their recommenda- tions about content, instruction, and assessment. Most reformers are quick to indicate that reform does not occur by introducing a new program. Instead reform emerges when new goals are stated, new teaching strat- egies are used, and new modes of assessment are cre- ated and used.

Experiments of the last decade have shown conclu- sively that few learn from didactic teaching. The as- sumption has always been that motivated students would succeed. However, studies of undergraduate phys- ics and engineering majors revealed that most could only repeat the concepts and explanations advanced by scientists and to perform only certain skills practiced in the laboratory. For 85-90% of the most capable students entering colleges as science and engineering majors, surprisingly little real learning occurred (if learning is defined as doing something with concepts and skills practiced in real-world situations). What is typically learned had little transfer to real world settings.

Reinsmith (1993) recently offered ten principles of learning. These provide an indication of the kind of teaching that is needed if authentic learning is to occur.

1. Learning first takes place by a process much like osmosis.

2. Authentic learning comes through trial and e r r o r .

3. Students will learn only what they have some proclivity for or interest in.

4. No one will formally learn something unless she believes she can learn it.

5. Learning cannot take place outside an appro- priate context.

6. Real learning connotes use.

7. Little is known about how a learner moves from imitation to intrinsic ownership, from external modeling to internalization and competence.

OCTOBER 1995 TECHTRENDS 19

8. The more learning is like play, the more absorbing it will be.

9. For authentic learning to happen, time should occasionally be wasted, tangents pursued, side- shoots followed up.

10. Tests are a very poor indicator of whether an individual has really learned something.

Perrone (1994) has also synthesized research on stu- dent engagement and involvement. These eight points also illustrate needed reform in teaching (not what is taught, but how it is taught). Perrone's points include:

1. Students help define the content.

2. Students have time to wonder and to find a particular direction that interests them.

3. Topics have a "strange" quality--something common seen in a new way, evoking a "linger- ing question."

4. Teachers permit--even encourage--different forms of expression and respect students' views.

5. Teachers are passionate about their work. The richest activities are those "invented" by teachers and their students.

6. Students create original and public products; they gain some form of "expertness."

7. Students da something--e.g., participate in a political action, write a letter to the editor, work with the homeless.

8. Students sense that the results of their work are not predetermined or fully predictable.

Since even the best students may not learn from didac- tic teaching, questions invariably arise from personally constructed explanations. Such explanations are far more powerful to any of those given by teachers and seemingly "learned" by students. This has led reform- ers across the curriculum to look anew at construc- tivism--a theory for knowing (von Glasersfeld, 1992).

Constructivist teachers are those who utilize the following procedures:

1. Seek out and use student questions and ideas to design lessons and whole instructional units;

2. Accept and encourage student initiation of ideas;

3. Promote student leadership, collaboration, location of information, and taking actions as a result of the learning process;

4. Use student thinking, experiences, and interests to drive lessons (even if this means altering teacher's plans);

5. Encourage the use of alternative sources for information both from written materials and experts;

6. Use open-ended questions and encourage students to elaborate on their questions and their responses;

7. Encourage students to suggest causes for events and situations and encourage them to predict consequences;

8. Encourage students to test their own ideas, i.e., answer their questions, their guesses as to causes, and their predictions of certain conse- quences;

9. Seek out student ideas before presenting teacher ideas or before studying ideas from textbooks or other sources;

10. Encourage students to challenge each other's conceptualizations and ideas;

11. Use cooperative learning strategies that empha- size collaboration, respect individuality, and use division of labor tactics;

12. Allow adequate time for reflection and analysis;

13. Respect and use all ideas that students generate; and

14. Encourage self-analysis, collection of real evidence to support ideas, and reformulation of ideas in light of new experiences and evidence.

All of this has implications for use of the interactive television for distance education. It means that a po- dium and control panel for the teacher and students sitting as members of the audience (students receiving what a teacher says and does) does not coincide with current reform efforts and the emerging research on how real learning occurs. This was the dilemma faced by the planners of the curriculum activities of the IDEA. What follows is what they did.

Science and technology teachers were identified from all areas of Iowa. For the first year a total of 67 were enrolled; for the following year the total was 82. Teachers who were a part of reform in Iowa were in- vited to be partners and to share their experiences and their expertise as constructivist teachers. For the first year the ICN was used to communicate with other teachers (and some of their students at sites across the state) about current reforms.

During the second year, it was decided to involve teachers and students actively involved in Science-Tech- nology-Society reform via the Iowa Chautauqua Pro-

20 TECHTRENDS OCTOBER 1995

gram, another NSF funded project. The Iowa Chau- tauqua Program has been validated by the National Diffusion Network as one that positively affects teach- ing confidence, classroom practices, and student learn- ing. The model consists of:

1. a two-week leadership conference for the most successful teachers from previous years who want to become a part of the instructional team for future workshops;

2. a three-week summer workshop at each new site for 30 new teachers wanting to try constructivist practices and strategies; the workshop provides experience with such practices where the teachers are the students.

3. use of five-day Science/Technology/Society (STS) unit in the classrooms of all summer participants during September or early October;

4. a three day fall short-course for 30-50 teachers (including the 30 enrolled during the summer); the focus is upon developing a month long module where constructivist practices are used along with an extensive assessment plan;

5. an interim communication with central staff, lead teachers, and fellow participants, including a newsletter, special memoranda, monthly telephone contacts, and school/classroom visits;

6. a three day spring short course for the same 30- 50 teachers who participated in the fall; this session focuses upon reports by participants about their experiences with constructivist teaching and the results of the assessment program.

Three Chautauqua sites were chosen where 30-50 teach- ers and students gathered to share the results of their STS teaching--something common to Project 2061 and the NSTA Scope, Sequence, and Coordination (SS&C) Project. Much of three Saturday all day sessions involved teachers who reported on their first experience with STS. STS is described as reform with these features:

1. student identification of problems with local interest and impact;

2. the use of local resources (human and material) to locate information that can be used in problem resolution;

3. the active involvement of students in seeking information that can be applied to solve real- life problems;

4. the extension of learning beyond the class period, the classroom, the school;

5. a view that science content is more than concepts which exist for students to master on tests;

6. an emphasis upon process skills which students can use in resolving their own problems;

7. an emphasis upon career awareness--especially careers related to science and technology;

8. opportunities for students to experience citizenship roles as they attempt to resolve issues they have identified;

9. identification of ways that science and technol- ogy are likely to impact the future; and

10. some autonomy for students in the learning process (as individual issues are identified) (NSTA, 1990-1991, p. 47).

Reports concerning plans for further curriculum reform and use of the distance learning technology were col- lected for all participants for each year of the project.

Several significant results in terms of encouraging reforms in science and effective use of ICN occurred:

1. Teacher participants improved their under- standing of reform efforts.

2. Teacher participants improved their familiarity with the ICN.

3. Teacher participants became more enthused with reform efforts and how the ICN could be used to implement the reforms.

It is clear that the Science component of the Iowa Dis- tance Education Alliance project was very successful in changing the individuals who participated with respect to curriculum reform and use of the ICN. The impact of this project on teachers was evident in several areas of importance. Of the individuals participating, more than 75% indicated they had very little or no prior ex- perience with distance learning. All did afterwards. The project filled important needs with regard to providing information and training opportunities related to this mode of instruction.

In spite of their limited experience with distance learning, a large number of the participants held the belief that the use of interactive television for teaching was as effective as traditional instruction. Participation in the project increased this opinion. More than 80% felt that distance education could be used for science education.

The primary objectives of the science component of the project were two-fold. One aim was to increase the participants' level of knowledge about current is- sues and reform efforts taking place in science educa-

OCTOBER 1995 TECHTRENDS 21

tion. A second focus was to provide training and assis- tance in techniques for utilizing interactive television for delivering science instruction. With respect to each of these objectives, the project was found to have a strongly positive effect on those participating.

On average at the beginning of the project, only 26% felt they had either extensive or quite a bit of knowledge of science education reform issues. Post-test data showed that on average, 74% of the participants rated themselves as having a depth of knowledge of the issues.

The Science reform activities provided an oppor- tunity to disseminate information to science teachers in the state of Iowa. At its beginning, only 13% of the participants had any extensive knowledge with respect to Project 2061 and only 21% were well informed about the SS&C Project and STS movement. At the project's completion, data showed marked advances in the un- derstanding of these reform efforts. Over 60% of the attendees reported that they either had an extensive or quite a bit of knowledge about Project 2061 and 63% felt they had a high level of understanding of SS&C and STS.

Iowa science teachers recognize the power and ver- satility the ICN holds for classroom teaching and learn- ing. Since the completion of the activities of the Iowa Distance Alliance, many new distance education projects have been initiated, and more have been proposed. In- corporating the ICN into daily activities will take t ime--more sites must be activated and more experi- ence must be gained in using the network. The desire by Science teachers to use distance education is obvi- ous in many.

Iowa teachers are at the dawn of a new era in sci- ence teaching. For several years science teachers in Iowa have been orienting their teaching to include more minds-on, hands-on activities that are focused on mean- ingful, real-world events. The ICN facilitates what many of our most successful science teachers have been try- ing to accomplish--opening our classroom doors to the real world. �9

References National Committee on Science Education Standards and Assess-

ment. (1992). National science education standards: A sampler. Washington, DC: National Research Council.

National Committee on Science Education Standards and Assess- ment. (1993a). National science education standards: An enhanced sampler. Washington, DC: National Research Council.

National Committee on Science Education Standards and Assess- ment. (1993b). National science education standards: July '93 progress report. Washington, DC: National Research Council.

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. (1989). Curriculum and evaluation standards for school mathematics. Reston, VA: Au- thor.

National Science Teachers Association. (1990-1991). Science/tech- nology/society: A new effort for providing appropriate science for all (Position Statement). In NSTA Handbook (pp. 47-48). Washington, DC: Author.

Perrone, V. (1994). How to engage students in learning. Educa- tionaILeadership, 51(5), 11-13.

Reinsmith, W. A. (1993). Ten fundamental truths about learning. The National Teaching & Learning Forum, 2(4), 7-8.

Rutherford, F. J., & Ahlgren, A. (1989), Science for allAmericans. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

yon Glasersfeld, E. (1992). Questions and answers about radical constructivism. In M. K. Pearsall (Ed.), Scope, sequence, andcoor- dination of secondary school science: Volume II: Relevant research (p. 169). Washington, DC: National Science Teachers Association.

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