Chapter 5 - Case Study
Case Study: Unified Science
The Case
Sarah Jenkins is the science department head in a large high school in an urban area. During the summer the new principal of the high school organized a two-day retreat for all the department heads to discuss plans for the year, and curriculum changes. Sarah Jenkins, like all the other department heads wonders what the principal means by "curriculum changes." At the meeting the principal, a middle aged woman with a Ph.D. in curriculum and administration, leads the group in a discussion of how the curriculum could be changed to make it more interesting and relevant to students. When the discussion gets to the science curriculum, a proposal that emerges from the group is the possibility of integrating the separate subjects of biology, chemistry and physics into a single, unified science program, e.g. Science I, Science II, Science III, Science IV. The principal grabs on to this idea, and charges Sarah Jenkins to come up with a plan that might be implemented on a small scale starting this year.
The Problem
What should Sarah Jenkins do? Is this a valid approach to high school science? Is the principal justified in making this demand?
Case Study: The Science Proficiency Race
The Case
At a recent conference on science teaching it was reported that:
- U.S. fifth graders performed at about the average level of the 15 countries in an international study
- U.S. grade 9 students and advanced science students (second year biology, chemistry, and physics) had lower performance levels than their counterparts in most other countries
- Only 42 percent of the U.S. 13 year olds demonstrated an ability to use scientific procedures and analyze scientific data, compared with more than 70 percent in Korea and British Columbia
A professor from a very prestigious public university in Atlanta reported the results to an audience of about 500 science educators. To make the results more visual, the professor showed a number of graphs showing the results among the 38 countries that had participated in the most recent international test of science proficiency. One graphic that was shown compared the average mathematics and science achievement of eighth-grade students, by nations. According to the data, the United States ranked 18th in science and 19th in mathematics out of the 38 countries studied. A teacher from the audience disputed the professor’s results, claiming that these other countries have different goals and commitments to science and that the comparison of test results wasn’t fair.
A number of other teachers seemed to agree because they started nodding their heads in agreement. The professor, who appeared unshaken by the response, went on to describe specific areas in science where U.S. students lagged behind their counterparts.
The Problem
If you were in the audience, how would you react to the professor’s international test results? Are comparisons across cultures and countries “fair”? What do results like these suggest about the science curriculum?