Research Finds that the Revolutionary Discoveries of the Cognitive Sciences are not Reflected in High School Science Curriculum or Standardized Tests

The National Association for Research in Science Teaching last month recognized Dr. Philip Sadler, Assistant Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, for making "the most significant contribution" to research in science education during the past year. Sadler's research, "Psychometric Models of Student Conceptions in Science: Reconciling Qualitative Studies and Distractor-Driven Assessment Instruments," recently published in the Journal of Research in Science Teaching, focuses on integrating the newest discoveries on how students' understand and learn scientific concepts into the design of standardized tests.

Sadler examined 2,567 responses of students to the Project STAR Astronomy Concept Inventory, a multiple-choice test designed to measure student understanding in an introductory-level course in astronomy. The test was developed over a 5-year period to measure common student misconceptions in astronomy. For example, most students wrongly believe that seasons result from the earth's changing distance from the sun. Sadler was able to map the impact that a creative hands-on curriculum had on student understanding, along with more conventional forms of instruction.

Sadler's research reveals that:

• The "misconceptions" held by students concerning key scientific topics are a normal stage in the development of students' scientific understanding and not signs of deficiency, as many educators think. Often echoing ideas held historically by scientists, students' misconceptions are at times ignored by teachers, rather than being used as steppingstones to new knowledge.
• Progress toward students' understanding of scientific concepts is not simple or straightforward. Students often appear to regress in their understanding of concepts before fully grasping the material.
• The curriculum represented in our nation's textbooks appears to be severely out of line with the way children come to understand scientific concepts. Concepts are often inappropriate for the grade level at which they are aimed, and mismatched to what students know and can learn. For example, the inverse square law of light is a concept that appears to reach a level of mastery only well after high school, yet it is included in the ninth-grade learning sequence for the National Science Teachers Association's Scope Sequence and Coordination.
• Current test creation practices are mired in theories predating the revolutionary findings of cognitive sciences. Students may temporarily perform less well by certain measures as they make progress toward ultimate understanding. As a result, test makers have avoided such questions, viewing them as problematic rather than seeing them as measuring real cognitive processes.
• If properly designed, standardized tests could help connect the ways that novices think with the ways that experts think and become powerful windows into children's ideas in science.

Based on the his findings, Sadler recommends that:

• Multiple choice tests use items that include the most popular student ideas. Otherwise, they will have little value as diagnostic aids for classroom teachers.
• Standardized tests be revised or created anew, incorporating distractors which fairly reflect the results of qualitative studies.
• More appropriate psychometric models be used to assess tests of scientific understanding. Scoring models should reflect students' stagelike progression in conceptual understanding.
• Test results be used by standards developers and curriculum developers to provide a baseline for understanding of science keyed to grade level. Teaching developmentally inappropriate topics too early may actually inhibit student learning.
• New curricula discuss and treat alternative conceptions not as errors, but as stepping stones to scientific understanding.

Dr. Philip Sadler is currently Assistant Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and F.W. Wright Lecturer on Celestial Navigation in Harvard's Astronomy Department. "A Private Universe", made by Dr. Sadler and his colleage Dr. Matthew Schneps and funded by the National Science Foundation, was the first documentary video to explore children's alternative conceptions of scientific ideas. As head of the Science Education Department at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Dr. Sadler also leads teams conducting research on preparing students for success in college, teaching science through engineering challenges, and the use of the Internet to provide research opportunities to students through the use of remote telescopes.

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Contact Christine Sanni at 617-496-5873