Vision for Science Education

A Framework for K-12 Science Education:

Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas

Scientific Practices
Developed by
The Council of State Science Supervisors
Presentation Designed to Provide Awareness of the Practices

Science Education for a New Generation

Produced by the Council of State Science Supervisors [Link]
 Overview of Session

– A Vision for Science Education

– Three Dimensions of Science
– Science Practices
– What Happened to Inquiry?
– Science Practices in the Classroom
– Discussion
 Vision for Science
Teaching and Learning
 Builds on the
Research on
Learning the
Ideas of Science

Building Capacity in State Science Education

BCSSE
Reports that Shape Where We Find
Ourselves Today

Building Capacity in State Science

Education BCSSE
 The Framework
– Vision for Science Education
– Goals for Science Education
– Three Dimensions for Standards
 Goals for Science Education
Turn to the educator next to you and respond to the
questions below.
One minute for each question:
1. What are a few expectations in your current state
science standards specific to Science Practices?
Where are they placed in these standards?
2. How are these expectations related to how science
and scientists work?

Framework Page 43 How Scientists Work

 Goals for Science Education
From its inception, one of the principal goals of science
education has been to cultivate students’ scientific habits of
mind, develop their capability to engage in scientific inquiry,
and teach students how to reason in a scientific context .

There has always been a tension between the emphasis that

should be placed on developing knowledge of the content of
science and the emphasis placed on scientific practices.

A narrow focus on content alone has the unfortunate

consequence of leaving students with naive conceptions of
the nature of scientific inquiry and the impression that
science is simply a body of isolated facts.
 Goals for Science Education
The Framework’s vision takes into account two major goals for K-12
science education:
(1) Educating all students in science and engineering.
(2) Providing the foundational knowledge for those who will
become the scientists, engineers, technologists, and
technicians of the future.
The Framework principally concerns itself with the first task—what all students
should know in preparation for their individual lives and for their roles as citizens
in this technology-rich and scientifically complex world.

Framework Page 10
 The Framework is Designed to Help Realize a
Vision of Science Education

• All students’ experiences over multiple years foster

progressively deeper understanding of science.
• Students actively engage in scientific and engineering
practices in order to deepen their understanding of
crosscutting concepts and disciplinary core ideas.
• In order to achieve the vision embodied in the
Framework and to best support students’ learning, all
three dimensions need to be integrated into the system
of standards, curriculum, instruction, and assessment.

Framework Page 217

 Structure/Dimensions of the Framework
• Science and Engineering Practices
• Disciplinary Core Ideas
• Crosscutting Concepts
“The three dimensions of the Framework, which constitute the major
conclusions of this report, are presented in separate chapters. However, in
order to facilitate students’ learning, the dimensions must be woven
together in standards, curricula, instruction, and assessments.
When they explore particular disciplinary ideas from Dimension 3,
students will do so by engaging in practices articulated in Dimension 1 and
should be helped to make connections to the crosscutting concepts in
Dimension 2.”

Framework Pages 29-30

 Understanding How Science Works
The idea of science as a set of practices has emerged from the work of historians,
philosophers, psychologists, and sociologists over the past 60 years. This perspective
is an improvement over previous approaches in several ways.

First – It minimizes the tendency to reduce scientific practices to a single set of

procedures, such as identifying and controlling variables, classifying entities, and
identifying sources of error.
This tendency overemphasizes experimental investigation at the expense of other practices,
such as, posing questions, arguing from evidence, modeling, critique, and communication.

Second – A focus on practices (in the plural) avoids the mistaken impression that
there is one distinctive approach common to all science—a single “scientific
method”—or that uncertainty is a universal attribute of science.

Third – Attempts to develop the idea that science should be taught through a process
of inquiry have been hampered by the lack of a commonly accepted definition of its
constituent elements.
Framework Page 48
 Crosscutting
Core Concepts
Ideas

Practices

Framework Standards
Student Performance Expectations
 Scientific Practices
Developing students’ “scientific habits of mind” is typically the
principal goal of science education. Attention to this goal can lead
to students valuing and using science as a way of knowing based on
evidence. To make science learning meaningful, a balance is
necessary between science content, science concepts (e.g.,
patterns, structure/function) and the use of the scientific practices.

This session will explore the balance as described in the NRC Science
Framework and the implications for science education standards,
classroom instruction, and assessment of student learning.

The session will use organizing documents to help clarify the role of
science practices and discuss the appropriate use in state standards,
classroom instruction, and ways to inform instruction by assessing
students’ abilities to use the practices.
 Science and Engineering Practices
1. Asking Questions (Science) and Defining Problems (Engineering)
2. Developing and Using Models
3. Planning and Carrying Out Investigations
4. Analyzing and Interpreting Data
5. Using Mathematics, Information and Computer Technology, and
Computational Thinking
6. Constructing Explanations (Science) and Designing Solutions
(Engineering)
7. Engaging in Argument from Evidence
8. Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information

Framework Page 42
 Engaging in
Arguments
from Evidence

Constructing
Explanations

Investigations
Asking questions
Analyzing Data
 Science and Engineering Practices
• Science and Engineering Practices are the processes,
nature, and habits of mind for science and/or
engineering.
• Science Practices distinguish science from other ways
of knowing.
• When students actively engage in science practices,
they deepen their understanding of core science ideas.
• This vision of the core ideas, concepts, and practices
provides the tools for students to engage in making
sense of the natural and designed world.
Science and Engineering Practices
Activity: Explanations Using Evidence
Activity – Explanations from Evidence
Investigate the behavior of the water in a closed syringe
when the plunger is extracted a few centimeters with the
inlet stopped.
1. Each group – Investigate the phenomena to develop
an explanation supported by evidence.

2. Individually – Write an explanation of the observed

phenomena, supported by observed evidence, in
your journal.

Materials – Large syringes, caps, plastic beakers, water, and copy

of practices one page sheet.
Evidence to Support Explanations
• What distinguishes science from other ways of
knowing is the reliance on evidence as central
to science.
• Value and use science as a process of
obtaining knowledge based on empirical
evidence.
 Science Argumentation
• Providing empirical evidence to support
assertions.
• Listening to others’ arguments and analyzing
the evidence.
• Evaluating arguments based on evidence and
reasoning.

Making Thinking Visible

 Making Thinking Visible
• Making thinking visible through writing and
classroom discourse is an important way to
provide models for students’ expectations
of engaging in science and engineering
practices.
• The practices make the science classroom
more science-like.
• It is essential that the questions posed by
teachers engage students and provide
opportunities to inform instruction.
 Science and Engineering Practices
1. Asking Questions (Science) and Defining Problems (Engineering)
2. Developing and Using Models
3. Planning and Carrying Out Investigations
4. Analyzing and Interpreting Data
5. Using Mathematics, Information and Computer Technology, and
Computational Thinking
6. Constructing Explanations (Science) and Designing Solutions
(Engineering)
7. Engaging in Argument from Evidence
8. Obtaining, Evaluating, and Communicating Information

Framework Page 42
How will the Practices Appear in Standards?
1
2
 CCSS Language Arts
“Students who meet the Standards readily undertake the close,
attentive reading that is at the heart of understanding and enjoying
complex works of literature. They habitually perform the critical
reading necessary to pick carefully through the staggering amount
of information available today in print and digitally. They actively
seek the wide, deep, and thoughtful engagement with high-quality
literary and informational texts that builds knowledge, enlarges
experience, and broadens worldviews. They reflexively
demonstrate the cogent reasoning and use of evidence that is
essential to both private deliberation and responsible citizenship in
a democratic republic. In short, students who meet the Standards
develop the skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening that
are the foundation for any creative and purposeful expression in
language.”
 CCSS Mathematics
“Mathematically proficient students understand
and use stated assumptions, definitions, and
previously established results in constructing
arguments…They justify their conclusions,
communicate them to others, and respond to the
arguments of others…Mathematically proficient
students are also able to compare the effectiveness
of two plausible arguments, distinguish correct logic
or reasoning from that which is flawed, and—if
there is a flaw in an argument—explain what it is.”
 Using Evidence
• Value and use science as a process of obtaining
knowledge based on observable evidence.
• Supporting science argumentation with evidence
is a key practice of science.
• Using models and core ideas to make sense of
novel phenomena is an essential aspect of
science.
• Developing science explanations based on
evidence.
Distinguishing meaningful science instruction
from meaningless activities may be as simple
as engaging students in science practices.
 Closure and Final Questions
• So, what is your vision for science education?
• Reflect back on your experiences in science
teaching and learning as well as the
Framework and tell us your ideas about
science and science teaching and learning.