Reform Movement\'s Effect on Teaching

Reform Movement's Effect On Teaching Science

The education reform movement has been gaining serious attention from politicians, educators, parents and students. These reforms have placed a heavy stress on providing curricula that will result in the appropriate levels of accomplishment in students in core topics such as science, English, and mathematics. Many school systems have adopted techniques that have proven successful in school systems overseas, or from high ranking private institutions. Two main ideas in school reform are that the material being presented should be appropriate for the level of student, and the implementation of high-stakes standardized testing (NCSESA, NRC 1996)). These ideas have forced teachers to adapt their techniques and course materials to match government standards especially in the core subjects.

Recent strategies in the national educational reform policies have included the implementation of national standards for such core topics as science and mathematics. These standards have not only standardized the ability of students exiting the school systems, but it has also forced educators to standardize their presentation of materials as well as their methodologies (NCSESA, NRC 1996). Many school systems have adopted policies that place the responsibility of failure firmly in the lap of the teachers, and so the teachers have been forced to structure their classroom time around the tasks outlined in the standardized tests. Whereas prior to the push of education reform, teaching methods were varied as were the topics approached during class time. Teachers can no longer rely on their individual strengths as educators; instead they must address specific topics at certain times depending on the level of student and the progress of the school year. Ultimately there is very little freedom, and little consideration for individual learning styles of students or teaching styles of the instructors because education has become a means to an end and the efforts in the classroom are always planned with an eye to the test that will inevitably cover the material (Watters, Diezmann, Grieshaber, & Davis, 2000).

Education reform has also changed the responsibilities and political atmosphere for teachers in these core disciplines as well. Standards have also been presented to make sure that the teachers themselves meet certain criteria before entering the classroom, and that, once in the classroom, they maintain certain standards. Regular and mandatory evaluation has become a staple in most schools across the country that are participating in reform activities, and the results of the standardized testing that has been employed in these schools are directly related to funding for the schools and job security for teachers (Watters, et al., 2000). This increased responsibility has placed a tremendous amount of pressure on teachers, which in turn places a tremendous amount of pressure on the students as well.

However, even with the negative issues that have come with education reform, it has been shown that discarding certain traditional teaching methods may be a positive step for education especially in the math and science departments. Hands-on lab exercises have begun to dominate the landscape of science classes, replacing the traditional methods of passive-student lectures. True experimentation and exploration of scientific principles is encouraged and highlighted in many classrooms and seem to be much more effective than the traditional "recipe"-driven lab experiences. These interactive approaches have, so far, been proven to be far more effective teaching techniques than the traditional ones. However, even through these techniques the scoring on standardized tests are still disappointingly low in America especially in comparison to students of other industrialized countries (Hake 1998).