Reflections on Science Curriculum in the United States and ...



Reflections on the Science Curriculum in the United States and the

Czech Republic

Michael Svec, Ph.D.

Furman University

3300 Poinsett Highway

Greenville SC 29613 USA

michael.svec@furman.edu

Introduction

International comparisons are a useful tool for exploring the assumptions made about schools, children, the science curriculum, and future reforms. It was in this spirit that the author spent five months in the Czech Republic teaching science education courses at Palacky and Ostrava Universities and learning about the Czech school system. A Fulbright Lecture Award made the teaching possible. The paper will focus on the science curriculum and on efforts to reform science education. The paper will raise questions with the intent of encouraging discussion and analysis, not to advocate the superiority of any one system or the implementation of any one nation’s methods. Schools are embedded within a culture and must be adapted to serve the needs of that culture. The most effective implementations balance an understanding of the culture with the evolving needs of that nation.

The reflections are based upon published data, the TIMSS 8th grade science video study, news reports, the author’s classroom observations, and discussions with teachers, college professors, headmasters, and parents. Not being able to speak Czech, I relied on English speaking Czechs for information, explanations, and opinions. Primary and secondary schools in both Olomouc and Ostrava were visited. The American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Project 2061 Science for All Americans recommendations as well as the National Science Education Standards guided the reflections on science curriculum and teaching.

Why the Czech Republic?

Business leaders, politicians, and the media often link science achievement to economic competitiveness. Therefore, international comparisons provide an opportunity to explore different approaches to curriculum and teaching that may improve science achievement and economic competitiveness. The Czech science education system attracted the author’s professional attention when the results of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (US Department of Education, 1997a, 1997b, and 1998) were announced in 1995. Despite the political changes after the 1989 Revolution, the Czech Republic outperformed the United States and most other European countries. On the 1999 TIMSS-Repeat, even with declines, the Czechs still outperformed the United States. The Czech’s performance in math and science at the 4th, 8th, and 12th grade levels was among the best in Europe. In addition to TIMSS, the Czechs also performed well on the 2000 and 2003 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) assessments administered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD 2003a, 2003b, 2004). This assessment is given to 15-year old students. The focus of the 2003 PISA was on the application of science knowledge and skills in real-life situations. Different tests given at different grade levels and in different years suggest a consistent pattern of science achievement by the Czechs that is worthy of exploration. The results of the tests are shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Czech and US science performance on the TIMSS, TIMSS-R, PISA.

|Test |International average|US average |Czech average |Comment |

|1995 4th grade |524 |565 |557 |CZ not significantly different from US, both |

|TIMSS | | | |significantly above international average |

|1995 8th grade |516 |534 |574 |CZ significantly higher than US and international |

|TIMSS | | | |average |

|1999 8th grade |488 |515 |539 |CZ significantly higher than US and international |

|TIMSS | | | |average |

|2000 10th grade |500 |499 |511 |CZ significantly above the US and international |

|PISA | | | |average |

|2003 10th grade |496 |491 |523 |CZ significantly above the US & international |

|PISA | | | |average |

|1995 12th grade |500 |480 |487 |CZ not significantly different than US |

|TIMSS | | | | |

Science Curriculum

The broadest definition of curriculum is the entire school experience including content, pedagogies, student interactions, and extra-curricular activities that transmit the community’s values and beliefs. This paper will use a more narrow definition of curriculum that focuses on science as a program of study. Comparisons between the US and the Czech curriculum are made more difficult because in the United States, each state develops its own standards, while the Czechs have a national curriculum.

The focus of the Czech science curriculum is the canonical knowledge of science facts, concepts, and theories. The TIMSS 8th grade video study (Roth, 2006) found that 59% of public talk time in the Czech lessons was devoted to canonical knowledge, significantly more than the other four countries (US, Netherlands, Australia, Japan). Other types of knowledge addressed include 14% of time being spent on real-life issues, and less than 17% on procedural and experimental knowledge. In the United States, only 31% of public talk time was devoted to canonical knowledge and 17% to real life issues.

The focus on canonical knowledge is also demonstrated by the fact-driven curriculum and teacher-centered pedagogies that dominate the Czech classrooms. Czech lessons contained more content ideas and more challenging ideas than lessons in the four other participating countries. The lessons included a mix of basic and challenging content, a higher density of science content, more theoretical ideas, and more unrepeated technical terms. Czechs, like the US, were more likely to focus on acquiring knowledge in the form of facts, definitions, and algorithms than on making connections. Czechs were more likely to develop science ideas using real-world issues while in the US real-life issues were presented as a topic-related sidebar (Roth, 2006).

Life science was the focus of all of the Czech elementary science classrooms visited. Even at the different grade levels, teachers were presenting information on the native plants and animals. In the Czech Republic, integrated science, or natural science, begins in grades 4 and 5 with three 45-minute lessons per week that focus on the local environment. This differs from the United States that has science starting in the primary grades and includes life, earth and physical science. American students seem to spend more time in science instruction in the elementary grades than the Czechs although it varies from state to state. The number of lessons per week as required by the Ministry of Education is shown in Table 2.

Separate science classes begin in 6th grade when students take physics and biology every year with chemistry being added at the earliest in 7th grade and required in 8th and 9th grade. The courses are taken simultaneously, one or two lessons of each subject each week. At the 8th grade level, Czechs spent 36% of science lessons on life science, 29% on physics, 25% on chemistry, and 9% on other areas compared to the US which spent 28% on earth science, 18% on life, 16% on physics, 17% on chemistry, and 20% on other (Roth, 2006). A secondary school student may have 6 lessons of science a week with three different teachers. Little effort is made to integrate between the science subjects. Assuming inquiry skills should be taught across the science disciplines, this is a missed opportunity for demonstrating how inquiry content is a common across the disciplines.

Table 2: Number of lessons per week by grade level from Eurybase.

|Subject |1 |

|Learners engage in |Learner poses a question |Learner selects among |Leaner sharpens or |Learner engages in |

|scientifically oriented | |questions, poses new |clarifies question provided|question provided by |

|questions | |questions |by teacher, materials, or |teacher, materials or |

| | | |other sources |other sources |

|Learners give priority to|Learner determines what |Learner directed to |Learner given data and |Leaner given data and |

|evidence |constitutes evidence and |collect certain data |asked to analyze |told how to analyze |

| |collects it | | | |

|Learners formulate |Learner formulates |Learner guided in process|Learner given possible ways|Leaner provided with |

|explanations from |explanation after |of formulating |to use evidence to |evidence. |

|evidence |summarizing evidence |explanations from |formulate explanation | |

| | |evidence | | |

|Learners connect |Learner independently |Learner directed toward |Learner given possible | |

|explanations to |examines other resources |areas and sources of |connections | |

|scientific knowledge |and forms the links to |scientific knowledge | | |

| |explanations | | | |

|Learners communicate and |Learner forms reasonable |Learner coached in |Learner provided broad |Learner given steps and|

|justify explanations. |and logical arguments to |development of |guidelines to use sharpen |procedures for |

| |communicate explanations |communication |communication |communication |

|More < - - - Amount of learner self-direction - - - > Less |

|Less < - - - Amount of direction from teacher or materials - - - > More |

Bibliography

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Eurybase Information Database on Educational Systems in Europe. (2004). Education System in the Czech Republic. . Retrieved 30 September 2005 from link on the Czech Republic Embassy in Washington DC at .

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Straková, J. (xStrakovaj@seznam.cz) e-mail correspondence on March 1, 2005, RE: Questions about standards, to Michael Svec (michael.svec@furman.edu)

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