Science and Society in the Classroom: Using Sociocultural Perspec ...

science-related issues in their daily lives. Following the trend in mathematical education reform and the release of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM, 1989) curriculum and evaluation standards for school mathematics, several science and science education organizations engaged in developing innovative science standards. However, there was a need to coordinate efforts at the national level so that all students would have access to a high-quality science education. Toward this end, NRC (1996) took a leading role in bringing together various organizations to develop National Science Education Standards (NSES) for all students. The end result of this process was a system of standards for everyone, from students in elementary schools to policy makers and administrators. These standards were to be used to judge not only “the quality of what students know and are able to do” but also “the quality of science programs that provide the opportunity for students to learn science; the quality of science teaching; the quality of the system that supports science teachers and programs; and the quality of assessment practices and policies” (NRC, 1996, p. 12). The standards were organized into eight chapters. Chapter 1 provided a historical background of how the standards came to be, as well as an outline of the document. Chapter 2 explained the conceptual basis for the standards by providing definitions of key terms and briefly explaining overarching principles. Chapter 3 provided the NRC's vision of what teachers should know and do to be effective in the science classroom. Chapter 4 laid out the expected professional knowledge and skills all teachers should be able to demonstrate to enact the teaching standards described in chapter 3. Chapter 5 described the criteria for evaluating how well students are learning as well as how well teachers are doing their jobs and how corresponding policies are supporting teachers and students. Chapter 6 outlined what students are expected to learn in grades K–12. Chapter 7 provided guidelines for evaluating the quality of school and district science programs, and chapter 8 outlined the criteria needed to assess the efficacy of the educational system.

In summary, the reform initiatives in science education (AAAS, 1989, 1993; NRC, 1996) and the key principles guiding the NSES emphasized