Chapter 2: | Background Study |
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Science Study Committee (PSSC). The writings of Dewey, Schwab, Bruner and Piaget were driving forces in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s in science education reform (NRC, 2000).
Success in the reform movement in science education hinged upon adequate professional development as the key obstacle in any significant reform effort.
The 1990s brought on the third wave of science education reform driven by the publications of math and science standards (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 1989, 1991; NRC, 1996; AAAS, 1993). In the current reform movement, inquiry-based instruction is the main focus.
Bencze and Hodson (1999) reported on the movement in Canada for science teachers to more accurately reflect the true nature of science by having students participate in inquiry in the classroom.
Supovitz et al. (2000) noted the difference between the reform movements of the 1920s, 1950s and 1960s with the reform movement of the 1980s and 1990s by citing the example of professional development programs by the National Science Foundation (NSF) that provided “content-rich, intensive, sustained experience that explicitly model the forms of teaching they intend participants to emulate” (p. 332). The NSF's statewide systemic initiative (SSI)