NSF PR 96-59 - October 14, 1996
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Lacking a Clear Focus, U.S. Science and Mathematics
Courses Cover Many Subjects but Provide Little Depth
Compared to their counterparts abroad, U.S. science
and mathematics teachers are expected to cover a dizzying
variety of subjects every school year, and, as result,
students seldom get to explore key topics in any depth,
according to a groundbreaking, international curriculum
study funded by the National Science Foundation.
U.S. science and math teaching "is a mile wide and
an inch deep," when compared to our international
competitors, notes NSF's Larry Suter, who oversaw
the research summarized in A Splintered Vision:
An Investigation of U.S. Science and Mathematics Education.
A Splintered Vision was prepared by
a team of researchers led by William Schmidt, a professor
of education at Michigan State University. The U.S.
Education Department's National Center for Education
Statistics (NCES) also supported the study.
"The TIMSS results confirm that educators in other
countries demand a greater depth of education for
elementary and middle-school students than do their
counterparts in the United States," said Luther S.
Williams, who heads NSF's education and human resources
directorate. "They simply demand more of every single
student."
Williams adds that the research validates NSF's support
for curriculum development, teacher professional development,
and "systemic" reform of entire state and urban school
systems -- all of which emphasize providing every
student with inquiry oriented science and math education.
He noted, however, that most of the data for the study
were collected prior to the adoption of national standards
for science education, which NSF helped to fund, and
that there are indications that the standards are
providing a rallying point for reform.
The NSF-funded research represents the first scientific
examination of the differences between how 8th-grade
math and science are taught in classrooms and presented
in textbooks in the U.S., compared with other countries.
The release of the U.S. curriculum study is part of
Third International Mathematics and Science Study
(TIMSS), a much larger international comparison of
science and math teaching and student achievement
in 45 countries.
International student achievement data collected by
TIMSS will be released in November.
Schmidt said his research shows that the structure
of the U.S. educational system makes it more difficult
to agree on a limited set of science and math topics
to teach here than it is abroad. "No single, coherent
vision of how to educate today's children dominates
U.S. educational practice", according to A Splintered
Vision.
Some of the key findings in A Splintered Vision
include:
- U.S. teachers teach more often each week than
do their counterparts in Japan or Germany,
leaving them less time than their foreign
counterparts to prepare their lessons. In
the U.S., teachers teach about 30 classroom
sessions every week. German teachers, by contrast,
teach slightly more than 20 periods per week
on average and their Japanese counterparts
teach fewer than 20 each week.
- U.S. schools retain the same topics in the
curriculum much longer than schools abroad,
suggesting that U.S. elementary and secondary
schools may repeat the same math and science
subjects grade after grade.
- Only a few U.S. 8th grade courses, those specifically
classified as algebra, actually teach a significant
number of algebraic concepts. Many other nations
teach these concepts to every student.
- U.S. textbooks make minimal demands on students
to learn and represent a limited notion of
what should be discussed as "basic topics."
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