Chapter 9: A Partnership Between Brooklyn College-City University of New York and the American Museum of Natural History: Enhancing Teacher Preparation Through Informal Science Learning

In the 1960s, a reform movement in science education urged replacing the focus on the content and methods of science with one on the processes of science in grades K–12. This began a shift from an emphasis on students’ memorizing fact and the familiar “scientific method” to one on learning fundamental processes of science such as observing, questioning, clarifying, measuring, inferring, and predicting, often referred to as inquiry-based instruction. Building on this reform movement, the National Science Education Standards (NSES) (NRC, 2009), a consensus of educational, scientific and public sector constituencies, proposed a fundamental change in emphasis in science education from “knowing scientific facts and information” to “understanding scientific concepts and developing abilities of inquiry.” It recommended an increased emphasis on investigation and analysis of science questions. It encouraged pedagogy that would provide students with the opportunity to conduct investigations over extended periods of time. The NSES was widely embraced by the science education community, and teacher preparation programs responded to calls for reform and to this vision of best practice in teacher preparation. Yet, it is generally recognized that inquiry-based instruction is not widely practiced.