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This is an archived site and is no longer maintained. There will be no further updates to this site.
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Quality education requires excellence in both content and instruction. You can try to teach appropriate content, but students will not acquire it if ineffective or inappropriate instruction is used. Conversely, you can set up the ideal learning environment employing proven instructional strategies and still fail to advance student learning for lack of appropriate content.
Over the last century, reformers' attempts to improve education have repeatedly floundered when they made the mistake of focusing exclusively on either content or instruction to the detrement of the other. In reaction to the fixation of the 1980's on content as epotimized by "back to basics", there are signs that we are about to be too preoccupied with improving instruction. The recent school reform movement in the U.S. has remade the shape of instruction, introducing flexible scheduling, alternative assessment, collaborative groups, student-centered learning, student projects, and technology. At TERC, we have applauded and assisted in these reform efforts, because they create space for far better instructional strategies. However, we are alarmed that there does not seem to be sufficient attention paid to the content that will be part of the reformed classroom, particularly in mathematics and science.
What is taught, and how it is taught, is too often determined by the curriculum materials and, in science, the apparatus available. A chemistry teacher under an injunction to "reform," who has chemicals, burettes, and requirements to cover acid-base chemistry, may make a standard titration lab a bit less directed, but basically little different from a learning perspective. A major change of the sort needed, such as tracking pH through the local hydrology as part of an environmental survey, is difficult for many teachers and often requires external assistance in the form of scientific knowledge, curricula, technical support, and in-service. It will also require new laboratory equipment. There is an urgent need for new substance that fits the needs of reform, and insufficient resources are being devoted to creating and disseminating well-tested material that responds thoughtfully to the calls for reform. Similarly, there is little realization that new, more flexible apparatus is also essential in science.
One indicator of the lessened concern for content, is the fuzzy thinking we increasingly hear about developing curriculum material. "A few of us will get together over the summer and pull together a course," "The teachers will find material to support the student projects." "In the last week of the workshop, participants will develop units that will be shared on the network." "A $10,000 grant to develop a unit on climate change...."
These remarks fail to acknowledge the enormous inputs of time and resources required to create excellent materials that balance form and substance, content and instruction. It takes expertise of teachers, researchers, professional curriculum developers, engineers, artists, editors, and publishers. Original, high-quality material requires years of maturation blending ideas from teachers and scientists, learning strategies suggested by theoretical work, careful classroom testing and observation, and extensive revision and re-testing. At TERC, we are developing material in this manner, producing approaches that are quite different from traditional curricula. Here are some examples:
Digital video image-capture technology promises to yield a totally new kind of apparatus for science, one that is highly flexible, inexpensive, and supportive of student projects. The article on p @ illustrates one application of this technology.
The brine shrimp investigation on p @ from our ecology curriculum project connects student experiences to basic ecological principles.
The Global Lab is exploring how network-based collaboration can support school reform. It is best described as a collection of resources that, as the article on p @ describes, are easily adapted to the individual needs of teachers.
These illustrate approaches that begin to define a new kind of learning environment that is mindful of the need for content learning. We hope that, in the enthusiasm to introduce reform, schools throughout the country remember the importance of content and draw from well-crafted materials like these.
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