Learning Science, K-8 Practitioner Report

The Board on Science Education of the National Research Council (NRC) is developing a research-based report on teaching and learning science designed to inform and guide a science education practitioner audience. This practitioner report will draw on and “translate” findings of Learning Science, K-8, a formal report on the science learning research base. Both the formal and practitioner reports, developed concurrently, were underway as of July 2005. The formal report is scheduled for release in June 2006, followed by the practitioner report in September 2006.

The formal report, Learning Science, K-8 will synthesize literatures across the learning sciences to describe how students learn science and explain how research can inform instructional practice, curriculum, assessment, and professional development. Authored by an NRC committee of experts from across the learning sciences, science education, and the natural sciences, the formal study will also make recommendations for a range of actors in science education, including teachers, teacher educators, professional organizations, researchers, and policy makers; and define an agenda for future research.

Drawing on the formal report, the practitioner volume will “translate” relevant findings, conclusions, and recommendations from the formal report and craft these specifically to inform a “mid-level practitioner” audience. These are actors whose primary duties include leadership and decision-making in K-8 science education at the state, local, and school level, including school-based science specialists and science teacher leaders, curriculum supervisors, staff development and assessment specialists, principals, and central office administrators. A professional writer will author the report with guidance from an oversight committee consisting of teachers, teacher-researchers, and liaisons from the formal report committee, and the NRC’s Teacher Advisory Committee.

The practitioner report will develop extended, contextualized examples to bring to life selected findings of the formal report. Written in an accessible manner, it will illustrate findings across diverse contexts to demonstrate multiple ways in which principles of research are manifest in classroom and professional development settings. To augment the narrative, the practitioner report will draw on classroom artifacts (student work samples, assignments, assessments) and photographs of classrooms, students, and teachers in action.

To ensure that that the practitioner report speaks to the interests and concerns of the target audience, staff at the NRC will undertake early field-testing activities with membership from the National Science Teachers’ Association, the State Science Supervisors Commission, and the Association for Supervision of Curriculum Development. Upon completion of the practitioner report, NRC staff will engage in a substantial, multi-faceted dissemination effort. This will include, among other things, distribution of 17,000 copies of the report to every school system and key leaders and decision-makers across the country and presentations at national conferences and meetings.