The Iowa Chautauqua Program: What Assessment Results Indicate About STS Instruction

Abstract

The Iowa Chautauqua Program was developed in 1983 with support from national Chautauqua funds from NSF which were awarded to NSTA to study an inexpensive in-service model for stimulating reform in K-12 science classrooms. In Iowa the Chautauqua effort has focused upon STS materials and strategies with primary attention directed to teachers in grades 4 through 9. The program began with 30 teachers enrolled in a program in one center and expanded to 230 teachers enrolled in five centers across the state during the 1989-90 year. To date, 1,500 teachers have been enrolled during the 1983-90 interim.After the initial year the Iowa Utility Association (IUA) sought out the project for additional support. During the three years of the NSF grant to NSTA, the IUA support was three times greater. After three years the NSTA Chautauqua Program was terminated.However, NSF support has continued with a grant to The University of Iowa. Further, three EESA summer grants have also supported the Iowa program. An outline of the Iowa Chautauqua In-Service model is included as Figure 1. STS in Iowa is defined as materials and strategies teachers devise as a new context for their exisitng programs. To be considered STS the materials developed must have ten basic features. These include:1. The identification of problems with local interest and impact; 2. The use of local resources (human and material) to locate information that can be used in problem resolution; 3. The active involvement of students in seeking information that can be applied to solve real-life problems;4. The extension of learning going beyond the class period, the classroom, the school; 5. A focus upon the impact of science on each individual student; 6. A view that science content is not something that exists for students to master on tests; 7. A de-emphasis upon process skills per se just because they represent glamorized skills of practicing scientists;8. An emphasis upon career awareness --especially careers related to science and technology; 9. Opportunities for students to perform in citizenship roles as they attempt to resolve issues they have identified;10. Identification of ways that science and technology are likely to impact the future. A major component in the Iowa ChautauquaProgram is assessment. One aspect of the assessment effort is the effect of STS on students. Five domains of science education proposed by Yager and McCormack(1) are used to assess student growth by the use of pre-and post assessment instruments in each domain.

Inquiry‐based science instruction—what is it and does it matter? Results from a research synthesis years 1984 to 2002

“…Two of these studies specifically demonstrated that collaborative work with peers increased conceptual learning compared with working independently (Lumpe & Staver, 1995;Marinopoulos & Stavridou, 2002). There were also three studies that did not find a statistically significant effect of increased student directedness in the instruction on conceptual learning (Dana, 2001;Myers, 1988;Sinclair, 1994;Yager, Myers, Blunck, & McComas, 1992). However, all of these studies noted issues with teacher effects, confounding the intervention treatments under investigation (i.e., poor implementation of the instructional conditions that could have contributed to the nature of the findings).…”

Naturwissenschaftlicher Unterricht im neuen Jahrhundert: Zur Diskussion

“…Die Bedeutung von koordinierten Anstrengungen bei der unterrichtlichen Einführung von STS-Inhalten und der gleichzeitigen Erstaus-und Weiterbildung der entsprechenden Lehrer für den gesamten Bereich der Schulbildung (Kindergarten bis Klasse 12 = "K-12 Curriculum") zeigt das Iowa-STS-Implementierungsmodell in den USA [11], über das die umfangreichsten belegten Erfahrungen vorliegen.…”

A Vision for What Science Education Should Be Like for the First 25 Years of a New Millennium

“…They have more realistic views concerning the utility of science study. And, of most importance, these attitudes are maintained across grade levels (McComas, 1996; Yager, Meyers, Blunck, & McComas, 1992; Yager & Penick, 1987).…”