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Feb. 20, 2001middle
Most of us have children or grandchildren who've been in middle school.
Last fall John Hubisz, president of the American Association of Physics
Teachers (AAPT), made available his 100-page review of widely-used
school textbooks in physical science. All such textbooks fail miserably,he
and his co-authors found. So did the AAAS' PROJECT 2061!the
I've excerpted John's long report. It's important that we be aware of
situation so that we can improve it, so I'll post the excerpts over theeducated
next week.
High quality middle school education in science is crucial to an
citizenry in the 21st century.science
cheers,
Jane Jackson
**************************************
Final Report: The David and Lucile Packard Foundation
Grant #1998-4248
The full report (about 100 pages) is at
<http://www.psrc-online.org/curriculum/book.html>
Excerpts: REVIEW OF MIDDLE SCHOOL PHYSICAL SCIENCE TEXTS
John L. Hubisz, Ph.D., Hubisz@unity.ncsu.edu
Purpose:
The purpose of this grant was to review and critique the physical
in Middle School (grades 6, 7, and 8 ...) science textbooks with regardto
the scientific accuracy, adherence to an accurate portrayal of theof
scientific approach, and the appropriateness and pedagogic effectiveness
the material presented for the particular grade level....lists
Procedure:
A letter was written to all the relevant publishers as determined by
garnered from school districts that were considering or had recentlywe
considered adopting science textbooks for Middle School grades. In some
instances three letters were sent to publishers at different addresses.
The letter explained the project, asked for a company liaison with whom
could communicate during the project, and asked for copies of theirtexts
at the Middle School level. No publisher responded. ... Telephonecalls
resulted in only two publishers willing to talk: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill andcomplete
South-Western Educational Publishing. The former publisher sent a
set of texts and the latter sent a sample (1 out of 14 slim volumes.)pointed
Neither volunteered a liaison.
...
The reviewers [see below for their names] all had physics and teaching
backgrounds that varied from Middle School to graduate school. All had
been involved in some way with the teachers and/or the curriculum at the
Middle School level for many years....
General Overall Observations:
... All our reviewers commented on the "busyness" of the texts and
out that a lot of the material had little to do with science.photographs,
The books have a very large number of errors, many irrelevant
complicated illustrations, experiments that could not possibly work, andthat
diagrams and drawings that represented impossible situations. It is no
wonder that teachers and students alike find difficulty with physical
science in the Middle Schools.
Some might suggest that corrections can come later, but evidence shows
many students are turned off by their Middle School experience and mostclear
never choose to take another physical science course. There is also
evidence that it is very difficult to overcome early establishedrigidly
information. "Hardwiring" is the common term used to describe how
students (and adults) hold on to early conceptions.dropping
The general reading level has deteriorated markedly over the last 20-40
years. The publishers, as noted later, have responded to this by
the level of science texts. ... Publishers are much more interested inlittle
satisfying a group of selection committee members who typically have
knowledge of the subject matter, but are impressed by pretty picturesand
seemingly up-to-date new information which for the intended audience isnot
at all relevant. Our reviewers noted the same sort of "dumbing down" inwell
these elementary texts and all the reviewers commented on their
encyclopedic nature, not only encyclopedic, but also containing topics
beyond the capacity of Middle School students.There
In our experience an "author" is one who wrote the book in question.
is a rich variety of college level textbooks and many high school levelThis
textbooks competing in the market place and most are highly accurate.
situation comes about as a result of the prompt response of colleaguesto
errors in new editions and printings and the close association ofteachers
with publishers' representatives. This is not true of science textsused
in grades K-8. The notion of "author" in these texts is quite foreignto
us. Of the several names listed in several of the textbooks, none thatwe
contacted would claim to be an "author" and some did not even know thatof
their names had been so listed. Instead of authors we have a collection
people who "checked" parts or aspects of the textbook. Some of thesethe
reviewers actually panned the material and heard nothing further from
publisher.give
Without a clear-cut author or pair of authors to "define" the text or
it direction, these texts fail miserably. Committees produce mush andit
is very difficult to find anyone with the authority to make corrections."editors"
Instead of being able to deal directly with authors we dealt with
and got answers to our concerns about inaccuracies such as "Well, wehave
to make the science simple," "We don't think that your qualificationsare
good enough," and "Our experts disagree with you."Incarnate
The reviewers were:
-- Herbert H. Gottlieb, M.A., Physics Teacher, Bayside NY
-- Kelley L. Holzknecht, M.S., Department of Chemistry and Physical
Science, Meredith College, Raleigh NC
-- John L. Hubisz, Ph.D., Physics Department, North Carolina State
University, Raleigh NC
-- H. Thomas Hudson, Ph.D., Physics Department, University of the
Word, San Antonio TX
-- Howard P. Lyon, B.A., Erie PA 16509
-- Beverley A.P. Taylor, Ph.D., Physics Department, Miami University,
Hamilton OH
-- Ray Turner, Ph.D., Physics Department, Clemson University, Clemson SC
-- James Watson, Jr., Ph.D., Physics Department, Ball State University,
Muncie IN
-- Nancy T. Watson, M.A., Burris Laboratory School, Muncie IN
**********************************************
Jane Jackson, Co-Director, Modeling Instruction Program
Box 871504, Dept.of Physics & Astronomy,ASU,Tempe,AZ 85287
480-965-8438/fax:965-7331 <http://modeling.asu.edu>