Authors

Don Buckley, Quinnipiac University

Joyce Cadwallader, Saint-Mary-of-the-Woods College

Abstract

Collaboratoria and STEM Digital Libraries (sensu NSDL) are intended to promote improvements in science education. However, broad migration of the science education community from the Instructional Paradigm (emphasizing content delivery and coverage) to the Learning Paradigm (emphasizing student learning with understanding; Barr and Tagg, 1995) will require a concerted effort . Two important issues will be (1) framing these online resources in a sophisticated pedagogical context and (2) promoting institutional change processes in the user community powerful enough to alter faculty practices to learning-centered styles.

Therefore, effective institutional transition to the Learning Paradigm will require attention to four principles (Buckley, 2002):

1. Pedagogical Principles to Guide Transformation. The ultimate goal is transition to learning-centered communities. New insights about the cognitive development of learning provide us with pivotal principles to guide transformation of communities. These principles must be applied to both the organizational structure of online collections and tools, as well as to faculty development.
   
   The NAS and the NSF have articulated a vision of science education reform that encourages three transformational themes (NRC, 1995; Melvin et al., 1996; Bransford et al., 2000; Pellegrino et al., 2001):
   
   
   1. Students must learn with understanding in order to apply their formal learning experiences to later learning and real-world applications, as advanced in the NRC’s “How People Learn” agenda (Bransford et al., 2000; Pellegrino et al., 2001).
      
      
   2. Learning in a social context can amplify student interest and learning (Pellegrino et al., 2001).
      
      
   3. Students must experience the process of science routinely (NRC, 1995; Melvin et al., 1996; Guenther, 1998), and in an epistemologically deep manner (e.g., BioQUEST 3 P's).
      
      
2. The Most Formidable Hurdle Is Faculty Practice. Science education is commonly oriented toward content delivery and coverage issues rather than learning with understanding (Lazerson et al., 2000; Buckley, 2002).
   
   
3. Transformational Faculty Development. Transitioning faculty from emphasis on content delivery to teaching so that all students learn with understanding will require adoption of transformational faculty development methods (Barone and Hagner, 2001; Buckley, 2002).
   
   
4. Promoting Institutional Change. Effective change will require that transformational faculty development be coupled to institutional change processes (Rogers, 1995; Barone and Hagner, 2001; Buckley, 2002).

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BioQUEST. A 3 P's approach to science education: Problem-posing, problem-solving, and peer-persuasion. http://bioquest.org. BioQUEST Curriculum Consortium.

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Buckley, D. 2002. In Pursuit of the Learning Paradigm: Coupling Faculty Transformation and Institutional Change. EDUCAUSE Review 37(1): 28-38. http://www.educause.edu/pub/er/erm02/erm021w.asp

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Lazerson, M., U. Wegener, and N. Shumanis. 2000. What makes a revolution? Teaching and learning in higher education, 1980-2000. Change 32 (3): 12-19.

Pellegrino, J., N. Chudowsky, and R. Glaser (eds.). 2001. Knowing What Students Know: The Science and Design of Educational Assessment. Committee on the Foundations of Assessment, Board on Testing and Assessment, Center for Education, National Research Council.

National Research Council. 1995. From Analysis to Action: Undergraduate Education in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology, a National Science Foundation/ National Research Council Convocation.

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