A symposium hosted by the Center for Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Education

Introduction
1st Decade
2nd Decade
3rd Decade
4th Decade
Lessons Learned

J. Myron Atkin
Rodger W. Bybee
George Deboer
Peter Dow
Marye Anne Fox
John Goodlad
Jeremy Kilpatrick
Glenda T. Lappan
(Thomas T. Liao)
F. James Rutherford

From PSSC to MSTe : A Personal 34-Year Odyssey in Science and Engineering Education (continued)
Thomas T. Liao, Program in Technology and Society, State University of New York at Stonybrook

4th Decade [1987-97] : Technology Education and the MST Years

In the past ten years, National Standards in Mathematics and Science Education have been developed and are having some success in guiding educational reform. Currently, National Technology Education Standards are also being developed. The New York State Education Department has taken a bold step to develop a new set of learning standards that integrate the study of Mathematics, Science, and Technology [MST]. Building on the National Standards, especially the Project 2061 Benchmarks, the New York State MST Learning Standards go beyond disciplinary standards by providing integration standards.

Serving with Dr. James Rutherford of Project 2061 as co-chair of the New York MST Learning Standards Advisory Committee, my life long dream of institutionalizing the ECCP approach to learning MST concepts is becoming a reality. At the high school level an updated version of TMMW is now called Principles of Engineering [POE] and is being taught at over 100 high schools in New York State. This time around, most of the POE teachers are Technology Educators. POE is an exemplary program for implementing the MST Learning Standards and in a few schools is linked to Mathematics and Physics classes with the three MST teachers having the same group of students. This arrangement facilitates integration of the three subjects.

In the Spring of 1997, SUNY at StonyBrook in collaboration with Hofstra University and Brookhaven National Labs was awarded a five-year NSF grant to provide enhancement in Technology Education and MST integration for elementary school teachers from 21 school districts in New York State. This MSTe project is currently working with 20 leadership teams (one team consists of teachers from two school districts) who after two years of professional development will conduct teacher enhancement programs for their colleagues in their school districts. By the year 2002, the goal of this project is to provide over 1300 elementary teachers with the knowledge base and pedagogical skills to implement the new MST Learning Standards.

The design of the MSTe project was guided by the lessons learned from the projects that I and my colleagues have been involved in for the past thirty years. This paper will conclude with a discussion of the lessons learned from working on curriculum development/teacher enhancement projects and how they influenced the design the MSTe project.

Lessons Learned and the Design of the MSTe Project

Ever since 1966, my professional development as a science and engineering educator has been positively influenced by Dr. John G. Truxal who taught me most of the engineering that I know. In preparing this paper I consulted with him and was given a advanced copy of his “Engineering and Curriculum Reform” essay that he wrote for this symposium. Professor John Truxal wrote :

“One would hope that the four decades of government and private support for curriculum reform would leave us with widely useful guidelines for future efforts. While there may not be unanimous agreement, our group at StonyBrook believes in the validity of the following thoughts:

1. Change has to be evolutionary, not revolutionary.
2. Technology can be strong motivation for learning science and mathematics.
3. Curricular reform has to be a long-term proposition, with evaluation of the success of the program over a number of years or even decades.
4. Designing a new course or a novel learning system should be approached just as we tackle an engineering design problem.
5. Finally, national efforts to improve education should not over-sell and over-promise.”

For further elaboration of these five guidelines, refer to Professor Truxal’s essay. I fully agree with the five lessons learned from thirty years of experience and used them to guide the design of the MSTe project. A sixth lesson that we have also learned is that educational reform is much more than curriculum development and teacher enhancement, even though they are both necessary and important. In order to achieve lasting systematic change we must take a systems approach to reform where all the constraints or barriers to change must be addressed concurrently.

Our newly funded MSTe project used the above six guidelines to design a program which we hope will result in innovative MST education in the elementary schools of 21 school districts. The following ten design features provides an overview of the MSTe project :

• Partnership among two universities, a national laboratory, and 21 school districts with their associated BOCES regional centers
• Two years of intensive professional development of 20 leadership teams
• Empower 20 leadership teams with the ability to be change agents and mentors
• Each of the seven Co-PIs will work directly with three school districts
• Develop an Implementation and Resource Guide for leadership teams
• Use existing exemplary MST curriculum to address the MST Learning Standards
• Commitments are made via a memorandum of agreement
• Both district-wide and school administrative support for classroom teachers
• Development of a culture of professionalism and life-long learning
• Develop a constructive approach to learning among teachers and students

In the next five years, we will evaluate the degree of success that we will have in trying to achieve systematic change in MST education in 21 school districts. In 2002, we can reflect on our work and will most likely learn additional lessons that can be used to improve educational reform projects of the 21st century.

[Home] [Directories] [Publications] [Search] [Site Map] [About] [President's Corner] [Employment] [Browse] [Feedback]

 Copyright 1997 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.