Science

This is a very well written science curriculum developed for adult education instructors without science background. The lessons are clear, appropriate, and interesting. Adult education instructors interested in teaching science could pick this up and start planning very easily. This is an excellent model for lesson planning and also an excellent curriculum itself. It has very comprehensive and clear scaffolding for teachers, who are presumed to not have extensive knowledge of scientific concepts. This seems as if would be very non-threatening to those who may feel unprepared to teach science, and provides good support to teach the concepts successfully. One support for teachers is an introduction to each lesson that explains the overall goals for not just the content in the lesson, but also for the ways in which it is meant to encourage student engagement and confidence. There are also very useful notes along the way to help with logistics of implementing the lesson plan and background knowledge to help respond to questions and discussions. There are also resources for learning more about the topics addressed in the curriculum. The style of teaching presented in the resource is very much in keeping with accepted best practices of adult education. The activities are designed to promote a lot of engagement, discussion and interaction of students, and focus on using their own questions and past experience to guide the learning. There is also an emphasis on synthesizing known and recently learned concepts with the new ones being presented along the way. This curriculum is very clear that it is “meant to connect the often abstract study of science with concrete, recognizable phenomena relevant to students’ lives.” And it presents a realistic and important view of what science is. The authors express the “….hope that this curriculum offers a more humane view of the field—that science is just the (often flawed and limited) current understanding of how things work in our world.”

Reaching Students: What Research Says About Effective Instruction in Undergraduate Science and Engineering contains a valuable message for those interested in refocusing instruction by experimenting with new ways to reach students. These approaches and strategies use research-based components for effective teaching and learning. Although written for a higher education audience, the examples and methodologies are applicable to adult education classes. With the interest in moving more adult learners on to postsecondary education and adult learner interest in STEM careers, it is important to help adult learners develop deeper conceptual and practical background in science. One major drawback is that the resource assumes that the instructor has the science knowledge needed to help students address misconceptions and areas of confusion.  This resource was not designed to directly develop adult educators’ science background, a need for many adult educators.  It does, however, answer another pressing concern:  helping adult learners prepare for high school equivalency tests.  The shift to student-centered strategies mirrors the most pressing concerns noted by groups, such as the GED Testing Service:  (1) pulling specific evidence from a written source to support a finding or conclusion; (2) expressing scientific information or findings in words; and (3) understand and apply scientific models, theories, and processes.