NEXT STEPS FOR THE NGSSA SKEPTIC’S VIEW

PAUL BRUNO, 8TH GRADE SCIENCEWATTS LEARNING CENTER CHARTER MIDDLE SCHOOL

MY VIEW OF THE NGSS1. Difficult to navigate

MY VIEW OF THE NGSS2. Extremely vague

MY VIEW OF THE NGSS3. Too much “skills”, not enough knowledge.

“Research to date provides little guidance about how to help learners aggregate transferable competencies across disciplines. This may be a shortcoming in the research or a reflection of the domain-specific nature of transfer…Foundations and federal agencies should support programs of research designed to illuminate whether, and to what extent, teaching for transfer within an academic discipline can facilitate transfer across disciplines.” – National Research Council, 2012

“We are unable to find a domain-general, cognitive strategy that has been described and tested for effectiveness using randomized, controlled trialsvarying one factor at a time with far transfer test tasks to eliminate the effects of domain-specific knowledge…[W]hen performing a cognitive task requiring domain-specific knowledge…the presence or absence of this knowledge is the best predictor of performance.” – Tricot & Sweller, Educational Psychology Review, 2013

CHALLENGE #1: MIDDLE SCHOOL CONTENT SEQUENCING• Integrated middle school standards

CHALLENGE #2: CONFLICTING DEMANDS• Standards vs. Tests

CHALLENGE #3: CLARIFYING THE STANDARDS• At the national level

• At the state level• Science framework revision

• Jan/Feb focus groups; apply by Dec 2

• At the school & classroom level

QUESTIONS/COMMENTSPaul Bruno, 8th Grade ScienceWatts Learning Center Charter Middle Schoolpaulbruno@gmail.com@MrPABrunowww.paul-bruno.com