With most states at or near the classroom implementation stage of Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) alignment, principals and teachers are coming together to discuss their interpretations and experiences.
One problem facing educators, from early elementary through high school, is that few schools have previously taught science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) effectively. While "science classes" have been taught PK-12 for decades, many educators are now questioning how effective that instruction really was, and what truly effective STEM instruction looks like today. In New York State for example, new Required Investigations for NYS P-12 Science Learning Standards have been intended to help open up classroom and school level discussions about the nature of the “new” standards and the performance expectations required of students. The grand implication being: how will classroom instruction bring students to mastery of skills and thinking because the old standards favored informational transfer that could happen without engaging either.
To understand how to align to NGSS, let’s walk through the basic shifts in the NGSS, beginning with STEM instruction.
New Definition of Effective STEM Instruction
The definition of quality STEM instruction today is:
Effective instruction [that] capitalizes on students’ early interest and experiences, identifies and builds on what they know, and provides them with experiences to engage them in the practices of science and sustain their interest.
This definition was first published in 2011 by the National Research Council's Committee on Highly Successful Schools or Programs for K-12 STEM Education in a report called Successful K-12 STEM Education: Identifying Effective Approaches in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
Key Points from the New Definition
NGSS lessons must accomplish each of the following:
- Intentionally capture students’ interest
- Connect with student experiences from an early age
- Be designed to identify and build on what students know
- Engage students in science and engineering practices
- Sustain student interest over time
This is why the NGSS are now considered performance expectations and not merely standards. Students are no longer measured by their ability to recall a fact. Instead, they are expected to be able to perform the specific expectation of the standards within a new context, as a result of their classroom experience.
Difference Between Traditional STEM Instruction and STEM Instruction Today
Traditionally, STEM instruction has relied on teachers, videos, or texts as the experts, with a focus on awareness, knowledge, and task-level readiness. A quick Google search shows no shortage of texts, demonstrations, apps, and kits that profess to reveal "the science behind ____." However, this traditional approach is now far afield from what the new standards require. NGSS shifts learning and thinking onto the students, who must practice these skills so they can replicate them in different settings.
Most traditional STEM instructional models did not equip teachers to engage their students in the practices and processes of real-world science and engineering. In addition, most STEM professional development programs ignore student ownership in the classroom for these eight practices.
For instance, traditional science models gave students a multi-step procedure to follow, or provided engineering students with a diagram of what to build. Under the new NGSS, students are expected to actively engage in the practices themselves. In these two examples, by developing their own model and planning their own investigation.
We should also avoid STEM educator preparation programs and professional development opportunities that advocate strategies which limit full and regular student responsibility for all eight practices. . Such informational strategies inhibit student learning and negatively impact performance, because they don’t require students to build and practice critical thinking skills. NGSS-based instruction is important for special education students as well, and teachers should think carefully about the nature and appropriateness of instructional modifications that distance students from the practices dimension of the performance expectations.
Today the primary reason to teach all children science is to help them develop dispositions for engaging in evidence based reasoning as well as the creative, evaluative, and analytical thinking skills to support it. These skills are essential for answering questions and solving problems. Keep this in mind and re-read the definition of effective STEM instruction above. This definition is phrased according to how the NGSS curriculum should be designed and instruction should occur in the classroom for students.
How Will the Next Generation Science Standards Affect Science Teaching?
While classrooms have been teaching writing practices and the writing process for decades, the concept of teaching science and engineering practices is new to most classrooms. These practices are core skills specific to the discipline and applicable at every grade level that act as tools for executing NGSS scientific and engineering processes. STEM practices are the skills required to develop scientific knowledge and engineered technologies.
There are eight general science and engineering practices within NGSS:
- Asking questions (for science) and defining problems (for engineering)
- Developing and using models
- Planning and carrying out investigations
- Analyzing and interpreting data
- Using mathematics and computational thinking
- Constructing explanations (for science) and designing solutions (for engineering)
- Engaging in argument from evidence
- Obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information
Those coming to NGSS from states with inquiry standards will have to pay especially close attention to the eight science and engineering practices listed above. Schools that perform poorly on standardized inquiry testing can expect similar performance under NGSS.
How Will Science Education Change with NGSS?
Next Generation Science Standards offer a three-dimensional system of performance expectations.
The purpose of pivoting from standards to performance expectations is to position the new standards as a context for learning in three dimensions: science and engineering practices, disciplinary core ideas, and crosscutting concepts. Each dimension is designed to be interdependent. This allows the performance expectations and the three dimensions to act as a system to inform curriculum and instruction.
This also means that the NGSS lend themselves to horizontal and vertical alignment; however, alignment will be difficult to achieve with the typical 3 or 4 unit per year instructional model common across most PK-12 classrooms. A system of standards and dimensions means there are intentional connections that must not be ignored.
NGSS makes grade-level-specific recommendations for some standards. However, the NGSS, as well as every adoptive state, have made it clear that standards are not curriculum. But what does that mean?
The job of curriculum and instruction is to nurture students' understanding so that they can perform the expectation as a result of the instruction they receive. The NGSS performance expectations are not specific tasks or contexts that students must learn. That was the model under the old standards.
While mastery of grade-level-specific standards is important in that grade level, those standards are not the only standards that should be taught. Effective STEM instruction needs to reinforce and build upon standards from prior grade levels while also introducing standards from future grade levels.
This is not only prudent for students' long-term retention and understanding; it is also important for preventing systemic gaps in student performance that occur with late students – those who are joining from outside the district, those who are English language learners, and those who suffer from transience or absenteeism and who cannot afford to learn in a once-and-done curriculum model.
Ultimately, the NGSS will be hard for many classrooms and curriculum companies to align with, because most existing lessons and resources do not approach STEM curriculum and instruction as a system for building knowledge and skills together across all STEM disciplines. However, by doing your research to really understand what the NGSS is looking for, you can help your school and community align more properly and efficiently with the NGSS.
