Review of Teaching Science for Understanding: A Human Constructivist View edited by Joel J. Mintzes, James H. Wandersee, and Joseph D. Novak Assessing Science for Understanding: A Human Constructivist View edited by Joel J. Mintzes, James H. Wandersee, and Joseph D. Novak

Abstract

Review of Teaching Science for Understanding: A Human Constructivist View Edited by Joel J. Mintzes, James H. Wandersee, and Joseph D. Novak , 2005 , Academic Press , San Diego , Calif. , ISBN: 978-0-12-498361-8 ; and Assessing Science for Understanding: A Human Constructivist View Edited by Joel J. Mintzes, James H. Wandersee, and Joseph D. Novak , 2005 , Academic Press , San Diego , Calif. , ISBN: 978-0-12-088534-3 . The first part of the book Teaching Science for Understanding (chapters 1–3) begins with an overview of the changes in science education, “Theoretical and Empirical Foundations of Human Constructivism” is a brief introduction to theory and research in science education based on a Human Constructivist view of learning. The second part of the book (chapters 4–12), “Theory-Driven Intervention Strategies”, authored by an internationally recognized group of leading science educators and researchers, presents a review of each major instructional strategy, information about how it is best used, and the effectiveness of the strategies for understanding and retention of information. This section exhibits the main strategies used to achieve this depth of understanding, including the use of several graphic organizers, analogies, computer simulations, small laboratories, and journal writing, and it discusses how to use each strategy at the elementary, secondary, and college levels, discussing both teaching and learning strategies for better understanding. Meaningful learning, metacognition, knowledge restructuring, and conceptual change are key themes in this section. The third section (chapter 13), “Epilogue: Meaningful Learning, Knowledge Restructuring, and Conceptual Change: On Ways of Teaching Science for Understanding”, presents a model designed to help teachers reflect on and evaluate new ways of teaching science for understanding. The authors state: “when schools and classrooms are finally organized around sound principles of knowledge construction and focused on meaning making, then and only then we can affirm that our schools do indeed have an authentic commitment to teaching and assessing science for understanding”. Assessing Science for Understanding is a companion volume to Teaching Science for Understanding, and explores how to assess whether learning has taken place. The book discusses a range of promising new and practical tools for assessment including concept maps, vee diagrams, clinical interviews, interactive protocols, problem sets, performance-based assessments, computer-based methods, visual and observational testing, portfolios, explanatory models, and national examinations. There is also a very good chapter on the psychometrics of assessing science understanding that carefully reviews the various issues involved in establishing reliability and validity of assessment measures. Each chapter has references, advanced organizers, and appropriate figures and adequately discusses the cognitive model used with the assessment device and the logic of its use. In the Epilogue, the authors state that: “good assessment practice must be built on a strong and intellectually defensible theory of human learning and knowledge construction”, “no single assessment technique by itself adequately reflects the entire multidimensional nature of understanding and conceptual change”, and “longitudinal assessment efforts that focus on knowledge restructuring are preferable to one-time measures of subject matter attainment”. These are timely and useful books for science educators, graduate students, teacher educators, curriculum developers, administrators, and researchers. The volumes are very readable, but the content is what makes them worth reading. Thus, I strongly recommend everyone involved with science teaching and learning to read them, dig into the references, reflect on the strategies and assessments within the book, and also reflect on teaching practice as they experiment with ways to improve it. Then, certainly, student learning will be enhanced.