Applying New Research to Improve Science Education
From Richard C. Larson
Think of a learner studying some branch of science. She wants to ‘go deep,’ to understand at a fundamental level, not simply to regurgitate memorized facts on some multiple-choice exam. What does she have to do? Strength conditioning, that's what: “The learning of complex expertise is … quite analogous to muscle development. In response to the extended strenuous use of a muscle, it grows and strengthens. In a similar way, the brain changes and develops in response to its strenuous extended use.” This is a quote from Nobel Prize winner Dr. Carl Wieman’s recently written very readable and thoughtful article, "Applying New Research to Improve Science Education" in ISSUES in Science and Technology Online, published by the National Academy of Science (NAS). I urge anyone reading this to read Dr. Wieman’s entire article. Dr. Wieman is professor of physics and director of science education initiatives at the University of Colorado and the University of British Columbia, and he served as the associate director for science in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy from Sept 2010 to June 2012. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2001.

I interpret the article as saying, essentially, that throwing money and other resources into the current STEM teaching system without paying any attention to the ways young people learn is a waste. According to Dr. Wieman, “Failure to understand this learning- focused perspective is also a root cause of the failures of many reform efforts.” Students learning science are not like baby chicks where the mother bird is shoving partially digested food down their throats. According to Dr. Wieman, “Research advances in cognitive psychology, brain physiology, and classroom practices are painting a very different picture of how learning works.”

Getting back to the strength conditioning analogy, this means hours of dedicated focused hard work to achieve excellence, to achieve expertise, to become truly knowledgeable about a particular science. Like working out at the gym, motivation is key. No motivation, no hard work, no measurable results. The effort requires focused “deliberate practice,” with many repetitions and advancing the level of difficulty as ‘conditioning’ advances. Supportive mentoring interactions with a personal trainer, aka one’s ‘teacher,’ are essential.

The article goes on to present implications for teaching including the requirement that the science teacher must become familiar with the science of learning. For instance, lecturing to a passive class of learners is found to be one of the least effective ways to advance the “science conditioning” of one’s students. The new demands on teachers are great—deep subject knowledge plus equally deep pedagogical knowledge based on learning science research.

Read, study, apply, and generate a class of Black Belt science learners!

Richard Larson is the Mitsui Professor of Engineering Systems at MIT. He is also the Director of MIT LINC and the Principal Investigator of MIT BLOSSOMS.

Back to newsletter