Too often, says Senior Research Scientist Karen Worth, elementary school science and language skills are pushed into separate corners, at a time when young minds can and should explore and connect the worlds of science and words.
As project director and principal investigator of Connecting Science and Literacy: A Professional Development Program for Elementary Teachers, Worth hopes this program will show teachers how using language skills in science classrooms deepens students’ understanding of science and offers “a wonderful way for students to practice and refine the skills they are learning in literacy.”
Worth has been a familiar face around EDC since 1984, when she was hired to lead the Improving Urban Elementary Science Education project, which led to publication of Insights: An Elementary Hands-on Inquiry Based Curriculum (Kendall Hunt 1997). Her EDC roots go back to her work on the African Primary Science Program in the early 1960s, when her career as an educator and EDC’s role in pioneering education research were both taking off. She also taught first grade in New York City.
How has elementary science education changed over the last few decades?
When I started working for EDC in the 1980s, there was a big push to make science education more experiential. Children had been largely learning science from textbooks. So our main mission was to give them access to materials so they were learning through direct experience, not just words. We wanted them to engage with the process of science itself and understand it at a deeper level.
The real push was to get materials for hands-on investigation such as balls and ramps, batteries and bulbs, liquids, and living things into the classrooms. In the process, we underplayed the importance of language, particularly oral language and writing, as tools for learning science. Now, looking back, I think we underestimated the importance of having carefully structured discussions and student writing as part of the whole process of exploring the natural world.
How does having young students talk and write about their experiences and ideas also help them learn science—and vice versa?
The work we’re doing now looking at literacy says okay, when students are doing direct investigation such as studying a local habitat or growing their own plants, they’re having a great time and gaining experience. But how can we develop instructional strategies that encourage students to take that experience, think about it, reflect on it, generalize, and draw conclusions from it—and by doing so, come to a deeper understanding of the ideas inherent in the activities but not necessarily made explicit? The answer is by talking and writing about them.
Getting kids to talk and write about science and helping them do it in a way that’s connected to their inquiry deepens their understanding of science and is a marvelous way for them to develop language skills. Significant research suggests that when children are talking and reading and writing about things they have experienced—things that really interest them—they talk more, read more, write more.
That’s part of the excitement around this project. It’s a science reform project but it also builds literacy skills, which has become so important with No Child Left Behind. We want children to go beyond just working with materials and doing activities. We need to emphasize the use of language as well.
What motivates you and helps you stay engaged in your work?
Children! I enjoy working with kids and watching them make their own discoveries, grow, and develop. I’m deeply concerned that we are losing children in our school systems. I worry that we are not providing them with the kinds of challenging and exciting learning environments they need and should have. They are my motivation and their teachers are a close second.
I was an elementary teacher and I’ve stayed connected to the classroom. So in my work I try to bridge that gap between what actually goes on in schools and classrooms and the work we do at EDC in research and development. Trying to keep the flow of knowledge and information going back and forth is part of what I enjoy because it takes me out there. If I didn’t spend some time in classrooms with children and teachers, I’d have a harder time staying engaged and challenged.
You’ve been at EDC for several decades. What most sustains you?
My colleagues. The quality and range of people engaged in this work is quite stunning. So there’s the element of collegiality—people to talk with, people to get advice from, people to argue with. That makes EDC a wonderful place to work.