Chemcom

This book presents comprehensive results from case studies of five innovations in science education that have much to offer toward understanding current reforms in this field. Each chapter tells the story of a case in rich detail, with extensive documentation, and in the voices of many of the participants-the innovators, the teachers, the students. Similarly, Volume 3 of Bold Ventures pre sents the results from case studies of five innovations in mathematics education. Volume 1 provides a cross-case analysis of all eight innovations. Many U.S. readers certainly will be very familiar with the name of at least one if not all of the science innovations discussed in this volume-for example, Project 206l-and probably with their general substance. Much of the education community's familiarity with these arises from the projects' own dissemination efforts. The research reported in this volume, however, is one of the few detailed studies of these innovations undertaken by researchers outside the projects them selves. Each of the five studies was a large-scale effort involving teams of researchers over three years. These teams analyzed many documents, attended numerous critical project meetings, visited multiple sites, conducted dozens of individual interviews. The team leaders (Atkin, Huberman, Rowe), having spent much time with science education over long careers, looked at these innovations through many lenses. It was a daunting task for each team to sift through the mountains of detail in order to bring the most compelling themes to the surface.

'Teaching in context' has become an accepted, and often welcomed, way of teaching science in both primary and secondary schools. The conference organised by IPN and the University of York Science Education Group, Context-based science curricula, drew on the experience of over 40 science educators and 10 projects. The book is arranged in four parts. Part A consists of two papers, one on situated learning and the other on implementation of new curricula. Part B contains descriptions of five major curricula in different countries, why they were introduced, how they were developed and implemented and evaluation results. Part C gives descriptions of three projects that are of smaller scale and their materials are used as interventions in other more conventional curricula. There is also a contribution on some fundamental research where modules of work are written to examine how best to design context-based curricula. Finally, Part D consist of two chapters, one summarising some of the findings that came out of the chapters in the three earlier parts and the second looks at the future.

The demand for higher education worldwide is booming. Governments want well-educated citizens and knowledge workers but are scrambling for funds. The capacity of the public sector to provide increased and equitable access to higher education is seriously challenged.

Newsletter for chemistry educators at the elementary, high school, and college levels.