RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Asking the Wrong Questions About American Science Education: Insights from a Longitudinal Study of High School Biotechnology Lab Instruction
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2021.11.29.470152
DO 10.1101/2021.11.29.470152
A1 Micklos, Dave
A1 Barone, Lindsay
YR 2021
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/11/29/2021.11.29.470152.abstract
AB The discussion of American science education is often framed by the questions: Why do American precollege students do poorly on international science assessments and what we are doing wrong? Rather we need to ask: Why do so many international students come to US universities for science, what are we doing right in science, and how do we stay ahead in science education? Poor scores on international assessments belie the fact that the U.S. has the best science education system in the world. Our study of 6,200 high school teachers in 1998 and 2018 documented striking success in retooling classrooms for labbased instruction in biotechnology and provided a pre-COVID-19 snapshot of what is right with American biology education. However, it also highlights the need revitalize our precollege teaching resource with a renewed National Science Foundation commitment to in-service training.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.