DOCUMENT BESOBE 21 156 499 SE 024 477 AUTROR Denny, Terry TITLE Case Studies in Science Education,Eccklet I: Scse Still Dc - River Acres, Issas. INSTITUTION Illinois Univ., Urbana. Center forInstructional Research and Curriculum Evaluaticn. SPONS AGENCY National Science Foundation, Nashington, L.C. PUB DATE Bar 77 CONTRACT NSF-C-7621134 NOTE 133p.; For related documents, see SE 024476-491 EDRS PRICE EP -E0.63 EC-17.35 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Case Studies ( Education); Curriculum;*Educational Research; Educational fronds; ElementarySecondary Education; Field Studies; *Instructicm;Mathematics Education; *Science Education; SocialSciences IDENTIFIERS *National Science Foundation ABSTRACT This booklet is the seccnd cf a series of16 booklets that together descv:ibe and present findings for astudy which involved field observations and a survey cfscience teaching and learning in Aserican public schools during the schocl year1976-77. The study was undertaken to provide the NationalScience foundation with a portrayal of current conditions in 1-12science classrooss to help sake the Foundation's progress of supportfor science educaticn consistent with national needs. Eleven high schcoleand their feeder schools were selected to provide a diverse andtalanced grcup of case study sites. One field researcher was assignedto each site and instructed to find out what was happening and what wasfelt iapertant in science (including athesatics and sccialscience) programs. The came study report fros the River Acres,Texas" site is ccntained in this booklet. (RN) 411,41*************Ippoimpoomm***********110,44************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the bestthai can be glade from the original document. ********************441,44********************************************** Booklet I Some Still Do: River Acres, Texas Terry Denny Table of Contents Booklet 0 Overview Chapter AOverview of the Study Chapter BThe Context of Precollege Education in America Today Chapter CMethodology of the Project Booklet I Terry DennySome Still Do: RIVER ACRES. Texas Booklet II Mary Lee SmithTeaching and Science Education in FALL RIVER Booklet III Louis M Smith-Science Education in the ALTE Schools Booklet IV Alan PeshkinSchooling at BRT A Rural Case Study Booklet V Wayne W WelchScience Education in URBANVILLE A Case Study Booklet VI Rob WalkerCase Studies in Science Education PINE CITY Booklet VII Rodolfo G Serrano:The Status of Science. Mathematics. and Social Science in WESTERN CITY. USA Booklet VIIIJames R. Sanders andSchool Without Schools: COLUMBUS. Ohio s Daniel L StufflebeamEducational Response to the Energy Crisis of 1977 Booklet IXJacquetta Hill-Burnett.Science in the Schools of an Eastern Middle Seaboard City Booklet X Gordon Hoke.VORTEX as Harbinger Booklet XI Rob WalkerCase Studies in Science Education GREATER BOSTON Booklet XII Findings I Chapter 12The Various Aims of Science Education Chapter 13The K-12 Curriculum Chapter 14Pluralism and Uniformity Booklet XI li Findings II Chapter 15Student Learning Chapter 16The Teacher in the Classroom Chapter 17The School and the Community Booklet XIV Survey Findings Chapter 18Survey Findings and Corroborations Booklet XV Executive Summary Chapter 19Knowing and Responding to the Needs of Science Education Case Studies in Science Education A project for the National Science Foundation conducted by CIRCE and CCC 2/0 Education Building University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign BOOKLET I SOME STILL DO: RIVER ACRES, TEXAS Terry Denny University of Illinois Urbana, Illinois March 1977 - -----MOM VI River Acres is a school district serving di- verse kinds of 'suburbs" of Houston, some of which are old agricultural communities engulfed by the rapid sprawl and others, newly created communities complete with country club and look- alike mail boxes.Itself in a state of tension, due to the absence of an integrating sense of community, this school district has grown and now shrinks a little in response to the un- planned emergence of new senses of community identity. Though barriers of race, language and culture may remain firm for many years to come, River Acres High School and the feeder schools of the district do much to overcome them. Terry Denny pictures the large-scale dy- -namics of the River Acres Independent School district with a broad brush, but he sketches in also the fine detail of inter personal inter- action and private philosophy. New open-space buildings, older classroom buildings, a drive for success for each child each day, and a strong segregation'of pupils by "level" pro- vide a framework in which teachers can teach facts or watch for what's left when facts are forgotten, in which science can be personal- ized or depersonalized, in which new courses (marine biology) can develop and in which many can declare "We never left the basics." Through all the forest and the trees, a theme emerges that is more Southern and Eastern than Western -- the community cares about young people, teachers embody that caring, and they never shrink from expressing it in one way or another. The picture of mathematics, science, and social studies that emerges is more a picture of teachers than of curriculum, of a culture than of disciplines; but it is very real. '?HE MATERIAL IN THIS REPORT IS BASED UPON WORK SUPPORTED BY THE NA; TIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION UNDr. CO:'-r",.A.c-T NO. C 7621 t 34.-ANY OPINIONS, FINDINGS. AND C`....)NCI_USIONS OR REL74::.; 1:XPRESSED IN THIS PUB. LICATION ARE rHosE oF THE AUi HORt±0 AND DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION.", 6 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * SCNE STILL DO: RIVER ACRES, TEXAS Terry Denny * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * A GENTLE CRAFT The reader should know that I have taught in the elementary school and theuniversity over a period of twenty-one years. I also have foer children who have completed their high school education in the public schools. I was born and raised in Detroit and have lived most ofmy adult life in rural/small town university settings in theMidwest. I am fascinated by what people do in schools and what schools do to people. My task as I saw it was to describe what people saidand did about the teaching and learning of science and mathematics from kindergarten through twelfth grade in the River AcresIndepen- dent School District, a suburban/rural setting in the Houston area. Not to evaluate it. Not to do anything about it. I once agonized over writing recommendations for schools I had evaluated or researched.Worse, I was nagged with the persisting question, "Was any- thing ever done?Tell me if anything was ever done." I now rarely write prescriptions for teachers. - The informationinformation for this story was gathered on site from October 17, 1976, toDecember I listened to 140 teachers and 90 students; over 20 administrators and60 , 18, 1976. parents. I also interviewed six counselors and spoke with cooks, janitors, busdrivers and secretaries. I went to Texas with no personal preference for self-contained classroominstruction, for open-space instruction or for homogeneous grouping of students. Moreover, I an uncet - tain of the relative social importance of-the school subjects as wecommonly know then. It pleases me to write this story without the additional burdenof-formally judging the merit of the teachers and practice I observed. The fact that I was there and notyou is of huge importance, of course. The Study Seeing maybe'believing, but I need more. I never see the picture worth a thousand words. It occurs to se that a very fesOwords can represent a thousand pictures; can repre- sent unobservable feelings; can reveal tomurow's hopesand yesterday's fears which shape today's actions.My story is largely teachers' words.. Students, parents, administrators and others with something to say about River Acres contribute to its telling. But it's mostly a story of and by teachers. It wasn't supposed to turn out this way. The deeper I vent, the more I needed a place to park my mind to keepit out oftrouble. I found it in the teachers' words: 1-2 I began my study by looking at science instruction and then interviewing teachers and students about what they did, why they did it.Hour after hcur I saw teachers working, doing what teachers always have done. Students fell into their rightful places, too. Frequently after an observation and interview, a teacher would say something in a few sentences that summed up several hours of observing for me. Teachers would say their piece, I'd tape it or write it down, and then I'd read it back to them. They'd say, "Hey, that's a good idea. But the parents would never go for it." Or, "That sounds too radical."When I'd say, "I am going to mention it in my report," I heard, "Okay, but don't mention me."The one I liked the best was, "Okay, you be the second Joan of Arc and I'll come behind and beat the drums." I interviewed teachers in their rooms, hallways and lounges from 7:15 a.m. through 10:00 p.m.; in lobbies of restaurants, dermatologists' offices, and hairdressers' salons; on hall duty, on playground duty, on lunchroom duty or bus duty; before school, during lunch, after school, on Saturday and even on Sunday; at board meetings, and PTO Thanks- giving and Christmas concerts. After a while 4 stopped bringing students into rooms for interviews and started talk- ing with them after school; at a basketball game, for example. I put away the project's observation schedule and just "hung around" school. I ended up listening to social studies, science and math teachers talk about themselves, about their own children, their students, their dreams, doubts-and dilemmas. In the course of five weeks I filled twenty spiral hip-pocket notebooks. Teachers filled about fifty hours of my cassette tapes. Since then I have read and listened to their words again and again. It is incredible what I hear the second or third time around.