DON’T JUST THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX, BREAK IT: CAN 3D SCIENCE DRIVE INNOVATIONS THAT GENUINELY AND SUBSTANTIALLY IMPROVE EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES?

NGSS’s 3D structure, attention to complex systems, and expectation of collaboration across disciplines and grade levels is simultaneously daunting and promising. If implementation holds true to NGSS’s vision and is successful at scale, it will be the most sweeping science education reform effort since the transition from the one room schoolhouse to the district school.

From the last 40 years, examples abound of innovations that have yielded improvements in outcomes for millions of users in the areas of communication, entertainment, energy, and transportation. Examples for science education or education more broadly are rare. Are there examples of things that millions of high school or college graduates understand or can do better than the graduates of 40 years ago? Can that be tied to an innovation in the educational system?

While it is easy to identify innovations that improved outcomes locally or regionally and tools and strategies with wide adoption, there is no educational equivalent of an Uber or an iPhone. There are multiple reasons for the failure of innovation in science education. By looking to other disciplines and applying cross-cutting concepts found in both successful and unsuccessful innovations, we can turn the NGSS onto its own implementation.

The NGSS is grounded in educational research, but that is insufficient for achieving successful implementation at scale. It must also be grounded in the research of innovations, and effective design and attend to the substantial obstacles presented by both the structure of schooling (which has no grounding in educational research) and the social, psychological and cultural barriers (described largely by research in cultural cognition) that make broadly effective and sustainable educational reform so very challenging.

The NGSS offers promise to break the long stasis in educational practice, but it is likely to fail to achieve those promises if implementation continues on its current course. Successful innovations in scientific research, in product development and in the arts commonly involve combining the familiar in unfamiliar ways and intuitive user-interfaces. Highly interdisciplinary areas of science like those addressing climate change and the Critical Zone offer promising avenues, as does bringing more fieldwork to teaching practice K-16.