Student Success in Recognizing Definitions of Eight Terms Found in Fourth Grade Science Textbooks

Abstract

Continued Professional Development (PD) efforts for science teachers in Iowa have
occurred over the 1982 – 2004 years. Teachers have comprised over half of the staff in
the PD program while also being partners with action research projects. This is a study
of student recognition of key terms across 4th, 8th, and 12th grades for classes taught by
a team of the teachers at five year intervals over the 1985 through 2000 academic years.
Results indicate that there is no increasing success with such recognition over the grade
levels sampled or any major changes over time. But, interestingly more use of the NSES
and more focus on real world contexts for science study did not result in any less
recognition of the science vocabulary words selected.