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NSTA Position Statement:
Criteria for Applying Distance Learning to Science Education
Preamble
The terms “distance learning” and “distance education” interchangeably apply to schemes where the learner and the source of instruction are in different locations.
Distance learning has considerable history in American education. For decades, correspondence courses have linked sources of instruction to remote individual learners through exchange of printed materials by mail. Also, radio and television have been used for a variety of distance learning schemes involving virtually all disciplines. Within science education, an early example of distance learning involved delivery of primary instruction for high school physics in the form of 16mm films which were mailed to be shown daily in classrooms. Later, but before communications satellites were highly developed, another distance learning project had televised science instruction beamed to classrooms from a high-flying airplane. Such early forms of distance learning were limited by a low degree of interaction between learners and sources of instruction.
Recently, a variety of distance learning schemes have arisen that use electronic ways of linking the learner and the source of instruction with increased interaction between them. For the purpose of this position statement--to ensure high quality when distance learning is applied to science education--the definition of distance learning rendered by the U.S. Department of Education is adopted:
"The application of telecommunications and electronic devices which enable students and learners to receive instruction that originates from some distant location. Typically, the learner is given the capacity to interact with the instructor or program directly and given the opportunity to meet with the instructor on a periodic basis."
Rapid advances in communications technology are causing a dramatic increase in applications of distance learning to all levels of science education. Today, students from elementary school through college have high probability of encountering some form of distance learning as a primary or supplementary mode of instruction in science sometime during their school years. Also, applications of distance learning to the continuing and inservice education of science teachers are increasing. It is likely that distance learning directed toward science education will continue to expand and evolve.
Position
In accordance with tenets of science education based on known effective teaching practices and understandings of how science is best learned, NSTA believes that any scheme that employs distance learning, in whole or part, for the development, sequencing, delivery, or evaluation of the teaching and learning of science should satisfy the following criteria:
I. INTERACTION between the instructor and learners must allow continuous monitoring and adjustment of the dynamic learning situation. Development of critical thinking skills requires constant feedback, verbal and nonverbal, between the instructor and learners; probing dialogue must be allowed to maintain central roles for questioning and problem-solving activities. Meaningful interaction also must occur between the learners themselves.
II. FLEXIBILITY of instructional design must be maintained to allow for student and teacher decision-making throughout any course of instruction. Each learner and learning situation is unique, and flexibility must be maintained to accommodate individual and local differences.
III. MANIPULATIVE EXPERIENCES to accompany instruction from distance sources must be provided in a safe, supervised local environment. Science education must be both “hands-on” and “minds-on,” proceeding from concrete experiences with natural phenomena to abstract generalizations.
IV. COMPETENCY in the form of a teacher qualified for the grade level or subject, or a scientist who possesses conceptual knowledge, problem-solving skills, and appropriate pedagogical background must be readily available to learners during the learning process. Learners deserve ready access to professionals who are competent in science and the teaching of science.
V. A VARIETY OF APPROPRIATE RESOURCES must be used to accommodate the variety of learning conditions in any local situation. Local phenomena and resources that reveal science to learners within the context of their lives must have a central role in the science curriculum. When distance learning is used, the source of instruction should provide learners with supplementary resource materials specifically designed in print or other appropriate formats to support distance learning content.
VI. APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY should be selected and used in accordance with tenets of excellence in science education. The use of technology for its own sake is never justified, and no single technology provides a comprehensive medium for good science education. Strategic selection of a combination of technologies is needed both to enhance teaching and learning within the classroom and to link the classroom to outside resources. Communication technology should be used only when it offers possibilities not present in locally available alternatives.
VII. EVALUATION of both program effectiveness and student achievement in terms of knowledge, skills, and attitudes must be ongoing to ensure the highest possible quality of science education. Both formative and summative kinds of evaluation should be used to guide continuous improvement of instruction.
A Challenge
Recently, the vision for the application of distance learning to science education was limited to bringing advanced science courses to isolated rural high schools. However, experience shows a much broader set of applications from elementary school onward, including collaborative networks of classrooms and a variety of ways of providing teacher and student access to distant experts and information. Within this expanding activity, distance learning schemes are known to exist that fit some or all of the above listed criteria. Some distance learning schemes enrich and enhance science education, but others have serious limitations. Creative efforts are needed to find the best possible ways of using technology to bring science to students. NSTA issues the challenge that all applications of distance learning to science education meet all of its criteria.
—Adopted by NSTA Board of Directors
July 1990