Focusing the Lens of the Crosscutting Concepts on Secondary Science Learning

Y

8

Scientific Concepts; Science Curriculum; Secondary School Science; Science Instruction; Learning Activities; Educational Resources; Academic Standards

0036-8555

The central pedagogical principle on which the "Next Generation Science Standards" (NGSS) are built is that of three-dimensional learning. This principle posits that it is through meaningful integration of the disciplinary core ideas (DCIs), science and engineering practices (SEPs), and crosscutting concepts (CCCs) that students will attain an understanding of both the knowledge and processes of science. The purpose of this article is to bring the value of CCCs to the foreground and to provide suggestions and resources for purposefully integrating them into curricula and instruction. As such, this article will supplement previous entries in this journal (Duschl 2012; Metz 2013; Talanquer 2019) that have specifically addressed CCCs and focused more on what they generally represent and how, in a broad sense, they can be utilized by teachers. Science Scope also has included several articles (Fick, Arias, and Baek 2017; German 2017; Mohl et al. 2017; Plonczak and Zwirn 2015) that support teachers in employing the CCCs. To augment these previous works, for each CCC, this article offers: (1) specific facets of the CCCs that teachers should consider explicitly addressing; (2) resources that support use of the CCCs, and (3) sample activities that show the CCCs in action.

ERIC

2022

EJ1339900